MSC | Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Two words... Thin Mints!  If you love Thin Mint cookies then this is the cupcake for you!  

This past month, I didn't take part in the cupcake recipe that all Martha Stewart's Cupcake Club bloggers were supposed to create.  The reason being... warning, the next thing I am about to tell you is a little weird, but it's fact...  I hate fruit and I don't like it when people put fruit in cake.  As far as Cake and Co. goes, I made a decision in the beginning that I would not do fruit cakes, sorry all!  I am a chocolate, vanilla, caramel, toffee, coffee, mint and peanut butter loving kinda gal!

So, I departed from this month's recipe and baked this fabulous recipe because Ty asked for it!  The cupcakes were moist and were literally Thin Mints in cupcake form.  The recipe is a definite bake again.  I decided to top my cupcake with Thin Mint cookie crumbles and vanilla mint Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  For Christmas, my father bought me a couple cupcake recipe books and I have been wanting to try this new frosting technique I read about in Cupcakes: Luscious bakeshop favorites from your home kitchen by Shelly Kaldunski. 

To purchase this book, visit Amazon

 She uses the Wilton #104 tip to create a ribbon frosting effect. 

I love the look!  I'm a big fan of ruffles in fashion and now I have ruffles on cake!

Happy Wednesday!  Have a wonderful Easter weekend!
~Danielle

Hooray!

Exciting news to share, I made it on Food and Fizz!


Many many thanks to Ty, who is an avid reader of food blogs and submits my pictures. So many reasons to love him! The Wizard of Oz cake that I did for my friend, Nick is featured and you can read about the cake by clicking here.I just wanted to share the exciting news! I have new ideas and plans in store for Cake and Co., so stay tuned!

Up next, Mint Chocolate Cupcakes!
~Danielle

Weddings and mochi!

Some of you may know that I am getting married in a little over three months and I have been in wedding mode for almost a year.  Yes, I was that 5 year old girl who used to play wedding and had her wedding planned out by the time I was 12.  I love event planning and all the crafty things that come with it!  Ty is a little worried that I am going to be depressed when the wedding(s) are over.  Yes, I said, weddings, more on that later.  But I don't think I am going to be depressed at all.  I'm the first of my close girlfriends to get married, which means that there are many more weddings to come!

Our wedding was planned, finalized and designed back in November, but that doesn't keep me from looking at wedding blogs every day!  Ty reads foodgawker every day and the other night, he stumbled upon weddinggawker and it literally felt like Christmas morning!  Needless to say, I have spent many many hours in the past couple of days on that site.  I love our wedding and all the details reflect who Ty and I are as a couple.  But if I had to do it again, I think I would definitely pull in a few of these Japanese elements that I found on weddinggawker and Martha!

Kimono inspired wedding gown, cherry blossom dessert spread with mochi, cherry blossom cupcakes

Martha Stewart did such a great job using mochi ice cream.  She accomplished the flower detailing on the mochi, by creating a cherry blossom stencil, laying it over the mochi and then using a sifter to lightly sprinkle powered sugar over the mochi ball.  Then they placed the ball in the center of a cherry blossom cut out of paper. 

I love mochi, especially mochi ice cream and I wish I could serve it at my wedding.  Unfortunately, both the weddings are taking place outdoors, so I don't know how I am going to get around the melting factor. 


Mochi for those of you who do not know what it is, is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice that has been pounded into paste and then molded into a shape.  It comes in different flavors, it can be stuffed and it can be used in any meal of the day.  Mochi in soup is sooo good!  But my favorite is mochi ice cream, little balls of ice cream wrapped inside mochi.   Mikawaya, a Los Angeles based Japanese dessert company is said to be the creators of mochi ice cream in 1994. 


I love the fact Martha included mochi in this past month's wedding magazine.  This is an idea that I will be filing away, so that one day when I have my own dessert studio, I will remember to do something like this.  Or I could just use these ideas for my birthday this summer... there was also this party dress in that Kimono link... hmmm...

Until next time!
~Danielle

Oldie but Goodie! Hello Kitty Cake!

I just started getting into cake decorating about a year and a half ago, I started out doing simple things.  But when it came time for my good friend to celebrate her birthday last spring, I decided to try fondant sculpting.  Jenn and I have known each other since college, we both consider ourselves to be Twinkies (we are Asians who are white washed) and we both love Hello Kitty.  We even went to the Hello Kitty anniversary showcase in Los Angeles last Fall.  So of course, I had to make her a Hello Kitty cake.  Jenn also likes to surf and loves the color green (another thing we share in common), so I decided that I would make it a beach scene.  Hope you enjoy!

HK in her cute bathing suit sitting on a sandy beach

This is the plastic doll I modeled my HK after

Jenn cutting into her cake

And just to prove it to you, we really did go to the HK Anniversary and it was awesome!

Jenn and I <3 Twinkies!

Hope you enjoyed this oldie!
~Danielle

Sweet 16 Heart Cakes

Our kitchen designer's daughter was celebrating her 16th birthday and when it came down to getting her a cake, he asked if I would like the opportunity to do that cake.  Our kitchen designer, Bruce at Le Gourmet Kitchen in Orange, California is a fantastic guy and he has done so many things for us... he let us use his showroom for our engagement pictures...

When Tyler put his knee through our under cabinet floor, we knew it was time for a kitchen redo... Bruce and the team he assembled did a fantastic job on our kitchen...

 

So, I didn't hesitate when he asked about a birthday cake for his daughter and her friend.  The two girls wanted to mimic their invitation design which was two hearts.  The most important factor of the cake, making sure it fed 80 people.  My plan was to have each heart feed 40 people.  I baked the cakes in a 10" square cake pan and hand carved the cakes into a heart.  

Overall, I believe the longest measurement is 11.5" and I was scared about covering the cake in fondant.  As some people may know, working with fondant isn't the easiest thing.  Fondant is susceptible to drying out (aka crack lines or worse tears in your fondant) and temperature (anything but cold makes it sweat which can sometimes lead to running colors).  So, in order to cover the cake I had to roll out a large piece of fondant.  The first heart took me two tries but it got covered!  And the second one only took me one try.  My arms and back hurt the next day and I had no idea why until Tyler reminded me that I rolled out fondant.  Oh, fondant and our love hate relationship.

 

The heart was to be covered in black fondant, with a white heart overlay and then the birthday message was to be piped in red. 

 
I tend to under estimate my cakes... so I thought the cakes would error on the small side and I was worried it wouldn't feed the 80 people it needed to feed.  So, with the help of Talya (my Sous), we made cupcakes to match!  Yea... Each cake was about 4" tall and weighed about 20 lbs total.  They were beasts and the cupcakes probably were not needed, but they looked cute!

And an overhead shot of the cake!  I was pretty proud of my first carved/sculpted cake.  I definitely liked that the shape of the cake was a bit different than what I was used to. 

The cake was balanced on my lap in the car... it was a long car ride.

Happy 16th birthday Julianna and Morgann!  I hope you two had a wonderful time at your party!


Until next time, happy baking and decorating!
~Danielle