Halloween Cupcakes

This year for Halloween I decided to make some cupcakes. I wanted to do something a little different than what I had found in books or online so I decided to make witch hats, bats, and spiders all out of Tootsie Rolls.

First, I dyed the Tootsie Rolls black with die (my hands were purple the next day). Then I began to make the shapes I needed for the different designs. The witch hats were the easiest. I made the cone first and then took balls and flattened them for the base. I dipped the bottom of the cones into green sprinkles to make it look like a belt and then pressed them onto the bases.

The body and head of the spiders was pretty easy too. I just made different size spheres for them and then slightly flattened the larger one for the body. The legs took FOREVER! I had to roll out the Tootsie Roll and then cut it into pieces. I made the legs stand up out of the frosting so they looked 3D. Then I took red frosting and piped on the hourglass shape to make it look like a black widow.

The bats took a while as well. The head and body were fairly easy, but the wings took a while. I had to flatten the Tootsie roll and then cut a half circle. Then I smoothed the edges (because the knife stuck to the Tootsie Roll) and then formed the points on the wings. Then I piped on the eyes on the bats with left over red frosting from the spiders.

I loved how they turned out. They were delicious, as long as you didn't get too much Tootsie roll in the bite. Unfortunately the Tootsie Rolls started to melt and lost their shape after a couple of days so we had to eat them quick!

WSU Cougar Graduation Cupcakes!

My husband and I graduated from Washington State University this spring and we had a lot of family come down to celebrate with us. So I couldn't resist the opportunity to make COUGAR cupcakes!

At first I cut out a small stencil and tried to lay it on the cupcake then have a sprinkle cougar logo but that did not work... at all. So then I tried to use the stencil then pipe in red frosting to make the logo and that didn't work either!!!

Needless to say I ended up free handing all of them! As I worked on them I got better and better at the design.

I think they turned out great!! GO COUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spurs Cupcakes

For our friend Matt's roomate's (Devin) birthday Matt asked me to make Spurs cupcakes because they're his roomate's favorite team. So I decided to make jerseys for the starters, five basketballs, and two Spurs logos... The jerseys, signs, and the lines on the basketballs were all made out of tootsie rolls that I melted together and dyed black... My hands were dyed black for the rest of the day.

Here is how they turned out!!!

I think Devin liked them! : )

Roses

My grandma asked me to make some cupcakes for someone she knows so I decided to make roses because my grandma loves roses.

I watched a short tutorial on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7gvetgdNnw) on how to make roses and it was really helpful!

First you make the roses on little wax paper squares and cool them in the fridge or freezer.



Once the frosting has hardened you peel the rose from the wax paper and place it on top of the cupcake. As the rose warms back up it sticks to the cupcake.

They turned out super cute (even though the pictue is sideways)!!!!

Chrysanthemum's

My friend gave me a call last week asking for cupcakes for her sister's birthday. She told me to do something girly like flowers, so I chose to make chrysanthemum's.

To make the chrysanthemums you first have to take mini marshmallows and cut them in half diagonally and then dip them into sprinkles. This takes a little while, but the assembly is fast.

Once you have about 30 mini marshmallow halves for each cupcake, put some frosting on the cupcake and then place the marshmallows around the cupcake. Start at the outside and circle to the center. In the center of the cupcakes I put Skittles to make the center.

Reindeer, Elfs, Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and more Snowmen

My dad had a potluck for Christmas at work so he asked me to make some cupcakes. I decided to make the North Pole. I made Mr. and Mrs. Claus, all nine reindeer, workshop elfs, and some snowmen.


The reindeer were pretty easy. I just covered the cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Then I added chocolate covered pretzels for the antlers. The eyes were chocolate chips and then I piped on the noes and mouths. I even made Rudolph!

The elves were a little more work. The hats were made out of melted chocolate wafers. The ears I made out of pink Starburst candies and I used pink jelly beans for the nose. Once again I used chocolate chips for the eyes and then just piped on the mouths with frosting.

Mr. and Mrs. Claus Were pretty easy to make. I just used white frosting to the hair and swirled it a little while I was piping it on to make it look more like hair. The nose, eyes, and mouths were the same as the elves. I was going to make red hats for them, but they did not look very good so I decided against it.The snowmen are the same as the ones from the previous post except I used orange Starbursts for the carrots because I had a whole bag of Starbursts. : )

Snowflakes, Wreaths, and Snowmen

A friend of mine asked me to make him some cupcakes for them to enter into an auction. He wanted a winter theme since it was December so I decided to make a dozen each of snowflakes, snowmen, and wreaths.
For the snowmen I frosted the cupcakes with white frosting then covered them with white non pareils. I took Oreo's and cut them to make top hats. The brim of the top hats stick out to give it more of a 3d look. The eyes are regular chocolate chips and the mouth is mini chocolate chips. The nose I piped on using orange frosting.

For the wreaths I again covered the cupcakes with white frosting then I piped green leafs around the outside to make the wreaths. I put red and white sprinkles on them to make them more festive and then piped red bows on them.

The snowflakes were my favorite to make. I took white melting chocolate and traced a picture of a snowflake onto wax paper. I then piped blue frosting onto the cupcakes and put white sprinkles on them. Then I angles the snowflakes on top of the frosting.

Turkeys

I had the week of Thanksgiving off from school so my parents asked me to make them some festive cupcakes for work. I decided to make turkeys which ended up being a lot more work than I anticipated but they turned out SUPER cute!

Because my parents needed 4 dozen cupcakes I enlisted helped so we could finish them faster. I had my husband rolling out caramels and then using cookie cutters to cut them into the shape above.

My mom and dad made the turkey legs by using extra caramel and molding it onto pretzels.

To make the turkey shaped I put a scoop of vanilla frosting on top of the cupcakes and then molding the caramel around the frosting. Some turned out better than others because the caramel would stick to the cupcakes sometimes or get odd creases in it.

Once the turkey were shaped we dipped the end in Grape Nut cereal and green sprinkles to look like stuffing.

To attach the legs you just put a drop of water on the caramel and hold it against the other piece of caramel. There is also a little bit ot white frosting on the tips of the legs. Above is a picture of the final product! I was going to put some 'lettuce' around the turkeys but I decided against it.

These cupcakes were really good and a lady my dad works with bought another two dozen from me for Thanksgiving so I ended up making 6 dozen total! You just have to make sure to bite through the cupcake and frosting first before biting through the caramel otherwise you'll take of the entire caramel piece in one bite!!!

Frankenstein and Toy Story Aliens

For Halloween I wanted to make some cupcakes so I looked online for some ideas. I decided to make the aliens from Toy Story and Frankensteins.

The Toy Story aliens were pretty simple. I used Mentos for the eyes then shaped green fruit leather into the ears and antennae. After that I piped on black frosting for the eyes and mouth.

For the Frankenstein cupcakes I took marshmallows and dipped them in some frosting I microwaved for 15 seconds. The tops of the marshmallows didn't get covered when I dipped them, but when I put on Frankenstein's hair you couldn't tell. I piped on all of Frankenstein's hair, eyes, mouth, bolts, and stitches.

Here is the final product!! I think they turned out really cute and they were pretty easy and fast to make!

Burgers

For my father in law's 50th birthday this past August we had a surprise party for him. I wanted to make cupcakes that were designed like something he liked so I chose burgers because he LOVES McDonalds.

The first thing I had to do was bake everything. The cupcakes were cut in half to make the buns, brownies were cut into small squares for the patties, and sugar cookies were cut into thin strips for the fries. After everything was baked it was a really fast assembly.

I colored some frosting to look like ketchup, mustard, and lettuce and put it on top of the brownie.

I also added some 'ketchup' for the fries. i found little paper trays to put the finished cupcakes in and they worked really well!