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!

Baby Shower Fun...

Making the goodies for Michelle's shower was so much fun! And if you know me, I tend to get a bit obsessive. Can you believe it? Me? Obsessive? Ha!

After I designed her invitations, had them printed, found a typo, fixed them, and had them reprinted and then mailed, I figured I had better get on the ball and do the edibles.

Let's start with the centerpieces and favors:
I purchased round galvanized tubs and wanted to make the centerpieces look like rubber ducks in tubs. Thankfully, Michelle's friend Allison came to the rescue and offered to make the "bubbles". We were up in the air about oreos or marshmallows - so she tried them both and decided that chocolate covered marshmallows were best. And so she made hundreds.... Yay!

I then wanted to put large duck cookies in each "tub". So I found an awesome cookie cutter in the shape of a large rubber duck and made those. I rolled them out pretty thick because I needed them to be able to stand up in the tub. I added a thick cookie stick and baked them to a light barely-golden brown. When cooled, I cut yellow fondant using the same cookie cutter and applied with piping gel. Easy as pie! At the shower, we stuck the duck cookie into floral foam to stand it upright, added some tissue paper and threw in the marshmallows. They were adorable!

For the favors, I bought a smaller duck cookie cutter, made thick sugar cookies and covered those with fondant, as well. Let me just tell you that "frosting" a sugar cookie with fondant is a gazillion times easier than frosting it with royal icing. And every one of them looks the same!

For the cupcakes:
I wanted to offer three different flavors of cupcakes, so I decided to differentiate between them with different cupcake liners. In all of my craziness, time was slipping away and I knew that I'd NEVER get the fondant duckies done in time - and that would have made me vomit. Sooooo I contacted a seller on Etsy and asked if she could make them for me. She was so awesome to work with and had them in the mail to me in a few days. She was truly a life saver!! Here's her shop if you want to take a look: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TwoSugarBabies I ended up making raspberry filled cupcakes, lava fudge, and peanut butter chocolate. I wasn't too fond of how the peanut butter buttercream was when it was tinted blue, but in the interest of time and sanity, it was what it was!! I frosted the cupcakes with a large round tip and made "bubbles" on top - then set the fondant duckie on top of the bubbles.

For Michelle's personal cake:
I wanted to make her her own cake to take home and enjoy - and she absolutely LOVES my raspberry cupcakes - so it was a no-brainer that she'd be getting a raspberry cake. I made a 6" round cake (3" high), filled it with my homemade raspberry filling and topped it with buttercream. Then I covered the cake with fondant. Let me just say that Michelle LOVED her cake. I gave her extra buttercream frosting, too -- and you know that baby Frankie was certainly pleased with Auntie Lisa that day!!!

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...

Halloween Treats....

I know, sorry these are being published so late. It would be thoroughly embarrassing to post a Halloween post in December, but I'm right in under the gun!! I'm trying to catch up on my posts, so now you'll be inundated with cupcakes. Careful what you wish for!!

I had quite a few orders for Halloween weekend and knew immediately which cupcakes I was going to make for the kiddie parties. Mummies. I made these last year and they were a hit - so I figured they would be great, along with some "tombstones" this year.

The mummies are super easy to make - and the tombstones are even easier! Let's face it, I had 300+ cupcakes to make, and I was definitely looking to make something easy!!

Here's how to make the mummies:

The picture below shows 3 stages -- the unfrosted cupcake, the skim coat frosted, and the finished mummy. I always put a thin spread of chocolate frosting underneath the white "gauze" so that the eyes pop from the chocolate and the chocolate makes the space with the eyes look "empty". Ghoulish, if you will.

First start by infusing your cupcake with frosting. Everyone loves a little surprise when they bite into a cupcake and are greeted with frosting. My fans are spoiled now -- because every cupcake they bite into they expect to be infused. I've created monsters. hahaha -- that's my Halloween humor for the day. :)

Gently frost the top of the cupcake with a chocolate frosting (I use buttercream). Then use a pastry bag with a flat tip to shape the outline of where the eyes are going to go. Using 2 M&Ms, place them slightly on the bottom eye strip for the eyes.

Then outline the entire cupcake - and fill in the rest of the "face" (except the eye space) with your buttercream "gauze". Your LAST gauze strip should slightly overlap the TOPS of the M&Ms.

And now for the tombstones...

I saw these online a few days before Halloween and thought they'd be fun to make for the kids. And so, so, so simple! What could be easier than crushed Oreos and Milano cookies??

I infused some chocolate cupcakes with buttercream, then generously frosted the tops of the cupcakes and rolled them in finely crushed Oreos to give the look of dirt. How yummy!! Then, I took a Milano cookie, used an edible marker to write RIP on it, and stuck it in the "dirt". Voila! The kids loved 'em!!

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.

Pumpkin Patch.....

I figured I'd do this one first for those of you that need a Halloween idea. I am also making mummy cupcakes on Friday - so be on the lookout for those -- the kids LOVE THEM!! I'm adding these to my holiday order form -- everyone keeps requesting them by the dozens!

Anyway - back to the pumpkin patch. I have a dear friend in Ohio who absolutely loves pumpkin, and a friend at work who loves it just as much. So I decided to make some pumpkin cupcakes 1) to bring to work for my friend(s), 2) add a new Fall flavor, and 3) perfect them enough to send to Nicole in Ohio. My BBB... best baking buddy... Kemely came over and made the pumpkin ones with me earlier this month. Now, I should probably tell you that I dislike pumpkin. And I HATE spices (and am allergic to cinnamon). But making a flavor I don't eat means less to glue to my own ass, right? And if I fatten Erik up from taste testing, I won't look so chunky. Just sayin'.

I decided to use Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Cupcake recipe found here. And of course, had to decorate it "my way". So I opted for my cream cheese frosting infusion, and THEN I decided to frost the tops with a maple cream cheese frosting. I do like how the maple frosting was a nice tint -- and not so stark white. Ohhh my house smelled scrumptious!!!

Cupcake Recipe:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp coarse salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, sugar, butter and eggs. Add dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree.

Divide batter evenly among liners --filling each a little more than halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched -- approx 20 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe:
1 stick of salted butter (room temperature)
1 tsp clear vanilla
4 c confectioner's sugar
1 block of cream cheese (not softened) - cut into cubes (*use Philly... trust me)

Beat the butter and vanilla until blended. Add sugar one cup at a time, scraping the sides frequently. Whip in the cream cheese, a few cubes at a time. By adding the cream cheese cold (and not softened), the frosting will retain some of its stiffness. Do NOT overbeat -- just whip enough to blend the cream cheese. If you want to add maple extract, I used 2-3 tsp for a full batch of frosting. You can adjust to your personal taste.

Now to make them pretty....
This is Kemely working hard on some fondant leaves...

After you've infused them with frosting, use a 1M tip to pipe the frosting onto the filled cupcakes. Kemely and I decided to accent these with a fondant pumpkin. Let me tell you, Kemely is an artist! She turned a ball of orange fondant into a pumpkin that looked sooooo incredible!!! Come on - look at these pics!

You can also cut leaves from different colors of fondant or find leaf-shaped sprinkles to add.

I will tell you that these have become a favorite for many of my friends. I brought 36 of them to work with me -- and they were gone in minutes!! I sure hope Nicole loves them just as much!!