26.2 Cupcakes: January 2011

Saturday, January 8, 2011

And like that ... it's 2011!

Posted by wesmilla at 2:18 PM

Not sure how it's 2011 and not sure I even have truly accepted that it is. Just this morning as I was tidying up and putting Kellans' bottle from school yesterday in the dish washer - as I pulled off the date tape I realized I had written 1-7-10 on it - oops (good thing they weren't audited yesterday :) Made me think though - wow. What a difference a year makes. On 1-7-10 I was still on maternity leave, Kellan was definitely not at daycare yet, he definitely wasn't sleeping yet (although in some ways that part hasn't really changed!), he was barely smiling yet. And to look at him now - just this week he officially started in the toddler I class at daycare wher they sit at the table for snacks, they color, they take naps on cots, he is walking - practically running all over the place. He is definitely not a baby anymore - and I love that as everyday he is more fun, shows more personality, does something new - just can't believe it was only a year ago he was my little peanut sleeping for hours curled up on my chest. 2010 was a wonderful year - just went too fast!

So what does all that have to do with cupcakes - nothing really I suppose. Except for in my realization that it is really officially 2011, I am WAY behind on posting about all the 2010 cupcakes I made. And as I look back - 2010 was probably the busiest baking year I've had! Thus, going to try my best to squeeze in as many cupcakes here as I can - may take more than one post...all depends on when the little man decides to get up (yes he is still sleeping - but that is only becuase he is not a big fan of sleeping between the hours of 2-5 right now!) Okay so here goes...

Looks like I left off (just had to open my blog to look...ha.) with my late summer cupcakes. So will pick up with the firetruck and firedogs I made for Mr. E's birthday party. Mr. E always seems to have high expectations for my cupcakes as I think I set the bar a little too high with monkey cupcakes for his third birthday and then spongebob ones for his fourth. In any case - I look forward to his party and the cupcake challenge it presents every year - so 2010 was no different...

The final cupcakes ended up with White chocolate molded firetrucks and fire hydrants with icing hoses with tootsie roll nozzles (yes the tootsie rolls ARE hose nozzles not "presents" left by the dogs at the fire hydrants as my husband and Kellans' friends Leah's dad askeds so - silly boys!!!) and the main thing Mr. E wanted was Fire dogs so had to make sure we had dalmations with fireman hats!

The whole set assembled for the big birthday party!!!

My little fireman - checking out the firetruck!

A fire-dog upclose!

Next up were Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cupcakes for a special two year old - celebrating his last birthday as an only child as his mom was due with his little sister any day at the time of the party. These actually turned out pretty well - and I was excited that the little guy loved them as I had a hard time coming up with a good idea as my original plan did not work out, so at the last minute had to really improvise with what I had on hand (luckily my baking cupboard while an absolute mess is farily well stocked - if you can find what you are looking for at least :) In any case, I had seen these pictures of thse super cute Mickey Mouse cupcakes online that did not look like they would be all that hard.They looked like the baker just made a Mickey Mouse shape and then dipped in chocolate/black icing and let solidify. And while I know dipping techniques can be tricky (despite Hello Cupcake making them look super easy :) I way under-estimated this one and also did not have quite the right color icing. BOO. So after both Jeremy and my mom who was down visiting that weekend, asked me if I was making bears - I aborted on trying to make the Mickey shaped heads and tried to find a plan B. Here are the "bears" as my family put it :)

So since these clearly did not work :( I was back to the drawing board - or to Google for ideas at least :) Found a really cute idea for the Mickey Mouse Club House cupcakes where they did the pieces of Mickey - like his ears, shoes, and shorts. If you watch Mickey Mouse Club House you might have seen how the house is just that - made up of Mickeys head/ears, shorts and shoes or if you have been to Disney World or maybe even the Disney store lately you may have seen the "Best of Mickey" pattern also just featuring his ears, hands, shoes, shorts on plates and towels. I thought it was pretty cute and since I had the red and yellow fondant on hand (yes I know I don't love using fondant - but desperate times call for desperate measures) I went for it. I used chocolate melts for the ears as I luckily also had them on hand. They weren't quite what I had originally had in mind - but think they turned out pretty well and helped the little guy celebrate his big day!

Close up of Mickey feet, shorts and ears.

The whole plate of cupcakes just about ready to go to the party!

Well think I can squeeze one more set in here before life gets in the way of posting as usual :) Last but not least, in early October one of my running buddies asked me to make golf cupcakes for her husband's birthday party which was going to be at Top Golf. Not ever making golf cupcakes before, but seeing a really cool set of them in the "What's New, Cupcake" book, I was excited for the opportunity to make them. They actually were faily easy and super fun to make - think the biggest challenge was figuring out how to pack them safely enough that they would make the trip down to Alexandria in one piece. The grass is all icing and the green is a light green sugar on green icing, the rough is a mix of dark and light green sugars and then the sand trap is brown sugar on tan icing. (word was that the sand trap cupcakes were the favorites!). To make sure they would not move en-route I packed in as many cupcakes as would possibly fit into the container and then surrounded them by a bunch of actual golf tees to keep them nice and safe and seemed to do the trick! FORE!