Key Lime Cupcakes & a Week of Cupcakes!

July 24th huh? That was my last post here and yet it was not the last cake that I did..........so I could think of this as slacking - only with all the kids home for the summer I am hardly getting to sit down let alone SLACK! To save you all from a rant about my having to chase children around to clean or shuttle future adults to library weekly for books and movies - we will just forget that stream of thought and do a Week Of Cupcakes!!

This cupcake is a Key Lime Cupcake. Now as usual nothing is original in my mind. This cupcake I am 100% certain has been done a million times over - I think this because I did a search to see if there were recipes and how folks did them. Why I did the search though is because a friend, Pennie, made a Key Lime pie. Never having made one myself I asked what goes into it. She explained it - surprised me that while there were separate steps NONE of them sounded all that hard, just time consuming a smidge (tiny smidge). The pie was wonderful!! It was totally gone by the end of the evening. A few days later she mentioned her husband suggested I try making a Key Lime Cupcake. And thus the search for what makes a Key Lime Cupcake to folks all over was mine.

There are TONS and TONS and TONS of different recipes. Key Lime cake as the base of the cupcake - Key Lime filling - Key Lime icing - and combinations of many different. To me it seemed like many of them were missing the Graham Cracker bottom - only then I noticed that many of them had Graham Crackers sprinkled INTO the cupcake paper and then the cake batter placed over that so it baked into a pseudo crust. Not what I was envisioning.

Finally I figured out what would be totally Yum and kinda close to Pennie's Pie - because that was my personal goal - a Graham Cracker cake. Figured that out in less time then it took to search all the Key Lime stuff. Substitute pureed Graham Crackers (cinnamon grahams are the best in my opinion - but I would put cinnamon in everything - except my husbands rubs for smokin' - he does that, but cinnamon doesn't belong there I think) for part of the flour in a basic Butter cake recipe. Gave that a WhipUp and taste tested it and OHMYGOODNESS that was YUMMY all by itself!! I immediately envisioned a Ton of different cupcakes I could do with that and sent the recipe to my Sis-In-Law who was looking to do a good S'mores cupcake.
So then there was the figuring out of the main part of the cake - Key Lime. I did more research on this then I would have thought because of the egg involved. The cupcake wasn't going to go into the oven a second time - the filling would be inserted into the cupcake after baking - that created a problem with the eggs. Although much research about the egg being combined with the sugar and the sugar/egg ratio then eliminating the possibility of salmonella poisoning being gone........it still made me nervous.

Key Lime makes me think of Lemon (duh) and one of my favorite Lemon treats is a Lemon Curd that my friend, Sarah, made me years and years and years ago. So my thought was why not make a Key Lime Curd which would kill off the salmonella problem - mix that with the Sweetened Condensed Milk that goes into the pie filling and pipe that into the center of a cupcake? Genius right? Again - surely someone has done this, but I didn't find it on line this time so I wasn't 100% it would work.

First task - Squeezing all these dang Key Limes. I did it with my glass lemon juicer - see it there in the back of the pic? Took me a whole piano lesson + some time to do it - Key Limes are way too tiny!!! Don't do that!!! See a few days later guess what I saw that someone had done.......used a Garlic Press because half a Key Lime fits perfect into a press - DUH!! Brilliant!! So do that - don't do what I did.
Then there was the melting of some butter. Do you love watching butter melt? At first I do. Not sure why. Then I become incredibly impatient and start moving the butter around to get on with it already.

Added the egg yolks - the Key Lime juice and a bit zest - the sugar - and waited - well didn't really WAIT.......

Rather I stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred until the wanted thickening happened and the consistency that was desired was reached. I have finally figured out that you do not want it to be thickened completely on the stove........that took a few doings years back to realize. See how Instant Pudding ruins our ability to learn things the right way? It will thicken a bit more as it cools off.

So a smart girl who runs a hobby blog about cakes and things she creates would have taken a picture of the process of adding the cooled Key Lime curd in with the SCMilk right? Or maybe a picture of the delicious Graham Cracker cupcake? Yeah probably - but who knows a smart girl like that around here?

What you see is what you get I am afraid. Hulled the center of the yummy cupcake - filled it with Key Lime filling - topped that with a White Chocolate Icing - sprinkled a tiny bit of the crushed grahams and then started taking them around the area for testing.

Only one person suggested a change.......which I was totally ready for - only after saying that he had something to say it turned out to be, "This is probably the best cupcake I have every had".

So I am going with this one is a winner. The next day I started getting calls asking me if I would make them for a neighbors Red Hat meeting - Winner.

How to turn your Hand Red

For heaven's sake!! I was searching through my lists of posts on this blog to clean anything up that was sitting around and found these pics ready to be posted! Holy cow this is from like January or February - well I think the cupcakes were Valentines so totally February.

What is this thing? Well this is a picture of the FABULOUS gift my Mother-in-law gave me for Christmas. I really really wanted this. It is an airbrush. Now I am not new to airbrushing. In High School I airbrushed in my drafting and architecture classes. Well really it was in architecture. Remember - I mentioned before that I took drafting/arch all through High School. Mr. Jackson, our teacher, was kind enough to kinda make up - fashion - create - new classes for 6 of us (was it 6? Kelly, Mike, Fred, Brad, Me....Steve may have been in it too, but he wasn't in our specific group of every year together in the class - so I guess it was 5). By the fourth year we had kinda run through most of the classes I think - there was Drafting - Arch I and Arch II. Hmmm...it was 25 years ago.....maybe there were 2 Draftings and 2 Arch, but since each class was a semester there were really 8 semesters and - well like you really care anyway.......so there was a group of us who took a lot of drafting type classes and Mr. Jackson liked us all enough to keep us going with new areas of the field to teach us - plus he took us to yearly competitions (cool). Toward the end we were creating the exterior plans and then using different mediums to create the presentation - like markers, pencils, water colors and AIRBRUSHING.

Based on the grades I remember receiving I was pretty darn good at all the mediums except.....yes.....Airbrushing. I can remember Steve was excellent at airbrushing - in fact I am fairly sure he opened a tshirt shop where he airbrushed art work onto tshirts like they do at Six Flags. Okay maybe not.....but it is a possibility that it happened. I will ask Mary Jo - she always secretly crushed on him.

So I still keep in touch with Mr. Jackson. FB is a wonderful thing right? However, even before FB I had been in contact - visited - things like that. He had been following my cakes a bit - sending me some ideas and things. Both He and Dave had brought up the Airbrush and the thought that using it might open up some decorating techniques for me. Sounded fun - just needed to get one and at the time I wasn't doing enough "cakes for friends" to buy more then the supplies needed to bake a cake........so I put it on my Christmas list and my wonderful Mom-in-law made the purchase. YEA!
Anyway - back to my brand new totally coveted and wanted Airbrush. I opened it - it looked the same as the one I used in HS. And then the paralyzing fear of it came back. The AIRBRUSH. My classroom nemesis. I hated the Airbrush. How could I have forgotten how much I DID NOT like the Airbrush??

I mean look at the direction picture that details each part!! Ugh. The first day Mr. Jackson gave us the airbrush and had us dismantal it and then put it back together after identifying the parts and figuring out what each one does. Ugh. Now I have to do it again......the flash back fear of a test became overwhelming. However, I was determined to figure this thing out......to see how using it could open up new cake decorating techniques. Only that week I had seen them airbrush the tops of cupcakes quickly and easily........and I was donating about 100 cupcakes to various classrooms at our school for Valentines - so airbrushing all of them vs actually mixing enough red dye into buttercream made sense financially as well as in time.

So I didn't close the airbrush casing........I kept going.........Finish Strong is what we tell the kids.
But then I found the directions.......Ugh.......they were so long!! And there were all these various pieces to deal with........ugh.......

But then I looked closer at the pieces........with the flash back of test anxiety came a flash back of recognition as to how to put together all the pieces of the airbrush. So pushing the directions aside I picked up the airbrush pieces and assembled it. Hey this wasn't so hard - 25 years and I could still build an airbrush - Whooo Hoooo Me!!

But I should read the directions.......But I didn't want to........They were long.......They were boring..........They weren't as fun as just sticking some of the food safe dye into the airbrush and Going For It!! Who needed those stinkin' directions anyway!! I took Architecture in High School and I already KNEW how to use the airbrush.........I am Airbrush Woman watch me CREATE!!

I poured the correct amount of dye into the pot. Closed it all up. Set it for spraying things. Put a cupcake on a plate and..........
Well and then I totally missed the cupcake on my first try.

The second try was a little bit better.........but almost as lame as the first try. I counseled myself into comfort by saying this was a "lack of reading the directions".......no, this missing thing was more just a rustiness due to the 25 year time span of NOT having to use the airbrush in class.

After about half the cupcakes I started to get better. There were certainly blotching spots on some because my hand didn't have the grapse of slowly pulling back the trigger to release the dye, but with each cupcake I became a smidge better. Ben came by and wanted to try - so I let him. His were worse then mine so I patted myself on the back and said in my head, "See don't feel poorly about the way yours look. They are WAY better then his look!".......of course he is a 9 year old boy who has never in his life touched an airbrush.....and they only looked an itty bitty bit worse then mine........and he had the sense to say, "Hey if we add a few of those tiny chocolate chips you have on each cupcake they will look even better"......and he was right.

In the end he was probably the better airbrush artist.

Once they were all sprayed it was time to clean the airbrush. AGAIN I pulled those instructions out and looked at them. Geez O who needs directions.......I cleaned the airbrush out a million times. So I started the process of cleaning this one out. How hard can it be? Well honestly - not hard at all......unless you don't really remember HOW to clean our the airbrush and you are kinda just winging it based on the fact that you are too dang lazy to read the directions.

And with that.........

I turned my hand red.

And the counter. And the cloth that I had to use to clean the counter up. And 2 other cloths too.

Now you may be wondering........Did She Ever Use The Airbrush Again? Bet you think I didn't. Well you are wrong. I have used it, but not much to be honest. I am utterly scared of the thing. I saw on line that my absolute favorite cake decorator - who I have pilgrimaged across the country (okay only from IL to TN) to meet in person at her shop - was setting up an airbrushing class with a cake decorator who is in those competitions and teachers.......but I can't just drive to TN for a class.......and I couldn't find one around here. I should mess around with it more though because I have seen some seriously cute things done with an airbrush on a cake.

Now are you wondering did I read the directions? What do you think?

Of Course Not!!

Carrots On Top

Geez O I can't seem to catch up.......ahhh!! But next week I don't have a SINGLE cake request. So I will likely have time to put together a few of the posts and set them to be scheduled and just pop up. Although I think I am 20 cakes back at this point......that should get me through the whole summer for posts right?

These cupcakes were for a neighbors friend - Carrot Cake!! We have the BEST ever carrot cake recipe at our house. While I like a few cake flavors.....Carrot has always been my favorite. Add in some pineapple and take out the nuts and you have a great recipe. Dave created this one with a recipe he found somewhere that he tweaked a bit. It is delicious!! Create a nice little Cream Cheese icing and you have a dream!!

The carrots were just a simple little cute topper. There are a few recipes that I love - and they all seem to involve fruits and veggies in them - which adds to the cost of buying the ingredients AND to the time of prepping the fruits and veggies for baking - Lucky for me I don't have a ton of extra time and money to put into them on a more common basis or I would be ginormous from eating them - but when it is time for a treat it is 100% worth the effort to do it.

Total Apple Yumminess!

Again........I am certain that if I searched this idea it would NOT be original. At the same time - when the thought occured to me it was totally new in my head. Of course if you watch ANY cake or cupcake show on TV it is completely obvious that if you can stick it in a cupcake at this point and time Someone Has Done It!

For me to CASE (copy and steal everything) is not a shameful thing - doing it builds up my own confidence in doing something - what I mean is ...... if I see that you have done something so completely wonderful I would like to see if I can do that wonderful thing too. Once I build my skill at doing something I can master without having to recreate the wheel....then I can move on to original works of my own art with confidence. I know there are folks out there that do not agree with that - they feel that if it is a copy of something else then you aren't really showing that you have the ability to truly create. To that I say...."eh".....the world is how many years old? Someone has likely been there - so don't stress yourself out (my husband might cringe and giggle that I said that - he so doesn't believe that I don't stress - and he is right, but I am stressing about perfection, not about creativity credit - TOTALLY different).

Now on the day of these cupcakes we were both stressing about something not cake related. I came downstairs and found water all over the floor. Thinking someone had been messing with the water button on the fridge I went to get a towel. Then as I did that I began to think that Dave was the only one up after me the night before and unless he got giddy on treats before bed it didn't make sense that he would play with the water button. So as I laid the towel down I opened the freezer door and found a frozen waterfall that was dripping. Our ice maker had decided to go bezerk (how do you spell beserk? bezerk? - oh well phonically you can read that right?). Woke Dave up - began to dismantle the freezer contents and look for the problem. Ice maker.

There were tons of things thawed out........some thrown away - others saveable. And then there were the 5 bags of peeled & cup up pie making apples I had put in before winter came (like we are the Ingalls right?). What to do with them? Pie? No. Crisp? Yum. Cupcakes? Hmmmmm.....

What made the cupcake idea the winner? My new cupcake huller. Just fresh from the store bought for my by my dad for my birthday!! Yes!! I needed something to fill the cupcakes I was longing to use my huller on.

Cupcakes baked - Huller out - simple as apple pie - place into the cupcake - twist - pull out.

Then I dump them into a bowl - originally the idea was for time saving - so I didn't have to twist around and put them in the trash to save my ass (literally)........but then I began to realize that kids like to pop these little pieces in their mouths. So we don't have them often - but they are fun when we did. Probably how donut holes started.

But this pictures shows what the BEST part of making these cupcakes was. The Ginormous vat of apples baking..........yummmmmmmyyyyyyy........all appley and cinnamon and brown sugar with just a smidge of butter to keep them from sticking (you don't really need an entire stick ya know - just a few chunks).

This was the reason that it made it most fun - the house was filled with this yummy smell. Way Way Way better then any candle you can get at the store.............

Once it was cooled off I popped the batch in shifts into the food processor and got rid of the slices and made it a nice, midly chunky, apple sauce like texture. Then took an icing bag out and began to fill the cupcakes................topped them off with some Cinnamon Buttercream.........

and just because some days I have the ability to Over Achieve.....whipped up some homemade from scratch (yes, I realize homemade means "from scratch" - but it was hard and I deserve the double) Caramel.........and drizzled it on top.

Ummmmm Yummmmmm!!! I called them Apple Pie Cupcakes. We were headed to a gathering and called ahead to see if I could bring these and if the hostess thought people would like some Apple Pie Cupakes. My friend, Pennie, said that it was against the law in the US not to like Apple Pie. You get kicked out of the country - which made me think - Red, White & Blue cupcake papers........and so it was........but that night only Pennie got the connection to the papers being all about Apple Pie and Patriotism.......oh well - not everyone can be as brilliant as us.

These cupcakes turned out to be the BOMB. I farmed out a few of the extras to neighbors because the apple filling made more then I could take to friends that night - and I ended up getting folks asking me to make them for other events - SCORE!! Winnner!!

So.......just in case you didn't read the whole post (cheater)........these cupcakes were White cake with Apple Pie filling and Cinnamon Buttercream touched by Caramel sauce. Delish!!

Lemon Drop Cupcake

Short post.........but worth the suggestion. Lemon cupcakes with a Lemon buttercream icing. Ummmm yummmmmm..........

Want the recipe just email me. These are tart, but sweet. Making them is nice because you squeeze all the lemons and the kitchen smells FABULOUS!! Of course these are good without the lemon in the buttercream - tastes like a lemon push up.

Garry & Patrick........

Whoops - I thought these went out months ago!! These were the cutest ever cupcakes (in my opinion). The day that I did these I had 2 extra children......and they did so so so so so well with The Line that it made things easier for me to get them done.

What is The Line? Haven't I talked about that before? Oh. Well The Line is very well known in my house. Generally The Line was invented to help children from getting into trouble. Although if you asked the children they might say that The Line was invented to keep them away from the fun.

See early on - when making cakes wasn't happening as often - the kids had kinda free reign in the kitchen. I mean anything I was baking was for my family. So I wasn't really worried about germs. Well...........I was worried about germs if the bakery good was going out of the house or being used for a party. But in the first few years of living here in Central Illinois we weren't having many parties - so baking was mostly for us. If the kids stuck a finger in the batter I wasn't too worried. I mean batter fingers and licking spatulas is the best part of baking for a kid anyway right? Who wants to take that away?

Then when I began to make cakes for others as favors the kids still had the same mindset of where the comfort zone was for touching things. In my mind the understanding was pretty clear cut - If The Cake Is For Someone Else...........WE DON'T TOUCH. They didn't seem to get that. In fact I remember one day where I had just mixed a batter.......Ben came in and literally STUCK his face into the bowl and sniffed in REALLY REALLY DEEP and complimented me by saying, "That smells great". All I could think was GROSS!! Dave was there with us and explained to Ben how gross that was and how he just spread germs all over the batter. Ben pointed out how he didn't touch the batter or sneeze on it (yes, this has happened in the past). So we explained how little things can still drop from a persons closely placed face in bowl. Ben apologized and left. I turned around and Kid You Not! Dave has his face in the bowl breathing in really deeply and says, "That does smell great."

Seriously? Batter thrown out. The Line invented. In our kitchen we have an island. Our kitchen is kind of an L shape. The island starts at the long stretch of the L. Inside the L there is the island (duh), sink, fridge (not the British rock band) and stove - and all cabinets. When I am baking or decorating a cake The Line goes up. This means basically that they can enter the kitchen and exit the kitchen onto the porch.......but they can not walk through the portion of the kitchen that has anything useful or interesting to them. Which can be hard.

At first.........during The Line training.......I would have to repeat "There is a line here" and physically swoop my arm from the wall - across the floor and end of the island - to the wall. Over and over we did this. About 5 cakes in the kids began to come into the kitchen and would see ingredients on the island and ask, "Is The Line up?" Thus The Line became its own "thing"

When I was making these fun cupcakes the Grey boys were here. These weren't the first kiddo's to visit when I was baking.......but they were the best at responding to The Line. Good job Pennie! When Andersen told the oldest Grey that there was A Line.....he looked for it - pretended to see it - push against it - made fun of it - but he NEVER crossed it! And that is all that counted........because honestly and invisible line is kinda funny - necessary - but funny.

Patrick was my favorite cupcake of them all. At first - when I cut his body out with a star - all it looked like was A STAR. Then as I added more items and moved his arms and legs about he began to really look like Patrick!

With The Line up - the kids paying due respect of The Line and Dave bringing home lunch - these were pretty quick to be made!

The cupcakes were Chocolate Chocolate chip and White cake - all with a Vanilla Buttercream icing and Vanilla Fondant.

Chilly Birthday

This is another birthday treat that made it onto Facebook, but never made it to the lime light here on the blog.......oops. This is an example of the Gum Paste. Can you tell any difference? Gum Paste vs Fondant doesn't really look much different when finished. However, the gum paste dries much quicker. Well fondant dries quickly too........let me explain better. When I am using fondant to make figures it tends to stay soft longer when I am doing the actual moulding. So it is hard to get a specific shape - most frustrating a ROUND shape. Because one side will want to start to rest and become the kinda flat side. Which isn't a big problem for something like a cake because you want it to have a somewhat flatter side so that it won't roll off the cake or require so much icing to make it stay in place that it shows a lot. Gum paste will set up (dry) a little faster. So the resting doesn't cause the figure to fall out of the shape I want. Does that make sense?

Also - gum paste is a little more forgiving then fondant when it comes to creating figures. If I mess up a figure with either modeling medium I have to wad it up and start over. Sugar dries - as we mentioned before - and it is useful sometimes to have powder (in the form of powdered sugar or corn starch) on the mat I am creating on so that the figures don't stick - if they do stick then I have to tug on them to pick them up and they easily stretch out of shape (imagine playdoh). After wading up a piece of fondant that has been touching a powder you are also adding in the powder that is attached - thus causing the fondant to dry out a bit more. You can counter this by adding a little smidge of shortening or butter (very little), but still you are altering the original texture.

Gum paste doesn't seem to stick to the mat as much - so I can create more without using a powder substance to keep it from sticking. Thus when I mess a form up..........and let's just say that happens with every new thing I create....because the cake pops have now proven I am not perfect every time. With the gum paste I can wad it up - use it - wad it - use it. Not forever of course - but for a little longer then the fondant.

One additional pro for gumpaste over fondant for making figures - you can roll it out MUCH thinner!! Fondant will tend to tear if you roll it out too thin - or crack - or break after it has dried a bit and you try to move it. Gum paste has more elasticity to it. This stretchability (my word - yes you can copy it) helps when you are making roses, flowers, or other things that you mess with to give edges shape. Gum paste also costs a bit less to make - but oddly if you buy it at the store it costs more to buy. Weird huh?

Now in covering a cake - I would go fondant. It is softer in my opinion and easier to place over the cake. Tastes a bit more like icing. I know there are lots of folks who say.....ick fondant tastes awful. Well most likely the person who made your cake did it with store bought fondant. I am always amazed that people doing cakes don't just make their own fondant. Easy to make - and you can flavor it. I make 5lbs for half the cost you buy it at a store. Yes I know - convenience.......that is a whole other blog.

There are tons more Fondant vs Gumpaste issues in my head - but I can stumble into them later. Personally I was resistant to gumpaste - for no reason other then I was getting good at fondant and not wanting to add another trick to my bag. Now I am seeing that there are definite pro's and con's on both sides.

Penguin cupcakes were a hoot to make. And they were fun because it taught me I am getting better at moulding things. They went to one of our Boy Scout families. The Birthday Boy had recently done a project on penguins and he is currently in love with them. Fun!! Learning and Cakes combined with Birthday - LOVE IT!

These were Chocolate & White cake cupcakes with a Vanilla Buttercream icing.

Boy Scout Fleur De Lis

Here are some cupcakes from Ben's Boy Scout Blue & Gold Award ceremony. They have a nice dinner, entertainment - which this year was our friend and magician/thespian, Joel Shoemaker (he was great!! If you need a magician for a party call me and I will hook you up with him!).

This year I have had the oppotunity to make cakes for BOTH of our Pack's Boy Scout events. So Much Fun to be part of the event in a creative way. And since Dave is the active parent in the Boy Scout world it is also fun just to have the chance to be part of Boy Scouts.

This Fleur cookie cutter has come in MORE then handy this year!

These cupcakes were Chocolate with Vanilla Buttercream.....Apple with Vanilla Buttercream.......and White Cake with Vanilla Buttercream.

Boy Scouts Rock!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!!

How old would Dr. Seuss be today? Well he was born March 2, 1904 (do the math and you will see 107 he would be).......same year as the St. Louis World's Fair where hot dogs and ice cream cones were born!! Can you tell I am from St. Louis? Course Dr. Seuss wasn't - he was born in Springfield, Massachusetts (where my favorite friend Noel lives). I wonder if they treat Seuss's birthday around that area like they do Abraham Lincoln around here in central Illinois?

A few years back I read a little about him in a bio. He remembered back that as a child his mom would soothe them by sing songing chants about things. That made me feel good because I do that with my kids - maybe they will grow up inspired by my sing song rhyming chants.........."If you don't pick up your shoes you will soon be singing the blues"....."Eat the greens on the plate or you will never go on a date - you'll stay home with us and miss the bus that includes doing anything away from us"......"I've said it once, I've said it twice, Make is say it again and you'll pay a price"........think those will make my kids brilliant children's book writers?

Well Ben did just win the Young Authors award - so there is hope right?

Anyway.......these were fun to make and they will be fun to take to school. I googled Cat In The Hat cupcakes and found this idea. The kids will get a big kick out of them because besides being served yummy icing - they will also get some cotton candy (because we all know that a cupcake is a cupcake after all - the real treat is the icing - cupcake is simply a catalyst to carry icing for kids).

Now - if you are going to copy this cupcake - KNOW THE FOLLOWING - Do Not create the entire cupcake and then wrap the box to keep the moisture of the cupcake in. Okay - go ahead - flick me in the forehead - but YES I DID THIS. Within 2 hours my Thing 1's and 2's hair were totally flat. Sigh.

You Live You Learn You Take Your Turn Doing Things Once and Sometimes Twice - Just Be Sure To Tah Dah at the Finish With Something Nice.

Tah Dah - these cupcakes were something new. Applesauce (oh my goodness YUM! - tastes kinda like apple crisp a bit.) There is a Cream Cheese Marshmallow filling and a Vanilla buttercream icing. VERY Yum!! My neighbor came by and I fed her my sample - she said "YUMMO!!" I ate the filling hole scraps and agreed!

Sweet Hearts

Of course today is Valentine's Day!! And goodness knows that this past weekend I have been doing TONS of Valentine Cupcakes for school parties. This particular cupcake order went out to one of Dave's co-workers. And this was a bit of a lesson in being nice and helpful.

So she ordered 18 cupcakes for a certain date. Wanted a large Red Heart on each one. The date for the order was a Friday and Dave was going to deliver to her at his work. That morning I got up super upder duper early to make sure I could bake the cupcakes - cool them - and frost them (the hears were already made) before he left at 7:30am. That done I sent the orderer an email saying everything was Great and He would be bringing them in.

She was at work super upder duper early and sent one back saying, "Errr....ahhhh....well I must have given you the wrong date". She had - she mixed her parties up - lucky her to have so many parties to attend that don't include elementary school kids. Lucky her.

So what to do?? She was very sweet and said "no worries - just send them and I will freeze them." Yeah, that is one way - but what would the fondant hearts look like - and what would they taste like? So instead I said, "No these can be fun cupcakes for Dave to take to work" - which he was totally willing to do, but he said there was no way he was offering a heart shaped cupcake to one of the men or woman he worked with (fear that they would think he was crushing on them? hmmmm....ego there) - instead he would leave them out and peeps could take them through the day.

The next week I got up again....super upder duber early and made 18 cupcakes with big read hearts on them. And everyone was happy!! Another bright side - I got to tweak my red velvet cake recipe. Thought it might be yummier with a bit more cocoa in it. Red Velvet is apparently the cupcake for Valentines day I am seeing......so might as well make it fabulous.

This cupcake was Red Velvet (obviously)...Cream cheese icing and a Vanilla fondant shaped to look like big red hearts. SWEET!!

Girl Scout Cupcakes

Some how I kinda messed the pictures of these cupcakes up. So no individual ones. Pooh - cuz they were cute!

Andersen even helped with these. Again - always fun to be able to say "yes" to one of my kids helping!! She made the faces and the hair of each of the Girl Scouts in their tents.

These cupcakes went to one of our favorite Bloomington GS Council Coordinators - and definately one of Andersen's most favorite Camp Counselors! Sherwood, her name, is moving from our area over to be the camp director of another GS camp in the Springfield area. Sad for us - totally exciting for her! These were her Congrats Cupcakes for a little celebration they had at the office for her. I am not 100% sure she ever ate them........because I saw her post pics of them the other day and I know she is unpacking her stuff in her new house.

These cupcakes were a combo - Cinnamon Chocolate Cake, Banana Cake and White Cake - all topped with a Vanilla Buttercream and then Vanilla Fondant pieces as decorations.

Wedding Show Cupcakes

More Wedding Cupcakes!! Only these I tweaked a little from the first ones I did last year. See a friend of mine owns a photography business (this is actually a different friend then bought the Zebra cake) and she was doing a Wedding Show and wanted some cupcakes for her booth to give customers something to do while she talked to them. She said that the food vendors have potential customers mill around longer because they are eating food samples - and thought some cute cupcakes to eat would keep them longer then usual and also promote me.

I would have made her the cupcakes just because she asked - but promoting the chance to do a wedding cake sounded like a great idea!! This time around I made the groom a little simpler since I was making 25 of him. I did the shirt in a buttercream and a bow tie in buttercream also. The last groom had all those pieces done in fondant. Made for a quicker process doing them in buttercream. The flowers are done in fondant though.

The brides are almost the same - although I did the design on their dresses in a vanilla buttercream instead of creamy icing tints or pearl dust. And the necklace is not done in tiny candy pearls. But the biggest difference in these brides are that I painted the neckline in skin tone. I also did some cupcakes in a skin tone for African American brides, but they turned out looking a little more Hispanic. So in the future for a true order for a wedding (if I get one - cross your fingers) I would do the fondant colored in the skin tone desired and not paint. What I noticed was if there was the slightest crack in the fondant - that you couldn't see with your eye - when it was painted the tint highlighted the crack.



Still - SUPER CUTE and a lot of FUN!!



These cupcakes were 2 flavors. The Grooms were Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cake (yum!) with a Vanilla Buttercream icing and a Vanilla Fondant. The Brides were Almond Cake (new recipe - super good and moist!) with a Vanilla Buttercream and a Vanilla fondant.

Bronwen & Ron's Pea Pods

I know that you have seen a similar picture before..........in the 2 Turkey's post. I did a few cakes and cupcakes that week, but I never got around to finishing the posts for them.

This particular round of cake was for my little sisters baby shower. I used all those little sage colored balls and the fleshy/pink colored balls for the fondant pea pods that I created. In all I rolled 140 flesh balls and 280 sage balls.

















Then I cut out a circle in more sage fondant.......stretched it just a bit (sorry pictures are hard to remember to take when you are in the "doing" of things)........placed 3 peas into the center of each circle and then closed the circle up and pinched the ends......

Tah Dah...........a pea pod is born!
















This is the finished product. The pea pods traveled with me to St. Louis for the party.........that is where all our family lives......and I drew little eyes and mouths on each flesh pod. So they look like little babies - the traditional "pea in the pod" thought.

Easily I popped one pea pod on top of each cupcake. This made serving at the baby shower so much easier. No plates, no Forks, hardly even a napkin!

















We just set a table up with various leveled serving dishes........filled the table with the cupcakes and Voila!! Easy Dessert Service.

These cupcakes were half Pumpkin with Cinnamon Buttercream icing and half Chocolate Chocolate Chip with Vanilla Buttercream icing..........and all had a Vanilla Buttercream Fondant Pea pod topper. Fun!!

For Jimmy & MaryJo

This post is a quickie for Jimmy & MaryJo..........Dave will love them for this. On facebook they made the comment that they were tired of the Cubs stuff and wanted to see some Cardinals things. Problem is...........no one says "Make me a Cardinals cake!!"......which surprises the heck out of me since I live in a house where 3 out of 5 of us are Freaks about the STL Cards!

Each year at Dave's work he takes in a treat for his birthday to share with his friends. One year this is what he asked for. This was probably 3 years back when I was first starting to mess around decorating cakes. And Yes.........he asked to have a Cubs logo on it too so as not to offend any of the friends that he razzes about their team being completely inferior to the Cardinals.

So Jimmy so far this is the most I have done in reference to the Cardinals..........wanna to have a Cards cake for your birthday?

This cake was Chocolate with a Chocolate Buttercream icing. Reese's Peanut Butter cups chopped up and scattered all over it. The cupcakes were also Chocolate with a Vanilla Buttercream icing.

1st & 10 - Bet we'll do it again.......

Cupcake Time Again!! The whole time I was making this cupcake I was thinking - "Bet someone will ask me to do this one again".......which made me start chanting a cheerleader ditty we did in highschool........"First and Ten do it again........move that ball!"

Originally my friend - who ordered them for her son - wanted 13 White and 13 Chocolate. I thought about that........kid standing there in the middle of class to hand out his birthday treats and half are chocolate half are white...........that is a lot of negotiating - "I want a chocolate one" - "I don't like"...."Jimmy I will be your friend if you......." So I suggested to my friend to pick just one flavor to keep it easy to pass out. She agreed and went chocolate.

Then on the way to religion class one night the Birthday Boy talked about his order and told me they were half white half chocolate. I let him in on the conversation his mom and I had and he said he really really wanted to make sure every person got what they wanted - and asked if I could make each cupcake half and half. How can you pass that request up? I mean he is the Birthday Honoree and HE is trying to make sure everyone else gets what they want.

Too Sweet - Order Changed - Mom was updated - All was good!

Although often times when you put something on top that is decorative - the kids don't even notice the cake flavor. And really if we are being honest - most of the kids suck the icing off the top and toss the cake. For the under 10 set the cupcake is often just a carrier for the icing.

These cakes were obviously half White cake and half Chocolate......with a Chocolate Buttercream icing and a Vanilla Buttercream grass & Vanilla Fondant football on top.

Total Goal!!