nintendo power

Our friends Theresa and Andy got married last weekend, and Mark and I made Nintendo cupcakes to contribute to their cookie table. I made the red velvet cake with white whipped frosting, and Mark did the fondant designs. (I can't figure out how to flip some of these photos, so bear with me.)

cupcake contest: part deux

Notice my gigantaloid t-shirt in this one. It's a men's XL. Mark had to pin the sleeves back so I could even work. I went home and set it on fire. No, just kidding. But I did throw it out.

Drumroll, please. The final piece. 4 hours, 5-8 lbs. of fondant, 20ish cupcakes, 1 batch of green buttercream, and some of my sanity later. Ta da!

This is me talking to Anne Byrn. Squeeeeeeee!

And because I couldn't have done it without the support I received, here's some more fun.

By the end I was safely back in my cupcake t-shirt. Thanks also to my work friends who came to support me, bought me a cute pink apron, and for those who voted in the contest to get me there in the first place.

And because my face in this picture cracks me up so much, I will end the contest post with this one.

cupcake contest recap

So the cupcake contest was this weekend (sponsored by the newspaper which I refuse to name so as not to give them any more free advertising.) I didn't win, for a lot of reasons, but in order to avoid an overwhelmingly negative post, I'm going to focus on the fact that I was really proud of my entry and how it came out. It felt really awesome to stand behind it and say "yes, this is mine." I even got to meet Anne Byrn, who was more than gracious and so friendly. She signed my cupcake cookbook, which was the first one I ever used. Besides having my posse of family and friends there to cheer me on, meeting her was the highlight of my day.

I have a lot of photos, courtesy of Mark, that depict the process, so I'm going to do a photo essay of sorts and let them speak for themselves. I made the pumpkin patch scene from "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Everything except for the actual cupcakes was made on site - the icing and the sculptures, etc. Here is part 1.

When my Comcast modem stops freaking out about me uploading photos, there will be a part 2.

Stay tuned...

c'mon get happy: the final chapter of cake class

September was our last month of cake class, as we finished the Fondant & Gum Paste course at Michael's. As usual, our instructor was really great and let us do whatever we wanted for our final cake instead of something cheesy from the book.

During one of the classes, a remark was made about one of the fondant cutters looking like a partridge or baby chick. There is still debate about who came up with this first, but since this is my blog, I win. I said it first. It looked like a partridge. So I made a Partridge Family Cake.

Not my finest work, but it sufficed. It was cookies and cream cake and was enjoyed by Amber's esteemed colleagues (though apparently no one likes to be the first one to cut a cake covered in fondant, so Amber had to step up and take care of business).

If you're interested in cake decorating, take these classes. It will really give you the basics you need to attempt the designs in your head. :)





P.S.: Don't forget you can still vote for my cupcake using the widget to the left! Voting ends Friday!

super grover, away!

These cupcakes were actually made almost seven months ago, but they deserve a shout-out. Erin requested "something chocolate related to Richard Simmons, the Office, or Grover" for her birthday, as I recall.

I chose Grover. I made a few of those and then spelled Happy Birthday Erin! This was my very first time ever using fondant (for the faces only).



There were many. And they disappeared quite quickly.


See that cape in the bottom corner? The Super Grover cape carved by hand from fondant? It also disappeared. The question that has yet to be answered in seven months is who in the world would take a giant piece of fondant to eat? Particularly from a co-worker's box of birthday confections?


Grover doesn't know either.

a girly sort of skull

My friend Sarah had few requests for her urban family birthday party : hot dogs, badminton, and chocolate cupcakes with cooked frosting.

I used Magnolia's chocolate cupcake recipe, and started by beating eggs and sugar.


Followed by 6 one-ounce blocks of baker's chocolate...


Mix it all up, adding vanilla and milk mixed separately...


It starts to smooth and turn a nice, smooth chocolately brown...


Fill up those cupcake liners (silver Wilton wrappers to match the forthcoming dragees)


You can see I have no sophisticated way to fill these. Two spoons seem to work just fine for me. While those are baking, I started the cooked frosting, otherwise known as whipped buttercream or perhaps the world's best cupcake frosting. Start with four sticks of butter and two cups of sugar.


About 45 minutes before I whipped the icing, I prepared the "cooked" part by continuously whisking flour and milk until it thickened over the stovetop. This sits on a cooling rack for 3/4 of an hour until a film has formed over the top. Pull the film off and throw it away.


Whip the milk paste mixture in thirds with the butter, sugar, and vanilla already in your mixing bowl. Behold the glory.



Add some Wilton pink rose gel food coloring and you've got fluffy pink heaven. (Always use gel color in frostings, as liquid color will change your consistency and more often than not, separate into multiple colors.)


Ding ding! The cupcakes are finished and ready for finishing touches.


Fill up a piping bag with icing and a medium star tip and go at it.



Sarah loves skulls, so I surprised her by carving white skulls out of rolled fondant. I was rushing like a madwoman at this point, so I didn't take any photos of actually carving the skulls. I decided to spell Happy Birthday Sarah and use skulls on the rest of the cupcakes. I had leftover batter, so I made mini cupcakes as well and added the same silver dragees to those. (I had a brain fart and attempted to take photos of the cupcakes with a flash on a steel table, so the quality isn't fantastic.)


Luckily Sarah got a few. Photos, as well as cupcakes.




Girly and a bit edgy at the same time. A delicious cupcake paradox.