Finding time for baking has been difficult lately, but I squeezed in these chocolate cupcakes for a joint birthday celebration of some friends. I saw a photo in a magazine that inspired the tinted frosting trio. Next time, I hope to incorporate a fun variety of flavors and fillings!
I’m a bit out of season, but I couldn’t resist experimenting with these ‘littles’ a friend gave me. 🙂 I have been inspired by work like “Minimian” (originally seen here) and Audrey Heller, and creative juices started flowing after the snowstorm earlier this year…
DARING SKIIER….
ONE ICE SKATER…
TWO ICE SKATERS…
THREE ICE SKATERS…
ANOTHER DARING SKI STUNT…
Boy, December sure has been a busy month!! Before December ends, I want to try and catch up on a few posts that I haven’t had time to get to because… well, partly because I have been baking! 😉
Acorn cookies
Toadstool mushroom cupcakes
AÂ college friend of mine is having a baby boy soon, so I helped bake a couple of treats for her woodland themed baby shower in early December. Among the rest of the delicious spread complete with baked stuffed mushrooms, orzo pasta salad, green salad, spiced nuts, cheese, crackers and fig spread, and an outstanding (and delicious I must say!) chocolate cake baked and decorated to look like a tree stub by another friend, were these toadstool mushroom cupcakes…Â
trays full of yellow cupcakes and tinted vanilla frosting to look like toadstools… it took a little time to get just the right orangey-red. And placing each spot took some effort too!
Home habitat…
Before packing these up for the party, I used a few items that I had to create a quick home habitat to snap a few shots of these little ‘shrooms.
Toadstool mushroom cupcakes in their “true habitat” for the party! The habitat was pretty much set when I arrived and made the perfect backdrop for these little red mushrooms. Thanks to Sheena for this picture!
And for the acorn cookies, I baked up a batch of my Grandma’s sugar cookies and dipped them in semi-sweet chocolate for the little cap. Mmmmm! I contemplated sprinkles on the chocolate part, but decided that I liked the simplicity as they were…
Dancing on the cookie sheet
acorn swirl… getting packed and ready to go
One acorn…
Two acorns!
These adorable mini birthday cupcakes were so fun to make, and perfectly bite-sized. I wrapped my old Architecture 101 wooden drafting board in sprinkle wrapping paper, and it made the perfect backdrop for the Thirty-ONEderful cupcakes! (Yes, there are 31 of them).
waiting to be lit
yellow cake minis with chocolate frosting
chocolate minis with chocolate frosting
My mixer makes a flower shape in powdered sugar 🙂
I need to start working on my piping technique as far as piping frosting goes… so here was one practice session with some fun photos 🙂
They remind me of ice cream cones….
My boyfriend and I made a race car birthday cake, reminiscent of our friend’s actual race car. Our friend has been working on maintaining what started out as a 1986 Chevrolet Chevette suitable for racing at events, such as the ChumpCar race that takes place at Portland International Raceway. In his first race, he won the trophy for the “Spirit of ChumpCar”! You can follow his facebook page here!
The car itself has gone through quite a series of transformations as far as paint jobs, decor, tires, other parts and engines are concerned; besides tires, he is even known for switching out engines mid-race!
We sculpted the double-layer chocolate cake, and decorated accordingly….
Beginning to take shape…
Crumb coat complete…
Final frosting layer complete
Side 1 View
Front View
Side 2 View
Back View
Vrooooooom!!
At the party, he made yet another engine switch….
…this time with the hatch!
This was a delicious and perfectly decadent Thanksgiving Holiday dessert 🙂  I found the recipe on myrecipes.com.
I designed a birthday brownie flag, incorporating a silly saying/nick-name that had been created the month prior… printed the designs out, wrapped the two-sided design around a toothpick, glued the halves together, and placed one in the top of each brownie slice 🙂 I made the brownies in an edge pan, similar to this one, and used a Marbled Cheesecake Brownie recipe that came with the pan.
‘Sex and the City’ themed Bachelorette Party cupcakes 🙂
(not quite fuscia like the logo – but you get the idea :))
This cake falls within one of the first handfuls that I made, and my friend Suzie and I made it together! I remember the summer was a very very hot one, and we slaved away on this cake for hours into the night so that we could take it with us the next day to our friend’s engagement party.
We baked enough chocolate cakes for a double-tier freehand heart-shape cake…
The newly-engaged couple practicing cutting cake together 🙂