Shark Cupcakes

For my son's fourth Birthday, I made the Shark Cupcakes (from the Hello, Cupcake book)...

Apparently, since the cupcakes were so frustrating to make, I forgot to photograph the process.... (So, most of my pictures are of the finished product.)
Here are the mini-doughnuts that I made into life-preservers. The book called for plain mini-doughnuts that were supposed to be dipped in white melted icing. I just skipped that step & bought powdered mini-doughnuts. Then I cut narrow strips of red fruit-by-the-foot and wrapped three around each doughnut. The strips were easily fastened together with a tiny drop of water to adhere the fruit-by-the-foot to itself.

I added the life-preservers to blue frosted cupcakes. To get that color blue, I used Wilton coloring (in royal blue, I think).  For a couple of the preservers, I used a small fork to take a chunk out of it - like a shark bite.

Some of the other cupcakes were topped with a school of Swedish Fish.

When I iced the cupcakes, I used the small spatula to make waves on top.

The hard part of making these cupcakes was the sharks. They were made mostly of a Twinkie. First I had to cut part of the Twinkie off at an angle- that was the side of the Twinkie that would be attached to the cupcake. The other end of the Twinkie I trimmed to look like the shark's snout. I cut a slice into the top of the Twinkie and shoved the piece of a Famous Chocolate Wafer to make the dorsal fin. Then I attached the trimmed Twinkie to the iced cupcake with extra icing & popped it into the freezer for about 15 minutes.

Next, I had to melt some grey-tinted icing in the microwave & dip the Twinkie. This was a challenge... I had to get the icing at the right consistency to coat the shark.  Some of my sharks came off of the cupcake, some of the icing wasn't warmed enough, but then if I warmed it too long, it would separate.

The sharks mouths were made of a piece of fruit-by-the-foot that I cut into an oval shape. His fins & teeth are just icing. And his eyes are a mini chocolate chip.

As you can see in the above picture, my sharks were too top heavy. I don't think I cut enough off of the Twinkie, so they were hanging too much off of the cupcake & falling over. (Hence the propped up shark -with a toothpick.)

Here's  a shot of some cupcakes in the handy-dandy new holder that my Aunt Sue & Hap just recently sent me! It worked really well for transporting some of the 30 cupcakes that I took to the party.

Another shark shot-- this one isn't as smooth because I think the icing wasn't quite warm enough.

However, after all of the stress I was pleased with how they turned out & got a TON of compliments. Plus, the birthday boy LOVED them!

Not the day to count calories!

For my family on Halloween morning, I decided to try out a recipe that I have for Cinnamon Roll Bats...

I used Grands Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls, that I cut in half, then put the rounded sides together.

After baking per the package instructions, I promptly iced the rolls & added chocolate sprinkles. Reserving about a tablespoon of icing to adhere the candies.

The head of his bat is made of a half an oreo (without icing), the eyes are gummy lifesavers with mini-M&Ms, the fangs are of course, candy corn. And the ears are pieces of Oreo cut to roughly resemble bat ears.

I was excited to serve my Cinnamon Roll Bats on my super cute tray (that my sister had given me awhile back)....

YUM! They were a big hit! My only mistake was that I think I slightly overcooked the wings... The package instuctions gave me a range of minutes to bake (like 17-22 or something like that.) I set the oven in the middle of that range. Next time I will do it for the shortest reccommended time.  Enjoy!

Ghosts of Cupcake Past

Here are some of my past creations. I can't take all the credit however... I bought the book Hello Cupcake, and have used many of their recipes. I definitely recommend this book! It is a great resource that shows that you don't need all the fancy pastry bags & tips to create great cupcakes.

Caterpillar (for baby's first Birthday) and a slice of Kiwi fruit
Close-up on Kiwi slice. Used candy-coated licorice bits for the "seeds"

Cupcake Tower

Owls & Acorns

Corn-on-the-Cob with "butter & salt"!

Tennis balls & rackets

(note the casualty from transport!)

Next up- Garden Cupcakes

Popcorn mini-cupcakes (realized almost too late that I hadn't taken a photo. I had donated these to a bakesale & took the pic while they were out on the table to be sold!)

Sunflower cupcakes (with ladybugs!)

From above, the Owls, Acorns, Corn-on-the-Cob, Popcorn, Garden & Sunflower cupakes were all based on recipes from the Hello, Cupcake book. (See link above.) If you're curious on any of the cupcakes you've seen above, leave me a comment/question.

Thanks for looking!

Princess Birthday party

For a snack at the party I made marshmallow pops. Super easy & a colorful addition to the table.
To get the colored sugar to stick to the marshmallow, all I did was dip it into some water and then into the sugar.

I placed all the marshmallows onto a waxpaper-lined cookie sheet until I was ready to place them on the wooden skewers.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product (doh!). But I added a cutout of a heart with a 6 on top of each stick. They looked like magic wands. To display, I put them in a plastic brightly colored tumbler standing up, with the heart at the top.

I also forgot to take pictures of the yummy chocolate dipped pretzel rods (milk choc, white choc, and peanut butter + choc). While the chocolate was still warm they we rolled/sprinkled with colored sugar.

For the cupcakes, I made small crowns out of yellow Laffy Taffy. I cut them in half, and then cut a zigzag pattern to make it look like a crown. Then I molded them into the right shape. I attached a small heart sprinkle with a dot of icing.

The cake was a princess in her coach. It was made using a shaped cake pan by Wilton. Tedious, but not difficult. I added my own personal touch to the cake by putting my daughter's likeness out of a nila wafer. I decorated her hair/face with icing & put a small laffy taffy crown on her head.

4th of July Hamburger & Hotdog cupcakes

We went over to a friends' BBQ for the 4th of July. I decided to bring cupcakes that went with the BBQ theme- hotdogs & hamburgers. I was happy with how they turned out, and they we really pretty easy to make.
The hamburger buns were made out of nila wafers with real sesame seeds. To adhere the sesame seeds, I rubbed the cookie onto some frozen orange juice concentrate.

The patty of the "hamburger" was a York peppermint patty. The recipe that I used for these cupcakes, called for a Keebler Grasshopper cookie. Of course, at the store that I was buying supplies from, I couldn't find the Grasshoppers. So, I substituted with peppermint patty. I ended up slicing the patty in half so that it wasn't so thick.

The lettuce, ketchup, and mustard were all tinted frostings. To get the ketchup the right color, I added I tiny amount of violet to the red.

The hotdog buns are made out of Circus Peanuts that I cut a wedge out of to place the "dog" in. The hotdog was a soft Werther's Carmel that I shaped with my fingers after cutting it in-half.

The cupcakes were a huge hit! People couldn't believe that it was all edible & that I had made it all!

Good enough to eat.