Santa Hat & Christmas Tree Cakepops

Oooooo..!!! Merry Christmas some more everybody.!!! Hadta make more cakepops. Obviously. Tis the season and all...so this time, I made peppermint fudge cakepops...in the shape of santa hats..and christmas trees...respectfully. First, I mixed up a chocolate cake mix but added an additional egg, a package of instant white chocolate pudding and pie filling mix (a 4-serving size box), and 1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract. BAKE. Then when the cake has cooled, crumble it up and mix with 3/4 a tub of vanilla icing (I added some peppermint extract to that too.!) & form balls of cake..THEN FREEZE THEM. or that's what I do at least. When you're ready to decorate..! I recommend only working with 2 or 3 at a time- leave the rest in the freezer, because they are easier to work with when they are more frozen..and solid...frozen solid some might say. For the Santa Hat, I decided to use yogurt covered cranberries for the ball of the hat. Once I opened the bag, I realized that the cranberries were kinda gross looking, so I dipped them in white candy melts first to fully cover all the cranberry..ness.. Meanwhile, I shaped the balls of cake into more hat-like, cone shapes, and also dipped the base of each hat in the white coating.. and inserted a stick into each..to make them cakepops. I then covered the rest of each cakepop with melted red candy coating, and stuck a cranberry on the top of each. EASY. (As cakepops are drying between stages of decorating, stick them in foam  blocks. It just makes your life easier) For the Christmas Tree Cakepops, similarly form each cake ball into a cone shape, but more like a christmas tree than a hat this time. After sticking each onto a stick...dip into melted green candy coating...and decorate however you like to appear christmastree-esque.! Since I already had star sprinkles, I topped each of my trees with a star sprinkle, and then used a variety of other sprinkles to make unique, beautiful Christmas Tree cakepops. GO WILD.!!! ...& Happy Holidays n stuff :) enjoy.!

Cranberrry Chai Cupcakes

Okay, so I didn't make up this recipe..but I did find it & thought it would be delicious- and it SO WAS.! ... & a perfect excuse to make your own blend of chai with this yummy wintery cupcake. First I piped white candy melts into snowflake shapes on a baking sheet covered with wax paper, and sprinkled with white nonpareil sprinkles to better emulate snowflakes.! After setting that aside, I used a coffee grinder to grind 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, and then mixed them in a bowl with 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 2 teaspoons ground cardamom, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, and a pinch of freshly ground black pepper= your chai spice seasoning.! wonderful. The cupcakes themselves are flavored with a tablespoon of freshly made chai seasoning and 3/4 a cup of chopped up fresh cranberries.! For the cream cheese icing I also added 2 teaspoons of the chai seasoning. YUM :)

Snoopy Giant Cookie

This may be one of my favorite things I've made- what's not to love.?! I realize that this isn't technically a cake..or a cake at all. GET OVER IT. :) I thought a cake was a bit much to make for one person but wanted to make something special for my best friend Smink's birthday..so I thought a giant cookie would be a fun surprise...but a giant PUMPKIN cookie would be EVEN BETTER.!! ..especially if it was Snoopy themed.! Thus, this is what I ended up with..although you don't realize how gigantic a cookie this really is until you make it. I found this basic recipe: (http://www.cookiemadness.net/2008/08/mm-chocolate-chip-cookie-cake/)   & then tweaked it a bit by adding a cup of pumpkin, using only brown sugar, adding pecans and a LOT of pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon, & omitting the M&Ms.! I created the Snoopy and Woodstock figures a few days before with colorflow icing that I then let dry completely. For icing, I combined butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, cinnamon & a bit of milk to reach the correct consistency. Notice the Woodstocks' festive celebratory purple bowties- they're my favorite :)

Reindeer & Gingerbread Men Cakepops

Merry Christmas everybody.!!! :D Since each batch of cakepops makes sooooo many cakepops..I decided to make both reindeer AND gingerbread men gingerbread cakepops.! For cakepops, I generally use a cake mix and tub of icing (I know, I know O_o)..everything else I make pretty much ever is completely homemade..because it tastes better..and is better..but for cakepops, you know you'll always end up with the right consistency & texture if you use a boxed cake mix and 3/4 a tub of icing. Your call. Anyways..to make my gingerbread cakepops, I started with a yellow cake mix, but added yummy things like molasses, ginger, pumpkin/apple pie spice, and cinnamon. I also added a bit of cinnamon and ginger to the vanilla icing I used. For the reindeer, I first formed their antlers out of brown gumpaste which I left out to dry. I then took the previously formed cakepop balls out of the freezer a few at a time (the more solidified they are, the easier they are to work with), and formed a reindeer head shape..with little ears on the side. I then dipped each reindeer in dark chocolate candy coating, and then quickly added the antlers, black chocolate pieces for the eyes, and a red chocolate piece for the nose.! For the gingerbread men, I molded vague gingerbread like shapes which I then stuck back into the freezer for a few extra minutes. After dipping each in the same dark chocolate candy coating, I used various sprinkles (snowflake and christmas tree shaped.!!) for buttons and piped on extra detail with white chocolate candy coating.!

Star Wars Cake 2

I got a request for another Star Wars cake- and this is what I came up with.! I've had Star Wars cookie cutters for awhile now and decided to use them with rolled out gumpaste to decorate the sides of my cake.! I also cut out various sized white gumpaste stars to create a starry background along with silver star sprinkles I happened to have. To emphasize the lines and features of each character, I brushsed some confectioners sugar on Darth Vader, some cocoa powder on Yoda, and piped the black icing on the Storm Trooper. For a different surprise, I added several crushed up oreos in the middle of the cake over a layer of buttercream- hoping it's as delicious as it looks. To be such a simple cake, I'm super happy with how it turned out.!

Turkey Cookies

Okay..I know these aren't cake related in any way but get over it.! I wanted to make something simple and Thanksgiving-esque..so turkey cookies were the way to go. I made sugar cookie dough (I always add a little bit of nutmeg to taste) and chilled until it was firm enough to roll out and deal with. On a floured surface, cut out turkey shapes- whatever your interpretation of that may be. I also had leave shaped pie cutters, hence the autumnal leaves surrounding my turkeys :) Bake the sugar cookies until lightly browned on the edges (6-8 mins-ish..?) and let cool.! I feel like these turkeys looked better in real life because in the picture their mottled tye-dye feathers blends into the wooden table..but I may be biased. ANYWAYS. I made a simple icing out of confectioner's sugar and just enough milk to liquify the mixture. I split that into three separate bowls and used food gel to color one bowl brown, one golden yellow, and one orange. Then pipe a ring of brown around the outside of a turkey cookie, followed by yellow, then orange, etc. until you fill up the entire cookie. It will run. It's okay. Take a toothpick and drag to create feathers and mix the colors- from the bottom middle to the outside edges all the way around. I used dark chocolate candy melts for the turkey body, and formed the eyes, beak, and wattle out of gumpaste.! HAPPY THANKSGIVING e'rrybody.!

Cherry Blossom Cake

I didn't set out to make Barbie's slightly Asian themed dream cake- but this is what I ended up with.! My train of thought went as thus: My friend Jennifer had mentioned wanting a cherry almond cake, she works in DC so I thought of cherry blossoms...and I ended up with an explosion of pink cake. I cut out gumpaste cherry blossoms in various shades of pink a few days before I made the cake. I inserted a glittery flower center in each little blssom and  later brushed them with edible pink shimmer dust. I formed the tree branches out of brown gumpaste, and arranged all of the flowers and buds to form a cherry blossom tree.!

Star Wars Cake

I made this cake for my little cousin Matthew's 7th birthday.! He's a big fan of Star Wars, and has a book called Darth Vader and Son (by Jeffrey Brown) that has comical one page illustrations of father and son bonding. I re-created Matthew's favorite illustration from the book out of colorflow icing- Vader playing a simple game of baseball with his son, with Luke joyously slicing the baseball in half with his lightsaber.! I can't at all take credit for the idea, but do think that the re-creation with icing turned out well. I piped the figures a few days in advance to allow the icing to dry thoroughly before carefully placing the fragile pieces onto the cake. I decided to ice the cake itself with dark blue icing dotted with white stars of various sizes (brushed with pearl shimmer dust) in keeping with the Star Wars motif, and also piped "May the force be with you Matthew" with white icing.

Penguin Iceberg Cake

My friend Bryan requested a penguin cake for his girlfriend's birthday. I LOVE penguins so was more than up for the challenge.! I immediately thought about making the entire cake an iceberg with a water slide and pool of water full of penguins. First I stacked and iced three 9 in cakes, and then cut part of another round to form the "hill," frosted everything, and covered the cake with white snow-like sparkles. I made a curvy water slide out of blue icing, and iced the inside of the pool with the same blue icing. I later piped set blue jello to fill up the pool. Jello makes fun "water" for cakes..trust me. Structurally, this cake was a challenge. I added several dowels but still had to deal with a lot of slippage due to the weight and composition..O_o.. The penguins I made out of gumpaste. I also added piped purple snowflakes made from candy melts.!

Bat Cakepops

I just couldn't be done with Halloween themed cute things already so early in the season.! ...So I had to make purple cinnamon vampire bat cakepops of course.!  To make these cute little bats, I popped the already made cakepops (I used a yellow cake & white icing and added lots of cinnamon, allspice & nutmeg. Let the cake cool, crumble with 3/4 a can of icing, then form into balls) into the freezer whilst I piped bat wings onto wax paper out of melted purple candy melts. I recommend only taking one or two cakepops out of the freezer at a time, because they soften quickly, and they're much easier to work with when they're still firm. To make a bat, dip the end of a candy stick into the melted purple candy melts, and then into the middle of a cakepop. I then pinched the head to form little bat-like ears, and covered the cakepop with purple candy melts. Since I had piped the wings earlier and they were solidified, they were ready to attach, so I poked them in on either side before the chocolate around the cakepop had a chance to solidify. After letting the bats sit a minute or two, I then piped on eyes, mouth, and vampire teeth :) I think they turned out adorable.! Happy Halloween everybody.! :D 

Irish Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey's Icing

I made these irish themed cupcakes for my friend Katherine's birthday.! :) Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's icing, light green sprinkles, and chocolate four leaf clovers and trinity knots. YUM. I found basic recipes online, but wasn't sure how they would turn out. The recipe I used called for a cup of Guinness, but I just poured in the whole bottle...similarly, the icing called for only 2 TBSP of Bailey's, plus milk to reach the desired consistency...I just decided to use only Bailey's. I have to say, they turned out tasting exactly like Guinness in cupcake form..which is what I was going for, so I'd say a success.! For the icing, I combined some powdered sugar, a bit of green food gel, and enough Bailey's to reach the perfect shade/taste of Bailey's soaked Old Greg hair. YES. it was pretty delicious. :) To top these, I sprinkled on some light green sprinkles, then free handed the decorations using colored chocolate melts.

Pumpkin and Ghost Cakepops

Fall is my favorite.! Especially pumpkin anything and everything- so I could hardly wait to make these cute little pumpkin and ghost cakepops :) I have to admit, the ideas themselves were found in my cakepop book. They're just so darn cute.! The pumpkin cakepops are pumpkin cake with buttercream icing, and the ghost cakepops are red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. First cakepop tip is that it's simplest to use a box mix with these guys- the ratio of cake to frosting and desired consistency is spot on if you use a boxed cake mix and 3/4 of a can of icing. I've made them with homemade cakes before as well, but it's a lot less time and effort and worry to just use a box mix in the instance of cakepop making. For any cakepop, as I said before, bake a cake..let it cool completely..crumble it by hand in a large mixing bowl with 3/4 of a can of icing. For the pumpkins- shape into pumpkin shapes, for the ghosts- shape into ghost shapes. :) At this point, I like to put the formed cakepops into a pan and stick them in the freezer for a few minutes to solidify a bit, or at least keep them refrigerated. When you're ready to coat and decorate the cakepops, only take a few from the freezer (or refrigerator) at a time, because they are definitely easier to work with chilled. For the pumpkins- I melted orange vanilla flavored candy melts in the microwave, stuck the end of a cakepop stick into the candy melts, and then inserted said stick into a cakepop. Then, coat the entire cakepop, and stick a green tictac on top. I generally stand drying cakepops in a block of foam in the freezer for a few minutes. For the ghosts, repeat the process with white vanilla flavored candy melts. I actually had to do two coats on the ghosts because I chose to use a darker colored cake (red velvet). I thought that the red velvet would look blood-like..and spooky. totally worth it.! To make the faces, I first attempted to draw on the cakepops with an edible marker, but found the result to be less than amazing..so, I simply piped on faces using melted chocolate candy melts. I find that the easiest way to store cakepops and give them as gifts is to individually wrap each in a small clear bag tied with colored ribbon, and pop 'em in the freezer until you need them, let them thaw a bit, and enjoy.! :)

Under the Sea Cupcakes

I made these under the sea cupcakes for our friend Amy- she loves everything ocean themed, and we were going to meet her new baby for the first time (his middle name is even Ocean!) so this is what I came up with.! First I baked cinnamon roll cupcakes..basically a vanilla cupcake with layers of cinnamon and brown sugar in between. Then I piped streaked blue icing on each cupcake and added blue sprinkles. For the crab and turtle cupcakes, I used ground up graham crackers for the "beach." All of the figures are handcrafted out of gumpaste. For the whale's spout I used the end of pearl stamens used to make flowers and everything. So I ended up with a whale, crab, seahorse mommy, daddy, and two baby boys :), turtle, shark, and purple octopus.!

Giant Teacup Cake

I made this giant teacup cake for our friend Debi, who is visiting from Liverpool.! Of course I had to make her a cuppa tea :) I stacked three 9 in rounds together and then carved them to form a teacup shape. I carved out a bit on top for the "tea," iced the sides of the cake with white icing and then the top with caramel icing. I formed a teacup handle out of gumpaste, and a teabag out of gumpaste that I then used edible markers to draw a British flag on. To finish the cake off, I poured some caramel sundae topping over the caramel icing- it looked like realistic tea and milk.

Chrysler Over the Hill Cake

I made all of this for Paul's 50th birthday party.! It was a long night of decorating lots of cupcakes and the cake too- so this is my shout out to my friend Jen for helping me place cupcakes..and for providing moral support :) The cupcakes from left to right are chocolate peanut butter, butterscotch banana, vanilla, and then gluten-free chocolate. The cake I actually stacked to form a hill with a car going down it- ie "over the hill"..First I made the road out of black icing and lined the sides with white stripes, then covered the rest of the "hill" with icing "grass". I had previously piped out a 74 satellite plymouth chrylser with color flow icing, and then wrote 'Paul' on the license plate with an edible marker, then carefully placed it on top of the cake.

Coca Cola Cake

I made this cake for my Dad's birthday.! He really likes vintage Coca Cola, so I decided to make the logo out of color flow icing, which I let dry for a few days. I then used edible black marker to highlight parts of the bottle.! Turned out pretty well :)

Jungle Animal Cupcakes

My friend Kelly requested jungle animal themed cupcakes for her birthday in lieu of a cake..so here they are.! It took awhile to make them all since I had to mix all the different colors..so that's why there is only six. I got the basic idea for the elephant and the monkey from a cake decorating book I have, but the others I just created. For the elephant, I melted white chocolate and colored it light blue, then formed the shape for the ears and trunk on wax paper, and put it in the refrigerator a few minutes until it was set. When they were ready, I iced the elephant cupcake light blue, attached the trunk and ears, used a toothpick to highlight the ears with white icing and the trunk with blue, made the eyes, put blue sprinkles on his head, and rolled a small bit of gumpaste for the tusks. For the monkey, I iced the cupcake with dark chocolate icing, and rolled the top of his head in brown sprinkles, colored white icing light brown and formed his face and ears. I used the chocolate icing to form a mouth, nose, and ear marks, sprinkles for eyebrows, and chocolate chips highlighted with white icing for his eyes. For the crocodile, I iced the cupcake in several different shades of blue swirled together and added blue sprinkles too. I formed the crocodile out of gumpaste colored with green food gel, and used chocolate icing to highlight and dirty him up a bit. The lion I iced yellow and then swirled together light brown and orange to form his mane, and added orange sprinkles. The zebra I iced vanilla and added stripes of dark chocolate, used chocolate chips highlighted with vanilla for his eyes, and hot pink ears and nose for accents. The tiger is iced orange, with dark chocolate stripes and mouth, and muddled white sideburns.!

Basket of Crabs Cake

It was recently my Grandpa's 83rd birthday, and he wanted to have a huge party. Of course I would be making his cake, and he requested a musical one but other than that, it was up to me & kept a secret until we unveiled it at his big outdoor birthday bash. For anyone that knows my Grandpa, a basket of crabs and a beer on some newspapers with an old bay can was the perfect choice for a cake. As always, I wasn't exactly sure how everything would end up coming together, but it did end up coming together.! I obviously didn't make the Old Bay can, but my uncle fixed it up so when you hit a button on it, it played "Here for a Good Time" by George Strait. I made the crabs and the PBR can out of rice krispy treats covered with colored gumpaste. I used food gel for the crabs eyes. I used edible markers to decorate the PBR can. The cake itself is four 14 in rounds stacked on top of each other- alternating layers of vanilla and chocolate. I iced everything with chocolate buttercream. The "basket" is made of more gumpaste that I dyed with brown food gel, rolled out and cut into strips. I cut grooves into the surface to emulate wood, and rubbed cocoa powder on the surface to give a more realistic dirty crab holding basket look..!

Owl Cakepops

Owl Cakepops.! Cute right.!? I actually was recently invited to a friend's babyshower, and the invitation had cute owls on it. I wasn't sure that owls were the theme, but knew that I had a cakepop book with an owl design in it, and thought that cakepops would be a good 'big brother' gift. :) Cakepops are most easily made with any desired flavor combination of cake mixes and store bought frosting- then you don't have to worry about different consistencies, etc. Bake a cake. Let it cool completely, crumble it up, add 3/4 a can of icing and mix well. For these owls, roll into rounded triangle shapes- the rounded point is the bottom of the owl. At this point, I usually stick cakepops into the freezer for a few minutes, just so they're completely firm and easier to work with. Melt dark chocolate candy melts in a saucepan or in a bowl in the microwave. Dip your cakepop stick slightly into the chocolate, and then insert into cakepop, being careful not to pierce through it. Use the melted chocolate to attach two chocolate chips for the owl ears. Dip the entire cakepop into the melted chocolate, coating it entirely. Attach all other pieces quickly before the candy melts set.! I used candy necklace pieces for the eyes, an orange coated chocolate candy piece for the beak, either reese pieces or miny m&ms for the wings, and flower shaped blue sprinkles for the feet- I chose blue because my friend is having her second baby boy.! :) Yummy and easy to make & enjoy.!  Also pictured is another friend, Smink, first posing with her owl and then kissing his chocolatey exterior. So this is my blog shout out.! :D

Garden Flowers Cake

My confession is that I really just made this cake so I could show off all of the new flowers I learned how to make. I just completed my fourth Wilton Cake Decorating course, and learned how to make lots of nifty flowers out of gumpaste with a few new techniques.! So this is my culmination. A Stargazer lily, briar roses, a gerber daisy, sweet peas, ivy leaves, little pink blossoms, and stephanotis (the white star shaped blossoms). These flowers took a bit of time to make but were not too difficult and ended up looking pretty good I think- you just need a lot of gumpaste and colored sparkle dusts :)

Mini-Cake

I made this mini-cake for Carleigh :) Not much to be said about it but she enjoyed it.

Redskins Jersey Cake

Mom asked if I would make a cake for their friend Three's surprise 70th birthday party, and to make it redskins themed. This is what I came up with.! Every new cake is a learning experience and a lot of guessing and hoping what will work, but I think it turned out pretty well. An extra element is the football- the indent marks a button which plays Hail to the Redskins when pressed :) My uncle fashioned a recorder with the song for me, and then I molded rice krispy treats into a football shape to conceal everything but the button. I covered the football with brown gumpaste, and then rolled out and cut white gumpaste to make the laces. For the cake itself, I baked three yellow 9x13 cakes. I stacked two of them, and then cut the third to make the sleeves and bottom triangular portion of the jersey. Three likes strawberry shortcake, so I made a fresh, simple strawberry filling. First though, I piped icing around the entire jersey shape and put a thin layer of icing under the strawberry filling so it wouldn't soak into the cake below too much and become soggy. I added the second layer of cake and then iced it with redskins colored icing...Word of warning..it's a pain to make that color. Or at least, to make that much of that color. Any reddish color requires a LOT of dye to break through the hundreds of shades of pink you can apparently achieve, but probably more than you think, so be prepared. I had a lot of red dye but still had to drive to Michael's mid-assembly to buy more lest this be a fuschia football cake rather than a maroon one O_o. I rolled out the rest of my gumpaste and free hand cut out the Three & 70. I used edible yellow markers to border the 70. I also cut out strips of white gumpaste and gold gumpaste to embellish the sleeves.!

Italian Cake

Ho fatto questa torta per la mia classe di italiano al fin d'anno! l'ultima fotografia é di me, i miei compagni di classe, e la mia professoressa. La mia professoressa é portando la torta d'Italia. Io sono a destra.
In inglese allora.!

I made this cake of Italy with Italian phrases and words for my Italian class at the end of the year! This picture is of me, my classmates, and my professor. I graduated college (!) and so did a few of my classmates too, so having a cake break in the middle of finals was extra fun. To make Italy, I simply baked a vanilla cake from scratch in a 9x13 in. pan. After the cake had cooled, I carved out the boot shape of Italy with a knife, and Sardegna & Sicilia as well.! Then I made icing and dyed some green and some red. I first iced the white middle of each piece of cake, and then used green icing on the left and red on the right to emulate the Italian flag. To finish the cake, I dyed some of the leftover icing black and wrote Italian phrases and words in cursive: best wishes, congratulations, good luck, friendship, see you later, dream, etc. Everyone loved it! :)