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! 

4th of july BBQ

What do you bring to a barbeque? corn on the cob and some veggies maybe... just don't tell anyone at the party the veggies i brought are made of candy and sugar!

the corn on the cobs are vanilla cupcakes with orange vanilla frosting with a little yellow food coloring, multi colored jelly beans for kernels, yellow starbust for butter, and colored turbinado sugar for salt and pepper. 

the peas and carrots are the same vanilla cupcake and frosting as the corn on the cob but with green food coloring, green skittles as peas and cut up orange starburst for carrots. 

jack skellington cake

Jack Skellington cake. Tailor's 16th birthday came up and i know she loves nightmare before christmas so i thought Jack's head would be a nice touch to her birthday. seems like she liked it too cause she stuck a candle in his head and happily ate his brains out! a girl after my own heart!

Matt's Totoro birthday cake

So Matt turned 28! Being that he LOVES Miyazaki films, Naturally he asked for his favorite character. TOTORO!!! I thought i would throw in a few soot balls as well

i started out with a normal, round cake. Devils food cake with Cream Cheese Caramel filling.

then i made another square vanilla cake, also with cream cheese caramel filling.

then i quartered the vanilla cake to make the ears and leg/feet.

i stuck a skewer on each side to keep all parts together. 

next everything was coated in vanilla buttercream frosting, followed by white Fondant.

airbrushed with a light gray, pink for the mouth and ears.

the whiskers are toothpicks painted black. the eyes and teeth are molded fondant. the teeth are actually one long strip with teeth cut into it.

these are soot balls, they are rice krispie treats rolled into balls and then coated in chocolate. the eyes are white royal icing, with painted black dots.

Totoro is sleeping in a bed of flowers and grass. all faux grass from michael's cut and shaped. it all sits on floral foam

i think next time i'll make the insides red, just for a little added authenticity. :)

Root Bear Floats!!!

root beer cake with vanilla buttercream frosting! a whole lot cleaner than the real thing. 

Porcupines!

1 cup pecan halves

1 tblsp unsalted butter, melted

2 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut 

1/2 cup dried apricots

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate pieces

7oz. condensed milk

preheat oven to 325degrees

on parchment paper lined cookie sheet, drop the pecan halves coated in the butter, in the oven for about 10 minutes to brown the pecans. 

once the pecans are out of the oven, let cool then mix with the rest of the ingredients. put about 2 tblsp worth of batter in balls on the cookie sheet. bake for about 10 minutes, or until the coconut turns a pale golden, do not over burn. let cool completely. 

should make about 20-24 cookies.

unicorn 2.0

so my WONDERFUL mother in law sent me the candy i actually needed to make these horsey unicorn cupcakes. i can't tell you how hard it was to find circus peanuts, they don't exist in california that i've found so far. send me your peanuts! 

cupcake: french vanilla cake

frosting: vanilla buttercream frosting

neck: vanilla wafers stuck together with white chocolate.

head: circus peanuts

mane/eyes/ears: chocolate and sprinkles

magic horn/tail: twizzler

sometimes, even the most magical of herds lose a fellow rider... 
godspeed old friend, you'll be missed...

lollipops!!!

i found these awesome lollipop molds today at Michaels, soooo... i went a little crazy

the 4 flavors are:

dark chocolate

white chocolate

strawberry lavender

peanut butter

i made so many i broke the microwave reheating the chocolates, oops.