This was my weekend project. I LOVE pink, and happen to think the more ruffles the better, so I do get a bit excited when someone orders something to celebrate a little girl. These were for a baby shower, and the only request was that the cupcakes be pink. I piped the cupcakes in a ruffly swirl using Wilton’s 1M tip.  I made monograms and flowers out of fondant, which is a  simple way to make a cupcake fancy. If you can roll out Play Dough, you can make these. When making fondant decorations, I buy Wilton’s premade fondant and use Americolor gels to dye the fondant the colors I want. If I’m making a fondant cake though, I prefer the taste of marshmallow fondant, so making a batch is worth the extra time and mess for cakes.

The shower was taking place at a restaurant, so I knew passing out cupcakes could be a little messy. Plus, in my experience, a lot of women pass on the dessert at showers. ( I’m not one of those women!) I went ahead and packaged these as cupcake favors and tied them with coordinating ribbon. I love how they turned out. The boxes also gave people who were full, or had to leave early a way to bring a cupcake with them to enjoy later.

These plastic boxes open up at the top, which makes getting the cupcake in the box without messing up the cupcake or the box an extra challenge. I discovered that tongs solve that problem. Boxes that open on the side are available for a little more money if you search the web. These plastic boxes from Papermart come in packs of fifty. They are reasonably priced, easily to assemble, and the perfect size for cupcakes and cookies.

 These were so adorable I was sad to see them go!

Yes, I made my own birthday cake. Is that wrong? I usually make mini cakes for birthdays, but I decided to go BIG this year because I happen to think 38 is going to be a BIG year. Plus, who doesn’t deserve six layers of chocolate? (okay, let’s not answer that) The boy seemed to have an issue with the fact that I was making myself an enormous birthday cake. I never quite figured out why. Surely,  he recognizes that his mom, who will go to the ends of the earth for him (even in her jammies), is worthy of an enormous cake, right?

In our family, birthdays are kind of a big deal. I know a lot of people who treat their birthday like just another day. How un-fun is that? I am of the philosophy that the entire birth month should involve celebrations. I don’t expect presents, but I do expect to be treated like the Birthday Queen that I am.

I had a great birthday, you know why… I have great friends and family!! Thank you to those who made my special day extra, extra special! You’ve proven that sometimes the simplest of celebrations are the BEST! Who needs real champagne glasses when you’ve got clear, plastic cups! Aside from having to pick my son up at 11:30 at night from his dad’s, in my jammies, it was a perfect night (and the truth is I couldn’t think of a better way to end my birthday night than snuggling my boy and his pup.) Moral of that story… even in the midst of drama, there’s always a silver lining.

I didn’t make just any ordinary cake either. I made my favorite chocolate cake. I love this recipe!! I decorated my cake with ruffles, which is actually much easier than you might think. It’s also very forgiving. I don’t know about you, but I happen to think perfection is totally overrated. To make the ruffles, you use a petal piping tip and pipe in a zig zag motion all around the cake. Melody, from Sweet and Saucy, has a great clip on youtube showing the technique. It’s easier to understand by seeing it in action, than by trying to describe it.  Melody doesn’t just blog about her baking masterpieces, she has her own bakery in Long Beach, California that she opened a few years ago. You must stop in if you’re in the area. The Sweet and Saucy blog is one of my favorites. The cake and dessert table photos are gorgeous!

When my birthday cake was finished, I could not get over how heavy it was. We barely made a dent in it for my birthday dinner, and there was no way I was going to keep a six layer chocolate cake in the house for more than two days. I ended up giving away more than three-quarters of my birthday cake… Spread the love… Spread the calories! (That’s the secret to having a dessert blog and still fitting in your skinny jeans!).

My Favorite Chocolate Cake (From Ina Garten)

printable recipe

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans

2 cups sugar

3/4 cups good cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup buttermilk, shaken

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Birthday Cake Buttercream (Grinandbakeit)

printable recipe

I like to use this frosting for kids’ birthday parties. I find it is most like what bakeries use. A lot of adults prefer this to traditional buttercream too. This is my dad’s favorite!

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/3 Crisco, softened

pinch of salt

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

4-6 tbsp. whipping cream (you can substitute milk or half and half)

4 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, beat butter and Crisco. Add pinch of salt and vanilla and continue mixing until smooth. Add in sifted confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time, add a tablespoon of whipping cream in between each cup of sugar, scraping the sides of bowl down each time. Gradually beat on low-medium speed well until smooth and fluffy. (The lows speed keeps it from incorporating too much air into the frosting).  To reach the consistency you need, you may need to add more sugar or more whipping cream. Add food coloring and blend well. Remember, gel or paste coloring will darken over time.

Last week, I shared a link on the Facebook page to a great post on Glorious Treats. Gloria has put together a tutorial on how to frost cupcakes in a series of posts on “Cupcake Basics”. The question I am asked most is how do you make the swirl on top of the cupcake. Check out Gloria’s link. She even has a YouTube clip so you can watch it in action. While reading through her recent posts on cupcake making, I came across her favorite buttercream recipe. Her secret is to add a little bit of cream cheese. I tried the recipe and liked it so much, I used it to frost these cupcakes. The cream cheese cuts out some of the over the top sweetness of a traditional buttercream. I’ve now added this to my list of buttercream frostings that I use. This one is perfect for people who don’t want a super-sweet frosting. My other two go-to frosting recipes are listed below.

Buttercream (and a hint of cream cheese) Frosting ~ (Recipe from Glorious Treats)

printable recipe

(I was able to pipe the swirl on 26 cupcakes with one batch of this)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter (salted, or unsalted)                                                                                                                4 oz. (half block) cream cheese

1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)

4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (best quality available)
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream, half and half or milk.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter (on medium speed) until completely smooth (30 seconds to a minute). Add cream cheese and beat until smooth.
Add salt (if needed). One cup at time, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition. Add vanilla, or other flavorings and beat to combine.  Add about 1 tablespoon of cream, and continue beating. Add the remaining 2 cups powdered sugar, one at a time. Add an additional 1-2 tablespoons cream until desired consistency is reached.  If you want to pipe the frosting on cupcakes, the frosting should be nice and thick.  Continue to beat another minute or so.  The frosting should now be smooth and fluffy.

Birthday Cake Frosting (Grin and Bake it)

printable recipe

I like to use this frosting for kids’ birthday parties. I find it is most like what bakeries use. A lot of adults prefer this to traditional buttercream too.

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/3 Crisco, softened

pinch of salt

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

4-6 tbsp. whipping cream (you can substitute milk or half and half)

4 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, beat butter and Crisco. Add pinch of salt and vanilla and continue mixing until smooth. Add in sifted confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time, add a tablespoon of whipping cream in between each cup of sugar, scraping the sides of bowl down each time. Gradually beat on low-medium speed well until smooth and fluffy. (The lows speed keeps it from incorporating too much air into the frosting).  To reach the consistency you need, you may need to add more sugar or more whipping cream. Add food coloring and blend well. Remember, gel or paste coloring will darken over time.

Traditional Buttercream (Grin and Bake it)

printable recipe

2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted

1 stick butter, softened

½ cup whipping cream

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla

Beat butter and sifted powder sugar. Gradually add half of cream. Continue to beat. Add vanilla and; gradually add remaining cream.

I’ll be the first to admit it, I had very low expectations for the Naughty One this weekend. At 25 pounds, I’m pretty sure she was the heaviest wiener dog to run in the wiener dog races this year. She was definitely the chunkiest pup in the 2nd qualifier. It seems that resting and loading up on carbs (her training regimen), wasn’t a bad way to prepare. Winnie came in second place in her race and beat out 8 in-shape wieners.  Hooray Winnie! The rotisserie chicken the boy was holding at the finish line was her incentive.

Thanks to our friends and family for coming out to cheer her on and sharing in our fun night. Winnie easily gets the first place prize for the biggest fan club in attendance. Team Winnie had over 50 people rooting for her. We also had the funniest shirts! Thank you to my Big Sis for coming up with the idea. I wish you could  have been there with us!

We brought in wine and frozen margaritas and yummy appetizers. It wouldn’t be a party without cupcakes and cookie favors though, right? I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with “Team Winnie” cupcake topper flags for dessert. All of her fans were given Winnie cookie favors at the end of the night (photos still to come).

I think this was our best night at the races yet!

More to share tomorrow! Hope your week is off to a GREAT start!

This is officially my final 4th of July themed dessert post for the year. Boy, we crammed a lot of desserts in this week!  Last Monday I posted red, white and blue cake push-up pops. These are even easier because there is no baking involved. Thank you Sara Lee and Cool Whip!  My BFF, Deb and her three girls are still visiting from DC. I talked them into extending their visit for a third week. The boy and I are loving the 21 day slumber party, and so is the pup. I’m trying to talk Deb into moving back to the west coast, but that is going to take a little more convincing. Deb and her girls are very healthy eaters. The kids think my house is Candyland. They have now tried three of the varieties of cake push-ups we’ve experimented with and these were their favorite. Strawberries and Cool Whip Free cancel out the pound cake, so it’s actually a healthy treat if you ask me. The layering is the same concept are the red, white, and blue cake push-up pops. I cleaned, chopped, and patted down the strawberries before layering. Check out the red, white, and blue push-up post to see how to put these together and where you can purchase the plastic containers.

HAVE A GREAT 4th OF JULY WITH YOUR FAMILIES!!