New Year's Mimosa Cupcake

Today is the day I begin a new project! New year....new project...seems to make sense. My husband says, "We'll see how long this lasts....", I hope it does!

I was inspired by the movie "Julie and Julia" and I hope to have as much patience and commitment to my project as she did with hers. There are some bumps, however, in my road that I already know about. Therefore, I am not going to put a time limit on my project. Who knows, it may be indefinite depending on the fun cupcake books I come across. 

My project you ask? What is it? Well, it was so awesomely (is that a word?) named by my brother's partner, Brendan. The Cupcake Commitment. The day before Christmas eve I came across a cupcake recipe book at my cousin Holly's aunt's house (cousins through Hubs, but she's so awesome I call her mine! HA!). Anyway, as I looked through this AWESOME cupcake book I thought about the movie "Julie and Julia". Now since I am not exactly a "foodie"(actually I'm pretty damn picky when it comes to food) a cookbook challenge would not fit me. However, a cupcake challenge! Right up my alley! I love to bake and I like a good challenge. I decided that I was going to use this cupcake cookbook and make each and everyone of the cupcakes included in this book. No matter the flavor (most sound pretty delish), no matter the difficulty level (some of the decorations are probably WAY beyond my scope of creativity).   So, within the next few days I ordered the cookbook for myself, it arrived and viola! Here we are! 

My first thought was to start at the beginning and just make each cupcake in the order of the recipes in the book. BUT...the book has so many cool holiday cupcakes that I cannot skip those! So, I will most definitely be jumping around a bit, but when it's not a special occasion I will just start from the beginning and charge on through. 

What book you ask? Well, of course any good baker/writer/editor (yes I consider myself ALL three) knows you must give credit where credit is due: 

Betty Crocker The Big Book of Cupcakes, 2011, Wiley Publishing, INC.

Since today is New Year's Eve Day and tonight is New Year's Eve, I decided to kick off my challenge with a holiday themed cupcake, the New Year's Mimosa Cupcake. 

I am SUPER amped about these cupcakes! I followed the recipe exactly as it was stated in the book. However, I will go ahead and tell you upfront, I will follow the "Use a cake mix" option at the end of each recipe for my cupcake purposes. My feeling is that you can usually purchase those boxed cake mixes on sale for 4 for $5 or 10 for $10, and I'd rather save myself the headache of the dishes and mess and just use the boxed cake mix. Almost all of the recipes in this book call for some sort of ingredients that aren't in the boxes so you are never going to get a plain Jane kind of cupcake. 

Making the New Year's Mimosa Cupcake was fairly simple and I was able to find all ingredients  at the grocery store. However, I did go to the craft store and splurge a little on the decorations. I bought gold sugar crystals to go on top and gold cupcake liners to be a little more festive. I also purchased a icing tip to help me frost the cupcakes. I did NOT buy the icing bags because I thought I could use a Zip Loc bag, cut off the corner and stick the tip in the end of it. (I'm a little nervous about this because frosting and decorating have never been my forte, but we will see! Maybe by the end of this project I will be a pro!)

I shared these cupcakes at a New Year's party at my neighbors house. The overall consensus was great! Everyone really enjoyed them. I kept asking for feedback and I kept getting "Really good!" So much for constructive criticism. Maybe as the weeks go on they will become more critical. I will say that one person did mention the frosting being a little bit orangey and I had to agree. When I first made it I thought it looked a little stiff so the recipe said to add more OJ if this was the case. So, I added another tablespoon and the consistency turned out better, but the taste was a little strong. Maybe next time I will add more champagne!!! :-) 

Oh by the way...people were asking me for the recipe all night, and I am MORE than happy to share. But, I'm not sure about copyright laws and such posting all of the recipes on this blog. So, if you would like it, just leave me a comment with your email address and I will gladly pass it along. Also, if anyone knows the rules about posting recipes from cookbooks on blogs that would be helpful!

Happy New Year!!!