Cupcake Cupcake Toppers

I'd like to introduce you to someone. His name is Teeny. Full name: Teeny Weeny Cupcake. Isn't he adorable with his swirl of buttercream, colorful beads and his little M&M cap? Teeny has a friend whose name is Standard Size Cupcake AKA Stan. See - here they are just chillin'.


The other day these two were hanging out in my kitchen and Teeny was griping about how sick and tired he was about being so small so Stan, being the nice cuppie that he is, said to Teeny "Why don't you hop on up. It will give you a new perspective." You know, kinda like that van commercial where the guy has his daughter move up from the back of the van to the front where her brothers sit and she's all amazed. You know the one I'm talking about. Anyway, Teeny hops up and a whole new cupcake is born!



The nice thing about this new cupcake? Teeny is actually a Reese's miniature peanut butter cup! To make this super simple cupcake with the cupcake topper, just unwrap the mini cup, pipe on a swirl of buttercream or whichever kind of frosting you are using and plop him onto your standard size frosted cupcake and decorate with sprinkles and you are done! (In case you're wondering, I used M&M Mini's on the top of the pb cup.)

A word of advice: if you are leaving the papers on the pb cup, just make sure your tasters know. For some reason two of my tasters decided to pop the mini cuppie in their mouths as is. Don't worry, they figured it out when they tried to chew paper. Unless you think they need more fiber in their diet. Completely up to you.

Now, I'm off to play with my new toy. Hopefully my cookies turn out the way I want them too. If it does, you know I'll share it!

Oh, and that new perspective? It gave Teeny enough confidence to find himself a girlfriend. She's a sweetheart of a girl - all yellow cake with a sweet strawberry middle. They make a cute couple, don't they?

How crazy it this - I let life grab a hold of me (followed of course by the standard issue holiday cold) and I've neglected this poor little blog only to come back and find that the Cookbook Queen herself has somehow seen this post! Find her original Cupcake Cupcake Toppers post here!

As for what I'll do next...well d'uh!

**Waves frantically** Hello Cookbook Queen from Hawai'i! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond!

Logo Cookies

Have you ever tried to put a logo on a cookie? That's been my project for the past few days and I have tried several different methods to determine which one I like the best and by several, I mean about 3 and there's another one that I'd like to try but it involves a sizable expense so I'm not sure when I'm going to experiment with that. Out of the ones I've tried so far, there is no clear favorite. Isn't that sad? I suppose that means I need to keep going. *Insert eye roll here.*

I ended up on this path because of a FB request for cookies with a simple logo on them. I could have free-handed the logo (just a simple letter) but as usual, I took it upon myself to try new tricks out. I ended up creating my own stencil which seemed easy enough - image, stencil sheet, pen and an exacto knife.

Here is my cookie version:

Now, because I apparently don't know how to keep things simple, I suggested 2 cookies for this party. One to signify where the guest of honor came from (above) and one for where he was going. For those, I tried the stencil thing again...it didn't quite work. The logo was too small for what I was doing (baseball cookie) and the RI said "Heck no" and smeared when I attempted to use it with the stencil. Going thing I tried it on some parchment first!

These baseballs were done free-hand but because of the size of the logo I drew them on first and went back with a teeny tiny tip to pipe over and fill them. I only did 2 dozen of those guys but let me tell you, my shoulders hurt when they were done! After piping all of the logos I went back with the red bag to add the stitches. As far as baseballs go though, they are pretty cute!

Details make the difference, don't you think?

Waiting to be bagged.

I ended up with leftover dough...okay, that's a lie. I was still in baking mode so I whipped up another batch, this one with my favorite mystery flavor (sorry, but plain Jane sugar cookie is just not my fave,) and decided to play with another cookie cutter. I had a special cutter custom made last football season and didn't get a chance to play with it so without further ado, here are the cookies made with my very own super special cookie cutter!


I had the UH logo made in 2 sizes - a 2.5" and a 4" and I'm not going to lie, they were pricey (copper cutters!) but I love them. For serious.

I was also thinking of some friends who were at the MSU game and since I had green RI ready to go, I decided to try my hand at a Spartan cookie. Here it is, free-hand.


Sure, my "S" is leaning towards being a "5". I believe my RI was too runny but hey, at least my Spartan looks good. Right?

My final (for now) experiment with logos was a USC cookie. While I'm not ready to discuss that technique yet I will say that it worked much better this time around than it did the last time I tried. Maybe because I had more patience this time? (Funny, off track story. I bought new sunglasses - in and out of the store in 5 minutes, hah! Sales clerk gets me new glasses, I look at the box and it says "Impatient" on it. I ask why and she tells me that's the name of the design. How perfect is that for me??! My husband got a good laugh out of that and I haven't thrown the box away yet.)

Anywho, back to cookies, I need to work on that particular technique again but I'm think I'm close to really getting the hang of it! Thoughts?

And one more UH pic to say goodbye, just because I can't let the USC pic end this blog post. =o)

Seashells, seashells, by the sea shore

You got me, that's not how the tongue twister goes. But, I've got something better than a tongue twister. I've got cupcakes! Not just any old cupcakes. I have sea shore cupcakes! These little cuppies were very simple to make. All you need are cupcakes, buttercream, a chocolate mold, and some chocolate wafers.

Melt your wafers using your preferred method - microwave, melting pot, or double boiler - and pour the chocolate into your mold. Pop the mold into the freezer for the chocolate to set. For me it took about 20 minutes because I was impatient. Then you pop those suckers out and lay it onto your swirl of frosting.

Now, you'll notice my shells aren't monotone. Personally, I'm not a fan of pure white shells. Why, you ask? Have you been to the beach? Did you ever find a snow white shell? In case you're wondering, I really do mean on the beach, and not something found in a store that was probably bleached.I thought not. Most shells aren't pure white. They have some color to them - so why should mine be any different?

Regardless of how you like your shells, these cupcakes are a great way to say goodbye to summer and ready yourself for fall...unless of course you live in Hawai'i and it's summer all year round!

The danger of reality baking tv

Do you watch reality tv? What about shows such as Cake Boss, Amazing Wedding Cakes, etc? I do. I can spend an entire weekend watching them even if they are repeats. Yes, it's horrifyingly true - I have no life. Watching these shows does 2 things: it teaches me how to cake and it gives me crazy ideas about ingredients that I obsess over.

One such show is DC Cupcakes. Granted, I only watched half of an episode but it was enough. The sisters were shopping and tasted hibiscus syrup. Yes, hibiscus! Who knew hibiscus was edible? I grew up around the flower (how could I not, being from Hawai'i?) but I never thought to eat one. Of course I then needed to find some syrup. That's the advantage of working for a grocery store - I went to the office and bothered - *ahem* excuse me asked - the Natural Foods department if they had any. No luck there. So then I asked the Gourmet division, which, incidentally share the same assistant so yes, I bothered her twice. No luck. She did however tell me that I should stop watching food tv because I would always ask her about specialty ingredients which we never seem to have.

So what's an obsessive baker to do? Figure out how to make my own syrup of course! I found some dried hibiscus (which was actually very easy to find) and experimented. The dried flowers turned my syrup into a pretty pink color so I went with pink macaron shells with a white chocolate/hibiscus ganache. Unfortunately the pink syrup didn't translate well with the white chocolate so I had to add some color to pink it back up. I also ended up with lilikoi macarons and a...wait for it...this is a long one...a chocolate hazelnut macaron with vanilla bean/fleur de sel caramel filling.

I'm thinking macarons are going to be a part of the Christmas gifts this year. Yes, I know it's August but really, it's right around the corner and I've got more flavors in the works. Besides, if you're over on the East Coast, wouldn't some tropical flavor macarons make you feel warm and fuzzy inside while it's freezing and blustery (using my Winnie the Pooh words here,) outside?

And now I am off on vacation, heading towards what we Hawai'i folk call "the 9th island," then it's right back here to deal with more egg whites and almond flour. I'm warning you - there may be more macaron posts ahead!

Oh and I also have my version of a maple bacon cupcake but more on that later. My flight is tomorrow and I still haven't packed. Oops!

Bridal Shower

I did my first bridal shower cake today! I was pleasantly surprised by how it all turned out since the fondant and the stacking didn't give me a bit of trouble (could this mean that I'm *gasp* learning?) and there was only a minor incident with a fallen decoration that was easily remedied with a bit of RI. How did this cake come about? Read on...

Last month the other half and I went out to a birthday dinner for a good friend whose daughter is getting married next weekend. As she and I were talking, I asked if she wanted me to do a cake and/or favors and she said yes. As Aunty started telling me what she was thinking, I immediately said "oh good, I've got it all planned out and this is what we (read: I) are doing."

My husband scolded me for that. Apparently, since it isn't a cake for me I'm supposed to listen to what the other person wants. Ooookay. I listened. And it's wasn't so bad (shhh, don't tell him that he was right.) I said chocolate, she asked for lemon so what the heck, make it 2 tiers and we're both happy. Easy, peasy and here's the plan.



Bottom: chocolate cake, but not just any old chocolate. This cake had another flavor that you had to think about for a bit. What was it? I'm not saying so if you weren't at this shower then we'll just say it was plain Jane (PJ) chocolate.
Top: Lemon.
Filling: Buttercream. But if you know anything about me, then you will know this wasn't a PJ BC. Nope. This was a lemon buttercream with fresh lemon curd that I made specifically for this cake.
Design: Fondant (of course) with butterflies flying up the cake.

Notice the embossing on the ribbon and cake board? The invite had an embossed frame around the invite panel so I did a play off of that.

Aunty also asked for 2 small giveaway cakes for the bridal shower games which weren't a problem. Since the top tier was an 8" cake there was still enough batter to make 2 4" cakes and more then enough buttercream to fill them. I found 2 clear plastic boxes at a local hardware store (who knew I could find stuff in there while waiting for the husband to buy lumber??) and decided they would make the perfect boxes for what I had in mind.

Doesn't it look like someone caught the butterflies?

Ready for the final product?




In case it's eating at you and you need to know, yes, I did favors too but it was just plain old macarons with ganache. Nothing special but they are still so dang temperamental! I was ready to cry. And yet, I'm still willing to whip up more almond flour and keep trying. Go figure! And yes, the colors are off. 2 different cameras, oops. If anyone who was at the shower has better (or any!) pics of the cake, please send them my way.)

Baby Shower Cake and Onesie Cookies!

We finally got to have the baby shower for a couple of CWs after the original date was canceled due to a sick mommy-to-be. Lucky for everyone, she's much better and eagerly awaiting the arrival of their little one who should be coming next week. For me, this meant a busy week, first making up a whole new batch of cookies for favors, then making the cake.

Now, I had a design in mind and let me tell you, in my mind, it was great. 3 tiers, edible image, fondant perfectly done....what I did wasn't even close. Thank goodness for CWs who let you practice your caking skillls on them!

Note to self: when people (especially those taking photography courses,) with actual (good quality) cameras are taking photos of your wares, remember that all of your mistakes will come through bright and clear. Must either get better at cake, cover up mistakes better, or do not allow photos....





Not the I prefer one colored cookie over another or anything but they yellow onesies were the cutest, IMO. C'mon, can you picture a little baby boy wearing a onesie that said "Chicks dig me." How cute is that? The Hula Girlz onesie is a nod to my friend, Hula Muvz who produces the original shirt.

Baby, keys, and shoes are all made out of gumpaste.

Now if you're asking what happened to the 3rd tier, I could say that it exploded into cupcakes but the reality is that the edible image I ordered was not what I was expecting. Oh, the image was correct...it's the way that it looked once it was applied to the fondant that I didn't like. I assumed the background of the image would be sheer but nope. It was very noticeable, like a bandage and not quite the image I was going for. Oh well. I'll figure it out.

Next up, a break! At least for a few days. Heck, maybe I'll even take the weekend of from anything baking related. Yeah, right!

Thank you, Shan, for sharing your great pics!

Baby "Crocs"

I made the cutest little shoes last week. Yes, I made SHOES. Not shoes that anyone would want to wear, but they were pretty darn cute. These shoes were going to be a decoration for a baby shower cake that alas, was not meant to be. Okay, to be fair, the shower will still happen but just not this weekend so that means the cookies favors will be introduced to my trash can since they will not survive - darn my efficient border-line OCD ways!

Anyway, back to the shoes. Thanks to the genius of makatralsy (I know, you're probably thinking "Who??" but it's okay, I know who I'm talking about so just go with it,) I had the cutest pictures to work from. I made a trial shoe and then went to town.

I'd show you the individual pieces of the shoes as they were put together...if I had taken any pics of the process. As it stands, I only managed to take 1 little pic of the process and then some of the completed shoes.

After each piece was added and it had dried, I had the cutest little life-size shoes a baby has never worn.



The shoes are completely edible, but since they are made out of gumpaste, I wouldn't recommend it. Not only are they very hard, it probably wouldn't taste very good. If you'd like to try it, though, I still have the practice one. We'll just have to get you to sign a waiver first clearing me from having to pay for any dental work you may need.

In case you are wondering why orange, I'd love to say the parents are huge Mario Batalli/Iron Chef fans (you know, before the Food Network decided to drop his shows and he left IC,) but really, it's because the parents-to-be haven't found out the baby's gender and I was using trying to stay away from green and yellow. And orange is such a bright, cheery color don't you think? Or it could be my construction wife side coming through again.

What do you think these are?

Any guesses? *Knock, knock* is this thing on? Any one know what these are, or what they will become?

Cookie Stencils

Have you ever seen cookies that a beautiful design that is so detailed you wonder how they decorator created it? I've seen them too and learned that some decorators use stencils to create their images so of course, I had to try it too.

Stencils can be used on cookies or even cakes such as the gorgeous damask cake from my friend Martha...maybe you've heard of her? We're pals but please, don't spread that around. I don't need any crazed fans hounding me for an intro.

Photo of Martha Stewart Damask Cake from Martha Stewart Weddings & Culinary Stencils

These stencils are made from food grade plastic and can be used on BC or fondant covered cakes using an off-set spatula and stiff royal icing. I tried stencils recently on 2 different projects, with 2 completely different results.


Project #1 - Cookies for a friend's event, using her company name.



I used a metal stencil for the hula dancers. Definitely very sturdy and easy to use. Since the metal didn't bend, I had crisp outlines as long as my stencil was clean of any other icing.

Project #2 - Wedding favors

These cookies were made using the plastic stencil below. Obviously I need a lot more practice with this type of stencil (sorry Tiff!) I don't know if it was the way the cookie was iced or because of the font on the stencil which allowed the upper right portion of the S to wiggle (and was probably just my own inexperience) which made it hard to keep the stencil from moving.

The cookies look good from a distance but when you get closer, you can see that the edges are rough. Note to self - ask CookieMookie for tips since she is the stencil guru...



Regardless, I have an amazing cherry blossom cake stencil that is just begging to be used on a stacked cake so I will definitely need to practice again...after my next few projects of course. Next up - gumpaste!

I'm seeing spots!

Polka dots are back! Well honestly, I don't think they ever left. They just fade into the solid color from which they came until they are ready to stand out again. What am I talking about? I have no clue. It's been a long week and I'm pretty sure my brain is broken and I am just talking bubbles. Oh no. Bubbles - spots - I really do think I broke my brain. Thanks goodness the weekend is almost here!

First I have to get through Friday. The good thing about Friday? It's a CW's birthday and that means cake! More specifically, it means cake that I made. My inspiration cake was this:

(Photo and cake by lara3teach)

I love the bright colors on it - it's a very happy cake. If this were your cake, you wouldn't even care what was on the inside. Okay, I'm lying. I would care what was on the inside. I knew that with my limited experience my hope of recreating this cake was slim to none. Sure, the circles are fondant and heck, even I can do that! But the cake isn't covered in white fondant. Nope. That is buttercream all the way.

Let's start by saying that I've never covered a cake in buttercream. Sure, I've used SMBC as filling and under fondant, but I haven't tried to cover an entire cake with a crusting BC. Oh, well, time to learn and it was harder than I thought! Smoothing buttercream is hard. Try it sometime and we can compare notes. Luckily I had already ordered the funky letter tappits and they came in on time. After playing with everything tonight and altering some recipes along the way I ended up with my own polka dot cake.

I don't know why the name looks blue. I really isn't, I swear and you can see the pic below. No blue. Go figure!

I ended up with butter vanilla yellow cake (boy that's a mouthful!) with a nutella mousse-y filling and of course, the buttercream...that didn't really crust but I did alter the recipe a tad so who know what sort of chemistry I created or deleted. I tasted each component separately and I liked it but we'll see how it all works together tomorrow for breakfast.

Breakfast?! Um, yeah. I had some spare parts so I put together another cake. But it's not really for me. It's quality control. ;o) Then maybe I'll be up for practicing smoothing again.

A cake, a milestone, and lessons learned

It's been an interesting week filled with baking and (apparently much needed) lesson learned. In addition to the Cinco de Boy's Day fish cookies there were also mojito cupcakes (which will make it here eventually,) and a last minute cake order.

Order?? Yes, order. Someone actually paid me to make a cake for them which was the milestone. Get it? A CAKE, A MILESTONE? If you don't, got back and read the title again please and if you still don't get it, get some ice cream. That fixes just about everything.

The cake request came from a woman whose daughter was having a Sweet 16 tonight with a bit of an Alice in Wonderland theme. While I had some great ideas - okay 1 idea - tumbling around my head, 2 days was not enough time for a novice like me to try it out. I ended up compromising and offered a blue fondant cake with white diamonds. I don't know why but diamonds seem to go with Alice. As you can tell, it's been quite some time since I watched the cartoon version and I sure didn't watch Johnny Depp's.

A couple of late nights resulted in a cake that I was "eh" about but I had no time to go back and start over and several lessons learned.

1. When committing to a design, make sure you have the right dang cutters - both size and shape. I suggested diamonds. Did I have a diamond cutter? Nope. Had to bend a couple of squares. Where they the right size? No, AGAIN They were too big for the cake so I had to cut everything down with a ruler and a knife. But I do like how the tips of the diamonds are higher than the cake, giving it a slight rabbit ear look.
   
2. Remember drastic temperature changes! I tried left the top tier out too long after I covered it and it developed a huge bubble that I couldn't get rid of. I had to cut the fondant off, re-frost, chill and cover again which brought me back to cutting the diamonds.
3. Allow yourself creative liberties. When asked about design, the client basically left it up to me and while searching for diamonds I found a heart shape that wasn't a typical rounded heart but instead more narrow. I tried it out and decided that I liked it. It still had an "Alice" feel to it.
4. Don't take an order 2 days before the cake needs to be done. Especially if you have a full time job and you know the next 2 weeks are going to be busy and stressful. It's not fun to go to work on about 4 hours of sleep. Even more so when your boss is having a bad day.
5. Remember that you do this because you enjoy it and your next cake will be better.
   
6. When all else fails, remember that you have a mojito cupcake hiding in the fridge!
7. The most important lesson of all - find a cleaning fairy! Then send her/him over here!
   

Happy Cinco de Boy's Day!

May 5 - known all over the world as Cinco de Mayo is also known as Boy's Day here in Hawai'i, and in Asia. Since I'm not much of a drinker, or Mexican for that matter, the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862 holds no special place in my heart. Boy's Day however, I grew up. A separate occasion from Girl's Day on March 3 (otherwise known as Hinamasuri,) Boy's Day is a day to celebrate a child's happiness. Drive around any neighborhood in Hawai'i in the weeks leading up this day and you will come across carp flags flying in the breeze. Normally, you would see 3 carp - 1 each for the father, mother, and the son but some houses have a carp for each son. Where am I going with this? Fish cookies, of course! A CW (that would be co-worker for all of non board members,) asked me if I could make a dozen fish cookies for her babysitter. Sure, I said. Not a problem. Except I didn't have a fish cutter. And I was stymied on how to make it look like a carp instead of just a regular fish. So I bought a cutter and figured okay, bake a cookie, flood it, dry, then add detail. Small problem. That would be a lot of icing on a cookie. Then I thought, why not flood the cookie then do some run-ins? Okay, not that's plan but I didn't count on white fish looking quite so blah and unhappy. See?


I woke up this morning and I still didn't like them. Luckily, I still had some dough so I made up another dozen and although they aren't white with color like the flags, they are much happier fishies.



If you ask me, I think kids would want to eat these little guys much more than the others. Plus, the icing will turn their tongues blue or red so that just an added bonus. The boys can even pull of the candy eye and chomp on that which will raise the gross-ness factor just a smidge.

No matter what you're celebrating this week, have fun!

What's new, Cupcake?

Crazy as it may seem, the vast majority of my emails come from baking sites - either blogs or online stores. I know, shocking, right? Just before Easter I got an email from a store that featured the new book, "What's new, Cupcake?" The email featured a photo of the cutest flower cupcakes I had ever seen and I just had to make them. They were a bit time consuming but as far as the skill factor? As long as you could use a scissors and arrange things in a circle, you were good to go!

You don't even need a recipe to make these cuties. All you need are cupcakes, frosting, mini marshmallows, colored sugar, and either chocolate coated sunflower seeds or mini chocolate chips. Frost your cupcakes and set them aside. If you need to, feel free to do a taste test. You know, just for quality control.

Pour your colored sugar into some bowls or saucers - 1 color each, and snip some marshmallows diagonally over the bowl and let them fall into the sugar. The cut side will be coated with the sugar and just arrange them, sugar side up, onto the cupcake in circles. Once you get to the middle, you can either use the sunflower seeds or the chocolate chips for the flowers center. Or just stick another marshmallow in and you're done.

Cute and easy!

Feeling lucky?

Yes, once again I am behind the times but I actually made these way ahead of St. Patrick's Day. I was getting another care package together for my brother and thought the shamrocks would be great and since he's in the military, why not camouflage them? After all, sometimes you need a little help getting *ahem* lucky.

I'm sure he opened his box up and thought to himself that he has a weird sister...and it's probably not the first time he thought it anyway. But what the heck, they made me laugh! What about you?