Toy Story anyone??

This was a kick-ass cake to make!! Britt's dance teacher turned 23 yesterday and her sister asked me to make a Toy Story cake for her family party. It seems "Miss Jackie" is obsessed with TS - and it was even the theme of the party!!

I wasn't fooling around with this one. The original idea put to me was a small cake surrounded by cupcakes with each character's face on them. Super cute! But in typical Lisa fashion, I couldn't shake the "too simple" feeling they gave me. Surely I could come up with something that would not only make me stay up all night long, but something that was also so far beyond my comfort zone. I think doing the Star Wars cake last month gave me the confidence to try anything. (Yes, a Star Wars cake -- you'll see that soon - PROMISE!)

OK - back to Toy Story....

Her favorite characters are the alien, Woody and Mr Potato Head... So I went to work Googling -- looking for some ideas - and decided upon a 3-tiered cake representing those characters. Did I mention this cake was for only 10 people? I know, I get carried away sometimes. So they'll have left overs. I did use a 6" and 8" pan, so it's not like it's gigantic!!

For the top tier, I knew immediately that I wanted to make it the alien's head. I used my 1/2 ball pan (6" diameter). That was easy!

I wanted the middle tier reserved for Woody. How do you shrink an entire character into a 3" tall circle? You focus on the costume -- the thing that everyone recognizes as Woody's. His shirt (and badge, of course). I even made a fondant "rope" to put between the first and second tier.

The bottom tier was going to incorporate a little more than the other 2 individual ones. So I went ahead and decided on a sky/clouds theme - and added some other fun characters around the base tier. Now, let me just say that MY favorite characters are those little Army guys with their feet stuck together. I'm actually giggling as I type that because they were pure genius to put in that movie!!!! I wanted Mr Potato Head to be in true fashion... missing some pieces. And what better way to display the Happy Birthday message than on an Etch a Sketch!!! I even tried to make the lettering square -- because I never really could master the art of Etch a Sketching... (Don't pay any attention to the chocolate cake on the Etch a Sketch... this picture was take after the cake was cut...)

I'm still working on perfecting the base of the cake in fondant. Not so easy to smooth out the fondant and not get creases/folds. I'm getting there -- slowly but surely!

This time around - and because I'm way too obsessive for my own good - I wanted to make sure that Mr Potato Head's "parts" looked authentic -- and I wanted to be able to capture the Army men in true plastic fashion -- but be edible and the same time. I ordered a silicone plastique kit to make my own flexible molds. You can pretty much make a mold out of anything. It's a process... but worth it in the end. I now have silicone molds for Toy Story parts - and can literally pop them out in seconds. Think about it... now I can make "Mr Potato Head Parts" cupcake toppers and have an ear on one, a mouth on another, etc. All without having to shape the actual fondant!! I have a feeling I'm going to be getting some silicone plastique for Christmas!!!

Seriously, doesn't he look all "plastic-y"??

Like I mentioned, this cake was so much fun to make!! I'm thinking I can come up with some other Disney tiered cakes for each movie!

Up next... Baby Shower time!!

My dear, sweet sister Michelle is expecting her first baby in a few weeks. Naturally, I knew I'd handle all of the edibles for her shower because you do NOT want to deal with a pregnant woman if she doesn't like her cake. Lucky for me, Michelle's favorite cake of mine is the raspberry. And she got it on overload...

Here's a few pictures to drool over until I can give you the rest of the details...

Super Mario!!

Ah yes, the Super Mario party for a sweet boy named Ben. It was Ben's 5th birthday and that was the theme he chose. And off to work we went....

The 1-up mushroom cake was huge. Approximately 12" diameter -- a yellow cake, white buttercream and topped with vanilla fondant.

And then we get to the stars of the party.... The cupcakes. Not your ordinary cupcakes -- SUPER MARIO CUPCAKES! These fondant-topped yummies were very time consuming to make. My daughter Britt -- who, I have mentioned before is my biggest helper -- broke her right thumb the day before these cupcakes were due. She was a trooper with the splint on... still carefully molding every detail of Mario.

And we couldn't have Mario without his friends....
Yes, Britt's mushrooms are so much better than mine. She reminds me of that, too.

And the favors... I was asked to create Super Mario cookies to go in the goody bags with Game Stop gift cards. These were also a HUGE hit.

Any theme is doable... In fact.... I'm working on a Toy Story surprise for early December....

Does your Family Tree have some loose leaves??

I don't even remember where I came across this idea, but I instantly fell in love with it. Maybe because I'm a glutton for punishment and nothing I ever make is simple. Something about these random "messy" trees and the cute little leaf sprinkles just made me all warm and fuzzy inside. OK, that's an exaggeration. I just thought these were super cute and wouldn't take too much time to make.

I used a base chocolate cake - and infused the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. I then tinted the buttercream green (I left the infusion white - because there was just something "odd" about biting into a cupcake and seeing green cream).

For the trees, I melted some Mercken's chocolate in a double boiler and transferred it to a squeeze bottle. I freehanded some trees onto parchment paper - and learned after too many times - to leave a longer truck to stick into the cupcakes. As soon as I piped the trees with the chocolate, I used a tweezer to place the leaves where I wanted them. I know, I could have just sprinkled them on the trees, but I'm too anal for that. I found the leaf sprinkles in a variety pack at AC Moore/Michaels -- but found a 12oz bag of them online, so I'm all stocked up now.

I lightly frosted the cupcakes with my off-set spatula and then used a Wilton grass tip to pipe the grass on the cupcakes. Once the trees were hardened (just a few minutes), I very carefully stuck them in the cupcakes towards the back so I could sprinkle some extra leaves towards the front. Click on the picture below to see a larger image.

I loved this design so much that I think I'm going to use them for our place settings for Thanksgiving dinner. You'll notice that I made larger fondant leaves and put names on them. I'll do that for each guest and put their cupcake on their plate at the table.

Make a Splash!

So you may remember in a previous post that I always use a pastry bag/tip to frost -- but on certain projects, that's just not possible. I had a party order last week for a friend's son's birthday pool/pizza party. She's a great mom - and planned a wonderful party for the kids. They had pizza makers come with their portable ovens and had each of the kids make their own pizzas. Great fun! It was also a pool party - and what better treat than cupcakes decorated in the theme! (of course!!).

So I made these..... vanilla cake with a vanilla butter cream infusion - topped with delicious butter cream frosting - and a cookie!! The cookies are decorated with an edible printed frosting sheet, attached to the cookie with royal icing and edged in sanding sugars.

It was also Matthew's daddy's birthday - so he was quite surprised to see a cookie for him, too! it totally made my week when my friend Roseann left me a 2-minute voice message on Monday telling me how everyone LOVED the cupcakes and how Matthew savors one each night after dinner. Nothing is more precious than a little boy with a blue tongue savoring his birthday sweets!!

Here's a close-up of the edible printed papers for the cookies...

Basic Buttercream Frosting... I've tried probably a dozen recipes for basic vanilla buttercream. They're all so similar - many just a little more of this or a little less of that. Here's the recipe for one that I don't find obnoxiously, overpoweringly sweet...

Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter, softened
3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla (I use a potent vanilla - if you use regular vanilla, increase to 1 tsp)

Cream butter, then add sugar one cup at a time. When combined, add milk and vanilla. If you like the frosting more fluffy, add a little more milk.

Some of my Hello, Cupcake & What's New, Cupcake creations

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Karen and Alan -- authors of the incredible Hello, Cupcake and What's New, Cupcake books. Those designs are soooo much fun to make - and they're not difficult at all. Most, if not all, of the ingredients are things you can find in your local supermarket or CVS. If you have the opportunity to take one of their workshops, DO IT!! I drove my sister, mom, and dear friend Kemely all the way to NJ near the PA border for this class!! It took us 3 hours to get there and 4 hours to get home, but worth every minute of our trip!! I'll have to dig out some photos from that class!

My absolute favorite design is in the What's New book... LoMein. It was so much fun to create that my daughter incorporated it into her birthday party this year. We had lots of teens over creating their own lomein cupcakes and t hey had a blast!! My local Chinese restaurant gave me these beautiful soup containers to use and the disposable chopsticks!

The popcorn was the first one I did - and they were time consuming, but looked amazing in the plastic boxes from Target's dollar spot! The spaghetti and meatballs was a breeze -- I've made them several times and was recently asked to make them as favors for an Italian-themed Sweet 16. For the "sauce", I don't like strawberry preserves, so I tinted some caramel with red coloring and rolled the "meatballs" in it. FYI - the meatballs are Ferrero Rocher candies. The "cheese" on top is grated white chocolate. I use a peanut butter butter cream frosting for the spaghetti so I don't have to "color" it.

The tv dinners were a HUGE hit! Slightly more difficult to make - but they really did come out great! The corn-on-the-cob were easy - but finding those shades of yellow/cream jelly belly jelly beans was a chore!

The koi fish is absolutely ADORABLE!!! And super easy to make using 2 circus peanuts, an apple jacks cereal and m&ms. The pies are really neat, too. If you use a muffin-sized cupcake, you'll really see the detailed m&ms look like cherries (or blueberries). Again, you can use peanut butter butter cream so you don't have to tint the frosting to the right "shade".

So now you see that cupcakes can be fun or classic, cute or sophisticated. If you love the creativity in the designs above, hurry up and buy both books!! You won't be disappointed!!