Cupcakes for the Oscars

Last night were the Oscars, and we were invited to a viewing party at a friend's house. I of course offered to bring something sweet. So I made caramel popcorn from the Bouchon Bakery cookbook, and these super cute cupcakes.

I got the idea from Amy Atlas, whose party ideas are amazing. And since I love black licorice, it was easy! Red velvet cupcakes, topped with cream cheese frosting and gold sprinkles, with a licorice wheel on top to resemble a film reel. They were a big hit at the party!

Birthday Cupcakes

After donating the cake pops, I got a few clients for cupcakes! Both ordered 2 dozen for birthdays last weekend. I had so much fun making these.


First up was a little girl's birthday. She wanted all pink and purple cupcakes. Her mom was planning an art-themed party, so I made various hues of pink and purple, and topped each with glitter.
At the party, when I delivered the cupcakes, I arranged them on a wooden artist's palette for the centerpiece. They looked so cute!


The second order was the winner of the auction at the ball. She wanted cupcakes for her daughter's birthday, but this girl was all grown up. See, grown ups love cupcakes too! I did one dozen red velvet and one dozen chocolate, both with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles. Yum!


I enjoyed making these orders, and am looking forward to doing more!

Holiday Baking

As I'm trying to get my business up and running, I'm trying a few test-runs, including selling holiday treats at my husband's office. I had quite a few orders, and they all turned out great!
I made mini Derby pies, red velvet cake balls, pumpkin cake pops, and red velvet cupcakes. I was a baking machine for a few days! Oh, and just for fun, I made sugar cookies, and decorated them too.
Check it out!
Sugar cookie snowflakes with royal icing and sanding sugar.


Sugar cookie candy canes with royal icing and sanding sugar.


Sugar cookie Xmas trees with royal icing, sanding sugar, and silver dragees.


Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting and holly berry sprinkles.


Mini Derby Pies: Chocolate Chip-Bourbon-Pecan.


Red Velvet Cake balls- dipped in Red (vanilla) and Milk Chocolate with holiday sprinkles.


Pumpkin Cake Pops- dipped in white (vanilla) candy and topped with holiday sprinkles.

I had so much fun baking all these treats, I can't wait until I get paid to do it all the time!

Lego Cupcakes- again!

I was asked once more to make Lego cupcakes for the launch of Lego Universe, a new online game made by my husband's company, NetDevil. I made 5 dozen cupcakes for the launch party today.

I love making special themed cupcakes like these. Having made Lego cupcakes once before, I already knew how to make the bricks out of fondant. This time, I decided to make the 2x2 bricks, because apparently they are more common than the 3x2s that I made last time. I also made them in 3 different colors, red, yellow and blue.


I made the bricks one day, and the cupcakes the next. I made 2 dozen vanilla, 2 dozen red velvet, and one dozen chocolate, all with vanilla frosting. I tinted the frosting red, yellow and blue, to coordinate with the bricks.


I also tried to different decorating technique with the frosting. Using different tips for each color, I piped stars and dots all over the cupcakes. So cute! The stars kind of remind me of flowers, like hydrangeas. I then placed different colored Legos on each cupcake.


I was really pleased the way these turned out. I delivered them to the office early in the morning, in time for the launch party. They had also gotten a cake with the logo on it, and my cupcakes surrounded the cake. It was a great setup.

Although I can't imagine eating cupcakes at 8am, I'm sure everyone will enjoy them.

Pro Cupcakes: Lego!

So, a friend of mine who's making a Lego video game asked me to make Lego cupcakes for a meeting today. So I racked my brain and came up with the following: red velvet cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting, topped with individual Lego blocks made out of fondant. And the Lego logo, of course. (say that 5 times fast.... Lego logo Lego logo.......)

I made the bricks the night before, out of tinted fondant. They are edible, although not very tasty. This was rather time consuming, as I had to tint the fondant, cut out the bricks, then cut out the circles to go on top. 20 bricks, 6 circles each, that's.... 120 little circles! Then I attached them to the bricks with water and let them sit overnight. They turned out great I think!

Then I made the cupcakes, red velvet of course. I wanted very colorful cupcakes :)
I split a batch of frosting, and tinted half blue and half yellow. It was actually more like 2/3 yellow, but that's ok.Since I had 20 blocks and 24 cupcakes, I wanted the last 4 to be the Lego logo. I piped that with black frosting on yellow background. all in all, they turned out great!

When I delivered them to the office, everyone loved them. This was a great challenge, and I always forget how much I like working with fondant until I do it again. So thanks, Jordan, for the opportunity to show off my skills!

Martha Challenge #39- 4th of July cupcakes

So, I was a bit tardy in making these, but that's ok. Since our 4th got rained out, I decided to make cupcakes. These are decorated as Martha suggest for this holiday, with a few tweaks.
I used a red velvet cupcake recipe, and topped them off with cream cheese frosting.


Then I tinted 2 small batches of frosting blue and red so I could pipe the flag. I didn't have the red licorice that Martha used for the flag stripes, so I just used frosting instead.


I piped the blue stars with a small star tip, and the red stripes with a small round tip. I could have been a little neater while piping, but I was starving and the pizza just came out of the oven :)
These turned out really cute, and look great all together. You know I love a theme!

Variation on Martha's cupcakes: Red Hot Velvet!

So, since Valentine's Day is this weekend, I decided to spice up Martha's red velvet cupcakes. I have made these before, in the Martha Challenge #5. I changed up the recipe a bit, added my own twist! I used more cocoa powder, because I like a tastier cupcake. In fact, I used cocoa rouge, a reddish natural cocoa, to enhance the red color of the cupcakes. I also added cinnamon to the batter, to spice them up a bit.

These cupcakes turned out a lot darker than before, due to the increase in cocoa. I personally don't like when red velvet is like atomic red, I prefer a more natural red look. Still these probably weren't red enough. They smelled amazing!
I then topped them with traditional cream cheese frosting. I also added cinnamon to the frosting, to bring out the cinnamon flavor in the cakes. I need to adjust this recipe too, it's way too sticky and tart for my liking.

Then it was time to bust out the sprinkles! I topped some with light and dark pink sanding sugar, and the rest with hearts and kisses sprinkles. I added a good dose of red edible glitter to finish them off.
My husband had one, and he said he couldn't tell there was cinnamon in them, but I definitely could. Perhaps a little more tweaking is required before this one goes into the recipe book.

Cupcake Challenge #5- Red Velvet with Cream Cheese frosting

Ok, Day #5 of the Tania/Martha cupcakes challenge is red velvet, everyone's favorite. I've made this flavor quite a few times, with many different recipes. This one isn't the best recipe I've ever used, but it's good, very reliable, and likely to please everyone.


These are super red! The recipe called for oil instead of butter, which makes for a lighter cupcake, but the batter is also runnier, so it's a bit harder to scoop into the liners.


I glittered them! I had more frosting left over again. I usually pipe frosting on, it's faster and looks nicer I think, but this section of the cookbook is called "Swirled and Sprinkled", so I've been putting the frosting on with an offset spatula. Honestly, I think the only reason people love red velvet cupcakes is becasue they are red, and they are a cream cheese frosting delivery system.

I on the other hand, prefer to cake to the frosting. This one was super yummy! The slight cocoa taste to the cake is perfect, and the tangy frosting (just a bit) offsets that nicely. Tomorrow... rhubarb!! That will be a new experience!