Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes & Topper Design

Those of you who know me are most likely aware that I will take any excuse I can get to bake. So imagine my excitement when we decided that in our department at work that each woman (there are no men in our dept) would be assigned to another woman, of whom they would bring/make dessert for on their birthday! What an excellent excuse to bake something fun and yummy! This year I am the "baker" for Michelle, who--when asked what she'd like me to bring--suggested that I make some cupcakes and incorporate a lemon filling, which is her favorite.

So--have you seen the show Cupcake Wars? While the host of the show annoys me. To death. I really love watching the bakers come up with cupcake concoctions based on the client/event chosen for the show. So I held my own "cupcake war" with the suggestions from Michelle in mind and went to work! I decided to make a strawberry lemonade cupcake based on a vanilla cake with some added lemon juice and zest in the batter. I then "cored" the center of the cupcake with my handy-dandy cupcake plunger (love it) and filled it with a lemon filling I found on Wilton's website. I frosted each cupcake with a fresh-strawberry buttercream, and viola! Delicious!

Now, no birthday cupcake is complete without little details (for me the presentation is just as important as the taste) so I designed & printed some cute cupcake toppers & made some cupcake liners, in a pink & yellow color scheme to match the cupcake flavor.