Birdy Baby Shower

Here's something to tweet about, we made cupcakes for my colleague's baby shower this week! The tricky part was to not do anything that screamed baby shower. We were looking for something subtle, but pretty, and one of the shower organizers suggested making little birds.

Okay, let me run with that. I decided that flowers and leaves would accompany the little birds really well. A spring theme in the middle (or are we in the beginning) of winter. If you want to get all meaningful, spring is for new beginnings. I'd say having a baby qualifies!

I wish I had my camera at work, one of the publicity managers made a diaper cake! Not a cake that looked like a diaper - she tied up a bunch of diapers and made two tiers with them.

These leaf cupcakes were actually inspired by Sugar Baking. She has this great photos of leaf cupcakes for a wedding that I love. It's so simple and clean.

For mine, I didn't do a fondant covering over the cupcakes, but used a dollop of buttercream. These cupcakes were actually topped with lime buttercream for the don't-want-it-too-sweet crowd in my office. If you look closely, you can see some of the lime zest in the frosting.

All the cupcakes topped with a swirl were vanilla buttercream. One of my managers actually said to me that she had a hard time choosing a cupcake. Did she go for the lime cupcakes for a different flavour, or pick the vanilla to get a birdy?

She picked the lime cupcake in the end. ;)

Liz and Andrew, congratulations on your little bundle of joy!

By the way, Howard took all the post-production photos with our new camera this time. What do you think? Did he do a good job? ;)

Owl Baby Shower Cupcakes

Baby shower in the office today!!! Kelly Hill is an amazing designer, go into any bookstore, and there is bound to be a book designed by her.

Yummy Mommy!

A little bird told me that the expecting mother likes owls (she makes these really cool fabric owls too)! So I made her an owl family on the cupcakes. =)

It also made sense to me to have mini cupcakes for a baby shower. I tried a quick recipe from my newly acquired Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. My adapted version wasn't too sweet, which was good because I am sure the buttercream made up for it!


One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
(Makes about 18 regular cupcakes or about 40 mini cupcakes)

1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
3/4 cup of unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
3/4 teaspoon of salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup of milk
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup of warm water

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. With an electric mixer on medium, whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. Reduce speed to low. Add in eggs, milk, oil, vanilla extract, and water. Mix until smooth and combined.
4. Divide batter evenly, filling each about two-thirds full.
5. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Take cupcakes out to cool before frosting.

Best wishes to your growing family Kelly!
I think you will make a hooting good mom!

Mother and Baby Owl!

SavvyMom's 2009 Dream Baby Shower Contest

We attempted to make "fake" cupcakes to be displayed at the 2009 BabyTime Show at the International Centre this weekend. SavvyMom contacted us about this great contest they were hosting for new moms. So we needed to show a sample of what the contestants could win. Now, we've never made display cupcakes before, so please learn from our mistake and don't do what we did!

(The Wrong Way to Make) Display Cupcakes
(Makes as many as you need depending on what you buy)

Plaster of Paris (we bought ours from Wal-Mart, although we're sure Canadian Tire, Home Depot, and other renovation shops sell it)
A container to mix
A stirrer
2 cups of cold water
13 cupcake liners/cups

1. Cover your work area. Very important!
2. Have lots of cold water ready.
   
3. Follow the instructions on the box. It is usually 2 part plaster, 1 part water. We found that 2 part cupcake liner and 1 part cupcake liner made enough to fill 1 cupcake liner!
4. Mix the plaster and water until smooth. Work quickly as it begins to set (in 20 minutes!)
5. Poor the mixture into your cupcake liner.
6. Let it sit to dry.
7. Do this as many times as you like. We made 13, since the cupcake stand holds 13 cupcakes.
8. We had made our rubber ducks out of fondant and had them dry for a day.
9. So, we rolled out blue fondant and had them cut in circles to cover the top of the display cupcakes.
10. This is probably where it all went wrong: place the fondant circle on top of the display cupcake. Pat smoothly down. With a tiny dab of water on the bottom of the duck. Place the duck on the fondant circle. Let the finished display cupcake dry. The next day... please find the blue fondant circle melting!

So what did we do wrong? Don't mix plaster of Paris with fondant? Chemical reaction? We're wondering if it is possible that the fondant is absorbing moisture from the plaster? The plaster dried very fast and was so heavy! Perhaps we'll have to try using Styrofoam or Play-Doh next time. We really didn't expect the fondant to disagree with the rock solid plaster. What a shame, I was hoping to give them away as paper-weights after the show! What materials do you use to make display cupcakes?

Don't forget that SavvyMom.ca and Today's Parent have partnered up for this fantastic contest!

The 2009 Dream Baby Shower Contest:
"The Editors at SavvyMom have carefully selected a collection of baby shower gift items that every new mom dreams of for herself and her new baby. Plush, practical and packed with everything you need for feeding, sleeping, bathing and more, it's the ultimate Dream Baby Shower! And you could win it all - over $7000 worth of new baby items - just by entering!"
Click here to enter, view the prizes, and read contest rules.

Quack! Quack!

Rubber Ducky Baby Shower Cupcakes

A baby shower! We made different coloured rubber ducks from fondant floating in vanilla buttercream on Devil's food cupcakes. As always, check out our flickr photostream or become a fan on our facebook page for more photos! Our previous cupcake projects can be found on the right side-bar in categories (or scroll down to go to the next page).

Fondant rubber ducks swimming around.

Quacking away...

 

Vanilla buttercream on devil's food cupcakes.

This photo was featured on TasteSpotting.

Green fondant rubber duck on cupcake.

Purple fondant rubber duck on cupcake.

Teal fondant rubber duck on cupcake.

Fondant rubber ducks on cupcakes.

Lining up!

Swimming left.

This photo was featured on foodgawker.

Swimming right.

This photo was featured on Photograzing!

Green with envy...

Since the expecting mother is a school teacher, based on the film MEANGIRLS, 

may we present to you... MEANDUCKS!

Nursery Rhymes Baby Shower Cupcakes

A great friend asked us to make baby shower cupcakes, we were a bit nervous at first since she works in design! We came up with a nursery rhymes theme and got to work. The expecting mom loves chocolate and caramel, so we made chocolate cupcakes, filled with caramel, iced with chocolate ganache and decorated with fondant. As always, become a fan on our facebook page and see our flickr account for more photos! Our previous cupcake projects can be found on the right side-bar, archived monthly (or scroll down to go to the next page).

Chocolate Ganache icing on Chocolate cupcakes with caramel filling.

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man!
Bake me a cake as fast as you can.
Pat it, and roll it, and mark it with "B."
And put it in the oven for Baby and me.


Hickory, dickory, dock,
The mouse ran up the clock;
The clock struck one.
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock.


Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.


Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick,
Jack jump over the candlestick.

Jack jumped high,
Jack jumped low,
Jack jumped over and burned his toe.


Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep,
And can't tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, and they'll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them.


Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
See how they run. See how they run.
They all ran after the farmer's wife
She cut off their tails with a carving knife.
Did you ever see such a thing in your life?
As three blind mice.


Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!


This little piggy went to market.
This little piggy stayed at home.
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none.
And this little piggy went "Wee! Wee! Wee!" all the way home.


Hey diddle diddle,
The cat played the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.


Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.

One for the master,
One for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.


Old Mother Goose,
When she wanted to wander,
Would ride through the air
On a very fine gander.


Good night, sleep tight,
Don't let the bed bugs bite.
Wake up bright,
In the morning light,
To do what's right.
With all your might.


Nursery Rhymes Baby Shower Cupcakes