Zoo Animal Cupcakes

For a baby's first birthday, what could be better than zoo/jungle animals?  I cut out the background using a round cutter and green marshmallow fondant.  Then I scoured my kitchen for the right shapes to use as cutters for the animal parts.  After much searching, I remembered seeing "homemade cookie cutters" on www.pinterest.com using soda cans.  See my tutorial of how to create your own cookie cutters, or in my case, fondant cutters.  I used my own cutters to create these adorable zebras.

 Next I used yellow and orange marshmallow fondant to create lions.  For all the cupcakes, I "painted" all the details by hand using food coloring gel.

 The next cupcakes I created were the giraffes.  I used yellow and beige fondant.  I had to free hand the ears and the horns.

 Last, what zoo is complete without monkeys?  I created the monkeys using brown and beige marshmallow fondant.  Then I painted on a variety of monkey faces.  Below are the 2 dozen cupcakes and the baby smash cake for the birthday boy!

Baby Zoo Smash Cake

 This is a smash cake for a baby's 1st birthday.  It goes with the zoo animal cupcakes.  For a smash cake, I always cover with buttercream (rather than fondant).  I used one of the giraffe cupcake toppers on the cake and decorated with coordinating green icing. 

Football: Chocolate Covered Strawberries

       I just wanted to share a VERY SIMPLE football treat that anyone can make.  These strawberries were covered with melted chocolate.  I usually dip them while they are on skewers and then stick the other end of the skewers into floral foam (to keep the strawberries from being flat on one side).  Once the chocolate dries you can pipe on the details using either melted white chocolate or royal icing.  They are treats that are going to impress with very little work! 

Giants Cookies: Superbowl

New York Football Giants cookies for all those Giants fans out there....including my husband.

Patriot Cookies: Superbowl

Superbowl is here and living in New England, there is a split. This post is for the Patriots' Fans out there....

Christmas Cookies

Here is my Christmas Cookie Variety Dozen...I wish I had pictures of the Santas that I made with the curly beards. They came out even cuter than this Santa!
Rudolph and Blitzen....or one of the other reindeer friends!

Santa Claus, Rudolph, and one of the other reindeer.

Stocking, Christmas tree, and a mitten...I liked the mitten because it added another color to the variety packs.

Here is a candy cane, a sparkling snowflake (with sanding sugar), and a "gingerbread" sugar cookie boy.

Here is a wreath with red berries and a red bow...and some holly complete with holly berries!

Mickey Mouse Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday Jade! Here is a birthday cake I did over the summer and forgot to post! The bottom layer is supposed to be Mickey's pants, the top layer is his head, and the middle says the name of the birthday girl! It was a huge hit, especially since the family was going to Disney shortly after her birthday!

New Packaging!

Here is my new packaging! Complete with my logo sticker, shredded paper and coordinating ribbon. They are great to have at your house or to bring as a hostess gift!

Fall Variety Cookies

The Fall Variety Cookies were popular for Thanksgiving time. They included turkeys, acorns, apples, leaves, sunflowers and pumpkins. They were so bright and colorful....and pefect for Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble Turkeys

Thanksgiving Turkeys were a huge hit! They were perfect as tey were or with names piped on for place holders around the dinner table. The feathers were something new that I had never tried before. I used the wet-on-wet technique and then dragged a toothpick through it before it dried to make it look like curved feathers.

Thanksgiving Minis

Here are some Thanksgiving Minis. Apples, pumpkins, turkeys, leaves and whimsical fall bites. There were a big hit and people bought a few in a bag (above) or more in Chinese Take-out Style containers.

Martini Retirement Cake

Here is a cake made for a "summer-loving, flip-flop wearing, martini-drinking retiree." There were no requirements except for fun and suitable for that "type" of person. It was Chocolate and Vanilla with buttercream frosting...covered with fondant in bright colors!

Lovely Little Ladybugs

I had some red and black icing left over so I decided to play around and create some little lady bugs. Nothing fancy....just fun!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cookies

Here are some Diary of a Wimpy Kid cookies for a Bake Sale (at Literacy Night). We had to pair a book with a "baked good." Since Diary of a Wimpy Kid is coming out with a new book ina few weeks, I went with it! These were fun to make and will hopefully be a big hit with the kids!

Greg

Rodrick

Freggly

Rowley

Manny

Vampire Cookies

I was looking for Halloween Cookies and I came across the cutest vampires on Hayley Cakes and Cookies' Website. I decided to give them a try. They weren't as hard as I thought they would be....The only problem was that I couldn't find my #1 tip so that teeth were too thick....other than that I would consider them a success!

Lillipop Ghost Cupcakes

I love the Food Network Magazine! I got the October 2011 issue in the mail and decided to make these Lollipop Ghost Cupcakes. All you have to do is: 1. Bake a batch of your favorite cupcakes (I used a vanilla bean recipe and added some sprinkles to make them look like Funfetti) 2. When they are cool, frost them (I used a chocolate ganache frosting). 3. Then unwrap a lollipop and stick it in the middle of the cupcake (I used Tootsie pops and had to trim the sticks shorter, but I think if I had uses Dum Dums I wouldn't have needed to). 4. Cover the lollipop with a fondant circle and crinkle it to make it look like a ghost 5. Paint on some eyes (coloring gel and a drop of vodka). They were so simple to make and they were a huge hit!

Pumpkin Cookies

I have read a lot about "flooding" sugar cookies with royal icing but have only tried it once or twice. I armed myself with the tools and started to work making 5 dozen pumpkin cookies.

I made these pumpkin sugar cookies for a school faculty meeting and they were a big hit. They were really tasty and not at all difficult to make. They were more time consuming than I thought because you have to let each layer dry completely before adding the next. I also felt like counter space was limited until I started stacking them on stackable cooking racks. The end result was something that I could be proud of!

Owl Baby Cupcakes

I had a request for a one year old's birthday. The mom wanted to have cupcakes that were in the shape of owls. She sent along some color ideas and away I went. We decided on a "cookies and cream" cupcake and vanilla butter cream. They were topped with fondant owls and matching fondant flowers. They looked so cute and matched the party theme perfectly!

All the baby owls packaged and ready to go! The flowers were an afterthought and really complimented the owls!

Packaging and New Business Cards

I redesigned my business card~ They match my blog and I like the layout much better than the old one!

Packaged and ready to go. The ribbon is the final touch before my orders go out!

Seashell Cupcakes for a Beachy Bridal Shower

These cupcakes were so much fun to make! They are vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with a vanilla bean buttercream. I then made chocolate seashells by swirling white, chocolate, and dark chocolate in candy molds. Then I painted them and added some luster dust while the food coloring was still wet.

I made the seaweed pieces by piping white chocolate on parchment paper and letting it harden. I finished each cupcake by adding a few candy pearls and some crushed graham crackers "sand."