christmas wreath

vanilla cupcakes with vanilla fudge frosting with white chocolate leaves and rolo ornaments.



the white chocolate leaves were made by melting down the chocolate, taking a mint leaf and painting the chocolate onto it. once its set and dry simply peel the chocolate off the leaf and repeat. using a mint leaf gives the chocolate a faint but really yummy taste.

Lanie's birthday cake

better late than never! so this pretty lady had a birthday a couple months ago, and i was so excited about it i made her cake, took it to her house, and ate it... without ever even thinking of taking pictures of it. someone was nice enough to snap a few shots, so here is her pirate themed birthday cake!

pretty standard round 4 tiered red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. covered in fondant and airbrushed blue and black.

the hard thing to see is the skull is actually another cake made for her to save if she wanted to. its the same red velvet with cream cheese frosting, covered with fondant and hand painted to look like a skull and cross bones. (the patch was added later)

all in all it was a 6 layer, 2 tiered scurvy red velvet pirate cake. and if all pirates tasted so good, i might learn how to swab a deck?

Christmas tree

Quickie but goodie! butterscotch rice crispy treats colored with green food coloring shaped into a christmas tree wrapped in sour cherry candy rope, big cinnamon gummy bears and about 50 gum drops. a little hard to see but there is a rice crispy star on top.

rice crispy treats:

3 tblspn butter

10oz. marshmallows

6 cups rice krispies cereal

1 cup butterscotch chips

5-10 drops green food coloring

put butter in a pot and cook over low heat.

once butter is melted, add marshmallows and cook down until melted.

add butterscotch chips until they too are mostly melted.

while everything is cooking, put the 6 cups of cereal into a large bowl.

combine all ingredients into large bowl and stir around just until incorporated. before adding food coloring, take out a small hunk of treat, that will be for the star. add green food coloring to the rest if the bowl, incorporate until smooth.

lay a piece of parchment paper on the counter and take out the ball of rice crispy treat.

slowly mold the christmas tree making sure not to pack to tightly otherwise the treat will be to dense.

once the tree is shaped, add decorations however you like! just like a real tree!

take the small hunk you took out, and shape it into as best a star as possible. i like making a disk, leaving it in the fridge for a bit, then cutting the star out. push a tooth pick into the star and place on top of the tree. enjoy!

Strawberry waffles with brown sugar bacon

so not that this is a dessert, but man were these waffles were good, and just in case someone needs a super easy super tasty recipe for breakfast, well... here's one you can use! not to mention a little candied bacon to go with them...

candied bacon:

cook the bacon as regular, but while cooking, just sprinkle a little brown sugar over each piece to add a little flavor and crispiness.

Strawberry waffles

1 3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups buttermilk*

1/3 cup oil

2 eggs

1 cup chopped strawberries

add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. add the rest of the ingredients into the dry mixture. whisk until mixed. make waffles based on instructions of waffle maker. enjoy!

*if you want a sweeter waffle, you can substitute regular milk for buttermilk. use 1 tablespoon baking powder, and omit the baking soda.

Happy thanksgiving!!!

thanksgiving turkeys and pumpkins! yeah, i love thanksgiving!!!!

the turkeys are pumpkin spice cake with caramel cream cheese frosting, rolled in chocolate jimmies. there is a ginger cookie with candy corn feathers on it, the head is a mini cupcake the same as the big one, with raisonette eyes, candy corn beak, and fruit by the foot gobbler.


pumpkin spice cake:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoons salt

2/3 cup butter

1 3/4 sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups milk

1 cup pumpkin pie filling

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

mix butter first then mix in sugar, then eggs, one at a time. separately mix all powders together, then mix into wet mixture. add milk then vanilla. finally mix in pumpkin pie filling and spice. mix all together, then put into a ziplock bag and pipe the mixture into cupcake papers. bake for about 13-15 minutes @350degrees. let cool and frost

the pumpkins are the same pumpkin spice cake with orange colored vanilla buttercream frosting, rolled in orange decorating sugar, and topped with a rainbow twizzler stem.

Halloween cupcakes

Halloween treats!!! vampires with mini cupcake "bites", ghosts and spiders. i won second place in the Cupcake Camp challenge, i might have done a little better if the vampires didn't get tossed around in the car on the way to the competition. still cute though, check out the angry eyes on the ghosts!

the vampires and mini "bites" are black bottom cupcakes with cherry filling, so when you bite into the cake, it bleeds in your mouth! cream cheese frosting, black sprinkle hair, m&m eyes, and hot tamale fangs.
spiders are hostess cakes with pocky legs. the legs are held together with a little melted chocolate. the eyes are royal icing.
almond pocky legs!!! mmmmmm......
the ghosts are devils food cake with a little melted chocolate on top to hold a mini twinkie in place and covered with a thin layer of fondant with black food coloring.

Spicy Dragon

so today is my "pepper" cupcake challenge. i decided to do two types, jalapeno and serrano. the jalapeno are devils food chocolate cake with a cayenne cream cheese frosting. the serrano is also devils food cake with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting. hopefully the cream cheese will soften the blow of the spicy chocolate cake.

the green dragon is the jalapeno cake with cayenne cream cheese

the red is serrano pepper chocolate cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

the eyes are marshmallows pushed and frosted together with m&m eyes, the teeth are also marshmallows, the claws are Mike&Ikes candy as well as the nostrils. horns and spikes are chocolate cookies cut in triangles.

Elise's baby shower

trying to decide what to make for this special day was tough. do i go with traditional "baby shower" theme or do something a little different? well being me i decided to do something different, not to mention all my candies i made melted because is was about 110 degrees in the house. so the sunflowers made the cut! because it was so hot i had to keep throwing the pieces in the fridge for a bit to cool them and harden things back up. the petals turned out a little droopy, but i think they all still looked like flowers.

cake- triple lemon layer cake:

lemon sponge cake

lemon curd filling

lemon cream cheese frosting

covered in fondant, airbrushed with yellow

sunflowers: oreo cookie decorated with yellow and orange colored vanilla cream cheese frosting.

lady bugs: red m&ms with handpainted chocolate design

Pepper

Next week I have another Iron Cupcake challenge in San Francisco and the theme is pepper. I couldn't decide to go with spicy peppers, or regular black pepper. so, I decided to make both! The spicy came out super SPICY but really GOOD, the black pepper came out yummy, but I don't know if you really taste the pepper, and I'm not sure if I want to put in anymore, as it might be overkill. I have a week to tweak the recipes, here are my first attempts! After the competition I'll post the recipes!

mixing in Serrano peppers, Cayenne pepper, vanilla soaked buttermilk, and cinnamon.

dark chocolate Serrano pepper cupcake with chocolate cayenne pepper ganache

Hazelnut, lime, and black pepper cupcake with lime butter cream frosting, rolled in colored sugar (to "look" peppery?)

Lola's 1st monkey party

What do you get when you mix a baby monkey and a baby Lola?... party monkey cupcakes of course!!! the cake is vanilla, the frosting is a chocolate buttercream, the hair is chocolate jimmies, the face is a white buttercream frosting piped, the eyes are m&ms, the nose are strawberry jelly beans, and the ears are banana chips!