Happy Halloween

100% edible.. all pieces are made out of fondant.  This was a lot of fun to create and won the contest for most creative & festive!
Happy Halloween!

Baptism Cupcakes

Happy Birthday Marti

Marti likes ladybugs. I saw these on Flickr & had to make a dozen for her Birthday dinner. 

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARTI!

Wilton Cake Decorating, Course 2, Lesson 3

I think I skipped blogging about Course 2, Lesson 2.   Last week we learned how to do violets, violet leaves, and apple blossoms out of royal icing.   Royal icing is made of meringue powder, water & confectioners sugar.  Simple to make & fun to use.  We also used colorflow to make butterflies or birds for our final cake (which will be done next week).

This week we learned how to make Pansies, Victorian Roses, Daisies, Primrose & Daffodils.   We made them out of royal icing as well.    All the flowers we've made in the past 3 weeks will be put on our final cake next week. 

Not a cupcake..but a cabinet to hold Cupcake supplies!

Starbucks to keep my assistant & supervisor happy :-)

My hutch/cabinet was not accomodating my growing supply of baking necessities so I drew this up and built it last week.  Took me about 16 hours from start to finish.  I'll credit my dad for this... he can build anything & everything.. He makes beautiful things out of wood.  I worked in my gramps & grams garage. It was nice to have their help, holding things, sanding, and their company. Thanks you two for all your help!

Baby Boy Shower Cupcakes

How to get chocolate chips to stay on the top of your cupcake

If you want chocolate chips to be on the top of your cupcake do the following:
1.  Bake your cupcake
2. Fill a ramekin to the brim with chocolate chips (I use mini chips, they stick better)
2. Remove cupcakes from oven & let sit for 5 minutes
3. Take warm-hot cupcake out of the pan and put it top first into the ramekin.  Wait about 30 seconds
    then remove cupcake from ramekin.  Chocolate chips should be stuck to the cupcake, melting a little.

4. Once cooled, Frost as usual.

Red Velvet Cupcake with mini chocolate chips

Cake Balls

I don't normally post something someone else has done but I must share my sisters Cake Balls with you.  She decorated them as pumpkins & Ghosts... so cute!!! 

Pumpkin Cupcake Lesson

1. Using tip 12 pipe the cupcake in Orange in a spiral direction starting on the outside

2. Using tip 10 pipe a green stem

3. Using tip 3 pipe a curly branch

4. Using tip 67 pipe a leave

My sister picked right up on it after I showed her once.  It's a great cupcake for the Harvest Season!

Happy 5th Birthday Avalina!

Pink butterfly cupcakes for Avalina's 5th Birthday

Wilton, Course 2, Lesson 2

This week at my Wilton Class we learned how to use ColorFlow.  Directions below are from Michael's website.

The color flow decorating technique is a special decorating method used to make detailed icing decorations for cakes. It is "drawing", using a special icing, parchment bags, and tips. Color Flow decorations are edible; however, they are usually not eaten because they are hard and very sweet. The designs take a long time to dry, so they should be created at least 2-3 days in advance.
Ingredients:
¼ cup plus 1 teaspoon water

1 lb. (4 cups) sifted confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons (6 teaspoons) Wilton Color Flow Mix

In an electric mixer, using grease-free utensils blend all ingredients on low speed for 5 minutes. If using hand mixer, use high speed. Color Flow icing “crusts” quickly, so keep it covered with a damp cloth while using. Stir in desired icing color. In order to fill an outlined area, this recipe must be thinned with ½ teaspoon of water per ¼ cup of icing (just a few drops at a time as you near proper consistency). Color Flow is ready for filling in outlines when a small amount dropped into the mixture takes a count of ten to disappear. Use grease-free spoon or spatula to stir slowly. Yields 1cup.

Note: Color Flow designs take a long time to dry, so plan to do your Color Flow piece up to 1 week in advance.


Color Flow Outline Technique

Tape pattern and waxed paper overlay to your work surface. Waxed paper must be free of wrinkles.

Outline pattern with full-strength Color Flow Icing and tip No. 2.

Let outline dry a few minutes until it crusts. When filling in an area with a different color from outline, let dry 2 hours.

To fill in an outline, soften icing by adding water to ¼ cup icing, ½ teaspoon at a time. As you near proper consistency, add just a few drops of water at a time. Stir slowly by hand in a figure-8 motion to prevent whipping in air bubbles.

Test the consistency of the Color Flow Icing by dropping a small amount of icing into the mixture. If it takes a full count of ten to disappear, the icing is the right consistency.

Fill a parchment cone no more than half full of icing. (Do not use a tip as it might break outline). Cut a tiny hole at the end of bag. If filling in a large area, have 2 half-full bags ready; otherwise, icing could crust before you finish filling in the pattern.

Begin filling in outline along the edges first by gently squeezing and letting the icing flow up to the outline almost by itself. Work quickly, filling in pattern from the outside edges in and from top to bottom.

When all outlines are filled in, let dry thoroughly for at least 24 hours. For quick drying, use a heat lamp: position lamp 2 feet away from decorations for 2 hours. Remove lamp and air dry for 12 hours.

Remove the Color Flow from waxed paper by placing it near the edge of the counter. Slide the piece slowly over the counter's edge while carefully peeling half of the waxed paper away. Turn piece around and repeat.

Dodger Fan Cupcake

Every Dodger fan should have this on his/her Birthday... a Dodger themed cupcake!  Grace ordered cupcakes for her daughter's birthday, which is the same day as her husbands.    She didn't care what his cupcake looked like as long as the theme was The DODGERS.  I made a jumbo cupcake (3x's the size of a regular cupcake) and had fun with it, while it also challenged me, it was pretty easy once I got shaping the fondant.   All 3 pieces are made out of fondant & is 100% edible.   The stitching on the ball is painted on with a fine paint brush using Wilton Red food dye.

Fall is here!

I had to make frosting for my next class so I made some extra frosting to make pumpkin cupcakes filled with pumpkin spice whip cream. I used my Wilton Bismarck tip to inject each cupcake.   It's great for filling cupcakes with fruit preserves, cream, chocolate, peanut butter or whatever your heart desires.  Fall is here ...and so are one of my favorite things...PUMPKINS!