Horton Hears A Wha?

I recently made a Horton-Hears-A-Who Cake for a beautiful little girl who just celebrated her 2nd birthday! The birthday was Dr. Seuss themed so I made cupcakes which carried out the theme as well.

This was the initial sketch:

The plan was to do a mini cake for the birthday girl and cupcakes for the rest of the kiddos. Horton was the favored Suess character so I made a 3-D model of him to sit on top.

How it's made:

Horton's head and body were styrofoam covered in fondant. - This way, the he would not be too heavy for the little cake. I connected the trunk and legs to the rest of his body with the help of lollipop sticks. I kept the lollipop sticks extra long for the legs so that they would also stick down into the cake. I also used bubble tea straws inside the cake, under each foot for extra support.

I used egg whites as the 'glue' for all joining pieces and parts and painted on the illustrative lines with black gel and lemon juice.

Here are the cupcakes that went along with Horton:

(Pictures directly from my phone - I forgot my camera!)

These were rich chocolate cupcakes topped with the powdered sugar frosting from my Recipe Box. The toppers were just gum paste, rolled out thin and cut with a circular cookie cutter. To add the illustration, I just drew on them with edible marker.

All in all, I'm really happy with the way it turned out! I think the kids enjoyed it too. Favorite quote from the day, "That looks just like the one in my book!" ... Makes it all worth it!

It's That Time Of Year...

This weekend I had a cupcake order for a graduation party. So, I made these gum paste graduation caps! The frosting is the Vanilla frosting from my Recipe Box, and the grad caps were assembled with a dab of egg whites as mentioned from this weeks Tip o' The Week. 

I think they turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself! 

Carmel Heath Cupcakes

Some of you may recall last week when I spoke of my Carmel Heath Cupcakes?? They were YUMMMY! So... I wanted to share pics, and the recipe with you!

They were an impromptu decision. I'd been taking care of my boyfriend all week (MAJOR -and I mean MAJOR- case of poison ivy). I was in a rut, it was late... I needed to bake. So I pulled out this book from my cupboards (it's amazing!). 

 

I had my bf choose a recipe. He chose "Carmel Cupcakes" which I was MORE than OK with! Carmel is my favvvoorrittee. The recipe was pretty good as it was, but I felt it needed... a little something extra. So, I threw in some Heath. (I wish a would have thrown in more!) So, behold... here is the recipe for these wonderful Carmel-(HEATH)-Cupcakes. Enjoy!

.:Ingredients:.

• 1 stick of butter, softened
• 3/4 packed brown sugar
• 2 lightly beaten eggs
• 2 tbsp. instant coffee granules
• 1 tbsp. boiling water
• 2 2/3 cups self-rising flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz) soft caramels.
• About a 1 1/2 cup chocolate heath toffee bits (give or take)

.:Put It All Together Now:.

Preheat the oven to 350º. Place 12 paper baking cups in a muffin pan.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs slowly. In a small bowl, dissolve the cofee in the water. Beat the coffee into the butter mixture. Add the flour and milk, and beat until well combined. Lastly, throw in the toffee heath bits and mix it all together.

Spoon the mixture into the cups. Push a couple of caramels into the center of each cupcake, and place them in the oven.

Bake for 20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan. Turn into a plate and serve while warm. ** OR re-heat for 20 seconds in the microwave before serving)

Store in airtight container for up to 2 days.

Makes one dozen.

Happy Mother's Day!

I don't have kids, but I wouldn't mind some flowers... and money. - Just throwin' that out there! :)

The best Mom's day card I've come across so far was one from my sister to my mom. It read,

(Outside)

"From your well-adjusted daughter,

Because of you, I didn't turn out to be an Exotic Dancer.

(Inside)

Of course, if I had.. you'd have a nicer present."

Yea. We're classy like that.

Happy Mother's Day to all. I thought I'd share with you my Mother's Day Flower bouquet cupcake. Rich Dark chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. Yuuummm!

Love.

.:TIP o' THE WEEK:.

This week, I would like to dedicate my Tip to Martha. She may be one crazy bia, with all of her 'Type A-ness' BUT - that woman knows. her. stuff. So, it is for this reason that I would like to recommend to you her Cupcakes book.

Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

It's not just any cupcake book. It's Martha's cupcake book. 'Nuff said. 

.:RECIPE o' THE MONTH:.

Happy April! To continue on with my Recipe o' The Month tradition, I'm sharing with you a FAN.TASTIC recipe for April. I mean... really. I came upon it while on the Fields of Cake and Other Good Stuff blog page. Get a load of this... 

SOMOA-CARMEL DELIGHT CUPCAKES! 

This recipe and photo are fully accredited to Fields of Cake. 

Check out their blog for more great info.

Helloo?? Amazing!! Good work Fields of Cake. Good work. 
This recipe was taken DIRECTLY from Fields of Cake. It has 4 parts.  It looks like it's a lot, but break it down and it's totally do-able (and worth while!).

1. The Filling
2. The Cookie 
3. The Cake
4. The Frosting

1. Coconut Chocolate Chip Caramel Filling
.:THE GOODS:.

1/3 cup toasted coconut chopped up a bit

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1 Cup sugar

1/2 Cup corn syrup

pinch sea salt (fine)

1/2 Cup water

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter cut into 6 chunks

1/2 Cup heavy cream (room temp)

3 Tbsp. malibu rum

.:TIP:.

Get all of your ingredients measured out and situated right next to you because the process should go relatively fast and there is no time for dilly dallying once it is started.

.:THE PROCESS:.

In a heavy bottomed pot, combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt and water. Whisk over medium high heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and it comes to a boil. Cover pot and allow the steam to clean the sides of the pot...about 2 minutes. Uncover and turn to high. Boil mixture without stirring until it reaches 315 degrees. Remove from the heat and swirl the pot very gently. The mixture should be a very light amber but will continue to darken with the residual heat.

Drop the butter pieces in and whisk like crazy. It will steam and bubble so be careful! Next pour in the cream and again whisk like crazy and be careful. Lastly stir in the rum (set aside a bit of the plain caramel for drizzling on the finished product) then the coconut and chocolate chips. Set aside and allow to cool. It will thicken up nicely for you as long as you followed all the steps. YUM!

2. The Cookie Crust
.:THE GOODS:.

1 package girl scout shortbread cookies

1/4 cup toasted coconut chopped a bit

4 Tbsp. mini chocolate chips

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter melted


.:THE PROCESS:.
Place all ingredients in a ziploc bag and mush around till combined. Place 1 heaping Tbsp. in the bottom of your cupcake liner and bake at 375 for 7 minutes. Set aside

3. The Chocolate Cupcake
.:THE GOODS:.

2 Cups (10 ounces) flour

3/4 Cup (3 3/4 ounces) dark cocoa powder

2 Cups (14.5 ounces) sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup very strong coffee

1 cup buttermilk

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil


.:THE PROCESS:.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and set aside.

In a large measuring cup (4 cups or larger) whisk together eggs, coffee, buttermilk, vanilla extract and oil.

Pour the liquid mixture into the center of the dry mixture and whisk like crazy until it is smooth. Divide into your prepared cups evenly...( I have found this will make approximately 30 in my 4 ounce paper portion cups)

Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed...about 18-23 minutes.

4. Malibu Rum Buttercream
.:THE GOODS:.
1 lb. unsalted butter

1 3 ounce package white chocolate pudding mix

1 1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup malibu rum

1/4 cup-1 cup powdered sugar (to taste)


.:THE PROCESS:.

With stand mixer, beat the butter and pudding mix on medium high for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy (I usually scrape my bowl down about half way through this stage to make sure I got all the pudding mix in there)

Turn mixer down to low and slowly incorporate the cream and rum. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl again then Turn back up to medium high and beat another 5 minutes.

Slowly add the powdered sugar and taste along the way until it is the sweetness you like.

.: PUT IT ALL TOGETHER NOW:.

To assemble these amazing treats, just cut a cone into the cooled cupcake. Fill the cavity you just made with the coconut caramel and replace the piece you just cut out. Top with about a 1/2 tbsp. of ganache then Pipe on your buttercream then drizzle with caramel and place that cookie on top!