cupcakes after college

Kitty Cat Cupcakes

2011-09-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

My good friend Carla is the ultimate kitty lover. Unlike Liz and I, Carla actually owns two adorable long hair cats, Vera Wang and Coco Chanel. While she was on vacation, I got to cat-sit and they are just the most lovable cats you'll ever meet. I'll find a picture of the two munchkins and post it here soon.

It seemed appropriate for Carla's birthday that we make her some kitten cupcakes. Andrea and I decided to make Cat Cupcakes from Hello Cupcake's first book. Side note : Hello Cupcake's 3rd book "Cupcakes, Cookies & Pie Oh My!" is coming out January 31st and someone *ehem* should think about purchasing this and saving it for my birthday :) Anyways, I digress. Carla is also an amazingly talented artist, so I always feel a wee bit more pressure to deliver cupcakes that are flawless when I'm giving them to a fellow artist. You can check out her Twiggy paintings here.

Meet the kitties! We decided to alternate between pink and brown fur.. just for fun!

The tongues are made by rolling pink starbursts until they are soft and then shaping them into tongues.

The fishbone is made by melting white chocolate chips, scooping the melted chocolate into a zip lock bag and then piping out the shape on wax paper.

The whole kitten caboodle

We decorated Carla's cube at work with the cupcakes on Rachael Hale's Glamour Cats plates that I ordered off of Amazon. They can be found here

Cat Cake

2011-08-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love cats? Well, I for one sure do. And so does my very very good friend Liz. Liz doesn't own a cat (and neither do I) but that doesn't stop us from enjoying awesome cat videos. Here are some of my all-time favorite videos:

Surprised Kitten - 57 Million Views
Ninja Cat - 28 Million Views
Cat Burglar

I decided to make Liz a cat cake for her 40th birthday. I baked most of the cake pieces the day before and then spent the morning of her party icing the cake. Big thanks to my Aunt Tina for giving me LOTS of icing bags and tips, which definitely helped in achieving the fur like texture.

Credit for this recipe goes to Wilton's "Happy Tabby Cake." I put my touch on their version by using Oreos with Junior Mints for the eyes and adding a collar made out of candy rope and Sour Peach pieces from the Sweet Factory. I also melted chocolate chips and made whiskers and a mouth too.

The finished Cat Cake!

Covered in chocolate, still in my PJs, icing the ears (made of sugar cookies)

The Birthday Girl and her Cat Cake!

Birthday Cupcake-Cake

2011-06-05T22:36:00.000-07:00

Another birthday creation! I made this cupcake-tower-cake for my good friend Shannon's birthday. The birthday candles were made with chocolate Pirouette Cookies from Pepperidge Farms.

Happy Birthday Shanny! <3

Marie's Birthday Cupcakes

2011-06-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

I made the tops of these cupcakes by melting cherry jolly ranchers in the oven and cutting out shapes with cookie cutters.

How to do this! (Very easy technique)

Start by pre heating the oven to 350 degrees.
Then, select which colors, or color combos you want to melt and unwrap the candies from the plastic wrapper.
Place the unwrapped candies on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and pop in the oven for 5-10 minutes.
After the candy is melted, take the candy out of the oven and push a cookie cutter into the melted candy.
After the candy is hardened remove the cookie cutter and pop out the pieces.

Since this was the first time I did this, I had a lot of the pieces break :( However, I can definitely see how this technique has many applications for future baking creations! The cupcakes themselves were red velvet with cream cheese frosting. **Side note, I didn't have my camera with me so the pictures were taken using my phone. Not the best, but you get the idea :)

The birthday girl with her cupcakes!

Laverne's Cupcakes

2011-03-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

I made these cupcakes for Lauren's birthday. They turned out pretty cute and were pretty easy to make - instructions are below.

Everyone thought they were Laverne and Shirley cupcakes (a show from the 70s/80s). I have never seen Laverne and Shirley so I was thoroughly confused. But.. after some googling, I get the resemblance. PS these were G-Free too.. and I didn't get to eat ANY since I gave up cupcakes/cookies for lent. boo.

How to Make Chocolate Letters and Shapes

1. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave. To do this, place chocolate chips in microwave safe bowl and add about a tablespoon of canola oil. Microwave for 20 seconds, take out and stir. Repeat the microwaving and stirring until the chips are smooth. Be careful not to overheat, burnt chocolate tastes pretty yucky.
2. Get a large plate or cutting board and cover it tightly in saran wrap. Wax paper also works well.
3. Add melted chocolate to a ziploc bag and cut the corner.
4. Spell out your shapes, letters, etc on the saran wrap.
5. If you want to, add nonpareils to the letters for color and snazzyness. If you don't want to do this, you could some cool shapes like these I made a while back.
5. Take the plate or cutting board and place it in the freezer or fridge to set the chocolate. Wait about 10 minutes, remove the plate and carefully peel your letters off. As you can see above, they are VERY fragile - most of my cursive "L"'s broke in the process of peeling them off :(

Nurse Cupcakes

2011-03-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

I made these for a friend at work who was leaving to go to nursing school!

The middle nurse was sad that she was leaving us at Deutsch...

photos were taken with my cell phone... so a little blurry :(

Superbowl Stadium

2011-02-21T17:45:00.000-08:00

Andrew LOVES football. I like making things out of food. Meet our football stadium we made together for Superbowl Sunday. Andrew found the recipe on a football blog, bought all the ingredients, and we got to work!

Making the field

Yes, those are slim jims

The finished stadium!

LA Cupcake Challenge

2011-02-05T18:29:00.000-08:00

Drink Eat Play hosts an annual "Cupcake Challenge" at the Renaissance hotel in Hollywood. The event brings together about 20 different cupcake shops from around the LA area. You show up (bring tupperware) and sample 35 mini cupcakes. Yep, you read that right, you EAT 35 mini cupcakes.. and thats if you don't go back for seconds (which I did). Definitely a challenge in self restraint!

This cupcake from My Delight Cupcakery had FRIED CHICKEN on it..

Our loot! We did pretty good :)

Punch! Blue One!

2010-12-27T11:11:00.000-08:00

I made these VW cupcakes for a meeting we had at work with our clients. I was pretty stumped because I had NO idea how to make a VW cupcake without the logo looking messy (like these). After some brainstorming, I figured out that if I could mold a VW logo, I could make a chocolate mold. I found some molding material at Michael's and immediately went in search of something small enough to mold (keeping in mind that whatever logo I molded had to fit on the top of a cupcake). Andrew and Jamie were so nice to find me some VW logos and parts of off cars, but they were just too big! Finally, I think it was Dustin that suggested I try molding the VW logo off the steering wheel! Andrea and I ran outside to one of the many beautiful VW models out front and got to work.

The completed VW mold with white chocolate piped in. After the white chocolate hardened,
I backed it with white chocolate dyed blue to complete each chocolate cap.

The finished VW chocolate caps (still need to have edges trimmed)

The finished cupcakes!

Thank you to everyone who helped me make these! They were definitely a lot of fun to complete and it was my first experience making my own chocolate mold. I still have some molding material left over, so I'm open to any suggestions of something else I could mold to make cupcakes!

Gobble Gobble!

2010-11-26T10:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

These cupcakes are from the recipe on the Duncan Hines Holiday Website and I thought they were so funny! I made them on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and they kept overnight in the fridge really well. Almost all of them survived the 6 hour drive to Arizona too!

The base is a regular sized cupcake and the face is a mini cupcake (although I think a super mini cupcake would have worked better since I didn't have room to affix the name-tags on the original recipe).

I used graham cracker sticks for the tail since I couldn't find the cookies they called for in the recipe. The eye balls are pearl candy pieces from Gloria's Cake and Candy Supplies since I had no idea where to find chocolate covered sunflower seeds?! They are pretty darn cute and definitely a crowd pleaser :)

This turkey looks a little peeved.

My gang of turkeys.

Me and my gang
(apparently google says gang is what you call a group of turkeys?)

this is me

2010-11-15T23:35:00.000-08:00

(and so I can help a great cause!)

I'm running the 2011 LA Marathon for Youth Mentoring Connection
join me and support here : http://www.active.com/donate/ymc/WhitneySpathelf

Hoot!

2010-11-15T23:15:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year I made some owl cupcakes for a friends birthday. I totally forgot to add these to the blog... but better later than never! I think these cupcakes are very kid friendly, easy to make, and don't require crazy ingredients.

The materials: cupcakes, chocolate frosting, banana runts, oreos, and mini junior mints

aww. always helping me :) He was the ear-expert.

Referencing the cupcake bible, Hello Cupcake

hoot!

More Buttah!

2010-10-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

Some people like butter in their mashed potatoes. Alex likes mashed potatoes in her butter. Literally. We've had to restrain her from adding butter.

So... I made her some mashed potato cupcakes for her 20th birthday and had the waitress bring them out at the restaurant as if they were a real side dish. Alex didn't figure it out for a second and the look on her face is priceless when she realizes they are in fact cupcakes and not mashed pototoes.

Credit goes to Hello Cupcake! for this creation :)

LA ♥ U

2010-10-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

My friend Brittney recently got an amazing new job... in Portland, OR. I know everyone in LA was so bummed to see her go, but at the same time very excited for this new chapter. She threw a going away party at Bodega Wine Bar's fabulous new Hollywood location. I thought it fitting to make a going away cupcake/cake for the occasion and enlisted the help of our friend Dan for a little design inspiration. I usually don't try to design cakes before I make them - I just have a general idea in my head and it either works or it doesn't. This time, I tried to sketch it out first - and this is my feeble attempt :

The circles with LA and U in them were meant to be cupcakes, and the heart in the middle was meant to be a cake. I wasn't in love with the idea, so I shared it with Dan, and he very quickly sent me his new design concept:

Armed with my new design concept I got to work and made a quick run to Gloria's Cake and Candy Supplies where I purchased a cake board and cookie cutters. My plan was to make the LA, Heart, and U out of sugar cookies, cover them in fondant icing and then lay them on top of the cake. It turns out I SUCK at making sugar cookies - the mixing part is easy but I could not figure out how to cut little letters out of it without it all falling apart. I ended up molding the letters by hand, which turned out surprisingly successful.

The "L" in the above picture has already been wrapped with fondant and looks pretty sweet. I then made your basic square cake, frosted it with vanilla frosting, and then covered it with a homemade fondant icing recipe. Then I got a little creative! I made a stencil out the Dodger's iconic LA graphic and spray painted the cake with food coloring spray canisters (available at your local grocery store).

I continued to layer the spray painted letters and then added the fondant wrapped cookie letters on top and ta-da, the "LA ♥ U" Cake:

I am super stoked with the way this one turned out! Big thanks to Dan for the concept, and to all of Brittney's friends for gobbling it up! I'll miss you Britt! xoxo

Magic Birthday Cupcakes!

2010-08-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

My birthday this year was undoubtedly the BEST YET. Lets just say that by the end of my birthday I had received 50 cupcakes (no exaggeration!) I was in heaven!!!

Over my birthday week-long celebration, some very amazing special people sent me cupcakes from Babycakes Bakery, Hotcakes Bakes, Cupcakes Couture, The Sensitive Baker, and some amazing homemade cupcakes too! Gee - looks like my friends are really catching on to my cupcake obsession!

Cupcakes # 1-32

Lets just say I made lots of friends at work with all these delicious goodies! BIG thanks to Jenny, Liz, Matt, Sara, Laurie, and Alex for 3 different kinds!

Cupcakes #32-38

My amazingly creative roommate Charlie found some delicious gluten-free cupcakes from The Sensitive Baker in Culver City and turned them into Barbie doll versions of me! I love these! I've never tried gluten free goods from this bakery before and they were even more delicious than the gluten-free Babycakes. Check out "Athletic Whitney," "Edgy Whitney," "Cowgirl Whitney," "Sorority Whitney," "Wedding Whitney," and "Travel Whitney!" Too funny! We lit the candle on Edgy Whitney! haha

We went to the Magic Castle in Hollywood on Friday night.... and Alex rolled out of the car with these bad boys!!! I was in AWE and so happy! I was even more excited when Andrew told me that he and Alex spent the ENTIRE DAY making them from scratch! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! I am pretty sure I have some serious cupcake-making competition now :)

Cupcakes #38-50

These were my FAVORITE cupcakes from my birthday and such an amazing surprise!

Thank you to everyone who made my birthday so so special this year! :)

Olé Olé Olé! Sombrero Cupcakes

2010-08-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

My friend Dan (read : artist extraordinaire) invited me to his birthday bbq this past weekend. I volunteered to bring cupcakes (obvi) and asked him what he wanted. I have to say, I definitely was expecting him to give me a challenge and he did! His request : "Make me edible sombreros." Done and done.

After spending an hour googling.. (I really had no idea where to start and had never seen sombrero cupcakes before).. I finally found some inspiration. After the google search "sombrero cupcakes" turned up with nothing, I searched "sombrero cookies" and found these gems here. "Blissfully Domestic" had make some sugar cookies into little sombreros for Cinco de Mayo and they looked pretty legit.

My first trip was to Gloria's Cake and Candy Supplies (aka Whitney's version of heaven) to pick up some supplies I would need for the sombreros. When I lived in Silverlake, I literally would drive clear across town to visit this shop. Now, it is conveniently very very close to my work so I have a feeling I will be going there more often.. Gloria's had some mexican themed sugar pieces which I purchased as well as nonpareils (don't ask me how to pronounce that) in EVERY COLOR in the rainbow.

I started on the cookies and they turned out pretty much exactly the same as the ones I had seen. However, after I showed Andrew the sombreros, and told him I was going to just put them atop a cupcake, he just didn't seem wowed (and me either..) His recommendation? Donut holes.

Here are the finished cupcakes!

Gluten Free Cupcakes

2010-08-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

My very first gluten free cupcakes! OK, I cheated a little bit.. I went to the Whole Foods and bought a package of gluten free mix made by Pamela's. I chose the Vanilla Cake mix and also purchased the vanilla icing mix as well. I've never claimed I could make good cupcakes from scratch... I just like to decorate them!

I brought these cupcakes to work on a Sunday for a meeting we had. The cupcakes were themed green and white (the color of the client's brand we were working on).

The white decorations on top of the cupcakes are white chocolate chips that I melted in the microwave with a little bit of vegetable oil. I then put the melted chocolate into a plastic baggy and piped it onto parchment paper laid on top of a cutting board. Too make things set faster, I put the whole board in the freezer for 10 minutes and the chocolate set right away.

Tip : when icing cupcakes, put the icing in the fridge to chill it. Using chilled icing gives more definition on your cupcakes (although you need to put the cupcakes in the fridge after icing to preserve the design).

What I loved about these cupcakes is that they were very easy to make! All I needed were two store bought mixes, some white chocolate chips and some food coloring! You definitely don't have to go crazy to make cupcakes look cool!

P.S. Thanks to andrew for the new camera that takes super awesome close up pictures!

Dangerous Cupcakes

2010-08-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

In college, my roommate Charlie earned the middle name "Danger" and somehow it stuck. I'm pretty sure everyone thinks that she was given the name at birth, because none of us could tell you her real middle name if you asked.

For her 24th birthday she decided to theme her birthday "Danger". My favorite party costume was our friend who dressed up in a towel and carried around a toaster; very clever.

These are the cupcakes I made Char for her birthday!

The letters are made of melting chocolate (note: NOT chocolate chips, you can buy melting chocolate at a baking specialty store). The yellow cupcakes are two types; plain yellow iced cupcakes and yellow cupcakes with yellow coconut flakes on top.

Babycakes Cupcake Bingo!

2010-06-23T12:59:00.000-07:00

There is an amazing bakery downtown LA called Babycakes Bakery. My friend Dan recommended I check it out (he is well aware of my cupcake obsession). I've been there a couple times now and each time I've gone the cupcakes were delicious! Babycakes is also a gluten free - egg free bakery. For those of you who don't need to eat gluten free, don't fret, I brought two cupcakes to work with me and my coworker proclaimed it was the best cupcake she'd ever had because it wasn't obnoxiously sugary.

Babycakes also has non-gluten free cupcakes made from spelt and sweetened with agave nectar. They also use cold pressed coconut oil for their icing. This means that you always have to refrigerate the cupcakes or the icing will melt, but they are still oh-so-yummy!

Read below for an excerpt from their website about why they are so special:

"In a city dominated by cupcakes overflowing with sugar, flour and butter cream, it’s easy for those with persnickety diets to feel left out. BabyCakes offers all-natural, organic and delicious alternatives free from the common allergens: wheat, gluten, dairy, casein and eggs. Rest assured, all sweeteners have been chosen responsibly and used sparingly. White sugar will never be found in our bakery, nor will we ever use toxic chemical sweeteners. Instead, most products are sweetened with agave nectar—a natural syrup from a cactus which is low on the glycemia index and often a safe alternative to most non-insulin dependant diabetics. Occasionally, unprocessed and unrefined sugar is used in certain goods, although sparingly."

I started following @BabycakesNYCLA on twitter and found out that every Tuesday they do Cupcake Bingo! You can imagine my excitement. I dragged Andrew to meet me there after work and I wasn't disappointed!

The bingo ball chooser

The box our bingo babies playing pieces came in

Cupcakes & Bingo - pretty good combination :)

The cupcake case at Babycakes Bakery!

We bought a gluten free red velvet cupcake to share and got two bingo cards and a box of "Bingo Babies". We stayed about 30 minutes and played maybe 4-5 rounds of Bingo. I got my first (and only) Bingo about five minutes after I sat down and received a free cupcake of my choice! I had a great time and I look forward to dragging more of my friends to Cupcake Bingo on Tuesdays at Babycakes!

Lets go Lakeshow!

2010-06-11T14:11:00.000-07:00

Check out these yummy Lakers themed cupcakes that Crumbs Bake Shop has made in honor of the championships! I googled "Celtics cupcakes" and no one had made anything for them. Ha!

Happy Cupcaking! - W

Six Taste Downtown LA Food Tour

2010-06-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

I found out about this Food Tour on Goldstar, which is a great website that finds discounted tickets for events in LA. The food tour is hosted by a company called "Six Taste" and is a relatively new attraction in the LA area. They started up last December, and have been adding new tours ever since. We went on the "Financial District Food Tour" of the downtown Los Angeles area. Tickets were $30 on Goldstar or $60 full price. We ended up having to get one of each because the tour sold out!

The tour starts downtown LA at Pershing Square where we met the other 12 people participating in the tour, and our tour guide Ben. The idea is that you visit 5 different restaurants, sample a little bit of food at each place, and learn about LA's architecture and history along the way!

Our first stop was a cafe called "Lost Souls Cafe" in a small alley. Located near the art district and spring street, the cafe is a very popular destination for the monthly downtown Art Walk crowd and features an edgy, underground cafe feel. The owners are Filipino, and have infused some of their heritage into the items on the menu. We sampled Ube milkshakes and Pandesol - two traditional Filipino dishes that I've had before, but they were still delicious!

Our guide, Ben outside Syrup Desserts

Our second stop on the tour was "Syrup Desserts" . This was my FAVORITE stop as we sampled cranberry, gouda, and pear grilled cheese, waffles, and tangerine mint infused iced tea. Needless to say, I was pretty pleased! My favorite item was the chocolate waffles. They were so rich (not sure I could eat a whole one) and very yummy! The cafe also has great seating downstairs and upstairs, as well as a nice little selection of board games to play while you wait for your food!

The dessert case at "Syrup Desserts"

Our third stop was "Mac & Cheeza". I've been to this little restaurant before when it first opened as I went through a phase where I was obsessed with mac & cheese. This place is definitely intended to be a take-out only restaurant, there isn't a whole lot of seating inside. The great thing about Mac & Cheeza is that they have both vegan options AND rice noodles! I have to say though, as much as I am a fan of Mac & Cheese in general, this place doesn't hit the spot and their recipes could be improved.

Outside Mac & Cheeza

The fourth stop was Soi 7, a new thai restaurant that just opened in the last year. The restaurant was very interesting on the inside. Our tour guide told us that everything inside the restaurant was imported from Thailand. There is a huge intricate wood carving on one wall that was especially striking and really gave the restaurant a great vibe. We sampled coconut curry rice, tofu pad thai, calamari, and a beef dish. Everything was delicious and I will definitely come back!

We then headed to the Los Angeles Library, a beautiful building with really interesting features. As you can see from the photo below, the steps leading up to the building are meant to resemble bindings on a book. The building also features a pyramid at the top, which is mimicked in the corporate buildings around the library.

The Los Angeles Library

Our final stop was "Ciudad" restaurant, at the bottom of Andrew's building where he works. The food was delicious, we had empanadas and deviled eggs.

We had such a fun day (the weather was AMAZING) and I am definitely looking forward to checking out their others tours too (Little Tokyo, Santa Monica Farmers Market, etc.). I would absolutely recommend this tour to anyone who has relatives visiting, or just want to do something a little different on the weekends!

xo, W

King Mueller's Medieval Times Cake

2010-02-11T12:45:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know, its been about a YEAR since I've posted anything. I apologize for not being the best blogger ever - but I promise that I will try to be a little more on top of it. I do have some pretty exciting cakes/cupcakes I've made recently to post about!

Cutting the pieces to shape out the castle

OK so here is my latest creation - The Castle Cake! Made for my boyfriend Andrew's 25th birthday. He decided that he wanted to go to Medieval Times for his birthday - so he told everyone a couple months in advance to save the date and started planning. I made the facebook invitation, and googled old english sayings to include in it. I know its pretty short, but it took me a while to make it funny/make sense. I've pasted it below:

Good morrow mi’ladies and good sirs,
Hear ye hear ye! The honour of thy presence is requested at Sir Andrew Mueller’s day of birth festivites on the 9th of January. Prithee thou shalt be able to attend! Thy wenches shall fetch the ale whilst we feast on the supper of Kings! Methinks not thou shalt miss this splendid eve. If thou desires to partake in thine debauchery I bid thou shall RSVP to thine invite. Hark now, methinks I do hear the sounds of the duelists preparing for combat! Come hither thine tosspots and let us celebrate! Fare thee well my good gentleman and fair mistresses,
~Sir Andrew

Here are some curses for everyone to practice….
"You poor, base rascally, cheating, lack-linen mate!"
"You bottle-ale rascal!"
"Standest thou there the lyingest knave in Christendom."
"Thou art a boil, a plague-sore, or embossed carbuncle."
"Thou art...the son and heir of a mongrel bitch!"

I decided that it would be appropriate to make him a Castle Cake in honor of the occassion. I saw a mold in Michael's Craft Store, but I decided that I could probably manage making it without the mold.

Cutting the cake to make the moat around the castle

I baked a bunch of different sized cakes and then cut them into squares. I then iced all of the cakes and decorated the front of the castle with Grey M&M's (you have to specially purchase these from a candy shop). The turrets were made out of ice cream cones. I took the cones and dipped them in dyed white chocolate that was supposed to be red but it looked more pink. The flags on top of the turrets were toothpicks with airheads cut into the shape of flags. The castle door was made of molded red (pink) chocolate. And finally, my favorite part was the MOAT! The moat was actually jell-o made with vodka instead of water and then I put little swedish fish inside it. When the jell-o was mostly set, I spooned it into the moat and onto the cake. It doesn't seep into the cake as you might think since its partially set.

The finished cake!

I'm really happy with the finished result of the cake. It was delicious and it looked great! Andrew and everyone else liked it SO much no one wanted to cut into it! Oh well, it was still fun making it :)

The Economy Cake

2008-11-25T13:49:00.000-08:00

My housemate mentioned last night that it was her co-workers birthday. I asked if she was going to do anything for the occasion and suggested that we could make cupcakes together (since I just have boxes and boxes of ready mix and icing). I ended up making the cake myself (which I don't mind at ALL because its an opportunity to practice!) and I think it turned out pretty interesting. The cake reminds me of charlie and the chocolate factory, and I'm not sure what I was going for..... but anyways, here it is. I baked a small cake and iced it green and then stacked iced cupcakes on top.

I'd call it the economy cake because its made from a store bought mix - total cost would be less than $5. And I guess the budget for cakes at my housemates work was cut.. so more of these might have to be made :)

P.S. the aftermath!

The Best Banana Cake

2008-11-24T00:02:00.001-08:00

For my friend's birthday, she decided to have a "Golden Banana Birthday." I'm not sure why she chose a banana theme, but she did manage to get all the people who dressed up like bananas for halloween to donate their costumes to her birthday shenanigans. In honor of her "theme" I decided to take banana bread to a whole new level with this banana cake I made. The base was a cake, not bread, and it tasted amazing. It was very moist and everyone said it was the best banana cake they had ever eaten.

The recipe for this cake can be found here. I decided against icing the cake with cream cheese frosting, and instead I iced the cake with simple white icing and then laid yellow fondant over it. I then took a small paintbrush and painted the cake with brown foodcoloring to look like a banana. I even took a sticker from a real banana and put it on the cake. It definetly looked EXACTLY like a banana, and I'm really happy with the way it looked and tasted.

The Birthday Girl and her Banana Cake!

Political Pastries

2008-11-22T19:59:00.000-08:00

In honor of election day I made these cupcakes (in a big hurry) to give to my sister to take to school on November 4, 2008.

Fondant Icing Cakes

2008-11-22T19:14:00.000-08:00

Two years ago I took a summer job working for a catering company that did weddings in the Santa Barbara/Santa Ynez Valley. While the work was tiring and repetitive; setting up tables and chairs, and passing out appetizers and drinks; I loved seeing all the wedding details. From the place settings, to the flowers, to the bride's dress and all the different color schemes I couldn't get enough. Most of the weddings we did had a dual purpose : the ceremony and reception were held at the same location. These were my favorite, since you saw everything come together from behind the scenes.

I was always fascinated with the cakes at the weddings. They were delicate, detailed, and unique creations. The one thing that every cake had in common was its perfection. For every cake I had ever made, I used the traditional ready made icing and spread the icing over a cooled cake with a knife. My cakes were pretty, but I lacked that "perfect finish" look. I realized at these weddings that they used some sort of icing that was smooth and solid looking. After researching icings online I found out that most cakes use a type of fondant icing.

You can buy fondant icing at a baking supply store, or you can make your own. I decided to make my own using powdered sugar and marshmallows. I found an easy fondant icing recipe online (i've included the link at the bottom of this post). Fondant can be applied to cakes using two methods. It can either be poured over the cake or rolled out like dough and laid on the cake.

While the recipe I found was easy to make, it didn't taste all that great. Fondant icing is basically just sugar, so I am curious to find a recipe (or store bought brand) that tastes better. I can't imagine wedding cakes being made out of fondant icing that tastes like marshmallows and sugar. (caterers aren't exactly invited to try the wedding cake...) I have researched some recipes and including some kind of extract (vanilla or almond) improves taste.

Anyways, my first attempt with fondant icing was pretty successful. I made two cakes (one for my parents) and one for my birthday party.

For the heart shaped cake, I decided to use pink icing (cliche, I know). In the process of mixing the red food coloring into the icing, I realized you could create a swirl effect by not mixing in the food coloring entirely. This created a neat color for the heart cake. I then rolled up strips of fondant icing to make roses and made green vine and leaf accents.

For the second cake (my birthday cake) I decided to do some spontaneous decorations with the fondant icing. Its really easy to dye and the icing has the consistency of play dough, so you can do almost anything with it. The key to using fondant icing is to frost the cake first with a store bought (or homemade) icing (buttercream works well) and then lay the fondant icing over. This gives the cake more flavor, keeps it moist, and allows the fondant icing to have something to stick to.

Here is how my second cake turned out:

I am happy with the way the cake turned out. Fondant icing always gets a great response from people since its rarely used by novice bakers. I hope to improve my technique and find a tastier recipe next time!

Shark & Penguin Cupcakes

2008-11-22T18:19:00.000-08:00

One day when I was browsing through Urban Outiftters' many nifty gadgets and trendy books, I found this amazing book.

It features an abundance of ideas for making cute, creative, and original cupcakes. The book also has a lot of recipes for your basic vanilla/chocolate cupcakes and icings.

I have only tried one recipe, and it took HOURS to finish, but it was well worth my time. I made the cupcakes for my friend's birthday party. We decided to do a combo of Shark cupcakes and Penguin cupcakes. When we messed up on one cupcake, we made it the dying penguin that the sharks ate. We poured a little red food coloring on the cupcake for blood. A little morbid, I know, but it was very funny when we told everyone the sharks were eating the penguins. They were a big hit!

We had to make the penguins purple and the sharks pink because we didn't have the right food coloring. This made our cupcakes even more comical. The cupcakes survived the four hour drive to San Francisco and our friends gobbled them up pretty fast. Here is a close-up photo of our finished masterpiece.

More information about the recipes in this book and its authors can be found at : http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/.