Flower cupcakes July 30, 2008

With the cupcakes leftover from yesterday, I made some flower cupcakes.  My original idea was a 5 petal flower but it didn’t work and I couldn’t find the place where I originally saw it.  My second idea was a giant rose using the cupcake as the flower nail.  Something was weird about my icing though so the edges of the petals were really jagged.  This would have been fine if it was just part of a petal, but it was all the edges.  Plan ‘C’ was the rosebuds.  I admit, they need some work but I was tired and in a hurry because nap time for the kids was almost over.  The rest of the flowers were chrysanthemums, the idea stolen from this you tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9qtZwHHmx4.  These actually turned out pretty well in my opinion.

Beagle Cupcake July 29, 2008

I made these for a friend’s daughter.  The dog is supposed to be their beagle mix.  I followed the pattern in Hello, cupcake!

The cupcakes are devil’s food with chocolate buttercream icing.

Is this a good deal? July 23, 2008

I saw this on Craigslist and think that the asking price is a little high, $400 for what is listed.  What do you think?

“Make over $300 per cake profit! Everything you need to start your own wedding cake business except the oven and the mixer. Includes: two sets of round 2″ cake pans and separators in sizes 6″, 8″, 10″, 12″, 14″, 16″; columns in two sizes, wedding cake stand; bags, couplers, over 60 metal professional decorating tips and flower nails, tip saver, tip covers, professional food colors, brushes, design markers, delivery sign and much more. “

Giveaway opportunity July 22, 2008

Donna is running a contest on her blog to win the 2009 Wilton Yearbook.  Visit her here to win.

Froggy Cake July 22, 2008

Our church does quite a bit of volunteer work for the Ronald McDonald House in our area.  In order to practice my cakes, and not gain 100 pounds, I decided to see if I could donate practice cakes to them.  Lucky for me, they said yes, and I can just drop them off any time.  It works out perfect considering with 2 babies I have no idea when I’ll have a moment to make a cake and deliver it.

Today I made a cake inspired by my son’s bath towel:

I had some cupcakes in the freezer so I used the remaining icing to decorate them too.  They turned out pretty well, I wish the stripes on the cake were a little narrower, but I didn’t have a good way to cut them handy.  When I made the buttercream, I substituted lemon juice for the vanilla.  The hint of lemon is so slight that if I try it again, I’ll use lemon juice for all the liquid.

Gift wrap for cake board July 19, 2008

When I took the Wilton classes, it was recommended to cover the cardboard cake circles with foil.  Or, you could use fancy foil which is basically floral wrap.  In my town I have only been able to find these in gold or silver which seems a little too fancy for most things I do. 

To buy something different I’d have to order online, which isn’t a big deal, but right now I’m not doing enough work to justify the cost of having several different colors of floral wrap just in case.  I was wondering, can you use wrapping paper to cover the cake board?  Will the grease in the icing seep onto the paper leaving a ring?

4th Cookies July 8, 2008

Here are some cookies I did for my niece and nephew for the 4th of July.  Lest you think he got cheated, my nephew did get more cookies, I just didn’t get pictures of all of them.