Dust Ball Cupcake

Hello there! This is a cute little dust ball from My Neighbour Totoro.
I've lost count of how many times I have watched this wonderful film.

This little character was fun to make!

1. First, dye your fondant black. If you have pre-coloured fondant (we highly recommend getting red and black fondant, everything else can be easily dyed from white fondant), roll it into a nice ball, about the size of a slightly larger marble.
2. This is optional, but I added some texture by rolling on a dimpled pattern.
3. Two small pieces of white fondant for the eyes. Rolled them into tiny balls and flattened it on the "body."
4. Pressed in brown sprinkles for the eyes. Finally, the fun part, sticking pieces of sprinkles randomly onto the dust ball!

Iron Cupcake: Earth - Summer Berries

Happy Father's Day!
Happy first day of summer!

Here we fused the two celebrations for our Iron Cupcake: Earth entry! This month's ingredient is Summer Berries! Me thinks you know which berry we picked:
Delicious, fresh, sweet red strawberries. We had tried strawberry buttercream for a previous Iron Cupcake challenge, so this time we decided to bake the strawberry in the cupcake!

Pineapple-Strawberry Upside-Down Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from John Barricelli and Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook
(Makes about 24 regular cupcakes)

1 1/4 stick of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1 cup of sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of strawberry yogurt

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and have all ingredients at room temperature. Also have your cupcake liners and pans ready.
2. Using a 2-inch cookie cutter, cut out rounds from pineapple slices. Then use a 1-inch cookie cutter to cut out a hole in the center of the pineapple.
   
3. Using the 1-inch cookie cutter again, cut out rounds from strawberry slices.
4. Place the cut fruits in a sieve to drain any juices.
5. Using an electric mixer, beat 2 tablespoons of butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Using a spoon, divide the mixture into your baking cups to create an even base. Set aside.
   
   
6. In a bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
   
   
7. Place the 2-inch pineapple round into your baking cup. Add the 1-inch strawberry round into the center.
   
   
8. Using an electric mixer, beat the remaining butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat in the vanilla. Then on the lowest speed, add the flour mixture in two parts. Add in the strawberry yogurt between the two flour mixtures.
   
   
9. Pour the cake mixture into your baking cups, on top of the pineapple and strawberry slices.
10. Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. There may be lovely caramel bubbling out, this was a good sign for us that it was ready!
    
    
11. Let the cupcakes cool for a tiny bit, invert, and serve with vanilla ice cream! The perfect summer and Father's day treat!
    The pineapple-strawberry upside-down cupcake was so good! Loved this easy way to make caramel with the melted brown sugar base! The pineapple and strawberry combination was delicious and the cupcake was nice and fluffy. This fruity treat was great with or without the ice cream topping!
    

You can vote for us HERE between June 28th to July 6th. The winner will receive the awesome June Prize-Pack:

• A cupcake ID bracelet from Etsy artist INSANEJELLYFISH
• A groovy linocut piece from Etsy artist BLOCKHEAD PRESS
• A sweet surprise from SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY
• Artwork from Etsy artist CAKESPY
  
• Head Chefs from FIESTA PRODUCTS
• HELLO, CUPCAKE, by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
• An apron from JESSIE STEELE APRONS
• Books from TASTE OF HOME
• A T-shirt from UP WITH CUPCAKES

Iron Cupcake: Earth is sponsored by 1-800-Flowers. You can also join in on the fun yourself! Click here to learn more about Iron Cupcake: Earth.

Yummm! This was berry good!

How: Hedgehog Cupcake Set

How to make our little Hedgehog Cupcake Set!

1. Bake 9 cupcakes of your choice. You can do 12 or any number, but we think that the square-shaped setup is cute.
2. Gather some tools. Here, in the photo below we have: some brown jimmies/sprinkles, a stitching tool, a circle shape cutter, a veining tool, a tiny heart cutter, and leaf cutter. Not pictured, but will be needed are: rolled fondant, a roller, gel paste, toothpicks, a utility knife, a tiny circle cutter, and a practice mat.
   
   
3. Let your cupcakes cool. Make some buttercream or frosting of your choice. Dab a good amount onto your cupcake.
   
   
4. Using a metal spatula, smooth out the buttercream into a flat or dome shape. It doesn't have to be perfect, since it will be covered and smoothed again with fondant.
   
   This will do!
   
   
   
5. Next, using your gel paste, dye a small ball of fondant green, a large ball of fondant sky blue, another small piece of fondant red, a medium sized piece brown, and a tiny piece dark brown.
   Note: To dye fondant, you simply use a clean toothpick, dab it in the gel and then poke it into the fondant. Never double dip your toothpick into the gel. Always use a clean one. Next, you knead the fondant until the colour is consistent throughout. If you happen to have pre-coloured fondant, that is even easier and this part is basically done for you!
   
6. Roll the green fondant onto your practice board (or workspace). Cut out 7 little leaves. Imprint a simple line through the leaf with the veining tool.
   
   
7. Roll the red fondant and cut out 2 tiny hearts and 2 tiny circles. Use the veining tool to create a dimple at the top and bottom of the circles so that they resemble apples. Then, I pushed a brown sprinkle into the fondant to create the apple stem.
   
   
8. Roll out the brown fondant and using your utility knife, cut out 2 hedgehogs. I know this part is the trickiest part because it is hard to freehand shapes. Especially on soft fondant. I find that it becomes easier to work with if you let the fondant harden for a tiny bit, but not too hard that it crumbles! Don't forget to add the tiny fondant legs! I took tiny pieces of fondant and rolled them into small cylinder shapes.
   
9. Find a small brown sprinkle and use that for the hedgehog's eye. I simply push it in, embedding the sprinkle into the fondant.
   
   
10. Using the thinner side of the veining tool, softly press little dashes onto the hedgehog's body. This will create the spines. Let all the decorations sit on icing sugar to dry.
    
11. Next, roll the blue fondant and cut out 9 circles.
    
12. Using the stitching tool, carefully create a "path" on the fondant. Watch your turns! Try to plan out your path so that they connect when placed in a set.
    
    
13. Finally, attach all the leaves, apples, hearts, and hedgehogs onto the 9 blue circles. The last step is to place the decorated fondant pieces on top of your delicious cupcake!
    

Step back, and enjoy your handiwork!

Cherry Soda Cupcake

I know this may or may not be big in the cupcake world, but the opening of a McNally Robinson in Ontario is news for my book world. I must have dragged Howard there at least three times now. Checking out up coming author events. Attending author events. Browsing the shelves and tables. Watching their dessert and baking book section grow as new cookbooks come in. Looking through all their recommendations and displays. I love how there is so much care put into this bookstore.


The location doesn't hurt either. Located at the developing Shops at Don Mills, we love how we're outdoors. There's a great grassy square with patio chairs to listen to musicians. A fountain for children to wade in. Now, if only there were a cupcake shop!


So after an author reading on Saturday, Howard and I decided to have lunch at Prairie Ink restaurant in McNally Robinson. It is so comfortable to sit on the second floor. *sigh* Umbrellas keeping us in the shade, the lovely occasional breeze, and the chatter of books and literature... okay, maybe just light and happy chatter around us. And the food was delicious, loved their sweet potato fries!


Now for the best news, Prairie Ink is also a bakery! We spotted some cupcakes in their display case and just had to try one. They had mocha vegan cupcakes and cherry soda cupcakes. I was hoping it would be raspberry, but a soda cupcake is just as interesting! It was very filling, so we will have to come back to try the mocha vegan cupcake!

He Said/She Said: Sky High

Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes

Written by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne

Photography by Tina Rupp

ISBN 13: 9780811854481

ISBN 10: 0811854485

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Hardcover: 224 Pages

S: Oh, where to begin? This cookbook is absolutely a must have! The recipes are fantastic and the photographs are gorgeous!
H: We've tried their banana chocolate chip (sans chocolate chip) recipe for Mother's Day and their chocolate cake recipe when we tested the BeaterBlade+. Both cakes and frostings yielded great results.
S: I've already bookmarked pages from the book for future recipe testing. It looks like I've tagged almost every page. My all-time favourite is the sour cream-chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. When I crave for cake. That's the one I want to magically appear in front of me. The cake is not dry, is very rich, and one slice/cupcake is not enough for me.
H: Piggy.
S: What?
H: Nothing. I like this book!
S: Sky High's front matter contains an introduction, baking basics broken down into cake varieties, baking techniques, ingredients, and equipments.
H: Then, the recipes are divided into chocolate cakes, vanilla cakes, fruit-flavored cakes, nut and spice cakes, cakes with a world of flavor, and finally holiday and special-occasion cakes.
S: The back matter contains an appendix for equipment and material sources. There is also the always useful table of equivalents.
H: The recipes usually range from 6-9 inches sky high cake - meaning 2 or more layers! There are even a couple wedding cake recipes and instructions.
S: Tina Rupp is an excellent photographer. I liked seeing how she framed each photo when the cake was so high and a few are on cake stands, making them even higher! Highly recommended. I wish there were more!

Tagged recipes on Sky High

Dinosaur Birthday Cupcakes

Another birthday! This time we're going back in time - how far? We're not really sure. But get ready for some teeth, horns, and spikes!

Tyrannosaurus Rex!
"I have a big head and little arms!" - Meet the Robinsons

Triceratops

Stegosauruses

Pterodactyl

Brontosauruses in water!

Fossil

Volcano... this isn't lava cake!

Have a happy 4th birthday Griffin!

Click on the links for a step-by-step tutorial on how to make the T-Rex and Stegosaurus out of fondant.

Invader Zim Cupcakes

We made Invader Zim cupcakes! Now, we must admit that we had no idea what Invader Zim was before this request. I did once accidentally come across one of the characters before (was looking for "cupcake wallpapers") only because he was holding a cupcake. If you use Google Image and search for "Gir + Cupcake," a bunch of cute images will come up. Including an awesome pink wallpaper that's currently on my computer. So let us introduce our Invader Zim cupcakes:

Zim is a member of the Irken military. This is him in his natural alien form without his Earth boy disguise.

GIR is a dysfunctional robot that is suppose to help Zim, but often causes trouble!

GIR wears a dog disguise to blend in with us Earthlings.

Totally random, but GIR likes Giant Pigs!

This is Zim's house. Notice that he has a gnome in his yard to blend in with us on Earth.

Moose! Too cute! Found that Anna the Red has these funny Moose and Piggy & GIR bentos!

Have a happy Invader Zim birthday and a fantastic sleepover party!