Frozen Cakes

The Frozen movie has become an instant fave this year for many birthday themes to be based on. These are the Frozen cakes I have done so far. And I have a Frozen Fever cake coming up at the end of August.

Minnie Mouse Cake and Cupcakes

I was so excited to be asked to do another tiered cake. This was from February.  The details were done in Satin Ice. The rest is buttercream.

 I was also asked to do matching cupcakes. The ears were mini oreo and the bows were in satin ice.

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

I'm getting ready to make my niece's 5th birthday cake.  It's going to be Chocolate Cake with Marshmallow filling and also a layer of a fresh strawberry filling.  But since the cake recipe I use for Chocolate cake makes so much and I don't need a large cake I decided to use the rest of the batter to make cupcakes for work.  Which also allowed me to test out the marshmallow filling.

 Here is how they turned out.

 This is what the inside looks like when you cut into the cupcake.

I rolled the cupcake into green coconut (just flaked coconut with some green food coloring).  I used a ziploc bag to shake the coconut around to get it covered in green.  Then I added my Yellow Peeps Easter bunny and a few Starburst Jelly Beans.  I thought Jelly Belly Jelly Beans were the best but these Starburst Jelly Beans are by far the best I have ever had. 

Birthday Cupcakes

I made 4 dozen cupcakes to go along with the main cake for my son's birthday party.  I made Oreo cupcakes and Vanilla with vanilla pudding filled cupcakes.

These Oreo cupcakes are slightly different from the ones I previously posted.  I kept them in their original wrapper and I cored out the center to add the cream cheese whipped Oreo filling.  Then I put a swirl of Espresso Chocolate frosting around and topped it with a mini Oreo cookie.

The Vanilla cupcakes here were a 1-2-3-4 Cake recipe off of the Swan's Down Cake Flour box.  I took some dream whip and vanilla pudding and followed the directions on the Dream Whip box to make a Mousse like consistency for my vanilla filling.  I piped it into the center of all the cupcakes.  Then I made a Vanilla Buttercream frosting to top them all off.  I added a few stars for color.

Oreo Mini Cakes/Cupcakes

This past weekend we celebrated my husband's birthday.  I told him I would make him some goodies to take to work.  This was one of the goodies.  I also plan to make him Tiramisu cupcakes to take as well but this is the first round.

 It's a simple moist chocolate cake cupcake cut in half for the Oreo Cream Cheese filling.

 Then I added a small amount of chocolate buttercream frosting with a dollop of the Cream Cheese filling without Oreos and then added a 1/2 Oreo on the top for decoration.

Just look at that wonderful goodness!  I placed the cupcakes back into liners so it would be easier for my husband's co-workers to grab one for themselves. 

This idea I came up with after seeing a cake by Brown Eyed Baker: http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2009/06/25/cookies-cream-oreo-look-alike-cake/

I did not use the chocolate cake recipe in the link above but I'm sure it's just as good.

Flames & Fire Truck Cupcakes

I LOVE themed birthday parties!!!  In a couple of months my hubby and I will begin planning our baby's 1st birthday party.  A few themes have been thrown out in the mix but nothing set in stone.

So here I'm making goodies for a Fire Truck themed birthday.  I made some cupcakes to go along with the Fire Truck 3D cake that I'll show in tomorrow's post.  The request was 4 dozen Flame Cupcakes and 2 dozen cupcakes with a Fire Truck on each one.  (Yes if you read yesterday's post - this makes 132 cupcakes in one week!)

Cupcakes with Flames

I made red and orange frosting for the flames and piped out individual "flames" in each color on the cupcakes.

The view of one dozen.

A close up!

An even better close up.

 

Here you can get the side view effect of how the flames are "shooting" up!

Cupcakes with Fire Trucks on them.  

For the Fire Trucks, I decided to use a Fire Truck candy mold with chocolate candy melts. The mold is roughly 1 3/4" - perfect for setting on top of a cupcake!  For the cupcake I just made a simple buttercream frosting.  Before I piped the frosting out I took a paintbrush and added a line of Red coloring in my piping bag so when the frosting came out part of the cupcake would appear with red stripes.  I figured this would add a little more "pizazz" instead of a plain white cupcake with a truck on it.

Here you can see the stripes of red through the cupcake.

The final view from the front.  

I didn't add all the fire trucks to the cupcakes for fear the chocolate may "sweat" and bleed in to the frosting.  So I'm actually providing the cupcakes and fire trucks separately until the birthday party begins.

The cupcakes are a yummy slightly dense vanilla cupcake.  I'm still on the lookout for that awesome melt in your mouth super fluffy white cupcake.  So if you have a recipe like that, please post a link to it!  I'd greatly appreciate it!

60 Cupcake Challenge

So my day job asked me if I wouldn't mind making some cupcakes for our CEO's 20th Anniversary.  First off, my response was that I was beyond honored that I was being asked.  Then I hear how many - 60 - SIXTY!!!  My mouth almost dropped but I kept my composure cool and calm like it was nothing.  When I was bubbling inside with excitement!!!  I don't think people understand how much I really REALLY enjoy baking.  My husband isn't much of a sweets eater which benefits us both.  It means we don't keep sweets in the house because I would be the one to devour them all.  And that wouldn't really exactly help me since I've been on the Weight Watchers Points Plus program for the last 4 months.  And am proud to say I'm down 27 pounds!!  Then comes the - What?!??!  You bake sweets and still lose weight - How?!?!  Most of the time the sweet treats are for my friends, family or co-workers so I'm passing the extra calories aside to others!  :-)  Don't get me wrong - I definitely indulge in my share of sweet treats I just track them in my points!  Well - on to the 60 cupcake challenge!!!!

 So 30 of the cupcakes are decorated with the number 20.  I used Wilton's Pearlized Sprinkles - Sugar Pearls on top of the stars I piped out.

 Here I used Wilton's Pearlized Sprinkles - Silver Pearlized Sugar around the edge and just piped the "ACB"  in buttercream icing.

 A side view of the pearlized sugar.

 This is a little better photo using the flash of the 20 year cupcakes.

And here is just a view of what 1 dozen look like.  30 cupcakes are chocolate and 30 are vanilla.  I used a simple buttercream frosting for the entire frosting and decoration.  Many Congratulations to our CEO!!!

Cupcakes with Color Mist

So a couple days ago I made a few cupcakes for a co-worker and had leftovers from the batch I made.  I decided to send them off to my sister for the birthday party she went to yesterday.  I decided to spruce them up with a few spritzings of Wilton's Color Mist product in Red and Yellow.  The red cupcakes are filled with vanilla pudding and the yellow cupcakes are just plain but of course I made them better by adding sprinkles!

I just used a simple large start tip to put the buttercream frosting on the cupcake and then did my spritzing and adding of my sprinkles.  Yum!  They are just a vanilla cupcake cupcake recipe that is so moist!!

UNI Soccer Camp Cupcakes

Another co-worker of mine asked for a small amount of cupcakes to go with a cake she was making for her daughter's birthday this weekend.  She asked me to duplicate a logo for the University of Northern Iowa Soccer Camp which her daughter was a part of.  I did the best I could and hope she and her daughter are very happy with it.  Here is the logo and below are the cupcakes I made.

I just used a simple buttercream frosting and hand piped the logo on.

Cupcakes!!!

So a girl at my work asked if I could make her 2 dozen chocolate chip cookies and 18 decorated cupcakes for a visit to her daughter at Illinois State.  She wanted flower decorations on the cupcakes.  I made 9 vanilla cupcakes and 9 chocolate cupcakes.  Below are pictures of how the cupcakes turned out.

I also managed to make the Illinois State Mascot - the Red Bird on a few of the cupcakes.  I hope they enjoy! They sure looked tasty!

Cupcakes - Results from Cake Decorating Class 2

Tomorrow night is my last "Basic Cake Decorating" class.  Last week's class we took cupcakes and decorated them.  Here's how they turned out:

This one is just a simple swirl as I call it.  Using a big fancy tip to put your frosting on.  I was glad to learn how to do that because I see so many darling cupcakes on the Food Network shows and I always wanted to learn.

I was a rebel with this one.  For some reason the Basic class teaches you a very simple rose.  Honestly - I think it's ugly and doesn't represent a rose at all.  I was taught 20 some odd years ago how to really make a rose and so I just went with that.  I was pleased to say the least!

I decided to use a technique that is typically used on borders - the rosette!  I just made a bunch of them and I really like how it turned out.

This is the same rosette technique just in a different color.

Here are some simple flower with the big flower tip.  It was the same tip we used to make the "swirl" look.

This is the "Pom Pom" flower.  Honestly - it reminds me of crystal rock formations as well as the kryptonite from the Superman movies - though my "kryptonite" is pink!

I call these drop and twist flowers because you're using the same tip for the drop flowers but you turn your hand ever so slightly to the right or left to create the swirled flower.

And finally - another "Swirl" cupcake.  Though this one I learned how to make a filled cupcake.  FINALLY!  I've been wanting to know how you fill a cupcake.  The next picture shows the inside.  I think it would look more appealing to use white frosting on the inside instead of the colored pink frosting but I didn't really feel like changing my tip over to a white bag of frosting. 

Mmmmm Yummy Goodness!!!  Why not have a little extra bit of frosting?!?!  :-)  Tomorrow's class we do our "final" cake and get our diploma!  I think I'm just going to put Happy Labor Day on the cake and use red, white and blue colors to decorate with.  Next week will be a busy week for me.  I have an airplane cake to make and Bakugan cookies and a cake as well.  I'm hoping to test out a new cake pop too that I've devised a plan for.  All depends on how much free time I have as I'm also working on getting my food safety and sanitation certification so I have to do the "homework" for that class in my free time too. 

Life's more fun when you're busy doing something you enjoy!

Sesame Street Cupcakes & Cake

Two years ago my brother's triplets celebrated their 1st birthday.  The theme was to be Sesame Street babies.  So I made cupcakes (so each of the triplets could have their own "cake") and a main cake.

Here is a picture of Elmo, Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird.

And here is Cookie Monster, Grover and more Oscar the Grouch.

For the cake I put Elmo, Big Bird & Cookie Monster.

I'm still working on my handwriting technique at this point.  I've never liked piping out the greetings on cakes but I can tell I'm getting better at it the more I practice.