Darling Bakers ~ Cupcake Event

Saturday was our Darling Bakers CUPCAKE Event!

Inspiration and huge thanks goes to another blogger who authors one of my very FAVORITE baking blogs ~

my friend the irrepressible Em creator of The Repressed Pastry Chef .

I chose this recipe for Napoleon Cupcakes after seeing it on Em's blog recently. Click on the link, above, to take a look at how a real PRO makes, and photographs them. :)

The Yellow Butter Cake (recipe from the "At Home with Culinary Institute of America" cookbook) divided into cupcake portions are baked off, then filled with a rich pastry cream filling.

I finished mine slightly differently than Em did. She made an icing out of almond bark, a vanilla coating and chocolate stripes, beautifully elegant.

I made a white chocolate ganache for the topping, and heated and sieved raspberry jam for the stripes on mine.

The butter cake recipe is one of the best I've ever tasted, and I'll definitely keep it on file to make again. A big thank you to Em for sharing the recipe and technique on her blog!

And another big thank you to Jain at Once in a Blue Moon for organizing our Cup Cake-a-thon.

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*Sigh*

I really like cupcakes and love to make them, but because we've recently had to cut way back on sugar intake for health reasons, I won't be making them often, unless I can give them away.

So I'm left to reminisce about cupcakes from the past

(boo hoo...)

These are some from last year ~

Luckily, I don't have much of a sweet tooth... but still, they ARE so much fun to make!