Do you love Cupcake Wars and fantasize about what you can create?

Let me start by saying that I LOVE watching Cupcake Wars! I DVR it every week and sometimes watch it while it's recording as well. I just find it fascinating what these contestants are able to create in a very short time with some really weird ingredients. Now with that being said, here are my observations and really questions about this show. So if any of you have been lucky enough to be on the show, please relieve my curiosity :)

1) I think I read that you apply to be on the show...okay, I can understand this one. What are their requirements and how do they pick who they want? (I have no ambition to be on, I am just curious, you know, like a cat).

2) During the opening of the show you see the contestants in their home turf and they are packing up ingredients and equipment. I am just curious why they do that because once they are on the show, you will notice that all the kitchens are set up exactly the same with the same equipment. Plus unless they know ahead of time, there is no way they would know what ingredients to bring. I mean really, who would think to bring mushrooms or bologna to put into cupcakes?

3) It's my feeling that the contestants have to have some idea of what they are going to be asked to use for ingredients? Am I wrong on this one? I mean I could be because some of their creations don't always turn out that well but then again, some of them fair really, really well. What do you think?

4) Then my final question is the 1,000 cupcake round. Do they really only get that short of a time period to bake that many cupcakes? I mean that's a lot of cupcakes and what about their visions for the display? I don't know if I could come up with anything that quickly that would wow the judges that much in that time period. Do they know ahead of time what type of event they are will be designing for?

I know, questions, questions, questions. lol

So do you fantasize about what unusual types of cupcakes that you could make? My mind just goes around and around trying to think what flavor profiles would go together. I get overwhelmed and most of the time just give up. :)  Other times I get up and throw things together but my problem is that my taste testers don't like their cupcake flavors mixed up. They are strictly chocolate or red velvet lovers. Sometimes I can't even get them to take one bite! LOL  that's no help and most of the time I like what I bake, but that's me, and I want opinions! Plus they are more than happy with cake mixes. *shakes head*, I just don't understand that. lol

I wish everyone lived close by me that would like to be a taste tester....I could help you gain a little weight and in return you would tell me if something is great, ehhhh, or gross, please throw those away and never attempt them again!

I once tried pink champagne cupcakes, one tester tried them and said they tasted like cornbread and the other one wouldn't even try it, you'd have thought he was a vampire and I had asked him to hold a clove of garlic! I actually thought they were kinda good. lol  Then, oh my, don't even think of putting a filling inside the cupcake, that's like asking a Pepsi lover to drink Coke, it just isn't a option.

My favorite really so far has been the Oreo Cookie Cupcake, it's quite good, but don't do like me and try using the bagged Oreo pieces, they just change the end product and not a 100% positive way. Granted they are still tasty, but there is something about all that yummy cream filling that makes the cupcakes. I will post the recipe at a later date, I believe I swiped it off The Brown-Eyed Bakers blog.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Here's to cupcake visions and Fluffybutt dreams :)

Tammy

Super Marketing idea or not???

Well here it is Saturday night and I sit here alone as usual. *sigh* But that's okay as it gives me time to make plans to take over the world with little handheld objects that make you squirm in delight.  Now if your mind isn't in the gutter and you realize you are on a bakers blog, then you know I'm talking about COOKIES! Yes, those delightful little buttery and sugar laden objects of pleasure for your tongue :)

A opportunity fell into my lap this week and I decided to give it a try, well actually the original opportunity was really for next weekend and when I mentioned it to my friend Kristie she said I could set up a table this weekend at her sale. When I say sale, I am talking garage sale, yard sale, tag sale, whatever you call it where you reside. Around Columbia it's either a garage or yard sale for the most part. Anyway, after my friend Lori offered me the first opportunity my mind got to spinning on what I could do. Then, when Kristie offered me up the same thing, I had to think fast since I only had 4 days to get it executed. So I'm thinking, what would be the fastest cookies I could possibly make? No, I can't just do the normal bake sale things, that isn't unique enough and really doesn't bring in many orders to be honest as most people have mastered the art of chocolate chip cookies.........although they haven't had mine. lol  Anyway, I thought, apples, baseballs, cupcake cookies, and then I had seen these cute little round cookies with bees on them from Pinterest....sorry I forgot to write down which business it was, so if you know or if it's you, then let me know and I will gladly give you/them credit. Then I thought, wow, I could actually bag up some cookie mix and offer that for sale as well as making some brownies and individually heat sealing them for sale as well. I think I baked on either Tuesday or Wednesday, then I skipped a day and spent 5 hours last night decorating those 47 cookies. For the most part I liked how most of them turned out. I got up this morning at 6:10, with the intention of being at the sale a little after 7 when she opened......that didn't happen. Didn't happen mainly because I failed to get those brownies made last night so I made them this morning. That put me way behind as it took a entire hour to bake those puppies. They were super thick!

I arrive at the sale around 8:30 with my individually bagged cookies (which I did this morning) and a red hot pan of freshly baked brownies. They really smelled good and added a nice aroma to the garage this morning! I really enjoyed the day but only sold $11 worth and I think only 1 person took a business card and because I'm a terrible salesman and didn't insist on them taking one. So I'm wondering if it's really worth all the time it takes to decorate a bunch of cookies for this type of setting? The main reason I ask is because I have two cakes to make this next week, one due on Friday and one on Sunday. Plus, Kristie and her friend Chris loved the baseball cookies and placed a order for almost 4 dozen due next Saturday. My thought is that I should just concentrate on my cakes and these cookies and forget the other sale and do as Lori suggested if I didn't have time, to just bring them business cards and they can stick one in everyones bags. I mean I would love to make a bunch for that sale as well, but I don't want to spread myself too thin and I want to do a great job on the orders that I already have as that is a sure sale, whereas this other is kind of a crap shoot.

So my wonderful friends, what are your suggestions? I want to get the exposure as it is a neigborhood sale that nets thousands of people each year. Should I do just a few, maybe a dozen cookies, just for a visual in a nice cookie jar, a few bags of cookie mix and give them business cards or should I just forget it and go with cards only?

It really is difficult for me to say no to any opportunity, but I want to do quality work on what I have.

Now I arrive finally at my original reason for this post.............do you believe garage sales are a good marketing oppotunity or not?

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Here are some pics of the cookies for the sale today :)

Have a wonderful evening my Fluffybutt friends and remember, always look where you step when you live with pets ;)

Fluffybutt (Tammy)

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes---Ta Da!!!! Beautiful...or maybe not, you be the judge :D

Who would have guessed that someone that can bake almost anything would have trouble with the simplest things? Can you make Jell-O? I can't.....not unless they it's meant to be Jell-O shots, then I am your girl! Do you find Rice Krispie Treats to be a breeze? Nope, you guessed it, I can't make those to save my life, they fall apart on me. I've no idea why I can't make them, it just doesn't work. I barely can make no-bake cookies. Whoa....hold on..........do you see a pattern here? None of these things are baked, that's why I can't make them! lol  and here for I minute I was thinking I was a complete loser. Glad I cleared that up for myself. hehehe  Well maybe I am a bit of a loser because I think even little kids can make these things :( 

Oops sorry, that has absolutely nothing to do with why I'm here tonight! I get distracted so easily and just wanted to share with my Fluffy friends my Kryptonite.

Now, to present........................part two of ice cream cupcake cones!

Here we have the beautiful aluminum pan that I cut holes into so that the cones would fit down into it and stand up to bake.....

As you can see, I started cutting on the left hand side and by the time I got to row 3, I got a lot neater and uniform in shape.

I'm sorry, I didn't take pictures last night so I can't show you how far to fill up the cones, but I will show you what happens when you put too much in, and when you do it the right way and not the Fluffybutt way.

The image on the top is where I filled the batter too high, and in the second picture where I did the correct amount. Not only does it run over if you fill it up too high, it also actually melts the cone..well sort of, maybe dissolves it might be a better term. Plus it's super messy.

Here we have a picture of the frosting and my trusty glass that I use to hold the frosting bags as I fill them. I used a number 48 open star tip to pipe the frosting.

Doesn't get much more exciting than a picture of frosting your really can't see does it?? Don't ever say I don't entertain you!

Next....a picture of all the cupcakes in their little aluminum holes :) Can you tell which ones I put too much in??? Pretty easy huh? Good thing there is yummy goodness to go on top!

 

Now it's time for the fun stuff, frosting! And before you gaze in wide wonder at my beautiful ice cream cone skills, I must confess that my parents owned a restaurant with a soft serve ice cream machine, so I had lot's of practice and was a self-proclaimed queen of the little swirly Q on top of the cones! Thank you, thank you.......I know it's a priceless gift that I possess, so please don't be jealous. Haha, like you are.

So there you have it peeps. My.... maybe not so successful attempt at ice cream cone cupcakes. I think if you try to make these, bake less than 12 at a time so the heat can circulate better around the cones. I believe I let them bake too long as the ones in the middle weren't baking at the same rate. The reason I say this is that some of the cake was a bit dry, but the frosting was awesome. It looked just like a vanilla ice cream cone and tasted oh so good! Oh, and put some more festive sprinkles on them, I forgot to buy jimmies and chocolate is all I had in the house.

I do have to confess though, that although I think these are cute, they really aren't something I myself want. I just don't care for the flavor of the cone with my cake, but I think kids would love them!

Keep those comments coming in on your experiences with these little gems. I'm hoping to learn more through your successes!

If you want the recipe for the frosting, just leave me a note and I will send it to you or if enough people want it, I will try to figure out how to post it on Facebook and then do a link to it.

Tomorrow night.................it's apples, balls, flowers and cupcake cookies.

Goodnight all my Fluffybutt friends and I hope you have a hairball free night!

Fluffybutt (Tammy)

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes.....not as simple and happy as they appear!

Whew! What a day. Have you ever have those nights when you just can't sleep? I had one of those last night. Went to bed around 11:00 and was still awake at 1:30. Finally I went to sleep and was wide awake at 5:30. Made for a rough day. I have one of the greatest bosses in the world and she let me leave early today as I was feeling pretty crudy. Anywho...............after a tiny nap I felt much better and dived right into my favorite thing....BAKING!!!

I have a order for Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes, my first attempt at it. So if you've never made them and want to try it, I will help you learn from my mistakes.

1) Mix up your favorite cake batter. For those of you that like cake mixes.....I'm sorry. lol  Just kidding, some of them are really good, it's just that I'm a purest. If you're going to say you made it, then make it from the ground up is my theory...or at least as far high off the ground you can. Not saying go out and pick the sugar cane and grind the flour, but oh if I could do that, I would love too! Wait!!!!!!!! What am I saying? Who has time for that??? LOL

2) Prepare your pan. You can stick them in a muffin tin and use something to help hold them up, or you can do as I did and buy a throw away aluminum pan which I cut slots in that the cones would fit in and (in theory) holds them upright.  You can also use this same pan to store and deliver them in so they don't fall over onto each other! I will post pics of my crudely done pan, so you can see it tomorrow.

3) Now here is the very, very, important part of the equation. Do not fill them up too far. Resist, I say resist my your urge to fill them up to the point where the cone starts flaring out. Stop right below that. Believe me, stop below that or you might have smoking little puddles of cake batter in the bottom of your sparkling clean (lol) oven and just maybe, the fire alarm will start whaling. But I'm just saying that will might happen and then you might have to put that extra aluminum pan under the cones to catch what acts like a active lava flow :) 

4) Bake them for 20 min and pull those babies out of the oven. Now if you did as I said to do, and not like I did, they will come out looking pretty and neat. If you did like me...you had to use all the ice cream cones in the package to get 12 decent looking cupcakes :) and there are 24 in the pack. I'm a slow learner, I was determined it would hold more. See I'm telling you, learn from my mistakes and don't be a know it all like me! Cause I'm often wrong. Shhh....that's just between you and me, right?

5) Let those little bad girls cool and then frost with some yummy fluffy frosting with sprinkles!

I will post pics tomorrow night since I haven't frosted them yet ;)

Then the baking continued............no I didn't stop there. Well I did for about a hour while I went and mowed the yard and went to McDonalds. When I got back home, then I started in on sugar cookies. I believe I have around 68 total. Made apples, cupcakes, circles and flowers. Planning on frosting them up tomorrow night and Friday in preperation for a garage sale on Saturday. I'm not sure what I will sell but hey, it's fun and I can hand out some business cards.

So, for tonight, goodnight my Fluffy friends and I will chat with you tomorrow after the frosting frenzy :)

Fluffybutt is headed for a cat nap!

Don't you just feel like this sometimes?

This is one of the "South Park" phrase cookies that I was asked to make for a birthday today. They LOVED them. I made 14 cookies and only one of them was a actual character :) Who else had made South Park cookies and would you like to share your photo's with me?

Happy Monday everyone!!!!  Hope everyone had a heck of a great weekend. Mine was not too bad, made some cookies and I managed to only eat 3! For me that is a great accomplishment, thankfully I was on a diet. lol

The cookies are for a guy at work and I was asked to make them by a good friend of his. She only want Cartman and sayings from South Park. So that is what I did, but I sure felt bad for having to leave out Kenny, Stan and Kyle. Then you can't forget all the rest of them and Chef and his big balls?  Someday maybe I will make the whole crew as they are fun little guys to put into cookie form!

I will post pics of the completed set on Tuesday night. Then on Wednesday it's time to bake up some ice cream cone cupcakes! They should be fun to do and something I've never done before too! Hmm, what type of sprinkles should I use on top? Funfetti, stars, pearls, sanding sugar? What do you vote for?

This weekend it will be time to tackle fondant! I'm scared, anyone want to come and hold my hand for me while attempt this difficult and intimidating task? I am going for jungle animals! I love playing with play dough and clay so this shouldn't be all that more difficult huh? I will be sure to post the results. They are needed for a baby shower cake next weekend.

May is going to be a super busy month I think. Baby shower on the 7th, then it's MU graduation cake, then it's high school graduation time and parties to attend!

If anyone knows of any upcoming flea markets or things of that nature, let me know. I would love to do some of those as I think that is so much fun. I used to love having food stands at those places...I am queen of funnel cakes and fried Twinkies! I used to have a booth at craft fairs when I was in high school and they were so much fun too. I've always been into creating food or crafty things. I even love flower arranging. lol

My blog is a work in progress and it definitely doesn't look like I want it too. I just need time and focus to make it my own.

Talk with all my Fluffybutt friends tomorrow!

Happy Saturday everyone!

Obviously I have no idea what I'm doing with this blog. I'm so confused with how to set it up, now I see why people pay others to set this stuff up! It is a work in progress for sure.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Introduction

Whew.......I never thought I'd be writing a blogg.....but here I am!!!  So today is Friday and it's been a sad day since the sun has refused to shine today and tonight I might have to cover my poor plants. Guess I. along with hundred's of others bought into the false promise of no frost a little too soon.

One of the first things I will tell you is that I am terrible at punctuation and really grammar in general. So if you are a English major and things like that bother you.........I will apologize in advance.

I bet you are asking yourself why in the world would anyone name their business Fluffybutt Cookies? Really, Fluffybutt? Isn't that a name that people give their cat's butts?? Well in short yes indeedy that is where the name originated from, but it's not because I think their butts are cute, quite the opposite in fact, but I won't go into that here. lol  I just thought Fluffybutt was kind of cute and let's be real here, I have quite the Fluffy ass myself and that proves I am a great baker, right? Right? RIGHT? Hmm, maybe not, might just prove I like to eat carbs, but we won't go there either. So Fluffybutt Cookies was born in 2011 when I decided I needed a new name so I could begin a Facebook page. I had been going by Black Cat Bakery prior to that but it just wasn't catchy. When I began my Facebook page I started out as Fluffybutt Cookie Emporium then before I got too many fans I shortened it to Fluffybutt Cookies as I figured people would shorten it anyway so I beat them to the punch. However now that I am doing this blog, I thought I'd go back to it because in reality, I do much more than cookies. I really hesitate to call them my Facebook FANS...I don't know they are fans, just people like me that try to help out other pages by hitting that Like button :) But hey, if they wanna classify themselves as a Fluffybutt fan, then I sure as heck won't stop them!

This weekend I will be making sugar cookies that will be decorated with Cartman from South Park as well as some of their catch phrases. I'm looking forward to it as I used to love South Park :)

I will try and post pictures and keep writing on this blog. I will share recipes and just general day to day things with you.

Thanks for listening and have a great Fluffybutt night.