Star Spangled Cupcakes

How hard is it to find blue sprinkles?! The answer: very hard.

I wanted to use blue sprinkles on these cupcakes but failed to find any. Actually I couldn't find any blue lollies. I almost gave up after 1.5 days of searching when I spotted some at one of those lolly kiosks in the shopping centre.

Happy be-lated 4^th of July!

Candied Orange Mini Cupcakes

Excited by how easy it was to make candied orange peel from the Selah cooking class (below), I had to try it at home (and mainly because I had nothing to do yesterday) and yep! easy peasy.

Candied Orange Mini Cupcakes
Makes approx. 20

Candied Orange
4 oranges
¾ cup water
¾ cup caster sugar + extra to coat

Method

1. Use a vegetable peeler to peel the oranges and julienne. In a small pot, bring some water to the boil. Add peel and let it boil for 30 secs. Take them out and plunge them into ice water. Drain and pat dry.

2. Make the sugar syrup by adding equal parts water and sugar (3/4 cups should be enough for 4 oranges). When it comes to the boil, add the peel and boil until translucent.


Translucent

3. Put the peel onto a wire rack to dry. Once dried coat them in caster sugar.

Tip: Don’t throw out the syrup. You can use it to pour over cakes, puddings or use it as bitter orange cordial.


Bitter orange cordial

Candied Orange Cupcakes

Ingredients
100g butter, room temp and cubed
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
Dash of milk
2 tbsp candied orange peel

Method
1. Cream the butter and sugar, then add egg one at a time until mixed.

2. Add the candied peel, flour, baking powder and milk. Mix until combined.

3. Put in mini cupcake cups and bake for approx.10mins.

Before


After

To decorate
Melted dark chocolate
Candied Peel

Method
Spread the melted chocolate on top of the cupcakes and decorate with the candied peel.

Iron Cup Cake Earth: Savory Cupcake

Savoury cupcakes – oh that’s a challenge. Over the course of the last 3 weeks I did some thinking about the right flavour combination, texture and general ‘eatability’ appeal. Not so much into weird food combinations I decided on a safer route. Bacon Alien cupcakes aka Peas, Bacon and Tasty Cheese cupcakes. My thinking went along the lines of: 'Bacon, who doesn't like bacon?' 'Cheese, who doesn't like cheese?' and 'Oh I better put in a vegetable. Peas are cute and I think there's some in the freezer.'.

Not so cakey but very cheesey, this is great for breakfast and if you fashion it Alien style, you might get the kids to eat it too! And look, there's no butter! (kinda healthy) It's also really quick to make.

Peas, Bacon and Tasty Cheese cupcakes

Ingredients

2 ½ cups Plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 tsp Dijon mustard400ml milk

100g tasty cheese

2 tbsp dill

3 rashers of bacon

100g peas

Method

1. Chop the bacon into small pieces. Put aside.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk and the mustard together.

3. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder and dill until evenly distributed. Then mix in cheese, peas and bacon. Combine the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients.

4. Line a cupcake/muffin tin with cupcake holders and spoon in 1 tbsp of the mixture. Bake for at 180 degree oven for 30mins or until golden. Serve warm.

Oh yeah, don't forget to vote for me. Voting will begin no later than Saturday May 30 at 8pm (Sunday Aussie time) at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/ and will be open until Friday June 5 at noon (Saturday Aussie time)

Our May ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

• A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
• something sweet and dangly from CHERRYCREEKCHARMS at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6686445.
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers:

• HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com,
• HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com;
• TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com;
• a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/.
• Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .