more Christmas cakes...a little late!

a blazin' birthday

I was asked to create some fire truck-themed cupcakes for a 2 year old boy's birthday party! To make it more interesting I created a story in the cake with a blazing fire in the centre of the cupcake layout with a forrest, hydrants and fire hoses surrounding the blaze and finally the fire trucks coming to the rescue. My predicament was coming up with a fun fire truck decoration - do I 'draw' the truck on with icing, or find some candy to create the engine? At the last moment I found licorice chews - bite-size thick squares of licorice! These were the foundation of my fire trucks with mini m&m's for the wheels. The cupcakes were chocolate and vanilla flavoured, and from what I hear, were a success!

it's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas north pole cupcakes!

Here's an idea for a holiday cupcake treat: Chocolate peppermint cupcakes with a candy-cane swirl! If you can, look for those pretty edible silver and gold balls, they're great for holiday decorating, and no, they won't break your teeth. Other holiday ingredients you can add to your cupcakes are ginger, apple-spice, pumpkin, egg nog...I'm going to experiment with an egg nog cupcake this week by just substituting egg nog for the liquid required for a cake mix and a pinch more cinnamon and nutmeg. A nice ganache of whipped cream, icing sugar and a splash of baileys/rum/rum flavouring would be a great way to celebrate the holidays.

yum.

EEEEE-ARGGGGH!

Ay Matey! These pirate-themed cakes were created for a co-worker of mine for a Halloween party. After doing some 'research' I came up with these fun designs - I did a google image search and found quite a lot of cakes pirate-style! I used red sprinkles, mini m&m's, and silver balls for the decorations. What flavour of cakes would compliment a pirate-themed party? RUM of course! (non-alcoholic rum flavouring - find it in your grocer's baking section) :)

pumpkin~patch~cakes

This was a fun and easy design: simply ice your cupcake, dip into orange sprinkles, use a toothpick to make some indentations in your pumpkin and then pipe some icing in the indents to create the grooves. You can use green licorice for the stems or ice them on too! There's a quick youtube video about how to create these cupcakes here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCvFGsHkoRw

To make pumpkin flavoured cupcakes follow the directions on a spice/yellow/white cake mix box, add 1 can pumpkin, an extra egg and sub buttermilk in for the water. Then add your pumpkin pie spice: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and allspice. The result is an aromatic, light and fluffy cake reminiscent of pumpkin pie :)

fire up the ovens!!

for some gingerbread cupcakes! I made these cupcakes along with some peppermint chocolate ones for a Peet's Coffee and Tea Holiday meeting (featuring seasonal drinks such as the gingerbread latte and peppermint mocha). Once again, following the cupcake wisdom of my 'Hello Cupcake' book, I made a pseudo-homemade batch up cupcakes using a yellow cake mix, 4 eggs, buttermilk in place of water, a bit of molasses (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup), and a bunch of ginger. You can alter the spiciness of your cupcakes with the amount of ginger you add. I made a batch of cream cheese frosting, piped some on each one using a large circle icing tip and then sprinkled some yellow sugar on top! I also topped them off with a ginger snap wedge. *However, you should add the wedge just before serving your cupcakes because as I found, the cookies go soft in the fridge and when they stay out for too long.* When it comes together, it's really all about the cream cheese frosting. yum. :)

rock-a-bye-baby cupcakes

These cutie cakes were gobbled up today at a baby shower for a friend of mine. I made a scrumptious white chocolate raspberry cake recipe with raspberry buttercream icing. I've tried a few buttercream icing recipes and I think this is the best and easiest one to make that doesn't taste like you're eating a stick of butter:

Easy Buttercream Icing

1/2 cup unsalted butter

2 cups icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1-2 tbsp milk

Mix together and add more or less liquid for desired consistency :)

Where did I get the inspiration for these cakes you might ask? My new fav cupcake book: "Hello Cupcake!" This book is a great resource and has some really fun ideas. Some thought the blankets over the babies were made of fondant - not so!!! Just microwave starburst candies for 4 seconds and then roll them out and mold them! I give two thumbs up for the creative inspiration of "Hello Cupcake!"