Twisted Sisters Cupcakes- We Promise

Yes, today I took another visit to the Diva!

I have grown quite fond of that pink cupcake van and my daughter hopes one day that it will take over the Ice Cream Truck that rolls through neighborhoods. Today, I have something new (well kinda) to share with you about these Twisted Sisters'!

It is this cupcake and what it stands for!

This is the "We Promise" cupcake. The We Promise Foundation is a charity from Chartway Federal Credit Union that makes dreams come true for little kids with life-threatening, debilitating, and chronic illnesses. We Promise partners with other foundations, like Make-a-Wish to help even more little kids dreams come true. For 2 weeks, Twisted Sisters Cupcakes is making this limited time cupcake and giving 10% from each cupcake sold to We Promise! I believe this is already the 2nd week...so get yours soon if you are in the area. If not, and you would still like to help, you can visit the We Promise Foundation Website.

Twisted Sisters have done everything in making this cupcake to make any child young or old smile! The cupcake is Vanilla flavored with Vanilla Frosting that reminds me of yummy vanilla bean ice cream!

 It is topped with a butterfly and filled with a rainbow!

Here is another cross section of this colorful cupcake!

This cupcake definitely made my daughter smile and with Twisted Sisters Cupcakes and We Promise, this cupcake will bring smiles to other children as well!

 

This isn't the first time Twisted Sisters Cupcakes have made a special cupcake for charity. Back in April 2011, I blogged about another limited cupcake from Twisted Sisters Cupcakes, the "Baby Cake" cupcake for the March of Dimes. There may be more that I have missed, if not, I am sure there will be more in the future. These sweet sisters do good things with there cupcakes and you have to love that about them!

Of course, I got more cupcakes from Twisted Sisters Cupcakes today!

From left to right:

COCOA Nut- This coconut flavored cupcake has coconut in the cake, not just coconut flavor! The American Chocolate Buttercream (my personal favorite frosting) is topped with coconut as well!

June Cleaver- Is dressed up for Labor Day with a star on top and red, white, and blue sprinkles. It is a vanilla bean cupcake with Madagascar Vanilla American Buttercream. The frosting has a great vanilla flavor! There truly is a difference in the type of vanilla extract you use...I learned that for myself and I love the Madagascar Vanilla!

We Promise- A Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Frosting filled with rainbows and topped with a butterfly! This was the star of the day, because of what it stands for!

The Highlander- This is a butterscotch cupcake with chopped Heath bar inside, I am not sure if I have ever eaten a Heath bar, but from what I can tell it would be good. Did I notice some pecan? Nope, I just looked up a Heath bar and it has toffee and almonds in it, so those nuts were almonds!The frosting was also butterscotch flavored and there was no question about that...yum!

 

As usual today we all had different favorites, different people just like different things! Just like cupcakes we are all made different! Today my favorite was the Highlander, maybe because I made a butterscotch cupcake recently myself and that is what my tastebuds are craving at the moment, but I really love the colorfulness of the We Promise Cupcake and what this cupcake stands for! In general, cupcakes make me smile, whether giving or getting :)

To find out more about Twisted Sisters, including where they will be next, visit the Twisted Sisters Cupcakes Website or Twisted Sisters Cupcakes Facebook Page!

     

   

I do have to tell you all, they know about me....

(they don't hate me either if that is what you are wondering...not yet anyways...lol!)

Betty Crocker "FUN da-Middles" Cupcake Mix

There's a new cupcake mix in town!

Recently popping up on store shelves, you may have seen the new Betty Crocker FUN da-Middles Cupcake Mix. It comes in 3 flavors: Chocolate Cupcake with Vanilla Filling, Yellow Cupcake with Vanilla Filling, and Yellow Cupcake with Chocolate Filling. I found 2 of the 3 flavors at our local Kroger grocery store.

The cupcake mix box says that Fun da-middles are easy and fun to make: "The filling surprise is inside", "Less Mess, less steps-no need to let cool to frost", "Perfect to pack in lunch boxes", "Specially designed filling bakes inside the cupcake."

Of course, I had to check them out!

The chocolate cupcake mix is made just like any other box mix, add eggs, water, and oil. Unlike box cake mixes, this only make 12 cupcakes, but also unlike box cake mixes, it comes with a pouch of filling! The filling is ready and all you have to do is squeeze the pouch 20 times before cutting off the corner to open. I did discover that there are about 2 cups of batter, so to make sure you get proportions right, go ahead and fill your liquid measuring cup to 1 cup for the bottom layer, reserving the other 1 cup for the top layer.

#1- Fill Cupcake liner about 1/3 full.

#2- Open filling pouch and divide filling equally among the 12 cups, making sure filling stays in the middle.

#3- Evenly distribute the reserved batter covering the filling.

The filling was the part I was very interested in...go figure right? First, if you do have a little oops, it is VERY thick, almost marshmallow-y before baking and easy to move back into the center. These bake at 350 for 24 to 29 minutes or  "until surface of cupcake appears dry." They were done perfect at 24 minutes, still moist, but they did crack on the top. Next time I may check them a minute or two earlier.*

 Allow to cool 20 minutes.

At this point, they are ready. This is when they could be packed in school lunches with no mess.

However, I like frosting on top of my cupcakes, not just inside. I do think it needed frosting on the top too. To keep it quick and easy with very little mess, the Whipped variety fluffy white canned frosting does the job very well, it complements the filling and they do taste similar and have similar texture and consistency. 

After baking, the consistency of the filling had changed. It no longer was a thick marshmallow-y glob and it was more the same consistency as the whipped frosting that I used. There was a nice amount vanilla flavored filling inside the cupcake too. The filling didn't try and absorb into the cupcake after sitting either. The filling was sweet, but not too sweet. 

The cake part of the cupcake tasted like regular box chocolate cake mix and I would imagine is the same mix as the Betty Crocker Chocolate Cake mix. The cake part baked up moist, fully containing the dollop of filling. For a box mix, this really tastes good, but could use a slight bit more chocolate flavor. 

However the yummy vanilla filling is really the star of this cupcake!

This is not the best picture, I did cut the cupcake a little unevenly, but you get the idea!

This cupcake IS QUICK and EASY to make! No special talent or tools required! Kids young and old love the surprise filling inside! If you are looking for an easy to make box mix cupcake, this will definitely do the job! Add a little whipped frosting to the top, finish it off with a few chocolate jimmies and you have a cute, quick and easy cupcake!

*Note: After baking these a second time, the chocolaty flavor was better. Overbaking will change the flavor. The directions say 24-29 minutes and the first time I took them out at 24 minutes. The second time I kept a watchful eye over them and they were ready at 20 minutes.

Twisted Sisters Cupcakes

Part 3

my pre-baking snack

It has been almost 4 months since I have last hunted down the DIVA! That's the Twisted Sisters Cupcake Van! When I checked there schedule on the Twisted Sisters Facebook Page, I found that they were going to be right in my area at 10am this morning. I had so many baking projects planned for today and what better way to start my day than with a cupcake? Just because I bake cupcakes a few times a week, doesn't mean that I don't want to support fabulous local bakers! This is actually my 3rd time reviewing Twisted Sisters Cupcakes and not really even a review anymore, just sharing these great cupcakes with the world...and they keep getting better!

So what flavors did I choose today?

On the left is Chocolate Oreo- It started with a chocolate cupcake, with little bits of Oreo inside! The frosting was a Creamy Vanilla Swiss Frosting and topped with crushed Oreos. The cupcake was great and the frosting even resembled in flavor that white stuff inside of an Oreo to me!

On the right is...drum roll please...dumdadadum...ChocolateX4- Seriously...Chocolate times 4. The chocolate cupcake had mini chocolate chips all in the cake AND THEN...it has chocolate mousse inside...AND THEN...it was topped with Chocolate American Buttercream and some chocolate sprinkles! This cupcake nearly put me over the edge, OH YES! It was THE BEST CUPCAKE I HAVE EVERY HAD!

I was at the first stop of the day and the cupcakes were chilled, they have to start that way if you are going to be traveling around with them in a van all day. They recommended that they sit out about 10 minutes before eating...but I couldn't wait, I cut right into it! YUM! Pure Perfection!

These girls are amazing! They just started delivering cupcakes in October 2010, and where some places start out great and quality goes down, every time I have been to Twisted Sisters Cupcakes...they just keep getting BETTER! Oh, and these cupcakes are BIGGER than the standard cupcake available at most places, not quite a jumbo, but bigger than a standard, so you get more than 2 or 3 bites of heaven! If you are ever in the Hampton Roads Area in Virginia, look them up on the Twisted Sisters Facebook Page or the Twisted Sisters Website, find there location and hunt them down so you can try one of these delicious cupcakes!

You can read about my other visits to Twisted Sisters Cupcakes HERE!

I wonder if they have ever googled themselves and found me blogging about them? They probably think I am a stalker!



Just Cupcakes- Harry Potter Cupcakes

A second look...

Yes, the hope for these 4 Harry Potter Cupcake designs are what brought me to Just Cupcakes this time. These Harry Potter Cupcakes were advertised on the Just Cupcakes Facebook page: "We will have our Harry Potter cupcakes in the shop on Thursday, Friday and Saturday - while they last :-) If you'd like to place an order, please call either shop or order online."

It didn't not say that the cupcakes were by order only....am I just not getting this part?

You may remember this place as a runner up on Cupcake Wars

After a long drive, we arrived at the destination early and at opening to make sure they weren't sold out, to find that the Harry Potter Cupcakes are by order only and would be available Saturday only without an order. After expressing my disappointment and making a different cupcake selection, as we were leaving, the manager did come out with the 4 cupcakes that I had originally came for and apologised for the misunderstanding and the cupcakes were swapped out. I still left somewhat disappointed in the whole experience. When something is advertised it needs to be clear if something is for order only.

 This time the cupcakes did have ample icing compared to my last review of Just Cupcakes. Since my last review, I have also heard from another little elf that visited this cupcakery saying... "they're just not that great." You can read more similar reviews at Yelp.com...so it isn't just my elves and I!

While the cupcakes taste fine and are decorated nicely, they are nothing that makes you want to "Wow!" and I knew that already. At $3 a cupcake, people want that "wow factor." The wow factor I wanted...was the Harry Potter designs and they are cute and that is why I still decided to share them with you!

*Update- since this post Just Cupcakes has continued to respond to people on Facebook saying the Harry Potter Cupcakes are available in store with no mention to an order needed*

Busch Gardens Cupcakes

At Busch Gardens, Williamsburg

from the M. Sweets Confectionary in Banbury Cross (across from the large clock)

As always when I am out and about, I am looking for cupcakes! There is one place that usually always has cupcake at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia, it is the M. Sweets Confectionary in Banbury Cross. At the price of just $2.99 for a jumbo cupcake you get a lot of bang for your buck!

"Candy makers to the king and queen in everyone"

is the slogan describing this confectionary on the Busch Gardens Website.

I chose this one to make mine! Chocolate and Chocolate with Reese's Pieces on top!

Maybe it was the near hundred degree temperatures talking, but this cupcake tasted wonderful! The cupcake was moist, the chocolate rich, and who doesn't like Reese's Pieces? YUM!

If you aren't feeling up to a jumbo sized cupcakes, there are many other sweets to temp your taste buds from dipped pretzels to dipped cookies and strawberries!

Here are some cupcakes from 2010 at Busch Gardens. The ones on the left are from the M. Sweets Confectionary at Banbury Cross and the Cookie Monster on the right is from Das Festhaus in Germany.

They always have a Chocolate Cookie Monster and Vanilla Elmo at Das Festhaus, and while they are kinda cute they seemed rather dry when we had one. Cookie Monsters and Elmos are standard sized cupcakes and the same price as the jumbos at the confectionary.

While at Busch Gardens, I would recommend getting your cupcake fix at the M. Sweets Confectionary!

Just Cupcakes- An Upscale Cupcakery

Today's adventure took me to a little place in Virginia Beach called "Just Cupcakes!"

Just Cupcakes is a cute little shopping center cupcakery. It is bright and inviting! They have a few little tables to allow you to "dine in" and they also have cute tshirts for sale. If having cupcakes delivered is your thing, they do have a van and deliver larger orders for a small fee. "Just Cupcakes" has 2 locations, both in Virginia Beach. Each day they have a different selection of cupcakes available. Their menu is is viewable on the Just Cupcake Website. You can also find them on Facebook at the Just Cupcakes Facebook Page. Working at a cute little place like this or any cupcakery for that matter must be heaven! I can't imagine not wanting to wake up and look at cupcakes all day! Looking at the display at Just Cupcakes makes you just want to get lost staring at the cupcakes! I should have taken a picture of that! Next time I will!...YES, there will be a next time!

The flavors that I picked today were:

"Happy Birthday"- a yellow cake with there signature vanilla bean buttercream. There are sprinkles and edible glitter on this cupcake! Super Cute! The frosting was super yummy too!
"Seriously Strawberry"- a strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream with a little pink flower on top. Self explanatory, it tasted like strawberry...what can I say?

 "Chocolate Peanut Butter"- which is a Guittard milk chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting topped with a Hershey Kiss! The frosting reminded me of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups!

"M's"- a Callebaut Chocolate cake with buttercream icing and tons of M&M minis! This cake was very chocolaty and perfect with the M&M's minis!

I have had a couple of my elves scope this place out before and they didn't care much for the cupcakes. My elves noted that the cupcake seemed smaller than other cupcakeries and there was not enough icing. After all it is better to have too much icing than too little, you can take it off, but you can't put more on!

After my visit, I do have to say that "Just Cupcakes" has there icing down to an art...we loved the icing on every single cupcake! Nice consistency on the icing and decent amount of icing on most of the cupcakes, but the icing didn't reach the edges on a couple of the cupcakes leaving bites of cake and no icing. I would have to agree with my elves about the amount. The cupcakes themselves, although they tasted good and had good flavor, were very crumbly with the texture, light in weight resembling that of a box mix. Not that there is anything wrong with that, just an observation! With all the cupcakes devoured, it did leave me wanting more! Visually, the cupcakes are appealing in their bright pink liners, nice decorations, and a touch of color. Each cupcake has its own personality, piping style, decoration. 

If a cupcake looks good, it makes people want it!

I have contemplated coming up with a grading system or star rating for my reviews, but I have decided that I don't want to put a "grade" on my cupcake reviews. I love all cupcakes! Each cupcake is different, as each person may have a different perspective on what makes a "good" cupcake and what makes a "great" cupcake. I just wish to share with you my experience and give you an idea what to expect when you visit the cupcakery. Instead of a grade, I will select my favorite cupcake from the cupcakes that I selected to review during this visit and deem it "Fox's Favorite."

Fox's Favorite at Just Cupcakes- "M's"
A very close second- "Happy Birthday"

It's Not the Ice Cream Man!

It's the Cupcake Van!

Part 2

"20 Ways to Eat a Cupcake"

Once again I was lured like a kid by candy to hunt down this cupcake van!

Remember they gave me a punch card, so that was like an open invitation! HAHAHA! There was also another little incentive this week, they asked people to post crazy pictures on Twisted Sisters Cupcakes Facebook Page of "20 Ways to Eat a Cupcake." My daughter was a recipient of one of these 20 cupcakes they were giving away, being the cutie that she is!

I checked there schedule on their Twisted Sisters Cupcakes Facebook Page and found a time and location that was convenient to me and we were off! I subscriped via SMS to there Facebook page for the day as well so make sure I would be aware of any changes once I was on the road. We beat the cupcake van to it's destination, which was interesting to watch. The parking lot was full of cars and as the Diva (cupcake van) arrived, people popped out from everywhere and lined up to get one of these cupcakes! Happy people arriving in cars, happy people walking, happy people from the bank where it was parked, happy people everywhere! Maybe that is all the world needs is more mobile cupcake vans!

We walked up to the cupcake van and were greeted with a smile! My daughter excitedly handed over her printout for her free cupcake and chose the "Pinkalicious!" Cassandra, one of the Twisted Sisters, even remembered her from the Twisted Sisters Cupcakes Facebook Page!

Today we picked out 4 different flavors to bring home! I put them in the car, a/c on high and headed home, they still melted a little bit as you can see in the picture. I guess with summer coming in the future I should bring a small ice chest!

The "Pinkalicious" is a Vanilla Cupcake with Crushed Strawberry Swiss Frosting to celebrate the Royal Wedding! There was a little pink crown on top, fondant maybe, I don't exactly know what it was made of but it tasted familiar and yummy! My daughter wants this cupcake next time too, so I hope they find a way to work a Princess Crown into some future cupcakes!

"Baby Cake" is Chocolate Cupcake with Black Currant Swiss Frosting drizzled with Ganache and topped with a home made Black Raspberry Sugar Candy. I had wanted this cupcake on my last visit since this cupcake goes to support the March of Dimes...and made the news, but last time they were sold out. This time, I got one! Chocolate...what can I say? It tasted great! I loved the Black Currant flavor too!

Strawberry Lemonade Smash is a Lemon Cupcake with Crushed Strawberry Swiss Frosting and this cupcake screams "SUMMER!" I really liked the cake flavor! Would have been nice with a glass of lemonade too!

Chocolate Overload...do I need to explain this? There is no such thing as Chocolate Overload! I would rename this "Chocolate YUM!" This has been the only cupcake that I have gotten so far from Twisted Sisters Cupcakes with a Chocolate American Buttercream and I LOVE IT! The cake tasted a little like brownie chocolate, different from the Baby Cake. I love that extra chocolate added and the Chocolate American Buttercream...just hand me the bowl! YUM! There was even a little yellow candy flower on top of this cupcake! I love those extra little touches of cute!

From left to right...Pinkalicious- Baby Cake- Chocolate Overload- Strawberry Lemonade Smash

This visit to Twisted Sisters Cupcakes was fabulous! No lack of flavor this time in any of the cupcakes! Like I said, I am super picky about my cupcakes and not everyone likes everything! I am getting used to the Swiss Frosting too, last time it was a first for me and I wasn't that sure how I liked it, but this time I liked all 3 of the cupcakes with the Swiss Frosting!

So how do I eat a cupcake?

First, I photograph these little piece of artwork, so they aren't just a memory to my taste buds. I love cupcakes and each one is special to me! Next, I cut them into enough pieces for everyone so that we each may sample and enjoy all of the cupcakes! Finally, we all enjoy the cupcakes together!

If I bake so many cupcakes...why am I chasing down a cupcake van?

While I love baking cupcakes, and decorating them, sometimes the sweetest cupcakes are the ones that don't dirty up my kitchen! Cupcakes are like people, each looks different with a different personality, and while I am not a cannibal, I do like trying cupcakes other than mine from time to time!

For more information and upcoming locations visit them at Twisted Sister Cupcakes on Facebook and Twisted Sister Cupcakes Website

 

It's Not the Ice Cream Man!

It's the Cupcake Van!

It is no surprise that I LOVE CUPCAKES! I recently saw a cupcake van on the news making a special cupcake called the "Baby Cake" with 25 cents from each one going to support the March of Dimes. The cupcake van is owned by 2 sisters and together they make up Twisted Sisters Cupcakes. They don't have a storefront, just a van called the "Diva"! They go to new destinations each week in the Hampton Roads area and to find out where they are going to be you need to check the schedule on there website, follow them on Facebook, or Twitter. After seeing them on the news, I immediately began following them on Facebook and was super excited to see just a week or so after following them, they were coming to a parking lot near me! Everyone seemed so happy to see this van that says:

"Move over Ice Cream Man- We have BIG GIRL treats!"

We were greeted at the window by a happy and sweet girl...sorry didn't get her name!

We barely made it to the van before they were leaving, so pickins' were slim, but I was able to get 2 out of 3 of the choices that I wanted and the alternate! They were sold out of the special "Baby Cake" that supports the March of Dimes. They also give you a punch card...great incentive for coming back!

The cupcakes that I chose (from left to right in photo BELOW) were: "Grammie's Coconut Cream Pie", "Harry Potter Butterbeer", and "The Keys".

We split each of these cupcakes 3 ways so that we each could enjoy each of them!

First up, "Grammie's Coconut Cream Pie"- all I can say is YUM!!! We all really enjoyed this cupcake, topped with a Vanilla Cream Swiss frosting and it was filled with a creamy coconut filling, just perfect,  great texture and a graham cracker crust in the bottom. This cupcake tasted of coconut in everybite and is what a Coconut Cupcake should taste like! PERFECTION!

Second, we tried "The Keys" cupcake (pictured last). The cream cheese frosting was pretty good. The Cream Cheese cupcake, did lack a little in the flavor department, and the lime curd inside, well we all would have preferred a little more filling, there was just a small squirt of it. However, again we loved having the Graham cracker crust in the bottom! Over all this cupcake was pretty good!

Last, the cupcake that we were all most excited about "Harry Potter Butterbeer"! I had a mug of the Harry Potter Butterbeer at Universal last year and let me tell you this cupcake, didn't taste like the drink! The Cream Soda Cupcake had a good texture, but lacked a bit in the flavor department. This was also supposed to be filled with Home Made Butterscotch, and there was just a little drop inside, so that was a little disappointing. The Butterscotch Swiss frosting, well we weren't really fans of that either. I could feel the fat in my mouth. Their Coconut Cupcake had a Vanilla Cream Swiss frosting that I absolutely loved, so not sure why the Butterscotch Swiss frosting was so different in texture and didn't have that nice flavor.

So while it may sound like I wasn't that thrilled, let me tell you I really was! I love the concept of the Cupcake Van, I think they call this the "Diva", from what I have read. They really do a great job on there cupcakes, and I am very picky with my cupcakes being a baker myself, dissecting every little bite! I am sure most people just eat there cupcakes normally!  Overall, I have recommended Twisted Sisters Cupcakes to my friends, with my honest opinion, and I do plan on stopping by the van when they are in my area again and trying 3 entirely different cupcakes...okay I may have to get the "Grammie's Coconut Cream Pie" again...and my daughter made me promise I would get that one for her again next time too! She never like coconut before this cupcake!

Each week they offer 6 different cupcakes, so you can't get bored with that line up! This week they are cooking up a special Easter decorated cupcake for this week...too bad when they are in the area, I won't be. You can also let them know what you want ahead of time by giving them a shout on Facebook or calling them and they will reserve it for you, and they take preorders on there website. Again this week, they will have that "Baby Cake" cupcake to support the March of Dimes, it is a Chocolate Cupcake with a Black Currant Swiss frosting drizzled with gnache! YUM! Also, if they reach 1,000 Facebook Fans by May 1st they will donate an additional 10 cents per new fan so go to the Twisted Sister Cupcakes Facebook Page and "Like" them!