Christmas/ Santa cupcakes!

For Christmas this year,  I decided to make Santa cupcakes. I found a relatively quick design on Pinterest.com.

I made both the cupcakes and icing from scratch. I thought they tasted delicious,  but I'm baised as always!

 

Decorations:
"Hat": red sugar
"Hat brim": white chocolate chips
"Eyes": brown mini m&m's
"Nose": red mini m&m's
"Beard": shredded coconut

As tradition, I dressed up my kittens in their Elf and Santa costumes and took some holiday photos. This was the best shot of them together ♡

I put the costume on my sister's cat Castor. He was too fat for the Santa suit. Ironic really :)   

 

Festivus cupcakes!

My boyfriend is a HUGE fan of Seinfeld. Especially the Festivus episode.  He throws a party every year. This year was my first. Beside the random pole in the room, it was a typical holiday party!

 

 

HAPPY FESTIVUS EVERYONE!

 

Holiday Party Cupcakes!

For a work Secret Santa, I decided to experiment with the different oil flavors in the icing. I decided to go with Peppermint oil since it reminds me of candy canes and Christmas. I also thought I'd mess around with food coloring and mixed in red and green into the batter.

For the decoration, I made Christmas trees and lights to go on top of the cupcakes.

My Secret Santa got me a 6-pack of Angry Orchard (my favorite!) and 2 Angry Orchard Pint glasses!

I got my Secret Santa a porcelain red solo cup (so he can stop using the plastic one/ looking like a 40+ year old frat boy!) and a multi-tool.

 

Happy Holidays!

Cat themed cupcakes!

For a PALs Volunteer Thank you party, my mom asked me to make 100 standard cupcakes. Since I can't just simply make box cupcakes anymore with store bought icing, I decided they needed to be 100 made-from-scratch cupcakes with cat-themed decorations.

 

  After searching Pinterest.com I found a few ideas to work it.

 

Decorations:

"fur": chocolate sprinkles (jimmies)

"eyes": spice or regular gum drops

"ears": chocolate melting squares cut into triangles

"whiskers": black licorice lace

"nose": chocolate icing

 

 

Decorations:

"paws": regular marshmallows cut in thirds

"toes": mini marshmallows cut in half

"nails": black icing

 

 

 I decided to make some fish bones with the extra cupcakes I had using white melting chocolate.

 

Halloween Cupcakes!

Angela and I made Halloween themed cupcakes for our company's Halloween Luncheon!

 

BRAINS,

 

SPIDERS,

 

& MUMMIES, OH MY!

 

 

My sister and my Halloween costumes :)

 

I was Agnes from Despicable Me!

Alison was a dinosaur!

Eagle Scout cupcakes!

 My co-worker Angela and I were asked to make cupcakes and a cake for an Eagle Scout party. Since Angela is way better with fondant, she offered to make the cake! After a search on Pinterest.com I found the Eagle head cupcakes and decided that was what I wanted to contribute :)
 

 

I decided to have fun with the cupcakes and went with Red, White, & Blue dyed vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing and then the eagle heads on top. They turned out to be pretty cute!

 

 

Decorations:

"beak": banana Rutz

"head": marshmallow dipped in white chocolate,

rolled in coconut flakes

"eyes": black piping gel

 

 

Angela's fondant cake turned out AMAZING, per usual :)

 

 I hope the Eagle scouts enjoy their desserts :) They look fantastic, but I'm also biased!!

 

 

 

 

Isotopes Softball Cupcakes!

On Friday, my boyfriend Kyle and I went to a softball party at his teammate's house. I went to Pinterest.com for inspiration on softball cupcakes ideas :)

 

 

Decorations:

"ball": vanilla icing dipped in white sugar

"lacing": red icing piped using #4 icing tip

numbers: blue icing piped using #4 icing tip

 

 

My cupcake box only fit 12, so Kyle and sub's cupcakes got to hangout in the cake box!

 

Originally I only planned on making the cake, but since I wanted to make both a chocolate and vanilla cake, I had extra batter to make cupcakes as well. The cake is a smile design, for the team's logo. I added a "softball" border to the cake to add a little more to the design.

 



  

Decorations:

"softballs": vanilla melting wafers

"lacing": red icing piped using #4 icing tip

team logo: blue icing piped using #4 icing tip

 

 

 

Isotopes 2013 Championship game - 2nd place!

They won the championship last year, so I think it's only fair they didn't take 1st place again this year. Now they have something to fight for next year!

 

 

BBQ cupcakes!

This past Saturday, my boyfriend and I went to a BBQ at this friends house. Since cupcakes/cakes are my thing, I offered to bring cupcakes. After searching through Pinterest.com, I found these lovely BBQ themed cupcakes.

 

 

After a few changes and edits to the decoration recipe, I created these beauties! I think they turned out pretty well!!

 

In order to save money on ingredients, I used a boxed yellow cake mix and canned chocolate frosting from the store. I love decorating but its such an expensive hobby. I tend to cheap out when I'm not being paid to make cupcakes, just to cut down on my grocery bills each month! 

 

Decorations:

"pork chop/meat": caramel crème candies molded

"hotdog": red mike & ike candies

"shish kabob": assorted fruit gummies cut up and layered on a tooth pick

"grill": black icing piped using #4 icing tip

"grill marks": black gel icing

Doctor cupcakes!

 My sister asked me to make "doctor" cupcakes for a coworker who was leaving to get his PA degree. I found this idea on Pinterest.com

 

 

I made some changes to avoid working with fondant, but they turned out pretty well :)

 

 

Decorations:

"pills": good & plenty candies

"spilt medicine": colored sugar

"cross": red twizzlers

"Band-Aid": apricot fruit strip & half a mini marshmallow

"stethoscope": black icing piped using #4 icing tip, finished with edible silver pearls

 

4th of July themed cupcakes!

For the 4th of July I decided to incorporate the Red, White, and Blue theme on both the inside and the outside of the cupcake! I used a post on Pinterest.com for inspiration.

 

 

I divided the batter into 3 bowls and dyed two bowls red and blue. Then I layered the batter into the cupcakes starting with blue, then white (non-dyed), finally red batter. The oven causes a convection and produced this effect inside the cupcake :)

 

 

Decorations:

red, white, & blue sprinkles

blueberries

strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate icing piped with M21 icing tip

 

Kitten cupcakes!

 For my friend Kasey's birthday, I made him kitten cupcakes! He and his girlfriend love their two kittens so much I created these cupcakes based on their babies.

 

 

The orange cat represents their orange tabby "Oliver B. Kitten". The grey cat represents their grey shorthair "Sadie the Lady".

 

Decorations:

"fish": melted chocolate piped into shape

"nose": pink runts heart

"cheeks": Mentos

"tongue": red starburst, quartered and molded

"eyes": green mini m&m's

"eyebrows": black licorice lace

 

 

The cupcakes clearly don't do Oliver (left) and Sadie (right) justice :) They are such cute kittens!