Anybody-Can-Do-It Baseball Cupcakes

Effortless. Fast. Cute. These baseball cupcakes are a hit for any team of hungry cupcake lovers! I feel stupid even posting instructions! Simply spread on white buttercream smoothly with a small spatula. With red royal icing, in a bag with a number 2 tip, pipe on laces. Wa-La! You have a baseball. Batters Up!!

EASY Fondant Ribbon Roses

Look!!! Twice in a week! And...I already started two other posts as promised! Oh yeah...baby, I am back! I have had the best week ever! Monday I went to the Def Leopard/ Heart concert. It was rockin'!! I had a blast. A friend of mine got tickets and shared. Don't even know/usually appreciate rock, but I loved it! (I am a hard core country music fan....raised in Texas...all have an appreciation for country music. In high school, even the gangsters knew and respected the great George Strait when they weren't listening to good 'ol Tupac). Then, Wednesday night I saw Broadway Les Miserables. It was life changing. I have seen Wicked and The Phantom of the Opera. Les Miserables was so different. It was tragic and chilling and beautiful. SEE IT if you have the chance!

I made these cupcakes for a good friend of mine who is sadly moving. She loves this chocolate cake recipe more than anything else in life. (OK, that might be a slight exaggeration...)
It took me about 15 minutes to make the 6 roses.



Roll out your fondant super thin. Evenly cut it into 1/2 inch by about 3 inches long strips. With a brush, brush water along the top edge of the length of 1 strip.

Then fold this edge over onto itself. This helps the fondant crack less when you roll it up.

Roll each ribbon rose up starting at the short end. Pinch it between your thumb and pointer finger as you go, smoothing it down and helping it lay right. After it is rolled, I pinched off excess fondant from the underneath of each rose.

I have a great Wilton mold that I used for the leaves. You could just freehand cut them out of fondant. With a toothpick you can mark veins. You can also use a daisy shaped cookie cutter and cut off the points to use for leaves. Then mark veins accordingly.

Lego Cupcakes

I am not just saying this because I have three boys....but boy toys are SOOOO much cooler than girl toys. Any of you who have a little guy knows what I am talking about. It starts with the train stage. Nothing cuter than a boy and his train set. Then they start playing with "guys." Enter the world of super heroes...Star Wars, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, etc. We are now in the lego phase at our home. Sure they are all over the house and every time I sweep the floor I am yelling for one of the boys to rescue the legos in the pile before I throw them away, but REALLY! They are so fun. We went to the Lego store with Grandma and Grandpa over the weekend. Poor Ben. I obviously don't buy him a lot of toys because he was so confused that they wanted to buy him something. He kept saying what he wanted for Christmas. He walked out of there with eyes as big as saucers holding his bag of lego treasures. He plays with them all day. Who needs sunshine, right?!

Anyways, I threw him a last minute lego themed party before we left for Mexico. I made these cupcakes in about 20 minutes. (the toppers that is). I used a kit kat mold since the lego candy molds were only available online. I didn't have time for that since I threw the party together in an afternoon. This worked though! I used red, yellow, and green Wilton candy melts. Then, after they were set, I piped matching color dots on with royal icing. So simple and quick. And I didn't have to buy anything. Wa-la! Instant Legos!

A Twist on Ladybug Cupcakes

Look! Two posts in one week...and the week isn't even over yet! Hold on to your hats!!! These ladybug cupcakes are EVERYWHERE! But...I thought I would post these since I put a little twist on mine. I bought little candy rocks and little candy daisies to put on the grass along with the ladybugs. Super cute!!! See the source, Martha Stewart for her "how-to." She uses Swiss Buttercream Frosting. I used cream cheese frosting. Hers stands up better and looks better. But...you need to know that making the ladybugs is a little time consuming and tedious. Give yourself plenty of time!

Yet another week of craziness here. Watched 6 kiddos Monday thru Friday, taught preschool two days, went to my cake class, and did all the other normal every day acts of mothers/ women everywhere. How do we do it gals!!?? I did 6 orders this weekend! The Bakery Box is busy folks! I am having so much fun! Can't wait to share with you some of my orders. Aren't these super cute?! They were so fun and easy to do also. I made 24 flowers in a little over 1 hour...worth it.

You will need:
small and large daisy cookie cutter
pink fondant or gum paste with pink petal dust
plastic easter eggs

First roll out your fondant or sugar paste. I used half sugar paster, half fondant. Mine was white and I brushed it with pink petal dust. Cut equal amounts of large and small daisies. With a dot of water, place a small daisy on the top of a large daisy. Place each flower in half of a plastic easter egg or a flower former. They will dry curled. Dot with royal icing in the centers. The cutest cupcake toppers EVER!!

Easy Princess Cupcake Toppers

I have three boys. Sigh! No princess movies, dresses, etc. here. My friends sometimes take pity on me and invite me with them to activities like Princesses on Ice, or on mommy daughter dates to broadway shows. Sigh again. Maybe someday...not soon though. This mom is at her limits currently. Anyways, a friend of mine asked me to make princess cupcakes for her daughter's birthday. I was thrilled! Any excuse for girlyness!! These were super easy and fast. Here is how I did it...

1. Buy some of this or this. I used a half and half mixture of the two (fondant and gum paste)
It was delish and dried super fast.

2. Color it desired shade with paste food coloring.

3. Roll it out as thick as a nickel.

4. Use a small princess cookie cutter and cut desired quantity out.

5. Wrap princess crowns around spice shakers to curve as they dry.

6. Once dry attach silver nonperils with royal icing.

7. Gently press onto frosted cupcakes.

Birthday "Party" Post #2

I thought I would share some more picts of Wyatt's party...mostly to share this other cupcake topper idea with you. As you can see, the dried pineapple flower- topped cupcakes were for adults. I put little toy Star Wars guys on the top of the kids' cupcakes. It was a hit!! They were all fighting over who got what cupcake. Then I had to break the news to the kids that they didn't get to keep the toy...didn't think through this before-hand...they seemed a little bummed. Maybe if you say it before they all start calling dibs that would help? My original idea was to make fondant light sabers to top each cupcake...that would be simple easy and cute. But I ran out of time and this worked with the theme. I soaked the toys in bleach diluted water first, rinsed them, and let them dry completely. No body wants kid slobber in their frosting now do they?!

Pina Colada Cupcakes

The Countdown to Mexico Continues!!! We have had a week of gorgeous sunshine and then ...snow yesterday. No worries weather gods, I only had an outdoor BBQ/ birthday party planned for my little Jedi Wyatt. That's ok...who doesn't love about thirty people crammed in my little house?! Actually, went pretty well. I can't believe he is 3. Crazy! We enjoyed eating these thinking of the beach while the snow was coming down. If you like pina coladas...(in song...) then you will LOVE these! Check out here for instructions on the dried pineapple flowers.

Pina Colada Cupcakes

Source: 101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 Minutes by Wendy Paul

Throw the following ingredients into your cart...

1 box yellow cake mix

3 eggs

1 tsp. coconut extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 small can crushed pineapple

(I added about 1/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut also)

For the frosting (found on Annie's Eats)

2/3 cup canned crushed pineapple

8 oz. cream cheese

1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature

1 3/4 cups powdered sugar

(I also added a handful of shredded coconut here)

(I also added about 2 tsp. meringue powder because the frosting was too soft and runny...)

Put your apron on and...mix together cake ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes until done. Cool completely and frost with the above frosting.

Dinosaur Topped Cupcakes

My oldest son Ben and I had a blast at a friend's birthday party last weekend! Nicest people in the world, great food, great company, and cute dinos everywhere. The birthday boy is one of my daycare kids that I LOVE dearly. Seriously, I have contemplated kidnapping him. Don't call the authorities...I won't. I have more kids than I can handle as it is!!!! ANYWAYS.... they hired me to do all the cupcakes and I had so much fun. I will tell you what I did... First I asked the mom of the birthday boy for a napkin/plate/something from the decorations to match colors and dino shapes. I bought dinosaur cookie cutters. They seemed a little too big for the cupcakes so I ended up using an Xacto knife to cut the shapes. I bought Wilton ready to roll fondant in neon and primary colors. 1 week before party day I rolled the fondant out and started cutting. I used wax paper to trace the dino shapes from the napkin and made one shape a little big and one a little smaller, till I felt like they were perfect size. Then I cut the wax paper template out, placed it on the fondant, and traced with an edible marker. Last, I carved each shape out with an Xacto knife. I made 24 shapes start to finish in 2.5 hours...time consuming!! I would recommend finding the right size and shape cookie cutter on line and ordering it. They are cheap and just plan ahead!!! I would make the dinos at least three days ahead so that they are plenty dry and stiff for party day.

The night before I used royal icing and tinted it a shade lighter than the dinos to outline and add spots and eyes. The black speck in the eye is a food writer marker. The dinos dried over night. And I baked chocolate chip cupcakes and oreo cupcakes. In the morning I piped on grass with a multi-opening grass tip. #233 Wilton tip. I used cream cheese frosting tinted green. Don't put your dinos in the grass til party time. Mine had delicate little legs that snapped sitting in the frosting. (Luckily, I tested this out with only one...that would have been a disaster!) I added a rock candy that I wanted to look like a rock. My candies were a little large and looked like dino eggs...but it worked!! Such a fun, inexpensive, easy project...with little stress because the dinos can be made so far ahead of time.

These dino fondant toppers were easy. No creative molding needed. Try them for a little guy you love!!! Or use the concept for another shape/theme!!!