Carnival of Fun

I'm pretty sure most kids won't remember their 1st Birthday cakes other than what they'll see from pictures but I still think kid's celebration creations are the most fun. I admittedly have a terrible memory... but I do somehow remember a birthday cake I had when I was about 5 or 6. It was a sheet cake with fluffy whipped icing covered in an airbrushed zoo design with mounds of blue sweet buttercream "ponds." The topper was a menagerie of plastic zoo animals, trees, and cages. That was the best present of all! I held on to the plastic toys like they were gold... I'm sure they're lurking in my parent's basement tucked away with all my other little treasures that were once so highly valued.

Anyway, where I'm going with this is... I was asked to make a Circus themed cupcake tower for my friend's son's first birthday party. She showed me the super cute party supplies she ordered through Oriental Trading and I used some of the elements to design matching cupcakes.

"Ladies & Gentlemen! Boys & Girls! Step right up! Step right up!"

I made popcorn cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and mini marshmallows painted with yellow food coloring. I used a scissor to cut into some of the marshmallows and make them look more like kernels.

Next up, little lion head cupcakes. I added cocoa powder to the buttercream to get the different shades for the lion's face and mane.

I had to buy these silly yet cute yet creepy clown heads while taking a Wilton cake decorating class but ended up conveniently forgetting to take them to the class with me... oops. Glad to put them to good use here on these brightly pleasant little cupcakes. (On the up side... they are no longer lurking in the storage bin under my bed - phew!)

I tried to stripe the inside of a plastic icing bag with different food colors but I didn't get a very strong color effect like I had wanted. I decorated them with pre-made royal icing decorations from Wilton. How could you resist those cute faces?

Here's an assortment.

What's a circus without a big top?
I carved this out of four 8" round layers. I ended up wasting quite a bit of cake this way - and when I say wasting, I mean eating it with my roommate. I'm sure there was a better way but I didn't think it all the way through. I covered the tent in buttercream and cut out red fondant strips from Chef Duff's new product line at Michaels to cover the sides. I used Satin Ice fondant for the white stripes and tent scallops. Doesn't it look inviting?
"Come closer, you won't believe your eyes behind this curtain! Step right up!"

Circus tower of 1st Birthday fun.

Lots of children running around and heat didn't allow for the cupcake tower to stand in all it's glory but still looks pretty cute at the party.

Isaiah - the birthday boy!!

Side note- I ran out of Crisco for the vanilla buttercream and it was late at night so I used an organic shortening I found at a local market... not a good idea. It changed the consistency considerably! It didn't taste much different but was quite a bit grainier and I had to add extra powdered sugar to make up for the droopiness. No more organic shortening experimentation for me!
I also used organic eggs for the cupcakes. The first egg I cracked had two yolks. Does that count as one egg? or two? I still don't know, I counted it as one.

Cake Chalet

If you haven't heard of Cake Chalet, you need to hurry up and check it out - they offer unique Cake-in-a-Bag mixes in 93 cake flavors! My roommate heard about it on a food blog and ordered these cool custom cake mixes for my birthday.

I got three Cake & Frosting Mixes and one Batter Booster.
The custom mixes are:
Bloody Mary Cake with Party Punch Icing.
Avocado Spice Cake with Lemon Lime Icing.
Spumoni Cake and Spumoni Icing.
Potato Chip & Dip Batter Booster.

The Cake-in-a-Bag mixes are made to order and require only two ingredients to whip up. The Batter Boosters can be simply added to your favorite store-bought cake mixes to spice up the flavor.

I decided to try making the Bloody Mary cake mix for my bake sale.
Let's just say, this is the easiest cake mix ever! All you need is 2 cups each of milk and heavy whipping cream to add to the cake mix. Despite having to run to the store to get the milk and heavy whipping cream, these were mixed up and oven ready in a few minutes. I was a little heavy handed pouring the batter into the baking liners so I ended up with just a few less than 2 dozen cupcakes.

The Party Punch icing was prepared just as easy with 2 more cups of heavy whipping cream. The icing consistency was a little soupy and not good for piping swirls on top of the cupcakes so I had to get creative... I had seen some tiramisu cupcakes with the tops cut off and the icing in between so that's what I did. I used a serrated knife to cut the tops off and star cutter to make a shape in it to let the icing show through.

The cupcake flavor is definitely very original and got rave reviews. The Bloody Mary cake had a little spicy kick to it and the Party Punch reminded everyone of something tasty from their childhood - kind of like the Screwballs ice cream cones with the gumball on the bottom. Remember those? Do they still make them?

Great American Bake Sale

I saw some TV commercials for an organization called Share Our Strength which is fighting to end childhood hunger in America by promoting an event called the Great American Bake Sale (GABS). I knew I could do something with my baking skills to help out.

Many of my co-workers bake for so many occasions and holidays so I began wondering if I could hold an office bake sale to help raise awareness and also raise funds to donate to this campaign. The Share Our Strength website has tons of useful information about how and where to host a successful bake sale. I went ahead and got approval from the president of my company who suggested I start to plan a date with our marketing coordinator. We picked Thursday June 24th and I registered the date with the GABS neighborhood - which is a great place to pick up tips and tools like check lists and printable flyers. Since the bake sale would be during work hours we decided it would be best to have a "no host" sale and put up a collection jar for donations.

The Share Our Strength statistics show that $200 can help buy grocery bags of healthy foods for 50 families in need therefore I set a goal of $200. I didn't really know what to expect or how many people would volunteer to bake. I spread the word of the sale and created some simple decorations and before I knew it, the sale date arrived and we had two tables full of treats!

Share Our Strength sent me some balloons and banners with an initial $10 donation.

I made Bloody Mary cupcakes with Fruit Punch icing from the Cake Chalet assortment of mixes my roommate bought for my birthday. I used Wilton cupcake liners and flags to match the Americana theme.

I also made white chocolate covered pretzel rods. The table included Cherry Vanilla Surprise Cupcakes from Carolyn, Orange Almond Cupcakes by Christine, Chocolate Pecan Cookies from Patricia, Fudgey Brownies by Ashley and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from Kristen.

Hillary made these cute "Red Tab" brownies to match her Levi's.

Muriel made monstrous-sized Whoopie Pies and Christina made Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Here's Qunita's famous Strawberry Cake along with Banana Pudding.

Lauren made Chocolate Brownies and Lindsay's mom made the world's most delicious cookie trays!

Yay! Here's me :)

I'm very proud to say I surpassed my goal of $200 by raising $388!!

Click here for ways to get involved.

(special thanks go out to the staff at Hallmark for inflating my balloons at a discount)

Quickie Cuppie Cakes

Want to make some yummy quick cupcakes in a pinch but don't have enough icing?

I had 8 cupcakes left over from an order but I had already used all my homemade icing and I only had 1/4 tub of store bought icing left. Not hardly enough to ice 8 cupcakes successfully, right? Try putting the frosting in a small bowl and heating it the microwave for a few seconds on medium heat, stir until creamy and just dip the top of the cupcake in the icing. Tap off the access and repeat with the next cupcake. I double dipped... shhhhh... don't tell. Once all the cupcakes were coated I added some colored sugar to make them happy.

Just enough sweetness to balance out the cake!