Yes.  It’s true.

I resisted for a long time.  Mostly because I was entirely unimpressed by the cupcakes that I had tasted from the various new, chic, cupcakeries that have been sweeping Southern California.  Sure they looked cute and the myriad of flavors was inticing.  And who doesn’t love the perfect ratio of cake to icing only found in a cupcake?!?  But alas my friends, my taste buds were left seriously wanting.

While these purchased cupcakes looked fabulous and cute, they lacked serious flavor.  Mostly the frosting was the culprit of blandness sporting it’s flashy colors and delivering nothing more than colored sweetness.  Maybe its just me, but if something is supposed to taste like mint, you had better not serve me something that is simply colored light green with the palest most distant hint of mint.  Rather, I’d like to feel more like I’ve just had a sprig of peppermint, or like I just brushed my teeth.  Okay, well, maybe not that minty.  But I definitely want to know that I just had mint.  Or if I taste a mocha cupcake the frosting needs to have a rich coffee flavor and not just be merely coffee brown and taste the same sweet as the vanilla.  I warned you, I am extremely snooty when it comes to flavor.  I want things to really taste like what they are supposed to be with a rich, full, deep flavor, not just a wimpy attempt at something that might possibly be thinking about being a flavor.

Hence I snubbed cupcakes.

That is until I found Sigrid’s Carrot Cake recipe on The Pioneer Woman Cooks and made my own cupcakes.  In doing so, my heart began to soften toward the idea that it just might be possible to make ridiculously flavorful cupcakes after all!  I have had 100% rave reviews on this recipe so I definitely recommend you make this as soon as possible for those you love in life!

This weekend I was offered the opportunity to make some money in exchange for these delightful little gems.  So I set about not only to bake them but to decorate them extra special.  Also, I recently discovered the joys of mini cupcakes–so much mouth-watering taste bud euphoria in just one bite!  And, if you like the cake-to-frosting ratio on a regular cupcake, mini cupcakes afford so much more frosting per square inch of cake.  You really can’t go wrong.  Not to mention that people feel better about popping several tiny little suckers into their mouths than they do about eating several regular sized cupcakes.

FURTHERMORE, have you seen the irresistibly cute wrappers they have for mini cupcakes?!  These alone could inspire my complete and utter conversion to cupcakeism.

Now that we have cute bottoms for our yummy little cakelets, let’s work on making the top look fabulous.  I won’t re-create the entire process via photo, but here is a before shot so you can fully appreciate the after pix:

So cute and tiny!

These cupcakes were commissioned to celebrate someone’s upcoming wedding.  Being the faithful Cake Wrecks follower I am, I made sure to write down, look up, and get a second opinion on the correct spelling of “congratulations.”  I definitely didn’t want any “contragulations,” faux pas here!  Also, I carefully avoided the dreaded CupCake Cake with my tasteful cupcake party tray!

Oh!  Another contributing factor to my new-found delight in cupcake creating is my discovery that piping on the frosting is infinitely more easy than trying to nicely spread on the frosting with a cake spatula.  Simple, yet genius!

Blue flower detail

Rose detail (flowers were made with "stiff" butter frosting and Wilton cake tips and rose nail. I had to freeze the roses for a few minutes to set as they were wont to "wilt" in the heat of the oven-hot kitchen).

Not bad for a cake decorating school drop-out eh?  I was pretty pleased with the finished product especially since I haven’t piped an icing rose in about four years!  Aw yeah, look whose still got her cake decorating mojo!  The recipient and other party-goers were definitely impressed with both the aesthetics AND the flavor of these little carrot cake bites.

So, as I have come over to the cupcake side, I am conjuring some delicious creations to add to my increasing mini cupcake repertoire.  Stay tuned for updates from Mav’s Test Kitchen as I work out various recipes for my collection!

PS: I cannot wait to have a real Front Porch so I could actually invite you by to taste these amazing creations.  One day, one day!  Just you wait