Funny Faces - Birthday Cupcakes

My girlfriend asked me to make her son's birthday cupcakes this year since she was expecting her third baby and didn't know when he was going to make his debut. She didn't want the stress of wondering what would happen if the baby arrived so close to his birthday that she wouldn't have time to arrange anything.

Well she supplied me with the loot and this is what I came up with. She found some funny face Easter eggs from the dollar store and we filled them with finger lights, stickers and balloons. I added the funky hair and here is the final result.

And this one is my favourite...

More birthday cupcakes...and an attempt at cake pops...

It was a big birthday weekend!! My niece turned 3 and my big son turned 11. I always make her cupcakes so this year we decided on something simplier since we were having both parties on the same day. I decided on flower lollipops on grassy cupcakes. She loved them and I loved how easy they were to make. I bought the cute lollipops at the local dollar store. What a deal!!

Now for my son's party I decided to make something new. I was inspired by Bakerella's cake pops (check out her site for the recipe) but they looked alot easier to make then they were. As you can see I couldn't get them perfectly round so they ended up looking like alien heads insead of smiley faces. And for some reason my edible marker didn't write very well on the candy coating and I ended up dipping the tip into food die to make it look darker. They tasted great...very rich...but I don't think I will make them again for a very long time...

Who Who's Birthday? - Owl Cupcakes

It's another birthday for my daughter and son born one week apart. They always get ripped off because they have to share their birthday parties. I'm lucky because I only have to prepare once. It's getting hard to think of new ideas for their birthday cakes since Dora and Power Rangers are too baby for them now.

Luckily my sister gave me "Hello, Cupcake!" by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson as a thank you gift one time after making her daughter's cake. I browsed quickly through it to get some ideas and picked one of the easier ones this time

Owl Cupcakes

These cupcakes were quite simple to make.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cake Mix
Chocolate Canned Icing
Oreo cookies
Yellow Smarties
Heart shaped sprinkles

Microwave the Oreo cookies for 15 second to soften the creme to make it easier to separate. Cut the Oreo cookie side without creme with a serrated knife into thirds. Using the rounded edges for the ears.

Frost the cupcakes thinly with icing. Place the Oreo cookies with creme for the eyes and the Oreo cookie thirds for the ears on the cupcakes. Ice feathers for the ears and around the eyes. Place Smartie sideways for the beak. The book uses brown Smarties for the eyes but since I didn't have enough I just iced eyes with the brown icing and found some heart shaped sprinkle to place in the middle. Voila!

I made a one layer cake and placed the cupcakes around. Here is the final product.

"A Day at the Beach" Cupcakes

My friend is throwing a birthday bash tomorrow at the beach for her two year old daughter. When she asked me for party ideas I suggested doing beach themed cupcakes. It wasn't a complete surprise when she asked me to make them for her. I took up the challenge and here is the completed project.

Teddy Grahams dressed in bikinis lying on fruit roll-up beach towels on graham cracker sand with a drink umbrella for shade.

Happy birthday Maya!! Hope it was a good one!!

Bunny Cupcakes

Continuing on our eating spree we met at my girlfriend's home for dinner. I made this cute cupcake for the kids to celebrate Easter.

Instructions:

cupcakes (I used a boxed cake mix)
white icing ( I used canned icing)
brown mini M&Ms
pink heart sprinkles
pink sprinkles
marshmallows (cut in three equal parts...when you cut them with a knife the marshmallow will be squeezed making them perfect for the ears.)

• Ice cupcakes entirely with the white icing.
• Put a round marshmallow for the nose.
• Dip the ears in the pink sprinkles and place at the top of the cupcake.
• Turn the heart sprinkle upside down and put a dot of icing to keep it in place.
• Mini M&M for the eyes.

Very easy to do but with great results. Hope you like them.

More doggy cupcakes!!

It was my niece's 2nd birthday yesterday and she put in a special request for my doggy cupcakes. I love making them. They are so cute and just like dogs, each one is unique and has it's own personality.

Here is a quick tutuorial on how to make these cute cupcakes.

Ingredients.

cupcakes
icing
black jelly beans
mini M&Ms
strawberry fruit roll ups
regular sized marshmallows
pink sprinkles

I use a Wilton #233 tip to get the individual strands of hair. Pipe the icing around the outer edge of the cupcake. Cut the marshmallow in half and then into 1/3 and 2/3 pieces. Place the 2/3 piece of marshmallow on in the centre of the cupcake and continue piping the icing until everything is covered.

Place black jellybean for the nose and mini M&Ms for the eyes. Cut the fruit roll-up into the shape of a tongue and place under the nose. Cut the 1/3 piece of marshmallow in half and dip the cut edge into pink sprinkles. Place ears at the top of cupcake. Voila!

Cupcake Glory!!

I'm so excited that Cupcakes Take the Cake mentioned my cupcakes!! It's so exciting to see that other people appreciate and love all your hard work.

Family Birthday Dinner

It was my son's 10th birthday this week. I usually have a big family dinner to celebrate the kids' birthdays which means cooking for about 27 people. The star of the evening was my Prime Rib roast. It was the rave...plus my dad makes the best gravy. It was only four ribs this time. I usually buy seven but Costco didn't have the entire roast for sale. I usually rub it with some vegetable oil, montreal steak spice and pickling spice and the bake at 350F for three and a half hours. I usually pour 3 cups of water over the roast after an hour. It was medium which was perfect for us.

I usually serve one main meat dish and then a ton of sides. Tonight we had asian coleslaw, fried vermicelli, sticky rice, mash potatoes, zucchini loaf, steamed rice, samosas, and pizza for the kids.

Here are the cupcakes I made. I couldn't decide what to make for my son's 10th birthday. He's getting too old for Power Rangers and army men. I could have done better if I had planned a bit better but not bad for what I had on hand.

I also attempted to make a coconut cream pie. It tasted great but I think it could have been a bit firmer. I'm not sure why it didn't set properly. If anyone can help me I would appreciate it.