C is for Cookie....Monster....AND cupcakes!

Who doesn't love cookies?

Who doesn't love monsters?

Who doesn't love cupcakes?

Well if you said "me" to any of the above questions, you should turn and run right now!

(awkward pause)

Okay, now that those haters are gone.....let the cookie monster cupcake pictures commence!

He's so cute.  Don't you just want to hug him?

And steal his cookie???

So here he is as a cupcake!

You will find these cupcakes all over the WWW. 

They really are easy to make and such cute fun!

Use a "grass" tip to pipe the icing and give him that furry effect. 

Use candy melt wafers for the eyes.

  I used fondant for the pupils, but you could use chocolate chips or edible marker and drawn them on. 

And then grab one of those boxes of miniature chips ahoy and viola!

I love the googly eyes!

Thanks for looking!

Strawberry Shortcake

This is Strawberry Shortcake!  At least this is what she looked like when I was a kid.

Aww, isn't she cute? 

Does it bring you back a few years? (Let's not discuss how many...ahem) 

As time marches on, so does Strawberry Shortcake!  I love that she is spanning generations and all little girls still have the chance to play with a "scented" doll. 

Remember that smell?

Look how her fashion sense has updated, but still a bonnet and cute short curly hair.

Here is the newest evolution of Strawberry Shortcake! 

She's let her hair grow and it seems to be more of a beret than a bonnet upon her locks!

No matter her look, she is still a great subject to have when making a party theme choice!

So let's see what we need at the party???

How about some cookie favors?  I took inspiration from one of my favorite cookiers (Sweet Sugar Belle) and the strawberries found on the party plates

Cupcakes are always the FUN and easy way to serve all the kids!

But of course you need a cake to put candles in and sing the Happy Birthday song to!

I made some buttercream vines with flowers and some miniature fondant strawberries for the sides of the cake.

Thanks for hanging around so long with us Strawberry Shortcake!

And Happy Birthday Kaitlyn Marie!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries Cuppies!

What could be more delicious than a vanilla almond sour cream cupcake, topped with delicious chocolate buttercream and THEN topped with a Valrhona chocolate covered strawberry????

Probably nothing.

Happy Birthday Hollie!

Bowling for Cupcakes

Another bowling party at Frames N Games! 

These cuppies are topped with swirled buttercream icing and a hand-drawn chocolate bowling pin and ball. 

Can't forget the colorful sprinkles!

Art Cupcakes

What kind of cake should you have when your party is at a "paint your own pottery" shop?

The party was at this great local shop, Makin' Memories. If you haven't visited one of these pottery shops near you, you should. Each party goer gets to pick out the piece they like, and the paint colors they want and then they go to town and get creative!

Definitely had to use the birthday girl's color requests....pink and purple icing.

But what about some cute little edible art palettes to add some creative pizazz??

(I really had fun making these, I even dipped the paintbrushes into the chocolate paints!)


Hope it was a fun Arty Party!

Safari Parade

This invitation is so cute!
I love the stripes, the polka dots, the simplistic animals, even the font is cute!

So cupcakes and a smash cake for the birthday boy.
A safari parade...

Happy 2nd Birthday Mason!

Relay For Life

I was asked to donate cupcakes for a bake sale to benefit the Relay For Life in our area.

Of course I said yes!

I went with two designs, the purple ribbon and the RFL logo both made out of chocolate.

Here is the link to the official Relay For Life website. If you don't know about it, you can find out anything and everything you need to know! You can even find events in your area! It benefits the American Cancer Society.

If you can't participate, consider donating.
I think we all have had our lives touched by cancer, a friend, a neighbor, a parent or a child.
Help the American Cancer Society find a cure.

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

Each year I look for new cupcake ideas for the kids' Easter parties at school. Last year I was inspired by the Hello, Cupcake! book and made most all of their Easter/Spring ideas.

This year I wanted to make a simple cupcake because I had a LOT to make!
So I found this cute little Easter Bunny clip art and decided he would sit on the cupcakes.

I also had some edible Easter grass to use. So I trimmed it into small pieces and rolled the cupcake edges in it after I iced them with a swirl.
This grass was flavored with a mild green apple flavor.

I made vanilla cupcakes with white chocolate bunnies.

And chocolate cupcakes with milk chocolate bunnies.

The kids both had fun parties off campus. That included snacks and games and Easter egg hunts!

Happy Easter!

It's a bird....it's a plane.....it's Superman!

I love superhero cake themes! It gives me a chance to revisit old comic book pictures and find the right one that works for the cake.

John Ryan is turning 5 and is an extreme Superman fan. His mom told me he is watching the old episodes from quite a way back. I found out that Superman was first printed in comic form in 1938. He's still quite a man for being over 70 years old!

First I made Superman cupcakes for John Ryan to share with his classmates at his school.Then he was having a party at the locale jumping party place ~ Leapin' Lizards ~ so he needed a cake to share with all his guests!

I used the FBCT method to create the Superman on top of the cake....
and the cityscape skyline and logos are made from chocolate.
John Ryan was very excited when I brought the cake to his party. Everyone that was in the room was oooing and aaahing over it. One woman even said..."we can't cut that cake!". I just LOVE it when I get that kind of reaction!Here is the feedback I received from John Ryan's mom:

Thank you so much for the awesome Superman Birthday cake. You did a fabulous job. John Ryan thought it was the best cake in the world and wanted to know if he can have another one for his next birthday. It was the best tasting cake I have ever eaten. I am spreading the word and will use you for all of my cakes in the future. Also the fact that you delivered it to the party was so convenient and decreased my stress level for the day. Again, thank you for the cake and cupcakes. Hayley A.

Christmas Cupcakes 2009

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!

Maybe you are ready to take down your Christmas decorations.
Maybe it's snowing where you are.

I am taking down my decorations, but it is definitely NOT snowing here. It is cool and we have had the fireplace going to heat up the living room

These were the cupcakes I made for the classroom parties before the break.
I am late in posting but wanted to share!

I came up with this idea for a string of lights in a pile when I was working with some green chocolate. Piping it with a tip 3 or 4 really looked like Christmas light wires to me....and then I remembered I had some chocolate covered sunflower seeds in my cake cabinet. Perfect sizes and colors....because they are more oval like real lightbulbs. I rolled the edges in primary color confetti sprinkles to add more color.

These are fondant snowflakes made with a PME plunger set that I got last year at the ICES convention in Orlando. I also rolled the edges in blue sparkling sugar.
I really like the look of a sugar edge on a cupcake.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.
2010 is upon us and I hope it brings the best for you and your family.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Cupcake!

This cute and easy cupcake was for a cake decorating demonstration that I did today. One of my neighbors belonged to a local MOPS group and asked me several months ago if I would like to do a presentation for the December meeting.

So over the course of the last few weeks I knew I needed a quick and easy project. Especially because the PS's (preschoolers) were going to be attending the meeting with their M's. I went to my stack of cake mags/books and online to get some ideas.
I decided it would need to be a cupcake that anyone could make and one that has ingredients easily found in your local supermarket. With all that in mind....I wanted to use chocolate buttercream and what better than a brown reindeer!
Rudolph has pretzel antlers, a sour cherry candy nose, buttercream icing eyes with mini chocolate chip pupils and a buttercream smile! It is a quick and easy project and the kids love making their own!

Merry Christmas MOPS! Thanks for letting me share part of my passion with you!

Neapolitan Cupcakes

Do you remember neapolitan ice cream?

That seemed like the standard served at parties when I was a kid because it had the three basic flavors to serve to all the kids.

Chocolate ~ that would be my choice
Vanilla ~ I tend toward this more now
Strawberry ~ sweet and delicious

As I was baking for this weekend I found that I had some remaining batter that needed to be used so I tried something new.
Vanilla almond sour cream was the base and then a dollop of triple chocolate right in the middle. I also had some strawberry filling left over so once the cupcakes were cooled I filled the cupcakes with strawberry filling!

But that wasn't enough ~ I had all 3 flavors in buttercream icing so I thought I would replicate the neapolitan profile on TOP!
Chocolate ~ Vanilla ~ Strawberry

Isn't it cute in it's little cup?

Carefully unwrap your cake....so you can savor this dessert.
I have a set of these dessert plates that we use on birthdays here at the house ~cute huh!?!

Finally I thought I would show you the cut through!

I guess the only thing missing is the ICE CREAM!

Happy Halloween

I am the official room mother for my oldest son's class this year. So I wanted to make the kiddos some treats to have at lunch today. The school doesn't have Halloween parties, but I can get away with a treat at lunch!

There were mummies.....

Pumpkins.....
Spider Webs.....
and......

My new favorite halloween item.....Candy Corn Cupcakes!

Halloween just keeps getting sweeter!

The kids all enjoyed and of course my son takes great pleasure in passing the cupcakes out at lunch.
Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!

Pokemon Cupcakes

Yesterday was my first born's 10th birthday!

Being an avid Pokemon collector and game player, he chose Pokemon as the theme for his party and cake this year. These are the cupcakes he took to school on his birthday.

Aren't they cute? Simple two toned buttercream swirls with hand drawn chocolate transfers of the Pokemon logo and Pokeballs. If you don't know what Pokemon is....count your wallet lucky!

We are actually having a party at a local fun park. With go karts, mini golf and games! You'll have to wait to see a picture of that cake, because as I am typing it is still sitting in the pans cooling in the kitchen....it's going to be a late night....

My husband promised me he WON'T turn the oven on in the morning....but that's a whole story about another cake, to be retold in another posting.

Guess I better get to my offset spatulas and icing colors!

Back To School!

It doesn't seem possible that it is time to head back to school. But my boys are meeting their teachers today and first day of school is Wednesday! When I was growing up I know we had much more than 10 weeks of summer vacation. Of course time does seem to move more quickly the older I get, so maybe it was the same but it just lasted longer in my child's mind.

Either way, I saw a cute picture of apple cupcakes over the summer and I knew I HAD to make them when it was time to go back to school. These cute little apples have a "bite" taken out of them that reveals the "seeds" inside.

I know it's cliche', but I just can't help myself. Every year I find some "apple themed" gift for the boys to give their new teachers. These are vanilla almond sour cream cupcakes with homemade buttercream icing. Topped with a combination of sanding and sparkling red sugars and a chocolate fondant stem and green fondant leaves.
I found this cute scrapbooking paper and knew it would make a nice background for pictures!

These are the boxes they will be taking tonight when they meet their teachers. I adorned the boxes with some cute back to school themed stickers.....I find myself in the scrapbooking aisles a lot even though I don't scrapbook....hmmm.

Here's to another successful and fun year at school. Third grade for my baby and Fourth grade for my oldest. Good luck guys!

More Than Meets the Eye

Transformers...more than meets the eye.... Transformers.....robots in disguise.....


You know you're singing the song in your head right now!

I find it amazing how some of the iconic kid things from the 80's are resurfacing.
(Maybe I'm just so old everything is circling back around)

These are "BumbleBee" Transformer cupcakes.
Each has a chocolate topper of either the car or the Transformers logo for autobots.
Happy Birthday Dylan!

If There's Something Strange in Your Neighborhood......

Who you gonna call?

GHOSTBUSTERS!

I had so much fun making these cupcakes and cake for a Ghostbusters themed party. Each cupcake is "slimed" with green icing and topped with a chocolate Ghostbusters logo.

The cake is frosted with white buttercream and then "slimed" with a green mixture of piping gel and corn syrup. Handmade chocolate designs include the top Ghostbusters logo and of course...

SLIMER!

Happy Birthday Gabe!