Head of the Class

Last weekend was a double cupcake weekend. My boyfriend's niece graduated from high school, and I couldn't resist a chance to make some cupcakes out of my latest book, "What's New Cupcake." It was fun to be creative with with the hair of these graduates, and I used Fruit Loops, chocolate sprinkles/icing, and Juicy Fruit to create brunettes, redheads, and blonds. Reese's mini peanut butter cups topped with square trimmed cookies created the mortarboard caps. A mini M&M secured the icing tassel. Good luck, graduates!

Happy 2nd birthday!

My nephew's 2nd birthday was last week, and, as promised, I created his birthday cupcakes. I wanted a train theme, but didn't necessarily want "Thomas the Train" themed decorations. It was harder to find generic train themed items than I thought. So, I went to the Internet for ideas and found someone who used tin boxes to make a train. Then, I decided to put some empty tin boxes behind the engine to hold the cupcake cargo. The cupcakes were blue and orange to match the plates, napkins, and balloons. My nephew might not have appreciated the thoughtful decorating, but he sure did love the cake.

Kentucky Derby

Last weekend I gathered with some of my college friends to attend the Kentucky Derby. We went to visit one of our friends who lives in Kentucky, and we took along our decorated Derby hats and our infield tickets for the big show. Everyone brought something to snack on, and I just had to make festive horse cupcakes. "Hello, Cupcake" has a fairly simple design for horses, complete with edible hay. The horse cupcakes went well with our mint juleps, chocolate bourbon balls, and Derby pie. Although it rained during most of the day, we still had a great time tromping around in our cute wellies that were purchased at Target on the way to Kentucky. Best $25 I've ever spent.

Rivals

My boyfriend's 30th birthday was at the end of April. I wanted to make him some special cupcakes. I thought through a list of ideas that matched his interests-guitar, motorcycles, basketball, etc. My friend suggested an idea that shocked me, because it involved making cupcakes that resemble the mascot of our college's biggest rival. You see, he grew up a Kansas Jayhawk fan. I am a Mizzou grad, and a dedicated Tiger fan. But, because it was his big day, I decided to go for it and make Jayhawk cupcakes. If nothing else, I would get pleasure from devouring and destroying them. There weren't any books with directions on how to create a cupcake to resemble this fictitious bird, so my friend and I walked up and down the aisles of the grocery store to find food items for our creation. I left the grocery store $50 poorer with items like mini M&M's, Twinkies, marshmallows, Peeps brand Bunnies, icing, and more. We worked late into the night to create the Jayhawk cupcakes, but finally found success with a small tip of a Twinkie, the yellow ears of the Bunnies, and lot of dyed homemade butter-cream icing. He loved the cupcakes and held back his urge to say...Rock, Chalk...oh, I can't even say it.

Naughty or Nice?

My friend threw a birthday party over the weekend, and to celebrate another great year the party was themed "naughty or nice?" Considering last year we went to Vegas around this time of year, this was a slightly tamer event. Many people came dressed in costumes, and the birthday girl dressed as one of Tiger Wood's mistresses. Yep, you guessed it, she was portraying the naughty part of the theme. There were "naughty and nice" flavored drinks and, of course, "naughty and nice" cupcakes. I served as a consultant on this one, since my good friend from work was in charge of bringing the desert. When she called me to discuss the themed cupcakes, she asked if "Hello Cupcake" had any devil/angel cupcake ideas. The book does not have them, so we planned them out over a less than 20 minute conversation. I must say, they turned out wonderfully. The devil cupcakes are made with red Starburst for triangular ears and the tip of the tail, and Twizzlers Pull-And-Peel were used for the main part o the tail. She baked them with devil's food cake (clever, huh?) and iced them with homemade butter-cream icing tinted with red coloring. The angel wings were crafted with melted white chocolate almond bark and were piped onto wax paper. They were covered in edible sparkles, and the icing was tinted pale yellow. She has inspired me to start making my own icing, since it was obviously much more delicious than the canned stuff. If "Hello, Cupcake" is accepting suggestions for their third book, then I think these "naughty/nice" cupcakes should be on the list!

Happy Easter!

Easter this year was absolutely perfect with 80 degree weather and fully blossomed Bradford pear trees blowing in the breeze. I always love Easter and can't help but indulge in some of my favorite candies, including Peeps, Reese's Eggs, Cadbury Mini Eggs, Starburst Jellybeans, raspberry filled eggs, strawberry filled eggs, and marshmallow eggs. I guess it's something about chocolate egg shaped candy filled with sweetness that makes my mouth water. My Easter cupcakes were inspired by eggs, and they were made by trimming graham crackers into an egg shape. Then, sprinkles and icing was used to decorate the eggs. Last, green icing squeezed from a Ziploc bag created grass for the eggs to nest in.

April Fools!

Hey, honey, I made vegetables for dinner. Just kidding! They're cupcakes! The corn cob is made from Jelly Belly jellybeans. The mashed potatoes are just piled icing, drizzled caramel sauce, and yellow Starburst butter patties. The peas and carrots are green Runts candy and cubed orange Starburst. Another successful piece of cupcake artwork (idea from "Hello, Cupcake," of course). And, they are also a celebration of the release of a new book by the same authors called "What's New Cupcake?" It was nice to have the first week of April off for spring break, and thank goodness April Fool's Day fell over the break. Third graders relish at the opportunity to trick their teacher, but this year all the jokes went to parents instead of teachers. Over the days off I obviously made cupcakes, and I enjoyed a trip to Georgia to visit my 22 month old nephew, who has really blossomed since I last saw him at Christmas. Now he can say my name "Kee-yee" instead of calling me "Da-da." He is also into trains now (choo-choos) and loves his Teddy, Buzz, and Woody. His second birthday party is fast approaching, and I promised him a train cake. I'll be searching for ideas to create the perfect train cake complete with a long line of cupcake cargo. As my nephew would say, "Eat choo-choo!"