This last picture, above, was taken by the birthday girl's mother - cake, cupcakes, and pops as part of her fun, adorable Sesame Street-themed display.
This project was one of my favorite, yet!
Showing posts with label decorating. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decorating. Show all posts
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Celebration Cakes: Sesame Street Party!
Earlier this summer, I had the pleasure of making some goodies for a Sesame Street-themed birthday party for a cute little 2-year old girl. A personalized cake, monster cupcakes, and colorful cake pops were on the menu for this special day. The cake was funfetti with a chocolate ganache layer and a vanilla custard layer, frosted with chocolate American buttercream and decorated with fondant.
I had such a fun time designing and creating the cake as well as piping the Elmo, Oscar, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster cupcakes. The cupcakes were chocolate and vanilla with colored vanilla American buttercream frosting and fondant accents.
This last picture, above, was taken by the birthday girl's mother - cake, cupcakes, and pops as part of her fun, adorable Sesame Street-themed display.
This project was one of my favorite, yet!
This last picture, above, was taken by the birthday girl's mother - cake, cupcakes, and pops as part of her fun, adorable Sesame Street-themed display.
This project was one of my favorite, yet!
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
A Frankenstorm Halloween
Hello, everyone. It's been a while since my last post and as much as I've missed posting about the sweet offerings of my kitchen, my break has been warranted. You see, my family and I live in New Jersey and Sandy ferociously plundered through our home state en route to historical disasterous grandiosity a couple of weeks ago. This hurricane whipped through many East Coast states, leaving devastation in New York and New Jersey. My husband's and my childhood homes of Gerritsen Beach and Staten Island took some very major hits. Our college town of Hoboken withstood serious damage. As you can see, this storm affected us on a personal level. It's been the closest we've ever come to disaster.
Still, lucky for us, our home in New Jersey braved Sandy with very minimal damage. Some of my friends and their families were not so lucky.
While many of my friends and families suffered damages to their properties and belongings, no one was hurt, thankfully. Seeing the positive in rough times, I find that events like these bring people together in ways that no other can. Disasters, as tragic and unfair as they are, reveal such a beautiful side in the human race - bringing forth a true love and generosity, humility and thoughtful spirit. Setting aside all differences, these times seem to equalize us for a moment.
The power in our house was out for 8 days. We realized that even though this made life slightly more difficult than usual, it was still just power - heat and light. Heat is a few extra sweaters and socks, maybe a hat and some gloves, sitting in front of a blazing fireplace. Light is a flashlight and some candles, daylight.
Please consider giving freely whether by physically offering your help or donating to organizations with the goal of assistance and repair for Hurricane Sandy victims and areas. American Red Cross allows you to donate $10 to relief efforts by texting REDCROSS to 90999. You can also visit their website to learn more about their work and donate in other ways.
On a lighter note, Governor Christie declared Monday, November 5th a postponed Trick-or-Treating day for kids in New Jersey. In lieu of this, I am posting pictures from a Halloween cake I made earlier in October. I know this is a bit late and that we're all in heavy preparation for Thanksgiving now, but the storm partnered with a week-long vacation left me with no choice. I hope all of you trick-or-treaters didn't let the conditions put a damper on your spirits and that you had a candy-filled, fun Halloween!
Still, lucky for us, our home in New Jersey braved Sandy with very minimal damage. Some of my friends and their families were not so lucky.
While many of my friends and families suffered damages to their properties and belongings, no one was hurt, thankfully. Seeing the positive in rough times, I find that events like these bring people together in ways that no other can. Disasters, as tragic and unfair as they are, reveal such a beautiful side in the human race - bringing forth a true love and generosity, humility and thoughtful spirit. Setting aside all differences, these times seem to equalize us for a moment.
The power in our house was out for 8 days. We realized that even though this made life slightly more difficult than usual, it was still just power - heat and light. Heat is a few extra sweaters and socks, maybe a hat and some gloves, sitting in front of a blazing fireplace. Light is a flashlight and some candles, daylight.
Please consider giving freely whether by physically offering your help or donating to organizations with the goal of assistance and repair for Hurricane Sandy victims and areas. American Red Cross allows you to donate $10 to relief efforts by texting REDCROSS to 90999. You can also visit their website to learn more about their work and donate in other ways.
On a lighter note, Governor Christie declared Monday, November 5th a postponed Trick-or-Treating day for kids in New Jersey. In lieu of this, I am posting pictures from a Halloween cake I made earlier in October. I know this is a bit late and that we're all in heavy preparation for Thanksgiving now, but the storm partnered with a week-long vacation left me with no choice. I hope all of you trick-or-treaters didn't let the conditions put a damper on your spirits and that you had a candy-filled, fun Halloween!
Monday, October 1, 2012
Kid Bites: Decorating Cupcakes
You may remember one of my posts from a few months ago, in July, in which I put a few bags of vanilla cake batter into my freezer to experiment with baking batter that's been frozen and thawed.
The cupcakes you see in these pictures are my last bag from this batch. Yes, they were frozen since July! Isn't it wild?? I took the batter out from the freezer and let it thaw, then transferred the batter to a bowl and folded in sprinkles for the FUN funfetti effect. I then baked them as I usually would and sat nearby with my fingers crossed...
Turns out, we were blown away from the freshness and pure yumminess of these cupcakes! No one could tell they came from batter that was made and frozen nearly 3 months ago!
Moving on to the project of the week...
While decorating with kids may seem like fun for everyone, once it's all said and done, you realize it's hard work to entertain these kids with something so seemingly simple as decorating cupcakes, cakes, or cookies. But we've all done it - thrown together a fun decorating session or party for kids entirely underestimating what we're really in for.
I've found a way to make decorating with children somewhat easier. Rather than have ten piping bags filled with a rainbow of colors, a bunch of piping tips, spatulas, different flavored frosting, etc, this week, we approached cupcake decorating a tad differently. Why not draw or paint on a blank canvas and pop those little pieces of art onto the tops of prefrosted cupcakes!
The idea came to me while I was making a bunch of medallion-topped cupcakes for a friend the other week. You can check out the post here. I made a gumpaste-fondant blend (easily made by mixing 1 part each of prepared gumpaste and fondant) and cut them into circles and scallopped circles of various sizes. If you are wondering, the reason I used gumpaste with my fondant was so that it will dry hard.
The kids used edible markers and edible paint. The edible paint was easily made with a dab of gel food coloring mixed with a few drops of lemon extract, which you can replenish as the paint dries. Buy a set of paintbrushes that you can allocate exclusively for food use. A painters palette like the one shown below is an easy way to set up all the colors of paint you want, with spaces for mixing colors - because we all know kids love to mix colors together..! My kids had a great time embracing this new method of edible artistic expression.
This is such a great craft for the kids and adults alike. The possibilities are endless as well, only limited by your imagination. You can adorn cupcakes with initials, numbers, themed artwork, abstract designs - really anything at all!
And the medallions are easy to make as well. As I said previously, mix equal parts of prepared gumpaste and fondant, color if desired, roll it out and cut out the shapes you want for your cupcakes. Try to match the size of the shapes to the size of the cupcake tops. I believe this look best. Let the toppers dry for a few hours and then you are ready to decorate. The toppers can also be used to decorate sugar cookies - more on this to come... And while these toppers are edible, we usually take them off, admire them and just eat the cupcake underneath.
Mmm, cupcakes are always yummier when there are sprinkles and cute kiddie decorations involved!
Turns out, we were blown away from the freshness and pure yumminess of these cupcakes! No one could tell they came from batter that was made and frozen nearly 3 months ago!
Moving on to the project of the week...
While decorating with kids may seem like fun for everyone, once it's all said and done, you realize it's hard work to entertain these kids with something so seemingly simple as decorating cupcakes, cakes, or cookies. But we've all done it - thrown together a fun decorating session or party for kids entirely underestimating what we're really in for.
I've found a way to make decorating with children somewhat easier. Rather than have ten piping bags filled with a rainbow of colors, a bunch of piping tips, spatulas, different flavored frosting, etc, this week, we approached cupcake decorating a tad differently. Why not draw or paint on a blank canvas and pop those little pieces of art onto the tops of prefrosted cupcakes!
The idea came to me while I was making a bunch of medallion-topped cupcakes for a friend the other week. You can check out the post here. I made a gumpaste-fondant blend (easily made by mixing 1 part each of prepared gumpaste and fondant) and cut them into circles and scallopped circles of various sizes. If you are wondering, the reason I used gumpaste with my fondant was so that it will dry hard.
The kids used edible markers and edible paint. The edible paint was easily made with a dab of gel food coloring mixed with a few drops of lemon extract, which you can replenish as the paint dries. Buy a set of paintbrushes that you can allocate exclusively for food use. A painters palette like the one shown below is an easy way to set up all the colors of paint you want, with spaces for mixing colors - because we all know kids love to mix colors together..! My kids had a great time embracing this new method of edible artistic expression.
This is such a great craft for the kids and adults alike. The possibilities are endless as well, only limited by your imagination. You can adorn cupcakes with initials, numbers, themed artwork, abstract designs - really anything at all!
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| You can tell Harry Potter is the sun in our universe.... :-) |
And the medallions are easy to make as well. As I said previously, mix equal parts of prepared gumpaste and fondant, color if desired, roll it out and cut out the shapes you want for your cupcakes. Try to match the size of the shapes to the size of the cupcake tops. I believe this look best. Let the toppers dry for a few hours and then you are ready to decorate. The toppers can also be used to decorate sugar cookies - more on this to come... And while these toppers are edible, we usually take them off, admire them and just eat the cupcake underneath.
Mmm, cupcakes are always yummier when there are sprinkles and cute kiddie decorations involved!
Thursday, September 20, 2012
A Tutorial: Chrysanthemum Cupcakes
Ahh Fall! Can you hear it knocking on your door? It's coming and I'm so excited, as I am each year to welcome my favorite season. Wearing jackets, boots, and scarves to stay warm with the refreshing, clean and crisp nip in the air... The excitement of the kids starting school again - new teachers, new notepads and backpacks, wondering what lies ahead for them, a year older and wiser..
The familiar smells of fall always do me in - pumpkin, apple and tons of warm spices warm my heart as well. Soups and casseroles and piping-hot straight-from-the-oven meals prepare us for cooler weather and shorter days. Chrysanthemums line the front yards of the houses - such colorful little packages of the season.
Speaking of chrysanthemums...
If you have been devoting a little bit of your time regularly to my blog over the past year, you may remember that last summer, my daughter took home first place for a cake decorating contest held at our local fair. She was the youngest competitor by far at only 7 years old and her creativity and poise under pressure brought her the winning big blue ribbon!
At this year's fair, the contest was a bit different. In fact there were two - one for the younger kids and one for the older. My daughter (though aging seemingly at the speed of light!) qualified for the younger children's contest. These contestants had to decorate at least 6 cupcakes rather than a cake, which was left for the older children's decorating contest.
After doing her research and deciding upon flower cupcakes, namely chrysanthemums, I baked up some cupcakes for her to practice on. The decorating technique we chose was inspired by the book What's Up Cupcake. This technique, however simple, exhibited such a wow factor at the fair that we'll be showing you how it's done with a few modifications in this, the first tutorial post of my blog.
These cupcakes are a wonderful rainy-day project to do with your children or would even be beautiful on display at your next party. Decorated over a pumpkin cupcake using cream cheese icing would be the perfect autumnal dessert idea!
Incidentally, my own sweet chrysanthemum received 2nd place at the fair this year for these cupcakes! Congrats, to my budding baker! :-) I can't wait to see what you do next year.
Tutorial: Chrysanthemum Cupcakes
What You Will Need:
cupcakes, unfrosted, any flavor
white or off-white frosting
about 25 mini marshmallows
colored sugar crystals (choose colors you would like your petals to be)
mini chocolate chips or chocolate-covered sunflower seeds or other larger sprinkles
a pair of food-safe scissors
a small spatula or knife
ziploc bags
a small bowl
Before You Start: Mise en Place
Clear a decent sized workspace on a table or counter and put out all of the items you need for this project. This is a great habit to get into. It seems like an extra step, but actually will subtract tons of time from your preparation. Place about 1/4 cup of the sugar crystals in a ziploc bag. Do this for each color you have. *Tip - you can combine colors for a neat effect.
Step 1: Prep Your Marshmallows
Using the food-safe scissors, cut each mini marshmallow along the diagonal as pictured below. Resulting will be two halfs that are triangular in shape with a large oval area (the inside of the marshmallow) that is now exposed and sticky (this is the part that the sugar adheres to).
Step 2: Color the Petals
Drop all the cut marshmallows into the bag of colored sugar, zip the top closed, and gently shake around, making sure all the sticky parts of the marshmallows are all covered in sugar. Alternately you may hand dip the marshmallows into sugar which has been placed in a shallow bowl.
Step 3: Prep Your Cupcakes
Using a small spatula, spread about a 1/4" layer of frosting on the tops of the cupcakes. Make sure there are no lumps or bumps and that it is as smooth as you can make it. You want the petals to sit evenly atop the cupcakes.
Step 4: Start to Apply the Petals
Starting at the outer edge of the cupcakes, take a sugar-colored marshmallow half from the bag of sugar crystals and press it gently, sugar side up with about 2/3 f the marshmallow protruding over the edge. Continue with another marshmallow, adjacent to the first one, making sure the marshmallows touch, in the same fashion. Keep going until you have placed a ring of petals all around the outer rim of your cupcake without any spaces.
Step 5: Complete the Petals
Start the next row of petals slightly inward, overlapping the petals by just under 1/2 of the marshmallow. Complete this row as you did the first row, make sure to overlap each row of marshmallows equally. Continue this process until you have nearly reached the center. There should be a dime-sized circle (or slightly smaller) of frosting remaining.
Step 6: Complete the Center of the Flower
Take a few of your large sprinkles (mini chocolate chips, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, etc) and drop them in the dime-sized center of the cupcakes where the frosting is still peeking through. Make sure to cover all the white frosting. In the Step 6 picture above, I've shown how much space is left after filling in all the petals. The picture below shows the completed cupcakes.
Voila! You have completed your chrysanthemum cupcakes! Aren't they just gorgeous? As you can see, you are only limited by your creativity. Try alternating petal colors or mixing any variety of colors of sugars for a look that is customized to your liking. These are perfect for a party, a fun kids' craft, or anytime of year you want to do something fun and creative that looks amazing with little effort.
Note: To recreate the sunflower look, line the outer ring of the cupcake with only one round of marshmallows. Then fill in the entire rest of the top of the cupcake with black or dark brown large sprinkles or chips.
Enjoy!
The familiar smells of fall always do me in - pumpkin, apple and tons of warm spices warm my heart as well. Soups and casseroles and piping-hot straight-from-the-oven meals prepare us for cooler weather and shorter days. Chrysanthemums line the front yards of the houses - such colorful little packages of the season.
Speaking of chrysanthemums...
If you have been devoting a little bit of your time regularly to my blog over the past year, you may remember that last summer, my daughter took home first place for a cake decorating contest held at our local fair. She was the youngest competitor by far at only 7 years old and her creativity and poise under pressure brought her the winning big blue ribbon!
At this year's fair, the contest was a bit different. In fact there were two - one for the younger kids and one for the older. My daughter (though aging seemingly at the speed of light!) qualified for the younger children's contest. These contestants had to decorate at least 6 cupcakes rather than a cake, which was left for the older children's decorating contest.
After doing her research and deciding upon flower cupcakes, namely chrysanthemums, I baked up some cupcakes for her to practice on. The decorating technique we chose was inspired by the book What's Up Cupcake. This technique, however simple, exhibited such a wow factor at the fair that we'll be showing you how it's done with a few modifications in this, the first tutorial post of my blog.
These cupcakes are a wonderful rainy-day project to do with your children or would even be beautiful on display at your next party. Decorated over a pumpkin cupcake using cream cheese icing would be the perfect autumnal dessert idea!
Incidentally, my own sweet chrysanthemum received 2nd place at the fair this year for these cupcakes! Congrats, to my budding baker! :-) I can't wait to see what you do next year.
Tutorial: Chrysanthemum Cupcakes
What You Will Need:
cupcakes, unfrosted, any flavor
white or off-white frosting
about 25 mini marshmallows
colored sugar crystals (choose colors you would like your petals to be)
mini chocolate chips or chocolate-covered sunflower seeds or other larger sprinkles
a pair of food-safe scissors
a small spatula or knife
ziploc bags
a small bowl
Before You Start: Mise en Place
Clear a decent sized workspace on a table or counter and put out all of the items you need for this project. This is a great habit to get into. It seems like an extra step, but actually will subtract tons of time from your preparation. Place about 1/4 cup of the sugar crystals in a ziploc bag. Do this for each color you have. *Tip - you can combine colors for a neat effect.
Step 1: Prep Your Marshmallows
Using the food-safe scissors, cut each mini marshmallow along the diagonal as pictured below. Resulting will be two halfs that are triangular in shape with a large oval area (the inside of the marshmallow) that is now exposed and sticky (this is the part that the sugar adheres to).
Step 2: Color the Petals
Drop all the cut marshmallows into the bag of colored sugar, zip the top closed, and gently shake around, making sure all the sticky parts of the marshmallows are all covered in sugar. Alternately you may hand dip the marshmallows into sugar which has been placed in a shallow bowl.
Step 3: Prep Your Cupcakes
Using a small spatula, spread about a 1/4" layer of frosting on the tops of the cupcakes. Make sure there are no lumps or bumps and that it is as smooth as you can make it. You want the petals to sit evenly atop the cupcakes.
Step 4: Start to Apply the Petals
Starting at the outer edge of the cupcakes, take a sugar-colored marshmallow half from the bag of sugar crystals and press it gently, sugar side up with about 2/3 f the marshmallow protruding over the edge. Continue with another marshmallow, adjacent to the first one, making sure the marshmallows touch, in the same fashion. Keep going until you have placed a ring of petals all around the outer rim of your cupcake without any spaces.
Step 5: Complete the Petals
Start the next row of petals slightly inward, overlapping the petals by just under 1/2 of the marshmallow. Complete this row as you did the first row, make sure to overlap each row of marshmallows equally. Continue this process until you have nearly reached the center. There should be a dime-sized circle (or slightly smaller) of frosting remaining.
Step 6: Complete the Center of the Flower
Take a few of your large sprinkles (mini chocolate chips, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, etc) and drop them in the dime-sized center of the cupcakes where the frosting is still peeking through. Make sure to cover all the white frosting. In the Step 6 picture above, I've shown how much space is left after filling in all the petals. The picture below shows the completed cupcakes.
Voila! You have completed your chrysanthemum cupcakes! Aren't they just gorgeous? As you can see, you are only limited by your creativity. Try alternating petal colors or mixing any variety of colors of sugars for a look that is customized to your liking. These are perfect for a party, a fun kids' craft, or anytime of year you want to do something fun and creative that looks amazing with little effort.
Note: To recreate the sunflower look, line the outer ring of the cupcake with only one round of marshmallows. Then fill in the entire rest of the top of the cupcake with black or dark brown large sprinkles or chips.
Enjoy!
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Cupcake Medallions
I recently made a batch of cupcakes for a friend who's sister-in-law was having her first child, a girl. It was a sweet idea to present them to friends and family as they visited the baby for the very first time.
There were three flavors in all - vanilla, chocolate, and carrot cupcakes - all frosted in a basic swirl pattern to accommodate the design they selected - personalized medallions.
They wanted cupcakes that were sophisticated and elegant and not the usual pink- or blue-pastel hued designs.
I pulled together this very simple and more formal look with small round fondant-gumpaste medallions that were personalized with the first letter of the baby's name, R.
These cupcakes are proof that simplicity is often the most beautiful way to go. Congrats to the family on your very new addition!
There were three flavors in all - vanilla, chocolate, and carrot cupcakes - all frosted in a basic swirl pattern to accommodate the design they selected - personalized medallions.
They wanted cupcakes that were sophisticated and elegant and not the usual pink- or blue-pastel hued designs.
These cupcakes are proof that simplicity is often the most beautiful way to go. Congrats to the family on your very new addition!
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