Even More Baking: Cupcakes!

At Halloween, I saw an idea for mummy cupcakes, so I decided to try a new (to me) dark chocolate cupcake recipe.

I found one at the Brown Eyed Baker blog here.  For these, I used only her cupcake recipe and the Bouchon Bakery recipe for basic buttercream, my favorite buttercream of all time.  Unfortunately, I realized after making the cupcakes and butterream that although I did have Wilton eyeballs on hand (who doesn't?), I didn't have the right sort of tip to create the strips of bandage.  I tried winging it with a round tip and squishing down, but it wasn't quite as precise as I'd have liked.  I've since bought a flat tip for next year, because the cupcakes were definitely good.  And they were cute, they'll just be cuter when done right.

Meanwhile, back in September I was cast in the early December production of Snew White, obviously a takeoff on Snow White, at the Studioplayhouse in Montclair.  I played Evelyn Crabtree, assistant to the Evil Queen.  I figured, what with working with the Evil Queen and all, that it'd be fitting for me to go with a poison apple theme.  So I decided almost immediately that I'd do apple cake pops.  I have Bakerella's book and had done pops just once before, for a Mardi Gras party years ago.  To stay with the theme, I set out to find a good apple cake recipe to use for these pops.

This apple cupcake with brown sugar buttercream (I've determined that I really prefer buttercream that uses zero confectioner's sugar) recipe I found looked just about right, but I needed to test them for both taste and texture.  I made them first as cupcakes for a book club meeting, and they were a complete hit.  Somewhat more like dense muffins than cupcakes, they were really tasty and actually about as healthy as cupcakes are going to get, what with the 4 cups of apples in them!

Test successful.

All that remained was to make them into cake pops for my cast party on December 15.  Yeah, right.  I hit my first stumbling block in searching for the jumbo green diamond sprinkles that Bakerella suggests for a "leaf" on each apple.  Would you believe Wilton discontinued those?  Why on earth, with someone as popular as Bakerella pushing their use in her books and on her blog, why on earth, I ask you, would Wilton discontinue them?!  And I couldn't find anything truly comparable.  Finally, I found Wilton's sugar gems and spent quite a bit of time sorting through them to find the most leaf-like ones.

I was even good about it.  I made the cupcakes that Friday evening and the buttercream Saturday morning.  Saturday after our afternoon performances, I went home, crumbled the cupcakes, mashed in the buttercream, and formed 40-something little cake apples on parchment paper.  Into the fridge they went for the requisite time period, while I got my sticks, "leaves," and pretzel "stems" ready and dug out my candy melts.

Candy melts.  Ha.  A misnomer if I ever heard one.  I had (note:  had) a good number of red candy melts.  Tried to melt them.  Failed.  Decided my apples would be pale green.  Tried my green & white candy melts.  Better luck, but not by much.  I ended up with a candy melt paste that I had to spackle on to each "apple," which therefore no longer actually looked like apples, after I spent all that time shaping them into cute little apple shapes.  Ugh.  Sticks, candy melt spackle, pretzel stick stems, and after an even 40 I gave up.  I was exhausted, disheartened, and annoyed.  Why can Bakerella get her melts to hit a nice liquid and mine were a mess?  It's not like I've never melted chocolate before.  I make chocolate candies, for pete's sake.  I even tried adding a little vegetable oil based on a tip I found online, and it did very little.  Plus, I think that's kind of gross.

If any of you have any ideas, let me know, because I'm about ready to never make a cake pop again as long as I live.  If I ever do succumb and make another pop, I'm only using good chocolate to coat them, and the heck with cutesy shapes and colors.  I just can't do it.  Notice I'm not providing a photo of my pops.  There aren't any.  No way, no how.

Meanwhile, my fellow cast members & the show's crew loved them.  Of course.  Thought they were adorable and delicious.  Delicious, I agree.  Adorable?  Go figure.  One fellow actor actually said that I have a great "go to" when I get invited anywhere.  Hahahahahahaha!  Obviously, they looked easy and low-labor.

But I promised cupcakes in this post, so enough about my semi-failed/semi-successful cake pops, and on to more cupcakes!

My office holiday party.

I made that Bouchon Bakery tart.  But it just so happens that there is one single, solitary woman in the office who's allergic to hazelnuts.  Of course.  The one nut in the tart is her one allergy.  Sigh.  So I had to make something else as well.  I went back to the Brown Eyed Baker's dark chocolate cupcakes, but this time I topped them with Bouchon Bakery's peanut butter buttercream, the recipe for the filling in Sebastien Rouxel's Better Nutters.  Wow.  Rich and... well, rich... and wow.  Again, a hit.

I may complain and I may wear myself out, but I really do love baking.  I promise.

So... June's Almost Over

It's hard to believe that we're into summer & June's almost over already.

I've been keeping busy, obviously.  I'm working on another washcloth for the shop, and taking breaks to knit something for myself for the very first time, a sweater!

I've actually done a bunch more since this photo was taken; it's at about 9" now.  In 5" I'll have to start accounting for the armholes.  Yikes!  This is my first article of clothing aside from scarves.  Eric is happy I'm doing something for myself, though.  It seems I really do make everything for everyone else or the shop, not much for me.  And this is an easy way to start; it's just a sleeveless shell which will be great with jeans or even under a suit jacket.

I've also been watering the wildflowers I planted.  There's a lot of green happening & the occasional flower.  I was kind of hoping for this burst of color... besides green.  At least they seem to be healthy, which for a brown thumb like me is huge.

And we had our annual Mardi Gras in June party, at which we serve crawfish & other Louisiana-themed food.  I made two pecan pies and two dozen cupcakes.

And it was fun to watch the two-year-olds.  Our nephews (center and right) and the next door neighbors's son, also 2 (left) were completely enamoured with the fish.

That's all the fun stuff.  On the not-so-fun side, I got into a car accident that's had my car in the shop being fixed for over two weeks now, and it's driving me crazy (I'm fine, don't worry).  And we found out we have to move, so we're house hunting.  I hate moving, so I'm not looking forward to this.

So... that's been our June.  Hope yours has been all fun with none of the other stuff!

Poultry in Motion

Did I mention I've been in a show?  Poultry in Motion is a fun take-off on the Chicken Little Story, and I'm playing Henny Penny!  We've been having a ton of fun, and today are our last two performances.

Yes, two.  Children's shows are under an hour, and so we have two performances each day.

At any rate, immediately following our final performance and the subsequent strike of our set will be the cast party.  Waaaaaaaaaay back during rehearsals, I "called" cupcakes.  Glad I did, too, since someone else asked to be the cupcake-bringer a day or two ago.  But see, I'd seen these, and just knew they were too perfect.  Chicks for Chicken Little, right?!

So... my rendition.

I didn't burnish the edges to make them all smooth, but I think they're adorable.  It would've been tough, because underneath the fondant "cracked shell," I used vanilla buttercream instead of a fondant disc on my chocolate cupcakes.

I measured and cut my fondant circles with a wine glass that was just about the right size, and cut the "cracks" in advance of placing them on the cupcakes.  It made them a little more difficult to transfer to the cakes, but if I'd cut them on the buttercream, they'd have stuck.

Then it was just a matter of making yellow and orange fondant, forming the body and head balls, making those tiny cone beaks, and doing the combs.  The hardest part?  The combs.  The fondant wanted to stick to the knife and drag.

And then, since I don't have a black food marker, just the "bright" colors, I gave them all nice blue eyes.

Adorable, right?  Adorable.

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Artist Spotlight: Part Thirty-Four

Wow.  Just wow.

No, really.  I've never seen anything like this.

This week's artist is Joy, creator of Eye Candey.  And eye candy she's got!  I don't even know where to start with this bookaholic football fan from Buffalo, NY who now lives in Tampa, FL.  Look, for instance, at her fun and funky jewelry.

Or her funny t-shirts.

Very modern vinyl wall decor, a hot thing right now.

Want something a little more statement-making?  How 'bout this one?

I think that says it all, don't you?  But if you're not into the vinyl, she has repositionable and reusable fabric wall decor too.

I'm such a fan of the whole Steampunk thing, I really am.  But I love this great abstract set!

How much fun could you have with that?  Seriously.  Is it at all surprising that she says she's a lover of all things wild, wacky and over the top?  Not to me, it's not!

Speaking of wild and wacky, how about this awesome fabric wall decal?

I think I'm in love.

But that lollipop has reminded me to tell you about her edible wares.  Yes, edible.  She makes printed cake and cupcake toppers, which you can have customized!  Look at these adorable things!

Is that funny, or what?  What a terrific idea!

And her edible stuff isn't the only thing she'll customize.  She will actually print fabric that you yourself design!  That's just fabulous for you artists who make purses, clothes, stuffed animals and dolls... pretty much anything!  With my new forays into sewing, you just know I'm going to be taking her up on this.  That said, if you can't think of a design, she's got some ready-made stuff for you as well, like this moustache fabric.

And these great Victorian panels that are perfect for quilting.

There's tons of information, of course, on her blog, as well as tips and tutorials, posts about outrageous food, and a plethora of other subjects.  Check it out!