"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

Or at least that's what Albert Einstein said.  I've had several cupcake flavor combinations floating around in the ether for a few weeks now, so I decided to give them a whirl and try them out on my co-workers - they'll eat anything I bring in ;-)  The first flavor was inspired by my recent stress levels at work and my strong desire to put alcohol in anything.  I call it Bourbana Dana.  It's a banana cake with a bourbon cream cheese icing.  The cake part is moist and amazing from the bananas that are in it, but if I'm being honest, the icing is the star of this combo.  I used about 2 oz of my favorite amber liquid, 16 oz cream cheese, 1 c butter, and about 8 cups of powdered sugar.  The resulting icing is good on anything... the cupcakes, pancakes, crepes, pizza... ok, maybe not pizza... but it's really good!  Here's what they looked like:

 

 The second flavor combo was inspired by my co-worker LH.  She brought in some amazing Middle Eastern candies (from Dubai and Iran) that she remembered eating when she was little.  One of the candies was a date stuffed with ground up nuts and cardamom.  The flavor of the cardamom (which I like to think of as cinnamon's older, exotic, and more experienced cousin - you know, the one who comes to visit for a week or so during the summer and steals all of the cute boys... yeah that one) was intense, but in such a good way, that I felt the need to use it in a cupcake somehow.  My brain settled in on a cupcake that I called Middle Eastern Mojo - it's a chocolate cardamom cake with an orange buttercream.  LETHAL.  That's all I have to say about this combo.  I had more than one person ask if it would be wrong just to eat a tub of the icing.  No, dear friends... not at all, because I just happen to have the leftover icing in my fridge, waiting for me to have a bad day.  These cupcakes looked like this:

 

Also, I think my co-workers set a new record - I brought in about 36-40 cupcakes and they were gone in 2 hours.  With an office that has no more than 25-30 people in it at a time, I thought it was pretty impressive!