September 20, 2012

Sarah's 'Rockstar Glam' Birthday Bash!

Last Friday evening was my sister Sarah's Big Surprise Birthday Bash... and what a Blast it was!!!  I chose the theme based on two of her favorite things in life - music and makeup.  More about the party itself will follow on my Parties page in the near future.  

When it came to the cake, I decided to make Angel Food Cupcakes for her party, since a month ago or so I asked her what she would like for her birthday if she could have anything she wanted (cake-wise that is ;) ...and she said to me "can you make Angel Food cupcakes?"  Of course, why not?!  Well actually I didn't know how that would work because I was under the impression Angel Food had to be inverted while cooling (like the cake version), and how would I do that with cupcakes?  So I began doing some research and found many recipes online for Angel Food Cupcakes, that looked absolutely fine (not deflated) so I decided to give it a shot.

Now that the cupcakes were decided on, I knew I had to 'Rockstar Glam' them up somehow.  After much consideration I settled on cupcake picks as the way to go.  I wanted to have all her favorites incorporated so I began to round up a bunch of rock music and makeup logos, pics, etc.  

Here's what I came up with.. they turned out super cute!




And here are the finished cupcakes.. Angel Food with a Strawberry Swirl baked inside, topped with whipped cream icing.  
I made some fondant star toppers as well.  The cupcakes were yumm and went super fast at the party!  
We barely got to sing "happy birthday" before they were gone!  Sarah LOVED them!!!








September 10, 2012

Panny's Protege

Last week I had my 6 year old niece, Olivia, for a sleepover.  I made a plan with her to bake cupcakes the next day since she was going to be at my house most of the day.. which was her last day of summer vacation.  Well, needless to say, she absolutely loved it!  At one point she said to me "I wish I lived here.. I can't believe uncle Mike (my hubby) and Oliver (my 2 year old) don't love to do this all day".. to which I replied "I can't believe they don't either Liv" :)

Some pics from our awesome day...
 
 I told her she could choose from any of the liners I had on hand.. 
of course she chose 1 or 2 of each design :)



batter time.. look how focused she is!



 Aren't they super cute with all the different liners.. I love it!



  Cupcakes Baked.. on to step #2!



 Rule #1 in baking... taste EVERYTHING!



filling her icing bag..



 Look at those piping skills!



And now.. the best part.. decorating!!



 
 This one was made especially for 'Panny' ;)



 
One of my faves.. she put some of every decoration we had on this one!



 


 Creativity at its best!



 
Liv's masterpiece cupcakes!



 
 Her favorite one.. which she did not want to eat but said she would "keep for decoration"



Some 'pre-baking' fun outside!



 
{Olivia & Oliver}