"The Harvest" - TV Dinner Cupcakes

When I first started getting into making cupcakes, I was at the bookstore and saw the book, "Hello, Cupcake".  I immediately needed to have it and my husband was nice enough to buy it for me.  These are the first cupcakes I made from the book and they are probably still my favorites.  I just love them!

Buy this book!

Since I didn't do anything different from the book, I will just tell you to go get it!  You should have it in your kitchen, anyway! 

I have to tell you, these are SO EASY to make.  And super fun. 

Words of wisdom:  If you can, get chewable runts for the peas.  That was a suggestion given to me by the person that chose to eat the peas and carrots cupcake.  :)

Be Crafty,

Kris

Favorite quote from this Buffy Episode:
Giles: For as long as there have been vampires, there has been the Slayer. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One...
Buffy: He loves doing this part.
Giles: Alright. The Slayer hunts vampires, Buffy is a Slayer, don't tell anyone. Well, I think that's all the vampire information you need.

"The Killer in Me"

Willow: "She says she wants you to meditate extra hard for her and bring her back some s'mores."

Giles: "Ah, yes, s'mores. I'm going to end up singing campfire songs, aren't I?"

S'more's Cupcakes!!!

Who doesn't love s'mores?  Well, maybe my husband who is allergic to chocolate, but not many others.  These tasty treats are delicious, especially just out of the oven.

Ingredients:

24 cupcake liners

24 Yellow cake cupcakes

Graham crackers, broken in to pieces

Chocolate baking chunks

24 Large Marshmallows

24 Honey Teddy Grahams

24 Hershey's bar pieces

Marshmallow creme

I looked at a couple of different recipes before I decided what to do here.  First, I wanted a graham cracker base, but not like a crust.  I broke up the crackers into chunks and placed them into the cupcake liners.  Next I made a layer using the chocolate baking chunks, and lastly place the marshmallow on top.  I really wanted to make it similarly constructed like a S'more. 

In the batter, I put more chocolate chunks and poured it around the marshmallow.  Bake as directed.  *Trial and Error* I knew the marshmallow would rise a bit, but I didn't expect it to completely collapse and leave a giant hole in my cupcake.  Luckily, I had planned to make a marshmallow creme frosting and instead, I just filled the hole with marshmallow creme.  Now, no frosting necessary.  Finish off with a Hershey's chocolate square and teddy graham.  Serve warm for chewy goodness.  Or cooled.  Either way, it's AMAZING. 

Be crafty,

Kris



"Faith, Hope & Trick"

Buffy: "Well, I may not sleep in the nude and rassle alligators..."

Alligator Cupcakes!

One of my coworkers LOVES alligators.  So, for her birthday, I made the Alligator cupcakes from "Hello, Cupcake!"  Since Spring Break is the craziest week for the zoo, I had little time to prepare, so I purchased pre-made cupcakes designed for St. Patrick's Day and altered them.  They turned out pretty well, despite the time shortage. 

Later, for her son's birthday, she asked if I would do another set of alligator cupcakes.  MY FIRST PAID JOB!  I was super excited.  Since she needed so many cupcakes, I custom designed alligator themed cupcakes for her.  It was so much fun!

Ingredients (for custom cupcakes):

48 cupcake liners - I used blue, green, and black
48 cupcakes - vanilla and chocolate flavors
Vanilla frosting - half dyed "murky" green for the alligator, half dyed blue for the water
Chocolate frosting - for the mud
Green Licorice - cut for reeds/grass
Newman's Chocolate Square cookies - cut in half diagonally, for the armor on the alligator
6 1/4 Banana runts - 6 for the alligator nails, 1/4 for the bird
3 Marshmallows - 2 for the alligator eyes, 1 for the bird
2 Junior mints - for the alligator eyes
2 green jelly beans - for the nostrils
Swedish fish

For the most part, I followed the same directions from the " Hello, Cupcake!" Book (Old Swampy, pg. 85) for the alligator.  To include the additional cupcakes for the order, I decided an alligator coming out of the water would look nice.  I did a lot of counting out and pre-planning before knowing what liners to use and how to frost what color.

I started with the alligator first, piped the cupcakes with green frosting in a scaly look, and placed in place.  I did the mud cupcakes next, frosting with chocolate and placed in the box.  For the cupcakes on the water's edge, I frosted half the cupcake green or chocolate and then frosted blue.  I frosted the water blue cupcakes last.  Now that they were all in place, I started adding the extra pieces.

For the alligator, add the two green jelly beans at the end of the snout for the nostrils.  Then add the marshmallows and frost with more green frosting.  Pipe additional green frosting on the rims of the eyes more an armored look.  Add the junior mints to each side of the marshmallows for the pupils, using frosting to secure.  For a finished look, pipe white frosting for a gleam in the eye.  At the ends of the front legs, use three banana runts (per leg) for the nails.  Lastly, cut the chocolate cookies diagonally in half and place on the alligator for the armor scales. 

For the mud, I only added some cut pieces of green licorice for a grassy look.

For the water, I added more cut pieces of green licorice for reeds and placed a few Swedish fish around.  For one cupcake, I also added a bird on the water.  You can find the bird from the sequel, "What's New, Cupcake?" on page 106.  Cut a marshmallow in half, and then again to create a crescent shape for the body.  Instead of using a mini-marshmallow for the head, I just used a small circle from the leftover marshmallow.  For the beak, I added a broken banana runt tip.  Then I used chocolate frosting to make an eye and wing. 

Trials and errors:  Piping the frosting for the alligator was time consuming.  As the frosting warmed, it became less edgy and more rounding scales.  Overall, still looks good.  Practice makes perfect.  Also, dying frosting a "murky" green was frustrating.  I googled it (because the book was no help) and  it said to use green, red, and yellow.  I don't know what I did, but it turned out PURPLE and in my attempt to fix that, GRAY.  I started over and ended up with what you see. 

As you can see from the first picture, I had a happy customer!  I'm glad it turned out so well and I can't wait for another order. 

Be Crafty,

Kris

"Something Blue"

Willow: "Well, baking lifts about 30% of my guilt. But only 7% of my inner turmoil."

I really do love the the pottery studio I go to.  And when I walked in early this spring, I saw a GIANT cupcake.  How could I NOT paint it!?! 
 
I wanted to make it fun and multi-colored.  It took many hours to finish, but I did it in one sitting.  Since it's an awesome storage cupcake, what better to use it for than cupcake liners?  I have so many and they were all over the place.  I've been using for a few months now and it has been a great accessory and storage container. 
 

During a visit from my mom, we decided to go to the studio and she painted a complimentary mini cupcake magnet for me.  It's super cute!  Thanks mom.
 

I hope you enjoyed this short, simple post about cupcake ceramics. 
 
Be crafty,
 
Kris

"Bargaining Part 1"

Buffybot: "That'll put marzipan in your pie plate, Bingo!"

I have a friend who makes AMAZING pies and for his birthday, I made HIM pie for once.  Pie cupcakes!  These cupcakes do come from the "What's New, Cupcake" book. 

Ingredients:
Foil liners
Vanilla cupcakes
Vanilla Frosting - tinted slightly brown with peanut butter
Red and Blue m&ms
Cooling rack - for decorative purposes*
Sandwich bag - to pipe frosting, unless you actually have a piping bag

*You can also use the cooling rack to COOL the cupcakes.  ;)

These cupcakes are SUPER easy!  (It actually says that in the book, too)  Frost the cupcakes.  Arrange same colored m&ms on cupcake.  Red = cherry pie.  Blue = blueberry pie.  Using the sandwich baggie (or piping bag) to pie lines across the cupcake for lattice work and then around the cupcake for the crust.  Place finished cupcakes on cooling rack for display.

Trials and Errors: 

The book suggest another way to tint the frosting a light brown, but since 1) John LOVES peanut butter and 2) Peanut Butter is a brown-ish color, I used PB.  I think it turned out great!  And tasted quite yummy. 

I didn't really read the directions in the book at first about how to make the lattice work.  After getting super frustrated with sloppy, squiggly lines, I referred to the book.  Surprise!  They tell you how to make straight lines.  That's what I get. 

It's also a struggle being a lefty.  I read how to make the crust and while trying to figure out to do it with the opposite hand, I just ended up with not quite perfect crust.  Oh well.  It still looked okay.  And don't forget tasty!

Instructions (for retro cupcaker):

Sweet Apron

White Blouse

Skirt

Pearls

Updo

Heels

Smile

Cupcakes

Mix ingredients together and enjoy!

Be crafty,

Kris



My dog Maya thought they smelled great!



"Becoming: Part 2"

Spike: "What, your Mom doesn't know?"
Joyce: "Know what?"
Buffy: "That I'm, uh... in a band. A-A rock band with Spike, here."

Spike: "Right, she plays the, duh, triangle."

Buffy: "Drums."

Spike: "Drums, yeah. She's hell on the old skins, you know."
Joyce: (to Spike) "And what do you do?"
Spike: "Well I sing."

Happy Birthday to my friend Gus!

Gus plays drums and I wanted to try and give him some rockin' cupcakes.  So I went with a drum set.  Gus' favorite cake is red velvet, so I made that for him. 

Ingredients:
Red Velvet Cake - Jumbo Muffin, Standard and mini cupcakes
Cream Cheese Frosting
Black Icing
Nilla Wafers
Oreo
Gumdrop
Black Licorice niblet
Toothpicks

Since I wanted it to look as realistic as possible, while using the requested flavors, I unwrapped all the cupcakes.  Take the Jumbo cupcake, frost the top and bottom, and place on it's side.  This will be the bass drum. Using the licorice niblet, set against the back of the drum for the pedal.  Two of the standard cupcakes will be stacked for the floor tom and another for the snare drum.  Two mini cupcakes will be the smaller toms, attached to the bass drum with toothpicks.  Assemble as closely as possible.  Take two Nilla wafers and insert a toothpick through the center.  These will be the cymbals.  For the stool, take one Oreo, insert one end of a toothpick into the Oreo and the other end into a gumdrop. 

I added his name to the front of the bass drum and put records around the drum set.  The records are just mini cupcakes with black icing and cream cheese frosting in the middle. 

Drum set complete!

Be Crafty,

Kris

"Time of Your Life"

Erin: "Mel, what are we doing here?"
Melaka: "What we do.  Saving the world."

First off, this blog entry is dedicated to my friend and coworker, Melakeh, who is leaving the zoo on Sunday.  :(  As soon as I heard we were doing a going away thing at work, I knew I would make cupcakes for her.  What I didn't know at the time was how crazy I was.  I ended up making her cupcakes of ALL our animals.  Yes, I'm crazy.  But they turned out really great!!

Secondly, as we both have a love for everything Joss Whedon and Buffy, I knew I had to pick a good title/episode for her.  "Time of Your Life" just happens to feature a future slayer named, "Melaka."  How perfect!  Can I say how proud (and clever!) I feel to stay on my Buffy theme and use the Season 8 comic to do it!  (P.S. - Season 9 coming out soon!!!)

Back to the cupcakes--

The department in which we work allows us contact with many varieties of animals.  This will be a very photo-logged entry since I don't expect you all to know all the exotics that we work with, let alone how they should look.  I'll let you all be the judge, though I've already been told they're amazing! 

Hyacinth Macaw

Probably the easiest cupcakes I made.

Ingredients:
Royal Blue cupcake liner
Cupcake - I did chocolate
Royal Blue Icing  - purchased, there is no way I could make that color
Yellow melting wafer - cut with circle cookie cutter, for the skin around the eye
Black Icing - also purchased, for the eye
Oreo - halved and cut into beak shape

Blue and Gold Macaw

One of my favorites.  It's so colorful!

Ingredients:

Yellow cupcake liner
Vanilla Cupcake
Vanilla Icing
Aqua Blue, Light Green, and Yellow Sugar
Black Icing - for black feathers around beak, and for eye
Oreo - halved and cut into beak shape
Yellow Coated Candy (Reece's Pieces or M&M) - for eye
Black frosting writer - to mark black feathers on face near eyes

Spectacled Owl

Ingredients:

Brown cupcake liner

Chocolate Cupcake

Chocolate Icing

White Icing - for feathers around eyes and neck

Banana runt - for beak

Butter Rum Lifesaver - for eyes

Black icing - for eyes

Trials and errors: The Butter Rum lifesavers are disgusting.  They look GREAT, but I would try to find something new for the next time I make them.



African Penguin

Ingredients:

Black cupcake liner

Chocolate cupcake

Chocolate frosting

Oreo - halved with icing side up, for the body, the other half cut for wings

Mini Oreo - halved for head

Black licorice nubs - cut into beak shape

White icing - for white feathers around face

Black icing - for eyes

Black icing writer - for penguin markings (ex. the four spots identify our penguin Jack)


Silky Showgirl Chicken

Ingredients:

White mini cupcake liner

Vanilla mini cupcake

Vanilla frosting

Coconut - roll frosted cupcake in coconut to cover, for feathers

Black licorice nubs - cut into beak shape

Opossum

Ingredients:

White regular and mini cupcake liners - for adult and baby opossums

Vanilla cupcakes - regular and mini

Vanilla frosting w/crushed oreos - for grey and white fur coloration

Hershey's kiss - unwrapped and frosted, for snout

Pink jellybean - for nose, cut in half for baby opossum

Black licorice - cut for ears

Pink and Black icing - for eyes

Black icing writer - to add whiskers and mouth

Anatolian Shepherd

Ingredients:

White cupcake liner

Vanilla cupcake

Cookies & Cream Frosting

Oreo - halved and cut into ear shapes, frosted for furry ears

Hershey's kiss - tip cut for muzzle

Mini m&m - for nose

Brown jellybean - cut in half for eyes

Black icing writing - for eyebrows

Alligator

Ingredients:

Chocolate cupcake

Chocolate frosting

Oreo - sides cut at angle for tapered snout, remember to keep rounded snout for alligator

Green Fruit Loops - for eyes

Black icing - for eyes

Blue and brown candies - shaped for target :)

Serval

Ingredients:

White cupcake liner

Vanilla cupcake

Peanut Butter frosting

White Icing - for mouth

Black Icing - for markings, mouth, and eyes

Black licorice nubs - cut into triangle for nose

Green mini m&ms - for eyes

Caramels - shaped for ears

Trials and errors: Don't use caramel!!  It melts!

Golden Lion Tamarins

Ingredients:

White mini cupcake liners

Mini vanilla cupcakes

Vanilla frosting

Orange and Peanut Butter melting wafers - melted and shaped into tamarin face

Black icing writer - for facial features

Madagascar Hissing Cockroach

Ingredients:

Black cupcake liner

Chocolate cupcake

Chocolate frosting

Oreos - crushed, roll and cover frosted cupcake, for dirt

Caramel - shaped into cockroach shape

Black icing - for legs, head armor and markings

I hope that she finds something wonderful and new, but we are going to miss her very much!  Here's to having the "Time of Your Life!" 

Be crafty,

Kris

"Doublemeat Palace"

Buffy: "Wait. The secret ingredient in the beef is... beef?"

At work we have a themed potluck at the end of every week. When I found out that last week's theme was 'cookout,' the first thing that came to mind was BURGERS! And I don't mean I made actual burgers for the potluck. No, I made Burger Cupcakes.

Oh yes. I initially saw a picture of this on my twitter feed from @CupcakeBlog(Cupcakes Take the Cake). You can see the original post here: http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/2009/03/are-they-burgers-or-cupcakes.html

I found a lot of pictures of burger cupcakes online, but I wanted to do something a little different.

Here are the ingredients:

Buns - vanilla cupcakes, cut in half

Burger - brownies, cut into circles

Ketchup - red frosting

Mustard - yellow frosting

Lettuce - coconut, dyed green

Cheese - Yellow melting wafers, molded into squares

Sesame Seeds - actual sesame seeds (!)

Make burgers! I put frosting on every layer to make sure there was enough and to help with keeping the layers together. I tried to make them all varied with different "ingredients," ie. some with cheese or without, same with the lettuce. There is no wrong way to do it.

The reason I went with melting wafers for cheese: I looked at a lot of sites and from what I saw, the cheese (if there was any) was done with frosting. I wanted it to look different from the mustard and to stick out. I had a silicone tray of squares that I melted it into and I think they look great! Bonus: It added that extra punch of sweetness since there is a whole lot of cake and not a lot of frosting.

Trials and errors: I had really wanted to make the lettuce out of frosted flakes. I had thought that they would taste well with it, look a lot more like lettuce, and would just be plain cool. However, because they are so moisture-free, the second that drop of food coloring hit a flake, it sucked up the liquid. So they were mostly splotchy frosted flakes and that just wouldn't do. Next time, I may try using regular cornflakes and dipping them into green melting wafers...?

I can say that these were a HUGE hit at work! Almost everyone loved them (One didn't due to the fact that she couldn't get over a cupcake looking like a burger).

I hope you decide to make them as well!

Be crafty,

Kris