ICE:Pear & Sage Cupcakes with Honey Ginger Buttercream

Recipe number 3 :P

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE FOR ME ON THE 28TH OF JULY HERE: http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/, in the right hand column. Tell your friends to vote, too!

Etsy prize-pack:
A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH
A delicious treat from CIRCLEMONKEY
a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery
CAKESPY,who is now going to be doing a piece for the winner each month until further notice

Corporate prizes:
HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS
HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
JESSIE STEELE APRONS
TASTE OF HOME books
a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM
Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers











Pear Sage cupcakes:
3 1/4 cups of flour
1 1/4 cups of sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup + 6 tbps canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of milk (I did 1/2 cup of milk, and 1/2 cup of heavy cream)
1 cup of sliced pear
1/2 cup of chopped sage.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
As per my usual methods, mix everything together. I am the queen of lazy baking. :P
If you insist, you can mix the dry stuff together, and mix the wet stuff together, THEN mix those together. ;)

Drop a spoonful of batter into the cupcake tins. Then place a layer of sliced pear, then more batter, then pear, then batter.

Bake for about 18 minutes or until it passes the crumb test.

Honey ginger buttercream:
Directions here
But add 1/4 cup of honey and either diced/mashed fresh ginger, or diced candied ginger.

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ICE: Strawberry & Basil Cupcakes with Balsamic frosting

You've already read the whole Iron Cupcake: Earth spiel from the other post, so it's just sponsors, pictures, and recipe this time. :P

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE FOR ME ON THE 28TH OF JULY HERE: http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/, in the right hand column. Tell your friends to vote, too!

Etsy prize-pack:
A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH
A delicious treat from CIRCLEMONKEY
a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery
CAKESPY,who is now going to be doing a piece for the winner each month until further notice

Corporate prizes:
HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS
HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
JESSIE STEELE APRONS
TASTE OF HOME books
a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM
Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers









Strawberry basil cupcakes:
3 1/4 cups of flour
1 1/4 cups of sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup + 6 tbps canola oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of milk (I did 1/2 cup of milk, and 1/2 cup of heavy cream)
1 cup of chopped or sliced strawberries
1/2 cup of chopped basil.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
As per my usual methods, mix everything together. I am the queen of lazy baking. :P
If you insist, you can mix the dry stuff together, and mix the wet stuff together, THEN mix those together. ;)

Thennnn fold in the strawberries.

Fill up the cupcake tins 3/4 of the way, and bake for about 18ish minutes. (crumb test, crumb test!)

Balsamic buttercream:
Directions here
But replace the chocolate with ~1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar.

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ICE: Lavender & Mint Cupcakes

This is my first Iron Cupcakes: Earth challenge! Wooh!
Imagine my surprise when I checked the site and saw that the theme was HERBS.
"Holy moly, how'm I gonna pull this one off?" (oh yes, that's how I talk.)
After MUCH thought, I decided on a lavender cupcake with mint buttercream.
It took a lot of searching to find reasonably priced culinary lavender (which I got here, by the way), but once I did, it was ON. (like Donkey Kong. Ha)

HEY. BEFORE YOU GET TOO COMFORTABLE, DON'T FORGET TO VOTE FOR ME ON THE 28TH OF JULY HERE: http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/, in the right hand column. Tell your friends to vote, too! Oh, and vote for my other two entries, Strawberry Basil and Pear Sage! :)

Now let's take a break for station identification. I mean, now here's a word from our sponsors.
I mean...
Haha, here are the prizes that the top cupcake will win this month:

Etsy prize-pack:
A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH
A delicious treat from CIRCLEMONKEY
a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery
CAKESPY,who is now going to be doing a piece for the winner each month until further notice

Corporate prizes:
HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS
HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
JESSIE STEELE APRONS
TASTE OF HOME books
a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM
Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers


Whew. Now on to the fun stuff.


Dried lavender

Lavender syrup

The lavender's like sprinkles!




Lavender cupcakes with Mint swiss buttercream:

2 Cups of sugar
2 1/2 Cups of flour
2 tsps of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of salt
2 eggs
1 cup of sour cream
1/2 cup of vegetable/canola oil
1/2 cup of lavender syrup (recipe to follow)
1/2 cup of water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Combine and mix. Hehe. My favorite cake recipes require very little direction.
Fill tin 3/4 of the way with batter.
Cook until they pass the FABLED CRUMB TEST.
Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove from tin and let cook on wire racks.


Lavender syrup:
2 cups of water
2 cups of sugar
3 tablespoons of dried culinary lavender

BOIL IT ALL. BOIL IT. For about 10 minutes.
Then, pour it all into a container and let sit in the fridge overnight.
Strain out the lavender and store in a bottle/jar/whatever in the fridge.


Mint buttercream:
Directions here
Replace the chocolate with mint syrup (made the same way as the lavender kind) or mint extract.




Easy peasy lemon squeezy. :)

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