Cara Lee Cupcakes and Cake: New year, New Cupcakes

First I just want to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Had a few birthdays so I had an excuse to bake :) I decided to try to the giant cupcake silicone pan my mom got me for Christmas. Man, was THAT hard to use! I did some research about how to use it - mine did not come with instructions :( I wanted to make the cake part rainbow color and decided on this vanilla cupcake recipe I got in one of my new cookbooks for Christmas. As for the baking, since the pan was silicone I cut it in two parts - many people online said the bottom cooks longer and the top takes less time. After awhile it still did not cook the center, so I covered it with foil and turned down the temperature a bit. The cake became a lot denser - could have been a new recipe I was trying or the way I cooked it. It's gonna take some practice that's for sure. The rainbow colors looked great though! And I decorated it more for show - I loved the way I decorated the top with swirls and mini fondant roses :) The bday girl was happy so I was happy.

I made some "smaller cupcakes" compared to the giant cupcake (the jumbo size). I made chocolate and topped some with a peanut butter cream cheese frosting (my new fave!) and topped the others w/ "spaghetti and meatballs" lol. Its just vanilla butter cream for the noodles, Ferraro chocolate for the meatball, strawberry coulis for the sauce and white chocolate shavings for the Parmesan. They're SO cute!! I can't wait for all the new cupcake recipes I'm going to try in 2010!!