a belated Valentine's post...

February went by in a whirl, mostly because there are only 28 days in the month, but also because I think I lost track of the days due to sickness hovering over our little apartment.  Finally on the mend - a trip to Florida must have helped! - I have finally found the energy within to sit down and update this blog.  And what an update huh?!  Yes, "cupcake couture" is now the even more sophisticated "lady CUPCAKE"...I think it has a nice ring to it and I feel like I've earned the title since I've been ms. cupcake for the past almost 4 years.  And watching multiple episodes of "Cupcake Wars" I feel also legitimizes this  change of name ;)

So what has the lady been up to?  Well, Valentines has been long over and Easter is well on its way but here are the cakes I made for V day:  Chocolate raspberry truffle cupcakes and spiced chai vanilla bean cupcakes.  I made a yummy ganache and piped some in to the chocolate cupcakes by steaming some heavy whipping cream and then adding chocolate and raspberry preserves.  I let this mixture chill overnight and then whipped it up the next day.  For the chai cakes, I brewed my own tea with loose leaf black chai tea, some star anise, crushed cardamom pods, a cinnamon stick and fresh ginger.  I let the tea steep overnight in the spices so that the flavours would come through nicely in the baked cakes, and they did :)  For a finishing touch I piped some chocolate decorations in the shapes of hearts and 'love' to top the cakes - note:  chocolate candy melts harden better than melted chips!

PAC-MAN eats cupcakes too

This, my friends, was a FUN project.  Cupcake meet video game icon.

These cakes are brought to you by: marshmallow fondant.  And lots of it.  Black circles to place on each cake (30), blue lines to create the 'hallways' of the game, 4 ghosts in their respective colors and yummy yellow dots and cherries for Pac-Man to eat!  

I brewed some of my own chai tea with fragrant cardamom pods, star anise, cloves, black pepper and tea to make a yummy spiced cupcake.  Chocolate paired with the chai and both cakes were stuffed with a caramel rolo inside.  I swirled some buttercream frosting on each cake to 'glue' the fondant in place which also gave guests the option of eating the fondant with the cake or to take the fondant off and still have some frosting on top of their cake.  I must say though, marshmallow fondant is a LOT tastier than the commercial stuff and who doesn't like marshmallow?! (says the girl who could easily inhale a bag of the fluffy stuff back in my high school and college days...it was a staple in college).

Now you can have your video game and eat it too!

noggin' cakes

Eggnog.  Yum.  Eggnog cupcakes? Double yum.  Replaced liquid with eggnog, added a TON of nutmeg (spices always seem to lose a bit of their spice-ness when baked, so I usually double, triple? the amount).  Finished with a swirl of buttercream frosting, spiked with a little Bermuda Rum.  Triple yum. 

Merry Christmas!

mice pops for Walt's birthday

Walt and I share something in common...we were both born on December 5!  Walt has a good 81 years on me so Happy 111th Birthday to you, Walt! and Happy 30th to Me! :)

Cake pops cake pops, Mickey Mouse cake pops! and Minnie too!  For this special occasion I made chocolate cake pops with a hint of spices.  I double dipped the balls first in melted chocolate, cooled them, then dipped them again half way to 'dress' these critters in their trousers or skirts.  Sprinkles made for buttons and polka dots.  I wasn't sure what I was going to use for ears until I found Hershey's chocolate drops in the candy aisle; how perfect!  For Minnie's bow I rolled teeny pieces of strawberry starburst to create the ball center and then I used two heart shaped sprinkles on either side.

And what better way to share these mice then with my friends and co-workers at the Walt Disney Family Museum :)

Happy cake-popping to you!

showering baby Sage

Wow! I haven't been very cupcake-creative since August!  I was so excited to dive back into my kitchen and get baking for a baby shower!  I had a lot of fun experimenting with gum paste in August so I did it again with this cake by rolling out tiny baby items and molding a piece onto a paper umbrella to create the parasol.  Edible markers were definitely easier to use to color my objects than painting them with food coloring.  

I baked a banana cardamom cake which was fragrant and yummy with a cream cheese white chocolate buttercream frosting.  I made additional minis and some regular size super chocolate cupcakes with lindor truffles hidden inside.  The cakes were a hit! the shower a success! and we are all excited to meet this little man soon :)

a wedding cake for Heather and Ian...and their little dog too

Lemony lemon cake and a chocolatey chocolate raspberry cake arrived at Heather and Ian's reception in San Francisco last week!  And what a FUN reception it was complete with great people and yummy food (Judah, my one-year-old gobbled up the crab cakes and probably his weight in pineapple and watermelon).  

Another challenge awaited me on these cakes as it was my first attempt at gum paste.  The gum paste was fun to work with once I got a hang of it and how I was to make dogwood flowers out of the sugary stuff.  I ended up making my own cookie cutter once again out of a lasagna pan and then pressed the cut out flowers onto a textured bowl I had to make it look more realistic.  To dry, I placed the flowers on a sheet of tin foil and crumpled it up so that the flowers didn't dry flat but had some body to them.  To finish off, I dusted the dried flowers with petal dust and 'glued' a ball of gum paste rolled in yellow sugar in the center with water.  The branch was made with cocoa fondant by twisting two fondant pieces into a rope and wrapping around the cake.  The lacy design on the cake was made using a small circle icing tip and buttercream.

The groom's cake was an indulgent chocolate cake with a chocolate raspberry ganache filling.  My gum paste skills were put to the test as I studied pictures of westie dogs in order to sculpt the canine to place on top of the cake.  I used a tooth pick to make 'fur' and then rolled out teeny tiny ropes for the face to add a little more detail on the snout and around the eyes.  Edible markers colored in the eyes and added a little pink to the ears!  Here's to Duncan the Westie who was not able to attend the reception but was represented in sugary form :)

something borrowed...something BLUE

These high heeled cakes were for a bridal shower that I actually just delivered today!  The shower theme was "something blue" and the evite had this pretty blue shoe which I borrowed for the inspiration for my blue velvet cupcakes.  

Here's what I did!  I made the blue velvet cake replacing some odwalla blueberry smoothie for some of the liquid and then amped the blue value up with a little sky blue wilton food gel (this way I didn't add a whole gallon of just food coloring - yuck).  As blue velvet calls for, I added a couple tbsp of cocoa and voila!  A beautiful blue batter which baked into yummy cakes.  

For the blue shoes, this got a little tricky as I had to make my own cookie cutter.  I cut up the sides of a sturdy foil lasagna pan and then shaped a shoe out of a strip of foil.  Because the foil was a little creased, I did need to smooth the edges once they were cut out so it was a time consuming project - thank goodness I only had to make 36!  Once the the shoes were cut out, I pressed edible pearls and silver balls in to make the flower.  I made these a few days in advance so that the fondant could harden.

Cream cheese frosting topped these blue cakes off along with some edible pearls - so pretty!