Rainbow Cupcakes

These are so cute! And EASY! Even though it looks hard!! :) I would say they are a bit time consuming, but really not too bad at all. All you do is prepare a regular boxed white cake mix, separate it into 6 bowls, then use food coloring to color each bowl red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Then, spoon batter into cupcake liners (which are obviously already in your muffin pan... duh...) one color at a time. Make sure to use the back of a spoon to spread each color out evenly over the color under it--so you will be able to see the rainbow from the side of the cupcake. Super easy, just takes a little time to do the spreading.

My head is spinning with ideas, here.

Easter would be great! Just make the colors lighter, more pastel--maybe only use blue, yellow and pink? OR make all the colors, but only use three colors per cupcake, switching it up each time.

And, after KENTUCKY wins (or heck, even before...) I'm thinking some KY blue and white striped cupcakes are in order! :) Or even just the blue cupcakes with white frosting.

Hmm... the possibilities are literally endless. Especially for the sports fan. My sister Brooke would die over some purple and yellow Laker's cupcakes!

I still haven't iced these cupcakes yet--I was originally going to go with a whipped cream frosting, but then I realized the cupcakes would be sitting out all day tomorrow and that probably wouldn't work too well--the same goes for Cream Cheese frosting. I still haven't totally decided, but I'm thinking maybe The Pioneer Woman knew I would be in this prediciment and posted THIS especially for me... :) I'll let you know how it goes!

PS: Even the wrapper looks cool, doesn't it?!?!

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

These were goooooood!! :) I've got to get to bed so I'm going to make this quick, but these were very very good. And really easy. If you like Oreo's, make these. It's that simple. :) Also, there are two new posts below this that you've got to check out if you haven't seen them yet. So scroll down. :) Recipe can be found here. Forgive me for not even getting a picture of these, but if you follow the link to the blog I got the recipe from, you'll see some really good pictures of them. I wouldn't have even posted this recipe, but they were so good that I felt you guys needed to know about them! :)

French Toast & Bacon Cupcakes

The second thing I made for our friend's cookout were these cupcakes. He is a HUGE fan of anything bacon so when I found these, I knew without a doubt that they were the perfect thing to bring. I loved the french toast concept, but I was a little scared about how they would taste with the bacon. I'm not going to lie--they were pretty awesome. If you're ever looking for a weird, conversation-piece food item to bring to a party, bring these. They were SUCH a hit. Everyone loved them. Seriously--I didn't hear a single bad thing about these cupcakes-and I expected to hear a LOT! I mean, bacon? In a cupcake?? But trust me, it works. And the bacon on top just adds to a cute presentation. I found the recipe here. Enjoy! :)

Without Icing (See the bacon chunks??)

With Icing

The insides :)

THIS is how good they were! :) He's going to kill me for this picture. Haha!

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes

I'm back!! Finally!! Sorry it's been so long, but I'm back and with two new things! :) I have to admit, this apartment kitchen is horrible. Absolutely NO counter space and the oven is old and not what I'm used to. But I'm learning to deal with it. Anyway, I'm splitting these up into two posts to make things easier.

First up are the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes. I made these for a friend's Labor Day cookout. He loves Guinness, so Matt and I thought these would be perfect for him. For those who aren't familiar, Guinness is a type of really dark beer, also known as a "stout." It has a very malty flavor. If you're really trying to imagine this flavor in your head, go with chocolaty/coffee notes. Anyway, it's a good beer. Not some red-neck light beer. Either way, these cupcakes taste nothing like beer at all. As one blog I read explained it, they taste like chocolate... but different. That's a perfect way to put it.

From what Matt says, it's really all about the malt in the beer that helps the cupcakes stay so moist--and they are very moist!! These were soooo good! I used a chocolate cream cheese icing on them and boy were they a hit. EVERYONE loved these cupcakes!! And they were insanely easy to make, too. Even in my kitchen! I definitely recommend that you try them out. Enjoy the pictures!

Without Icing
With Icing

Sorry, I don't have the best pictures of these, but trust me-they were amazing! I used Nigella Lawson's recipe which I found here for the cupcakes and I used a simple chocolate cream cheese icing which was just 8oz cream cheese, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, and 2 tablespoons cocoa powder all mixed together with my trusty hand mixer. Super easy!