Updates

I have recently had a few things happen in my life that has kept we away from doing two of my favorite things..... baking and blogging.  I THINK my life has settled down a bit...well as much as it can being the mother of a three year old, a wife, and a part-time employee at major retailer.  I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but I did let it get the better of me for a bit.

I did have two things happen in my baking world since last time.  I made cupcakes for a teenagers birthday this past weekend and I have an order for a graduation cake in June.

The cupcakes were a big hit.  The only down side was there wasn't enough.  The mom didn't expect as many as she did, so 2 dozen cupcakes went really fast.  Here is the final result:

They were half and half..yellow and chocolate with buttercream icing.

The graduation cake will be a red velvet cake and will be shaped like the front page of a newspaper.  I am going to decorated it with a graduation cap and the school mascot.  I plan on making them out of chocolate, so they will be edible.  I will post pictures of the completed product.

I will also have my daughter's birthday cake to do at the end of the month.  This year I need to be a little more creative.  She picked Clubhouse Mickey as her theme.  There is only one Mickey Mouse shaped cake pan that I could find and as cute as it is I want more for her.  So, I will need to brainstorm and out sketch out a few things.  I am a little worried I won't come up with something, but I can just here my friends all saying...."You know will think of something and it will be great."  I just hope so.  I am open to suggestions.

Last thing is this.  I was thinking of doing a little more with the blog itself.  It of course will still be baking and my baking adventures, but I was thinking of expanding it and possibly talking other things too.  Such as tips and links to other things I find on the web.  What do you think?  Please be honest with me and tell me I am insane.  Don't worry I can handle it.... I think.

Well, until next time....... Happy Baking!

Microphone Cupcakes

Over the last few weeks I have been seeing an increase of people finding my blog because of the microphone cupcakes I made.  Most of the people searching were looking for how to make them, so I was thinking I would make a quick post on how I actually made them.

Some of you may remember back in January I made microphone cupcakes for a 5 years old Justin Bieber themed birthday party.  Even though they were used for a children's party they could really be used for any music themed party.

Here is what I did:
     First, use your favorite cake (it can be from a box,I promise I won't tell) and just follow in the directions to make cupcakes.
     Second, you can make your own frosting or use one from the can.  Which ever you use might I suggest that you do not use a whipped frosting because you need a frosting that will harden a bit to hold the sprinkles on.  If you make you own, you of course can tinted it any color you want.  If you use the frosting from a can you have two options.  One, if you plan on using chocolate sprinkles and don't want to tint the frosting, you can use plain chocolate frosting.  But, if you are a little adventurous and want some color then use vanilla frosting and tint it any color you want.
     After the cupcakes cool, it is time for assembly.  This is where I learned a bit from trial and error.  So, hopefully by me telling you my mistakes it will help you not make them.  My biggest issue was finding a way to store and transport them.  Lucky for me I have a husband who is handy with wood and he made me a wooden box type thing to help me carry the cupcakes.  Hopefully, you won't be needing to take them anywhere and don't need anything like that.  So, if you just need to store them until party time, might I suggest cutting holes in a cake board, picture what vendors use to carry around the cotton candy at places.
     Ok, for the actually assembly of the microphones, I use plain old sugar wafer ice cream cones.  I happened to use the multi-colored ones, but of course you can use just the plain ones.  First thing I did was put some M & Ms in the bottom of each cone.  This helps with the balance of the cone since the finished product will be top-heavy.  You could use whatever candy you like.  I think it also gives an extra little treat.
     First, you need to put a little frosting on the inside of the cone to help hold the cupcake in place.  Place the cupcake in the cone and then finish frosting.  You want to make sure the cupcake is covered, but not too much.  After they are frosted, I just poured the sprinkles over the cone letting the sprinkles just stick to the frosting.  I happened to do each cone from beginning to end, you may choose to do it like an assembly line that is completely up to you.

    In the end your result should resemble this:

I hope this helps some of you out there in making your own microphone cupcakes.

Until next time...... Happy Baking!

Transformer Birthday Cake!

I was lucky enough to make a special little boy his birthday cake.  He wanted a Transformer cake.  So, I got to buy a new toy, a Transformer shaped cake pan.   Here is the final product:

The cake was a white cake with buttercream icing.  The entire cake was done with a No. 3 star tip.

I was told by the mother that the boy was very happy and thought it was very cool.  She also informed me that every one kept asking her where she got the cake, so she was great PR for me that day and handed out my business cards to everyone.  Keep you fingers crossed for me that I start getting more orders.

I also found out today that the Italian Cream Cake were also a big hit.  One woman said she loved it and she doesn't really care Italian Cream Cake. I was very happy to hear this since this was my first time making it. 

Until next time....... Happy Baking!

Might have more business

This week I was asked to make two Italian Cream Cakes for a new customer.  He is a Philly transplant like myself and we have talked several times about many different things.  He recently took over his family's pretzel business and has been thinking of expanding  some things.  He had a family get together this week and asked me to make the cakes.  I of course was delighted to.

It is a three layer cake with cream cheese icing, pecans, and coconut.

I have not found what they thought of them. I haven't needed to get any pretzels since I delivered them.  I don't want to jump ahead of myself, but I am hoping that this might turn into something more.  Send good thoughts, please.

Until next time.... Happy Baking!

Valentine's Day Treats

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, I needed to make some sort of treat for my daughter's class.  The party itself was today.  So, for the longest time I couldn't decided what I want to make.  It didn't help that she was also snack girl for another day this week.  But, finally I decided to make brownie pops.  I did make them different then what most of the websites called for.  Instead of making the brownie balls and putting them on a stick, I cut out heart shapes with a cookie cutter.  Alton Brown would be proud of me for not letting something in my kitchen be an uni-tasker.  (Sorry for the reference to those of you who don't watch Food Network)  Any way here was the final result......

As you can see, I cut them in heart shapes and put them on a popsicle stick.  I then drizzled melted milk chocolate over the top and sprinkled them with candy hearts. 

I did have left over brownies which I did do the more traditional "pop".  I just made little balls with the leftover and put them in lollipop sticks.  I did dip some in chocolate while left others plain.  My daughter went after these right away.  She kept saying..."Mommy, I taste, I taste."  Of course being the great mom that I am, I let her have one of each.  She devoured them in a blink of an eye.  I will take it they were good then.  I didn't keep any for myself though.  I handed out the rest to my co-workers.  They all said they looked great.  So, I will see on Friday how they thought they tasted.

I do have a cake order for a birthday party in two weeks.  I get to make another transformer cake.  This time the "good guy" logo.  I will post pictures and tell you all about it next time.

Until next time.......Happy Baking!

OMG!

I know it has only been two days since my last, but I thought I would honor you with my presence again this week.  Sorry had to poke fun at myself.  I am really going to try to get back into the swing of things again.  Which means, you my faithful readers will be seeing more of me..... (I just hope I can come up with things to talk about).

Obviously, I haven't baked anything new, but as always I am searching the web for new ideas.  Nothing has jumped out at me recently.  Maybe I need to find some new websites.  I just keep seeing the same things over and over.  And I know my husband will never get tired of my chocolate chip cookies, but even he has to admit we need variety.

I did get some new toys to try out.  My mother decided to send me some baking tools for Christmas.  She sent me some of those silicone cake molds.  I now can make a giant cupcake, a three tiered present, a house and an American flag with little stars.  But, the best thing I got was a pan where I can make every letter and number just by moving pieces around.  The first thing I said was when I opened it was, "What letter can I make?"  But, I wasn't allowed.  I guess I need to wait until someone needs a letter cake.  So, anyone out there need a cake?  LOL!

I did find out one thing though.  The cake that I will be making next month will be another Transformer cake.  So, I will need to get out those star tips again.  Lucky for me I find decorating a cake that way therapeutic.  The only details I need now are what kind of cake and if they will need cupcakes or not.

Well until next time....... Happy Baking!

Microphone Cupcakes and Other Things

I feel like I am always apologizing for not posting a blog.  So, again I am sorry.  I just have been really busy working a job in retail and of course the holidays.  I hoping now that things are calming down at work, I should be able to get back into blogging and baking.  I did do a little bit of baking over the holidays and I will tell you all about them.

First, I made my PB and J snack bar for my Christmas holiday party.  They were well received by everyone.  I did have few that were disappointed that I didn't make my angel food cupcakes again, but they got over it.

This year I didn't have as many "gift" baskets to make this year with different things in them.  So, this year I only made about 6 dozen chocolate chip cookies and gave them to a few people.  But, because of them I will be making a birthday cake for a little boy next month.  I don't know what yet, we haven't worked out the details yet.  I also sent a dozen cookies to a dear friend in the Netherlands, unfortunately because of a bad winter storm here in the States and few storms that had parts of Europe shut down, after almost  two weeks she still doesn't have her cookies.  I just hope they are still edible by the time she gets them.

Lastly, I got to make some microphone cupcakes for a little 5 year girl who was having a Justin Bieber theme party.  She asked specifically for my strawberry margarita cake because it was "SOOOOOO good and it was Pink!"

There are not to hard to make.  It is just any cupcake you want to use, some icing and sprinkles.  As I already said the cake was strawberry margarita, the icing was butter cream tinted black, chocolate sprinkles and then sugar ice cream cones.  The hard part was trying to figure a way to get them to the party without incident.  It took some time, but with few of my ideas and my husband's ideas, we were able to come up with something and it worked out perfectly.

I'll let you know as things come up.

Until next time........ Happy Baking!