Sunday, August 26, 2012

Cupcakes That Look Like Food

I couldn't tell you why, but for some reason I have a slight obsession with things that look like food.  And even better than that...cupcakes that look like food.  Yes, I'm serious.

Here is a batch of cupcakes I made a couple years back:


Spaghetti cupcakes. Yes.  Complete with raspberry preserve-dunked Ferrero Rocher truffles and white chocolate parmesan cheese.  Sooo good!  Almost too good to eat.  Nothing really is ever too good to eat. :)

I also made these last year for Labor Day:


Okay, so these aren't completely food-like and they aren't even cake.  They're brownies baked in muffin cups.  But, I got this idea from the Family Fun site.  

The "chicken" is caramel salt water taffy molded to look like a chicken breast.  I made some black food coloring by mixing other colors and painting grill marks on with a toothpick.  Then, there are some Mike 'n Ike (one of my favorite candies) hot dogs.  Lastly, the kebabs are some gummy candies skewered with a toothpick.  Adorable, right!?  They are pretty easy to make and were a huge hit at my family's Labor Day party.

And one last thing.  I haven't actually made these (yet), but I am DYING to.  Seriously they might just be too adorable to eat.


See!? Oh my god.  These came from one of my favorite cupcake books, What's New, Cupcake?  If you haven't ever checked out this book or Hello, Cupcake, you must.  I have seen these books at multiple places like Target and Barnes & Noble, but also my public library.  All of the cupcakes featured in these books are eye-catching and for the most part quite easy to do.  Some things take a lot of extra candy decorations, but they look GREAT.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Tips Galore!

For today, I thought it would cover one of my favorite things about cupcakes...  (One of my favorite things--I have many.)

Tips.  I love tips.  So many different kinds that make so many cute designs!

My favorite tip has to be a closed star, which looks like this:



I personally love Ateco, but there are dozens of different sizes and brands.  I feel like it's necessary to have a couple different sizes of tips so when you make different sized cupcakes, you're set.  The reason why I love this tip so much is because of one design you can do with it: the rosette.  I love the rosette!  It looks like this:



Another one of my favorites is a french tip.  The tip looks like this:


and comes out like this:


I  love how many lines it makes in the frosting. It's especially beautiful if you add some edible glitter and pearls. :)

Another really awesome one that I have yet to use is the basket weave tip.  As its name says, it's for mimicking the look of a weaved basket.  The tip I have is #47, but there are many more to choose from.


How cool is that?  It takes some time to master and actually do, but if you piped that all over the side of a cake, it would look AMAZING.  I hope to try it soon.


So, no matter what tip you use, remember to always use a coupler if you're planning on switching tips out often.  And my favorite new tip for frosting is to put your buttercream in a large sheet of plastic wrap, stick it through your piping bag and cut the end off.  Amazingly easy clean up and makes it easy to use multiple colors.


So stick it all the way through after you twirl the ends and snip that end off that goes through the coupler.  Tada!  A clean way to frost.  Never thought those words would go together in a sentence.


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Hello!

Hi everybody!  As a student who lives on campus and someone who loves to bake, I feel it's necessary to post something to let people know that it is possible to make a cake while you're away at school.  No oven needed.  No eggs.  No oil.  Just water and cake mix.  Amazing, right?

Here's what you have to do...

Buy two boxes of cake mix.  One must be angel food cake mix and the other can be any you like.  White, lemon, strawberry, chocolate..whatever you like.  

Dump these both into a bag or a container so you can take out however much you like when you have a hankering for some cake.

All you have to remember is this: 3 tablespoons of cake mix, 2 tablespoons of water and 1 minute in the microwave.  3-2-1.

Top it with whatever you have around.  Although if you're a college student, that may end up being ramen or some cheerios.  I like fruit or some ice cream if I have it around.

So there you go!  An easy way to make a cake while you're away at school.  3 tablespoons of cake mix each time out of 2 boxes of cake mix will last you a long time.

Now, this is not a cupcake recipe, I know, but if you feel like buying a tub of already-made frosting and slapping some of that on top of your microwave cake, then it is a cupcake.  A cake made in a cup. :)

Enjoy!

Kelsey