Monthly Archives: July 2012

July 31, 2012 · 8:00 am

Yo Gabba Gabba Cake

Remember these cookies I made for a baby shower last year? Well this little guy just turned 1 on Saturday!!

His favorite thing is Yo Gabba Gabba, so naturally the parents went all out!

After much deliberation, we decided on one large cake for the guests, and one personal little cupcake for Baby Jude! It was his first time having sugar, and we had some dietary restrictions, so I made him a Dairy Free cupcake with Vegan Frosting… recipe will come later this week!

Without further ado, here is the cake I made for Jude!

On the sides of this tall cake I did each of the characters…

(oops we had a little cake accident next to Toodee up there..)

I surprised the parents and made the inside of the cake like a rainbow cake, but in the colors of each of the characters… the Brobee layer is even striped!

Poor little guy was exhausted after such a fun party!

In case you were wondering, yes there were a lot of colors on this cake!

Here is how I made the stripes for the green Brobee layer:

Pour a small amount of batter into the center of the pan. With the other color, pour a small amount of batter directly in the center of the pan again, right on top the first circle. Go back to the first color and do this again, right in the center of the circles. As you add more, the layers push out and create the above ringed affect. When you cut into the cake, you will see the vertical stripes! (This can be done with black and white or chocolate and vanilla to look like zebra stripes!)

5 Comments

Filed under Cakes

Tagged as birthday, blue, buttercream, green, orange, pink, rainbow, red, yellow

July 27, 2012 · 8:00 am

Mini Krispy Cupcakes

So a couple days ago I stumbled across this recipe for small batch rice krispy treats.

GENIUS!!

All the guilt of making your unhealthy snack is gone because you can make just enough for one little dessert! I thought this would be the perfect way to experiment with different flavors without making a ton of it (just in case it turned out yucky… like that could even happen with rice krispies…)

The recipe suggests pressing them into a muffin/cupcake pan (which makes 2). I decided to do a mini muffin pan instead (which made about 12), because everyone knows that the smaller a dessert is, the cuter it is too!

I have to give credit where credit is due here… my husband came up with the idea of dipping the tops in chocolate to make them look like cupcakes! I was going to just press them flat and drizzle them. I guess he’s pretty smart at the chocolate stuff because they turned out great!

I made 2 different kinds!!

Peanut Butter Rice Krispies

Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1 cup mini marshmallows

1 1/2 cups rice krispies

Directions:

1. Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray.

2. In a small pot, melt butter, mallows, and peanut butter until smooth.

3. Add the rice krispies straight to the pot and stir until completely coated in goop.

4. Remove pot from heat and carefully scoop krispies into the muffin pan cavaties. Make the tops rounded if you want it to look like a cupcake, or make them flat if you want them to look like little cups.

5. Wait. The hardest part, I know.

6. When they are set up (mine took an hour or 2), melt chocolate, white chocolate, or candy melts to dip or drizzle however you like.

I had just enough mini mallows to do another small batch…

Chocolate Rice Krispies

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup mini marshmallows

1 1/2 cups rice krispies

Directions:

1. Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray.

2. In a small pot, melt butter, mallows, and chocolate until smooth.

3. Add the rice krispies straight to the pot and stir until completely coated in goop.

5. Wait. The hardest part, I know.

6. When they are set up (mine took an hour or 2), melt chocolate, white chocolate, or candy melts to dip or drizzle however you like.

As soon as I can get to the store to buy more mini mallows, I will be making new krispy recipes!

5 Comments

Filed under Misc

Tagged as chocolate, marshmallows, peanut butter, rice krispy treats, white chocolate

July 24, 2012 · 8:00 am

Will you be my…

…flowergirl? …ringbearer?

A good friend of mine is getting married next year and wanted to do something special to ask her little ladies/gent to be her flowergirls/ringbearer. She came up with the idea of doing a large decorated cookie for each of them. I just love how they turned out!

Here are the girls enjoying their cookies…

5 Comments

Filed under Cookies

Tagged as buttercream, icing, large cookies, pink, sugar cookies, wedding

July 20, 2012 · 8:00 am

Coconut Star Marshmallows

In these coconut star marshmallows, coconut is definitely the star!

Ingredients:

2 packets of powdered unflavored gelatin (I use Knox)

1/2 cup cold coconut water

1/4 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/8 tsp salt

1 tbsp vanilla

some shredded coconut

cornstarch/powdered sugar mixture for dusting (1:1.5 ratio)

Directions:

1. In a microwave safe bowl, whisk together the cold coconut water and gelatin, then let it stand for 5 minutes.

2. Spray a 13×9 pan with non-stick spray, then sprinkle the bottom with shredded coconut. It doesn’t need to be a full layer, but you don’t want too much empty space.

3. Pour 1/4 cup corn syrup into your stand mixer. Pour the other 1/4 cup into a medium pot with the water, sugar, and salt. Attach the candy thermometer so that the tip does not touch the bottom of the pot, but instead sits in the mixture. Turn the heat on high and stir occasionally while checking the temperature (you want it to get to about 235-240*).

4. Microwave the gelatin for 30 seconds. Pour it into the stand mixer (fitted with the whisk attachment) with your corn syrup, turn the mixer on low and leave it running.

5. When the sugar mixture reaches 235-240*, slowly pour it into the stand mixer. Turn the speed up to 5 or 6 and set the time for 5 minutes. When the timer goes off, turn the speed up to 8 and set the timer again for 5 minutes. After the timer goes off again, add the vanilla and turn the speed up to the highest setting and set the timer for 2 minutes.

6. After the last timer goes off, turn off the mixer and pour the mallow on top the shredded coconut in the pan. Smooth out the top as much as possible, then dust with cornstarch/powdered sugar mixture and pat it down even.

7. Waiting is the hardest part. Let set up overnight.

8. The next day, place a cutting board on top of the pan and invert to release the mallow. It should come out easily because of the shredded coconut.

9. Cut with a small star (or any shape) cookie cutter. Make sure to cut them as close as possible so there isn’t much waste. (Haha, yeah right.. the “waste” tastes just as good!) You may need to clean the cutter every couple of stars because the coconut gets sticky.

10. Dust the sticky edges of the mallows in more cornstarch/powdered sugar.

They are amazing as is, but I wanted to take them a step further…

Chocolate time!!

11. Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second intervals, or in a double broiler. I chose to use my mini crock pot warmer. Once it’s smooth, you’re ready to dip!

Because the mallows were dusty and I didn’t want it to get into my chocolate, I pressed the mallow into the melted chocolate, covered it with chocolate without moving it around. Then I just lifted it out with a fork and tapped it on the edge until all the excess chocolate dripped off. Then used a knife to gently scrape the mallow off the fork onto wax paper.

They look a little bumpy, but that’s all the yummy coconut in there!

Don’t they look pretty?!

The coconut is subtle enough and not too sweet. Absolutely perfect!

3 Comments

Filed under Marshmallows

Tagged as chocolate, chocolate dipped marshmallows, coconut, marshmallows

July 17, 2012 · 8:00 am

Pink Baby Shower Cookies

Finally I got to make baby shower cookies for a girl!

Look at the perfection of this pink… I am obsessed.

I bought the little bow cutter a while back and this is the first (and perfect) opportunity to use it.

I did stripes and polka dots onesies with my 2 different color pinks.

I love these little pink bows!

Each favor got one little onesie and one little bow.

Oh and look at my new stickers!

Thank you to Dion for making a girl baby that I can do pink cookies for! 🙂

4 Comments

Filed under Cookies

Tagged as baby shower, bow, buttercream, icing, onesie, pink, sugar cookies

July 13, 2012 · 8:00 am

Flavored Homemade Mallows

So I have been a little marshmallow crazy lately, thanks to Shauna Sever‘s book Marshmallow Madness. Instead of drawing this out, I thought I would just share some pictures of the many mallows I have been creating lately…

Milk Chocolate (my brother’s favorite):

Key Lime Pie:

Bubblegum (my coworkers’ favorite):

Vanilla (my husband’s favorite), but pretty colors:

So far my favorite is funfetti!

1 Comment

Filed under Marshmallows

Tagged as blue, bubble gum, chocolate, funfetti, lime, pink, purple, sprinkles, vanilla

July 10, 2012 · 8:00 am

Sprinkle Iced Sugar Cookies

Sometimes, no words are necessary…

1 Comment

Filed under Cookies

Tagged as blue, easy cookies, sprinkles

July 6, 2012 · 8:00 am

Australia Cookies

A friend/coworker’s daughter (Mallory!) is leaving for a 6-month exchange program in Australia. Her mom asked me to make her some cookies as a surprise.

I used a teddy bear cutter that came in my Wilton baby set (top cookie) but I turned it upsidedown to make my koalas. Koalas have big ears ya know!

To get an idea of my design, I first sketched it out on the cookie with a yellow food color marker.

Then I outlined all the cookies in black. I will be doing this more often, it made my life 1000 times easier.

I also made some kangaroos!

I teased everyone on fb with this photo of my colors… I didn’t realize how many things could be made with browns and greys until everyone started guessing!

I filled in my little koalas’ bellies, chins, and ears with light grey and let it dry a bit.

Then I came back and filled in the grey. The ears were tricky because I didn’t want to lose the “fluff” definition I made with my black.

So cute already!

Once the grey had dried a little I added some eyes and filled in the noses.

The kangaroos got filled in with brown and light tan for the bellies.

I added a little mouth to a couple of the koalas.

Bye Mallory!! You’re going to have an amazing time!

9 Comments

Filed under Cookies

Tagged as bear, brown, buttercream, grey, icing, sugar cookies

July 3, 2012 · 8:00 am

Snickers Cupcakes with Chocolate Rose Frosting

These cupcakes are life changing.

Life changing. Seriously.

I’m going to just get right into it.

Snickers Cupcakes with Chocolate Rose Frosting

cupcake ingredients:

1 box white cake + water, oil, and eggs called for

1/4 cup brown sugar

3-4 snickers bars

frosting ingredients:

1 stick of butter, cut into pieces

1/4 cup cocoa powder

3 tbsp + 1tsp milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 lb (16 oz) powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Cut snickers into small pieces, spread out on a glass plate, and put into the freezer for 30 minutes. This will keep them from melting when you bake the cupcakes.

2. Mix together the water, oil, and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Slowly add the cake mix until fully combined, then add the eggs.

*For the record, I forgot the last part. Yup, I forgot eggs. They still came out great, but they kind of crumble apart as you try to eat it. Tells me that if you are vegan, you can make these without eggs and they’re still amazing!!**

3. Use a cookie scoop or a 1/4 cup to scoop batter into your cupcake liners.

4. Remove the snickers pieces from the freezer and shove a few into each cupcake.

5. Bake at 350* for 18-20 minutes.

Mine came out puffy but sank in a bit after cooling. I don’t know if this is because I forgot the eggs or if they will do that anyway, but I thought I would mention it just in case it happens to anyone else.

6. To make the frosting, mix together the butter and cocoa powder, adding the milk slowly to make a fudgy paste. Add the vanilla, then slowly mix in the powdered sugar.

This frosting is not too chocolaty, because the cupcake is really sweet and rich already.

I took a couple photos to show how I made the frosting roses. You basically start in the center and go around in a circle while squeezing out frosting. When you get to the outside, stop squeezing and pull to stretch the end of the rose.