Sometimes it stinks to have a summer birthday. No special party at school. Often friends are out of town for summer vacations, making planning parties somewhat difficult. So I work hard at making birthdays fun for my 2 kiddos with summer celebrations.

Rebecca LOVES chocolate. So it was no surprise when she requested chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. She truly lives by the motto of “One can never have enough chocolate.”

I was floored to think that I hadn’t made a good old fashioned chocolate cupcake yet in my 52 cupcake series. So it became my mission to remedy that quickly. I’m thrilled to introduce you to cupcake #31 – a dark chocolate cupcake created by Shelly from her blog, Cookies & Cups. And it’s oh so good.
 

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Peach schnapps and champagne baked in a cupcake is a little slice of heaven particularly on a Wednesday. Who says that we should wait until the weekend for a little bubbly? Not I.

Rebecca asked what the flavor was in the icing and I told her the ingredients. She stated, “Is that alcohol?” I said “Yes, but a very small amount.” So Rebecca immediately dubbed cupcake #30 the naughty peach cupcake.
 

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Welcome back to my weekly 52 cupcake series! I’m excited to bring you “The Best Cupcake in the Universe” according to my 10 year old son, Ben.

I received an email from a girlfriend asking me to try a Butterbeer cupcake. I responded, “I’ve never heard of that. That sounds like something out of a Harry Potter novel. And if it has anything to do with Harry Potter, then I’m game!” The same afternoon, another girlfriend sent me an email to check out Cooks Like A Champion Blog, because she said I would love the site and recipes. So I was in heaven when I spent quite some time going through the archives and discovered the Butterbeer cupcake. And she talked about Harry Potter. I immediately put the recipe on my calendar.

Courtney Champion {yes, that is her last name!} is the author of the Cooks Like A Champion Blog. She and her husband, Eric, are self taught cooks that just seem plain likeable. And they are expecting their first child, a little girl, this next week. The recipes on her site look simply amazing and I have bookmarked several of them to try this weekend.

 

 
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I’m excited to present cupcake #27! After lots of chocolate cupcakes, I thought it was time to switch things up a bit and try something a little different. So here it is. A peanut butter cupcake with a homemade strawberry jam filling then topped with more peanut butter frosting. Oh my.

This cupcake recipe is from Christy at The Girl Who Ate Everything blog. How catchy is that blog name? Christy is originally from Mesa (only 20 minutes away from my house), and is one of 10 children. Christy has all kinds of great recipes on her site and is a self taught cook who loves to modify recipes for her husband and 4 children. I’m looking forward to making many of her recipes that I bookmarked while my cupcakes were baking!

 
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Can you believe it? We are at the half way mark of the 52 cupcake series. And I have a good one for you today – the Andes Mint cupcake, except I didn’t have any Andes Mints… so it’s the chocolate mint cupcake. Same recipe, just used mini chocolate chips to decorate instead of the heavenly Andes Mints as garnish.

I spent the morning at the hospital while Sam got tubes put in her ears. She recovered very well. So during her nap, I was able to make these cupcakes. I was happy for 2 reasons. First, the cupcakes turned out great. And second, I was able to listen to some music while baking, instead of watching the 5th episode of Mickey Mouse club. Double bonus.
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I promised you a post on Wednesday, and the sun is setting… but it’s still Wednesday! Hooray. I’m so excited to bring you Cupcake #25 of my 52 cupcake series. This cupcake is based on my favorite cake flavor, carrot cake. And this recipe is a little exciting, because it is the first time I tried several recipes and adapted my own version of a cupcake for this series. So I hope you like it.

I was that strange kid who everyone was scratching their heads when the birthday cake with candles was brought out for the party. “Carrot cake? No, chocolate,” all the kids would chime in and ask. Nope. I liked carrot cake with vanilla ice cream on the side. I went through a 3 year period where I deviated to yellow cake with chocolate frosting, but I caved to cake peer pressure. Never again though, as those were my weak years. I’m back to carrot cake. And not just any carrot cake, but the recipe from my mom and my grandmother, Meem.

Meem always has a carrot cake, bundt cake, or banana bread on her cake stand every time we visit her. She is the most amazing short order chef I have ever seen. She takes joy in fixing different meals for 10+ people at one time. And she never believes you when you tell her you are full. She will bring you another plate of food. It NEVER stops and she makes me tired just watching her. And my mom was always so good at making my sister and I homemade birthday cakes, every year.

So in honor of both of them, I bring you cupcake #25… the jumbo carrot cake cupcake with cream cheese frosting. My mom’s 60th birthday is on Saturday so I’ll put a candle on one tonight. I look forward to making these again when I see them both in person. But tonight, I will sacrifice and eat 2… 1 for each of them.

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I could just post the words peanut butter and chocolate and make some of you very happy. But that would not do this recipe justice. When I saw the suggestion to try the high hat or “Dairy Queen inspired” cupcakes, I was a little nervous that this type of cupcake would be very difficult, messy, or time consuming. Not at all!

My first job was working during the summer of my sophomore year in high school at the Dairy Queen in Tucson, Arizona. I must say, I was adorable in my red apron and am still impressed at my talent of making curls on my ice cream cones and cupcakes. Sheer talent I tell you. I have no idea why I went to college, when I was so good at twirling ice cream cones? Oh I remember… I would be 500+ pounds!

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