let the baking begin!

Where do you even begin when trying to come up with recipes for a cupcake shop? After some serious brainstorming we decided we wanted to have simple, yet unique flavor combinations. Plain old chocolate wouldn't do (you can make those from a box), but what about hot fudge infused dark chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream? Or instead of vanilla, a poppyseed cupcake with almond frosting? Keeping a similar flavor profile of old favorites, just with a new delicious spin on it. We came up with a list of about 10 options we would want to have available from the get go. 5 being our core group, offered on a regular basis, and 5 being seasonal or special orders. By combining ideas from blogs, cooking sites, and our own archives of family recipes, we concocted loose recipes for the kinds of cupcakes we wanted to test run.

Finally it was time to start baking. We closed our eyes, and picked one from the list. Carrot cake cupcakes with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting. Choosing two different cake recipes, we added and subtracted from them to make them our own. We mixed up the two batters and cooked them off. One (in our opinion) came out a little disappointing in appearance and flavor, and the other just right. Then it was on to the frosting. We concocted a full batch of recipe #1. Kind of blindly believing that it would be perfect on the first try. It was way to sweet, and left us with a little bit of a tummy ache. We quickly whipped up a 1/4 of a batch (learning quickly, so not to waste ingredients) of a tangier cream cheese frosting. Perfection!
                                      
Without telling them which combination we preferred, we let our husbands try all possible combinations and asked for their opinion. It was a little discouraging when they didn't choose the ultimate duo as the one they mmmed and ahhhed over the most, but it's all about personal preference. And although we're sure we have a winning combination, our carrot cake cupcake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting will not be everyone's favorite. But one of the other 4 to come will most definitely be!
                                                  

-tracie & holly