Looking more and more like Christmas!

In a recent post about getting creative for Christmas, I ended with a potential idea for using baubles as place settings...

Well, I've now made* them:

And as they dried, they sat nicely in a cupcake baking tray!

* I still need to work out how to get them to sit upright on the table, though. But if I run out of time, bluTac will come to the rescue once again.

Hmm... What other table decorations should I make for Christmas this year?

Christmas Trees!

Looking for dessert inspiration for Christmas at our house (and because I may be going slightly cupcake mad), I came across these beauties -and many similar- on one of my many random Google searches:

I thought they looked awesome, and wanted to re-create them in my own way...

SO.

I made little stars with leftover yellow fondant used for the stars I made for Aiden's space cupcakes, to go on top of these cupcakes. I had thought of the decorations on our own Christmas tree (baubles and tinsel), and ways I could creatively (and edibly) put those onto the cupcakes... I decided that mini M 'n' Ms should work well... I got some chocolate fudge frosting to 'link' the baubles (or lights) to one another, and had some silver cachous on hand in case the mini M 'n' M theory didn't work...

And, well, because I suffer from slight impatience... Instead of waiting until Christmas day to make these, I made them for one of my play group's Christmas parties 2.5 weeks prior to Christmas! And I thought both the mini M 'n' Ms, and the cachous looked great on them:

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas! :)

Dinosaur cupcakes!

Another boy's birthday has come, and another round of cupcakes were made for the occasion! ... Because 5 year old boys are into cars, trucks, fire engines, dogs, and dinosaurs, I chose a dinosaur theme to make T-Rex and dinosaur egg cupcakes for his birthday.

I coloured my fondant green, and used an 'egg' shaped cookie cutter for a T-Rex head.

I rolled out white fondant and cut triangles to use for the mouths... I trimmed them with the egg shaped cutter to get the right curve (and to hopefully save time with trimming them all later). With a paintbrush and a bit of water, I 'glued' them on.

Next I added an eye (again, with fondant), a nostril, and teeth.

I started using melted chocolate for the eyes and teeth, but for some reason today, my chocolate wasn't melting properly, so I instead finished them off (and fixed up the dodgy chocolate parts) by using chocolate fudge frosting.

My original plan for the dinosaur eggs was going to be to make them with fondant... But upon researching what dinosaur eggs actually looked like (more brown and spotty than white and smooth), I decided that chocolate chip cookie dough would look more realistic! I made a 'nest' out of chocolate sprinkles, then put the egg shaped ball of cookie dough on top :)

For the T-Rex cupcakes, I piped chocolate icing onto the cakes, and placed the T-Rex heads on top. Then on the eggs, I sprinkled a little bit of icing sugar, and voila.

Dinosaur themed cupcakes!

Happy birthday Fletcher! ROAAAR!

A journey to space!

So my friend's son has just turned 7, and I was asked to make some cupcakes for him to take to school to share with his friends. Excited about doing this, I asked her what kinds of things he likes. She told me that he is currently obsessed with all things in space. I wanted to make something extra special for my friend, so thought of all the potential Space themed fondant shapes I could do!

Here's what I made for Aiden to take into school for his 'Space' birthday!

I started with nice and simple yellow stars, but added sanding sugar to (hopefully) make them appear to be twinkling:

Rockets and planets came to mind... Earth was the trickiest of the three (but I hoped it would be the most recognisable). However, when I showed my own kids after they were ready, they thought that my little Antarctica's and Arctic Ocean's looked like great clouds!! ... Oh well.

I was hoping that on a positive side, his teacher would instantly be able to recognise what each of my green 'continents' were! Not sure if that happened, though. They weren't exactly shaped right!

The rockets were a bit tough... I used a rectangular cookie cutter to cut the red fondant, and then trimmed the top into a point. For the 'fire' at the bottom of the rockets, I used my little leaf cutter, and joined two orange leaves together with a bit of water :)

And, of course, the rockets posing for photographic purposes:

From what I heard, the cupcakes were presented to the birthday boy's class at school, and were met with many impressive "Oooh"s and "Aaah"s!! I am really glad he liked them :)

Happy birthday Aiden!

... To infinity, and beyond!

Fondant Fun!

So I was asked (a little while ago) to make some cupcakes for a friend's mother's milestone birthday, which is now coming up next month (how time flies!). I am both excited and nervous about this, as her request involves a few things I haven't tried to do/make before:

1. Red Velvet cupcakes - both the mixture; and the complementary cream cheese icing.

2. A cake (sounds silly, but I prefer cupcakes over a cake and generally steer clear!) - which will be going on top of a cake stand with the red velvet cupcakes below...

3. (This one is probably self-inflicted) Use Fondant.

Wanting to do the best I possibly can for my friend, I decided that I needed to practice making these things first, just to make sure I actually can make Red Velvet cupcakes, along with the icing, and ice an entire cake using fondant...

I walked into a nearby cake shop and upon looking intently at the thousands of items related to baking, icing, and fondant, looking clearly perplexed and in need of assistance, a lady came up to me and offered some. I said, "Hi! I'm looking to start working with fondant, but have no equipment or fondant. I have this in mind. What do you think?" To which I explained as best as I could my intentions for the cake/cupcake order...

I left the shop feeling positive, with red fondant, white fondant, a couple of cutters, a cake board, and a head full of information about what I needed to do next.

I will admit, that YouTube has become my best friend for the moment. There are so many videos on cake decorating and using fondant! I probably spent far too much time researching techniques, and looking up different Red Velvet recipes, but I now feel confident that I can do this, and I can do this well.

With cornflour, I dusted my kitchen bench ready to start making some flowers!

This is (or something similar to) what I had in mind for the cupcakes:

Pretty. Simple. Elegant, and Red.

Probably without the hearts, though... But maybe with leaves instead!

This is  *drum roll*  my first fondant experiment:

I rolled the red fondant out onto my cornflour'd bench top, and began pressing my new flower mould press into it. Once I had them all cut out and on baking paper to dry, I used a pastry brush (I know, not the most elegant thing to use, but it still worked alright) to brush off the excess cornflour :)

To make them slightly rounded, I put them into the container of a packet of 12 plastic ping pong balls that I bought at a $2 shop on my way back from the cake shop...

Which I thought worked brilliantly!

Then with a damp cotton tip, I moistened the middles of the flowers,

and pressed a silver cachous into each of them.

Meanwhile, in my new red silicone cupcake moulds, I had a batch of vanilla cupcakes (experimenting with Red Velvet cupcakes will come later - it's fondant day today) baking.

Using 'Apple Green' colouring paste, leftover from a green and blue #1 cake I made earlier this year for church, I coloured some white fondant so that I could add leaves to my flowers.

Using the littlest of my 3 leaf cutters, I cut out so many leaves! It occurred to me that even a little bit of fondant can go a very long way! I had more than enough.

Later in the day, when the cupcakes had cooled down, and the fondant flowers were dry enough to start decorating (or I was just impatient by then), icing had just been mixed and piped onto the cupcakes, and I began to create the flowers on top!

I am so glad these turned out as well as they did for my first time using fondant! I couldn't decide whether I should use no leaves, two leaves, or three leaves on the cupcakes (still deciding, really, but leaning towards either three leaves or no leaves). My son has informed me that all I needed to do different was add a little 'line' on the leaves to make them 'look more real'. Good to know!

This little experiment has certainly given me a boost of cake-decorating confidence, and I am even more excited about recreating these next month!

... Except with more red, velvet, cream, and cheese of course ;)

Surf's up!

On our way back from our week off, visiting family in Jindabyne last week, we made our regular stop-off at 'Cathy's Lolly Shack' in Cooma. There, I spotted some cute little penguin gummy lollies! I couldn't help but imagine potential cupcake icings I could make with them when we got home...

This movie immediately came to mind:

I started by icing the cupcakes with yellow buttercream icing. Using some of the left over yellow 'sanding sugar' from when I made magic cupcakes for church a couple of months ago, I then (funnily enough) made 'sand' for a cupcake 'beach'...

Then with blue buttercream icing, I attempted to make a 'wave' (in my mind it looked better, but for a first attempt I was pretty happy)... Cutting a chocolate melt in half, I placed it towards the 'end' of the wave to be a 'surfboard', which I squeezed fudge frosting on top of, and hoped for the best that it helped the little penguin lollies stay in place!

A bit of fiddling, but, ta-da! Surfing penguin cupcakes!

Makes me want to go to the beach! ... Or just watch the movie :)

What to do when someone dies...

Though she had been telling us for years that she was 'about to die', my husband's grandmother finally (no pun intended) lived up to her word. She was a loving and generous -if occasionally abrasive- lady, who had spent the past decade that I knew her (and according to my husband, the previous decade as well) forecasting her demise each year. The preparation helped, although my husband had joked to her when we were down just two weeks before, "Don't be ridiculous; if someone wanted to bury you, they'd need to hit you with the shovel first, otherwise you'd probably outlive them" ... Guess who feels like Mr Silly now?

We took a week off work to travel to family, share fond memories, help with funeral arrangements, begin the 'what happens to all of her stuff now?' period, and drink wine.

It was somewhat strange to stay in the same house our family has stayed in each holiday, but, without her there... Sadly, it meant that we had no one to feed our children breakfast in the morning while we stayed in bed, but on a positive note, Foxtel had not been disconnected yet, and so Cartoon Network was aired most mornings... FTW.

It was a couple of days into our trip, and the funeral was a smooth success. Memories were shared and laughter was had... Back at the house, we began the process of working out what was to be kept, and what was going to be given away.

As it happened, the adults of the family wandered through the house one afternoon to see what goes to who's home, and what goes elsewhere... It was at this time that wardrobes were opened, and a foreign sense of 'style' was humourously cat-walked up and down the hallway.

Now... I'm a sucker for not wanting things to be thrown away, and if the alternative option is convincing my poor husband that we absolutely needed it, must have it, and should bring it back with us to Sydney and give it a home kind of thing... Then so it shall be.

I thought it would only be right, then, to showcase some of these items brought back with us ;)

*insert drum roll*

The first hat, because it's hot pink! And the second, just in case the Russian mafia decide to offer me a job :)

I've always wanted a spy trench coat and bear shawl... Still waiting, though, as this shawl is apparently made of fox.

Reuben quite often states that in the battle between pragmatism and sentimentality, he favours pragmatism; but I most certainly think he is happy with these fine pieces of attire that I have just acquired...

And now with them all together:

Lets face it... I would be stunning if I lived in the 50s!