Whoa Baby!

I made some cupcakes tonight! I saw this idea on pinterest, too!

They are for a baby shower. The bibs are made out of fondant. I don't think I would like to work with fondant to put on a whole cake, but it wasn't too bad for the cupcakes. I made the fondant, so I was just glad it turned out ok. After I cut out the bib shape I decorated them by piping on icing.

I HEART these cupcakes!

Tomorrow is my turn to take a snack for my Bible study ladies. I didn't know what kind of cupcake to make besides a plain one with a pretty cup holder. I found this idea on my new favorite website http://www.pinterest.com/. I love it and am obsessed. I am probably on there a few hours a day.

They aren't as hard to make as they look. After you  make the batter, you take about 1/3 of it and dye it. Then, you put the dyed batter into a small baking dish and bake it just until it can be cut. You don't want to fully cook it. After it is cooked, it needs to cool (very important step). When it is cool, take a cookie cutter and cut out your shape. Then, place the cake in the cupcake pan (stand it up...pointy end of the heart touching the bottom of the pan) and fill the rest of the cup with the uncooked batter. It may take 4 hands to do. Josh helped me. Bake as you normally would. Since you have to rebake the dyed cake batter, that is why you don't want to fully cook it the first time. It may dry out the center.

Now, you need to remember which direction you put the shape inside the cupcake so that when they are cut or eaten you will see the intended shape not a blob of colored cake. That is why my icing is in the shape of a heart, which doesn't look that great. On these cupcakes, they will have to take a bite from the top or the bottom of the heart in order to see the shape.

I must try other shapes. I bought 3 cookie cutters - heart, cross, and a mini cupcake. I tried the cross but, it was too flimsy. I didnt' try the cupcake because I didn't think people would know what it was. Maybe next time.  :)

A new cupcake next week...

Well, I haven't had anything to make cupcakes for until now. I found a REALLY cute cupcake that I'm going to make next week for my Bible study girls. I saw it on pinterest. I hope it turns out. I'm not going to make them until Monday. So, hopefully pictures will be posted Monday or Tuesday night. I'm really excited!! Check back next week!

Josh's 32nd Birthday!

My husband will be 32 this Tuesday. I found a recipe for these cupcakes, but I tweaked it just a bit. I made fudge cupcakes but I melted dark chocolate morsels and mixed it in the batter then I made mocha icing and topped it with chocolate shavings. Yum yum! I even made him hold them while I took his picture!

It's a BOY!

Two of my friends are pregnant and due within a week of each other. Our group of friends threw them a surprise baby shower. I found this idea in What's New Cupcake? You  may not be able to tell in the picture, but the cupcake at the top is a shower head making it look like it is 'raining' babies! I made the same mistake with these cupcakes that I did with the mini pie cupcakes...I used canned frosting! So, when I turned the 'shower head' on its side ALL the icing ran off the cupcake. Not to mention a few of the babies were smashed during transport. I took a few cupcakes home and when I took them out of the pan ALL the icing ran off. I have definitely learned to NOT use canned frosting!

Masquerade Ball

I thought the butterfly cupcakes took a long time....these cupcakes took a LLLLLOOOOONNNNGGGG time. I made approximately 279 cupcakes. It wasn't the cupcakes that took forever, it was the masks. My plan was to make a mask for every cupcake, but I ran out of time. I had never made this many cupcakes so I didn't plan far enough ahead. The ones that didn't get a mask were placed in the shape of a mask. All in all it still looked good. I think I used every pie pan, casserole dish, baking dish, tupperware bowl that I had to store all of these. Then, my husband brought me 4 bread trays to transport them. That helped a lot! Then it began to storm as we were loading them but it quit by the time we had to unload them!

Butterflies

These were really fun to make. It seemed to take forever because I had to make 2 wings per cupcake and I made 48 cupcakes! They turned out great!

St. Patty's Day

 I made these rainbow layered cupcakes with a white chocolate (dyed green) shamrock for St. Patrick's Day! These are some of my favorite, too!

Marshmallow Flowers

I made these cupcakes for my mother-in-law's friend who was changing jobs. These are probably one of my favorites. This idea also came from What's New Cupcake?

Tee Time

I made this cupcake for my Dad's birthday. He likes to golf. This idea came from the book What's New Cupcake? The sand is crushed graham crackers. The green is sprinkles. I made the flag out of a pretzel and Fruit by the Foot. The golf balls are marshmallows. They were supposed to be white gumballs, but it is very difficult finding just 3 white gumballs without buying a gigantic jar.

The Vegetable Patch!

This was for my father-in-law's birthday! This idea is also from Hello, Cupcake! He always has a big garden every summer! Most of the veggies are made out of Laffy Taffy. The signs are made out of graham crackers. The lettuce leafs are green colored Corn Flakes.



The next ones don't look great...

They are supposed to look like pies, but I used canned frosting and it isn't as firm as homemade so the pie 'crust' looks a little sloppy.



Happy 1st Birthday!

I think this was the very first cupcake cake that I made. It came from the book, Hello, Cupcake! I made it for my nephew's 1st bithday party in 2008. The spikes are chocolate cookies cut in half diagonally. The toenails are banana runts. The teeth and the eyes are large marshmallows.

Hello!

Well, after making cupcakes for a few years now, I've decided to start a blog so I can keep track of all the ones I've made. So, some of the posts will be cupcakes from a few years back. I have 2 books, Hello, Cupcake! and What's New Cupcake? that I used to get started and for ideas. As I tried different things, I've come to find out that I like decorating cupcakes with melted chocolate. So, I hope you enjoy looking at my cupcakes!