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!

Toddlers and Tiaras

 My cousin asked for two dozen red velvet cupcakes with.... TIARAS.

 

Now, I originally wanted to make the tiaras all elaborate looking with chocolate, then piping them in the design that I wanted.  But I had no chocolate and I haven't really done that before.  I tried with royal icing, and I just suck at working with royal icing.  I made it pink and piped it, and then formed it around a wine glass, so that it could dry with the curve, but I didn't want them to look so.... handmade, for lack of a better description, and they looked to delicate to remove.  I put a lot of thought and research into it and finally concluded that I should just stick with what I know for now and make the tiaras, which are more crowns than anything, out of fondant.  I just used a star cutter to cut out points and then added pearls at the tips.  Then those looked pretty boring and lonesome.  

So I decided to add wands. :) I was most proud of this part.  I cut out 2 stars for each cupcake and dusted them with gold pearl dust.  Then, I used a piece of SPAGHETTI to attach the stars to. :) That may not be original, but I thought I was pretty smart for coming up with that without influence.

To go along with this little princess, tiara, wand looking-thing, theme, I found my prince charming frog cupcake liners.  They went perfect. :D

So I made the cupcakes with EXTRA filling, because I'm sick of my cupcakes sliding around in the boxes.  I need to start doing this all the time because it definitely makes my life easier and puts transportation at ease.  I let the crowns and wands dry for a day and made the cupcakes, frosted, and assembled, the day of pick up.

After I baked them, I realized I had to put the cupcakes in the box before I frosted.  I've learned that I am terrible at handling them and carefully putting them in the box after frosting, I always end up with frosting on my fingers, which isn't always a terrible thing, but messy.  I hate messy. :(

She asked for 24, so there you go!

Thanks and enjoy!