Monday, February 28, 2011

Final Flashback of 2010 - Finally!


So finally finally finally...here is my grand finale of cupcakes from 2010 so I can finally get to my already growing list of 2011 ones :) Yeah, yeah, yeah so I am way far-behind. I know. Maybe someday I will catch up - or maybe not :)  For now, I've just accepted that all I can do is the best I can do :) I will say I was excited today at work when someone said something about how I must be super organized to be able to fit in running along with work and Kellan, etc. HAHA...not so much - if she could only see my kitchen - or worse my baking cupboard!!! :)

In any case, here are the last of my favorites from the fall - starting off with the Sesame Street Parade for Kellan's first birthday in November! I was pleasantly surprised with how these came out! I had even done a practice round (that my office greatly enjoyed!) to make sure I could pull them off for the big day. Turns out they were actually fairly easy - especially using the oreo's for mouths and marshmallows for whites of eyes like I did instead of fondant :) Then did dots of black icing to finish off the eyes and used peanut m&ms for Bert, Ernie and Elmo's noses and shaped starbursts for Big Bird's beak and wahlah...we had a complete Sesame Street Party!
Then for the little man's smash cake - I made a 3d Cookie Monster! Again - I was actually pleasantly surprised how this turned out - especially since the cake pan used was the Wilton 3D teddy bear pan that I had used for my niece's first birthday a few years ago. Who knew it would come in so handy?!?

Going back a bit more in time to October - here is a quick set of baby girl cupcakes I made for a co-worker. As her daughter made her arrival a good 6 weeks early - we never really had a chance to give her a good send off before her birth, so made these to welcome her back to the office! I was super excited about using the pink with brown polka dot cupcake papers - so coordinated the icing with a chocolate icing with pink accents. Enjoyed making these - kinda like abstract art :)

Then going back to earlier in October - here are the Super Cupcakes I made for one of my running buddies Super son :) The birthday party was a fabulous fall/halloween festival with a Super Hero Theme! So fun! I really had fun making these ones and since I had done batman earlier this year for her other son's bday (think super heros are big at the Haddon house these days!?! :)
Think the trick to really making these cupcakes look sharp was dipping the cupcakes the yellow or blue sugar and then decorating the batman or superman logo on top. Just seemed to make the colors stand out more (plus think icing completely covered with sanding sugar is my fav way to top a cupcake-YUM!)

Squeezed in between the marathon of Birthday parties I did this fall, my baking buddy Christy and I did our first wedding! It was quite the adventure - but we ended up having a blast and at the end of the day the Bride was happy so we were all happy :) We decided to divide and conquer the challenge of baking 200 cupcakes plus a grooms "cake" and a mini-wedding cake. Luckily Christy knows that although not all that different then cupcakes, I am TERRIBLE at cakes :) go figure. In any case, she let me take on the Grooms Cupcakes while she put together the mini-wedding cake. The groom had requested  fishing themed cupcakes with the only other prerequesite being that he wanted JUMBO cupcakes.
The water fall with the fishing guy in the middle is what resulted :) Actually turned out fairly easy - the true challenge was getting it to Tysons corner for the reception in one piece - talk about a stressful drive! Luckily he made it and with only minor repairs he was ready to go for the party!
Christy and I with the complete ensemble. I know it's small - but hopefully you can see her super cute mini-wedding cake. SO IMPRESSIVE - especially since like me Christy is really a cupcaker at heart!
Here are the wedding cupcakes out and ready for the main event! At the bride's request we did three cake/icing combinations: champagne cake with champagne icing, yellow cake with chocolate icing and chocolate cake with white icing. Thinking of her guests, the bride wanted to make sure there was a flavor for everyone and really think the combination actually turned out well!  We also lucked out that the hotel hosting the reception had such great cupcake/dessert stands - really made it look pretty cool and helped us help the bride and groom kick start a Happy Forever!

Okay - last but not least, here is a safari animal parade for the first birthday party of another one of my running buddies sons. Despite making animals several times before, I find them a challenge everytime. There is always one animal I seem to get stuck on! This time it was definitely the lions. They ended up turning out okay - but took some serious icing surgery as at first they definitely looked more like puppies then lions!
Close up of lion (after surgery - you can still see the remnants of a puppy face - someday I will get it down!) My favorite animals from the safari parade ended up being the elephants and the zebras - and not only because they ended up being the easiest to make. They were both new animals for me this time - but both turned out super cute - so that was exciting! I wasn't quite sure what color to make the elephants, but the elephant on the cupcake paper that I was using as my example was the teal color so I thought I would give it a try - and really like how it actually brightens up the whole ensemble! The zebras I saw somewhere online - can't remember now - but they looked fairly easy and cute - so had to give them a try! The monkeys and tigers I've done a few times now - although somehow they always look different - kind of funny. 

Okay - think that wraps up the highlights from 2010. Yes, in case you are wondering, I did make plenty of Christmas cupcakes - but being that it's almost time to start thinking about Easter think I will hold those off for next winter! For now bring on 2011 - only 2 months late :)

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Monday, February 28, 2011

Final Flashback of 2010 - Finally!

So finally finally finally...here is my grand finale of cupcakes from 2010 so I can finally get to my already growing list of 2011 ones :) Yeah, yeah, yeah so I am way far-behind. I know. Maybe someday I will catch up - or maybe not :)  For now, I've just accepted that all I can do is the best I can do :) I will say I was excited today at work when someone said something about how I must be super organized to be able to fit in running along with work and Kellan, etc. HAHA...not so much - if she could only see my kitchen - or worse my baking cupboard!!! :)

In any case, here are the last of my favorites from the fall - starting off with the Sesame Street Parade for Kellan's first birthday in November! I was pleasantly surprised with how these came out! I had even done a practice round (that my office greatly enjoyed!) to make sure I could pull them off for the big day. Turns out they were actually fairly easy - especially using the oreo's for mouths and marshmallows for whites of eyes like I did instead of fondant :) Then did dots of black icing to finish off the eyes and used peanut m&ms for Bert, Ernie and Elmo's noses and shaped starbursts for Big Bird's beak and wahlah...we had a complete Sesame Street Party!
Then for the little man's smash cake - I made a 3d Cookie Monster! Again - I was actually pleasantly surprised how this turned out - especially since the cake pan used was the Wilton 3D teddy bear pan that I had used for my niece's first birthday a few years ago. Who knew it would come in so handy?!?

Going back a bit more in time to October - here is a quick set of baby girl cupcakes I made for a co-worker. As her daughter made her arrival a good 6 weeks early - we never really had a chance to give her a good send off before her birth, so made these to welcome her back to the office! I was super excited about using the pink with brown polka dot cupcake papers - so coordinated the icing with a chocolate icing with pink accents. Enjoyed making these - kinda like abstract art :)

Then going back to earlier in October - here are the Super Cupcakes I made for one of my running buddies Super son :) The birthday party was a fabulous fall/halloween festival with a Super Hero Theme! So fun! I really had fun making these ones and since I had done batman earlier this year for her other son's bday (think super heros are big at the Haddon house these days!?! :)
Think the trick to really making these cupcakes look sharp was dipping the cupcakes the yellow or blue sugar and then decorating the batman or superman logo on top. Just seemed to make the colors stand out more (plus think icing completely covered with sanding sugar is my fav way to top a cupcake-YUM!)

Squeezed in between the marathon of Birthday parties I did this fall, my baking buddy Christy and I did our first wedding! It was quite the adventure - but we ended up having a blast and at the end of the day the Bride was happy so we were all happy :) We decided to divide and conquer the challenge of baking 200 cupcakes plus a grooms "cake" and a mini-wedding cake. Luckily Christy knows that although not all that different then cupcakes, I am TERRIBLE at cakes :) go figure. In any case, she let me take on the Grooms Cupcakes while she put together the mini-wedding cake. The groom had requested  fishing themed cupcakes with the only other prerequesite being that he wanted JUMBO cupcakes.
The water fall with the fishing guy in the middle is what resulted :) Actually turned out fairly easy - the true challenge was getting it to Tysons corner for the reception in one piece - talk about a stressful drive! Luckily he made it and with only minor repairs he was ready to go for the party!
Christy and I with the complete ensemble. I know it's small - but hopefully you can see her super cute mini-wedding cake. SO IMPRESSIVE - especially since like me Christy is really a cupcaker at heart!
Here are the wedding cupcakes out and ready for the main event! At the bride's request we did three cake/icing combinations: champagne cake with champagne icing, yellow cake with chocolate icing and chocolate cake with white icing. Thinking of her guests, the bride wanted to make sure there was a flavor for everyone and really think the combination actually turned out well!  We also lucked out that the hotel hosting the reception had such great cupcake/dessert stands - really made it look pretty cool and helped us help the bride and groom kick start a Happy Forever!

Okay - last but not least, here is a safari animal parade for the first birthday party of another one of my running buddies sons. Despite making animals several times before, I find them a challenge everytime. There is always one animal I seem to get stuck on! This time it was definitely the lions. They ended up turning out okay - but took some serious icing surgery as at first they definitely looked more like puppies then lions!
Close up of lion (after surgery - you can still see the remnants of a puppy face - someday I will get it down!) My favorite animals from the safari parade ended up being the elephants and the zebras - and not only because they ended up being the easiest to make. They were both new animals for me this time - but both turned out super cute - so that was exciting! I wasn't quite sure what color to make the elephants, but the elephant on the cupcake paper that I was using as my example was the teal color so I thought I would give it a try - and really like how it actually brightens up the whole ensemble! The zebras I saw somewhere online - can't remember now - but they looked fairly easy and cute - so had to give them a try! The monkeys and tigers I've done a few times now - although somehow they always look different - kind of funny. 

Okay - think that wraps up the highlights from 2010. Yes, in case you are wondering, I did make plenty of Christmas cupcakes - but being that it's almost time to start thinking about Easter think I will hold those off for next winter! For now bring on 2011 - only 2 months late :)

 

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