A couple days ago my friend, Celine asked if I could make some birthday cupcakes for her sister. She had two themes in mind, Hello Kitty and Shopping. Hello Kitty was pretty easy, I did a cake last year for my friend's birthday. But I was a little stumped on the shopping... finally I decided to do items that reminded me of shopping... shopping bags, a purse, heels, and a big ring (Celine's idea). Scan down to the bottom of the blog for a "how to" on fondant decorations. Here are the cupcakes in a cute pink cupcake box!
Here is a view without the box... I am sorry for the really bad photos. My iphone does a better job at taking photos...
And a close up of the shopping cupcakes
Close up of the Hello Kitty inspired cupcakes... the pink bow is my favorite!
The "How To" in fondant decorating... at least how I do it I first like to sketch out my ideas. Next, I decide on the size of the fondant decorations. I use my round cookie cutters to help me decide on sizes. Then, I sketch the item within the boarders created by the cookie cutter. Next, I take parchment paper and trace the item again with a permanent maker. I will use these as my templates. 
Next, I roll out some fondant to about a thickness of 1/8" and then I place my template on top of the fondant. I then use an exacto knife (you could use a sewing needle as well) to poke little holes along the lines of the sketch. 
When you lift the parchment paper you will see little dots and you can then cut along these dots with your exacto knife. You can create a lot of different things with this technique. It may take a good amount of time, but this trick does come in handy when you don't have an edible ink printer. I have used it with lettering, logos and even the Optimus Prime cake I did in August. 
Good luck with your own decorations! Thank you for stopping by! Until next time!
~Danielle
I love this time of year! It started to get chilly last week, but I have no idea how long that will last... knowing Southern California we could be back in the 90's next week (please no!). I love the first chill in the Autumn air because that means I get to wear fleece! This time of year also means delicious sweets with flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. I once had a friend that would describe these sweets as tasting like Christmas, but I disagree, I think it tastes like Autumn, Autumn spices to be exact!
As a tribute to fall, I wanted to make some Oatmeal and pie spice cookies (pie spice = Autumn spice).
As I was discussing these cookies with my friend, Nicole aka W, she reminded me of one of our favorite ice cream flavors, Ben and Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Chunk. If you haven't tried this flavor, drive yourself to your local grocery store and treat yourself to a pint! With ice cream on the brain, I decided to revise my original plan and make ice cream sandwiches. So here are the ice cream sandwiches, two oatmeal and pie spice cookies with vanilla ice cream in the middle. Yum! Yum!
Until next time, enjoy your fleece!
~Damielle
In September, the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club (MSCC) baked Zucchini Spice Cupcakes (or muffins), unfortunately I was unable to participate at the time (our kitchen was non-existent). So, even though our October recipe is due next week, I still wanted to try this recipe. I'm normally not one for vegetable and fruit cakes, but I love zucchini. I was very interested to see if I would like this recipe. I made half the recipe and topped it with my cream cheese frosting recipe (once you find your recipe, you don't deviate) and little flowers I punched out from the leftover zucchini.
All I gotta say is.. you can't even taste the zucchini. It just tastes like a spice cupcake (or muffin). I love spice cupcakes (or muffins), so I definitely like this recipe!
I have noticed on other MSCC member's blogs that there is a small debate as to whether or not we can call this recipe a cupcake recipe and I have to agree. To me, it reminded me of a muffin, right down to the flavor, the density and the texture. Tyler on the other hand says if you close your eyes it tastes like a cupcake. We brought this discussion to dinner with our friends and each person had their different opinions of what defines a cupcake and a muffin. After talking, we decided to make a hybrid name. From now on I am going to call muffin and cupcakes that blur the lines "muffcakes" or "cupkins."
Stayed tuned, a lot of baking is going down in the next week... MSCC October recipe and engagement party desserts. Plus, I'm trying to find the best chocolate cake recipe and may have just found it!
Almost a month ago, Tyler and I had our engagement photo session with Soul Mates Photo, Melissa the photographer does amazing work! I've used her work as my profile pic and header image.
Tyler and I love to cook together, so we thought it was only fitting for us to have some pictures of us working away in the kitchen (see our engagement session here). Because I love to bake and decorate, I wanted to make sure we had cakes in the background... enter my first cake dummy! I loved decorating the cake dummy, why you may ask... because I don't have to worry about puncturing a hole in the cake, I don't have to worry about the cake being lopsided... I just get to decorate! So here it is, my first dummy cake!
I love Japanese patterns. In college, most of my paintings for my advanced painting class were inspired by Japanese patterns. Japanese patterns are geometric and simplistic and I just love it! The pattern you see above is the classic wave pattern. After covering the cake with fondant, I cut out a scalloped shaped fondant piece and wrapped it around the cake. Then I went in and hand-painted the wave pattern in. It didn't come out the way I wanted it, but it kind of has that Japanese wood-block print feel. So I like it now. I want to do this cake again and I may try my hand at pipping royal icing instead of hand-painting.
The remodel of our kitchen has been completed, so look out for yummy treats!!! Until then, happy baking!
~Danielle
When you lift the parchment paper you will see little dots and you can then cut along these dots with your exacto knife. You can create a lot of different things with this technique. It may take a good amount of time, but this trick does come in handy when you don't have an edible ink printer. I have used it with lettering, logos and even the Optimus Prime cake I did in August. 
