Toy Story Alien Cupcakes

A friend shared a picture of a version of these cupcakes with me recently, and I'd been wanting to recreate them my own way, so when I wanted to surprise Oliver with birthday cupcakes and didn't have my usual ridiculous amount of decorating supplies, this is what I came up with.! Toy Story Alien cupcakes. :) Not that it matters, but I made banana cupcakes with chocolate chips and white chocolate chips, and then iced them with blue tinted cinnamon vanilla buttercream...I suppose that there's a chance that aliens enjoy those flavors...I couldn't tell you for sure. They don't sound especially intergalactic, but those are the ingredients I had on hand, and they sounded good to me...a mere earthling. Anyways. To create the aliens, I rolled out white gumpaste, and used a Yoda Star Wars cookie cutter I happened to have to get the basic shape of the head. Then, I smoothed out "Yoda"'s forehead wrinkles, reshaped his ears a bit, added an antenna, and voila.! Aliens. I melted vanilla lime green colored candy melts, coated each alien with that, and then poked upside down white chocolate chips into the still soft gumpaste for the eyeballs. I then used black gel to finish off the little aliens and add some detail.!

Snowmen Cake

Snowmen Cake(s).! Happy Birthday Aunt Ginny :) It's January..snowmen are her favorite..sounded like a plan. How to make them though....so I thought of a few different options, but ended up making the equivalent of gigantic popless cakepops..in snowman shapes.! First, I baked a cake in a 9 x 13 pan- I added some shredded coconut, almond milk, and coconut milk to be fancy, no big deal :) After the cake had cooled completely, I crumbled it into a large bowl. Then I added a few dollops of almond icing to the cake, and mixed with my hands. If you've made cakepops before, then you know the consistency you're looking for- not too much icing, but enough that the crumbs can be molded together..without overly oozing everywhere..that's what you want..neither of those extremes. Anyways. I formed two snowmen heads and two snowmen abdomens, wrapped them in aluminum foil, and stuck them in the freezer. In the meantime, I used gumpaste to create carrot noses, stick arms, eyes, the bowtie, top hat, and party hat. Be creative.! I let all of those items dry completely before assembling my studly birthday snowmen. I originally thought I'd cover both snowmen in white chocolate..but discovered that I was out of white chocolate when I went to put these guys together..so instead...I attached the head of each snowman with a pretzel stick, and then covered both snowmen with more almond icing. Notice the snazzy snowflake sprinkle buttons :) Pretty easy to stick everything in the right place..that's what he said..?. or...?..Anyways. They came together quite nicely. Hah. Okay. Personalized snowmen cakes surrounded with piles of coconut snow on white plate- couldn't be easier to create a unique and delicious gift.!

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.!