‘Despicable Me’ delicious cupcakes! December 5, 2011

If you love have a small child or just love Disney Pixar movies, you must know all about the movie Despicable Me. For my nephew’s 3rd birthday party, I chose to put together some cupcakes that bear a rather striking resemblance to the ‘minions‘ of the movie. 

To do so:

• Make a batch or two of cupcakes
• Get some Twinkies, and cut ’em in half
• Use regular frosting or add food coloring to white like I did
• White Smarties are used for the eyes
• Dab some black gel frosting for the eye balls and glue for the Smartie

Go through each little pack to pick ’em out. So annoying but so worth it!

  After frosting each of the cupcakes, just put the finished minion on top. Don’t worry – the frosting acts as a dependable glue.

And here they are, along with the birthday boy! Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

Hamburger Cupcakes! September 5, 2011

As usual I felt I had to generate attention for myself as I prepared to create a tasty treat for a Labor Day cookout.

Therefore I tried my hand at the cupcake hanburgers. Which, if done properly truly look like little burgers and taste like the exact opposite. Hard to wrap your head around, but enjoyable all the same.

For the buns:

-White cake mix into cupcakes. When cooled, carefully slice in half
-A dab of corn syrup on top
-Sesame seeds sprinkles on the corn syrup

 For the burger:

-Brownie mix, shaped with the rim of a champagne glass

For the condiments

-Butter cream frosting
-Green, yellow, and red food coloring mixed in to preference

-Put it all together, and you have some sweet sliders! Literally!-

 

The Homemade Cupcake Tier April 29, 2011

So for my very best friend’s birthday I wanted to go all out for the candled treat. Of course I couldn’t just make a cake.

So I made a collection of delicious mini cupcakes and a mini cake to go on top. But the caloric sweets aren’t the focus here.

To display them all, I made my own homemade cupcake tier.

First, cut wrapping paper in the shape and size of a cardboard cake round.

Then glue that to the board.

Next you’ll need a Styrofoam cylinder which can be found at any craft store. Wrap that in ribbon and glue to secure. 

After repeating those steps, cutting the cardboard smaller for each tier, you can glue  each tier together and leave overnight with something heavy on top. 

Of course it doesn’t look quite as nice  until it’s in action!

                                                      

Not Baked but so Bomb March 12, 2011

So this treat wasn’t baked, but it was so quick and so delicious. Oh, and we mustn’t forget adorable.

All you need is:

• Chocolate pudding (homemade or otherwise. I made my own)
• Plastic champagne flutes (You can get ’em at any party store)
• Graham crackers
• Canned whipped cream

First you can drop a few crumbles of graham into the flute:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then drop a dollop of the choc pudding into the cup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now a hearty squeeze of the whipped cream:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, some more graham crumbles on top! S’More cocktails!

Fondant stripper cake! February 14, 2011

Of course after making such an adorable little cake, I had to continue my quest of the elusive fondant. This past weekend was the joint birthday party of two of my good friends, and at the many parties we have over there, I am the cake/cupcake/dessert girl. Naturally.

So I used that crazy fondant again, but this time I used chocolate, which I’m sure tasted better. Funny enough, I don’t usually eat too many of my own treats. I prefer to subject others to that sometimes daunting task.

Anyhow, here is the fondant stripper cake!

The great brown ball of chocolate fondant:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After rolling it out with my handy dandy, if somewhat phallic, fondant roller, I formed it around the round, two-layer box cake. Hey, don’t act all surprised! I told you – me and cakes from scratch? Eh, no thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty, huh? So then I cut holes of bright pink dots to fasten on the sides. For this, I used white fondant and colored with red icing, working into the mound before rolling it out.

I also used icing as a glue, but I’ve heard dabs of water may also work:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And since this is the stripper cake, I adorned the top with the prettiest Ken doll ever. After I tore off his legs, of course. I dabbed from icing on his chest, and while it looks like blood, I promise that he was not in a knife fight.

The Great Fondant Challenge February 7, 2011

So this week I tried using fondant for the first time. You know, the sweet stuff that is found covering most wedding cakes. . .? Quite popular on one of my fave Food Network shows, Ace of Cakes. Anyway, naturally I wanted to try my hand at this. Not that I’m any culinary genius, but like I said, I’m working on my baker skills.

This is a small, one-layer cake I made for my neice’s 7th birthday, for our family dinner. So nothing too big, and a great way to practice using fondant for the first time.

First, I gathered the cake ingredients:

Then I unwrapped the white fondant and kneaded it until it was pretty soft:

But since it was for my neice’s 7th birthday, and she is the girliest little girl, I wanted to make the cake pink. There fore I took pink icing and slowly worked it into the mound of fondant:

I also squeezed some icing on top of the cake, before placed atop the fondant sheet:

So now I rolled out the fondant, which I guess takes some getting use to. This package was suppose to be enough to cover a couple layer cake, but I was only able to roll out and smooth it enough to cover this one-layer:

I suppose next time I need to work harder and roll it out better in each direction. A trick I also learned is that in order to keep it from sticking to any roller, use confectioner sugar (powdered sugar), just like you’d use flour for dough.

Then I fitted it around the cake:

With a few other colors of fondant, i cut out curcles for polka dots. For a glue, I used dots of icing:

After adding a few candles, I topped it off with a Littlest Pet Shop figurine I picked up from the store and viola! An adorable little cake for an adorable little now-7-year-old!

-Miss Foodie

The Wannabe Baker February 2, 2011

I am not a professional baker or chef. I also have almost no idea how to make a cake from scratch. I am most occustomed to buying a good ‘ole box of Devil’s Food or Betty Crocker cake mix, throwing in some eggs, water, and oil, and baking at 350 for 40 minutes or so.

It’s after that when I have the real fun. I am, if I do say so myself, on the fast road to truly dynamite treat making and decorating. I can whip up a mean batch of kinda perfect brownies and I can create some one-of-a-kind conversation piece desserts. It’s kinda one of my things.

Up next is the great fondant challenge. I’ll take ya’ll step by step, but don’t worry. There will be some accompanying photos for your viewing pleasure.

-Miss Foodie