Baking Evolution

I was thinking recently about my baking and how it's evolved. I learned to cook at the feet of my grandmothers, my dad, and my mom. I would watch and soak it in. They would rarely use cookbooks or measuring gadgets. When they did use cookbooks these books would be ragged and worn from extensive use. I do miss seeing that. My cookbooks are pristine for the most part except the ones passed down. You see my cookbooks are in a cabinet and rarely if ever used. Is it because I know all the recipes by heart?? No. It's because I use the internet for just about every recipe. I have a notebook. One of those little black and white composition books that has some written recipes in it and a whole stack of paper recipes printed off the computer. Although my mother-in-law did leave me a gem. She left me this Tennessee cookbook that as soon as you put it down it opens to a carrot cake recipe. This carrot cake recipe is the best I've ever had! I like to add a twist to the recipes I use to make them somewhat of my own, but some you just can't mess with. My only regret was not paying enough attention when bread was being made. I can't seem to get it right. The past few weeks I've been making cupcakes for various reasons and wanted to share a couple of pictures of the ones I have done. Both recipes I found online but added my own touch to them. This first one is a dark chocolate cupcake with a semi-sweet chocolate ganache and drizzled with a caramel sauce.
This last one is a mexican hot chocolate cupcake with a spicy whipped cream frosting *which had a hard time even getting on the cupcake due to consumption* and a surprise dulce de leche center!!