Easy Fall Cupcakes

   I set myself the goal of six different fall themed cupcakes decorated as quickly as possible, and I think that these fit the bill! I brought them to work along with a plateful of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and everyone seemed to enjoy them. 😊🦇👻🎃

First, I mixed up homemade vanilla batter, reserving some in two small bowls. I added a bit of orange food gel to one of the reserved batters, and purple food gel to the other, mixing well. Then I added the leftover batter and swirled with a knife to achieve a marbled Halloween effect.!

Make delicious homemade buttercream icing and then get to decorating!

Ghost: literally could not be easier- ice with white icing and stick on two spooky eyeball candies!
Pumpkin: use food gel to tint a small amount of icing orange. Ice cupcake. Use a bit of reserved green icing for a stem, and pipe features with black icing.
Eyeball: ice with white icing and use red and black tinted icing to create a pupil, iris, and veins.
Witch's Hat: ice with tinted buttercream in a triangular shape similar to a witches hat. I used sprinkles for the top section, and outlined with black icing for definition.
Spider: ice with tinted buttercream, add eyeballs and piped "legs".
Swirl: ice using a decorating bag and a swirl piping tip using a circular motion to cover the cupcake. Enhance with festive sprinkles!

Unicorn Cake

I finally got a chance to make a magical unicorn cake.! 🦄 First, I used fondant to make the ears, the eyes, and the unicorn horn a couple days ahead of time. I used a wooden dowel for the base of the unicorn horn. I added edible gold mist accents once dry as well as some edible glitter.!

I love the combination of all the bright colors.!

The mane reminded me of rainbow colored succulents. I used various star tips to add swirls and flower accents 🌈 

Drip Galaxy Cake

 My friend from work is leaving to find better opportunities elsewhere- of course I had to wish her well & that means making a cake! :)

 I didn't have much of a plan for this one ahead of time beyond a color scheme. First I baked three 9 in chocolate cake rounds which I layered with seedless raspberry jam. Then, I iced with buttercream tinted various shades of blue to achieve a marbled effect.

 I wanted to try making a drip cake, since I haven't had the opportunity to before. I made a white chocolate ganache tinted with a bit of hot pink and purple food gel for such purposes. I'm pretty happy with the overall result, but may make a slightly thicker ganache next time!

 Purple, blue, and silver sprinkles completed this galaxy themed cake.

ECU cupola cake

 I had the privilege of making a cake for a conference held at the library at ECU! I used Royal icing to recreate their iconic campus cupola and accented the purple and gold border with sugar pearls

Rick and Morty Cake

I made a Rick and Morty cake for my amazing boyfriend's birthday because he introduced me to the show, we watched a lot of it when we first started dating, and it's awesome..! So.! :)

Making intricate color flow decorations takes a lot of time to do well, and the resulting decorations are fragile, but I like the effect and level of detail you can achieve. There's a reason not everyone does this for sure! Make sure to allow for plenty of time to fully dry in between layers and sections so the colors don't bleed. Very intricately detailed images may need to be pared down initially, or you can always add in embellishments with other tools and techniques later, such as using edible markers to finish a piece. I typically draw or print out the image that I'd like to make, and tape it to a flat surface such as a cake board. Cover the image with a piece of parchment paper, and tape to secure it. Trace the image using a pencil, and add or omit details as you want to. Cover this image with a piece of wax paper and tape to secure it. Mix up your color flow icing (or Royal icing) and start tracing! A few tips- keep plastic wrap over the surface of the icing, it dries out really quickly. I tend to separate it out into different containers that I mix with colored food gel to achieve the various colors that I need. It pays to plan ahead or at least think ahead as to what makes the most sense to complete first, etc. Use very small amounts of water at a time- we're talking drops- to thin out icing in order to flood a section. Take your time and don't over-saturate the mixture. Make sure to allow any borders to fully dry before flooding an area with icing.

Punny Valentine's Day Cookies

I used Royal icing to create artsy, pun-filled Valentines cookies :) Make sure to allow for drying time in between all the layers so that the colors don't bleed! I think that they turned out pretty cute myself.! <3 

ECU cookies

I just started a new position at the library at ECU, and thought that I'd bring in some themed cookies to share! I made my own royal icing and used colored food gel to decorate the cookies in the appropriate purple and gold motif.