I am roasting my first ever turkey this afternoon...this shall be interesting. I found this recipe on the KinCommunity channel on YouTube and it seems easy enough. I will post later with updates!

Also make sure to check out my show on www.fingerlakes1.com, the Lake to Lake Girls with Tiffany Collinsworth and myself. We will be on live from 5:30 to 6:30 PM Est. tonight!

Sunday's Nugget of Wisdom

"The most beautiful thing a woman can wear is confidence." -unknown*

I love this quote. When a friend tells me she can't wear this or that, or would never be able to pull something off, I call poppycock. Confidence is key. If you love something, I say rock it sister. People are drawn to confidence, if you want to try out a new hair style, lip stick or piece of clothing do it with confidence. And if you're still nervous, just remember that most people devote more energy to  worrying about themselves than judging you for what you're wearing. Even if they are judging you, who cares?! You will never see that random person at the mall, restaurant, park, etc again ;)

*I did a google search to find who this quote belongs to but I couldn't find anything definitive. If you know please comment below!

Cinnamon Bun Fail, Kind Of...

I like to be honest with you guys. Not everything I make comes out perfect or even close to what it's suppose to be, and these cinnamon buns had it out for me. Yesterday was opening day for deer hunting in New York. Being a country girl, I've been surrounded by this my entire life, so without getting too political, it is something that is a part of life around these parts. I personally do not understand the appeal of sitting out at the crack of dawn, in the cold waiting for a deer to walk by to shoot it, but hey if that's your thing I won't stop you. Anyway, I digress! I was awoken at 5:30 AM Saturday morning as my boyfriend geared up to indulge in some primal cave man urges to hunt wild life and I had a hard time getting back to sleep. Bridgette, my boyfriend's brother's girlfriend (follow that?) was up as well, and we thought what better thing to do at 6 AM than make cinnamon buns right?!

Things did not go according to plan. I'd like to blame it on the recipe book we were using because the way the recipe was written, was not very intuitive. *Insert shifty side eye right about here.* I'd like to blame it on the cook book, but it really probably has more to do with that fact I attempted this without coffee. We accidentally left the eggs out. Then the dough wouldn't rise. Oh well! We still baked it anyways. Then the tops browned too quickly while the inside was still gooey and raw.

Then there wasn't enough actual cinnamon in the sugar mix. Only 1 tsp worth....I should have known better. 

All in all, they weren't great, but that serves as motivation to find a recipe that actually works, and perhaps save it for a time when I'm a little more awake or at least caffeinated ;)

Mandy Eats

Welcome! There are some changes brewing over here at Cupcakes by Mandy, the first being the change of this blog's name! I'm really excited to announce that I've changed this blog to Mandy Eats. The official domain name is now http://www.mandy-eats.com.  I am expanding the blog to cover more than just cupcakes to talk about a variety of different recipes, food & restaurant reviews, and  keeping up an active lifestyle. This is something I've been thinking of doing for a while, and I'm excited to have the blog grow! I have so much more to talk about than cupcakes, but those will certainly still be featured here and will continue to expand my baking skills. Stay tuned for upcoming articles for Thanksgiving recipes and how I attempt to keep the holiday weight gain at bay! I'm thinking of throwing a Facebook page into the mix as well... stay tuned!

The old address of cupcakesbymandy.blogspot.com will redirect you to this site as well.

Eeking out every drop of my Halloween decorations as possible. Bring on the holiday season now!

Butterbeer Cupcakes

A friend asked me to make butterbeer cupcakes as a birthday treat for her fiance, which happened to be combined with a Halloween party (that's why I included the candy knives for a spooky decoration). Now I have indeed been to Harry Potter World at Universal, but (gasp!) did not actually try the butterbeer! Why? Because the line was about 20,982,183 people deep. I exaggerate a tad, but seriously the line was ridiculously long and it being the middle of July in Florida, it just wasn't going happen.

So what's a girl whose never actually tasted butterbeer to do? Google. I came across this recipe by AmyBites and it seems pretty spot on. These butterbeer cupcakes are adapted from her recipe. They are filled the the brim with butterscotch, vanilla and buttery flavors.

These are an awesome flavor combination for fall and a great way to impress family members and in-laws for that up-coming Thanksgiving dinner.

Butterbeer Cupcakes 

with Butterscotch Ganache Filling & Frosting 

Yields 18 cupcakes

Adapted from this recipe by AmyBites

Butterbeer Cupcakes
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon butter flavoring
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup cream soda

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pans with paper liners. 
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside. 
3. In a large mixing bowl bowl, cream your butter until light and fluffy. Approx 3-4 minutes of mixing on a "high" setting.
4. Add your room-tempature sugars and beat until well-combined. Beat in your eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 
5. Beat in your vanilla and butter flavoring.
6. Alternate adding the buttermilk, cream soda, and dry ingredients in batches until all are well incorporated. 
7. Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full, then bake for 15 to 17 minutes until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and cake springs back to the touch. 
8. Cool completely on wire racks.

While the cupcakes cool...

Butterscotch Ganache (for the cupcake filling)
1 11-oz. package butterscotch chips
3/4 cup heavy cream

1. In a double boiler (heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water on the stove), combine butterscotch chips and heavy cream and stir until completely combined and smooth. 
2. Cool to room temperature. 
3. Reserve at least 3/4 cup of the ganache for the frosting later
4. Fill a squeeze bottle with ganache and insert into the center of each cupcake, squeezing until filling begins to overflow. I highly recommend using the squeeze bottle, as opposed to a frosting bag and tip; it gives you a lot more control over the ganache and less chance of spilling. 

Butterscotch Frosting
3/4 cup of unsalted butter (room temp.)
3/4 cup of vegetable shortening (i.e. Crisco)
3/4 cup of reserved butterscotch ganache
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp butter flavor (optional)

1. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter & vegetable shortening until well combined & fluffy (approx 3 min).
2. Mix in the reserved butterscotch ganache.
3.  Mix in 1/2 salt. I find that this is a very sweet cupcake, so I added salt to the frosting to help counteract all of the sweetness. It's very similar tasting to salted caramel.
4. One cup at a time mix the powered sugar into the butter, vegetable shortening & salt, on a low setting, making sure to scrape down the sides after adding each cup. 
5. Then add the vanilla and butter flavoring. I did not add the butter flavor, so try it out first with just the vanilla and see if it's "buttery" enough for you. 

Frost the completely cooled cupcakes with a ribbon tip and then lightly swirl any of the remaining ganache on the tops. 

These are the Martha Stewart Cupcake papers I used. My boyfriend's mom gave these to me, but I'm pretty sure you can find them at Michael's Craft Stores. 

For more fall-inspired cupcakes by Mandy click here!

Pretty Pink Princess Cupcakes

My niece's birthday was this past weekend and she had been asking me for months (I'm not even exaggerating) to make her cupcakes for her 6th birthday. After much thought and consideration she wanted vanilla cupcakes with pink frosting and dark pink sprinkles. Easy enough. All you really need are some adorable cupcake liners, a vanilla cake recipe (boxed or homemade -I used boxed in this instance to help save time), a classic buttercream frosting recipe, food dye, and of course the sprinkles.

It's a cupcake canyon!

 I'm not sure how well you can see it, but there is my business card!