High Heel Cupcakes - June 2012

I made these high heel shoe cupcakes for my sister, Valerie's, birthday.  My other sister, Casandra, had gotten me the book Cupcakes, Cookies & Pie, Oh, My! by Alan Richardson and Karen Tack for my birthday, and this was one of the cupcake creations in the book.  I thought it was so cute and decided to make it for Valerie.

More pictures and details to come... :)

[Right now I'm just trying to get everything on the blog, then I'll go back and fill in details; you can read a little longer explanation here if you want. BUT if you have any questions in the meantime, in general or about these cupcakes, please feel free to email me by clicking on the 'Contact Me' tab at the top of the page and using the email address found there, and I will try to get back with you as soon as possible. Or you can always ask questions or leave a comment about these cupcakes by clicking the comments link at the end of this post. :)]

 

 

 

 

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Teacher Appreciation School Subject Themed Cupcakes - June 2012

I made these cupcakes for my daughter, Cara's, 7th grade teachers.  Each of her teachers got a cupcake and each cupcake had a fondant topper that had something to do with the subject that they teach.

These cupcakes came from the same batch of cupcakes that we used for my son's teacher's cupcake (see this post for tulip cupcakes and this post for Star Wars cupcakes).  So, the cupcakes are just baked, cooled completely, and then iced by using a large star tip to pipe chocolate buttercream on top the chocolate cupcakes.

 

The cupcake below was made for her language arts teacher.  I made a 3D book out of fondant.  Cara wanted the title of the book to be The Giver, which is a book they read during the year.  So, I decided instead of just writing 'The Giver' on the front, I would look the book up online and draw the cover using a brown food coloring marker.  Cara was happy when she saw it.

The next cupcake was made for her P.E. coach.  I rolled out some white fondant and let it dry just a little (it helps the food coloring markers draw more smoothly without catching on the soft fondant).  I drew the volleyball first using a black food coloring marker.  The I used different colors of food coloring to paint on the basketball, tennis ball and tennis racket.  Then I went back with the black food coloring marker to finish the details.  I cut the picture out using a small paring knife when I was finished and stuck the fondant sports topper into the icing.

This cupcake was made for her math teacher.  The process for this topper was the same as the sports one above except I left a little tab of fondant at the bottom when I cut it out to stick into the icing.

 

The cupcake below was made for Cara's science teacher.  I used the same food coloring painting technique going back for the details with the food coloring marker as I did for the sports topper.  I did use a toothpick dipped in water to take some of the lighter purple color away to make bubbles in that section.

I made the following music note cupcake for her choir teacher.  After I painted the music note with red food coloring, I used edible shimmer dust to make it glitter.

This last cupcake was made for her social studies teacher.  Again, same painting technique as the sports topper.

All her teachers liked the cupcakes, and Cara was excited to give them a little thank you treat.  :)

 

(I created my animated name at this site.)

 

Triathlon Themed Brownie Cupcakes - May 2012

I made these triathlon themed brownie cupcakes for my daughter, Carissa's, 1st grade teacher.  She participates in triathlons and had taken part in an Ironman Triathlon recently (wow), so we thought that she would enjoy this set of cupcakes.  She mentioned on a 'favorites' sheet that she liked brownies, so we made brownie cupcakes for her instead of regular cupcakes.

 

To make these cupcakes I started by baking brownies in cupcake liners.  When the brownie cupcakes were baked and completely cooled I used a large star tip to pipe chocolate buttercream icing on the tops of the brownies.  Then I put the hand painted fondant pictures I had made in the icing to top the brownie cupcakes.

 

To make the fondant toppers I rolled out some fondant and lightly painted the basic lines of the pictures I would be drawing with peach food coloring.  Then I went back and painted in all the details with the different colors of food coloring.  For some of the thinner or smaller black details I used a food coloring marker.  Then I used a small paring knife to cut around the pictures.

 

As I mentioned in the previous post, Star Wars Themed Teacher Appreciation Cupcakes, if I were doing these again, I would attach a lollipop stick or toothpicks to the backs of the toppers to make them more stable (and less 'fragile') on the top of the cupcake.

 

Carissa was very excited about giving the brownie cupcakes to her teacher, and her teacher really liked them!  :)

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Little Monster Cake Balls Featured!

The little monster cake balls that I made for a guest blogger post on Doodles and Doilies [and for my family to enjoy :) ] was featured on Sun Scholars!

Every Friday Rachel over at Sun Scholars hosts her For the Kids Friday link party. You can post a link to one of your kid related activities, games, recipes, parties, gifts, crafts, traditions, lessons, etc. for others to browse through and look at (and there are plenty of great ideas to look through yourself). The following week she posts some of her favorites from the previous week's party (and pins them on Pinterest here). Awhile back I posted a link to the monster cake balls that I made, and I was honored to see it featured the following week! Thanks, Rachel! You can check out Rachel's post that includes the cake here. You can also check out my original post for the monster cake balls here! :)

(I created my animated name at this site.) 

Star Wars Themed Teacher Appreciation Cupcakes - May 2012

I made these Star Wars themed cupcakes for my son, Caleb's, 4th grade switch teacher.  She had decorated her room with a Star Wars theme that year (much to the joy of my kiddos) and I'd heard her mention that R2D2 was one of her favorite characters.  So, I thought that R2, C3PO, and some lightsabers would be a nice set of cupcakes for her.

Oooo... shiny!  :)

These cupcakes are from the same batch as the other teacher's cupcakes we made (see the post Teacher Appreciation Tulip Cupcakes); just chocolate cupcakes baked, cooled completely, and iced with a big swirl of buttercream piped on with a large open star tip.

To make the lightsabers I tinted fondant red, blue, and gray.  I rolled the red and blue into long snakes the size I wanted the lightsaber blade to be.  I tapered one end of the snake for the end of the lightsaber.  Then I rolled the gray fondant into a small snake the same width as the red and blue blades.  I used water to attach the gray hilts to the red and blue blades.  I set them aside to dry for awhile.  Later I used a black food coloring marker to make the black markings on the hilts.  I inserted the ends of the lightsabers into the icing making them cross at the blades.  I put a little water on the spot where they crossed to help them stay together.  If I was doing it again I would've inserted part of a toothpick into the end of the hilt to stick into the cupcake.  This would've helped them to stay in the position I wanted without falling down.  I guess if I wasn't traveling with them it may not be as necessary.

To make R2-D2 and C3PO I rolled out some white fondant fairly thin.  I let it dry just a bit so the food marker would move smoothly on it.  I used a black food marker to draw R2-D2 and C3PO.  For C3PO I then used some of my gold airbrush food coloring to fill in the lines, and then I did the same with silver for the silver leg.  For the wires in his torso I used food markers to draw them in.  Most of R2 I just left white, but I did use the silver airbrush food coloring and a blue food marker to fill in the necessary places.  As I said with the lightsabers, if I was doing this again, I would definitely use something to make these figures a little sturdier on the cupcakes.  I would secure a wooden skewer or a lollipop stick to the back of the pieces so that I could insert the stick into the cupcake instead of just the fondant.  Traveling with the fondant pieces just stuck into the cupcakes was a little stressful.  :)  C3PO's leg actually broke a bit, but it was low enough that you couldn't tell.

I really liked the look of these cupcakes.  Caleb's teacher absolutely loved them!  Yay!  :)

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Teacher Appreciation Tulip Cupcakes - May 2012

I made these tulip cupcakes for my son, Caleb's, 4th grade homeroom teacher.  On a list of her favorites she wrote tulip down for one of her favorite flowers, so we thought that would be cute.  Caleb helped pick what colors to make the tulips.

The cupcakes are just chocolate cupcakes baked, cooled completely, then iced using a medium-sized open star tip to pipe a large swirl to cover the top of the cupcake. 

To make the tulips, I bought some long lollipop sticks and cut them in half.  I painted them green with some watered down food coloring and set them aside to dry.  Next, I tinted some fondant green to match the color of the sticks.  I rolled out the green fondant and cut out shapes similar to tulip leaves.  I used some fondant tools to thin and elongate the leaves in the necessary places.  Then I lay the leaves on top of some of the extra lollipop sticks to let them dry with a little curve to them.

I tinted some fondant pink and rolled a piece into a ball.  I inserted one of the green lollipop sticks into the ball to serve as a base for the tulip petals.  I rolled out the rest of the pink fondant and used a large petal cutter from a set I have to cut out 5 petals.  Using some fondant tools I thinned and rounded out the petals where needed.  Then I used some water to attach the petals around the ball base.  I smoothed and furled my petals here and there to get the look that I wanted for the tulip.

Next, I inserted the tulip into the cupcake and then placed two of my leaves into the icing on either side of the stick.  Then I repeated the steps for the purple and yellow tulips using their respective colors of fondant.

I was happy with the way these cupcakes turned out.  I thought they looked sweet, bright, and Spring-y.  :)  Caleb's teacher really liked them too!  :)

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Yoshi!!! - April 2012

I made this Yoshi themed cake for my son, Caleb's, 10th birthday.

More pictures and details to come... :)

[Right now I'm just trying to get everything on the blog, then I'll go back and fill in details; you can read a little longer explanation here if you want. BUT if you have any questions in the meantime, in general or about this cake, please feel free to email me by clicking on the 'Contact Me' tab at the top of the page and using the email address found there, and I will try to get back with you as soon as possible. Or you can always ask questions or leave a comment about this cake by clicking the comments link at the end of this post. :)]

(I created my animated name at this site.)