Hello Poor & Pretty readers! I’m Suzi, Sami’s older sister and I love making cupcakes! Recently my daughter’s {Scarlett, who you may remember from the diy cucumber mask video} school PTA hosted a family fun night with tons of activities for the whole family, including bowling, face painting and Bingo! It was a great way to spend an evening with your kids.

Being the cupcake lover that I am, I volunteered to have a “Design Your Own Cupcake” station with my trusty sidekick Kaylie. With the help of the PTA, I gathered up all the supplies we would need: 200 cupcakes {yes, you read that correctly}, 12 tubs of frosting, food coloring, and more candy and sprinkles than even Willy Wonka’s factory has! Clearly, these were the makings of a great night! I dyed the frosting four different colors and also had chocolate for those with a more classic cupcake palate. Each topping had its own bowl and spoon to keep things neat and sanitary.  Additionally, each child had to have signed permission from their parents before they could dive into my cupcake heaven {because you never want to mess around with food allergies}.

I don’t know who had more fun — the kids or the parents! I don’t believe there is anything better than getting together with your family to create beautiful, colorful, fantastically fun art that you can eat!

Happy Cupcaking!
-suzicakes

For my birthday, Suzi decided to make these deliciously adorable mini cupcakes, petits fours, from the Hello Cupcake book. These pastel and bright colors are perfect for spring, but with food coloring you can create all kinds of colors to be used for any occasion. These would be really cute for Independence Day, too, maybe red, white and blue cupcakes?

Tip: I didn’t get a photo of this, but to achieve the super-smooth frosting look all you have to do is microwave the frosting for about 10 seconds, stir it thoroughly because sometimes the food coloring separates, then dip the top of the cupcake slowly into the frosting. If you twist the cupcake in the frosting a little bit, then gently swirl it up and out of the frosting, it will settle smoothly across the cupcake. Next time, I’ll try to get pictures of this step!

Happy Memorial Day! :)

We saved these cupcakes for Easter, and they were a big hit! We still have a few left over, but I’ll tackle one or two tonight after I eat the leftover honey ham. My family may not be religious, but we LOVE Easter. I love getting together with my family and I love honey baked ham, and Easter is the only time we eat a honey baked ham. This year, Suzi, Stan, and I did all of the cooking… and we’re still not sure how my Dad got away with that. Probably because he spent all day Saturday replacing our water heater. >_< Though there were definitely too many cooks in the kitchen, we had a good time and, luckily, we made the cupcakes the night before.

We used a recipe from Hello Cupcake again, and Suzi was excited to learn that they have a new book, What’s New, Cupcake?, which I’m sure she’ll be picking up from the book store soon. If you end up trying this recipe for next Easter (or just for fun!), we do recommend making the cupcakes the night before you plan to serve them. Because the frosting grass is all done by hand, it takes a while to do and it’s a good idea to let the frosting sit and harden a bit overnight so it isn’t runny when you try to eat it.

I somehow got stuck making the feet again and I helped dip a few cupcakes in the “dirt” {do you think Suzi is trying to tell me something?}. Scarlett {Suzi’s 7-year-old daughter} and I also helped decorate the grass cupcakes with eggs {Whopper’s Robin Eggs} and flowers {okay, they were really stars, but no one could tell the difference!}. And yes, they tasted just as yummy as they looked :)

Mish and I have both been up to some heavy investigating these past few weeks. While Mish was testing out primers, I’ve been trying to find the best cupcakes in Connecticut! The hunt began when I came back from New York thinking, there must be some good cupcake places in CT, too! Last week, I told you about the New Haven Cupcake Truck, but this week our cupcake investigation target was a bit less mobile, that is, a stationary bakery.

Truffles Bakery is located on busy Route 4 in Farmington, which makes it a difficult place to get in and out of, but the perfect place to stop on the way home from work for a sweet pick-me-up or a delicious ready-to-eat dinner {photo above of Truffles Bakery © Matthew J. Wagner} Yes, they have a variety of yummy cupcakes, cookies and other baked goods, but they also serve soups, salads, sandwiches, quiches and other small entrées. We tried the New England Clam Chowder and it was the best chowder I’ve ever had outside of Boston. A few tables and chairs are arranged outside for a small eating area, making Truffles a great location for a get-together with friends for a snack and coffee or quick meal. I can’t wait to go back when the weather starts getting nicer! They also have a smaller location inside UConn’s School of Law in Hartford.

Of course, by now you want to know about the cupcakes! Their flavors are plentiful and on an average day they have most of them in-stock, or you can call ahead a few days and have Truffles make a custom cake or cupcakes {Truffles calls this the “Build Your Own” service} for your party. On the day that Suzi and I went, Truffles was serving Buttercup Yellow, Chocolate, Carrot, Ret Velvet, Raspberry, and Magic Middle {chocolate or yellow cupcakes filled with chocolate ganache}. I bought myself a Buttercup Yellow, Raspberry, and Magic Middle, and a carrot cupcake for Mish {she loves carrot cake, but she couldn’t make it to Truffles because she was donating blood}. Truffles offers a “cupcake in a box” service where they place a cupcake on top of confetti in a cute transparent plastic box and tie it with an elastic bow. I put the carrot cupcake in a box for Mish. Suzi bought Buttercup Yellow, Chocolate, Carrot, and Red Velvet.

Results? The Buttercup Yellow was my favorite, but not by very much because I loved all of them! As the name suggests, it’s a buttery-sweet flavor, sort of like buttery sugar cookies. I tried some of Suzi’s Red Velvet and so far I think Truffles makes the best Red Velvet in CT, but you can’t beat the New Haven Cupcake Truck for its mobility! My cupcake adventures are far from over, but Truffles has definitely become one of my new favorite destinations for baked goods. {It helps that it’s less than 10 minutes from my house, too!} I also fell in love with the t-shirts the servers were wearing {they say “peace, love, & cupcakes”}, and I found out you can order one yourself in over 20 different colors! I ordered a short-sleeved one in light blue {only $10!}, and it will be ready in about a week. I hope when I go back to pick it up they’ll have the Buttercup Strawberry and Buttercup Lemon Raspberry cupcakes for me to try, yum!

Do you have any recommendations for cupcakes places we should try next? We’d love to hear them! :)

As we mentioned yesterday, last night was our first cupcake party and it went swimmingly {pun intended… okay, you’ll get it in a second}. Sami’s older sister Suzi used her Hello Cupcake book to make these adorable penguin cupcakes complete with icebergs and gummy fish counterparts! {get the swimming reference now?} The best part is, she did it all for under $20!

Suzi, who has been making kickass cakes for quite some time now, has begun to consider starting her own side-business making cakes and cupcakes for weddings, birthdays, and other sorts of parties. She jokes about the idea, but she already has a name picked out: Suzicakes! Aww :)

“I think I really got into making extravagant cakes when I had Scarlett,” Suzi says. Scarlett is the cutest, silliest, smartest kid we know and has been deliciously spoiled with wicked cool cakes for almost all of her seven birthdays. For her 6th birthday, Scarlett had a Shark Attack! cake {above} because she loves sharks {and yes, that shark really is eating Barbie!}. Last year, she had a haunted birthday theme with a haunted house cake {right}.

Aaanyway, back to the penguins! We can’t divulge the secret recipe, as it is copyrighted to the authors of Hello Cupcake, but here are some process shots:

A tip that wasn’t in the book: Suzi recommends cutting the tops off of the cupcakes that you make the penguins on so that you have a flat surface to work with.

Okay, we admit it, Suzi did most of the work, but only because she has much more experience making desserts that are both aesthetically and tastefully pleasing!

One thing we did do ourselves was shape the penguin feet. We are super proud of them. :)

Our icebergs are suffering from the effects of global warming, so they’re a bit droopy, but otherwise everything came out wonderful! We love love love Suzi and her goddess-like baking skills. If you ever want a really rad cake made, we know who to contact, but if you feel like trying out some of these cool cupcakes yourself, we highly highly suggest Hello Cupcake, which you can find in every major bookstore and online. Happy baking! <3