Cupcake Delivery

So yesterday I got an order for a dozen cupcakes for a 30th birthday party! So I set to work, I bought a French Vanilla cake mix and mixed in some red food coloring to get a pink color, I divided the batter and made one batter lighter than the other! I decorated those cupcakes with Dutch Cocoa Chocolate Frosting and sprinkled some edible shimmer dust onto it. Then I started making my marshmallow homemade fondant with a recipe taken from http://www.megzcakes.ca

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe:

• 1 package miniature marshmallows

• 2 tablespoons water

• 2 cups  sifted icing sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• Shortening (for greasing)

Instructions:

• In a large plastic or glass bowl, grease sides and bottom with shortening and add package of marshmallows.
• Sprinkle water over top of marshmallows.
• Put bowl in microwave for 30 second increments, stirring marshmallows after each increment until melted.
• Stir in 1 cup sifted icing sugar with greased spatula.
• Have a moderate layer of sifted icing sugar laid out on a clean flat surface.
• Pour marshmallow onto icing sugar and again add 1 cup sifted icing sugar.
• Grease your hands with shortening then powder them with icing sugar.
• Knead marshmallow until icing sugar is completely mixed in and consistency is close to rolling.
• Cover in plastic wrap and put into fridge for about an hour.
• Once cooled, to make fondant ready to roll let it come to room temperature again or put it back in the microwave uncovered for about 15 seconds or so

• You will have to knead fondant again before rolling. If you want to add colour, use the gel colours and add a little bit at a time to get the shade you prefer, knead until colour is completely solid throughout the fondant. 

I added the red food colouring to get a pink color to the fondant, I then used my cookie cutters and cut out some fondant tulip flowers.

After cutting them out and placing them in the refrigerator to chill, I sprinkled my cupcakes with some edible shimmer dust :)

This is how they came out:

With my left over batter, I added some red and blue food colours to make a purple colour, I then stacked them onto lollipop sticks to make cupcake kabobs :)

Cookie Kabobs

My next project! I promise I will take lots of pictures to let you guys know how it turned out! =)

Ombre Cake

An Ombre Cake I tried making, Happy Mother's Day! :)

Chocolate Coconut Cake

Just a cake I made for Valentine's Day. It has chocolate shavings, coconut shavings and red cinnamon sugar sanding sprinkled on top! :)

Arsenal Birthday Cake

On the 24th day of April, my sister's close friend celebrated his birthday. He is a HUGE fan of the Arsenal's Football team so I decided to bake him a themed cake! :)

I did not own a soccer ball pan, so I decided to bake him a normal cake and decorate it accordingly... I made some butter cream icing and stored it in the refrigerator to chill while the cake baked....

While the cake was in the oven and the icing was chilling, I decided to make some fondant cut outs using my 'sun mini cookie cutter'

In the center of the cake, I decided to write the word "GO" indicating a chant for the team and the red and yellow sprinkles around the cake represent the colors of the Arsenal football team! I'm not a big fan of sports but I tried! :)

I hustled home from school just to decorate this cake! :D

Helpful Hint:

Butter Cream Icing:

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
• 4 cups confectioner's sugar (1 lb)
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk

Instructions:

Medium Consistency:

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer or by hand. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often.

When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Keep bowl covered with damp cloth until ready to use.

For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored two (2) weeks. Re-whip before icing.

Note: For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add two (2) tablespoons light corn syrup, water, or milk.

For pure white icing (stiff consistency), omit butter, substitute an additional 1/2 cup shortening for butter and add 1/2 No Color Butter Flavor. Add up to four (4) tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk for thin icing cakes.

Rainbow Cupcakes

As an extracurricular activity, I model. For Easter, the agency decided to host a bake sale! So I decided to bake up some rainbow cupcakes- as I wanted to try something new!

So I mixed up a batter for a white cake:

White Cake Recipe:

• 2 1/4 all purpose flour
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 2/3 cups shortening
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 5 large egg whites

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 13 x 9 inch rectangular pan or two (2) 8 inch round pans.

• Combine all ingredients except egg whites. Mix on high speed for 2 minutes.
• Mix in egg whites on high speed for another 2 minutes and pour into prepared pan.
• Bake rectangle for about 40-45 minutes and bake rounds for about 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool completely before icing, about one (1) hour.

Okay so I copied that recipe but instead of adding the batter to the cake pans, I separated the batter and divided it into four bowls and added some food coloring to each bowl.

After coloring the batter, I first added the blue portion of the batter into each cupcake liners. You are free to add whatever color you feel comfortable with adding at the bottom first.

 Then I decided to add the green and the yellow portions! I didn't have enough time to make colors such as purple and orange...

For easier pouring and less spills, I used a piping bag to get the batter into the cups. Just pour each color onto the previous color, do not stir or mix the batter!

This is the finished product. Sorry, but I lost  a couple of the pictures in the process. These are the cupcakes after their trip to the oven!

 These are the ones left over!
 They were a hit at the bake sale :)