Happy 15th CupCake Day Asia!!

So it was was my cousin's birthday!! I had to do her the honor of making her favorite cupcakes in her favorite pattern: LEOPARD PRINT! The letters are a cutout of leopard print scrap booking paper with toothpicks glued to the back.  The display is by far my most favorite...so far.  Featured flavors are: cookies n' cream, red velvet, and strawberry lemonade.  HAPPY CUPCAKE DAY ASIA!!!!

In His Presence...CD Release Party

I was beyond honored when my mother-in-law asked for me to provide cupcakes for her CD release party.  She is one of my biggest fans so I had to do her this favor.  Her favorite flavors are lemon, red velvet and chocolate (which she's allergic to lol!) Baking is no longer a hobby for me, its a passion! And I love when people ask me about it.  Received rave reviews for the CD buyers and guests that came to visit the store.  Even though it wasn't MY day per say, I was still pleased with the overwhelming response.

Pink Safari Theme

Got hired to do a Pink Safari theme baby shower today. I was a little hesitant at first because of the magnitude in which the coordinator wanted things to look...the cupcakes HAD to have a color of beige, cream, taupe, or pink/salmon.  What did I get myself into??  But after doing some research and going online seeing other peoples' interpretations of the safari theme, I decided to keep the cupcakes SIMPLE.  The flavors are: Butter Pecan w/ Caramel Buttercream, Chocolate Velvet w/ Pink Cream Cheese, Chocoloate w/ Peanut Butter Buttercream, and Strawberry w/ Lemon Buttercream.  It turned out to be a very nice set-up...hope you feel the same :0)

Not too early to place orders for Halloween cupcakes...email me iam_cupcakes@yahoo.com

Collection of my work....

Sunny days...

Hi there...I am trying to get the hang of blogging every 2 weeks and trying to create a design to showcase.  So while I was at work (shhh...don't tell my boss) I visited http://www.youtube.com/ to see what other cupcake designs I could try for fun.  I came across a beautiful sunflower design that was both easy and very creative. 

Materials:

Yellow cake cupcakes

Oreos or any other chocolate cookies

Buttercream icing

 - green

 - yellow

 - orange

Offset spatula

Leaf tip (#352)

Instructions:

1. Cover the cupcakes with the green buttercream (as shown here ------------->)

2. Place the Oreo in the center of the cupcakes (this creates the middle of the flower)

3. Start piping petals around the cookie, constructing a flower.

...and there you have it!! Your sunflower cupcake!!

 

I promise I'll have a more difficult design next time!!

RED VELVET DELIGHTS

So my attempt to make "pink champagne" cupcakes FAILED...not just a regular fail, but an EPIC FAIL! I think the alcohol amount on the recipe I used was too much and caused the batter to be runny, and it caused the cupcakes to not rise.  Oh how disappointed I was to see them in the oven all sunken in and....sad looking.

But as my husband (also my unofficial assistant) suggested I should bake another recipe I know just to keep at it...and that is what I did.  My red velvet cupcakes are very good.  They always turn out to be very moist and super delicious. And I seem to get the most compliments off of these. 

I felt rushed and under prepared so I did my best...

- I used some new cupcake papers that do not require a cupcake pan so this was a test run for something new...Lol! When they bake they expand so as you can see the cupcakes look like mini square cakes *idea light coming on*

- My grandmother gave me an idea about perfecting my cream cheese frosting.  I never knew my cream cheese had to be cold in order for it to hold its firmness...silly me! She told me to take the cream cheese out of the fridge at least 10 minutes before I was ready to mix it and the frosting should come out PERFECT!

SWEET SWEET VICTORY

I walked away a winner at our family's "4th of July Dessert Competition"!!! My strawberry-lemonade cupcakes were the hit of the party and EVERYONE loved them.  Unfortunately, everyone ate them before I could take pictures *thumbs down* But the cake was a strawberry cake with a lemon butter cream and a fresh strawberry in the center. We had so much fun as we ate, laughed and watched the sky light up with fireworks. Nothing better than being with family.

Next weeks update: the purchasing of my domain name www.iamcupcakesshop.com and the upcoming launch of my website.

TOODLES...and enjoy the sweeter things in life!

4th of July 2011

Oh how I look forward to the holidays with my family.  Summertime has to be the best time for family gatherings b/c the kids are able to spend countless hours outside in the sun and just roam around.  Our annual 4th of July BBQ has been set and so has the dessert competition! Guess who is bringing the winning entry?? Yep, that would be me!! My famous strawberry lemonade cupcakes are going to be a sure winner! Its a strawberry cake with lemon butter cream icing and a fresh strawberry sliced on top.  I brought these originally to a family dinner and by the end of the night the were gone and people were asking for more.

So once the competition is done, I will update you on the winners (me) and the runners up!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY TO YOU AND YOURS!

Jayce's 1st Birthday party

So my Cookie Monster cupcakes were a hit on Facebook.  YAAAYY ME!

My friend Tesige sent me a message that she loved the way the cupcakes looked and wanted to order some for her son's 1st birthday party.  Only difference being that she requested Elmo also.  So I did some research and found a couple of credible sources online and combined their techniques to creating my version of Elmo.  IT WAS SOOO EASY TOO!! And sooo much fun to do.  After baking the cupcakes I let them cool and prepared my buttercream...FROM SCRATCH!

The supplies used to create Elmo:

*my buttercream frosting  (one small portion colored orange for his nose)

*red sugar crystals (I make my own since its fairly easy)

*Wilton Candy Melts - Dark Cocoa (for Elmo's mouth)

*Marshmallow Fondant (for his eyes)

*Chocolate chips (for his pupils)
*(2) Ziploc Freezer bags
*Wax Paper
*Cookie Sheet

To create Elmo's red color:
1. Cover the cupcakes with white buttercream using a pastry bag and coupler with NO TIP attached.
2. Smooth the buttercream over the cupcakes with a curved spatula.
3. Pour the red sugar crystals into a shallow bowl so you can cover the cupcakes evenly.
4. Take each cupcake and dip into the red sugar, making sure you cover the buttercream completely.
** if the buttercream gets hard in the process just take the spatula and go around the cupcake**


To create Elmo's mouth:
1. Heat up a handful of the Wilton Candy Melts in a measuring cup until melted.
*** MAKE SURE NOT TO BURN THEM***
2. Take one of the freezer bags and invert the bag over your open hand and press to make a cup in side your fingers.
3. Fill the cup inside your fingers with the melted chocolate and then lift the edges of the bag up and around the chocolate.
4. Press out the excess air and seal the bag.

5.  Use scissors to snip a corner.

6. With the wax paper placed on the cookie sheet, draw out a small crescent moon shape (as seen in the photo).

7. Place the cookie sheet in the fridge to harden.

8. Once the chocolate has set, carefully place the mouths on Elmo; smooth side down.

To create their eyes:

1. Using marshmallow fondant, take small piece and roll into a ball.

2. Take a chocolate chip (pointy side down) and stick into the fondant ball.

Preparation is tedious but so much fun and in the end the cupcakes come out soo nice!!!

Cookie Monster

I <3 challenges...and I aim to prove people wrong! So when a mom at my daughters' school asked if I knew how to make Cookie Monster cupcakes I told her yes...even though I never tried to make them before.  She sent me a picture of what she wanted them to look like and I said "sure why not!" So after studying the picture she sent me I recreated him...and she LOVED them.  Its a yellow cake with buttercream frosting colored royal blue and fondant eyes.  To create the mouth, my husband cut a Chips Ahoy cookie and placed it in the cupcake and I frosted around the cookie to look like Cookie Monster was actually eating the cookie.  Next challenge...Elmo, Bert, and Oscar the Grouch!

Imara's Champagne Party

My cousin Imara loves the color orange...when I say love I mean LOVE.  So it was only fitting that her prom theme color be orange.  When I received the call from my aunt, I was thinking to myself how in the world am I going to pull this off??? But low and behold I did.  These are some of the 50 chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing and 50 red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, both sprayed with Wilton's Color Mist.  I built her a cupcake tower with her inital "I" painted in her favorite color also. 

The beginning...

Soo...you think you can bake??? That's what my aunt asked me when I told her I was interested in beginning my cupcake business.  My answer of course was YES! I thought buying a couple of cupcake pans and some cupcake baking cups would suffice, OH BROTHER WAS I WRONG!!

So I sat and thought about it...what do I need to do to make my cupcakes:
1. stand out
2. taste good
3. look good

I enrolled in a cake decorating class through Wilton at my local craft store to discover the basics of decorating my cupcakes.  I learned how to make frostings from scratch, hold a piping bag, the difference between royal icing and buttercream, how to color frostings, and other fun things.  Once I passed that class I knew this was really the thing for me to do. PRACTICE, PRACTICE PRACTICE is what I did to perfect my craft.  Since my husband works at a railroad, I figured I could try out my recipes and new found skills on his co-workers...and boy did they love them! Over the Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays I had so many orders I didn't know what to do.  AND I LOVED THAT FEELING!

And so IAM Cupcakes began...