WE'VE MOVED

Hello!

Thank you for the amazing 8 years here at A Baked Creation, we can't thank you enough for the memories! But we've decided to move over to a new site - Sincerely, Syl. Please join us there for future posts on all the things you loved here!

Sincerely,
Syl

Thursday, December 31, 2009

How: Stegosaurus Birthday Cake

My favourite little cousin was born on New Year's Eve and I asked him what kind of birthday cake he would want. My aunt was whispering and nudging for a chocolate cake, but Justin politely asked for a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, decorated with dinosaurs. Done and done!

I can tell that Justin will be a good baker when he grows up. Justin occasionally helps me out in the kitchen. He is very good at using the ice-cream scoop to evenly distribute cupcake batter, keeping an eye on the oven, and taste-testing. This year, he made a fondant snowman for one of his cupcakes.

Fondant Stegosaurus

Rolled fondant
Gel paste colours
Clean toothpicks
Water
Brown or black sprinkles/jimmies
A rolling pin
A knife
  1. If you are lucky enough to have coloured fondant, then you can skip these steps! Unless you want white-coloured dinosaurs, you will have to dye your white fondant. Get the gel paste in the colours you want and use a clean toothpick to dab into the gel.
  2. Transfer the gel from the toothpick onto the fondant. Knead and roll until the fondant is completely coloured. Please do not double-dip the toothpick, use a new one if you need more gel for a darker shade.
  3. I prefer having the plates and spikes a different colour than the body, so I will dye two colours for each Stegosaurus!
  4. To make the body of the Stegosaurus, roll out this hill shape: a pointy end for the tail, a round end for the head. The body should be thicker than the head and the tail. It kind of looks like a fat slug:
  5. Roll out four square-like shapes for the front and back legs. Attach them onto the body.
  6. Using the rolling pin, roll your fondant smooth and flat. It should be about 2-3mm thick. With your fondant cutter or knife, cut out a long rectangular shape. Trim it so that it is not longer than the Stegosaurus' body that you made.
  7. Again, using a fondant cutter or knife, cut out small triangles. This will create the back plates:
  8. Carefully lift the plates and using a tiny dab of water, adhere it to the back of the Stegosaurus:
  9. Create 3-4 fondant spikes or use long sprinkles for the spikes on the tail.
  10. Lastly, take two sprinkles or jimmies to make eyes. You can also make a mouth using a thin knife:
Bonus! Fondant Water Creature

Rolled fondant
Gel paste colours
Clean toothpicks
Water
Brown or black sprinkles/jimmies
A rolling pin
A knife
  1. It is basically the same concept as the Stegosaurus above - except you do three parts. You will need to make the tail, body, and long neck separately:
  2. Make sure you make the tail and long neck longer than it needs to be. Why? Because they will need be submerged in the cake.
  3. After making these parts, leave it out to dry for at least an hour so that the fondant hardens. This will help keep the tail and neck standing in the cake (or 3 cupcakes).
Ta-da! Some kind of water creature slash dinosaur!
I'm sure it is related to the Stegosaurus...

What? Stegosaurus and water relative can have birthday cake too!
Happy Birthday Justin!!!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Looking Back: 2009

It is almost New Year's Eve!

Don't you love lists? Well, it is that time of year again as we look back to our top 2009 favourites and some of yours!

The Top 3 Posts of 2009: (This was compiled by Google Analytics)
Most Viewed and Faved Photos on Flickr:
Howard's Top 4 Favourites: (Yes, he couldn't narrow it down to 3!!!)
  1. Squishy - I can't help wanting to squish this cute creation!
  2. Pig - Very cute version of a pig.
  3. Baby Ghost - Clean, cute, and looks great and yet so easy to make, great idea for a quick cupcake decor.
  4. Triceratops - I guess they were my fav dinos when I was a kid, I liked this stubby version of it.
Sylvia's Top 3 Favourites:
  1. Domo Birthday Cupcakes - Domo-kun! Just one look and Domo always makes me smile.
  2. Humming Scooters -It is fun making things for other baking bloggers. =)
  3. Summer Berries - This was by far my favourite tasting cupcake this year. Pineapple-strawberry upside-down cupcakes with ice cream makes a delicious treat!
Click here for the 2008 version. Do you have a favourite that isn't listed here? Let us know!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Join in our Reindeer Games

Yummy! Here are some chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate ganache glaze and a swirl of raspberry buttercream.

Let's play some reindeer games! We have three judges today: Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, and Frosty the Snowman. First game, can anyone (without cheating) name all of Santa's reindeers?

Hint: Rudolph is the easiest to spot first.

Next, we have a very simple mix-and-match game here. To make all the reindeers looks different, I used my handy letters, numbers, and punctuation cutters. Draw the line from the cutter to the matching reindeer antler.
F, 1, and !

Here's another one:
3, L, and Y

Finally, according to the lyrics of Frosty the Snowman, what is Frosty made of?

We hope you had fun!
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
from Sylvia and Howard

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Winter Party Cupcakes 2

Here are my second winter-themed cupcakes! The first one can be seen by clicking here. These cupcakes are vanilla with raspberry filling and topped with chocolate buttercream. I hope you enjoy the decorations, I made these little figures from fondant:

"...they keep falling..
But there's one thing I know

The blues they send to meet me won't defeat me

It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me..."


Do you prefer snowfakes or raindrops falling on your head?

Skates! I did the two, Howard's on the left and mine on the right.

Mom and Pop!

Brother and Sister!

A rare blog comment from Howard: The subtle/cute smile reminded me if a clip I saw somewhere where someone personified a cherry tomatoe by cutting a slit in it for a mouth then made a skit of it being sick and vomitting out "its guts" by squeezing it? So now for some reason I want to do the same thing but on this fondant snowgirl.
Nooo... not the little snowgirl! And this is why I mainly do the blogging.

Inspired by the Buffalo plaids that I've seen at Roots lately.
Some warm wooly mittens and a trapper hat!

The full album of photos can be viewed on our facebook page. They were posted early as a sneak preview for our fans. =)

Monday, December 14, 2009

Kathy Lowinger


As some of you know, for my day job, I am a publicist at Tundra Books. This means I have the privilege of working with Publisher, Kathy Lowinger. Not many people are able to do what they love, but Kathy does, and all of us at Tundra happily feed off her energy and expertise.

Earlier this year, Kathy announced that she would be retiring. =(

So last week, we had a small get-together to toast Kathy's retirement. Naturally, I was on cupcake duty and with the help of everyone at Tundra, came up with these Kathy-themed cupcakes:

Books! This was an obvious one. I even gave one of the books a "starred" review. =)

Here are Bill and Kathy's pets: Mimsey (Hungarian Sheepdog), Rupert (Basset Hound), Abby (Boxer), and William Buster (Tabby).

Music note, treble clef, and a keyboard! Kathy loves playing the piano.

Swimsuits, we know Kathy will be lounging by the pool a lot more now!

Ballet slippers, Kathy owns quite a few pairs...

Camper shoes. Kathy really likes the ones with the strap over the foot!

This is Bill. Kathy's husband!

Thank you to everyone at Tundra for helping me with the Kathy-themed cupcakes! I love how well we know Kathy and I had a blast making them.

Kathy, we wish you all the best on your retirement!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

100th Post Giveaway Contest

According to blogger, I have 99 posts... making this one the 100th Post! How should I celebrate? Oh, you already know, it is in the title of my post. So yes! A Giveaway Contest!!! Let's start the fun, there are three cropped images below. Each are from a post on our blog, so sift through our 99 posts (evil crackle) to find them!

image #1

image #2

image #3


Where are the three images above from? Tell us and you could WIN a copy of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favourite Treat! Hmm.... should I have waited until my 175th post instead? Nope, I won't keep you waiting! Plus, I need more space, these three copies are crowding my desk. Yes... you read right, there are three copies to be won!


To enter the 100th Post Giveaway Contest:
  1. Fill in the form below to tell us where images #1, #2, and #3 are from - the name of the posts or the links will do.
  2. This contest is available to residents of Canada and the U.S.A. only! But, if you have friends and family with a Canadian or American mailing address, feel free to enter.
  3. The 100th Post Giveaway Contest contest is open on December 13th 2009 until December 31st 2009. So you have plenty of time to figure it out! Forms submitted after 12 midnight EST on December 31st will not be considered.
  4. There will be three winners. The three people who have all three correct answers will be the winners! If there are more than three people with the correct answers, we will enter them in a random draw.
  5. The winners will be announced on January 1st 2010 on our blog, a nice way to ring in the new year. The winners will each receive a copy of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Best of luck!