TMasoNT

I kept thinking Mason was turning two because I remembered I had made cupcakes for him last year. But then I remembered, that was for his baby shower.

This year, the theme for his birthday was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The plan was to decorate the regular sized cupcakes as the faces and shells of the turtles and to decorate the mini cupcakes as the sewer covers. I wanted to color the turtles in when I was sketching them, but I've been in stages of moving and I've some how misplaced my colored pencils...

A couple days before the party, I made the sewers using a large water bottle cap and white fondant.

I used a clean "M" stamp to stamp Ms in the middle of the sewers.

Using the back end of a beater, I imprinted holes all around the sewers.

They reminded me of Honeycomb cereal at this point.

Then I gave the sewers a couple of coats of silver glitter spray.

Glitter was everywhere.

The following day, I frosted the mini cupcakes with store-bought green frosting

and placed the sewers

right on top.

For the regular sized cupcakes, I made up some green velvet batter.

I really liked how green they turned out :) 

To the store-bought green frosting, I added a generous spoonful of creamcheese. I avoided adding too much, because I didn't want to over-lighten the color.

Using white frosting and food coloring, I mixed up all the colors I would need to frost the faces.

Cat had sent me this photo to use as a references. Aren't they adorable? And so perfect for a one year old's birthday!

The finished cupcakes :)

Here's how the set up looked at the party!

Happy birthday, Mason!

I Heart AC

Every time August rolls around I'm always thinking of what Mickey themed cake to make Alane for her birthday. Around this time, since Perry was leaving, there was a lot of talk about New York. Alane loves New York, so I designed a cake that was inspired by the state.

I wanted to experiment with making an ice cream cake this year. I had made an ice cream cake for Alane a couple years ago, but this time I wanted to try a different shape. Selecting the ice cream flavor was difficult. I was in the ice cream section of Target for way too long trying to make a decision. So. Many. Flavors. I even consulted Ronnie and Cat. In the end I chose one that was similar to Ben & Jerry's Late Night Snack since it was one Alane had wanted to try it, but never got the chance to.

The cake flavor I chose was Alane's favorite, Funfetti.

The design I went with was inspired by the Mickey ear caps you'd see at Disneyland. 

I wanted the ice cream to be in the middle of the cake. So I cut out some cake to fit the ice cream.

I molded the ice cream using a small bowl. That also determined the size of the cavity I'd have to cut out of the cake.

While that ice cream dome was left to harden in the freezer, I made the ears out of fondant. I used a 1/2 cup measuring cup as my mold.

I was going to use skewers, but I had dry spaghetti noodles and just decided to use those to hold up the ears.

To make the ears black, I used a brush to wet the fondant with water, and then dusted the ears with black sugar glitter.

Back to the cake. I placed my ice cream surprise into the middle of the cake, and gave the cake a thin layer of frosting. Then the cake went back into the freezer to set overnight.

The next morning, I had wanted to give it a final frosting before going to work. However, the frosting I had made was too thin. So.... this happened :(

I had no choice, but to scrape it all off and place back into the freezer.

I was on schedule to deliver the cake on Alane's actual birthday, but because of this hiccup, I had to delay the delivery to the following day. So the next morning, I bought frosting and gave the cake a proper final frosting.

For the design, I used chocolate frosting.

Hello, New York skyline. Kinda.

I chose to include the Twin Towers, because it made the cake more visibly New York.

The cake looked a little plain, so I added black sugar glitter and gold sugar stars to liven it.

Happy birthday, Alane!

That picture reminded me of this one from 2005 (I think). hahah.

<3

BBQ and Brownies

Sean hosted another barbeque at Refugio park in mid-July. This year I wanted to make barebeque themed cupcakes.

I started by making the grills by melting and piping white chocolate. Then I sprayed them with silver food coloring.

Made my fingers very silvery. I was trying to get my hands in focus in this shot, but... that didn't work.

I frosted the cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting and decorated them with black sprinkles and a bit of red sprinkles to imitate the charcoal and embers.

To make them actually look like a grill, I had to decide on what to "grill". I chose to "grill" burgers. I made the "burgers" by melting chocolate. To make them more burger-like, I piped yellow frosting to make "cheese" and red frosting to make ketchup smileys to make things more fun.

:)

DOC//Hover Hands Crew

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Perry made the big move to New York in early August. I wanted to make him "wanlass" baked good before he left, so I chose to make him a brownie cupcake since he likes brownies. I kept the design simple and gold with a little phrase that I thought suited the occasion.

I brought the leftover brownies to his farewell get together at Southern Pacific Brewing, and every time I'd offer someone a brownie they'd ask, "are these special brownies?" lol, who do you think I am??

It's still weird to think that if I wanted to see Perry, I'd now have to travel across the country to see him. O__O I miss you, buddy, and I hope I make the trek out to NY sometime!

Kayleigh's Tutus and Tiaras Cupcakes

Cat's niece Kayleigh turned TWO this year! Can't believe it was already her second birthday! Feels like it was just yesterday that I was making her cupcakes for her first birthday. The theme for her birthday this year was "tutus and tiaras" and the color theme was pink and teal. The plan was to make a dozen regular sized cupcakes and any amount of mini cupcakes. I planned to put tiaras on the mini ones and little Kayleighs on the regular sized ones.

To make the tiaras, which in this case were more like crowns, I rolled out some fondant and used a knife to carefully cut and shape. I wanted the tiaras to be a bit curved, so I taped some wax paper to my tube of sugar pearls and attached the tiaras as I finished making them.

I bought a can of silver food coloring to color the crowns.

I made a very silvery, sparkly mess. Glitter was everywhere!

I let those set overnight. The next day after work, I made and frosted the cupcakes. For the mini cupcakes, which the tiaras were to sit on, I chose to frost with a sparkly teal frosting. In the future, I will curve the tiaras more so they'd stand up a bit better.

The larger cupcakes were frosted with a glittery pink frosting. I didn't like how pink it was, so I toned it down by adding some white frosting.

To make the little Kayleighs that would sit atop the cupcakes, I printed little faces and cut little bodies out of pink-checkered cardstock paper.

After they were frosted and assembled, I piped a little bow to tie everything together (pun intended). Alane helped with adding the sugar pearl.

A little Kayleigh army!

The cute little set up at the birthday party!

Happy SECOND birthday, Kayleigh!!