German Chocolate (Surprise!) Cupcakes

I am CRAZY about baking. There is something so relaxing when you are whisking, whipping and stirring! The FIL (father in-law) is celebrating a birthday today and if memory serves me correct he loves German Chocolate cake. I am making cupcakes, Martha Stewart style so you know they will be good. Besides cupcakes travel easier. The "suprise" that I mention in the post title is my lil' somethin-somethin and I will show you shortly.

You can find the recipe here for the cake.

This picture of Martha's cupcake is beautiful but you see this wouldn't travel the 35-40 minutes into town so this is why I put my twist on this classic.

See that hole in the cupcake...you guessed it, I'm filling it with something. When I think of German Chocolate I think of the frosting, the coconut and pecan frosting. By the way, the link above also contains a link for the homemade coconut pecan prosting. This, to me, is what a German Chocolate cake is all about! Well suprise!!, this is what I am filling that hole with.

However, I didn't make my own (hangs head in shame) but I was already making caramel buttercream from scratch (oh yah, epic fail that I will discuss in a bit), so I don't think anyone will mind that this cupcake is semi-homemade.   

Something went terribly wrong with this and my saucepan may be ruined forever. I am chalking it up to the fact that caramel and I do not get along. If you want to know what I am talking about you can look here and here.

When I realized that the caramel buttercream was a bust I had already creamed 3 stickes of unsalted butter and to start over would mean I would need to go to the store for more butter. I flipped through my book and found a recipe for 'Fluffy Vanilla Frosting' and it called for 3 sticks of butter. What the heck, why not. Now I would have died to have made the caramel buttercream but I was running out of time so this was going to have to do in a pinch.

It definitely lives up to its name, it is for sure fluffy! I used my Wilson set and piped on some frosting to cover the holes in the cupcakes. Not bad for an amatuer. With a little more practice I bet I could master this!

Mmmmm...so good, almost too much sugar with the frosting but hey if you can't go into a sugar coma with your family then who can you with. : )

The Shop Door

Last Friday afternoon our shop door was installed. The shop is looking mighty fine, I must say. I like that the door is off center a bit. Not only does it give us space on the exterior to add a fun element, if we want, but on the inside of the shop it gives a nook for possibly a spray painting booth for me. : )

The white doors POP against the walls and trim. Absolutely lovely, if garage doors can be labeled as such.

Let's get a closer look...I love, love, love that the big garage door has a bit of detail. It looks like wonderful molding. I think it gives it a little extra somethin'-somethin'. It is still a "plain" door, you know any run of the mill garage door but it has a bit of character. LOVE!

Here is a picture of it with the exterior light on. 

I am in love with this vintage looking (but still new) lantern type light and I think we will put another one on the other side of the door as well.

 

Here is another picture of the lantern from the side and showing off a bit of the garage door detail as well. I couldn't be happier with the end product. It's amazing!

Zucchini Bread

The in-laws handed me a zucchini Sunday during one of the random pop-ins The Hubs likes to make. It always seems that when we are out on a drive or heading to a particular place of town that he likes to see what the rents' are doing. I don't mind because the in-laws always have some sort of musing that is going on and it is usually funny.
Anyway back to the zucchini...I am dying to make zucchini bread and now that I am not in school at the moment (woo-to-the-freakin-hoo!!) I can. I couldn't locate my recipe in the abyss I call an "office" so I pulled out Paula Deen's recipe here; I made a couple modifications that suits my wants/needs.

I followed the directions until it came time to fold in the nuts. I wanted to add chocolate chips instead. I added one bag of milk chocolate chips to the batter. Then pour it into your loaf pans.

When there was about 20 minutes left of baking I pulled the loafs out and basted it with a little bit of melted butter; about 2-3 Tbsp. Then dusted the top with sugar. Mine doesn't look as pretty as Miss Paula's and the middle caved slightly (probably from the butter) but it truly is delish!

Since it makes two loafs I am keeping one for us at home and giving the other one to the in-laws. Afterall it was originally their zucchini.

I put the bread on a green plastic plate and then stuffed it inside a cellophane bag. Tied the top with left over pieces of rope from the tray. As an added touch I stuffed a faux flower into the tie and included the recipe.

Bon appetite! You won't want to put your fork down!