Strawberries, Bananas and caramel

First strawberry short cake I made

I'm having a tough time figuring out what I want to post and how I want to post it.

The other day I made caramel cupcakes with banana buttercream icing. The cupcake was a bit dense, maybe because of the caramel. Sam said it was on his top 5 list of the things I've made. Too bad there's no actual banana in the banana buttercream icing. The actual fruit or syrups aren't working too well with me when I put it all together, so I opted to buy flavoring from my local cake store. Expensive, yes; worth it - well so far yes. The other day I made a hazelnut buttercream icing and several ppl didn't like it. I, myself did not like the way it looked and I used a hazelnut syrup that you get for like coffees or something. I think that didn't work well. Though, about two people said it was "buttery", which I'm not entirely sure what that means, but okay. I do think the combination I used was a bit too sweet - almond cupcake with hazelnut buttercream icing. I had it for my wedding and it was good, but I am no pastry chef.

I don't have a picture of the caramel cupcakes, because well they all look like any other cupcake. hmm what I should probably do is add a little yellow food coloring to the buttercream to look different. I would add a piece of banana but it will turn brown when exposed to air. hmmm

What is it about strawberries? In my cake gallery I have a lot of strawberry desserts, particularly strawberry short cakes. it's difficult trying to find different ways to make a strawberry short cake. Luckily I found 3 different ones. They came out pretty well... I think as long as you have some type of cream filling, and some whipped cream, you're good to go. Before I used to go out and buy whipped cream (Cool whip) but now, I just make my own. I'm debating if I should start using pre-made stuff, it'll save me time and I would be less fatigued, but it's just not the same. Btw, the strawberry flower is not my doing. Sam has talent... so I put him to work. =)