An All-Around Catch-up Weekend

Soooo...guessing you might have thought I might never blog here again. Honestly, I was starting to think that myself. I have been meaning to get to it and update, but as usual life has been getting in the way. Actually it started because in March we found out we were expecting a new little Flick so for the first three months I didn't want to blog since I wasn't ready to tell the online world that we were pregnant - plus I was nice and tired :) Then somehow the three months turned into six months - and here we are today. I actually have not been baking all that much over the summer. Partly because it's been so hot that I haven't wanted to turn on the oven unless absolutely necessary and partly because we've just been  between work and trying to keep running and going on vacation etc and beyond that I've been using all of my energy just to keep up with my non-stop little man and to get ready for our little girl coming in 3 short months now!

That said - while they have been few and far between, I have actually put together some of my All-Time favorite cupcakes this year, so the goal of this post, like the goal of my weekend has been (cleaning out the basement, raking leave (YES our yard was already covered and YES I know it's only August!) cleaning bathrooms, and organizing closets, posting pics online, etc) is to play catch up and highlight these cupcakes!

Because the past year has been a bit of a blur, I am not going to even try to put these in chronological order (we'll blame that on the baby brain :), so going to start with what I would have to consider quite possibly my best cupcakes ever. These were for the fourth Birthday party of one of my Running Buddie's sons. He asked for Toy Story cupcakes. I was so excited because I have been wanting to do toy story cupcakes for quite a while now - and was right after Toy Story 3 had really come out - so I do have to say I might have gotten a little carried away! The most challenging part for me was figuring out how/what to do for each character. And the number of characters I decided to include was where I probably went overboard, but being such a Toy Story and PIXAR fan it was really hard to decide who to include and who to leave out. Thus the final list ended up being: Buzz, Woody, the Aliens, Ham, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky, the toy soldiers, and Rex! Here is part of the gang. I do have to admit that Rex was kind of a mess-up but and was the result of just playing with extra green icing - but thought he was a nice addition so we kept him :)

 The Aliens were straight from the example at FamilyFun.com using marshmallows with black icing dots as eyes (think Family Fun uses white m&ms, but since they are expensive and I didn't have them on hand I went with the half mini-marshmallows instead) The toy soldiers are obviously my easy filler cupcakes - just ice and stick a soldier in! I decided to just do cowboy hats for Woody as my attempt at making his full face just didn't look right and the hats (made out of shaped caramels) ended up being cuter and obviously way simpler. Ham was super easy and fun  - just used a half a marshmallow for his nose and starburst slightly melted and shaped for his ears. Then "spray painted" him with pink spray on icing color and added his eyes and eye brows. Then Mr. Potato head was a caramel flattened and shaped with starburst ears and icing hat and mouth and feet. I have to admit I was pretty excited how he turned out :)Slinky Dog was following a pretty basic dog pattern using a nilla wafer for his mouth/nose, mini-marshmallows for his eyes,caramel for his ears, and icing for the rest of his face.

The biggest challenge was figuring out Buzz's helmet. Online I saw a picture of exactly how I wanted to do Buzz, using half of clear Christmas ornaments as the helmet. Only problem is I no longer work near a Michael's and could not seem to find time to get out to one. Luckily my baking partner in crime Christy has a Micheal's both enroute to work as well as near her house - so she commenced a search. Unfortunately her first Michael's did not have them :( So both her office and mine spent a good afternoon discussing other options for the helmets. It was actually kind of funny to see our co-workers - yes even the guys - get into thinking of ideas. We thought of the tops of Starbucks drink cups, oops - they have lids, the little plastic containers in the quarter machines at the grocery store - close but to small, and the ideas went on and on, but none were quite right. Luckily Christy's back-up Michael's had the clear ornaments on hand and she was able to grab them for me! YAY! She saved the day again!

Buzz was by far the trickiest one to do - but also the most fun. I used cookies for his face then iced them with skin color and outlined with his signature purple and decorated with icing. The ornament globes definitely made him pop though - and pretty sure he was the star of the party! To Infinity and Beyond!!!!

Hoppping along to Easter...I did super simple cupcakes. Just butter pecan flavor with pink cream cheese icing topped with the CUTEST cupcake toppers I've seen - that my mom sent to us. Made decorating a cinch! Which was good, because I also decided to try my hand at Cake pops - which were not so easy (for me at least!) They turned out delicious - but wow - definitely a challenge for the first time. My friend Megan is semi-pro at these, so I keep telling her I need to just stand there and watch next time she makes them - there has to be some trick or something. I just found mine to be mis-shaped and messy. Luckily I was only making Easter Eggs - so the abstract look worked :) If you have never made cake balls before you create a mixture of cake and icing then shape into balls and freeze onto sticks. Then once set, you dip into melted chocolate and serve or add icing/decorations. You can see some of my eggs didn't do so well on the sticks, but luckily they still looked nice on the4 edge of the cupcake plate. And like I said - they were pretty delicious - so definitely worth the extra effort. Will just need to keep practicing them to get the method down!

Hmmm...what next. Oh here's another super easy set of cupcakes I did this Spring - for my nieces first birthday party. My sister-in-law request Minnie Mouse cupcakes - only catch was that we would all be at a family wedding the day before so would have to do all decorating the morning of the party. Clearly needed something quick and easy - but they had to be cute enough to be perfect for the little Birthday Princess! I did a bunch of googling on Minnie Mouse cupcakes and saw several pretty easy kind of abstract looking ones so thought they looked like the best bet - and actually I LOVED how they turned out - especially since they were so easy! Just did pink icing with chocolate candy melt ears, white pearl sprinkles for the polka dots and then topped with a red icing bow. Minnie all ready to go for the party!

Okay - think I have time for one more before the little man wakes up from his nap. So here's another one of my favorites from the summer. Flower cupcakes for another Baby Shower! :) Hurray for 2011 babies! The shower was a garden themed tea party, so I had fun making a mix of flowers. I did a few sunflowers - using mini-oreos for the center, then did daisies with mini marshmallow petals and candy centers. These ones are kind of cool as you cut the mini-marshmallows in half and then dip the sticky side in colored sugar and they appear to be an instant flower petal. Really they are not hard - just perhaps a bit tedious, but definitely worth it. I then added a few icing daisies to create a bit of variety like a real garden. Finally, I also found the cutest little flower lollipops on sale at Michael's so I had liked idea of "planting" them in little flower pots of cupcakes covered with oreo dirt. I wasn't quite sure how they would mix-in with the other flowers, but think they went alright and if nothing else were something different for sure! Here they are all packed up and ready for their tea party debut!

 

From what I heard both sets of cupcakes went over quite well. And most importantly - they have a new little girl in the family now - YAY! :) 

Alright - well guess I have baked a bit more then I realized over the past few months so will have to finish catching up next time- since I need to get back to catching up around the house now. Keep an eye out for an update on a Dr. Seuss cupcake set and shower and a rockin Guitar Cupcake cake next time (promise it won't be quite as long!!!) For now, Happy SUMMER! :)