Mario Bros. Cake

As usual my pictures are anything but great, but I wanted to share this cake. This is a Mario Bros. Cake that I was ordered and I think it came out pretty cute. I have to admit I love this giant Piranha!

Check out the mushroom and and fire flower here, pretty cool.

Next, we have a Goomba!

And here's a mini Piranha, watch out!

I didn't have time to take a picture of the entire cake, but you get the gist of it. Hope you enjoyed it!

Cute Cookies

I am obsessed with cookies at the moment. I have seen the most beautiful cookies lately and I'm just passionate about cookies right now, I want to try and bake and decorate ever single one I see. I want to bake them for home, I want to bake them for friends, party favors, for the dog, anything at all.

For my niece's first communion we decided to give dress cookies as a favor. Much like these ones in the picture, but not the same ones. I had no time to take pictures of my niece's. I think cookies make a great gift and if they look beautiful as well as being delicious, even better!

I got these great wedding cake cookie cutters (I'm pretty sure everyone has them) that also come with a stencil so the cake looks decorated! Of course I had to try all 3 stencils.

This one's cute but not my favorite.

This is my favorite!!


The sugar cookie recipe I use is the best one I've tasted. And you won't believe where I got it from, the back of a Wilton's sugar cookie cutter box! I know! Unbelievable.

You will need:

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 F. In mixer bowl, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. Mix flour, baking powder and salt, add to the butter mixture 1 cup at a time mixing after each addition. Do not chill dough. Divide dough into 2 balls. On a floured surface, roll each ball in a circle approx. 12 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick. Dip cookie cutter in fluor before each use. Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies. 4 dozen!!!!!!!


These are topped with Marshmallow Fondant and Royal Icing. You can find both of these recipes here and here.

Enjoy!!

First Communion Cupcakes

I don't know if you know this but I have 5 nieces. Yes, FIVE! So you can imagine that when I have to bake them something it's never easy. They all have different tastes, the mothers want different things and they're always adding on at the last minute.

This year, today in fact, two of my nieces have their first communion, so we had been thinking about their favors for a while and what to make them. Well, my sister saw these really really cute cupcakes in Bakerella's blog and she just flipped! She wanted them, had to have them.

The catch was that she wanted them with Buttercream, not fondant, but also they had to be packed in individual bags. Impossible! So what we did was fill them up with buttercream and just top them off with marshmallow fondant so they would look great and taste even better!

I used this great MMF recipe from Cake Journal which comes out perfect every time.

Aren't they the cutest thing ever?

They came out great and delicious. My sister's going to love them, my niece is going to flip out and all the other parents are going to hate my sister when all the little kids dressed in perfect white are covered in chocolate! Hehe.

I also had to make 50 cookie favors for my other niece, but for those I will probably post tomorrow since I didn't have time to take pictures yesterday...

Vote Now!!

Voting is now open over at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner !!

Head straight to it and cast your vote today to see if I win one of these babies once and for all!

It's about time I win!

Iron cupcake challenge is back on and I think it's about time that I win one of these suckers! Since the pictures are very important in this competition and I have terrible pictures, this time I decided to make the cupcakes as beautiful as possible, so that would make up for my crappy pictures!


The ingredient for this month was Soda Pop so I chose Gingerale and decided to make Lemon Ginger Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream. The flowers are all made from MMF (marshmallow fondant) that I made using guess what... yes, Gingerale! You can also use Sprite or even 7up instead, any light colored soda will do. I chose Gingerale to complement the ginger cupcakes.

So first we need to make our candied ginger for that extra oomph in the cupcake. Candied ginger is really not hard to make at all.

Candied Ginger:

Slice fresh ginger about 1/8 inch thick, toss into crock pot and pour Sprite over it until just covered. Add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water. Cook on medium heat for about 8 hours. Pull the slices out and let them dry on a wire rack. Once cooled toss in granulated sugar.

This is the finished product:

Lemon Ginger Cupcakes:

2 sticks butter
4 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup gingerale
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and beat well. Add the eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition. Add and beat until just incorporated the lemon juice, zest, vanilla and gingerale. Sift the dry ingredients and then add the to the mixture, mix on low speed until smooth. Stir in the ginger by hand. Pour into cupcake tins 3/4 full and bake for approximately 18-20 minutes until golden. Yields 24-26 cupcakes. 350 degree oven.


Buttercream: I think everyone has a favorite buttercream recipe, so I suggest use your favorite!

Lemon Curd:

In a saucepan bring to boil:
1/2 cup strained fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
3 ounces (3/4 stick butter)
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

In the bowl of an electric mixer at medium speed, beat well:
4 eggs

Whisk the hot juice mixture into the eggs. Return mixture to saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until it coats the back of a spoon. Pour the curd though a strainer into bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd and refrigerate until cold. To make the lemon buttercream, add 1/4 cup of lemon curd for every 2 cups of buttercream.

Marshmallow Fondant made with Gingerale!

Remember the great prizes for the winner... hopefully me!!

*A creation by FRUITFLYPIE
* as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES
* PLUS, the fabulous CAKESPY , who is now going to be doing a piece for the winner each month until further notice - sweet!

A sweet surprise from SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY

And of course don’t forget the corporate prize providers:
HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS
HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
JESSIE STEELE APRONS
TASTE OF HOME books
UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM.
Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.

Remember to vote for me at No One Puts Cupcake in a Corner!!

VOTING STARTS APRIL 29TH!

Sunhats Bows and Dresses

I know it has been a while since my last post, but I have been busy making the cutest things for my niece's birthday. This is the setup of all the pretty goodies at her party. There was the cutest birthday cake with a fabulous bow made of roses and a gorgeous dress, with a hat, purse and even flip flops!

Now how cute is that?

Look at this cool bow!

I also made 50 cupcakes, all different colors, topped with delicious buttercream and sunhats!

Look at those tiny flowers.



We set up the cupcakes on stands and they looked great!




This one was special for the birthday girl, cupcake with hat and purse!

I also made 50 dress cookies as the party favors, but I didn't get pictures of all them, can you believe that??? Too exhausted from all that decorating I guess. We had pink, blue, green, yellow and white. They looked great!

Here's a bad picture of the white ones:

The idea for the cupcakes with those beautiful hats came from a photostream I found on flickr by this wonderful artist, because that's what she is, named Zalita do check it out.

The idea for the cookies came from another beautiful photostream at flickr from Glorious Treats

Check out the photostreams because they are absolutely wonderful!

Polka Dots and Roses

Here's another not so great picture of a really cool cake.

I have been dying to make these roses and have never been able to. I've seen people make them and they always look so easy, darn roses! I could never do it. After many many failed attempts I thought, hmmm, I might have a book that illustrates how to make these. I was right!

After searching up and down my cookbook and cake decorating collection, I found the wonderful Cakes to Dream On by super fabulous Collette Peters. She makes amazing cakes, I'm sure all of you know her.

Well, Collete did have an illustration on how to make these cute fantasy roses and I was able to finally rise to the task. Yay for me!

Just look at how cute they are!

I think this cake is so cute! I must admit that I was copying a cake from the amazing Pink Cake Box, her cakes are also super fabulous!

I have to say that I also love the ribbon with the teeny roses :
By the way, this was a vanilla cake filled with Nutella Mousse... yummy!! Seems to be one of the crowds favorites!