Spaghetti and Meatballs ... for dessert?!? What!?!

I know I haven't blogged in a while, but I am back with something exciting to share with you! A close friend on mine has a birthday coming up and I really wanted to do something extra special for her. A couple of weeks ago, my husband surprised me after work with a cookbook I have been eyeing for quite awhile now...Hello Cupcake! The designs in this cookbook as so adorable! I practically have the urge to stay in my kitchen until I bake them all! I am so glad my hubs got me this cookbook, he is such a sweetheart! Maybe he bought it for other reasons though!
I decided on making my friend the Spaghetti and Meatball cupcakes, because every time she has spaghetti night at her house, she always brings in leftovers for me to enjoy! I knew right away she would get a huge kick out of these...and maybe drop the hint that I was ready for spaghetti dinner again!! :o)

The cupcakes turned out perfectly, and she absolutely loved them!! They were really easy to make too. If you haven't had the chance to run out and get this book you really should! It is actually very user friendly ... and I am here to announce that most of the recipes call for store bought ingredients (ie - box mix, canned frosting). The book has great ideas in it, and I can't wait to make another creation! The hubs told me last night that I could make him something for his class when he goes back to school...I think that was a hint and the reason he bought the book for me!

Spaghetti and Meatball Cupcakes

(from Hello Cupcake!)

10 vanilla cupcakes baked in white paper liners (I actually made 12 and bought a 12 pack of Ferrero Rocher Chocolates)
1 can (16 ounces) vanilla frosting (I ended up almost using 2 cans because I made lots of noodles!)
1/2 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder 3 drops yellow food coloring
12 Ferrero Rocher Hazelnut Chocolates, unwrapped
1 cup low-sugar strawberry preserves (low-sugar has the best color)
2 tablespoons grated white chocolate, plus an additional chunk for garnish

Tint the vanilla frosting with the cocoa powder and yellow food coloring and spread a thin layer on top of the cupcakes. Arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter so that they are touching.
Spoon the remaining frosting into a Ziploc bag. Press out the excess air and seal the bag. Snip a Vs-inch corner from the bag. Pipe the frosting all over the cupcakes to make the spaghetti, piling it high and allowing some of the spaghetti to hang over the edges.

Place the hazelnut chocolates and the strawberry preserves in a medium bowl and toss to coat.

Spoon some of the preserves on top of the cupcakes.

Place 1 hazelnut chocolate on each cupcake. Top the cupcakes with the remaining strawberry preserves. Sprinkle with the grated white chocolate. Place the chunk of white chocolate on a separate plate with a small hand grater and bring to the table with the platter of spaghetti.

I wasn't able to do the whole presentation with the extra piece of white chocolate because I had to travel with it all to work. However, I did reserve some extra grated white chocolate because I knew I had to present the cupcakes to her in a special way ... it went something like this:

"Ellie, do you have a second you could come downstairs?"
"What are you up to now Liesl!?!"
"Just come down."
She rounded the corner, and I said, "Table for one?" She laughed.
She then walked in my room and saw the one chair set in front of the plate of 'spaghetti and meatballs'!
"The special for today is Spaghetti and Meatballs! Would you like some cheese on that?", and I then sprinkled some of the extra grated white chocolate on top!
:o) I know I am such a dork, but she really loved it!

I hope you enjoyed my little story, and hey you got a great recipe idea out of it! Now get to the kitchen and make dinner...no wait dessert! :o)

A HUGE thank you goes out to another great friend of mine, Kristen, she brought her camera in to take pictures for me. She is a great photographer, and has a blog too...you should check it out!

Go Hokies!

I really wasn't sure if I was going to blog about these cupcakes, but they did turn out really cute. I just really need to start working on getting a camera that can take decent pictures at all times of the day; it's so disappointing.

I made these cupcakes for my friend who turned 21. I couldn't decide on what to make her for her birthday, but knew it had to be special. One day I was going through Amanda's blog, Is This Thing On?, and came across her version of the Hokie Hi-Hat! I saw them and knew right away those were the cupcakes I had to make my friend. My friend goes to Virgina Tech and she is a HUGE Hookie fan, as is her family. Since her whole family was coming into town, I figured that this would be perfect for all of them!

I was so busy the week of my friends birthday, I knew I didn't have a lot of time to go 100% homemade, so I decided last minute to turn to Miss Betty Crocker, who has saved my butt on many occasions! I figured the decorating was going to be pretty time consuming so I needed to cut a few corners. So I settled on a box mix and canned frosting, but hey they still tasted good!

Amanda actually used fondant for her "VT's", but I decided to go with chocolate. I haven't worked much with fondant, and due to my time constraints, I didn't really have time to mess up! So I turned to good ole Wilton's candy coloring and tried my best to come up with VT colors. It wasn't perfect, but it got the point across. I just piped the chocolate onto wax paper in the shape of Virginia Tech's logo.

My friend loved them, as did her parents. I am glad they went over so well. I will definitely be trying the hi-hat method again, and hopefully won't feel so rushed!

While I have no recipe to share with you, I can explain the method of a hi-hat cupcake. (Or you can view Amanda's here!)

-Basically you make your cupcakes and let them cool completely.

-Frost the cooled cupcakes. (I piped up a nice high mound of frosting) Place in the freezer for a few minutes so the frosting cool and good and ready for dipping.

-Melt desired chocolate for dipping.

-Carefully dip each cupcake in the melted chocolate. The cupcakes will change the temperature of the chocolate since you put them in the freezer, so be carefully the chocolate doesn't cool too fast or you will get a layer of chocolate that will be too thick over the frosting. (this happened to me on a few)

All in all, the cupcakes were cute. I am disappointed in the pictures and the fact that I wasn't able to spend time making it all from scratch...but hey we all can't be perfect now can we!