Spaghetti Cupcakes

I've seen these "joke" cupcakes all over Pinterest and decided to give it a try.

My church was having an all church birthday party.  A special Sunday where we set up 12 tables (one per month) and each table has a cake.  The members of the church sit at the table with their birth month and share a birthday cake together.

I decided to volunteer for April and have a little "April Fools" fun.

I made spaghetti and meatballs and it really did look like I made dinner instead of dessert!





Materials:
   Box Cake Mix & ingredients to make
   Cupcake Papers
   Cupcake Pans
   Foil baking pan with domed lid
   Cream Cheese Frosting
   Piping bag & #3 tip
   Strawberry jelly (no junks)
   Ferrero Rocher chocolates
   White Chocolate Bar & grater

I started out with a standard box cake mix and cooked according to the directions.

Once they were fully cooled I whipped up a batch of my new favorite recipe for cream cheese frosting.  I decided not to add food coloring to the mix since the butter in this recipe makes it slightly off-white to begin with.  I refrigerated the icing until it was firm again before trying to make these.

I lightly frosted each cupcake with a knife and then place it into a foil baking dish that had a domed plastic cover.  I was only able to fit 20 in the pan I bought - the kids were thrilled to have samples!  I then filled a piping bag and used a #3 tip to make the "spaghetti". Working quickly I randomly swirled the icing all over the cupcakes.  I held the piping tip about 6-8" off the cupcakes to allow the continuous flow to twirl and bend in a more random way.  I took a break after a light layer and refrigerated the frosting in the bag and the cupcakes to be sure to keep the form of the frosting.  If this gets too warm - the noodles will lose their shape - so keep it cool as long as possible!

Once I had used all the frosting on the cupcakes - even making noodle to bridge the gaps between cupcakes so it looks like a full pan of spaghetti - I got the "sauce" out.  Strawberry jam without fruit pieces worked for me.  To make the jelly "runny" like sauce I spoon whipped the jelly in the jar before gently spooning it on the noodles.  Try not to move the jelly around too much or you'll lose the shape on your noodles.  Cover the center and dribble it around so it looks like you have ladled sauce on the noodles.  Then take each Ferrero Rocher chocolate and roll in the jelly.  Place on the noodles randomly.  Finish it off by shredding white chocolate on the whole thing to look like Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy.  Everyone love my "April Fools" cake....it was super tasty too!

Frozen Birthday Party

You're invited to a Frozen Birthday!

I created this invitation using free downloads from Disney's Frozen website, text effect videos, free fonts found online and shapes within my photo editing software.




 I started with window clings and gift tags left over from Christmas to decorate my sliding door and hutch.  I spent several evenings mindlessly cutting out snowflakes of all shapes and sizes to string into a "blizzard" on my chandelier and in the corner behind the birthday girl's chair.  My Pinterest Board has links to the many different snowflake design ideas and "blizzard decor" ideas.

The buffet was set up on my island.  I used glitter snowflake ribbon left over from my Christmas decor to weave around each plate.  Underneath my three-tier stand I made 3 small tissue paper puff balls (you can find many videos on how to make these online).

I threaded cottonballs on thread and taped them to my cooktop overhead to create a snow-flurry effect over the buffet.
























I used free download images from Disney's Frozen website to make buffet tags for some of the menu items.  These were then glued to cardboard from cereal boxes that were due to be recycled.

Menu:

Snowflakes (decorated sugar cookies)
Snowballs (cake balls)
Marshmallows (brushed with corn syrup and dipped in sugar)
Snowman Pieces (white cheddar puffs)
Snowflakes on Crackers (miniature snowflake cookie cutter used to cut cheddar cheese)
Reindeer Treats (carrots)
Icicles (apple slices)
Glacier Juice (Our Journey)
Snow on Toast (cheese pizza)
Pigs in Blankets
Hot Coca Bar (whipped cream, mini marshmallows, blue rock candy)

We played pin the nose on Olaf.  I drew this on some of our art paper and the kids loved it!













The cake was inspired by Bubbly Nature Creations.

I found a glass candy recipe on Sugarhero that worked great to make my ice.

I started with two layers of chocolate cake and a center layer of vanilla cake baked in a 9" pan.







I used Roxanne's Home Baking chocolate cream cheese recipe for the filling on the layers.  I found this a bit bitter with the unsweetened chocolate and the tang of the cream-cheese.  I think the next time I try it, I will use a sweetened chocolate.  The small upper cake was vanilla cake baked in mini-cake tins.  This again was a three layer cake with cream-cheese chocolate frosting.

I used Blissfully Domestic's royal icing recipe to pipe the snowflakes on waxed paper and let them set until hard.













The exterior frosting was a double recipe of Allrecipes cream-cheese frosting.  

Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature.  I didn't realize that my stand mixer bowl was insulating the center of my ingredients and when I mixed up my batch I wound up with lumpy frosting.  The butter was not soft enough to mix in smoothly.  I placed the frosting in a microwave safe bowl and microwaved it at 20 second intervals, whipping it with a fork in between each heating until the frosting smoothed out.

I set aside about 2 cups to color blue for edging and finishing.

I found that the cream-cheese frosting got very soft when it got too warm.  I found it easiest to crumb coat each cake, then refrigerated the frosting and cake for 20 min.  Then add another layer, and refrigerate again.  I made three thin layers on each cake to be sure to have full even coverage.  I placed the small cake onto the big cake after both were fully frosted.

I colored the reserved frosting with blue food coloring and used a #21 star tip to make the edge piping.

I smashed my sheets of blue rock candy and placed the shards around the small cake.  I bought a mini-figurine set with all the Frozen characters and placed Elsa in her "ice palace" and had Olaf with some snowballs (small candies) on the larger cake.

For the going away gift bags I had my daughter make star-burst rainbow loom bracelets for each guest.  Then the bags received a small package of snowflakes (miniature snowflake sugar cookies dipped in blue sugar) and a snowball (cakeball)

Lovetheday inspired me to create the gift bag tag.  Again I used a font effect, free fonts and graphics in my photo editor software.

The party was a great success and it was a lot of fun to plan and create.

Valentine's Day Cookies

The recipe I finally found success with was by Wilton.  The original recipe calls for almond extract.  While this is a gorgeous nutty flavor, some may not care for it and when making it for nut-sensitive friends I modify the recipe.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter , softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

I also don't put salt in my cookies.  Some will say that this effects the rise on the cookies, but I have found that it isn't necessary.  Preheat your oven to 400F.  Gather un-greased cookie sheets.

Begin with room temperature butter.  Cream the butter and sugar together until they are just barely mixed.   I have found that if you over stir this step you add too much air to your batter and the cookies spread.  Mix in the egg and vanilla, again just stirring enough to incorporate.  Then add in the flour in small amounts.  Just before the mix comes together put your spoon aside and press the dough together with your hands.  This will help give the cookie a flaky consistency (like shortbread cookies).  Separate into two balls, this makes it more manageable once rolled out, you will need to use all the dough - it does not refrigerate well.  On a well floured surface and with a well floured rolling pin, roll out the dough until 1/4" thick.  Flour your shaped cutter of choice and cut dough.  Press together scraps and re-roll.  Bake cookies for 5 minutes.  Cool cookies.

Be sure to cool your cookies completely.  If they are even the least bit warm your icing will run off and make a huge mess.

Blissfully Domestic provided me with the most successful recipe for icing the cookies.  When making the "flooding" icing (the icing that covers the entire cookie) be sure to add VERY small amounts of water.   The icing should barely run off your spoon to flood.  I found that to coat the cookie but be thick and opaque you'll need to place some icing on the cookie and gently encourage the icing around the cookie with your spoon to fill it.  When I made the icing runny enough to "flow" on the cookie it was much too thin, and soaked into the cookie.  If you find that your icing is too runny using your sifter, sift in small spoonfuls of powdered sugar until it is back to the right consistency.  

For my valentine cookies I lined in the same color as the fill using a thicker icing.  After flooding the cookies I left them to dry completely (about 20-30min).   I then decorated with thick red, white and pink icing.  Left to set (again about 20 min) and then boxed for storage.  Once the icing is set you can gently stack the cookies without having the icing transfer.  

Enjoy!  Happy Valentine's Day!

School Valentines

I wanted to help my daughter make something for her class Valentines that didn't involve unhealthy snacks.

We decided on rubber-band bracelets.  You know the ones, all the kids are wearing them.  There are YouTube videos all over on how to make different patterns.  We watched a "how-to" video on the fishtail pattern for the bracelets.

I designed cards using graphics I found free online, text that was free online and shapes that were available in photo-editor software.  I also used a free word-search found online to decorate the back of the card.  I was able to print double sided to fit 8 cards per sheet of card stock.

After my daughter made all the bracelets and I printed the cards we prepared for assembly.

I found that a lobster pick made just the right size hole for tying the loom bracelet to the card.

I cut 6 inch lengths of colored baker's twine purchased from a vendor on an auction site.

By placing two holes together closely and near the top we were able to thread the baker's twine through the card and tie the loom bracelet to the Valentine.


My daughter than wrote each student's name on the card.  We made pink themed cards and bracelets for the girls in her class and blue themed cards and bracelets for the boys in her class.

To give the teachers a Valentine that was cute but again not made of junk food we found this idea online.

Using another free graphics pack, free fonts, and shapes in my photo editor software I was able to make this teacher Valentine.

I was able to fit four of these Valentines on a single sheet of card stock.

My daughter then used a glue stick to glue a bag of tea to the Valentine.

The tea bag covers up the heart and the word "tea", but when the tea is used it should be visible again.

My daughter then wrote her "to:" and "from:" on the back of each card.

Hope this helps inspire you to make a Valentine that is both thoughtful and sweet without using candy or junk food.