July 15, 2011 · 12:02 pm

Baby Shower Giant Cupcake

The original plan was to make cupcakes for dessert, and cookies for favors. The mommy-to-be’s mom asked if there would also be a cake, which got me thinking a cake is kind of necesary for photos and such. I decided to go with a giant cupcake for the cake. Only a few hiccups with this one… okay I am minimalizing it. The cake was sort of a disaster. At least for me.

I bought 2 boxes of yellow cake mix. One for the cupcakes, and one for the cake. Then at 5am the day of baking (day before the shower) I am wide awake and I realize that this is silly. Everything will taste the same! So I decide to make homemade funfetti cake for the cake and leave the yellow cake for the cupcakes.

I had a funfetti recipe** I was dying to try, and how cute would it be with all blue sprinkles! So that was the plan. But then Michael’s didnt have blue sprinkles. Only jimmies without blue at all (too girly) and sugar crystals which I didn’t think would work well baked in a cake for funfetti… So I went to Ross to look for sprinkles. (Sounds like a weird place to look, but I have bought good stuff there before!) The sprinkles they had were good. Not perfect, but good. They were jimmies in red, blue, green, and purple. Ugh the purple was not going to work. So what does my crazy head do? I pick out all the purple ones. Yes I did. Totally crazy.

I baked up my homemade funfetti giant cupcake… it came out of the oven and was so small! It was then that I realized something. Last time I made a giant cupcake I used 2 boxes of mix (because 1 was too small) and there was just leftover batter I used for cupcakes. So here I had 24 cupcakes (one box of mix) and a giant cupcake that might feed 8 people? That’s 32 people served and I was told there would be 43ish people there.  This is why I made cake pops also. Again, crazy. But I’m glad I did – they were amazing!

Back to the giant cupcake. I leveled off the base, and slapped on some dark blue buttercream that was leftover from the cookies. While leveling off the top, it started to fall apart. Bottom was done is white buttercream, and the top in light blue. Everything can be fixed with more frosting though right? Eh, it’s up for debate.

I tried doing the bottom with my star tip rather than spreading and piping skinny lines as I have done before. I think I rushed it because there were some gaps…

The best part of it all?! Some people didn’t show up… others came and didn’t eat anything… and some left before gifts were unwrapped and didn’t eat any dessert! So this poor little lovely disaster cake didn’t even get cut. 😦 😦  So I don’t have any pictures of the inside of the cake. You’ll have to just trust me that’s it’s funfetti without purple sprinkles!

**The recipe, which I was dying to try, will not be tagged or linked here. In my opinion, it wasn’t very good at all and I don’t want to slander someone else’s recipe. I was so disappointed after reading the rave reviews from the blog I saw it on. I have come across another that I will try, so funfetti might end up on this blog again!

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July 14, 2011 · 5:46 pm

Baby Shower Cupcakes

Ever since I made rainbow cupcakes I have been doing colored yellow cake every time I make cupcakes. For the baby shower I helped throw, it was the perfect dessert.

The theme of the baby shower was baseball – more specifically Giants vs. Cardinals. The mommy-to-be is a die hard Cardinals fan and the daddy-to-be is a die hard Giants fan. It seemed only fitting!

All decor was red (Cardinals) and orange (Giants) with occasional blue for their little baby boy. The baby shower invitations were designed to look like baseball game tickets. Adorable.

Anyhow, the cupcakes. Half were red and blue (Cardinals) and half were orange and black (giants). The Cardinal cupcakes got red buttercream frosting and a Cardinals pick, and the Giants cupcakes got orange buttercream frosting and a Giants pick.

I want to take a moment to say anyone who has ever made their own cupcake picks – you’re crazy! I am never doing it again! It took forever. Although I have since seen those cute little paper cutters at Michaels that totally would have saved my hand from cutting out all of those stupid little circles! Live and learn…

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July 9, 2011 · 7:51 pm

Easy Buttercream Recipe

I realized I have never actually posted my buttercream recipe, so I need to get it up here. I will go back and link everything.

Ingredients:

1 16 oz package of powdered sugar  (if you can get it in a bag instead of a box, it’s cheaper!!)

1 stick of butter (room temperature)

3 tablespoons of milk

2 teaspoons  vanilla

Mix all ingredients together with a hand mixer or the paddle attachment on a stand mixer. Once everything is incorporated, scrape the sides down with a spatula. Then mix some more. I usually mix it about a minute or so. It gets fluffier and it makes it easier to spread on a cake.

That is all. =)

Easy right? You can mix in food coloring if you want… I made strawberry buttercream using this recipe and substituted all of the milk and 1/2 the vanilla for fresh strawberry puree. It ended up needing a tad of milk to make it wetter, but still very easy!

Hope you enjoy!

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July 9, 2011 · 8:48 am

Cake Pops!

I am helping to throw a baby shower today. On the menu was cupcakes, cake, and favor cookies (all to come in later posts!)… but after the cake (actually a giant cupcake) was baked, I realized it was way too small. I had about 34 servings between the cupcake and the mini-giant cupcake – and over 40 people. Not okay! So I made a last minute decision to make cake pops as well.

I have been dying to try making cake pops lately and since I got the opportunity here I jumped for it! So yes, this is my first attempt at them, and they look pretty darn CUTE if I do say so myself!

For everyone who has never had a cake pop or doesn’t know much about them, here is how it works.

1. Bake a cake in a 13×9 pan.

2. When the cake is completely cool, crumble it finely into a large bowl.

3. Add to the crumbs about 12 ounces of frosting. The cake pop creator and master, Bakerella, says to use store bought. This is where I diverted from the path a bit and used my vanilla buttercream recipe.

**Update: I use my own frosting, and I have no idea how much I put in it. I just add a little at a time, and stir it up, until it’s sticky enough to form balls. But not so wet that it’s going to slide off the stick.

4. Form sticky cake mix into balls (or whatever shape you want really) and set on a wax paper covered cookie sheet. Put in fridge for about 15 minutes.

5. Melt candy melts (Wilton, can be bought at Michaels) in microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring until smooth consistency.

6. Remove balls from fridge. Dip the end of a lollipop stick into melted candy coating, then shove it into the cake ball. (Not all the way through, but at least 3/4 the way. You don’t want it to fall off.) Do this for all the balls on the tray, then put them back in the fridge. Let chill for a few minutes so the candy will harden.

7. Remove one cake pop from the fridge at a time and dip into melted candy. If you want it to have sprinkles, this is the time to add them. Stick upright into a styrofoam block to dry. (Or if you want them displayed stick up, just plop it back down on the wax paper – before adding sprinkles.)

I am so excited about these because they were pretty easy overall, look fabulous, and one batch makes over 50 cake pops! The candy melts come in so many different colors, plus the white can be dyed to any color you want (and/or flavored with oil-based flavorings). I can’t wait to get more creative and make more of these! I even added “Cake Pops” as a category to this blog because I know there will be more to come!

So back to the baby shower. Since I sprinkled the tops of the cake pops, I didn’t want to display them stick up, since they don’t look very cute that way. I tried mugs filled with shredded paper, but it just wasn’t supporting the heavy cake pop well. I ended u wrapping my styrofoam block in tissue paper, and then in wrapping paper before sticking the pops back in their holes. Cute huh? I will definitely do this in the future again too!

More baby shower goodies to come!

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July 3, 2011 · 10:53 am

More Graduation Cookies

These cookies were my second official order! My coworker’s husband was stuck in an unemployment rut and decided to go back to school. He just graduated from a technical school with a degree in drafting. He was top of his class, and became part of the Alpha Beta Kappa honor society. Best part? His professors helped him get some awesome interviews, and he landed an awesome job right off the bat!

As a surprise, she asked me to make him some graduation cookies for the party she was throwing him this weekend. His robe was navy blue, and one of his many tassels was red, so those are the colors I went with. (The others weren’t as exciting – white, silver, something like that…) At that time I didn’t realize the party was 4th of July weekend, but it turned out perfectly!

I also incorporated the ABK, because that was something he was very proud of.

Can’t wait to do more orders!!

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July 1, 2011 · 8:38 pm

My Signature Cookie

I have been wanting to make this cookie for awhile now. It’s the idea I came up with for my “signature cookie.” How did I come up with it? Not sure really, all I know is I was sleeping. Yes I dream about cookies… and cakes… don’t judge me.

My husband said “I don’t get it” when I explained what it was going to be. So I made up an explanation for why it works as my signature cookie. So here it is:

I make cookies… & cakes… & cupcakes.. & strawberries…. & more!

Works, right? 🙂

In my dream it was a tiffany blue cookie with a white ampersand, but when it came time to make it I went with white because it’s the easiest to make and if I am going to be making these a lot I want them to be easy! The cutter I used I bought at an antique fair. I also just bought a biscuit/cookie cutter set that has one a tad bigger I might do next time. The little ones are cute though!

I want to take a minute to give MAJOR props to Sweet Sugar Belle for her icing color chart. There is no way I could have made this perfect tiffany blue, or any of the other colors I made last week without her chart! So thanks Sugar Belle!!

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June 17, 2011 · 1:14 pm

Raspberry Lemonade Cake

So I realized I am really bad at following directions in a recipe. On the bright side, it ends up more of an “adaptation” that way.

Last night I was planning on making a cake for my new cake stand. I had purchased all of the ingredients for both the cake and a jello mold I wanted to eventually try with a new jello mold my mom gave me (it’s old actually, just new to me). I was getting ready to start and I just thought “It’s a little silly to be baking when it’s so hott outside!” So then my husband suggests I make the jello mold instead. Sounded like a good idea, so I started making the jello. Then I realized I had bought fresh raspberries for the cake, and they weren’t going to last long. So I made both. Two new recipes in one evening? Not such a good idea…

The jello I’m not even going to talk about. Just know that I will try it again one of these says and it will make it onto this blog! It just doesn’t deserve it this time.

The cake. Mmmmm the cake. I was thinking the whole time that at least I didn’t mess up the cake like I did the jello! At least I can follow some directions.. HA. I got to the end and realized I made a big boo-boo, but it ended up tasting absolutely AMAZING and I will intentionally make the same “boo-boo” every time I make this cake! It was so good in fact, that a coworker ordered one from me for a party this weekend! So I baked the same cake (the same way!) both Tuesday and Thursday this week. I took more pictures the second time around, because the jello incident had me too frazzled to remember the first time around!

The original recipe is here. What follows is my “adaptation.”

Raspberry Lemonade Cake

Ingredients:

1 box Betty Crocker supermoist white cake mix

1 can frozen lemonade concentrate (thawed)

1 3oz box raspberry jello

1/3 cup vegetable oil

4 egg whites

fresh raspberries (about 2 cups)

1 16oz box powdered sugar

3 tbsp milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 stick butter (1/2 cup) (softened)

1 container frozen whipped topping (thawed) (I used fat-free)

 1. Heat 1 cup of water over low heat. Wisk in packet of jello. Keep stirring until all the powder is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

2. Preheat oven to 350, or 325 for dark/nonstick pans.

3. In large bowl, beat together cake mix, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup jello, 1/4 cup lemonade concentrate (shake the can before you open it!), the oil, and the egg whites on low speed for about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides on bowl and beat on medium speed for at least 2 minutes.

*Pause* Look how pretty the batter is! It reminds me of bubblegum!

4. Pour batter evenly into 2 cake pans. I used 9″. Tap them on the counter to even the batter out. Bake for about 25 minutes, cake is done when toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

5. As soon as you take the cakes out of the oven, poke the tops with a fork every inch or so. Each hole becomes a pocket of “wonderfullness” as the original receipe says!

6. Stir together the rest of the can of lemonade and the remaining jello juice. Carefully spoon over the cakes so that it seeps into all the little holes! Let cool completely (at least 1 hour).

*Pause* The first time around I couldn’t figure out why there was soo much liquid. Maybe because the original directions said 1/2 cup lemonade, half of which goes into the cake, so there is onyl 1/4 cup left to add to the jello and spoon over the top of the cake. Me not paying attention, used the whole can, which is like 5x more lemonade than you’re supposed to use. The result was a tart-sweet cake that was very very moist and amazing. I imagine the original recipe results in a sweet (rather than tart) taste and not so moist.

7. When cake is completely cool, remove the first from the pan by inverting onto a clean flat cutting board. Then invert again onto either a cake plate/platter or onto a cardboard cake base. Use a long bread knife to level off the top of the cake. Doesn’t have to be perfect, but it will help it be better balanced.

8. For the frosting, mix together powdered sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla until very smooth. I like to add white food coloring to brighten it up, but you don’t have to. Once it’s all smooth, carefully fold in the whipped topping.

9. Plop a hefty portion of frosting on top of the bottom cake and smooth to the edges. Invert the second cake onto the (clean) cutting board, then carefully invert again onto the top of the other cake. Because the cakes are now so moist, be really careful not to break or crumble the top cake!

*Pause* I was pretty much freaking out trying to flip a sopping wet cake over on top of another cake. I was soo scared it was going to fall apart! Especially for the second cake because it was for someone else!

10. Plop a bunch more frosting on the top of the cake and start spreading. Use a lot and never let the spreader touch the cake surface, that’s how you get crumbs in your frosting! Do the sides and top separately, never spread from side to top in one motion, or the other way around. It helps keep a clean shape.

*Pause* At this point, my house was pretty warm, and my frosting was melting off my cake as I frosted. I popped both the cake and bowl of frosting into the fridge for about 15 minutes, and it came together better and was much easier to work with. I recommend the AC being on if it’s a hot day and you’re frosting a cake!

11. Top the cake with fresh raspberries, or serve along side the cake when cutting.

The ones above are the Tuesday version, on my new cake pedestal. The top one is kind of a bad picture so you can’t tell, but the pedestal is clear purple. So pretty! I served the raspberries on the side the first time.

The picture below I topped with the raspberries so that it would look fancy for my “customer”!

I bought the cardboard base and cake box at Michaels, and taped one of my business cards on the corner.

First cake order is a success! Hopefully he can make it home the hour and a half safely…

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June 13, 2011 · 10:19 pm

Non-Edible Deliciousness

omg I want these!! they are so realistic looking I want to eat them!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/75736523/special-edition-rainbow-birthday-cake?ref=af_you_favitem

that’s all. ❤

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June 12, 2011 · 2:12 pm

Best Brownies EVER

Okay so I have mentioned before that I don’t really like chocolate that much. Basically I don’t like chocolate just by itself. No chocolate cake, brownies, chocolate bars… the exception comes in when you add stuff to it. Nougat, caramel, nuts… I love Milky Way, Snickers, Sees caramels in the nuts and chews box.. mmm… So anyway, I don’t eat brownies. Like never.

About a month ago, a coworker and I had a play fight over him eating too many of the sugar cookies I brought in to work… somehow the result of this play fight was him trying to “out do” me and bring something yummier than my cookies. So he brings in brownies. I had to let him down with the news that I don’t like brownies/chocolate, and he INSISTED anyway that I try one. Ugh, fine. I took one and it sat on my desk a few hours before I figured what the hell.. and took a bite.

O.M.G.  – Heaven. In my mouth. Like Seriously.

I was a little too embarrassed to tell him that I was in love with it, after just telling him I don’t eat brownies. I did however, go back for another before they ran out! By the end of the day I did confess that the brownie was the best thing I have ever eaten. He promised he’d bring me the recipe, but kept forgetting… But I decided I wanted to make them for a wine party I was going to last night. (Wine+chocolate=perfect, right?) He was kind enough to finally remember to get me the recipe. And I am now going to share with anyone who happens to read my little blog! Trust me, you’re gonna want to print this one out and keep it!

Caramel Brownies

14 oz bag caramels

5 oz can evaporated milk

box chocolate cake mix w/ pudding in mix

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

6 oz bag chocolate chips

Unwrap caramels and put in small pot with 1/3 cup (half of the can) of evaporated milk. Turn on low and stir every once in a while to get things melty. We eventually want it to be smooth, but it can get started while we get the rest ready.

Beat together cake mix, the rest of the evaporated milk, and the margarine. It will eventually turn into a ball of dough.

Press half of the dough into the bottom of a greased 9×13 inch pan. Bake at 350 for 6 minutes.

Pull the pan out of the oven and sprinkle 1 cup of chopped walnuts over the top of the dough, followed by the chocolate chips.

When the caramel is good and melty smooth, pour it evenly over the top of the chocolate chips. Don’t drool into the caramel!!!

The rest of the cake/dough mixture goes on top. I tried to smoosh it down and it wasn’t working well with the caramel there. Instead I took small pieces of the dough and flattened it as much as I could with my fingers then laid it on top the caramel. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just as good of coverage as possible.

Sprinkle the rest of the nuts across the top. (This helps hide the holes!)

Pop the pan back in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Let cool completely then cut up and serve. These pics arestraight out of the oven. Look at the crispy gooey caramel on the corner!

 

Plated and ready for the wine party!

The brownies were brought out just in time for the red wines, and they paired perfectly! I will definitely be making these again and again and again… you should too!

*PS – they are good cold! We kept the leftovers in the fridge and my husband said it made them even better!*

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June 11, 2011 · 4:21 pm

Baby Shower #1

This summer there are 2 baby showers I am helping with (and making cookies for!) Both are very good friends of mine, both due in August (within 3 days of each other), both having boys, and both are having sports themed showers!

Shower #1 is a general sports theme. Another good friend of the mom-to-be and myself helped with the cookies, and she brought her cousin too!

*Pause.* I have to be honest up front. I don’t really do sports. I am getting better at getting into baseball for the hubby, but that’s about it. I especially don’t play sports. I won’t even start on how uncoordinated I am, it’s ridiculous. Nevertheless, I thought I knew what all the balls looked like. Good thing I did some google searches for inspiration and didn’t just wing it…

Here are the cutters I used. I had the circle, but bought the rest at cheapcookiecutters.com.

We made baseballs and baseball bats.  I was planning on making the bats brown since I was doing brown already for the footballs (one less color to make, right?) But my husband said NO, they have to be tan. Fine.

Footballs. I like that the laces are on the top rather than the center, it doesn’t look so “fakey.”

Basketballs. Here is where the inspiration came in. If I had done the “wing it” method, I would have done the basketball like this:

Not saying it looks bad, just a little boring. (Don’t mind the crookedness, I just made it in paint to show my point.) Google inspiration gave me an angled look, which is much cuter and I never would have thought of it on my own!

Soccer balls. Similar situation as the basketballs. Except I really just didn’t know what a soccer ball looked like. And after a google search I realized that most people don’t know what a soccer ball looked like. I don’t want to offend anyone specific so instead of giving photo examples, I will just explain and if you care you can do a google search for “soccer ball sugar cookies” and you can see what I am talking about. Most people make the whole ball out of hexagons (6-sides) when in reality, a soccer ball is made up of black pentagons (5-sides) and white hexagons (6-sides). The second inspiration I got from searching for soccer ball cookies is that most people put the first black part in the direct center of the cookie and expand out. Maybe it’s just me, but I think it looks kinda funny. The one photo that I found that had the correct shapes did not center the black part, but rather did it askew. I loved it!

Okay besides all the inspiration above, I wasn’t going to even do soccer balls unless my friend was coming over to help me. I mentioned I don’t do sports.. that would be ESPECIALLY soccer. My friend however, has played her whole life and so she was in charge of the soccer balls. She did a fabulous job!

And lots of onesies! I love my onesie cookie cutter so much!!

A couple more, just cuz they’re my faves:

The cookies fit in perfectly with all the other sports decorations and with the cake!

Phew! While I didn’t make that many cookies, this was quite a project because there were so many different colors and it was hard to plan how much to make of each color so that I didn’t have to make too much icing or buttercream! It worked out nicely and I now know better exactly how much icing is needed to do a certain number of cookies. I learn more every time!

*PS* Are my picture taking skills getting any better? 🙂

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