Umlauts and Airplanes

So excited to do a cake with umlauts! Umlauts, don't know what they are? Pronounced "Oom"+"lot," its the 2 dots over the "o" on the cake pictured above. This is one of the largest cake I've done and soooo cute for little baby Bjorn Stephen.

Bjorn mean Bear (cute!) so I did a cute airplane with a bear driving. Its made or rice krispie treats and fondant.

The stork is a logo from the invitation.

And cupcakes! I piped clouds and molded little planes,

I will do another post on the flavors and recipes of this cake, sooo good!

7 Minute Frosting AKA Fluffy Frosting

This is called the 7 minute frosting. Pretty, shiny, light and fluffy. It's just purdy.

What's crazy is it's made of granulated sugar and egg whites. No powdered sugar or butter, say what? (recipe is at the end of the post).

I made these cupcakes for my friends who just got engaged. Their names are Anna and Kenton, hence the "A" and "K." They're doing a vintage theme with these colors so I made little rossettes out of fondant.

I'm also testing chocolate cake recipes. Below is a brownie type cake. But I didn't like it. It was too "brownie like." I know what you're saying "Michelle...it's a brownie cupcake." Yeah, but I brought these to a party and I saw across the room a lady literally "crunch" her teeth into the brownie cupcake and make a face like "is this a cupcake or a brownie?" and I was like "eekkk I hope she doesn't know I made those!" Brownies are better left for the pan. I'm still looking for the perfect chocolate cake.

These are mimicing the hostess cupcakes but I piped their names. Cute huh? They're also filled with 7 minute frosting.

7 MINUTE FROSTING

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a saucepan, stir together the sugar, water and cream of tartar. Cook over medium-high heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is bubbly.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whip the egg whites and vanilla to soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar mixture while whipping constantly until stiff peaks form, about 7 to 10 minutes. Frost the cake of your choice.

This makes enough frosting for 12 cupcakes and only 68 calories!!!

I found it on http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fluffy-White-Frosting/Detail.aspx

Minty Fresh

I have been wanting to bake a Chocolate Cake with Fresh Mint filling and Chocolate Ganache for a long time now, finally got around to it. I made my first filling on Monday but I added waaaay too much fresh mint to my filling and it tasted like grass. Blah.

First off let me say I'm not too hot on artificial flavoring so when I saw on Cupcake Wars how to make FRESH mint filling I was sold.

I went and bought a fresh mint plants for $2.99. I plan on planting it and I heard they grow easily and huge.

Here's how you start the fresh mint. Pour a few tablespoons of whipping cream in a bowl and add a couple leaves to the bowl. Put it in the microwave at 50% power for 15 seconds. Whip 1/4 cup of butter and add a cup of powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of the mint cream then add additional whipping cream to achieve your desired consistency. This amount will fill a 6 in cake.

Up close shot of the filling. I added a handful of chocolate chips for the crunch and one drop of green food coloring for the look.

I got some cute mugs from Micheal's so I thought I'd share the cuteness with you.

Below is the chocolate cake recipe by Ina Garten I used. It's not the perfect chocolate cake, I'm still on the search for that, but for now it will do.

This recipe will make three 6 inch cakes.

1. 
   1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2. 2 cups sugar
3. 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4. 2 teaspoons baking soda
5. 1 teaspoon baking powder
6. 1 teaspoon kosher salt
7. 1 cup buttermilk
8. 1/2 cup vegetable oil
9. 2 large eggs
10. 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
11. 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
1. MAKE THE CAKE Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and line them with parchment paper; butter the paper. Dust the pans with flour, tapping out any excess.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, mix the flour with the sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt at low speed. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk with the oil, eggs and vanilla. Slowly beat the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients until just incorporated, then slowly beat in the hot coffee until fully incorporated.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then invert the cakes onto a rack to cool completely. Peel off the parchment paper.

That shiny Chocolate Ganache is sooooo easy. Ganache is just a fancy word for chocolate and cream. And that's all it is, seriously. Hit some chocolate chips and once they've all melted just add some whipping cream a little at a time till you get the consistency you want and then mix while still warm. Perfect pairing for the mint!

Cupcakes are versatile

The amazing things about cupcakes is you can pretty much use any of your favorite sweet fruit or topping and it will blend with some sort of cupcake/frosting recipe. Case and point, I had some raspberries about the kick the bucket in a few days. They had to be consumed. I was forced to whip up a dozen of my favorite vanilla cupcakes and standard buttercream recipe. I added some fresh pureed raspberries in my Magic Bullet (no magic was actually used). SO STRIKINGLY DELICIOUS. Like a punch in the face that berry hit me. Isn't that a cute pic? Reminds me of something Minnie Mouse would bake.

More cases and more points...

I love coffee, therefore I present to you the coffee cupcake.

Oreos are good alone but BETTER in a cupcake and buttercream!

Cookies that look like candy

I'm not much of a candy person, cookies are more appetizing to me. But why not make a cookie that looks like a candy? Valentines Day is like 6 weeks aways so I made some conversation hearts.

Remember like 10 years ago there was one that said "fax me"? Hahaha.

The purple heart is dedicated to my husband.

Num, nummers. What are you getting/making for your love?

C

Cupcakes and Sweet Cheeks

Cupcake Bella was ecstatic about her Cupcake costume this year. She couldn't wait to get to preschool at church and walk through all the office cubicles to show off her costume. Sure she somewhat resembles Homer Simpson's favorite donut but in our eyes she's a cupcake.

I was estatic that this costume was not $40 like the store-bought ones at Target. Just some felt and a hot glue gun.

Now for the Sweet Cheeks of this post...Sumo Carter!

Look at those dimples, I mean on his south end! Just adorable. I'm not ashamed my sons first Halloween costume was made a pleather, the best costume of the day I might add. Look at the detail of the braid on his head. Dang, I'm good.

And my momma didn't raise no fool. There is a diaper shaped to fit inside Sumo outfit. No accidents on the pleather.

Buh-bye!

Homemade Kettle Corn

I know this isn't a cake or cupcake but I just finished munching on some homemade kettle corn. So easy, so yummy, so I wanted to share the recipe.

Take the popcorn kernels, oil, sugar from the pantry and put a big pot with lid on the stove.

Heat 1/4 cup of oil in the pot and add 3 kernels in the pot. When the kernels have popped then it's time to add all the rest.

Add the 1/2 cup of kernels and 1/4 of cup of sugar. Mix real quick and throw the lid back on. Then shake that sucker for 3-4 minutes. The more the shake the less it will burn. Until it takes about 2-3 seconds between the popping then remove from hit and put in a bowl immediately. I must admit I was scared to remove the lid. But to my surprise, popped kettle corn!

There we're only a few burnt casualties. Separated the charred from the delicious and munched down. My hubby enjoyed it too!

Smile and say "Cheese."

So glad that someone requested this cake. Yes this is a cake. Its a canon rebel shaped cake including all the details. She's a beaut ain't she? A red velvet beauty.

Every knob and button was accounted for.

And the Canon logo was the icing on the cake. No literally, I piped it out with royal icing.

This is her without her icing and fondant on. That's called a crumb coat so when you layer on that thick cream cheese frosting no pesky crumbs disrupt the frosting.

M-I-C, See ya real soon! K-E-Y Why because we love you!

Oh the detailed Mouskateer hat that you cannot see because of the black background. It's just so cute. Somehow I defied gravity and got these two Minnie Mouse ears to stand straight up in the air!

That bow is all fondant! And who can't resist the polka dots? The top hat is just molded rice crispy treats which I shaped with a bowl. Not too bad?

La, la, la Elmo's world...

I'm a sucker for baby anything. Remember Tiny Toons? That show was so cute! The big eyes the diapers! Cuteness. My friend had a daughter turning 1 in December. She did a Baby Elmo Christmas Party. This cake was super fun to do. Let me list why...

1.) Christmas Colors

2.) Elmo is in a diaper and has big eyes

3.) Elmo has on a Santa Hat

4. The candy cane stripe at the bottom I love!

5.) Matching cupcakes!

The only thing about this cake that I don't like is in the picture I see ONE red lonely sprinkle that drifted from the pile on the top tier. IT'S DRIVING ME CRAZY! I am a slight perfectionist and you sir Mr. Sprinkle make me want to scream!

Have you seen Mr. Tumnis?

My friend Facebooked me to do a Narnia themed cake and asked if I've ever seen the Narnia movies or read the books to which my reply was "Does Mr. Tumnis have hooves for feet?" I love the Lion the With And The Wardrobe. If you've never read the books you won't truly appreciate this cake. But nevertheless check out it's detail.

C.S. Lewis is the author and a genius at that. Pick up ANY of his literature, google his quotes. Believe me it will not disappoint.
The little birthday boy's name is Nathan so I tried to mimic the Narnia font. I used gold dust to get that shimmer. Traditionally you should use vodka with the highest amount of alcohol to paint on shimmers and dust. I didn't have vodka on hand (since of I don't drink) so I went to my local cake store and asked if they had any. She gave me that "what a lush" look. I explained that I wanted to paint on the gold dust and use vodka so it would evaporate quickly, not for jello shots. She said I could use lemon extract. So I did and it worked!

Finally the wardrobe. Two doors that lead to a completely different world, Narnia. The lamp post where Mr. Tumnis made his debut. Loves it! Did I mention I did a book report on this book 3 times throughout my academic childhood? I'm not sure if it was love for the book or laziness.