Mickey Mouse

For Cameron's first birthday, Dan & Lilaine had a Mickey Mouse theme and asked for 6 dozen cupcakes & a small cake for Cameron to smash, which didn't smash so well... sorry. :X

First 2 Dozen: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough with Chocolate Frosting. 

Second 2 Dozen: S'mores cupcakes.  Graham Cracker base, chocolate cake, meringue frosting.

Third 2 Dozen: Banana Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting.  My personal favorite.

Trying to freehand Mickey didn't work, so I had to print him out and stencil around him.

My daddy said the smash cake looked like a hamburger before I got around to doing the crumb coat.  He was right...

Presenting all 6 Dozen, 72 cupcakes, & small smash cake.

Looks like  A TON.

So the meringue frosting asks for only egg whites so I had 8 extra yolks so I decided to make some leche flan since I haven't in a while.  It only looks dipped because of the plate.  It didn't sink! :)

And end scene.

Fourth of July

I don't have much to say in this post.  Everything's pretty self explanatory.  I used a 10 second flood icing for the cookies and pre-dyed fondant because I'm lazy.  Haha.  Enjoy.

Have a Safe & Happy Fourth Everyone!

Monkey Cupcakes

I know you're just as excited as I was to see how these turned out.  My coworker asked if I could make four dozen cupcakes for their baby shower; two dozen chocolate and two dozen white.  I decided to frost 12 of the chocolate and 12 of the white with chocolate frosting, and the remaining of each with vanilla frosting.  That way there's a little more variety.

Making the monkeys I knew would be a little difficult due to the shape of the face.  So as you can see, to make the face of the monkey, I used a heart cutter and a circle cutter.  I then used the same circle cutter on the heart so the circle piece would fit like a puzzle.  Magic.

I just used a larger circle cutter for the base of the face then used the inside part of a "6" cutter for the eyes for a more oval shape.  For the lighter portion of the ears and the nose, I actually used straws because I didn't have cutters small enough.  The inner portion of the ear I used a standard straw (used also for the green "confetti" circle around the actual monkey) and for the nostrils I used a small cocktail straw.  Crafty, I know.  The smiles were just strands and more circles upon circles.  It really wasn't difficult getting the pieces.  It was tedious trying to get them to stick considering by the time I was finished cutting all of the pieces, the fondant was drying making it difficult to adhere to the base.  Nonetheless, it was about 4 hours of work just doing the fondant, with plenty of breaks to re-hydrate.

Moving on, after frosting, I smushed the monkey on top so the frosting formed a lip around the edge so the green confetti pieces could fit accordingly.  Annnnd done.

M&M Cupcakes

My manager asked me to make cupcakes for her daughter's 1st birthday.  Her initials are M.M. so my manager asked me to make M&M cupcakes.  I browsed a few pictures on the internet and tried to see how I could go about all of this and I found that the best way would be to make the M&M characters out of fondant and just place them on top.

I started out with red, yellow, blue, and green fondant and cut out 24 circles, 6 of each color, and about 2 inches in diameter.  I found that the most difficult part would be creating the smiles.  I didn't want to just cut out smiles because one, it would be so time consuming given that I would have to cut out each one with a knife, and two, there wouldn't be any dimension to the lips.  As you can see, using my expert paring skills, I tried cutting them out with a knife, and then just used some tools to soften the edges to make them pop out the slightest bit.

After all of the smiles were done, I cut out half circles and adhered them to the back so it would show beneath as the mouth.  I had to be resourceful because I didn't have many cutters, so I used a "0" from my alphabet fondant cutters for the eyes.  For the eyebrows, I used the "!" and bent them a little bit to form the eyebrows.  Crafty, I know.

Onto the eyes, I hand cut all of the eyelids.  I was NOT very happy with two of the green M&Ms, and I'm pretty sure you can tell which two.  Their eyes are inverted a little bit, which made shaping the eyelids very difficult.  They look troubled, and I couldn't fix it because I had already attached the white circles.  I used the inner portion of the "P" to form the black parts of the eyes.

Finally, I made some easy royal icing and piped on the "M"s.  You can't tell now, well not really at least, but I used some icing to fill in a glare on the eyes.  It really made the eyes pop out more, a huge difference, I thought.

Anyway, my manager asked for vanilla and chocolate cake with rainbow chip icing.  I DID NOT MAKE THE ICING, too hard and I was short on time. :X I finally piped on the icing, and waited til the absolute last minute to assemble everything because I wanted to keep the cupcakes as moist as possible in an airtight container.  They were devoured at the party and I couldn't have been more happy. :)  Thanks for reading!

Oh and this was her little smash cake. Nothing ridiculous.

Marquette University Themed Cupcakes

 

My friend and co-worker asked me to make 3 dozen cupcakes, S'mores and Red Velvet for her husband's 30th birthday.  He loves Marquette Basketball, so that's what I ran with.  It's gotten fairly easy with my fondant cutters.  To get the texture on the basketballs, I just got a CLEAN, STERILIZED outdoor basketball and rolled it over the fondant for the same effect.  Short post because I should be studying for an exam right now.  Here you go! :)

Ghost Cookies!

Yes, I attempted cookies again.  But hey, practice is supposed to make better right?  I think I'll need much more practice, but I do know that I'm getting a little better at it?  A little more patient, perhaps?

So, at work we have the perfect birthday schedule.  Annie's birthday is today, Jen's birthday is tomorrow, and my birthday is Saturday! Sooooo I decided to make some cookies for them.  I made a runner for Annie because she's crazy marathon lady, and a dancer for Jen because she's a ballerina. :)  I made pumpkins and ghosts out of the extra dough to bring to work also, plainly because it's October. The greatest month ever.










Now, I didn't get a picture of the people cookies, because 1. they suck and 2. I was rushing.  I was a little more proud of my outlining this time.  I tried to make the texture pattern with the pumpkins but my icing was too runny the first pumpkin around.  I tried adding some powdered sugar to make it a little thicker, and it SORT of worked. You can see it pretty well in the picture!  I don't think I chose the best ghost to take a picture of, as you can tell from the bottom... it is also a bit dark, but whatever.  Keeeeeeeeeeeeeep on practicing...

Caramel Apples

I'm absolutely in love with Fall, and I cannot tell you how much I was looking forward to Fall festivities.  :)  First, I love the weather; although this Indian Summer's getting to be a bit much for me.  It's nice and all, but I want my low 60s sunny weather back please.  Thanks.  But anyhow, I love everything about fall, the weather, the food, the holidays. I cannot tell you how much I look forward to pumpkins, candy, turkey and all.  But the thing I look MOST forward to, is caramel apples.  I wait for the day the Walgreens by my house has them right in front of the register, that's when I know the best time of year is approaching. :)

Now, I tried making caramel apples one time, but with caramel candies that I just melted and dipped.  Also, I tried washing some peanuts (because I can't EVER find any that are not salted) and crushing them, then rolling the apples around in the peanuts, but I never really seemed successful.  Well.  Today, I had the boyfriend, Damien, look up a recipe on his iPhone for a good caramel sauce, while I was cleaning the kitchen.  Haha, yes he does help me.  He claims he hates it, but I secretly think he's intrigued beyond control. Anyhow.  I think I dipped the apples too soon, because they were sliding a bit in the beginning but then really started to adhere when I came around to the last few.   You can see for yourself in the pictures!  Regardless, they were delicious!