Made By Mimi Baking

My daughter asked me to bake cupcakes for her boss’ baby shower.  I asked my daughter what kind of cupcakes she wanted, but there was no real answer other than “she’s having a boy, she likes teal and she’t not a girlie girl.”  So….this is what I came up with.

I made chocolate cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes.  When they cooled, I colored the buttercream frosting and then put it in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds.  This made is somewhat of a glaze consistency.  I dipped the cupcakes in the frosting and then put them in the refrigerator to harden a bit.

I got a packet of stencils at the store a while back, and I found some baby stuff on one of the stencils.  I could not get the other things to come out in a manner that would be recognizable; so after much trial and error, I decided to make “pitter patter of little feet” cupcakes.  I took white buttercream, put it in the microwave for about 15 seconds and then poured it into a squeeze bottle (you could also use a piping bag and a small round tip).  I held the stencil over the cupcake and then filled it in with the white buttercream (think Royal Icing on cookies). 

I thought they were just about as cute as the day is long…I hope they went over well at the shower.

A little slice of Heaven!!!

(Source: dreamsweetcandy)

Love these!!  They would be perfect for a bridal shower!!

colorlessness:

pink + black by RATUkek on Flickr.

MEMORIAL DAY CUPCAKES

My husband’s family has a picnic the day before Memorial Day every year.  I decided….you guessed it…to make cupcakes.  How do I make them look patriotic without looking cheesy?  White cake, blue frosting, red strawberries!!  I got a new mandolin (food slicer), and I needed an excuse to try it out anyway.  It worked like a charm. 

While we are talking about Memorial Day, let’s remember the reason for the day.  It’s not just parades, picnics and one-day sales at Macy’s (although, let’s face it…that’s pretty cool).  Countless brave Americans have fearlessly gone to battle for the rest of us and made the ultimate sacrifice.  I, for one, can never thank them enough. 

GOLD MEDAL CUPCAKES

Well…yellow medal cupcakes, I know.  This is my first attempt at working with fondant.  I got the fondant that is already tinted.  Baby steps!!  I found it was surprisingly simple once I got the hang of it.  Just like rolling out pie dough.  I used a pizza cutter to make the medal ribbons.  After they were cut to size, I just formed them to shape.  I then used a circle template to cut out the medals.  Had I not been in such a rush to finish, I would have put more detail on them….maybe next time.

These cupcakes were made for the members of my son’s percussion ensemble, Phoenix Indoor Percussion, who placed first in their division at their championships.  Last year’s crew got spoiled with my cupcakes pretty much every week, but my schedule kept me from doing much baking for them this year.  I thought I better whip up a batch for them for championships or I would have to walk back home.

No matter how basic the attempt, the kids seemed to enjoy them…and then asked why they hadn’t been spoiled like that more often.  KIDS!!

BUTTERFLY CUPCAKES

My daughter recently had her second child.  I decided that instead of having the traditional girls-only baby shower, I would do a big family party.  As it turns out, she delivered the baby 3 weeks early, so it turned into a “meet the new baby” party.  We also did not want to leave our granddaughter out of the celebration, so we combined “meet Baby Chase” with “Maddie’s a big sister.” 

Since there would be several small children at the party, I decided against a cake.  Instead, I thought about making cupcakes, of course.  I made a chocolate box mix cake (since I had so much else to do to prepare) and then made a basic buttercream frosting.  I used Wilton green gel food coloring to ting the buttercream.  I then used Wilton Candy Melts in light cocoa to trace the outline of the butterflies.  Once these were set, I used more of the candy melts and tinted them with Wilton gel food coloring in pink and blue.  I filled in the outlines with the pink or blue and then tapped the counter to smooth out the tinted chocolate and get out any bubbles.  I then detailed the wings with more melted light cocoa.  The final step was to make the butterfly bodies by making a small line on wax paper with the light cocoa melt and adding the wings.  I used a pie

EASTER NEST CUPCAKES

I decided to something a little different this year for Easter.  Instead of making the usual white cake with coconut, I decided to make these Easter Nest cupcakes.  My granddaughter really loved them. 

I started off with a chocolate box cake mix and made the cupcakes.  For the frosting, I used a basic buttercream and tinted it green with Wilton gel food coloring.  I used the grass/hair tip and made the nest.  I then took Peanut Butter M&M Eggs and put them in the nests. 

PATRIOT PRIDE CUPCAKES…

I made these cupcakes for the marching band competition hosted last Fall by my son’s high school, Red Land Marching Patriots (hence the patriotic colors and music notes).

I cheated this time by using a yellow box mix for the cupcake itself.  I then made a basic buttercream icing.  I then used Wilton Red Candy Melts to make the music notes, melting the chocolate and forming the notes on wax paper.  I took sprayable food coloring (in a can sold in the baking aisle), I sprayed the blue coloring on the white buttercream and then placed the music notes on the cupcakes for the finished product.