A Frog Prince for a Birthday Girl!

A Frog Pond Fit For A Princess!

(above) My sister Kate and her two children, Sophia and Alex

My sister loves frogs, so it was an easy decision to make her a frog pond full of possible princes to kiss. It wasn't just about the cupcakes this time; it was also about the presentation. 

Step 1: Baking

I started by baking my mom's famous "wacky cake" recipe, and then I whipped up some buttercream frosting according to the Sprinkle's Bakery recipe.  To get the right color green, you need to use most of the little bottle of food coloring.

Step 2: Decorating

This little guy was a practice, so he has yellow fruit slices instead of green.

Each cupcake was sprinkled with green sugar. Mouths and nostrils were drawn with sparkly green gel. The eyes sit up off of the cupcakes with green fruit slices that are halved, then halved again and adorned with a candy eyeball. The crowns are made with rolled out fruit chews that were cut into points and finished off with edible pearls. 

Step 3: Presentation

I bought special pink water lily wrappers to set the finished cupcakes in. They were in the cake decorating aisle at Walmart, not in the baking aisle with the cooking supplies.

Huddled together on a tupperware cake taker.

When I got to her house, I laid out blue tissue paper on the table and green tissue paper cut into the shape of lily pads. The frogs were then arranged around the table to set the pond theme.

Blue and green tissue paper sets the pond theme.

Frog Prince Pond

To finish off the look, I cut out tiny dragonflies with my sizzix machine and attached them to toothpicks to fly above the frogs. I even made a little sign that said "Have a hoppy birthday" to stick in one. 

 

Step 4:  Celebration!

It was fun to present Kate with many frog themed gifts adorned with green wrappings! The kids even colored pictures and presented her with their own artwork.

Gifts!

 

 

Plate Presentation

Blowing out the singing candle!

Sophia

Alex

Cavan

Sisterly love!

A Rafter of Turkeys

Thanksgiving 2011 

Gobble-Gobble!

My next project was one for the holidays. I was still new at the craft, therefore it took me way too long to complete what now seems a rather easy creation. I decided to go back to my "Hello, Cupcake" book for some ideas. Their Thanksgiving Toms (oddly named Larry) were a perfect treat to tote along to the family gathering, or so I thought...

Although I didn't know about it then, the writers of the book actually have an instructional video. If I only knew then what I know now...

Larry the turkey

Step 1: Shopping

My first challenge was to find the right decorations. I went to every store in town to find candy corn for the tail feathers. Apparently after Halloween these little treasures are VERY hard to find. I also had trouble finding suitable cookies to serve as tails. The book suggests a scalloped edged shortbread cookie. Of course that was impossible to find, so I settled for Pizzelles. I did not bake them; instead I purchased them at the local grocery store to make my life easier. They were perfect. I also found little candy eyes at Walmart instead of trying to dot perfect little eyeballs on all of their faces or having to make up a bunch of frosting.


Step 2: Baking
I used my mom's chocolate "wacky cake" recipe for the cupcakes. I had already bought a mini cupcake pan and had some regular ones. I used gold foil liners to make them more festive. I also chose to use peanut butter frosting for the color and the taste (it's a family favorite). 

Luckily my nephew Alex and niece Sophie came over to lend a helping hand!

Step 3: Decorating 

We did a great job frosting them and adding the jimmies. We went with gold for the hair and a mix of chocolate sprinkles and gold shavings for around the body. We had to attach the candy corn to the cookie with melted almond bark. It works like super glue. We added a candy corn nose, sliced up Swedish fish for the wattle and google eyes. The cookie needed to be pressed into the cupcake due to its size. The mini cupcake sort of rested against it. We did not prop the cookie with a marshmallow because the fan slipped through the big cupcake so easily.

I love the little candy corn feet too!

The kids were a big help with this!

Step 4: Transportation

After hours of work, I put them in cake takers and slipped them into the refrigerator. They survived the night, but not being pulled out of the fridge. My husband-to-be tried to be helpful, and this is the resulting facebook post:

"My turkeys met an unfortunate fate this morning. As we were about to leave for his family's dinner, Eric massacred them all in one fell swoop. He didn't realize that the top was not connected to the tray and they all came crashing down. I turned in time to see little decapitated heads rolling across the floor and a pile of smashed tail feathers and candy corns. It was an honest mistake, but I was still pretty bummed. :-("

It was a bit hard to swallow...
Eric just piled them all up on the tray for me, and we headed out empty handed. I am proud to say that I didn't scream or cry, though I REALLY felt like it.

Creative Cupcakes

My niece Sophia- age 7

Over the past 6 months or so I have found a new creative outlet in the world of cupcake creations. It all started in November of 2011 with an extra special birthday cake for my niece Sophia. She is the most darling little girl anyone could every meet and shares a special love of anything princess with the rest of the under-10 female population. Awhile back my stepmother bought me a book, "Hello, Cupcake!", which I had been meaning to try out. This book featured an adorable princess pattern complete with little rolled gumdrop dresses and fruit chew crowns. It was a challenge I couldn't back down to. Come to find out, this would be one of the most complicated concoctions in the whole book! But, it was also the spark that would send me on a cupcake making inferno. :-)

November 9, 2011- 12 Dancing Princesses

Image from the book, "Hello, Cupcake!"

You start with one cupcake flipped upside down onto a sugar cookie, and add a mini cupcake flipped on top of it. Frost the whole thing and then drape the rolled out gumdrops cut into a circle over the top (this part takes FOREVER). Add little rolled pink fruit chews as shoes. Make sure to tuck little pretzel sticks under the folds to make arms.

Add a Nilla Wafer head. This is made by piping almond bark in between the two wafers and adding a pretzel for the neck. There are more specific directions in the book.

The rest is mostly piping on details such as two chocolate dots for eyes and curly brown hair, white frosting for a collar and sleeves, adding edible pearls to the shoes and adding a piece of pink chew for the mouth/nose. The crown is made from a rolled out fruit chew that is cut to points and adorned with edible pearls.

I love the little wand candles that I found at Hannaford. I have also seen them at Walmart.

The result was a very happy birthday girl! :-)

My nephew Alex went right for the head.

The girls, Sophia and Mariya

My step-niece Mariya