Sharks, Whales, and Life Preservers

I wanted to make some cupcakes over the summer that were a little challenging so I decided to make sharks, whales, and life preservers. The first thing I did was cut Twinkies in half at an angle and then cut a point at the tip for the sharks. Then I added Oreo cookies that were cut in half for the fins of the sharks.

Then I dipped all of the sharks and whales in gray frosting that was slightly melted and let them dry.

After the cupcakes dried I added red fruit roll ups for the mouths of the sharks. Then I added white frosting for the teeth and dark gray frosting for the eyes, gills, and the mouths of the whales.

After all of the sharks and whales were done I added blue frosting around the base to look like water and cover up the gray frosting that spilled on the cupcakes.

I also did life preservers by pouring slightly melted white frosting and let them dry. Then I took fruit roll ups and cut them into strips and placed three on each life preserver.

They took a long time to make but they turned out REALLY nice! I was surprised at how cute they looked! : )

Playing Cards

My dad wanted some cupcakes to take to work for fun. He told me to surprise him so I decided to make playing cards because he plays Cribbage at lunch with some coworkers.

My husband gave him the idea to use grahams crackers to make them 3D and the turned out REALLY cute!!
First I took graham crackers and cut them a little bit to make them a more realistic size. Then I dipped the cupcakes in frosting I melted slightly so it was soft. I set the cupcake on a rack to dry and added the faces of the cards. I only made 2 dozen so I did 6 of each suit so I randomly pulled out a card to skip from each color.
Then I pushed the graham crackers into frosted cupcakes at an angle to hide the part that didn't get covered with frosting when I dipped them.

It's not shown in the picutres but the backs of the cards have lines on them. When I placed the cards on the rack to dry it made lines in the frosting so I chose to do lines to hide the lines from the rack. : )

Bloomsday Runners

In May Spokane has the Bloomsday run. My parents were having a get together for Bloomsday so they asked me to make them cupcakes for the event. I decided to make the runners using regular cupcakes and mini cupcakes for the heads.



The first thing I did was frost all of the cupcakes and put the mini cupcakes on for the heads. Then I cut Airheads into t-shirts and placed them on the cupcakes.



I cut out white airheads and placed them on top of the t-shirts and put black numbers on them with black frosting. Then I took mini m&m's on for the eyes and gave all of the cupcakes hair and facial features.



We had a few extra heads so we found miniature carriages and had some of the runners pushing the carriages. This is what the final product looked like! We even found a trophy for the finish line. : )

Penguins

These cupcakes are my husbands favorite cupcakes. They are made by stacking a sliced mini doughnut and a doughnut hole on top of a cupcake (using frosting as glue).



After you stack them on top you spread frosting round the outside to make it smooth and then you have to put them in the freezer for twenty minutes or so for the frosting to really set.

After the cupcakes have been frozen you heat up the tinted black frosting in the microwave. Then you dunk the cupcakes into the frosting to cover the doughnut hole and mini doughnut, but make sure you let the excess drip off before you flip the cupcake back upright.

Make sure you have plenty of frosting ready so you can refill the cup you are dipping the cupcakes in so you coat the entire outside.

After the frosting has dried a little on the cupcakes you push pieces of marshmallow onto them to make the penguins bellies. Then you cut yellow starbursts in half and push them on to make the beaks. The eyes are made by putting dots of white frosting and then placing mini chocolate chips on top. To make the wings you take the Oreo wafers and cut them in half. You'll need one wafer for each penguin.

After the cupcakes are complete I stored them in the fridge to make sure the frosting set. These cupcakes are really messy to eat, so make sure you have some napkins ready!

Chocolate Butterlies

These cupcakes were the most time consuming cupcakes I have made, but they tasted great! I made a dozen of them for a friend to give take to a birthday party.


The first thing I did was make the butterfly wings and antenna. You have to get chocolate wafers in two different colors and melt them in ziploc bags. Then you cut a small hole in one corner of the bag and push the chocolate out in the design. I started with the brown outside area first and then did the inside green part. You have to do this quickly because the chocolate sets up fast after you put it in the design you want. After you have filled in the two colors you have to tap the pan on the counter to get them to flatten and mis so they look smooth. This part of making the cupcakes took me about THREE hours!






To put the cupcake together you put two M&M's about an inch apart on the cupcake to angle the wings of the butterfly. Then you place the antenna in between the wings

Then you take chocolate frosting and pipe the body to cover up the end of the antenna and the edges on the wings.

Here is the first dozen that I completed. The assembly of the cupcakes was really fast and easy compared to making the wings, but if you want to make them be sure to plan ahead and give yourself plenty of time to make the wings and antenna! I did them the night before I assembled them so the assembly was quick.

Sunflowers

Dimitri's mom had a friend who was having a birthday so she decided she wanted to sunflower cupcakes to give to her as a surprise.






These cupcakes are made with Oreo's, fruit leathers and M & M's. Yo ucould also use mini Oreo's on mini cupcakes or put multiple flowers on each cupcake. The M & M's in the top picture are decorated to look like ladybugs.

Owls

For Christmas 2009 I received the book Hello, Cupcake! from my sister in law which has tons of awesome cupcake designs in it. Since my husband's 21st birthday was the day after Christmas I figured I would let him choose a design out of the book to make for him instead of a cake. He choose Owl cupcakes which have turned out to be one of my favorite designs so far.





These cupcakes were really simple to make. All you need is Oreo's and Junior Mints for the eyes and either yellow jelly beans or Good and Fruity's for the beaks. The Oreo half that you don't use for the eyes gets cut in half and makes the ears that get covered in chocolate frosting.

Towards the end of making the cupcakes I ran out of Junior Mints so one of the Owl's was winking.

These cupcakes tasted SO good! They did not last very long. The best part is when the Oreo's start to soak up some of the moisture from the frosting and become a little soft. : )

Flowers

I have decided to start a cupcake blog so that you can follow what I've been up to and so I can explain how to make some of the cupcakes that I have been making.

These are the first cupcakes that I made. My mother in law wanted to make some cupcakes for their church for Mother's Day 2009. My mother in law tried to make them at first but was having trouble getting the design to look right so I decided to watch the video and attempt them myself. This is how they turned out! I was pretty surprised that I could actually do them because they seemed difficult. We had to keep them in the fridge though because we used homemade frosting to make them and once the frosting would warm up to room temperature they would melt. : (

Ever since them I have been accumulating pastery items like frosting bags and tips, cake recipe books, and cupcake design books. I am also thinking about making this into a career once I get out of school.