Duh, nu, nu, nu, nu, duh, nu, nu, nu, nu

duh, nu, nu, nu, nu, duh, nu, nu, nu, nu

BATMAN!

My iPhone broke the week I made this. So I asked my husband to take pictures of this wonderful creation. He only took one! One? Really? This is a Batman cake man! We must have the side, upclose, profile shot! So I apologize for only one picture.

Halloween String Monster

This is a Tres Leche cake I made for a friend. She just wanted something fun for her kids for Halloween. What a great mom right? I don't do scary very well. I guess because scary things... scare me. So I decided to do a cute little string monster.
Bake some regular size cupcakes and mini size. Remove the paper from the mini size and put on top of the regular size one. Grab an icing bag or sandwich bag and cut a small hole out. Take your bag about 6 inches above your cupcake and drop the icing down so it looks like string.
To make the eyes get dum-dum suckers and apple ring candies. Stretch the apple ring over the sucker. Dab a little white icing in the middle and a little chocolate. Push the suckers into the cupcake and ta-duh! STRING MONSTER! AAAAAHHHHHHH!

Sorry, I scared myself. JK.

Munny

So it was my friend Sarah's husbands birthday, he is a great comic book artist so I tried to make this character Munny.

I made the cake and covered in fondant then bought these fondant markers so he could draw whatever he wanted on the Munny.

Alas, it didn't survive deliver very well.

Sugar Flowers

This my first sugar flower my friend Erica, this amazing baker, taught me!

Too pretty to consume!

Cupcakes for the Cure

I've officially signed up for a contest and Cupcake Camp! It's November 7, 1:00 - 4:00. $10 to taste 4 cupcakes that are submitted from professional and amatuer bakers. I'm going to be baking 6 dozen cupcakes and entering a contest. Super excited! And it's for a cause, fighting breast cancer! Now time to get creative...

http://cupcakecampie.wordpress.com/

Salty and Sweet, um, yes.

This is the best tasting cake I've ever made. The gooey, the sweet then the salty. Perfection. Salted Caramel Cake!

Gaze at it's sweet drips of goodness.

Ok here's the recipe. I got this from How To Eat A Cupcake blog.

I only used 1/2 the caramel for the frosting and glaze on top.

SALTED CARAMEL CUPCAKES
MAKES 12 CUPCAKES
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk

CARAMEL SWIRL BUTTERCREAM
MAKES ABOUT 2 CUPS
Caramel Drizzle
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
Pinch salt

Buttercream
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
Pinch salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces, at room temperature (I only used 1 1/2 sticks butter)

For the cupcakes:
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the sugars and butter together until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk in 2 additions, beating on low speed until just combined; scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about two-thirds full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20-22 minutes (Mine were done at 18 minutes). Let the cupcakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour.

For the frosting:
In a heavy-bottomed, high-sided saucepan, cook the sugar over medium-high heat until it begins to melt around the edges, about 5 minutes. Stirring with a clean wooden spoon, continue to cook until the sugar is melted and has turned golden amber, about 3 minutes longer.

Carefully pour the cream down the side of the pan in a slow, steady stream (it will bubble and spatter), stirring constantly until completely smooth. Stir in the salt. Pour the caramel into a small heatproof bowl and let cool completely before using. (The caramel can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week; bring to room temperature before using.)

In a large, clean heatproof bowl, combine the egg whites and sugar. Set the bowl over (but not touching) simmering water in a saucepan and heat the mixture, whisking constantly, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture is very warm to the touch (about 160°F on an instant-read thermometer), about 2 minutes (It always takes about 5 minutes for me). Remove the bowl from the saucepan. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the egg white mixture until it is fluffy, cooled to room temperature, and holds stiff peaks (the mixture should not look dry), about 6 minutes.

With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the salt and the butter, a few pieces at a time, beating well after each addition. If the frosting appears to separate or is very liquid after all the butter is added, continue to beat on high speed until it is smooth and creamy, 3-5 minutes more. Add the caramel drizzle (I only added about 1/2 cup) and beat until combined (or almost combined for a swirling effect), scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Frost the cupcakes with the buttercream. (The frosted cupcakes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days; bring to room temperature before finishing.) Top each cupcake with a caramel candy, sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt, and serve.

The beat goes on...

I've never mixed so much butter, flour and sugar my whole life since the last few weeks. I did 2 cakes each weekend the last 3 weeks! So now this week I'm not making any cakes...so what do I think about? What cakes I want to make next. Yeesshh. Our church is having a Cake Walk for a Harvest Carnival so there will be my next creations, I'm thinking an iPhone Cake.

So this here are some I made in September...

Mr. Dylan turned 4 this last weekend. He really likes construction, he's a mans man. I love how the little trucks are tearing up those cupcakes and destroying the bottom tier. This was a Fresh Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Filling.

My babiest sister Beth turned 21! Ugh, we're getting old. So since we do drink Root Beer I made her a Root Beer keg. Funny story: this was a surprise party but I didn't have time to decorate except hours before the party. Well Beth came to my house before her party the cake was crumb coated and sitting in my fridge. I had to lie (which I'm horrible at) and say it was some sand pail for a lady at church I'm giving to her on Sunday Night. Beth asked "When's the party?" I was like "I dunno she just wanted the cake Sunday night." (horrible liar). Anyways we couldn't get her out of the house. So Sarah, my friend, called her with an outragous story about her sister getting beat up and that Beth needed to watch her kids. Man oh man Beth sped out of my house! Then I finished her cake in 1 hour...she was surprised.

This was for my god daughter's birthdays. They wanted Princess Sweet Pea and Nina will get them whatever they want! This was my first molding of a character. Not too shabby. This was a Fresh Strawberry Cake with Marshmallow Fluff and Cream Cheese filling.

The Drum Cake: Red Velvet with Cream Cheese center. This was no easy task but it got done.

This is Hello Kitty #1 mini me.

Hellooooooo Kitty!

This was a fun cake. Although I don't enjoy making fondant or the taste, it just looks so stinkin' good. It is a 3 tiered cake. The first and second tier are carrot cake with cream cheese buttercream filling.

The top tier was your standard vanilla cake because carrot cake simply would hold up with the carving.

I used premade rice krispie treats to shape the ears and they worked perfectly.

When using 3 tier there must be support. I didn't want to use wooden dowels because I found out you can use plastic drinking straws and they do the job.

After 4 hours of decorating she came out perfect. And my zebra print was cuuuute.

This was a test one I made about a month prior. That's just buttercream I used no fondant. You see how much smoother fondant is.

Interesting story as this was my first real delivery. She leaves in Reche Canyon and there is really one convenient way to get into Reche Canyon. Just as I am turning left at the light to go in a cop blocks it off and stops all flow of traffic into the canyon. Noooooo! So I call my friend tell her what happened she heard a man got hit by a car and actually died! This is crazy! Are you serious?

A: That's horrible

B: Life seems shorter when death is like a quarter mile away

C: Uh, the cake? What do I do? I feel heartless thinking about cake in this sitution.

So I drive around the canyon through Moreno Valley, get a little lost. But have no fear Hello Kitty is here. My cake delivered in good shape in time for the birthday girl to celebrate her 4th year!

Sadly as I drove out the canyon I drove past the accident and the man's motorized scooter was wedged under the front bumper of a car. Eeekkk. Ugh. I just twitch thinking about if I ever hit anyone in my car. Thank you Jesus for guiding my driving and drive slow in residential areas please.

Fondant and Fon-don't

Oh Fondant you're a love hate relationship.

I make my fondant homemade and you can buy it but making it is soooo much cheaper. The thing with making it is it's messy and difficult. These are some pictures from a girls 16th birthday. My 2nd fondant project. There is something definitely wrong with my fondant. I don't think I actually kneaded all the powdered sugar in. So make sure you really try to get 5-6 cups of sugar in your dough. Here's the recipe.

Homemade Fondant

1 Bag of generic mini marshmallows

1/2 cup of crisco

2-3 tsp of water

6 cups of powdered sugar

You microwave the marshmallow 2 minutes, stirring at 30 second intervals. Let cool a little (just a little) then add any color or flavoring. Use a toothpick to add color and never put a used toothpick in the color, sugar makes you color shrivel up and get all nasty in the container.

Crisco up a wooden spoon or silicone spatula and stir in 2/3 or sugar.

Crisco up your countertop and hands and slap that dough on the slab. Knead in the rest of the sugar. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in fridge when you're ready to use. You can microwave it for about 20 seconds to warm it back up to use.

When rolling it out, use cornstarch on your countertop and rolling pin.

Mizzy's Soundcraft

I have 3 sisters, no brothers. We aren't your stereotypical girls, but then again is there really a stereotypical girl in 2010 anymore? As a child I grew up catching spiders, playing in mud and my father taught me to shoot a child-size bow and arrow by the age of 8. Don't get me wrong I had my barbies too, but I was usually outside throwing them in the mud.

Even into adulthood I didn't fit the mold. I loved mixing sound for bands, editing videos, playing with electrical stuff, graphic design and building stuff. So does my sister Missy. So for Missy's birthday I made her a Soundcraft Mixing Board. Inputs, outputs, monitors, EQs, all a girl could want.
Although I'm proud of the idea of this cake, I wish I could have spent more time on it. Having a 4.5 month old on your hip while you're trying to pipe isn't the easiest but I got'er done. Happy mixing on the board and in the bowl!

Lost, it's been a great 6 years.

Oh Lost, you we're a great show so we had to celebrate your final episode. I of course made a cake. Dharma logo baby! Ben Linus would be proud of me. And I must say it's looks pretty good.

The food spread was island themed (except for those Cool Ranch Chips someone brought!) We had fruit salad, pineapple & ham pizza, coconut macaroons.
Oooo, back to the cake. It was 3 layers of red velvet with cream cheese frosting covered in homemade white fondant! Mmmm. Only the best for Lost.
And of course some odes to the show. The Dharma Polar Bear biscuits when Sawyer was locked up by the Others.
Dharma Root Brewskees that we're found in the hatch!
The party was invite only for the hardcore Lost fans. We watched the episode, found our closure and now...I'm over it. What's my next TV series obsession? Mmmm. A tie between Lie To Me and Persons Unknow

n.

2 years, 3 tiers

So it was my daughters 2nd birthday in May and I had planned her this awesome Yo Gabba Gabba party that would blow everyone's mind! But then she got chicken pox! Chicken pox? Really? So we scrapped the party but of course I was still going to make her a cake. We were sticking with the cake plan. 3 tiers! Did we need 3 tiers? No. But it didn't matter it was going to be awesome! I'll admit it's a little off centered but not too bad for my first 3 tier cake.

Am I a child of the 80's...ah duh!

It's my second Wilton baking class and we got to do fondant! Yes! I've been waiting. So I researched what I was going to make. I couldn't just do one tier boringness. Then I stumbled upon this...

Nintendo cake? Yes please! I began to plan. I made my marshmallow fondant for the first time which was difficult because I didn't know the texture I was suppose to get. It's soft play-doh for those who are curious.

I have 2 kids. One of which is barely 2 months, the other 2 years old. So I bake during naptime or nightime. Late at night when they were asleep I made my grey fondant with my black tinting gel. The next morning I wake up early to make black and dark grey. Hmmmm...my black tinting gel is gone. Really? Just GONE! How? What? So what do I do? I make purple. No need to give up, just redesign. And here's the outcome.

I still haven't found the black gel, let's just hope I find it before my 2 year old does.

I was born in 1982 so here are some "You know you grew up in the 80's if..."

- You knew what Willis was "talkin' 'bout."

- You know the profound meaning of "Wax on, Wax off."

- You can remeber watching full house and saved by the bell for endless hours.
- You have seen at least 10 episodes of Fraggle Rock.

- You hold a special place in your heart for "Back to the Future."
- You know where to go if you "wanna go where everybody knows your name."
- You thought Molly Ringwald was REALLY cool. (Was there an 80's movie she WASN'T in?)
- You know what "Sike" means.
- You fell victim to 80's fashion: big hair, crimped, combed over to the side, and you wore spandex pants
- You've heard of Garbage Pail Kids.

- You ever wore flourescent -neon if you will clothing...(or nailpolish)
- You could breakdance, or wished you could.

- You know all the words to "ice ice baby".
- You remember M.C hammer.
- You can still sing the rap to "fresh Prince of BelAir".
- You own any cassettes.
- You were led to believe that in the year 2000 we'd all be living on the moon.
- You remember and/or own any of the CareBear Glass collection from Pizza Hut.
- Poltergeist freaked you out.
- You carried your lunch to school in a Gremlins or an ET lunchbox.

- You wore biker shorts underneath a short skirt and felt stylish.
- You ever had a Swatch Watch.
- You actually spent countless hours trying to perfect the

- Partying "like it's 1999" seemed SO far away.care-bear stare.

- You remember when Saturday Night Live was funny.

Packaging, my weakness!

I love packaging. It's my american upbringing. In fact I would say really good packaging costs about as much as your product. But its' that clever packaging that gets me to buy their product and not the cheapskates. So naturally when I create something I want some nice packaging. This picture below has AMAZING colors. Just love it!

Here's what I've found for cupcakes.

DIFFERENT SIZES:
Cheapest is PlasticContainerCity.com. I like this website because you can buy individually and not just by the cases of like 5000. They carry all you need that's plastic. Jumbo, regular and mini cupcakes. Instead of the standard size cupcake, make mini ones. A recipe for 12 regular cupcakes will bake 24 mini. They're super cute and easier to eat.
For a fundraiser in our youth ministry we'll be making Mini Tasting Packs that will feature 6 different flavors. People love that.

WHERE IT DOESN'T BELONG:
Putting something where it doesn't belong is always a plus. Like I've placed cupcakes in chinese food boxes (Smart N Final about 25 cents a piece) or my new one is a Berry Box.
This will feature my Strawberry Skys cupcake for my friend Sarah's business.

BUT CARDBOARD IS THE BEST:
My favorite packaging for cupcakes is brown cardboard from BRPboxshop.com.


PERSONAL TOUCH:
Put a homemade sticker on the package and make it yours. Wrap a ribbon around it, glue a button. Whatever but just don't leave it alone.
CLASSY:

Whatever you place them in, make sure it's classy and clean. Sparkles Cupcakes in Sydney, Australia just look expensive because of the mirror inside the black box.

Chocolate Pretzel Cupcake

I'm prepping a fundraiser for our Youth Ministry. Every year we sell roses on Mother's Day. The kids assemble the roses, put water caps on the them and wrap them in a beautiful cellophane packages. This year we've added...cupcakes! So I'm going to be testing some recipes in the next few days before we bake. First one is "Chocolate Pretzel."

Vanilla and Chocolate are great flavors but my favorite are the unusual flavors. People love to try things they wouldn't usually make at home. Mmmm, chocolate covered pretzels are the best so why not make them a cupcake? I'm taking a Wilton cake decorating class a Micheal's and for my last cake I did trial one of the recipe. Check out that pretzel crust! Mmmmm salty.

Althought the salty and sweet combo was delish, it needed more chocoalte and the crust, well, needed to be more crusty.

I got the idea from Cupcake Project and decided to use the recipes she used and they worked.

THE PRETZEL CRUST - from allrecipes.com

• 3/4 cup margarine, softened
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 1/2 cups crushed pretzels

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, mix together margarine, sugar and pretzels. Press the mixture into a 9x13 inch baking pan. Bake in oven for 10 minutes; fill with desired pie filling.

Press the crust on the bottom of the cupcake liner. I added some chocolate morsels to add more chocolate flavor and somewhat deal the crunchiness before the batter hits it.

ONE BOWL CHOCOLATE CAKE - marthastewart.com

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt (kosher)
2 large eggs (room temperature!)
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

And top with a CHOCOLATE GANACHE - allrecipes.com

• 9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 
  
  

Directions

1. Place the chocolate into a medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, watching very carefully because if it boils for a few seconds, it will boil out of the pot. When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and whisk until smooth.
2. Allow the ganache to cool slightly before pouring over a cake. Start at the center of the cake and work outward. For a fluffy frosting or chocolate filling, allow it to cool until thick, then whip with a whisk until light and fluffy.