HANACAKES

OWL CAKE

2011-10-04T18:24:00.004-04:00

Owl Baby Shower Cake

Here is the cake I made for an owl themed baby shower. The clients sent me a photo of the kind of cake they wanted and here's what they got:

Now I know this isn't the best shot of the cake but I still don't have a camera (waaahhhh, I'm still crying for my old one) so I took this with my phone. Overall I think the cake turned out pretty darn cute. There are matching cookies, but I don't think any of my pictures of them are any good but I'll post it anyway so you get an idea.

Like I said no good pictures but again you get the idea. These were so cute in person and they had some pearl dust on them, so they were glittery and cute.

I hope these were liked as much as I liked making them. These owls really put a smile on my face =)

oh, I'm still smiling.

HAPPY BAKING!

Purple Flowers

2011-09-09T23:32:00.001-04:00

Purple Flower Cupcakes

I forgot to post these with the chocolate-peanut butter hazelnut cupcakes I posted before. These are the cupcakes we made for someone special (my mommy)! Her favorite color is purple. It is yellow cupcakes with a buttercream frosting.

Awww, aren't they cute.

Something about a flower on a cupcake that I just love! I know this isn't the best picture and not even a picture of all the cupcakes, but I'm still working on buying a new camera (since the peru got my camera stolen incident). I just blew half of what I was saving for it on school supplies!!!

Buttercream Frosting:

1 stick of crisco

2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened

2 pounds of confectioners' sugar, sifted

1/3 cup of water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*pinch of salt, optional

Beat the crisco and butter together. Add the confectioners' sugar, water, vanilla extract, and salt (optional). Beat until all ingredients are combined. Add more water if necessary to get a spreadable consistency.

HAPPY BAKING!!!

Chocolate Cupcakes

2011-09-09T23:22:00.003-04:00

Chocolate Cupcakes

Well we are finally done with all the school shopping we needed to get done. It's funny how the list the school puts out in the summer doesn't match the one the teacher gives the kids at school and then you have to run around looking for all these other items and they seem to be sold out everywhere!

The first week of school was successful for the kids (thank goodness, cause I was worried). They both seem happy, or at least as happy as you can be about school.

So with school going good what else is there to do but bake some cupcakes =)

I decided to do a chocolate cupcake with a creamy peanut butter frosting swirled with Nutella. Let me just say I felt like it tasted like a peanut butter cup with Nutella added to it. It was a deadly combination. Well you can't go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate and then Nutella on top of it = HEAVEN!

Don't they look good!

I also packaged some for my coworker, it was her birthday. I believe these made her working on her birthday just a little bit easier.

Oh yeah, and with all the school supply shopping I was doing I found this wonderful mug and had to have it.

Super cute, right!

I smile every time I look at it. I haven't even used it yet in fear that I will break or damage it somehow. But it just makes me feel good when I open my cupboard and see it staring back at me.

Happy Baking!

Rainbow Cookies

2011-08-27T10:42:00.000-04:00

Rainbow Cookies

Whenever we go to New York we always go to a bakery! We love the bakeries in New York and we just don't have any like them here where I live =(

We have a lot of favorite things at the bakeries. So I have been thinking I should just start baking these things up at home myself. I've had recipes saved away forever for all the goodies we love. But you know life gets in the way and you forget about them and then never get around to doing them.

So I'm dusting off the recipes and trying some of our favorites. This week I decided to go with Rainbow Cookies. I personally don't like these at all but my husband and daughter LOVE them. According to the family the tasted just right. YAY!

Now I have only 2 pictures and they are not pretty. I got my camera stolen last month on vacation so these pictures were taken with my phone but I guess that's better then nothing. (still crying for my camera!)

Hope you get the idea with these pictures. Hopefully I will have a new camera by Christmas and then the pictures will be better!

Here's the recipe I used, I can not remember where I found it because I've had it for so long:

Rainbow Cookies

Ingredients:

8 ounces almond paste

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

4 eggs, seperated

2 cups all-purpose flour

red food coloring

green food coloring

1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

glaze:

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup heavy cream

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line three 9x13" baking pans with parchment paper.

-In large bowl, break apart almond paste with a fork, and cream together with butter, sugar, and egg yolks. When mixture is fluffy and smooth stir in flour to form a dough.

-In a small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold egg whites into dough.

-Divide dough into 3 equal portions. Mix one portion with red food coloring until a pink color, and one with green food coloring until green, and leave the other uncolored.

-Spread each portion into one of the prepared baking pans. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Carefully remove from pan and cool completely on wire racks.

-Place green layer onto a piece of plastic wrap large enough to wrap all 3 layers. Spread green layer with half of the raspberry jam, top with uncolored layer. Spread remaining raspberry jam, and top with pink layer. Transfer to a baking sheet and enclose with plastic wrap. Place a heavy pan or cutting board on top of wrapped layers to compress. Chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.

-Remove plastic wrap. Make glaze. In a heavy pan melt all glaze ingredients, chocolate, butter, and heavy cream. Spread glaze all over top. Refrigerate 1 hour or until chocolate is set. Slice into small squares.

*The glaze I use here does not get completely firm making it easier to cut the squares and so it isn't too hard to bite into.

Hope this gives everyone a taste of what we get at our favorite bakeries in New York.

Happy Baking!

I'm back

2011-08-15T11:59:00.001-04:00

I'm Back =)

Well I've been gone for a little while because I was on vacation =)

Oh how I love vacation!!!

We went away for about 3 weeks to Peru.

It was lovely and we did so many fun and adventurous things.

I had soooo many lovely photos!!!

I couldn't wait to get home and share them with you all,

and then something bad happened 2 days before we came back...

our camera got stolen =(

Oh how I cried, and not for the camera but for all the pictures I lost!

I had at least 1200 pictures.

But at the end of the day we had a fantastic vacation that I will never forget and hopefully my children won't either!

Peru was just an amazing place and by far my favorite was Macchu Picchu it lived up to my expectations and beyond!

Now of course I tried a bunch of food in Peru. Their food was pretty good. But I fell in love with Manjar, it's kind of like dulce de leche. So my mission is to try and make some. So be on the look out for that post which should be soon.

Till then....

HAPPY BAKING!!!

Zeppoles

2011-06-21T09:54:00.000-04:00

ZEPPOLES

What can I say about Zeppoles, these are my favorite! Growing up in New York whenever there was a feast or festival the one thing I looked forward to was getting zeppoles. It's just the best little fried up piece of dough I can think of!!!

Well I no longer live where I can find zeppoles so I had to try to make them myself! The hubby was really craving some pretty badly too. He even found a recipe for me to try, so I knew he was having a craving!

I had a little trouble at first, you have to make sure they cook all the way through before taking them out of the oil. I got it by my 3rd batch and was in heaven after that!!!

Here is the dough getting fried up. I was drooling at this point and couldn't wait!

Here they are waiting in a paper bag for some sugary goodness. And why a paper bag, because that's how they did it at the festivals so that's how I did it

Do you know how hard it was to take a picture! I just wanted to jump right into these.

Look at that doughy goodness.

We ate until our stomachs were hurting! I felt this recipe was right on with what I remember. Yummy!

Cravings fulfilled.

Recipe for Zeppoles:

found at Allrecipes

Ingredients

2 quarts vegetable oil for frying
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting

Heat oil in a deep-fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
In a medium saucepan, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir in the eggs, ricotta cheese and vanilla. Mix gently over low heat until combined. Batter will be sticky.
Drop by tablespoons into the hot oil a few at a time. Zeppole will turn over by themselves. Fry until golden brown, about 3 or 4 minutes. Drain in a paper sack and dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve warm.

HAPPY BAKING!!!

OR IN THIS CASE FRYING =)

End of the season

2011-06-21T09:35:00.000-04:00

Finally, it's the End of the Season!

Yes, I'm happy it's summer but even more excited that it's the end of running around like a chicken without a head!!! From September to June I run around all week with my kids. So now that school, dance classes, and sports are over I can start relaxing!!!

Feels soooo good to know that I can sit back and not have to worry about where I have to run my kids to next. Maybe I can even read a whole book.

So how do you celebrate the end of the season, an end of the season party of course.

Well it just so happens my husband is the baseball coach for my son so we get to throw the end of the season party. My son was very specific on the cake and cupcakes he wanted. It must be nice to just get what you want, lol.

He wanted cupcakes with each teammates jersey on it, cupcakes with their teams symbol, and a cake that looked like their jerseys. Now of course since I was the one running around getting things ready I didn't get great pictures (and of course my camera wanted to act up, urghhh). But I fortunately got a few!!!

This one is slightly blurry but you get the picture =)

This is the best shot of the cake and cupcakes. I think my son was very happy with the end result as were his teammates!

Can you guess who this is?

My son of course =) He looks very happy, mom made everything he wanted! So worth it when I see that smile. That's what keeps me running around every year, knowing I will see that smile, PRICELESS!

Now onto dance. My daughter wanted me to make some cookies for her last dance class. I think she got a little jealous that my son got the cake and cupcakes he wanted. So of course me trying to be Supermom, said okay. What was I thinking! I was so tired out but I did it anyways. I can't say these turned out great but not bad for such short notice. As long as my daughter was happy with them I was happy =)

Here is the tray of cookies I took to her class:

Here are some close-ups:

Here is my favorite picture from this season! It's my beautiful ballerina in all her swan glory (she's going to be so mad that I put this picture up, hehehe):

Now it is time to sit and read a book and of course bake!!!

HAPPY BAKING!

*My inspiration for the ballet cookies came from here, I know I've got a long way to go to get them there but not bad for 3 hours ;)

Happy Friday and a Happy Birthday

2011-06-10T23:05:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday and a Happy Birthday.

Today I got the honor of making a little boy's first birthday cake =)

What a special day and I love knowing I'm somehow a part of that day!

Here is the invitation which the colors of the cakes were based off.

Isn't that the cutest invitation! I just love it.

Sometimes it's nice when people give you free reign on a cake but then you worry if they will like it, but this mom she knew what she wanted. I thought that would make me less nervous but NO WAY, I was a mess cause I knew she had a picture in her head of exactly what she wanted!

She even sketched out what she wanted. Which was very helpful, so I could see what she was envisioning.

Great drawing, right?

She definitely knew what she wanted and here's what she got:

I hope they loved the cake!

(Pretty close to the drawings, in my opinion.)

Most importantly, I hope the birthday boy enjoys his cake as I know I truly enjoyed making it for him.

Happy Baking!

*And a Happy First Birthday to Carson!!!

*And yes, I know the strip around the center from the drawings is missing but I didn't think it looked right and the mom said it would be fine to omit it =)

Nursing grad. & smash cake

2011-06-03T20:27:00.000-04:00

Projects

Well I've been MIA for a minute so let me catch you guys up on what I've been doing.

First, I had a nursing graduation party, fun, fun, fun!

The desserts included:

-heart shaped sugar cookies

-chocolate cake balls

-yellow cupcakes w/buttercream frosting

-carrot cupcakes w/cream cheese frosting

Now before I even post these pictures let me just say the backdrop looks horrific and there's a good reason for that! We had the table set up in front of a stage that had the most perfect red curtains to go with our theme, then along came the DJ and said he needed to be set up in the center of the room. Can you hear me crying when he tells me this, no plan B for the backdrop, so lesson learned! Next have a plan A, B, and C.

Well, at least the fire extinguisher matches.

The grad's favorite chocolate cake from the Cheesecake Factory, just added some of our chocolates and cookies to it.

Love the chocolates we made to go on top of the cupcakes =)

Sugar cookies, and don't these look familiar. Yup, that's because I've made this design before and they seem to be a favorite (at least with nurses). We had also bagged these as favors, but I forgot to get a picture of them which is sad because my brother printed out the best labels for the bags!!! Maybe someone took a picture and will send it to me.

I just can't seem to get enough of these. I just don't get tired of them.

Carrot cupcakes topped with the white chocolate medallions we made with the nursing emblem.

I want to cry every time I see the background, urghhhh.

Okay, onto better things. The glass vases were filled with red m&m's and red gummy bears, YUM.

Now, here's the smash cake I made. This smash cake is for a photo shoot. The cake is decorated to match the birthday boys photo shoot outfit.

It was a vanilla cake with buttercream frosting and fondant accents.

Hope the birthday boy enjoys his first taste of cake. Feels sooo good when you know the first cake they will ever taste is yours. What could be better!

I have some more projects coming up soon and can't wait to share them with you all. Until then,

HAPPY BAKING!

Oh so Late

2011-05-17T19:35:00.000-04:00

Oh so Late but Oh so Sweet

Ok, Ok, it's been quite a while since I posted anything. Boy do I hate when things get hectic and I don't have time to do anything I want to do! Well this post is late, but like they say better late then never, right?

Well, not so long ago (about 2 weeks ago) it was teacher appreciation week. I knew I wanted to send in something special and baked for my kid's teachers. So I decided cupcakes are small, compact, and yummy.

I went with a carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting. Now of course it needed some sort of decoration that said "hey this is for a teacher", and what says teacher better than an apple!

So I decorated my cupcakes with a fondant circle that had a fondant apple cutout on top.

And here they are:

Now I know these aren't the best pictures, because of course my camera thought it would act funny, but I wasn't laughing. I had them packaged so cute but I wanted to make sure I didn't get frustrated with my camera and throw it, so I just stopped taking pictures.

These cupcakes were sooo moist, my favorite!

But more importantly they were for very special people! Teachers should be appreciated more often it really is a lot of work and I can only hope that my cupcakes showed how much I appreciate all they do for my kids as well as all the others.

Happy Belated Teacher Appreciation Week and

HAPPY BAKING!

NCACS

2011-03-30T17:22:00.000-04:00

NCACS

Well as promised here are the pictures my daughter took at the cake show. I always bring my camera but am so awe struck that I forget to take pictures, seriously EVERYTIME. It drives me crazy when I get home and want to blog to you all about it but have no pictures. Luckily my daughter is a little photographer in the making =)

It's so hard to explain sometimes the awesomeness that I saw at the cake show. Now of course these are my daughter's favorite things from the show, but none the less AWESOME! So enjoy ...

Weren't those cakes, cupcakes, and cookies awesome? Unfortunately I don't have the names of the creators of these cakes, waaahhh! Some I believe you can see the name tags, but all the others I'm sorry to say I have no clue, but they are all beautiful. So if you happen to see your cake on here and want your name by it, please let me know which cake so I can have your name by it =)

And by the way did anybody notice she had no pictures of my cake! Wonder what she means by that, lol.

There were sooooo many more beautiful cakes I wish I had more pictures. Next year I will remember to stop staring and take pictures!

Here are some blogs with some more NCACS:

Pistachio Cranberry Creations

Nuptial Notes

Buttercream

Berties Bakery

And for lots and lots of pictures go to the cake shows facebook page:

facebook.com/CakeShowNCACS

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures and are now craving a piece of cake =)

Happy Baking!

National Capital Area Cake Show 2011

2011-03-28T18:01:00.002-04:00

NATIONAL CAPITAL AREA CAKE SHOW 2011

Well the NCACS was just this past weekend, March 26 &27th. Of course I entered again this year! I couldn't wait for the show and neither could my kids. I entered in the adult intermediate wedding category. I don't know if I consider myself intermediate but I don't consider myself a beginner either, so I choose to go intermediate. I was pretty pleased with my overall cake. Of course there's always a million and one things I see I could've done differently once I was done with it, but overall my vision came through. I didn't place this year, I guess the other cakes just outdid mine =( but I had so much fun it was worth it!!! So here is the cake I entered:

I decided to make it a Disney wedding cake.

The bottom tier reads: Faith, Trust, & Pixie Dust. And They Lived Happily Ever After. A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes.

All Disney lines, of course.

My middle tier was adorned with fondant swags and flowers with Mickey faces in the center.

My top tier had piping and a few Mickey Mouses to break up the piping and because there's just never enough Mickey =)

Not too bad, I'm pretty happy with it. I'd have it at my wedding =)

But now here's the best part of the show: both my kids placed =) I can't even explain how happy, excited, proud, and maybe a little envious I am ;)

My daughter got 2nd place in the children division with her Yoshi cake. She did such a good job, and worked soooo hard on it!!! I think she does fondant better then me!

My son got 3rd place with his dog show cake. And can I just say he has never done any cake decorating until this year! He also worked super hard on his cake and it shows! And he covered his in buttercream and made all the fondant figures himself.

I don't have any pictures from the cake show (I was too busy crying over my loss, j/k). My daughter on the other hand took some pictures so I will be loading them up soon.

Maybe next year my kids won't outshine me, hehehe. For now I'm just going to practice, practice, practice =)

The cake show was a blast and I am sooo looking forward to next year!

Happy Baking!!!

National Heart Health Month

2011-02-15T18:26:00.000-05:00

Heart Health Month

This month is National Heart Health Month. I got to make some heart sugar cookies with a heart rate across the middle (hope I drew a healthy heart rate). These cookies were for a fundraiser raising money for the American Heart Association. I baked up 120 cookies! Yikes, I have never made that many cookies before, and believe it or not it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, THANK GOODNESS =)

Hope the cookies were a hit and hopefully raised good money for a great cause!

Completely Finished

2011-01-06T21:28:00.000-05:00

LEGOS

Alright, I finally finished the whole thing! I'm soooo happy =)

Wish you could see the smile on my face right now.

Now I can only hope that the birthday boy's face has an even bigger smile then mine!!!

I had so much fun doing this cake, even when I was struggling. The birthday boy's mom even got to work on the cake with me. I think she had fun seeing it all come together. She made little Lego pieces, baked the cake, and rolled out the fondant.

By the way, she can really roll some fondant =)

Maybe we'll make another cake together (for her other son, hint, hint).

Every time I make a cake I remember just how much I love making cakes!

So here we go, are you ready for some pictures:

Hope you all enjoyed watching the cake come together this week, I truly enjoyed sharing it with all of you!

Happy baking!!!

Work in Progress 4

2011-01-05T21:43:00.000-05:00

They're done!

I'm so happy :) I finished the Lego people and I am pretty happy with the way they came out!

I tried to make them all different and I think I succeeded. I can't wait to put the cake together tomorrow and see the whole thing together. I hope it all comes out the way I'm picturing it in my head. I feel like the Legos came out pretty much how I thought they would. I think they are just sooo cute, but how could a Lego not be cute, right!

Okay, so here they are, all done(finally):

Here is half of them

Here is the other half

A closer view

Here is the whole family, lol

Another closer view

My new favorite guy

Isn't he just the cutest chef you've ever seen ;) Maybe he will finish the cake for me!

Hope your all ready for the final cake tomorrow after all these days of preparing. Thanks for following along my adventure of making my first Lego cake.

Happy Baking!

Work in Progress 3

2011-01-04T22:00:00.000-05:00

We've got legs!

I knew the other body parts had been too easy. Today I worked on the legs and boy were they ever stressful!!!

I tried soooo many different techniques till I found the one that worked the best for me and looked okay (not great, think I gave up after 10 tries).

But at least I think I will be better prepared if I ever have to make Lego people again. If I didn't work I'm sure I would find more time to make them better and faster!

But overall I'm pretty satisfied with the results (so far). Someone needs to tell those Lego people to make easier legs on these guys, LOL ;)

Okay, now here is the moment you've been waiting for

pictures, of course:

I just love these freckles, puts a smile on my face.

Why are Legos so darn cute?

Here is my favorite guy so far ;)

Well tomorrow I will be working on dressing them up. I guess I will play designer tomorrow. I will also be making a million Lego pieces, wish me luck. Wonder if I will even have enough time! Can't wait to see this whole cake put together =)

Don't worry I will have more progress pictures tomorrow, so you can sleep well now ;)

Happy Baking!

Work in Progress 2

2011-01-04T07:37:00.000-05:00

Okay so here is the progress I've got so far. Now remember I haven't had a lot of time to put towards it so there isn't much progress but they're just so darn cute =)

I will be finishing them today so hopefully tomorrow there will be a post of the finished figures!

Okay, here they are:

So, what do you think so far?

By the way I hope you all figured it out yesterday, they are supposed to be Lego people.

I think they are coming out pretty good, but we'll see today, I'm quite nervous about attaching the hands and making the legs. So keep your fingers crossed for me =) I'll cross my toes while I make them, lol.

Alrighty guys, hope you come back tomorrow to see them all done, and then the cake will be on Friday.

Happy Baking!

Work in Progress

2011-01-02T21:16:00.001-05:00

Can you guess?

Well I started working on a cake for my neighbor's son today, and must admit I'm having a blast doing it. I'm working on the pieces that will decorate the cake. I feel like they look good but can my followers guess what they are? I know what they are because I'm making them, but I wondered do other people know what I'm making by looking at what I've got so far. Now remember this is work in progress these are just the heads.

I must admit I am so in love with these little heads :) Maybe they don't need bodies. Okay, maybe they do, I don't want kids crying when they see heads without a body.

So did you guess what kind of cake I'm working on?

If these come out good (fingers crossed) I'm definitely going to have to make a tutorial on how to make them. So far the heads were pretty easy (probably just jinxed myself, lol) let's hope the rest is just as easy!!!

I'll keep you all updated on the progress. I think it will be nice to see it all come together over the next few days!

Happy Baking!

*By the way my sister totally guessed right, huge smile on my face right now :)

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T20:25:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I want to wish everyone a VERY HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR!!!

May 2011 bring everyone lots of happiness!

I hope you can all fulfill your new years resolutions. I know I have quite a list of resolutions myself.

1. Give my kids more love (if that's even possible)

2. Bake more!

3. Be healthier!

4. Bake more!

5. Enjoy every minute

6. Bake even more!

7. Eat more veggies (does carrot cake count)

8. Try as many recipes as possible

9. Clean more (or hire someone to do it)

10. Bake some more, of course!

Hoping I can accomplish all I want and more in 2011 and I hope the same for you all! Hope we can all have many more baking adventures together and hopefully more giveaways!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

AND

HAPPY BAKING!!!

Some of my favorites from 2010:

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2010-12-25T22:42:00.003-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! I have truly been enjoying the holidays with my family. And on top of spending time with my family I have also enjoyed doing some baking, of course! Now of course the holidays are hectic and crazy so my pictures really aren't that great but at least I have them and hope you all enjoy them.

So here's a list of the things I baked up for our Christmas:

-sugar cookies

-cake pops

-cheesecake

-flan

-chocolate covered pretzels

Now I don't know if all the items made it in the pictures but I sure hope they did, I know they made it into my stomach ;)

Happy Holidays and Happy Baking!

*Some of my cookie designs were my own but some were inspired from Glorious Treats (very talented)

*Cake pops inspired from Bakerella

Chai Tea Cupcakes

2010-12-02T18:48:00.002-05:00

LETS SPICE THINGS UP!!!

Well let me tell you about my new favorite spiced cupcake. It all started off becasue we were in the mood for something with a cinnamonny (yeah I just made that word up, lol) flavor. Then my sister and I remembered a recipe we have been dying to try, Chai Tea Cupcakes. I was a little nervous since I've never made this recipe before. Well I have to say I am sooooo happy that I tried it out. It was so easy and OH SO GOOD!!! I will definitely be making these again. They scream winter to me and weren't sweet, they were moist and just plain ol' good, if you like Chai Tea and that cinnamonny flavor of course.

Chai Tea Cupcakes:

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 4 tablespoons butter, softened

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1 egg

- 1 cup all-purpose flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

- pinch of salt

- 2 chai tea bags

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place liners into cupcake pan (makes 9 cupcakes).

2. Heat milk up on stovetop, remove from heat and steep tea bags in milk for 5-10 minutes.

3. In a large bowl cream sugar and butter together. Mix in egg and vanilla extract, until incorporated. Mix in milk, until just incorporated.

4. In a separate bowl sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt together. Mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

5. Divide batter into cupcake liners. Bake for 13-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Allow to cool before frosting. Once frosted, sprinkle with cinnamon (for that cinnamonny flavor, lol) if desired.

When we decided to make these cupcakes we automatically knew we wanted to make a cream cheese frosting but we weren't in the mood for a heavy cream cheese frosting so I went to one of my FAVORITE cream cheese frosting recipes. I've been using this recipe forever, it's one of my tried and true recipes! It's soooo light and fluffy and all so yummy!

- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

- 1 cup sugar

- 1/8 teaspoon salt

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1. In a small bowl, beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form, set aside.

2. In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

3. Fold whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

***If not using the frosting right away place in an airtight container in the fridge, and it stays nice and fluffy!

We truly enjoyed these cupcakes! My sister enjoyed it without frosting, to her it tasted like a bread and she enjoyed it just plain. You could always sprinkle powdered sugar on top if your not into the whole frosting thing. I like a little sweetness so I really enjoyed the fluffy frosting on my cupcake! My husband enjoyed them with a whole side plate of frosting (yeah he loves this frosting). My kids weren't to into these, I think they wanted something sweeter, they just aren't into anything too cinnamonny ;) Hope you all try these cause I truly enjoyed them and they were GOOD!

Could hardly get myself to stop and take this picture =)

HAPPY BAKING!!!

*found the recipe for the cupcakes here a long, long time ago, glad I held on to it!

Chai Tea

Winner

2010-11-22T17:42:00.000-05:00

And the winner is:

Comment #2 by Dookhani

Congratulations! Enjoy your $35 from CSN!

Winner was chosen randomly on random.org.

Thanks to everyone for participating!!!

I look forward to doing more giveaways =)

GIVEAWAY

2010-11-16T15:47:00.000-05:00

GIVEAWAY FROM CSN STORES

Alright, the time has come for the giveaway. I am sooo excited that one of my followers will be getting $35 to shop at any CSN Store of their choice.

Okay, so here's what you have to do to join the giveaway.

1. Be a follower of my blog(if your not following me just sign up and follow).

2. Write a comment on this post, perhaps on what you would buy or your favorite thing to bake.

3. Cross your fingers =)

I will randomly choose the winner on Monday. It was going to be Friday but since I started the giveaway late I figured I should wait until Monday.

Remember the giveaway is $35 to a CSN Store so start checking out what you would like to get ( I know I saw a few things) at www.csnstores.com

Good luck to all and HAPPY BAKING!!!

*The $35 does not include shipping.

GIVEAWAY

2010-11-15T19:07:00.000-05:00

Hey, everyone! Sorry I didn't put the giveaway up today but it should be up and running tomorrow.

I'm sooooo sorry. My first giveaway isn't running as smoothly as I had hoped. But I'm on it!!!

Don't fear, Hanacakes is here!

This giveaway will happen =)

(hopefully tomorrow)

So keep your eyes open

Until then, HAPPY BAKING!!!

GIVEAWAY

2010-11-10T18:36:00.000-05:00

GIVEAWAY

This is the first giveaway for Hanacakes! I'm so excited to have the opportunity to do this giveaway for my followers. The giveaway is from CSN stores for $35. And well lets be honest Christmas is coming so this would be the perfect time for some free stuff!

The CSN stores have EVERYTHING you could ever want. From Bedsets to strollers to Baking Supplies (my favorite)!!!

I will be doing the giveaway post next week and it will run for a week and then a winner will be randomly chosen. I am soooo excited for my readers to get a free gift :)

Here are some items I found to be too cute and too wonderful:

Keep your eyes open for my post next week to start entering for the giveaway!!!

So start looking on www.csnstores.com