Jackie's Birthday Cupcakes

Yet another continuation from Jackie's engagement/birthday celebration.

For the cupcakes I made the same cupcakes I had made for Jae's birthday last month.  It was such a big hit with my girls I thought I'd do it again.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time to make a bigger cake for Jackie so I ended up making a bigger cupcake for her.  

In my post for Giant Red Velvet Cupcakes I used a souffle ramekin.  I wanted to do something a little different so I baked it in this square dish.

I wanted to treat it like any other cake so I unmolded it and decided to layer it with Nutella in the center as the filling. 

Then I chilled it in the fridge.

Nutella's been around for a really long time.  I remember by boyfriend in college first introduced it to me.  And that was back in 2001.  It's interesting to see how it's such a big trend right now.

I also filled the regular cupcakes with the Nutella as well.  This time I had used a piping bag with a star tip.  I pushed the tip all the way in the center then squeezed as I pulled it out of the cupcake.  The first time around I had cut holes in the cupcake and I think that way might be better.  When I ate the one where I had piped it in, there didn't seem to be enough Nutella.  The cupcake is relatively dry on its own so it really needs that extra richness from the filling in the center.

After the big cupcake was thoroughly chilled I took the chocolate buttercream, also from the entry with Jae's Cupcakes but using only about 4 oz of melted chocolate, and iced the outside of the cupcake.  From here on out I don't have photos because I wasn't sure if it was going to turn out.

My brilliant idea was to make a chocolate encasing for the big cupcake.  Almost like a chocolate wrapper.  It's kind of intense to explain and considering I didn't even do it correctly, I'll explain another time.  It was just a huge mess.

I tried doing something different with the way I piped the buttercream on top... It definitely looked more elegant in my head.  And I just realized I didn't take any photos of the other finished cupcakes.  Well, they pretty much looked like smaller versions of the big one.  I also forgot to document the little round cookies that went with the cupcakes too.  All I did was just outlined and filled the bottom.  Then after it dried I piped a J and 26 on them.

And that's the last of Jackie's engagement/birthday goodies!  Up next: Garlic Mashed Potatoes and a Fruit Tart from Father's Day.  

Stay tuned.