Care for a cupcake?

Lee’s birthday was over the weekend. I think I may have started a tradition of surprising him with cupcakes, and then forcing him to take most of them to work so we don’t eat them all.

His co-workers all get a wonderfully sugar laden breakfast and I don’t have to stare down cupcakes all day calling my name (and with my recent ‘I need a cinnamon bun or a cake or a cookie or a candybar’ craving around 3 pm, this is a good thing).

Last year I made him fairy cakes topped with candy fireworks (Lee djs under the name Fiyawerx). I happened to pick one of the hottest days of the year to make lollipops, but it wasn’t a terrible experience and I would give it a go another time. The fireworks cupcake toppers were on a blog somewhere for the 4th of July, but I can’t seem to find it in my bookmarks now.

This year I saw a recipe for Rootbeer Float cupcakes on Smitten Kitchen early in the summer and immediately bookmarked it for Lee’s birthday.

They came out really well–a moist chocolate cake with the flavor of rootbeer. I am not a cake baker, so I was thrilled when these came out so perfectly formed and moist. I do think next time I would add a shot of rootbeer extract to up the flavor a bit. Because I had to make them ahead and make them last long enough for Lee to take to work, I used stabalized whipped cream for the topping. I even used the cookie press to pipe it on, although I really should have waited until it was a bit more firm–I was running out of baking time (read: nap time).  Deb, on Smitten Kitchen, uses icecream too which would have been great, but not portable.

Apparently Lee took a photo of the cupcakes with his phone at work, and also showed everyone last year’s cupcakes (he worked somewhere else a year ago). So, now I have to make sure I think of something good for next year!

Tagged as: Baking, birthday, cupcake, Lee