Disco Dust

My new baking obsession is Disco Dust. I first heard of it when I came across this site on how to make unicorn poop cookies. Really weird, I know - but they are so pretty! (it all goes back to my love of rainbows) 

Disco dust is edible glitter and I want to put it on EVERYTHING. The cheapest I found was at Jester's Discount Cake Supply and I bought more than I probably should have. Henceforth I will never let another cookie/cupcake go unsparkled!!

Friday Musings #5

I'm totes going to make this someday.

Unless you live in a cave, you know its Super Bowl weekend. I'm pumped for it - I've got $20 on pretty decent superbowl squares this year (Patriots 6, Giants 3 and Patriots 1, Giants 7). I'm not sure who I want to win. A good family friend's nephew plays for the Giants, but a lot of my friends are Patriot's fans - so really I'll be happy if either team wins. And le'ts be serious - everybody's a winner because one of my all time favorite duo's playing at the Halftime Show.

I'm totally ready for lots of party rocking, chips & guacamole, and hilarious commercials.

You Can Never Have Too Many Hats

Since we have 6 more weeks of winter heading our way (thanks a lot Punxsutawney Phil!) I thought I'd share the snow caps I made in college. My friend Kristen knew how to crochet hats and I knew how to knit scarves. We decided to teach each other our skills to stay good and warm in the winter. The first one I made was the brown hat. You can tell because the top is kind of pointy - it looks more like an elf hat when worn.

Because I love bright colors, the next one I made was the rainbow hat. I love yarns that have different colors in them. It's not quite as pointy as the brown hat, but still not perfect.

These next two turned out much better. Not pointy at all! I like the way the green and purple hat turned out with the diagonal stripes. For Christmas that year I made everyone in my family matching scarves and hats - I even added a bobble to the top of the hats! Note to self: start adding bobbles to more things. 

Wednesday Review: Hello, Cupcake!

Hello, Cupcake! by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson is definitely one of my favorite decorating books. For those of you who live in DC, it's not affiliated with the Hello Cupcake bakery in Dupont. The book contains amazing pictures and easy to follow instructions on how to make ridiculously awesome cupcakes. 

What I like:

·         The book starts off with helpful decorating techniques. They boast "no baking skills or fancy equipment required!" which is true as they use Ziploc bags for pretty much everything - to fill the cupcakes papers with batter, to melt chocolate, and to apply frosting.  By cutting the corner off the bag, icing can be easily piped on the cupcake. Different sized and angled holes create the same effect as Wilton tips. It's definitely a cheap alternative to pastry bags. Though I usually end up cutting the hole too big or at the wrong angle, so I still prefer the Wilton tips. But I guess practice makes perfect!

·         They show how candy (M&M's, taffy, cereal, sprinkles, Runts, and circus peanuts to name a few) can transform your cupcake from ordinary to extraordinary.

·         The book describes how to decorate normal cupcakes, mini cupcakes, cupcake pull away cakes, and use other things for shaping your design like Twinkies, mini donuts and donut holes.

·         A lot of the designs involve melting chocolate wafers to draw different designs like wings for butterflies or bones for cupcakes that look like fried chicken. Don't worry if you're a terrible artist, the book provides templates that are easy to trace.

This isn't from the book, but a good picture of using melted chocolate 

wafers on wax paper to make different designs. 

·         There are ideas for your typical cupcake worthy days/events such as Easter, 4^th of July, Halloween, Christmas, baby showers, and weddings. And then there are just bizarre ideas like making your cupcakes look like corn on the cob, fried chicken, or billiard balls.

·         The book also provides recipes for several cakes and frostings and a sources page for where to buy ingredients and decorating tools.

What I don't like:

·         Most of these cupcakes are pretty time consuming to make so you have to either plan in advance or find a friend to help you make them.

·         I can't think of an occasion to make cupcakes that look like fried chicken or spaghetti and meatballs.

Obviously over all this is an amazing book and I highly recommend it to the cupcake enthusiast. It not only gives you great specific ideas, but also tips you can use to design your own fun and creative cupcakes. Karen and Alan's website has fun videos and more tips. They also have 2 more books - What's New Cupcake? and their newest (which I just got in the mail this week!!) Cupcakes, Cookies & Pie, Oh, My! So look for those in future Wednesday Reviews!

The Butterfly Effect

For tomorrow's Wednesday Review, I am going to talk about one of my favorite baking books - Hello, Cupcake! I thought as a little preview I'd share the one cupcake I've actually made from the book: Butterflies!!

I made these for a friend's housewarming party. It was in the spring and I wanted something fun so I poured through Hello, Cupcake! until I found these.  The butterflies are made with melted down chocolate wafers. I traced a pattern on wax paper with the milk chocolate, and then filled it in with the orange-colored white chocolate, using a toothpick to make the swirls. Once the chocolate hardened, I peeled them off the wax paper, set them on the cupcake (using a mini chocolate chip under each wing to prop them up) and then piped on some more melted chocolate in the middle for the body. To finish it off, I attached the antennas and wala! I present to you - the Monarch Butterfly.