Bunny Butt Easter Cupcakes

Hi Friends!

Until we get the notifications straightened out for the new blog, I will let you know here when I put a new post up.

NEW POST HERE!

Happy Easter!

Sharon

DIY Cupcake Wrappers

It's The NFL Playoffs!

Like any good native New Orleanean right now, my mind is obsessed with the Saints' road to  Superbowl 2012. Two more games! Will we do it? Nerves and excitement and anticipation.....

So the other day I am driving back from the dentist , about a 50 minute ride in  the car. Of course I am thinking abut my beloved Who Dat Boyz. But I also realize that it is time for me to post another item on the blog. What shall I do? Then I go back to thinking about the playoff game this coming Saturday, and the fact that I need to bring a dessert to my sister's house for the viewing party. What shall I bring? Hmmmm.... the kids love cupcakes and they are easy to make.  But I have to make them cute and football themed. What shall I do, what shall I do?

As I am driving along consumed with thoughts of cupcakes and football (and probably not paying nearly enough attention to driving).... it hit me! It just came to me, and with it that adrenalin rush of excitement you get when a creative idea pops into your head.  The more I think about it, the more excited I am getting. As I continue to hash out and develop the idea in my mind, I find my heart starting to race a bit and my tummy having a few butterflies. Oh I am SO excited!  This is going to be great! You guys know that feeling..... you get the light bulb moment and then you just can't wait to get started and see if it will turn out like you hope.

I found myself driving faster and faster to get home so I could get started. Passing  folks who are going too slow for me.   Blowing the  horn at that little old lady who who sat at the red light one fraction of a second too long once it turned green. ( And I am usually a very patient and considerate driver.)

A little faster still. Heck on the passing lane! I am passing folks on the shoulder!  At 80 miles an hour!  Kicking up a trail of dust and gravel. Running red lights and  stop signs. I have to get home!

Then it happened. Yep, the copper.  Got pulled over for my so called "erratic driving". Officer Bully came up to my window and peered over his out of style metal rimmed sunglasses. He did not look pleased as he pulled his fat ticket book out of his back pocket and flipped the top over, starting to write. As he scribbled all my essential information, I  excitedly explained  about my idea, and that I needed to hurry up and get home to get started before I lost my  inspiration. (Or forgot my idea, which is a problem at my age.) He listened intently and when I finished he said, "You are making Saints themed cupcakes for the game this weekend? WHO  DAT!" And not only did I not get a ticket, he gave me a lights and sirens escort all the way to my house. We sped down Highway 59 topping speeds of 95 MPH. We got so air born going over speed bumps that I felt like that orange  car in the Dukes Of  Hazzard.  As I peeled into my driveway on two wheels, I waved off Officer Friendly , screeched the car to a halt, and ran inside to my desk to start my project.

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OK, none of that really happened. But wasn't that more exciting to read than "I drove home from the dentist and started to work on my cupcakes." ?? (grin)

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So my idea was to try to make my own custom cupcake wrappers. There are not any cute football or Saints ones out there, so I figured I could  do it on my computer.

I started with buying this piece of clip art, which only cost a few dollars:

I use my favorite graphics arts program, Print Shop, but you can use any printing program you like. I imported the clip art into the program, and printed it out on photo paper. I used photo paper because I wanted the gloss, but you could also use card stock paper.

Here it is printed out with two strips, for two cupcakes.

For this one I just created a large square of gold color in the program and  placed the words layered on top and printed that out.

The last one I used  a fun font and fleur de lis clip art to create this pattern. I took an extra cupcake  wrapper I had on hand and traced that pattern onto the paper and cut it out. Then I attached the two ends of the wrapper with one single staple in the back.

I decided to use clip art on edible icing sheets to make one of the cupcake toppers. I printed the fleur de lis out using my edible ink printer. I added some powdered tylose to white fondant and rolled it to number 4 on my pasta roller. I dampened the fondant with a moist paper towel, and laid the cut out fleur de lis on top. I used a clean exacto knife to cut out the fondant  using the fleur de lis as the guide. This sat overnight to get nice and firm.

I wanted to dress it up a little, so I piped a black royal icing outline around the fleur de lis and sprinkled edible glitter dust on. I wasn't really thrilled with the look of that, so on another one I outlined and then also brushed the entire surface of the fleur de lis with piping gel before sprinkling the  dust on. That made  a really cool sparkly  silhouette. I like that one much better. Those have to dry fully as well before going in  the icing.

A fun Who Dat cupcake!

I used push molds to make more fleur de lis from fondant with tylose added. Let those dry overnight and then painted with gold  luster dust paint. The mold on the far left was homemade, but the white one can be found here, and the multi one is right here.

I love the big gold one on top.

I know we don't usually  use black  icing for obvious reasons, but I had to try one to see how it looked.  If you have anyone at your party pulling for the other team, they get that one. :)

I  did both scalloped and straight cut papers.

I like this elegant one a lot.

And  I also discovered the special effects  in my photo editing program!

Focal color:

Soft focus:

Black and white with a hit of color:

Sepia:

Warmified:

Soft focus again. Ok, I got a little carried away.....

Regular!

Notes:

1) These papers are not food safe, so make sure the icing and cake do not touch them.

2) Let the ink dry a while before you cut them to avoid smearing with your fingers
3) Be sure not to use copyrighted logos on items for sale.

$) If your dumb cupcakes do not bake up high enough, bump them up by placing an Oreo cookie under them inside the wrapper.  :)

These were really fun to make, and easy! And fast! The possibilities are infinite when you make your own wrappers. I really hope you try it.

Now, I must go iron my Saints jersey for the big game Saturday!

GO SAINTS!

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

Ruffled Christmas Tree cake

 Oh Christmas Tree!

Oh, I used that intro last time.

My bad.

Wanna see how to make this ridiculously raucous ruffled rarity?

Let me show you my inspiration. I saw this photo of a shirt on Pinterest and it screamed cake to me. (Sorry I do not know the owner of this photo.)

"MAKE ME INTO A CAKE!"

 

Ok, stop yelling at me. I will!

I wanted to make it a little bit more fun by coloring the batter. How did I do it you ask? Just make two batches of batter and color them with your gel or paste colors. Then just plop blobs of the batter into the pan alternately and randomly. Do not spread it out with a spatula, nor stir or swirl it. That will make the colors mix and give you black cake. Ask me how I know. :) .... Bake as usual.

Then I carved a basic triangular tree shape from the cake and used a leftover piece for the trunk. I decided after the first cuts that the tree was too thin, so I added small strips on each side to make it fatter. You can see the icing seems where I glued those pieces together.

Crumb coated.

Covered in fondant. You can surely use buttercream if you like.

Now it is time to make the ruffles. Cut a long strip of fondant.

 Use white fondant to cut circles for your polka dots.

Attach the fondant to the cake. Just pinch and  press the top edge of the fondant ruffle as you go along the width of the cake. Use shortening as your glue and you will love me forever. Trust me on this. No mess. No drippies. No smears. No cuss words. :)

I put the polka dots on after the green ruffle was on the cake. It was much easier to do it that way, rather than trying to do it before. Trust me again. I tried it both ways. First way involved some cuss words. :)

Red strip of fondant with thinner white strips.

Attach the stripes before you put the ruffle on the cake. Trust me on this too. I tried  to add them after the ruffle was applied, and it involved some cuss words. :)

Pinch and ruffle as you go along. Use paper towel scraps to prop up your ruffles or they will just droop down flat.

This green ruffle used the PME smocking roller. Don't even think about doing the impression after the ruffle is on the cake! :)

In place.

Another white ruffle with bigger red polka dots.

Diagonal white stripes on green ruffle.

Keep it on going all the way up the tree.

I finished mine with a bow on the top. Prop it up with paper towels until fully dry and firm.When everything is fully dry, take all the paper towels out. If you have dryness, cornstarch residue, or just want to refresh the look of the cake, we then do what?   I know you know! :)

Fondant clay gun squiggles and polka dots to dress up the board.

Cute, yes?

Let's see how the inside looks:

Fun, yes?

Kewl.

I love my little ruffly tree cake. I think the Tshirt would be proud.

What other color combinations do you think would be cute for this cake?

I hope you like it and try it!

Happy Caking!

Sharon

www.sugaredproductions.com

Christmas Tree Mini Cakes

Oh Christmas Tree!

Oh Christmas Tree!

I have a serious weakness for mini and individual confection cuteness.  I saw a mini cake on the Family Fun website that spurred the idea for these. Come along with me and I will show  you how to make 'em!

I used frozen pound cake in this case because I was too lazy too pressed for time to bake. You can certainly use your own recipe and cut these from sheet cakes. Just be sure to use a very sturdy cake or they will not hold up under the weight of the icing.

I used my Ateco nesting blossom cutters for these trees, but you could also use squares and stagger the shapes, or even hexagons might be cute. (Ignore the marshmallows in this photo. I ended up not using them but forget to retake this photo. Oopsie.)

Level the cake and create a layer the height you want each tier of your tree to be. My layers were right at one inch high each. Use your three sizes of cutters and cut out the shapes. 

This next thing I am going to tell you is very important, so lean closer to the monitor so you can hear me. Closer. Still a little closer. I do not want you to miss this, because  the success of your entire project may depend upon this!