Stuff I Make

Each Little Clam Here, Know How to Jam Here...

Mrs. Cravin D. Crab:

Madame Octavia Von Tentacalia:

Chuckles Albert Gigglebritches the Third:

Doreen Eliza Nutterfluffer:

Free Willy I. Am.

Echino Dermatatina Turner:

36 of these guys convened to celebrate a sea-themed birhday party.

Mean Green Cupcake Machine

What does it mean when the PTA starts calling you? Well if it's ME... it probably means that they want CAKE. Or someone to laminate stuff - I was passed off as an "official lamitor" at the school library a few weeks ago, an honor I hold dear to my heart.  But in this case, it was to help cater a luncheon for the school staff.

Since it's St. Patty's week, I thought I'd do a green theme. I brainstormed some ideas and came up with:

• Peppermint Cupcakes
• Green Velvet Cupcakes
• Guinness Cupcakes
• Mini-Coconut Lime Cupcakes

The plan was to do 2 dozen of each... but as usually happens with me, I'd over estimated the quantity (and transport space!) and decided to nix the green velvets. Because really, Green Velvet? That's just weird. 

The final product:

I wanted to do a variety of icings - you know, to make my life simpler. The Peppermint Chocolate is iced with dark chocolate ganache, the Coconut is iced with Lime Infused Swiss Meringue, and the Guinness is iced in chocolate buttercream.

The Peppermint Chocolate even had a little surprise inside:

That's peppermint swiss meringue buttercream and it is to DIE FOR! I may have at one point been piping it directly into my mouth... but I often black out when I'm so close to The Rapture.

The cupcake tags were a last minute (ie 10pm) idea. I like them.

I've made these little beauties before and they will never get old. Plus, I get to sing "You put the lime in the coconut..."

The Guinness cupcakes do in fact contain a pint of Guinness Stout. Combined with chocolate, it's a unique yummy flavor.

These were my favorite of the three. Since I HAVE to quality control everything that I make, I discovered in my tasting that it was like eating a thin mint cookie in soft gooey cupcake form. Hence, I felt it appropriate that I sprinkle some crushed thin mints on top. K had a heart attack that I was "wasting his precious thin mints" but I shared some of the cupcakes with him and he was won over.

Getting all of these babies to the school took my cupcake courier (holds 36), my Wilton carrier (holds 12) and 2 other large containers. But the look on people's faces walking down the hall with all that makes me feel like royality! It's amazing how a cupcake is the happiest little thing on the planet!

Happy St. Patricks Day!!

 

Venom!! (It's a Cupcake-Scape)

About a month ago I was asked to create something using a soccer team's logo. Hmmm. What to do. The logo was exceedingly abstract and oblong and the teenage birthday boy had requested cupcakes. So, even though I was a bit hesitant (and a little nervous), I went about creating my first every Cupcake-Scape. (But that in a pipe and smoke it Sandra Lee!)

Just so you have an idea, this is what I had to work with:

 It says "Venom." I swear.

To start, I got out my ruler and mapped out a sketch using 3 inch round circles as a template. Then I lined them up in the general pattern of the logo to figure out how big the sucker was going to be and how many cupcakes I needed to make. I then measured out some foamcore and painted the background.

None of that made any sense, so perhaps I'll just show the final product.

On first look you're like "eh?" But then compare it to the logo. I dare you! From "eh?" to "ah!"

And it was reported that the team enjoyed every last bite!

 

Feathered Friends

The cupcake fad is quite something, isn't it? Individual pieces of cake, with a TON of frosting, gourmet flavors, wrapped up in a pretty box... priced out of this world. But I don't know many people who can walk by a cupcake place and resist the temptation. Unless you have no soul.

And let's talk about the fondant fad. Detailed, colorful, edible decorations that you see on almost every cake nowadays. Cake is no longer a food item, it's an art exhibit. Gone are the days of the buttercream rose and the basketweave. 

So while sitting and thinking (something I often do while staring at the ceiling with my mouth hanging open), I decided to attempt the daring feat of combining two fads into one event. Like a Fad-Storm!!

Meet the Fondant Decorated Cupcake!

Ah, I love owls. And birds, too.

The cupcakes are a simple vanilla with a vanilla buttercream "dome" underneath the fondant.

 

 OK, so maybe I didn't invent fondant covered cupcakes. Maybe I LOVE perusing flickr and looking at all the cupcake art. But I did invent these special little guys using a piece of scrapbook paper as inspiration.

 
  

Conclusions?

1. Kids go insane for these. Like there's been a cupcake massacre insane... as witnessed at our neighborhood party last night. My children weren't even fast enough to get one themselves and there were tears.

2. Since these are more than just your run of the mill squirt the icing on cupcakes, they're definitely for special occasions. Like if you're having a Bird and Owl Party! (...or something customized to YOUR special occasion.)

3. I really enjoyed making these!