Breaking Dawn Part 1

I'm definitely not a movie critic so I won't give you my full review of the first Breaking Dawn, but I will say that really enjoyed this movie (and even more the 2nd time).  I wouldn't say it was my favorite but the series has definitely come a long way since the first Twilight which was just an embarrassment to great book. Instead of reviewing the movie I wanted to share all the awesome cupcakes and prizes my friend and I made for the midnight showing party she holds each year.  This was the third year in a row my friend has rented out a movie theater so that 120 of her closest friends can see and enjoy (or hate on) the Twilight Saga movies together.  She also makes sure there are plenty of cupcakes for everyone to enjoy before the movie and creates her very own trivia game. This year I was able to help make the cupcakes and a lot of the prizes for the trivia game; so for a good week before we scrambled to make prizes and eight dozen Breaking Dawn themed cupcakes.  It's going to be hard top everything we did this year for Part 2 next year.
Here are just a few pictures of everything we made.

The Cupcakes:

We know it's wrong but a half vampire baby being born cupcake was needed

"Why am I covered in feathers"

Werewolf cupcakes are a must!

Isle Esme

The Prizes (all made with vinyl and my Silhouette of course!):
Ornaments purchased from Michaels and wine glasses purchased from Cost Plus

 

Happy Halloween

I can't believe this year has gone by so fast and that Halloween is right around the corner! I'm still trying to figure out my costume, probably a Pam Am stewardess if I can find the right skirt and bag, I'm thinking I can make the hat, and buy the gloves and shoes.

What I am excited about is that I got all the decorations I wanted to create for this year done.  I had been dying to make a Halloween wreath so I made sure I went to Michael's early this year to get everything I needed since they always seem to be two holidays ahead then the one actually coming up.  I wanted a goth inspired wreath, I found all these great black and sparkly neon spiders and butterfly's that I mixed into black glittery flowers. 

The rest of my decorations were made with my Silhouette, which I'm finding more and more uses for and I'm loving it! It makes everything so easy.

My thought was to do Halloween/Fall inspired lanterns that I could use through Thanksgiving, but the more I thought about I couldn't find designs that fit both holidays, plus I really wanted to use the neon green and purple vinyl that didn't really scream Fall. So instead I went back to Ikea and bought two more lanterns that will be Fall only and I could dedicate these to just Halloween. My first lantern was inspired by my love of Pumpkin Patches, with a Jack-O-Lantern face and "Pumpkin Patch" and "Spooky" on either side. My second was supposed to be a bit more "scary" with "Happy Haunting" on the front and covered in spider webs and hanging bats.  I'm very happy with the way these turned and can't wait to make my fall ones!

Next I decorated some fake pumpkins from Michael's to say "Trick-or-Treat", I loved the way these turned out and they make the front entry look more inviting to Trick-or-Treater's.
Now all my entry way is missing is some real pumpkins...that will be a goal for this weekend.

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!!

My First Quilt

I have finally made a quilt, it's always been on my list but I thought making one would be too difficult.  When I think of quilts I think of all those intricate designs and small pieces you have to sew together.  It just seemed too big a task for me to take on, but then a friend of mine was showing me some quilts she made, they were the cutest baby rag quilts.  I had never heard of a rag quilt and immediately wanted to try to make one, I just needed an excuse.  As luck would have it my mom had an up coming  baby shower for her friend's daughter, so I told my mom I would make her one to give as a gift.

I now think the hardest part of making a quilt is finding five to six coordinating fabrics that you want to put together to make your quilt.  I probably spent a good two hours at the fabric store trying to find the right fabrics. In the end I did, I went with a Brown/Pink theme (since she's having a girl), I found the cutest pig and baby girl word fabric that I paired with some polka dots and stripes. I also bought a rotary cutter and micro-tip easy action scissors, these are essential for making a rag quilt.

Once I had my fabric and tools I went on YouTube and found the greatest video that explains step by step how to make a rag quilt, I understood the basics from what my friend told me but wanted something to refer back to as I was sewing.  You can find the video here: Beverly's How-To.

And here is my finished product:

Back - Minky & Flannel patches

Front View

Close Up of Front

 I also made a matching "Taggie", post coming soon.

If you love these Rag Quilts as much as I do my friend sells hers on Etsy, they are super cute!!!  Check out her shop here: Little Shop Of Moxi

It's a Bitter Sweet Ending

For those that don't know, which I'm sure there are few, the last installment of the Harry Potter movie series came out this past Friday.  Although the movie was great I'm slightly depressed now that it's really over.

Radish Earrings

Since this was the last movie we of course had to go to the midnight showing, we of course had to make shirts, and we OF COURSE had to have Butterbeer Cupcakes!!! Oh and you can't forget the Radish and Snitch earrings!

I hope everyone that saw the movie enjoyed it as much as we did!!!

Butterbeer Cupcake recipe courtesy of Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.  These cupcakes were delicious, you could really taste the cream soda and the butterscotch in the frosting was amazing!

Happy 4th of July

I'm just a tad bit late getting these up but I wanted to share some 4th of July crafts that I did this year.

The first are these super cute metal stars I found on Pick Your Plum, this amazing craft site.  I started by painting blocks of wood red, white and blue (of course) and then nailed the stars to the wood, super easy! I would have preferred the wood border around the stars so I might remove the nails next year and try something new, I could redo these decorations every year if I want to.

My next project is probably one of my favorites! I am obsessed with decorating everything with vinyl (more to come on that), ever since I've gotten my Silhouette the possibilities on what I can make have become endless. I think I might have to make one of these for every holiday, they look great in my front entry way.

Chicks & Bunnies

This post is very late but....Happy Belated Easter!!

For Easter this year I had my heart set on making Chick and Bunny cake pops that I had seen on Bakerella a year or so ago.  I decided I would do lemon cake for the Chicks and strawberry cake for the Bunnies...although the strawberry was good now that I think about it carrot cake would have been a good idea too for the Bunnies.

I was excited for how the Chicks turned out, they were a lot easier than the Bunnies, which turned out looking like scary aliens.  I wasn't able to find the pastel confetti sprinkles I needed for the eyes so I used rainbow candy coated sprinkles instead and they might have been too big and beady for eyes.  Another problem I had was with my edible pens, I have not been able to find pens that actually write on candy coating.  Does anyone have any suggestions on edible pens that actually work?

Cake Pop version of a Peep

 Next year I'll try making Peep Sushi that a friend of mine pointed out.

Macarons

For probably close to a year now I've  been wanting to make Macarons, not the coconut ones, but the delicate and pretty sandwich ones. It's taken me this long to give them a try because every blog I've read (and I've read a lot) focus on how difficult they are to make, that almost everything that can go wrong will, and you have to leave your egg whites sitting out to age for a couple of days (that seemed sketchy to me).  Anyway, my friend Melissa recently made some and had success, this gave me the courage to give them a try; I now had someone I could talk to about the techniques she tried and what worked for her, we actually chatted via Gmail the entire time I was making my cookies.

So it went like this:
- I cracked and separated my eggs on Tuesday night and let them sit all day Wednesday and Thursday
- Thursday I got organized; I pre-weighed all my ingredients (every Macaron recipe I've found is in grams so good thing I have a scale), got my mixer fitted with the whisk, and I lined my baking sheets with parchment paper that I'd drawn 1.5 inch circles on so I made the same size cookies
- Now it was down to actually making the cookies, I followed a recipe and instructions from Brave Tart

1. I mixed my egg whites with the sugar and salt - mixed for a total of 9 minutes
2. Sifted the almond flour with the powdered sugar
3. Added the vanilla and coloring to the egg/sugar/salt mixture (meringue) - mixed for one more minute
4. Added the almond/sugar to the meringue and started to hand mix (fold and press) with a rubber spatula, once I thought the consistency was right I spooned the batter into a piping bag fitted with a regular round tip
5. Piped the cookies onto the prepared baking sheets and let sit for 15-18 minutes so they could firm up
6. Then popped them into the oven to bake and crossed my fingers

The results were mildly successful and most importantly they were edible, but here is what I think I did wrong:

1. I didn't sift the almond flour and powdered sugar enough
2. I didn't mix the meringue, almond flour, and powered sugar into the right consistency; my batter was still kind of lumpy and didn't spread like I thought it should
3. I cooked two tray at once (one on top and one on bottom) and I over cooked them...my first batch produced hollow cookies, which I don't think is right
4. My second batch was just one tray and I cooked them for a less time, 15 rather than 18 minutes, they were better but I still think they need to be cooked for less time

All in all, I was very happy with my first attempt.  Having Melissa there to talk to helped a ton and Brave Tart made the whole process seem less scary.  I will definitely be trying these again.

Oh and I used the Bailey's Ganache recipe from my St. Patty's Day Guinness Cupcakes...delicious!!!

ingredients ready to go

ready to go into the oven

they were supposed to be purple

Success (sort of)

Ruffled Flower Cupcake Toppers

As I was perusing the web I stumbled upon these adorable cupcakes toppers from Jessicakes Blog.  Once I saw these I had to try them, they were just so cute.

For my first attempt everything was going fine until I got a couple splashes of water in my Candy Melts as they were melting, I've heard this is a BIG NO NO, well turns out it's very true.  Once I poured the chocolate out to cool it turned into a rock.  I think I might have strained a neck muscle trying to roll it out, I gave up after seven flowers. The ones I  were able to make were also very brittle and cracked easily.

For my second attempt, I was tasked to make them for an engagement party so I had to make sure I got them right.  I was very careful when melting the chocolate to make sure that no water made its way in and let me tell you, it made all the difference.  I also poured the chocolate out very thin on the wax paper so that it would be easier to roll out.  After taking all those precautions the chocolate was much easier to roll out and I was able to get 16 flowers out of one batch.  It was a success! One great tip Jessicakes had for better presentation was to brush the completed flowers with vodka to clean of the left over cornstarch, it totally works and you can't taste the alcohol after.  I took a before picture of my second attempt but completely forgot to take an after picture so I've included an after picture from my first attempt that shows them all cleaned off.

Ready to be formed

Completed flowers before clean up

First attempt

To make modeling chocolate or candy clay you first melt one bag (14 ounces) of Wilton Candy Melts and then mix in 1/3 cup light corn syrup until until it's fully incorporated.  This may take awhile and your chocolate will seem kind of watery for a bit but after some stirring it will go away and you'll have a nice "ball" of chocolate that you can pour out onto wax paper to cool.  I let my cool overnight before I used it but you could probably use it after it's gotten to room temperature.

Cakepop Solution

To say that my husband is handy is an understatement.  There hasn't been anything I've asked him to make me that he couldn't make.  Recently I asked him to help me make a birthday present for a friend who loves to make cakepops; my idea was to make her a set of cakepop holders out of wood that she could use over and over again instead of buying styrofoam. Well the wood idea didn't turn out so great, instead he had the idea to make them out of metal, that is his profession after all.  He took some measurements and came back with this perfect creation that turned out much better than I had even imagined!!

Freshly Made

Inside plate with holes so they don't tip over

A little color

30 perfectly displayed cakepops

  
The best part was he made the cakepop holder into two pieces that fit perfectly into a Cupcake Courier.  Now there is no worrying about the cakepops tipping over as they're taken to a party.  They hold 15 cakepops each and weigh just under 5 lbs, so you'll also get a workout carrying them around. He also made me my own set that I'm so excited to use.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I wanted to make cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day that weren't just your standard cupcakes with green frosting, I wanted something unique.  So I do what I do best, I started searching the Internet, and it turns out there are so many for fun St. Patrick Day cupcakes.  The one that sounded the best to me was an Irish Car Bomb inspired cupcake, which just so happens to be my favorite St. Patrick's Day shot/drink.  For those that don't know what an Irish Car Bomb is it's a 1/2-3/4 pint of Guinness, 1/2 shot of Baily's and 1/2 shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey; mix the shots together and drop into the pint and drink away! It's delicious and tastes like chocolate milk.  Although I must warn you, be careful when making this drink at home, if not done right the Baily's can curdle (I've learned from experience). 
 
Anyway, I was talking about cupcakes and this recipe I found from Annie's Eats is fantastic! The Baily's Ganache was my favorite part. Since I was on a time crunch to get these done I've rearranged the recipe/directions in the order I did things so that I was able to get everything done in about 2.5 hours.  It also helps to have a husband that loves baked good and can be bribed into helping as long as he gets the first cupcake.
Recipe for Guinness Cupcakes with Baily's Frosting:
 
1. Guinness & Chocolate Cupcakes

• 1 cup Guinness
• 16 tbsp. unsalted butter
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.  Combine the stout and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1½ tsp. baking soda
• ¾ tsp. salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the eggs and sour cream to blend.  Add the stout-butter mixture and beat just to combine.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed just until incorporated.  Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3 to ¾ full.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes.  Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

If you have a 12 cup cupcake pan make the Ganache while the first batch is cooking

2. Baily's Chocolate Ganache

• 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
• 2 tsp. Bailey’s Irish cream

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl.  Heat the cream in a small saucepan until simmering, then pour it over the chocolate.  Let sit for one minute and then whisk until smooth.  If the chocolate is not completely melted, place the bowl over a double boiler or give it a very short burst in the microwave (15-20 seconds).  Add the butter and Bailey’s and stir until combined. Place in fridge to cool, stir every 10 minutes for even cooling

While your second batch of cupcakes are cooking make your Frosting

3. Baily's Buttercream Frosting

• 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3-4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 4-8 tbsp. Bailey’s Irish cream

Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Gradually add the powdered sugar until it is all incorporated.  Mix in the Bailey’s until smooth.  Add more if necessary until the frosting has reached a good consistency for piping or spreading

Once you've made all your cupcakes and they've had time to cool a bit you can pipe the ganache into your cupcakes, I used the Wilton tip #230.  Once all your cupcakes are filled you can frost them how ever you like. Makes 24-30 cupcakes


I was also able to use my new Silhouette to make custom St. Patrick Day cupcake wrappers...so fun!!!

 

S'More Please

Who out there doesn't love S'Mores?  All that chocolate, marshmallow melted goodness sandwiched between two graham crackers, they're delicious. I thought these looked a lot more difficult than they turned out to be, but I took them step by step and they turned out perfect, and not that difficult.  I especially liked the Marshmallow Frosting, it was so light and fluffy, definitely one I'll be using again.

Fresh from the oven

Perfect layers

Yummy marshmallow center

 


















For full recipes of the cupcakes and frosting click here and here

For next time:
- I might try taking the graham cracker crumble (crushed graham crackers, brown sugar, and butter) and make it the bottom layer so it's more like a crust