Harry Potter Sorting Cupcakes

 These cupcakes were homemade with love by Blythe.  My cousins (not so little) gal came into town this week and she is obsessed with baking and Harry Potter.  She decided she wanted to make each family member (3) cakes that have bdays in these next few weeks.  She made me an adorable 'pool' cake complete with her LOL dolls swimming and a graham cracker diving board....and fish sprinkles, and then I spent one morning with her crafting and helping her make these cupcakes for my cousin, Holly, who also loves Harry potter.

 Blythe baked the cupcakes with my aunt, and then I swung by and helped her cut a small cone out of the top of each cupcake.

 I dyed some white vanilla icing red, blue, green, and yellow to represent each house in Harry potter and snipped the tip off ziplock bags and she filled the cupcake holes.

 We capped them back (you could cut off part of the cone, but there wasn't much of a bump when we added the hat).

 She iced them...

I melted some white chocolate (in a ziplock again, and snipped the edge) and she 'glued' a kiss to an oreo and then placed each on the cupcake.

 We went swimming the next day and each of us bit into our cupcake to discover which house the sorting hat sorted us into.  I got Gryffindor.  She also left some of them with chocolate innards-those were muggles.

I originally saw the idea online, and it was a cupcake she loved putting together, though some people refuse to accept their house assignment.....look, the hat knows....

Pom Pom Cupcake Toppers

 I recently brought these little pom pom cupcake toppers to GMT.  They are such an easy addition to some cupcakes for a football party...or really.....add some google eyes and make them purple and green and you have monsters for Halloween.

 I took two colors of this yard I got for a dollar at Hobby lobby.

 I wrapped it around my three fingers 20 times.

 I took another piece of yard and tied the middle.  Then I cut the loops.

You can trim down any pieces that are a little longer, but use your tie to attach these to candy pop stickers (sold at the craft store-or even in Walmart's party section).  Then decorate your cupcakes.

Mermaid or Pirate Desserts

Last month I hosted a baby shower where the gender wasn't known yet.  With summer in full swing, we went with the fun theme of Mermaid or Pirate.  I've been posting about this for a few weeks, and next week I'll post the whole thing, but here were the dessert offerings.  Since it was summer, I had more time to bake....and I did.  

 First off, I made mermaid tail sugar cookies.  I bought the cookie cutter on Amazon, and I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe to put these together.  These can be done in advance, so that helped!

 Amber's husband loves cake balls, and even though he wasn't in attendance, I made these so we could ship some home.  I just dipped the cake balls in white chocolate and to make them look like pearls I served them in little seashell cups and then brushed on some of the Wilton's luster dust.

I posted about these cheater cupcakes last week.  Again, I bought cupcakes at the store and then used a kit from Wilton to dress up my cupcakes.  

 I definitely made too many desserts, but....too many and the word dessert are welcome words to string together any day in my book!

Easy Pirate Cupcakes

 I recently hosted a baby shower.  The theme was mermaid or pirate.  I wanted to do a mix of both themed desserts, so for the pirates-I saw a kit from Wilton with all the pieces you need.  I knew I would be busy right before the shower, so I decided to buy the cupcakes and then just slip them in the liner and add the decorations.

I picked the color closest to 'flesh', and man I'm glad I cheated.  1)  Sam's makes a fine cupcake 2)  This saved me a lot of time and dishes.  In my old age I'm learning that sometimes it's OK to cheat.  So this is my confession tip-buy the plain cupcake....then decorate them up the way you want.  

Pencil Pops

 I went into Good Morning, Texas today to post tape a pencil theme craft segment.  I'll be demoing pencil jars, a pencil banner, and finally, pencil pops.  I saw these on Pinterest, and the best I can tell the idea originated at Bakerella.  I modified it a bit so they travel well, but the gist is you take a white cake mix and pour 1/3 of it into a bowl and dye it pink, and dye the other 2/3 yellow.

 I decreased the baking time a bit and just watched it, and then once it cooled I cut small squares.  I used these push pops I grabbed at a craft store and push out a piece of the pink cake.

 I slipped it down into the tub.

 I then took some canned icing and put a line of gray (I just dyed it with a little black) over the pink (eraser).

 I then squared off the yellow and used the container to cut out the cake and then slip it down inside.

 I dyed the other half of the icing a light brown.  The original just piped up a cone shape and put a small chocolate morsel on top.  I wanted to be able to close the lid, so I actually made a little 'cap' out of a half circle of beige paper.

I just taped it to the top.  If you want to just pipe up a cone and add a morsel, I wouldn't use the canned icing-make a buttercream b/c the canned icing is too runny to really create any sort of form, even if you add a bunch of powdered sugar.  I'll post the video to facebook as soon as it airs (tomorrow?).

Felt Cupcakes

I'm a finisher.  This means, I finish every project, or every idea (I try, at least).  I think of pinterest as more of a to do list than an ideas list.  This can be a little bit of a problem.  Now, I'm not a fast finisher.  I have far too many projects I have the pieces to that aren't finished yet, but they will be...someday.  Having said all that...this is a project I wanted to try out probably four years ago.  I bought the muffin tins and then I saw a squirrel or something.  I finally uncovered these muffin tins and it was time.  I love it because they are play cupcakes you can also use to teach colors.

 I painted the inside of the tin to match the cupcake tops.  As far as making the cupcakes-google a free pattern to make play cupcakes-there should be a ton.  The ones I used didn't work out, so I had to wing it on the way.

I used brown felt for the base which I stuffed and then different colors of fabric for the tops and I hot glued the two pieces together.

Last Minute Christmas Dinner Ideas

 Last year, the Texas family was blessed with some little California visitors under the age of five.  I knew they'd enjoy a few extra details on the table to keep things merry.  For Christmas even I filled mini stockings I grabbed at Hobby Lobby with napkins, silverware, and Santa Chocolates.  It was a big enough crowd that I had to pull out the long tables formerly used for crafts, and the fancy plastic table clothes.

 I was exhausted by the time Christmas rolled around, so I bought some cupcakes from Gigi's.  THESE were a huge hit.

 Maybe someday I'll try my hand at piping this, but....for this year....I'm glad someone else did the work.  Worth.  Every.  Penny.  These also doubled as my breakfast on Christmas morning.

 And then I put together a little hot chocolate bar.  Instead of marshmallows, I snagged some reindeer peeps....and some of my favorite accessories-whipped cream, chocolate mints, and some Santa straws (from the dollar store) and these little deer cups (from Meri Meri).

Caldron Cupcake

 I saw the idea for making little caldrons using these little salsa bowls you can get at the dollar store (2 for a buck) at dawnypoo and I decided to give it a go.  I put a cupcake I dyed green at the bottom of the bowl and added a second one with crumbs around the side to fill the bowl a little further.

 I squiggled icing and then just added a bunch of gum eyeballs and gummy 'stuff' I got in candy bins at the store.

Gummy worms and I go way back.  Easy cupcake.  No icing technique required, just put some in a ziplock and let it flow.

Cupcakes in a Cup

 I posted the recipe for these pink velvet cupcakes yesterday.  I packaged them several different ways-here is another favorite cupcake packaging ideas I've seen floating around the net for the last few years.  You know those little punch cups you get at retirement receptions, and when I visit weddings from the  past and attend weddings these were always there in abundance.  They are the perfect house for cupcakes that are iced....even with a little puff.  Slide them into cellphone bags, add a tag in a ribbon, or I've even seen parents send these up to school for their kiddos birthday...they'd be fun with a favor or two at the bottom as a to go gift at a party.  Have your cake and eat it too....at home.

Pink Velvet Cupcakes In a Jar

You know it's going to be good when the batter takes like cookie dough...I found this recipe for pink velvet cupcakes and Baking Perfection and thought it would be the perfect gifts for the Mom's I knew.  I baked these and stacked these inside of jars.

Pink Velvet Cupcake

Cupcake Ingredients:  1 c. butter (softened), pink food coloring, 3 eggs, 2 t. vanilla, 2 1/2 c. flour, 1 1/2 t baking powder, 1/4 t. baking soda, 1/2 t. salt, 1 c. buttermilk
Instructions:  In the first bowl, cream butter until fluffy.  Add pink dye a little at a time and mix until you get your desired pink.  Add vanilla.
In a second bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Pour half into the butter mix, pour in half of the butter milk and mix.  Repeat with the second half of the dry mix and buttermilk.  Beat until well combined.
Add into lined cupcake pan (2/3 full).  I made about 20 out of this batter.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

 Icing Recipe:  Mix together 2 sticks of butter (softened), 6 c. of powdered sugar, pinch of salt, 3 T vanilla, and 2-4 T of milk.
Top put these in a jar, take two cupcakes and cut it in half.

 Press the bottom into the bottom of the jar...

 Place icing in a ziplock, snip off the edge of a ziplock bag and fill it with icing, pipe it over the cupcake.

 Add another layer of cupcake (sometimes I take another cupcake and use half of that to fill in the middle layer since the jar is a little wider here).
Pipe on a final layer, add sprinkles...

 Place a lid on top....

 I added tags (found a cute, free printable at sunshine's blog- here), and baking twine and forks....for eating on the go.  You never know when you need to take along your emergency cupcake rationing.