Superbowl Cupcakes!

It's that time again. You wait all season for the big game and here it is... Superbowl XLVII Party Time! And to make it extra exciting this year my boys the Ravens are in it! I have wanted to do some football themed cupcakes for awhile now. Right now I am trying out different cake flavors for some weddings I have in the summer. My first wedding client is crazy about funfetti cake. Well the Superbowl is in New Orleans this year so I thought New Orleans + (Ravens) football = Funfetti Football Cupcakes!

I baked up Funfetti Cupcakes, some regular size and some mini size. I decorated the small ones (going to a Superbowl party) with a grass tip and a chocolate football....

The regular cupcakes (going for wedding taste testing) I decorated with a swirl of green and purple icing and a chocolate football....

The sprinkles in the batter really made them fun!

There is only one way to end this post so here it goes....

Peanut Butter Candy Cookies

I believe that I have made these cookies on this blog before. But I don't believe that I posted the recipe the first time. I made them for Easter a few years back. I made them again today with the help of my daughter. She woke up asking to make cookies, I had planned to make them on Friday but she twisted my arm. Here is the recipe!

Peanut Butter Candy Cookies

(from the Favorite Brand Name Bake Sale Cookbook)

3/4 cup chunky peanut butter

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups quartered miniature peanut butter cups

1/3 cup milk chocolate chips or chopped milk chocolate bar

1. Beat peanut  butter and butter in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. Beat in sugar, baking powder and baking soda until well blended. Beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in flour at low speed just until combined. Stir in peanut butter cups. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.

2. Preheat oven to 375°F. Form 1/3 cup dough into 1/4-inch-thick disc. Place cookies on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

4. Place chocolate in small resealable plastic freezer bag; seal bag. Microwave at MEDIUM (50% power) 1 minute. Turn bag over; microwave at MEDIUM 1 minute or until melted. Knead bag until chocolate is smooth.

5. Cut off very tiny corner of bag; pipe chocolate decoratively onto cookies. Let stand until chocolate is set. Stack cookies between layers of waxed paper in container. Store at room temperature up to 1 week.

The Superbowl is coming up on Sunday! Stay tuned for some (hopefully) very cute football-themed cupcakes! Not to mention I'll be doing a series of cupcakes this February for my summer wedding orders to taste and pick wedding cake flavors. So very excited!

Gender Reveal Cake

So gender reveal cakes are all the rage right now and my best friend just happens to be expecting her second child right now! She was so kind to let me design her a gender reveal cake for her big announcement! Since my friend and her husband haven't decided on a theme for the nursery yet I wanted to do something that was more about what the baby's sex would be and not so much baby themes. I got this cute idea to decorate baby onesies in boy and girl themes and hang them on a clothesline around the cake! So much fun! Here are some pictures of the onesies...

Adorable aren't they? So then I baked up a white layer cake (tinted for the big reveal) and iced it up with some blue frosting. Then I used some Japanese cracker cookie sticks for the clothesline poles and did some "string work" for the clothesline (I seriously am cracking myself up at this right now... cake decorator joke). Hung the onesies on the cake and placed one of the clever gender reveal taglines I have come across on the internet on top. I think this is the first cake that I have baked, decorated and delivered in 12 hours! So worth it though!

I love it when the cake turns out so clean (and problem-free)! Especially when the design came from yours truly! I really should start doing a lot more of my own designs. My daughter has a major plan for her birthday in September. May take me all of August to complete! For now though I think I am officially cake order free until April. Have to have some time off to practice some upcoming wedding creations. Yikes!

Care Bear Cake

It's January! That means that my adorable little niece is turning four! My family is always giving me new and inventive cake ideas to push my frosted creations to new levels. This Care Bear Cake was a great first challenge for a new year of cake decorating!

The biggest challenge for this cake was time. A lot happened this week. First it was a whirlwind weekend trip to North Carolina. Then there was the sad news of a high school friend passing. And to top it off there were mandatory work and dance class meetings. Fortunately I was still able to squeeze cake awesomeness in there. Sometimes life just happens all at once.

The only thing that I requested of my sister-in-law when she announced a Care Bear party for her daughter was that I would create anything she liked - as long as it did not include modeling Care Bears. Trademarked items are so hard to recreate! I have seen some true disasters in this area and have decided to leave all that cake jazz to professionals. So my sister-in-law ordered these adorable Care Bear cupcake toppers that worked perfectly for the cake!

Pinterest was the original inspiration for the cake design. I already had the cake stand used in the picture so that was set. Most of the pieces were pretty easy to sculpt by hand. I only had fondant on hand (no gumpaste) so I had to let them dry for several days. The stars were made with a handy cake mold that I got for Christmas (I used a cookie cutter for the stars on the sides of the cake). I didn't cover the cake in fondant since it was a children's party. Most kids just aren't fond of that chewy solid frosting. And parents? Forget about it!

Of course the biggest modeling challenge was the connecting rainbows. Fondant remains pretty soft unless you let it dry for weeks at a time. I didn't exactly allow myself weeks for this cake! Thankfully a 72 hour span seemed to work for this cake's rainbows but if I were ever to make it again I would use a gumpaste/ fondant mixture and let it dry for a week. The other challenge was the swing attached to the rainbow. I initially wanted to hang it from a hook attached to the back of the rainbow but the handle I made for the swing broke. So instead I used toothpicks "glued" in with piping gel. Necessity is definitely the mother of invention!

And so it all worked out. The cake was awesome. The party was awesome (have I ever mentioned that my sister-in-law is an amazing party planner?). My niece turned four with grace and... well.... awesomeness. Here's to a great year of new cakes!

Lego Star Wars Cake

In a workplace far far away.... I was asked to do another Lego cake! This time I was asked to do a Lego Star Wars cake for a nine year old's birthday. Since I have a Star Wars groom's cake in talks right now, I thought this would be a good starting point!

The client asked for an eight inch round chocolate cake with an edible death star topper and the Lego Star Wars logo on the side. They also were going to supply me with some little Star Wars Lego men to put on top. Now some people are talented enough to sculpt these babies, I am not included in this group of talented people! So plastic will do just fine!

The first challenge of the cake was the death star. I decided to use a rice krispies treat base covered in modeling chocolate and finally covered in fondant. Then finish decorating with fondant pieces. I whipped up some rice krispies treats and shaped them into a ball. I let the ball sit overnight to harden. Then I made some modeling chocolate and covered the hardened treat. The modeling chocolate layer helps create a smooth base for the fondant to lay against - don't want a lumpy bumpy death star! Finally I covered it in fondant. This part went pretty well. The death star was looking pretty impressive in my book for a first time attempt of working with rice krispie/modeling chocolate/fondant sculpture.

Then came the decorating.... nightmare! I couldn't get the fondant to go on a sphere and line up! So I decided just to mix it up and put different sizes on there to hide the fact I couldn't get any straight lines on this thing! I wasn't too pleased with the final product but everyone (even non-Star Wars fans) could identify what it was so I decided I was judging myself too harshly. Final touch was the "death ray." I simple took a plastic straw and cut half of it into pieces I could stick around the death star crater. Props to my friend Mike for brainstorming with me at work on this ingenious idea!

Once that was complete, I baked up two delicious eight-inch chocolate fudge cake layers. Whipped up some blue buttercream frosting and put the cake together. Then I attached the death star with some dowels to stabilize and added some "stars" with white pearl sprinkles. Then it was time to do the logo!

I found a copy of the logo on the internet and printed it the size I wanted it. Then I cut out all the pieces and used them as templates to cut out and piece together the fondant logo. I have a crafting knife that is specifically for projects like this. You need something sharp and clean to make exact cuts into the fondant. The logo turned out awesome! It was seriously my favorite part of the cake!

I especially liked the Lego symbol. I almost didn't do all the layering of the colors for it - boy am I glad that I changed my mind!

I attached the fondant logo to the cake with some more blue buttercream frosting. Then I piped a traditional border around the bottom, added a few more stars and positioned the storm troopers on top. It was complete! Definitely going to need to work more on this modeling medium. Thank goodness I have a few months to practice for the Star Wars themed groom's cake! Of course I'm going to need him to settle on a design to be able to practice...

So that's all for now. I hope that everyone has wonderful holidays and a stupendous New Years! Next cake on the books is a Care Bear Cake for my adorable niece's fourth birthday. See you in the new year!

Rice Krispie Treats Cupcakes

My daughter, Lana, is three years old and in her first year of dance class. She takes ballet once a week and absolutely loves it. Her ballet class is having a Christmas party this week and the parents are responsible for bringing in goodies to share with the class. I wanted to make something that tied Christmas and ballet together so I decided to make these cute little cupcake treats!

When you are making baked goodies for children there are several things that need to be considered. Allergies being the most important to think about . Young children who have allergies are not always old enough to think about what they are getting ready to put into their systems. Peanut allergies, soy allergies, there are a ton of them to think about! I thought Rice Krispie Treats would be a perfect treat that I could make little hand friendly as well as tummy friendly!

The Original Kellogg's Rice Krispies Treats Recipe

(from the Favorite Brand Name Bake Sale Cookbook)

3 tablespoons margarine

1 package (10 ounces, about 40) regular marshmallows or 4 cups miniature marshmallows

6 cups Kellogg's Rice Krispies Cereal

Vegetable cooking spray

1. Melt margarine in large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.

2. Add Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal. Stir until well coated.

3. Using a buttered spatula, press mixture evenly into 12 cupcake cups coated with cooking spray. Let cool.

4. Once the bars are cool, remove each treat from cupcake pan and place into a cupcake liner.

5. Decorate!

I decided to decorate my cupcake treats with two-toned buttercream frosting and sprinkles. I wanted to tie in a little ballerina (pink) with Christmas (peppermint swirl). Happy holidays everyone!

Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes with Browned Butter Frosting

I am on a new mission. To discover the most delicious cake flavors, frosting and fillings in order to make my cake creations as tasty as possible! I have about a dozen cake books and magazines featuring all kinds of sugary goodness. I decided to grab one and start from the beginning - making all the recipes that I think would work well in a very diverse taste test group (thank goodness to all my family, friends and co-workers)!

First on the list was Mexican Chocolate Cake with Carmelized Sugar Frosting. I had never made this type of frosting before and it looked glaze-like in the photos so I decided to switch it out with some Browned Butter Frosting for some stability. I had planned to place a seashell chocolate garnish on top and needed something I knew wouldn't slide!

While we are on the subject, let's talk garnishes. The joy of cupcakes is their vastness in garnish ability! From exquisite chocolate curls to simple jimmy toppings and complex fondant modeling - the possibilities are endless! I want to experience it all! I went for the simple chocolate mold garnish this time but watch out! The more cupcakes I produce the more toppings I get to experiment with (and being a biologist in real life you know how I love to experiment)!

So what makes a chocolate cake a Mexican Chocolate Cake? A small addition of cinnamon to the chocolate cake batter! The cake ended up being really moist with a hint of the cinnamon. And Browned Butter Frosting? If you haven't had it yet - make it now! A little goes a looong way! Super rich but super worth it! These were so fun to make that I even got my daughter in on the decorating. Here's a picture of her super cuteness for you. She had just decorated a cupcake and held it up and said "Mommy, it's my first cupcake!" We were both so proud :)

Here's the recipe for all of my fellow baking comrads!

Mini Mexican Chocolate Cupcakes

(from Betty Crocker's SuperMoist cakes  for all occasions publication)

1 box Betty Crocker Supermoist devil's food cake mix

1-1/3 cups water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 eggs

1. Heat oven to 350F. Place paper liners in mini cupcake pan.

2. In large bowl, beat cake ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Divide evenly among cupcake liners. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

3. Frost cupcakes with Browned Butter Frosting (recipe follows). Top with a fun garnish!

Yield: 6 dozen mini cupcakes

Browned Butter Frosting

(from The Cupcake Bible)

Melt 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir until light brown. Remove from heat, let stand 10 minutes. Combine browned butter, 5-1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup milk, 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla and 1/8 teaspoon salt in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add additional milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, if frosting is too stiff. Makes about 4 cups.