Chocolate Carrot top Cupcakes

These cupcakes were soo fun to make. I can't remember  what website I saw this on but seeing that Easter is so close, I had to make these! My 5 year old daughter Ericka loves to plant any kind of seeds from apples (her favorite) to cucumbers, to carrots, to green peppers. So she was right by my side while I was putting these cupcakes together.

You will need:

Chocolate cupcakes

Chocolate cream filled cookies

Orange and green buttercream icing

Icing bag or Ziploc bag

tip #2a

Ziploc bag (for cookies)

Butter knife

Ok lets make these babies!

Take the cupcakes, score a circle in the center

Scoop out the center into a cone shape using a butter knife

Do not throw away (or eat) the center piece just yet

 Then take your chocolate filled cookies, place them in a Ziploc bag and crush them, I used a rolling pin.

 Icing the top of the cupcake, not the center

Place the center back in and sprinkle the crushed cookies all over to cover the chocolate icing. This is your "potting soil"

Now lets make the carrots! Take your orange icing bag, with your #2a piping tip, start at the bottom of the hole, begin squeezing the bag, filling and pulling up out of the hole. All the way up til you have a small mound on top. 

I then just took some green buttercream in a Ziploc bag cut a tiny hole in the corner and just squeezed and pulled up three time to make the carrot leaves.

I also made little tags labeled, carrots!

Then I was curious to see how it looked in the center, so I cut it down the center...

Oh well, lol

Spring Flower Cupcakes!

Aren't these cupcakes the cutest?  WAIT! Before you flip the page, believe me, they are sooo much easier than you think. I first came across these a few months ago and thought they would be a challenge to make. To my surprise these babies are easy peasy!  These are perfect for an outdoor spring theme gathering, or bridal shower, even a wedding...with the right colors.

These would also be a great additions to your Easter gathering. I will be making some for my church this Easter since we always celebrate Easter with a fellowship meal on Easter. I can't wait til I sashay in that church building and unveil these beauties lol. It does take a little time to cut the marshmallows and dipped them if you are making a dozen or more. But it's actually fun to make, have the kids do it for you lol they'll love it. If they don't don't eat them all first lol.

So here is step by step instructions on how you can make your own spring flowers!

First, to make these particular flowers you need the mini fruity flavored marshmallows, they are a pastel color, that's why I like them, perfect for spring! Then you are going to take you kitchen scissors and cut each marshmallows  diagonally. Each cupcake will need 20 pedals. So you will need 10 of each color.

Then you will take each cut marshmallow and dip the cut/sticky side in the matching sprinkles.

 and here is what you end up with. 

Time to decorate!

You'll need a completely cooled cupcake. Also you do not want a high dome on the cake so don't fill the cups up to much, or you'll have a disfigured flower

 Next add on a thin layer of your favorite icing, I used buttercream, You can find my buttercream recipe here.

Now take your pedals and begin sticking the pedals on the outer edge 

Now the second layer

for the center you can use whatever you have, I used some edible yellow glitter. But you can use edible pearls, any kind of candy, or even icing. 

And your flower is complete. Isn't she beautiful?!

My 5 year old daughter Ericka made her own version, she even added a candy bumble bee :)

Nathan's 2nd Birthday

Planes Trains and Automobiles

Happy Birthday to my little Nathan!!!!  Nathan loves planes, trains and trucks and cars, so there was no questions about what his 2nd birthday theme would be. I made this cake the night before Nathan's party, and to be honest, I had no clue how this cake was gonna turn out. Normally I draw the cake out and go by that, but this time...I just...decorated.

I asked Nathan if he was ready to taste his cake, and this is what he did lol, right on top of a cloud!

The bottom cake is chocolate ant the top was just a white cake dyed blue.

Nathan decides he wants to help himself

 One of the games we did was the Cloudwalk (cakewalk). The children walk around on cutout cloud shaped poster board with numbers on them, and when the music stopped, if the were standing on the number that the host called out, then they won a cloud cupcake! We had about 8 guest so we actually played til everyone got a cupcake.

The party was a success!

Police cake

This cake is hot!!! A friend mine said it best lol. I was asked to make this cake by a lady who was a friend of a friend of mine (did ya get that). She told me that she was graduating from Police Academy  and she need a cake. Then she send me a picture of a cake that looked similar to this one.  So I said yes I can make that. I was excited to get started. I couldn't wait to make the gun!

As you can see here I simply used good ole rice krispy treats to make the gun, then covered with fondant. I think it is better than carving a cake into the shape you want.

The cuffs were just white fondant that I sprayed with the silver shimmer in the can.

I thought I would dye the white fondant gray using a little black paint. Why did that turn my fondant a light purple, What, how, who..I don't know!! Anyway, I figured it out. The badge was made the same way.

This part was a surprise. The baton was made with just fondant. She was excited when she saw this, because it was not in the picture she sent. I love to add unexpected things :)

Sorry I didn't do a step by step for this one. However it was a 2 layer lemon cake with lemon buttercream frosting. She loved everything about this cake!

Thanks for visiting!

Hamburger cupcakes!

Aren't these hambuger cupcakes the cutest you have ever seeeeen!!! I came across these on youtube and just had to make these. My "buns" did not come out as dark as I wanted them, but as you can see they came out cute anyway. The "hamburger" on these cupcakes could be your favorite brownie recipe or a box. I used  a box recipe, i can never make perfect homemade brownies. These would be soo cute for a kids birthday party, maybe a cookout, or a sports themed party. Or these can be a Saturday afternoon activity for the kids to make, then afterwards take them around the neighborhood on a nice summer day, and give them to neighbors. You can have so much fun with these. So lets get busy!

You're going to need:

vanilla or yellow cupcakes (I used vanilla)
brownies
sweetened coconut flakes, dyed green
buttercream icing (yellow and red) Check out my yummy buttercream icing here
pearl sprinkles

first lets color our buttercream, set aside

Color your coconut, place preferred amount of coconut in a ziplock bag, and a few drops of green coloring, close the bag and mix with your fingers til all flakes are colored

                                     

 Place your buttercream in piping bags or ziplock bags with a tiny tip of the corner cut off

Take your brownies and cut them with a cookie cutters, about the same size of the cupcake

Ta Da...patties!

 Now cut your cupcakes in half

Take the bottom half and add the 'ketchup"

Place on the "pattie" and add the "cheese or mustard"

then add the "lettuce" along the edge

Now the top bun, Then top with the pearl sprinkles for the sesame seeds

And there you go...hamburger cupcakes!

I added these little flags...sooo cute!

TIPS

*If you are using a box cake, stay away from those 'super moist, moist deluxe, mixes because you hamburger will not hold to good, at least not the bottom bun, as you can see in my pictures. Yep I used a moist deluxe mix, Big no no for these babies

*ENJOY!

Yummy buttercream icing

 Don't you just love butter cream!! I am a butter-cream-girrrl! I hate those, super sweet icings that they put on cakes that you order from the grocery store. Normally I would have had to request whipped icing, just so they wouldn't spread that tooth ache in disguise all over my cake. See that's why I make and decorate my own cakes now...all butter cream baby!
This recipe is delicious! It isn't too sweet, it's light and fluffy, and best of all, it's quick and easy...a winner every time! It's perfect for cakes, not so much for cookie decorating, because it doesn't get completely harden like royal icing. You can also add almost every flavoring to butter cream. The possibilities are endless when it comes to butter cream icing!

Mmmmmm...

Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter, softened
3 1/2 powdered sugar
1/2 t salt
1 T milk
1 t vanilla

mix the 2 sticks of butter, 1/2 t of salt and  the 3 1/2 cups of sugar, all together

Add the 1 Tbls of milk and 1 tsp of vanilla

Continue to mix til all incorporated. 

Yummy butter cream!

TIPS

 To color, just add a few drops food coloring, start with a few, stir, then add more til you get you desired color

I you are using this to write on a dessert, , place a small amount in a separate bowl, you will need to add  more milk, about 1/2 tsp at a time.

Perfect for cake decorating

ENJOY!