Creation of a Cupcake

Sometimes we wonder,
'What did I do to deserve this?' or
'Why did God have to do this to me?'
Here is a wonderful explanation!

A daughter is telling her Mother how everything
is going wrong, she's failing algebra, her boyfriend broke
up with her and her best friend is moving away.
Meanwhile, her Mother is baking cupcakes and
asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the
daughter says, 'Absolutely Mom, I love your cupcakes.'
'Here, have some cooking oil,' her Mother offers.
'Yuck' says her daughter.
'How about a couple raw eggs?' 'Gross, Mom!'
'Would you like some flour then?
Or maybe baking soda?'
'Mom, those are all yucky!'
To which the mother replies:
'Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves.
But when they are put together in the
right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! '
God works the same way. Many times we wonder why
He would let us go through such bad and difficult
times. But God knows that when He puts these things
all in His order, they always work for good! We just
have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all
make something wonderful!



These cupcakes were decorated by my kiddo's, Ben and Andersen.

McKenna's Dolphin Cake

Cakes are just fun - One of Andersen's friends was having a birthday recently and we decided that part of our gift to her would be to make her a cake. She is also a Facebook Friend and one of my favorite Girl Scouts.......well former Girl Scouts (hint hint that I want her to rejoin if she reads this). So Miss McKenna's sees any cakes that I post - and she asked for me to create her a cake. This is where we started.....

A nice White Cake with a Chocolate Buttercream Icing........yummie!!! The baking was from scratch. I think I have mentioned that I am still on the search for a delicious White Cake recipe. Well, still kinda on the search. This was good, but baked out a bit dry.....and I underbaked it. Plus - honestly I should have known when they didn't instruct me to separate the whites from the yolks. No respectable white cake has yolks in it.

What surprised me was her theme. She is a sporty girl and I honestly thought she would request Soccer, Softball, Basketball........something.......but she has an Ocean Love side and she actually picked......Dolphins and the beach. Having only 1 day to create this I went with simple.

Ocean Water looking fondant.......which I must say I am getting better at placing over the top of the cake. I am also beginning to understand my fondant recipe better. If I follow the recipe exactly I believe I am using too much powdered sugar and the fondant gets too dry. Tweaking is an art and sometimes can take me forever to wrap my head around.

Tah Dah - just a tiny bunch of fondant there on the edge of one side. Better right? I am getting there - slowly but surely.

Added a little sea life.......I didn't have the time to create schools of fish like I wanted to add in - a day in the life of a mom with 3 kids doesn't always allow extra creative opportunity. But I did get a few "Star" fish - get it?? and some seaweed and such.

The most important part of the cake of course were Dolphins - and they made there way in. However, Andersen and I thought that it was equally important to make a McKenna for her cake......
So that is just what I did. McKenna topped her cake laying on the beach.

There was also a beach umbrella - although it was made and set to dry for them. We delivered it the night before the party in hopes that the umbrella would be set enough for them to put it over fondant McKenna right before the party. That hope wasn't realized. The umbrella crumbled a bit when they pulled it off the form - so the girls ate it. Still a Win Win I suppose if you can eat your mistakes!

Creepy Crawling Cake

Before I did the Spider Cupcakes I had the pleasure of hosting my Bunco group for a night of fun and feasting. Since it was so close to Halloween and I wanted to test out making spider webs with chocolate I decided to make a Spider Themed cake. I started out by melting Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips and then piping a BIG spider web onto the cake plate.


After that I piped out a few different types of spider webs to see what might look most Spidery - and to get a feel for the flow of the chocolate - I learned a smaller cupcake would benefit from webs piped with a smaller tip - these webs were bigger then I wished simply because a lot of chocolate came out quickly. I also learned that letting the chocolate sit and cool a bit is smart too - makes the flow of the chocolate come out slower.

In addition to making the webs I also made a few Spider Legs..............you will see why.

Sorry - skipped a few pictures - or rather FORGOT to take a few pictures. So I had a two layer cake - iced with Vanilla Buttercream - then I piped the chocolate over the top in a spider web. The body of the spider is a cupcake cut off short and turned upside down - covered in the chocolate. Then I piped some chocolate for a head and let it all sit to set a bit.

After waiting a short time I added on the legs of the spider. I attached them by adding a small amount of chocolate at the body and at the cake. They didn't wobble at all.

Popped on two small candy pearls for the eyes and Voila! a spider was born..........er created.

Then I dropped a few webs down the side and added a couple small spiders I made after taking the earlier picture of the webs......and a few spider webs........and it was done!!

The cake was Pumpkin Spice and the Icing was a Cinnamon Buttercream......yum!!

Spider Cupcakes

Happy Halloween!! Or since this year Halloween seems to be a 3 day event - Happy Halloweekend!! Today is the day for Class parties and parades - usually I sign up for the classroom main treat and bring something fun, but I was beat to the sign up sheet. So while I was wandering the halls one day I heard on the wind that there was a class without parent helpers and I immediately offered up my cupcake baking abilities........and it was agreed - I could provide the main treat - yea!!


So I started with a cupcake - topped it with some Chocolate Buttercream and created small spider webs for each one. The spider webs are made of melted White Chocolate Chips - then piped onto parchment paper in the shape of a web. I just used my imagination. After about 5 of them they started to look more like snowflakes and I freaked a bit - but no, they are spider webs - however a Christmas idea was born...........

After creating a home for a spider I tinted some of the Chocolate Buttercream black - and made a spider for each cake. Easily done - quick - and complimented the "idea" very nicely. Creeped my 4 year old out enough that he thought for a moment they were real..........and then realizing they weren't asked for one!!

This cake was Chocolate Chocolate Chip with a Chocolate Buttercream icing - White Chocolate was used for the spider webs.

Hope you have a Super Fun Halloweekend!!

40 Cake

An earlier email alerted you to the fact that Dave turned 40!! Well since it was posted early in the day it didn't also say we had a SURPRISE PARTY for him. And..........he was TOTALLY suprised!!

When we discussed his birthday cake he said "No Fondant".....hmmmm....makes the cake a little less exciting....."very little icing"........hmmm....that makes it hard to decorate anything elaborate.....and he wanted a Chocolate Chocolate Chip cake...........hmmm....that makes it hard to cut things into shapes that we could put just a little icing on - dang he tied my hands up a lot.

Still - we started with a cake shaped like a rectangle.

And eventually made it to a Zero.........half of the number.........

Forty!! We (Andersen and the boys were helping on this one - I spend all my time saying "No you can't help this is for a special occassion that someone has trusted me to help create" that it was nice to say "Daddy would love you to be part of this creation". And so the number 40 was decided upon.

I "Dirty Iced" the cake as Ben likes to say - others know this as "Crumb Coating". I also put the basic layer of icing on as chosen by the kids - Red on one side and White on the other - for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Then the boys disappeared. Honestly it was never a great idea to have given Dawson an icing bag - more would have gone in his mouth then on the cake. Ben seemed to be overwhelmed by the thought of having to come up with his own idea - he is apparently a very good director (everyone has their strengths right?). Andersen stayed to the end though. She did all the decorating.

She did all the lettering and it was she who came up with the ideas for the pictures that represented Dave. She also executed them. There were tears. It was kinda like what I imagine it was like when I first started. Dave calming me down - me getting tense - scraping off icing - frustrated that it was so hard to hold the dang icing bag. All the same things Andersen complaind about.

Yet she did FABULOUS!! The cake was Super Cute!!

She represented Dave's love for the Cardinals - Baseball and playing Softball - a Grill for his master Grilling Skills - a Hammer for his Woodworking - and a Computer for his wonderful IT abilities...........she got him!!

The cake was Chcocolate Chocolate Chip and Banana with a Vanilla Buttercream icing.

Pumpkin Deliciousness

These little cupcakes aren't over the top fun to look at.........but dang they were yummy!!

It is Fall here in the Middle of Illinois - leaves are changing - apples are falling and pumpking are being picked. I picked a few - baked them down - made a puree - and then turned them into Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes........topped them off with a little Cinnamon Buttercream icing and OHMYGOSH!! They were a total treat.

These cupcakes went to a friend that Dave works with, but we DID keep a few home with us for the weekend - although they never saw Sunday!!

Dave's Birthday Cupcakes

It is my Sweetie's Birthday Today!! Happy Birthday Day Dave!!

Today Dave turns all of 40 years old..........Yesterday he wanted to take some cupcakes to work - so we baked up a couple dozen - iced them - and then I took small rounds of fondant and wrote a message of Birthday Wishes (notice I left his age off - that makes me wonder - at what AGE do we start leaving our age off the Birthday Cake? I mean when I do cakes for friends they always ask it to say "Happy 12th Birthday SoandSo"........is it 21?)



Well anyway - I saw that some Cakers have come up with the clever thought of cutting small flat fondant pieces and writing letters on them to create a message that can transfer to cupcakes. How smart was/is that? So here it is - and most likely here you will see it again!!

These Birthday Cakes were Dave's favorite flavor - Chocolate Chocolate Chip - some with a Vanilla Buttercream Icing and some with a Chocolate Buttercream Icing (Dave's fav is the Vanilla).

Happy Birthday All Day Long!