Cupcake FAIL: A Cupcake Only A Mother Could Love

The urge stuck me, one sleepy Saturday afternoon. I was trolling the Internet for some Spring cupcakespiration to blog about when I spotted them. So innocent, so unassuming. Little did I know they would soon become my nemeses.

They were a baby chick, a baby sheep, and a kitten to be exact. Sound harmless to you? Yeah, just wait.

*Note: images depicted to the right and left were the cupcakespiration - NOT what I created.

You see, I'm charged with the most sacred sister-in-law baby shower duty of providing enough sugar to propel the baby games into action! More importantly, I had to practice my craft so that come the day of the event, I'll know I have a winner.

Thank the good Martha Stewart that I did a trial run! Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you today, an original Cupcakin It Up FAIL. Prepare yourself for a serious barn-raising stinker that would make even the hungriest Wilbur strangle himself in Charlotte's Web.

It all started very promising...


Ironically, the above icing was the best I've ever made! Such a shame... my secret?
No milk, all butter!! I used:

About 1/2+ a box of confectioner's sugar
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla
1.5 sticks of butter

Then I iced the entire cupcake (yellow-dyed icing for the chickies and white icing for the sheep).


I dyed the coconut yellow for the chicken feathers and borrowed a chocolate almond from my snacks and a couple of chocolate chips from my baking cupboard.

Still thinking this looks promising? Yeah, me too... and yet...

This little turd hatched before my eyes - he sorta looks like Chicken Little but on crack.



Ok, so at this point, I'm feeling just a little disheartened. It doesn't look anything like the picture. In fact, if anything, this belongs on an episode of the Twilight Zone.

But I forge on and prepare the baby sheep...


I pulled out a handful of marshmallows, chocolate chips, and even some red icing for accents. "This is going to be adorable and delicious," I think to myself. It will totally make up for the swamp thing that is likely hailing its mothership as I ice.

Or will it?!...

Wrong again! And I thought the last one was extraterrestrial - run Little Bow Peep, RUN!! Bring the garlic and the crucifix! This is not a drill!


Note how I valiantly try to make the eyes less creepy by giving it pupils. FAIL.

Ok, so maybe you're thinking to yourself, "Cheryl, this one isn't SO bad," - well, hi mom, thanks for still loving me!! To the rest of you, I apologize that you had to witness this cupcaketastrify!

And still I march on... I don't even bother to photograph the creepy cat I wind up making. It will undoubtedly appear in some kind of cautionary tale about what lives under your bed. But check out the whole demented family here:



And that, kids, is how you turn cute and cuddly farm animals scary, creepy creatures ;)

Get your PINK on - it's Spring time!

What's not to love about Spring? The sun is out, the weather is warm(ish), and pink is back in fashion on baked goods! When dessert extraordinaire, Christyn of Bead Up! posted her most recent pink creations on Facebook, I knew it was time to bust out the Spring features on Cupcakin It Up!

Christyn is great at making the best out of the materials at hand - something that Cupcakin It Up most certainly values in every creation! Christyn enrolled in a cake decorating class at Michael's Arts & Crafts to learn these mad skillz. Across the country, I've only heard good things about these cake and fondant classes.

"I made the bow at my first cake decorating class, all the instructions are here... I had some pink fondant left from making the daisies, so I decided to polka-dot the thing up. The bottom of my fondant was all wickety-wack, so I covered it up with a thick pink stripe," Christyn said. Now that's resourceful!

"As for the pink cake... I made it super chocolate-y with a box of Jello Devil's Food Cake Instant Pudding Mix (any kind of pudding mix adds TONS of moisture - now you know my secret)! I torted the cake with some blackberry jam I had in my fridge, and I decided to make the icing match!"

Well done, Christyn! I would say this is a pink-tastic Spring success!!

The Last Minute Cute Cupcake

It is holidays like Easter that test the creativity of our cupcake decorating and oftentimes our last nerve! What happens when you remember a co-worker's birthday at the last minute? Or have to whip up a batch of "congratulation on your new fancy shoes" treats? Take a look in your cabinets for some every day items that can turn an ordinary dessert into something special.

In this week's blog series The Last Minute Cute Cupcake, I will demonstrate how you can utilize random ingredients to create cuteness!! Today is...

Coconut

Oh the festive options you have by just using a bit of coconut and your run-of-the-mill food dye! You can whip out your extra chocolate chips for eyes and a jelly bean for a nose (or beak!). Either will make it easy for creating the cutest critters that Easter has seen - just look at these little yellow chickies!

Don't have food dye handy (because you iced a rainbow of delicious treats for Valentine's Day to spell out your love's name in icing?) Not a problem. How about a fuzzy bunny?

The ears could either be marshmallows from your latest smore-fest or gummy fruit slices dipped in the white icing. The eyes could be chocolate chips or M&Ms or even sprinkles! Whiskers could be twizzlers from your last movie night or simply drawn on using the decorative icing tubes - which, incidentally, can also be used to color icing, if your food coloring isn't around.

How about pecans for cute little eyebrows? Oh the possibilities with just a tiny bit of coconut and imagination!

My Cupcake Garden

It's spring time in my kitchen! You can really tell by all of the flowers popping up!! Thanks to a flower-shaped cupcake pan, I was easily able to create this delicious tribute to Spring. As you can see from the pan below, you can still use the normal-sized cupcake paper liner. The only part left exposed is the petals, so for safe-eating, I lined the petal part with butter for ease of removing them, without breaking the cake, from the pan.

Now, though they are delicious and adorable, they are also incredibly top-heavy, so its a balancing act to carry them without having them tip over. Always carry the fixer icing tube in your purse - haha! I sound like a crazy cupcake bag lady! So worth it, just for the reaction on their size and cuteness. Happy spring!

*Note: the icing used here is the Martha Stewart Vanilla recipe: 1 pound of powdered sugar, 3 sticks of butter (yes, 3!!), and 1/2 tsp of vanilla. I added a little extra powdered sugar to make it less oily...

Aloha, Easter!

Happy Easter Week!!

What better way to welcome the fluffy bunny to town than with a tray full of happily-colored cupcakes that are adorable, festive, and delicious! I received these images from a talented dynamic duo in Oahu who really know how to stir up some Spring creativity!! Shantel and Shaina cooked up a great addition to Easter Week here at Cupcakin' It Up!

It all started with cupcakespiration!! They used yellow cake and food dye to make it colorful. Want to recreate these tastebud-tickling treats in your own kitchen? Here's how -


Check it out!!


Easter-through and through, right down to the cake!


Colors to make your tummy hop with joy!


See how they texturized the icing to make each one unique and awesome!


Add a few sprinkles... and...


PRESTO! Easter perfection!!

Culinary school in their future?? I think so!! Bunny ears off to you girls! You know how to make Easter spring to life!

Mmmmm now I'm hungry.... :-)

*Note: Expect many puns on Easter words this week!! WHY? because it's EASTER WEEK, silly!

Babies a bloomin'!

Spring is all about new life popping up everywhere! So it seems a natural fit to tell you about a baby shower I cupcake catered for a family friend. She is having a girl, so naturally the only stipulation was for the cupcakes to be pink. And we all know how much I LOVE pink!

So with some quality Wilson's pink dye (found at Michaels), flower candies (found at Party City or Michaels), and sprinkles (found at Party City, a local grocery store, or - you'll never guess - Michaels!), I whipped up some appropriately girlie cupcakes.

100 mini cupcakes and 15 giant cupcakes later, I had a present for the new mama to delight the eye and tickle the taste buds! I did two shades of light pink vanilla frosting as well as a delicious milk chocolate frosting adorned in pink accessories. There were three kinds of cake: Butter Yellow, Devil's Food chocolate, and red velvet. The red velvet was paired with the traditional cream cheese frosting from Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook. And let me just say about Martha's icing - the woman LOVES butter probably as much as I love pink! Which is A LOT! But when I'm cupcake catering an event, I pull out all of the fatteningly delicious stops - no cutting corners. However, I will say that I can't taste a different in the cream cheese frosting that used original or 1/3 fat cream cheese. Why not be healthy if we can right? Although we are eating cupcakes...

The Jumbo cupcakes, were hollow in the middle and filled with frosting. I just used a sharp knife to hallow out a cone in the middle. Especially with the jumbo size that typically get a little overcooked on the edges, the icing filling really ensures a satisfying flavor that makes them a hit regardless.

At the end of the day, all I can go on is reactions from other guests. I will tell you that one five-year-old and her best friend tapped me on the leg to tell me that they ate 15 mini cupcakes (13 that they were sanctioned to have, 3 that they're mom didn't know about! Yes, I'm also aware that didn't add to fifteen haha! but they are five and were on an undoubtedly ridiculous sugar high!). Yikes!!

For the love of Spring and Sweet Things!

With Easter just a hippity hop away, I bet you're just bursting to get your cute cupcake on! Good thing I've scoured the internet for lots of bright ideas to get your creative oven warmed up!

From charming lady bugs nestled on delicately frosted cakes to coconut dyed in green coloring to make a bountiful garden, lets kick the week of sweet, right?!

Check out these creative ideas:


Got coconut?! It's fast, easy and tasty grass for an Easter egg hunt or a full garden.


With the right icing cap, you make this easy green grass for your guests that don't like coconut.


Look at this creative use of jellybeans!


And candy corns!!