Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Cupcake Day for EDEN

On the last post I told you that I was going to be baking a storm of cupcakes for a friend. Well the day has come and gone of the Cupcake Day. I was asked by a friend and coworker of Matt's to make a batch of cupcakes to raise money for the awareness of the media's effect on women's self image. The organization is called EDEN, standing for Eating Difficulties Education Network; every year they run a campaign selling cupcakes and raising awareness on the issue. Here is the site for the organization, if you are interested. This year, they decided to run the Cupcake Day at Oktobor, and they asked if I would bake the cupcakes for it. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to bake. I started researching new ideas, and came across tons of amazing bakes.

I also told you on the last post how excited I was getting for Halloween. I got a little over excited, and couldn't help but combine the Cupcake Day and Halloween. To start off, I found myself in this store, called Milly's Kitchen. They have the most amazing kitchen supplies, and oodles of great gear for baking, cooking, and general wasting of time. They have just come out with all of these Halloween necessities (they are necessities!), and of course, I stocked up. Again, I was so excited about Halloween that I may or may not have jumped the gun on the goodies for the joyous holiday. Ok, I did jump the gun. But it was worth it.

I bought the candy molds at Milly's Kitchen, and got started on making some chocolate tombstones and skulls. I also found the cutest bone sprinkles there, which were perfect for the recipe I decided on. But first the chocolate.

 Pretty cool huh? And scary of course...

So the recipe I found was from the all-talented Martha Stewart. Is there anything this woman can't do? She has so many awesome Halloween treats, including the recipe I tried. They are called Tombstone Cupcakes and have a delish Devil's Food Cake middle, a Chocolate Ganache frosting, cookie crumbles to appear like dirt, and the chocolate molds on top for me. Here are the bare cupcakes, pre-decoration.

And here's the decoration line up. 

And the finished product ready to be eaten. 

And again, just because they're pretty. 

I had way too much fun with those. And in case you're wondering, those are really easy to make, so make them for Halloween this year. You can make the cookies that she puts on top, or come up with another fun idea to make them look like graveyards.

The next cupcake I jumped at the chance of making is Red Velvet Cupcakes. This one of course came from my favorite sweets blogger, Bakerella. Again, in case you wondering (and I know you were), she has the BEST Red Velvet Cake recipe (not that I've tried any other) on the planet. Seriously. So moist, and so so scrumdiddlyumptious! And they look so...

velvety.

Don't they? Ok, so the lighting, and my camera, and my non-expertise didn't mix well with these ones. But they were yummy, despite the appearance.

Matty took some better pictures of them all iced up and ready to eat, but apparently I don't know how to make a straight line with cupcakes, so ignore that too. I promise they were good! Please make these too. 

This next recipe came from a new blogger that I recently found, thanks to one of Matt's bosses wives. They are Cheesecake Cupcakes with Crumb Topping. For 12 cupcakes you use two packages of cream cheese. Yes, two. And although I didn't get to taste these, they went fast, so I assume the two packages are worth it. I am going to make them again soon so I can taste them. But aren't they pretty, even without the fruit on top?

And here is what they look like once you garnish them. 

Use whatever fruit you have on hand. Here they are displayed with the Red Velvet ones in the background. At least those ones look like they're in a straight line... 

And one more picture for good measure; this time with the tombstone cupcakes hiding behind them. 

The last batch of cupcakes I made again came from Bakerella. Have you gone to her site yet? Why not? You should. She's amazing. Ok, back to the cupcakes. These are called Cookies and Cream Cupcakes. Hers are a lot prettier than mine, but hey, mine tasted good too!

Here I am icing them. Don't mind my grimace. Apparently I give dirty looks when I'm concentrating. I apologize for that, if you have ever thought I was giving you a dirty look, I was probably just thinking about something.

 I love the look of these when they're finished, with the icing and Oreo placed on top. Yum, I want another. So sad they are gone.

 Matty and his pictures. When I grow up, I want to take pictures like him...

 Here is the line-up for the Cupcake Day. You can't see the Cookies and Cream Cupcakes, but they are hidden back there, or maybe they were trying to jump in my tummy. No one knows.

 And lastly, here is the lovely Paulo, getting ready to chomp the Red Velvet Cupcake, and double fisting it for seconds. I think they must have been good!

All-in-all, the day was a success, raising just under $300 for EDEN. Oktoborians are a very generous people. I was proud that they gave that much and enjoyed some cupcakes at the same time. I made between 75-80 cupcakes and the majority of them were gone in the first 10 minutes. I had so much fun baking for this today, and I am uber excited to focus on Halloween treats now. Stay tuned for those. And speaking of Halloween, Oktobor gave us the green light on a party! Woohoo! Time to get planning!

4 comments:

  1. This is amazing Carla!
    Thank you so much for using your talents to in supporting EDEN!
    We are so lucky to have people like yourself to help spread the Love Your Body message.
    Deb Schwarz
    EDEN Manager

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  2. Baby! You are SO talented! And I am so incredibly proud of you! That was such a huge undertaking, and everyone LOVED them! I still cant believe how fast they disappeared!

    I love you honey, amazing job today!
    Matty

    Ps When i grow up i want to bake like you :)

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  3. Hi! I´m AyelĂ©n, the Paulo´s girlfriend, I write to you from Argentina to tell that I loved your job, it´s no so easy, but you make it great! I like so much your art and the way you write the story of all your creations.
    Congratulations! I hope to meet you soon...

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  4. My sweet baby girl, you are so talented and have such a huge heart. I love that you made all these cupcakes for such a worthy cause. Where did you get all that talent? You are such a blessing to your family and so many others!
    <3 Mom

    ReplyDelete