Alyssa's Spa Mask Cookies

It's occasions like these that make me feel old. Now, I'm not really "old" by society's standards, but when, for example, my cousins' birthdays roll around? Or my baby sister? (She's almost 16...definitely not a baby anymore). I. FEEL. SO. OLD. My cousin Alyssa's birthday is this Friday. She'll be turning nine. NINE. That's almost a whole decade, and it makes me feel ancient! Needless to say, she's now outgrown the days of having character kiddy birthday parties (Boo). However, she is still having a party with her friends this year-- a spa party. So, she asked me to make her some spa mask cookies for her and her friends.

I'm not gonna lie- I straight up traced her party invitation (which were little spa masks my aunt made, complete with ribbons- super cute) onto my cookie template. So I used my usual cookie and icing recipes, courtesy of Bridget at Bake@350. I then drew the colors from her party theme. So I had pink mask cookies with turquoise "relax" on them...now what? They were so...plain. And I didn't have enough turquoise to make accents with it, and I didn't have leftover uncolored icing to use, WHATTHEHECK was I going to do??

Easy Solution. Outline the cookie in the background color, and put some sparkles or sprinkles on it. Sold. So I used some of the [craploads of] white nonpareils I had lying around to make a cute and simple white border around the masks. Almost like they have furry trim or something. What can I say? I'm a sucker for simple solutions.

Perfect for a "relaxing" spa party right? Right? Add a bit of ribbon through the holes (which I made with a straw- my mom's genius idea), and you've got legit spa masks!!

Happy 9th (ohmygad) birthday, Alyssa!!

Spookables and Cuties

Happy Halloween everyone!! Last Friday my family hosted our annual Halloween party, and it was so much fun! And you know what that means...Creepy goodies were to be made. Actually, they were more on the cute side. Let me just make a confession right here, right now- I hate Halloween. I'm the BIGGEST scaredy-cat. Like, EVER. Scary movies? I don't watch them. I hate being scared. I don't even like the TRAILERS for scary movies. And don't even get me STARTED on zombies (More on that here). So, Halloween? Yeah...it's at the bottom of my favorite holiday list. So, when party time rolls around, I always try to steer my mom (who, of course, is the boss around here) to cuter treats rather than gross/creepy ones. So, my mom found some Jack-O-Lantern cookies that she fell in love with in a Halloween Country Living book that WEREN'T creepy, and the rest was history. Halloween party favors for over 40 people? Challenge freakin' accepted.

Here they are. As you can see I had a lot of fun with the faces. Which is surprising, because as some of you know, I have OCD. And if you don't know, Hi, I'm Britt, and I have OCD. You'll notice with my other goodies that I tend to make them as uniform as possible. So when I started making the faces on these, I imagined I was going to have an aneurysm before I was done. Surprisingly, once I got started, I came to accept that each pumpkin needed their own personality. Maybe this means that I'm on the right track to not being crazy? Pfft, yeah, probably not.

This little guy here I made special for my boyfriend Broc. As you'll remember from previous posts, he's...how shall I say it? Nerdy (It's ok, I can say it. I'm nerdy too). So I decided to leave a little surprise on his pumpkin for him to find.

Anybody see it? Anybody? How about any Lost fans? Look real close...you should be able to see certain numbers.....No? Well Broc saw them, and he thought it was the coolest thing ever. Seriously, he LOVES Lost (if you see him, do NOT bring up Lost unless you're ready for a nice long discussion about how awesome it is). It's the little things. And that's why I love doing this stuff for people.

Have a Happy Halloween, everybody!! Stay safe!

Luau Cupcakes!

Have you ever seen a how-to on Pinterest and thought, "I could totally do that!!"? I only think this, like, ALL the time. How about this: you think this, then TRY it, and it turns out just...meh...? That's the experience I had with these babies right here:

Allow me to introduce...my luau cupcakes! Well...kinda. I mean...You can see where I was trying to go with this, right?? Ok, so, as always, I found a tutorial on Pinterest to make pretty flowers out of fruit rollups. Check it out here, because the originals are gorgeous and the tutorial is actually pretty cool. WELL, my mom had planned a luau day for the daycare kids, so I seized the opportunity to try out these flowers, because, well...I think they kind of look like the flowers on those plastic leis. You see? The concept is there, it's just the execution didn't exactly go as planned. Fruit rollups? Yeah...they're a bit on the sticky side. And the uncooperative side, as it turns out.

Anyway, on to the cupcake portion. What flavor is more luau-ish than pineapple? None, that's right. Except for maybe coconut. So, remember when I told you in my last post that I'm a sucker for easy?? These cupcakes are the epitome of easy. I don't think I've made easier ones. All it takes is a box of yellow cake mix and a can of crushed pineapple. No, really, that's it. I know, too easy to be true, right? Wrong! And the frosting is just as easy!! Cream cheese and marshmallow fluff, I kid you not. You can find the full recipe here, and you'll notice that the original recipe calls for crushed pineapple in the frosting too. These cupcakes were for a bunch of three-year olds- do you really think they would've eaten the frosting with pineapple chunks in them? We have a hard time getting one of our girls to eat chicken, for god's sake.

So please, go try these yourself! They're so easy, and REALLY yummy. And this is coming from someone who does NOT like pineapple, so you can't go wrong!! And if you try out the fruit rollup flowers, give me some feedback as to how they turn out! I always love new and/or better ways to do things!!

My Take on Gingham: Picnic Cookies!

It's been over a month...can you tell that school has started?? And I don't know what came over me when I picked my classes for this semester-- It's like I picked the classes that would give me the MOST homework in one semester! Way to go, self.

Anyway, have you guys seen this tutorial on how to make gingham cookies?! Flippin' GENIUS. And SO easy. If you guys have read any of my previous posts, you know that I am a sucker for easy cuteness. So, I saw this tutorial and knew I just had to find a reason to make these... But alas, no birthdays were coming up, a rarity in my house. I also wanted to make something cute and summery...Hmm...Something summery and something gingham... Well, DUH. Picnic cookies!! So I followed the simple tutorial with Red Wilton color spray to make my cookies resemble a picnic blanket.

And what's a classic picnic blanket without ants crawling all over it?? You like my ant?? I'll let you in on a secret: That ant? Totally paper punched. No joke, I used the same black sugar paper that I used for my honey's Creeper Cupcakes, and uh, stole *ahem* borrowed my mom's ant-shaped paper punch. Creepy, crawly perfection! Who'da thought? I just adhered it to the cookie with a damp Q-tip, and added the crawly lines with my edible ink marker, and I had myself a creepy critter trying to get in on this picnic business!

Lesson learned? Sometimes it pays to be a sucker for easy.

Til next time! Stay sweet!

Anniversary Heart Cookies

Recently, my parents celebrated their 22nd wedding anniversary. That's right, I said TWENTY-TWO YEARS of wedded bliss. I could only hope, when I get married, to have a marriage as good as theirs-they make it look so easy. To celebrate their anniversary, my dad surprised my mom with a weekend getaway to Tahoe. Also to celebrate, I made them these cookies to bring on their mini-vaca:

I used my usual cookie and icing recipes, and made them as close to their wedding colors as I could. Well...their colors were teal and dusty rose. I got the teal color right on but the pink...you say dusty rose...I say light pink...Tomayto, tomahto (Read: my friggin' dusty rose color gel was dried out). I then used the drag technique that I love so much to make the hearts around the outside of the cookies. I seriously need to use this technique more often. So simple, yet so elegant. If you haven't already seen it, I found the technique for it here.

Happy 22nd anniversary, Mom and Dad!!

Local Yummies: Mazzetti's Bakery

My boyfriend Broc loves the ocean. So for his birthday at the end of June, I thought what better way to celebrate than taking him to the ocean? So I planned a weekend getaway to Pacifica for us to celebrate, relax, and enjoy the beach. In addition to scoping out beaches and restaurants for us to try, not surprisingly I also scoped out any local bakeries. There I found Mazzetti's Bakery.

Ta-da!

I liked this place because it is easy to locate and it has EVERYTHING. Honest to blog, it had muffins, breads, cookies, cakes, donuts, and even stuff I didn't recognize. It was all quite overwhelming. What to get? So many decisions....can I just have one of everything please? I ended up going back to the hotel with a cannoli, and Broc a strawberry popover. One of my favorite things about this bakery? The packaging:

I don't know why, but I find the fact that they boxed and tied up my cannoli just adorable. If it weren't for the fact that there was something delicious waiting inside for  me, I wouldn't have wanted to open it. Good thing I did...

Um...YUM.

This cannoli was just freakin' fabulous. The cream filling was nice and light, the chocolate dipped shell hit the spot and the cherries on the ends were a cute touch. I'm a sucker for cherry anything. Satisfying for the girl with the perpetual sweet tooth.

This, folks, is Broc's popover. All I can say about this is: flaky. Fruity. Goodness.

You should really check them out. Check out their website here, or if you're in the Pacifica area, stop in and get some goodies! You won't be disappointed!

SSSsssSSSuper Cute Creeper Cakes

Another geeky post again, folks! As I've said before, my boyfriend and I are kind of...nerds. We both play a variety of games, and we don't necessarily have the same taste in games. But one of our favorite games to play together is Minecraft. If you're not familiar with Minecraft, it is basically a game in which players can build anything they imagine out of cubes in a 3D world. The concept is simple (Read: sounds dumb), but it's a lot of fun! There are also monsters in the game, and probably the most well known are the creepers. Here's what a creeper looks like in game:

Terrifying, isn't it? ;)

So for Broc's birthday, I decided to replicate these creeper cupcakes I found on Pinterest, originally created on the Candy Bar Cupcakes blog. Here's how my cakes turned out:

Do you see the resemblance? Instead of using chocolate cake, I just made a white cake and colored it green to match the face. The black for the face is made from sugar paper- I used a square paper punch to cut out the eyes and totally free-hand cut the mouth. My favorite part about making these was the technique used to make the different shades of green on the icing (Also explained in the original blog post- check it out here). It's so simple, if you guys ever find an opportunity to try this kind of technique, you so should. To shade the cupcakes, I made a template out of a piece of cardboard and cut out squares and pixel-y (is that a word?) shapes. Then you put your template over the cupcakes and give it a quick spray with green Wilton Color Mist. So. Simple. Anyone else tried this technique? I can't wait to try it out again!

So there you have it! Easy creeper cupcakes for my awesome gamer boyfriend. =)

Happy Birthday Jake!!

I love sprinkles. LOVE them. Do they add anything to the flavor of the treat? Not necessarily. But they ARE super cute, and they add a nice crunch, which I like. So when I found these adorable dinosaur sprinkles, I just couldn't wait to use them. I found the perfect opportunity when one of our daycare kids, Jacob, asked for "pops" (cake pops) for his third birthday.

Gah! Aren't they so cute?? I seriously need to find a giant jar of them so I could use them all the time, they are just too dang cute. To make these I dipped white cake balls in chocolate melting chocolate. This is actually probably one of my favorite combinations so far...not too surprising considering my all-time favorite cake flavor is yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

All the dino pops!

Does anyone else have a major slight sprinkle obsession? Or is it just me? I love stopping in craft stores and grocery stores to see if they have any cute sprinkles I could possibly use...Even if I CAN'T possibly use it, I buy them, you know, "just in case". =)

Happy Birthday Jake!!

Cookies for the Color Run!!

As some of you know, besides baking, one of my favorite things to do in what little spare time I have is run. This is a fairly new obsession- my family started running last November, my parents started training for a marathon, and my sister and I ran to support them. Before that time, the only way in hell you were getting me to run was if you dangled a cupcake in front of me. Or if I was running for my life (maybe). Now it's totally different. I love to run. Don't get me wrong, running sucks WHILE you're doing it. Feeling like you're gonna die is no picnic. But the feeling afterwards is TOTALLY rewarding.

So this Saturday family is taking part in a 5k called the Color Run! And it's not just your basic 5k, oh no. At every kilometer you run, you're doused in a different color! It looks like so much fun, and we are so excited! If you want more info on The Color Run, check out their website here.

To celebrate this event, my mom and I came up with the idea to make Color Run T-shirt cookies. These were so simple to make and turned out exactly how I wanted them to. I knew I wanted to make plain white T-shirts (cut out with a homemade plastic template) with splatters of color on them. I used my usual cookie and icing recipe, and I learned how to do icing splatters on cookies from this post on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. Here's the shirts with each color splatter addition:

Pretty cool, right? The splatter technique was super simple and the result was fabulous! On a side note, sweet picture, right? A HUGE thank you to my awesome photoshop-savvy boyfriend for making this awesome pic, because I haven't yet mastered the picture-taking side of this blogging thing yet. Anywho...

I must admit, I am utterly tickled with how these turned out! They make me even more excited to get some color on my actual T-shirt tomorrow!! Wish us luck, it's almost time to get colorful!! And afterwards we'll celebrate with more color and cookies!

 

 

GO TEAM GOOF TROOP!!

Local Yummies: Nothing Bundt Cakes

This post is waaay overdue. Due to wrapping up summer school, there was no time for me to blog or bake. *Gasp!* I apologize for the short hiatus, but two 17-week classes crammed into 6 weeks? Yeah, I was working my butt off. But I'm done with school (for now)! You know what that means...YUMMIES!!! Woo!

So, here's the skinny: I don't really like red velvet cake all that much. I know, that's such a freakin' travesty. My problem with it is...it just tastes like chocolate. I mean, really, I've bought that Duncan Hines box of red velvet cake mix a few times, in hopes that maybe it'll turn out different, tasting like something AMAZING.... No dice. Tastes like chocolate, sorry.

And the thing is, I always try it at different places in hopes of finding one that I actually like. Red velvet cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory? No thanks. Red velvet cupcakes from Icing on the Cupcake? I'll pass. Mini red velvet cupcakes from my work? No. Just...no. You'd think I'd learn by now, right? My problem is I want to like it, really I do. But nothing I've tried so far has lived up to the hype.

Until recently.

This my friends, is the red velvet cake in question. And not just any red velvet cake. No, this is a baby bundt red velvet cake. AKA- "Bundtlet". Freakin'. Adorable. My family got free bundlet coupons from running our first 5K back in April, for a local bundt cake shop called Nothing Bundt Cakes. Apparently they have stores all over the states, and let me tell you, you MUST  give them a try because their cakes are soooo TASTY. And the shop itself is so quaint and adorable, I could spend FOREVER in there. 

Gah, they're just too cute! Here are the red velvet, marble and chocolate chocolate chip bundlets we got, and boy were they all delish! Too good not to share with you guys!

There you have it, witnessing my change from red-velvet-skeptic to "believer" in the tasty red velvet....however rare such an occurrence may be. If you come across a local Nothing Bundt Cakes, stop in and give them a try!! I totally recommend the red velvet bundlet!

Doesn't hurt that it's cute. ;)

Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy Independence Day, America!! It's time for fireworks, nice cold drinks, BBQ, and, at my house, patriotic ice cream sandwiches! I've seen these pinwheel cookies on Pinterest and I've been DYING to try them out myself. So I made them with two bags of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix (yes, I totally cheated, sorry), following the directions on the bag, but adding Wilton food color gel to each batch of dough, one red, one blue. After letting it chill in the fridge, I rolled my dough into little balls. I then rolled one blue ball and one red ball together and rolled them into about a 12 inch cane. then you twist them into coils and bake for about 10 minutes (Or whatever...the directions said 5-7...I had to eyeball it because that just wasn't cutting the mustard). And the fun doesn't stop there. Oh no. I had to put some softened ice cream between those bad boys to make them into ice cream sandwiches. Hello, this is sunny California. It's like, 93 degrees outside, people. Cold treats are a MUST.

They turned out a bit "Seussical", but that's totally fine. You know why? Because they're freakin' ice cream sandwiches (I like to bake, but ice cream is my weakness).
Until next time-It's time for me to go eat these bad boys! Everyone have a fun, SAFE holiday!

Kae's "Pur-tle" Cake Pops

My cake pops are pretty popular at my house. I mean, I think they are. This is just a shot in the dark, but I think it means they're pretty popular when one of the two-year-olds my mom watches comes up to me and demands purple cake pops for her upcoming birthday. Of course, I was happy to oblige, especially since it's so cute when she says purple, or "pur-tle." And perhaps it's genetic, since her mom (the recipient in this post) is freakin' obsessed loves my cake pops too. So here they are, pur-tle cake pops, just what the birthday girl ordered. They have pink and yellow sprinkles. But wait. There's MORE.

They have tags!! TANGLED tags!! When we found out she was having a Tangled party, I knew the purple pops would go PERFECTLY. So this is what we did. My mom bought some Tangled stickers at our local Wal-Mart. Then, she and I cranked out these bad boys. She cut out the stickers into circles, I cut out the purple scallops and slapped the stickers on, and she punched holes into the top and bottom. INSTANT. CUTENESS. They totally tied the pops in with the theme of the party. And now I have so many opportunities!! Want Mickey Mouse & Friends pops? Done. Want Disney Princess or Tinkerbell pops? Done!!

These were a huge hit at Kae's Tangled party. And the birthday girl totally approved of her pur-tle pops.

Happy Birthday Kae! <3

Congrats Class of 2012!

I put myself in the most ridiculous situations sometimes, I swear. I think it's my tendency to want to please everyone. For example, when my next door neighbor asks me to make her graduation cookies for her graduating kindergartener, instead of just saying yes right off the bat, I may want to take a few things into consideration first: Do I have the right supplies? Or: Do I have anything else planned for that week? Because the thing is...I don't own any graduation cutters. AND I had my Mike Wazowkski pops and a different batch of SEVENTY cake pops (post to come soon!) due the same week. BUT, I said yes. Because that's why I do this stuff. I love making stuff for other people. So, I consider this a learning experience that: 1. With enough preparation, I can TOTALLY handle 3 baking orders/projects in a week and 2. I can freaking MacGyver any cookie shape I want if I don't have the proper cutter. Here's one of my finished subjects:

See that? Can't even tell I didn't have a cookie cutter for it. What I did was print out an image of a grad cap cookie cutter, trace it on an old plastic lid, and cut THAT out...and when I made my cookie dough, I just traced my template with a paring knife. That's right, these babies are HAND. CUT. I used my usual cookie recipe and icing recipe. And I don't know what I did differently with my icing, but my thin icing was the smoothest I've ever been able to get it. No weird color swirling, no weird sinking in, very few bubbles. I'm not complaining but, what the heck??

Here they are, packaged and ready to go. I did them in the elementary school's colors, and tied them with a matching ribbon. My neighbor was thrilled! See? I agreed to do them and I didn't even need a game plan. Learning experience totally paid off. =)

Congrats on graduating kindergarten, Ciara! And congrats Class of 2012!

Monsters, Inc. Pops!

Well, I guess if we're getting technical, they're not really Monsters Inc. pops per se...seeing as I don't have the skills to make Boo pops or Sulley pops, BUT I did make pops of not only my favorite Monsters, Inc. character, but one of my favorite Disney characters. I bring you....Mike Wazowski!!

Awww...Cute little Googlie-Bear. =)

These were SUPER easy to make. Actually the most time-consuming part of this process was the making of the eyes. I originally wanted to use a white meltable chocolate for the eyes, but in proportion to the cake pop, the eyes would've been HUGE. So instead, I melted the white chocolate, piped smaller circles on a piece of wax paper, and after they dried, went over the white with some melted green chocolate, making the irises. At this point they looked like green eggs sans the ham. Perfect little treats for Dr. Seuss's birthday next year! Anyway, I used an edible ink marker on the dried green eggs to turn them into eyeballs. Then it was just your usual dipping of the cake balls in green meltables and holding the eyes in place until the pops dried. White chocolate chips were perfect for Mike's horns, which I attached with some leftover melted green chocolate. Just add a smile with a black candy writer, and you've got yourself some cute little Mike Wazowksi pops!

Cupcake Pen

Alright guys...I have another confession to make (Have I ever mentioned that sometimes I am honest to a fault? Seriously, It gets me in trouble sometimes). I...well...my least favorite treat to make is cupcakes.  I know. Freakin' blasphemy. My friend Hayley (The Domestic Rebel) is probably shaking her head right now in shame/disgust (sorry).  Look, it's not that cupcakes don't TASTE delicious. And it's not that they aren't often freakin' ADORABLE. Seriously, can I get an amen on that one? Cupcakes. Are. Adorable. BUUUTTT...I hate MAKING them. I find it to be messier than making a cake or cookies or even cake pops. One of my pet peeves of baking is when you're baking muffins or cupcakes and while you're spooning the batter into the baking cups, it gets all over the side of the cups and the muffin pan. It happens every time and I find it SO. ANNOYING.

But there's good news!! I may have found a solution to my problem! While shopping with my dad a while ago, we stumbled on THIS bad boy at our local JC Penny:

THIS, my friends, is the Tovolo Cupcake Pen. I knew I HAD to have it when I saw it, in the hopes that it would make cupcake-making more enjoyable. Now...I haven't actually made any cupcakes since purchasing this, but I HAVE made cake pops. This tool is life changing, I tell you!

My cupcake pen with my Babycakes. It's like they were made for each other. =) So if you find cupcake making (or even cake pop making, for that matter) to be annoyingly messy like I do, I suggest you give this a try!!

Butterfinger Cake

Alright guys, are you ready for one of the yummiest posts ever? I bet you are. This is hands down the easiest cake I've ever made, and one of the tastiest by far!! My mom found this recipe for Butterfinger Cake on Pinterest (love that site!) and requested that my sister and I make it for her for Mother's Day. My sister and I made a sheet cake with a box of yellow cake mix,, followed the instructions for the rest of the cake on this site, and there you have the most DELICIOUS cake. EVER. I'm not a huge fan of eating cake (I'm more of an ice cream or cookie girl, myself), but I could have eaten this ALL. DAY. LONG. And my mom LOVED it. Like, we could have just given her the cake for Mother's Day and she would've been stoked. My favorite part about this cake was the caramel cake itself. It makes it so easy to make other kinds of candy bar cakes with it. For example, I really want to make the caramel cake with a MILKY WAY topping. Yum, YUM!

Hop on over to the site, and give this cake a try. You will NOT regret it!!

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!! =)

Buzzy Beeees!!!

Time for another fabulous cake pop post! Like my chick cake pops, I got the idea for these pops from Bakerella. She's a genius, I swear. Here they are...

Buzzy Bees!!

These little guys were a lot more difficult and time consuming than the Easter chicks. Especially with how warm it is with our Sacramento summers, working with the chocolate...not fun. But with some patience (and I MEAN only some- I was getting a bit frustrated), the finished product was rewarding.

I made these for our neighbor across the street for her birthday and for one of the daycare mom's for HER birthday (bake a bunch of pops, mom makes a bunch of chocolate flowers to go with, boom- two birthday birds, one stone). I KNEW I had to make these for the daycare mom for her birthday...every time I send her daughter home with cake pops (for the DAUGHTER, mind you), her mom always eats them! (Sorry Kae). Needless to say she was stoked to receive these. In fact, what did she say when I gave them to her in the morning? "I'll probably eat at least 3 of these ON MY WAY to work."  LOL.

My mom ALSO made a cute birthday card to match the yummy goodness. My mom makes all kinds of cute paper goods, cards, scrapbook pages, and other cute projects. If you haven't checked out her blog A Scrapping Mom's Scraps, check it out!

And finally, HERE are the instructions for the buzzy bee pops!

Easter Pops

As you may or may not know, one of my FAVORITE blogs is Bakerella's. She is SO cute, and SO clever! Not only am I frequently looking at her site looking for ideas, but I have her cake pop book, which gives you tips and step-by-step instructions for making different decorated pops. That's where I got the inspiration for these little guys:

Easter chicks!! This was my first attempt at making decorated pops...you know, outside of dipping and putting on sprinkles. I just love making goodies to bring to family events, such as holidays! And of course, most times I make decorated goodies, I have to make one slightly different for my sister, hence the rebel cake pop you see to in the picture below to the right.

These were so fun to make, and you can find the instructions to make the chicks here, so you can have fun making them too!

I have been really busy in the kitchen and have lots more planned for the summer, so check back soon!!

Rainbow Cupcakes

Ok, so I have a bit of a confession to make. I have an obsession....a hardcore slight obsession with rainbow-colored food. I don't know what it is that makes rainbow-colored food taste better than non-rainbow-colored food!  I LOVE making rainbow cupcakes- I'm always looking for an excuse to make them. So, it's no surprise that when St. Patrick's Day rolled around this year I jumped on the opportunity to make rainbow cupcakes...you know, pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and all that good stuff. Perfect excuse, right? I made them with a box of white cake mix (I know, I cheat), and separated the batter into six bowls, using food coloring to color each bowl a different color of the rainbow. Then you layer the colors in the baking cups as desired and bake as directed. And to top the cupcakes, I iced them in plain white frosting with sour belts as rainbows!

Sorry for the FABULOUS picture quality... We served these to the kids at my mom's daycare (hence the awesome Disney plates), and they were getting anxious for cupcakes!! Gosh, I need another excuse to make these again!!

Shirley Temple Cupcakes

Okay everybody, be prepared for some motivation. If these next cupcakes don't make you want to run to your kitchen to do some baking, I don't know what will. Back in March, our family friend Krista celebrated a birthday, and I had to think of something really yummy for her. I found these Shirley Temple Cupcakes on Pinterest, and new that these were the ones!!

These were originally posted here on Armen Atoyan's blog. They're a little time consuming with all the steps included, but they're so good, they're totally worth it. I love Shirley Temples, and I love pretty much everything cherry-flavored, so these were right up my alley. And, the original recipe calls for a gluten-free flour blend...I'm not gonna lie, I totally just used regular AP flour and they turned out fine.

Not only did they taste phenomenal with the cherry flavoring on the bottom and the cherry flavored icing, but they look pretty cool, right? Awesome cupcakes for an awesome gal!

My First Cake Pops!!

Happy Wednesday, everybody!! Today I want to show you my first attempt at cake pops with my Babycakes cake pop maker!! My mom needed some kind of treat for bunco, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try out my new favorite toy! I kept it simple, with funfetti cake dipped in white chocolate melts, and topped with rainbow sprinkles (I LOVE sprinkles for some reason). Wrap it up with cute matching rainbow ribbon, and you have instant bunco cuteness/yumminess. These were so easy to make- after I made them I asked myself WHY had I not tried these before?? This started a new epidemic- so get ready for more cake pop posts!!

Babycakes!!

Hey guys! Remember this post when I said I had the coolest family ever? Well not only are they the coolest, but they're friggin' GENIUSES (And I know my mom is reading this and nodding and/or saying "Yep"). So one of the many yummy blogs I love is Bakerella's blog. Love, love, LOVE it. And I had ALWAYS wanted to try making cake pops...so I attempted them once- disaster. That's all I'm gonna say. I hadn't tried making them since then...that is, until I got this little beauty from my fam for Christmas.

This, my friends, is the babycakes cake pop maker. No joke, it's like a waffle iron, but you put cake batter in it, and adorable little balls of cake come out of it. Since then, as you'll see in later posts, I've been a cake pop-makin' fool. Cake pops are SO EASY to make this way. And I've gotten a lot of positive feedback taste-wise. The people who have tried them like them better than the ones you mix with frosting. AND you can make donut holes with this bad boy! So. Excited. Totally recommend this to anyone who hasn't had luck with cake balls/pops the traditional way, like me. How did my family know that this gift would keep me so busy in the kitchen, and would produce such great results?

Like I said. Friggin'. Geniuses.

Braaainss...Braaainss...

Those of you who know me, know I'm a big baby when it comes to scary movies. What's that? You're thinking about planning a scary movie-thon? No thanks, I'm going to have to politely decline in advance for ALL future invitations. Especially if zombie movies are involved. I can SOMEWHAT handle movies about monsters, aliens, and psychopath murderers, but zombies FREAK. ME. OUT. TOTALLY irrational, I'm well aware, but there you have it. And that's how I came to my decision to make brain cupcakes for our annual Halloween party last year. I'm not a huge fan of Halloween...maybe it's because I associate it with all things creepy...including zombies. So what's more creepy than zombie-food cupcakes?

Nothing, that's what. These were really simple, I just colored some plain white buttercream with a very little bit of peach coloring to make this disturbingly creepy brain color. Pop a #10 tip on your piping bag, and make 4 squiggles down the cupcake. Instant creepiness.

Heh...these honestly weird me out a little bit...maybe it's the coloring that makes them seem sort of realistic. BUT they tasted delicious, so that makes up for it. I'm thinking this year going back to something cute or cool, and passing on creepy.

Ick, nothing zombie related, yes? Can I get a show of hands?

Lego Dessert Table!

This is it folks. The moment we've all been waiting for. Well actually, it's just the post I'VE been waiting for for a while! This is the big one, one of the things I've done that I'm most proud of. Prepare to have your mind blown.

For my dad's birthday last year, I came up with the idea to do a Lego themed birthday party for him. As I've mentioned before, I inherited my nerdiness from my dad. That being said...we both love Legos. He still has sets in the garage from when he was a kid, I grew up playing with them...and I still have my Harry Potter Lego sets, which I LOVE. Anywho, I knew I wanted to do a nice party with a dessert table after my mom's was such a huge hit a few months before (if you missed the pink and green dessert table I did for my mom's birthday, you can find it here). And I got the idea to do a Lego party after finding these cookies on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. Not only does the post for these cookies have a tutorial, but she even provides a template, folks! It makes the process SO much easier, so get on over there, so you can try these out too!
I used my usual sugar cookie and icing recipes, here are the Lego head cookies in the process:

And here is the finished product. With my leftover scrap dough, I cut out some little rectangles to make some lego bricks to go with my little dudes. And this is just the beginning.

WHOLE. TABLE. FULL of Lego goodies for his party!! Like I said, the cookies were just the beginning! I knew I had to get those Lego candies you see in the candy shops. And of course, after I got the cookie idea, I started browsing the web looking for other party ideas. I found this awesome ice cube tray...in the shape of little Lego guys!! PERFECT to use for a candy mold to make some cupcake toppers!!

Here is my cupcake tower! I made Funfetti cupcakes, plain white buttercream frosting, and topped with red, yellow, and blue chocolate Minifigures!

The Lego candies and some of those Airhead sour belts...I was going for a primary color theme.,

One of the coolest parts about the party was the decorations. Dad let us build and put out some of his old Lego sets, such as this one on the dessert table:

And these cars...

The Lego sets really tied the room together. And the kids loved to look at and play with them!

I HAD to get one of my Harry Potter sets out also...And dad didn't object. =)

Here's the Lego Minifig cupcakes up close:



This was one of the best adult birthday parties we've ever thrown! One that I'm sure our guests won't be forgetting any time soon. And it was just SO fitting for my dad.

See? What did I tell you? Mind blown, right? You're welcome.