When I think about Peanuts, I immediately imagine his little red doghouse and all of the characters Snoopy takes on when he’s hanging out with Woodstock. You know, he’ll have his typewriter, he has his famous pilot outfit, and of course Joe Cool. Since Snoopy’s such a charismatic actor with a chameleon-like aptitude for assuming different roles, I decided to pop on a Spartan helmet and let him enjoy being part of the Big 10 conference for the day.

Let’s get started with the construction:

Here’s what will be the dog house- 3 layers of chocolate fudge cake, filled with chocolate ganache, and then covered in buttercream. I put fondant over this, then painted it red using vodka and food coloring as my medium. (Picture further down).

I wanted to go for a 2-D, more cartoony and comic strip look for part of this, so instead of molding the dog house, I just cut out two flat pieces of gum paste and painted them red (same technique as above).

One of my newest investments was a package of 10 edible ink markers! This made my life so much easier when it came down to details like the lines on the side of the dog house. Paintiing these would have been a nightmare.

Here’s the painted, fondanted dog house base, atop a cardboard circle covered in green fondant, serving as the grass.

Now for the main characters :) Here are the starting forms of Snoopy and Woodstock. Snoopy is made of gumpaste, and Woodstock is made of yellow fondant.

So I referenced many photos of Sparty and Snoopy to figure out how to do an accurate Spartan helmet. (See photo of Sparty below) Here’s Snoopy’s head with a little green helmet and the start of the white part (what’s the official name for it?)

Below I added the face shields and the helmet mask.

I had added ridges to the white part of the helmet using a paring knife, but they didn’t really show up on just the plain white gum paste. So I painted over it with a little silver edible glitter to highlight the dimensions of the ridges.

Finishing touches? Woodstock got some eyes and a fondant football. Snoopy got a face, ears, and limbs. We can’t forget the little black pads on the bottom of his feet!

Here they are, placed atop the house, and a little green S emblem at the bottom.

Upclose!

Looking off into the distance?

Or watching the Spartans win!

That would have been a dagger to my cake-centered heart of hearts, had it not been for the fact that it was an intentionally topsy turvy cake.  You know what I’m talking about.

But for those unfamiliar with the variety within the cake-world, yeah, it could be a little weird. Like, seeing the leaning tower of Pisa for the first time and wondering why everyone’s all gung-ho about some structure that’s obviously got some architectural flaws in it.

Anyways, this was a birthday cake for Miss Megan, who has always wanted a topsy turvy, “mad hatter” cake. The team brainstormed and decided to play on her girliest traits- pink, glitter, pretty shiny things, etc. The more over the top, the better Megan isn’t a girly girl on the outside, but it’s surprising how much little ballerina tutus, my little pony, and the current issue of the American Girl catalog can brighten her day.

Grab your tiara, jump on the fairy train and buckle up, we’re off to pretty pretty princess land!

First things first… the color of the cake! This is the melted marshmallow base that I’ll knead into fondant. I tinted it PINK!

Next, determining the flavors. Strawberry shortcake for the biggest layer- fresh and sweet! White cake, swiss buttercream, and fresh berries.

Add layer 2, and fill in with buttercream. To be honest, the topsy turvy wasn’t as hard to achieve as I thought, thanks to my uneven oven!

The next two tiers were made from a round 6″ and 4″ pan. Not strawberry, but chocolate fudge cake with a nice chocolate ganache.

This is how I contoured the 2nd tier to have a very uneven top.

Apply the buttercream and toss it in the freezer- a trick that helps me ensure the layers are smooth and firm prior to fondant.

I skipped a few steps (i.e. covering each tier with fondant) but that’s tedious. Here’s the exciting part: building! I cheated, that’s not a dowel, just a really long lollipop stick.

All Stacked up! Topsy turvy indeed!

Time to decorate. Little white fondant spheres lined the transition point between the layers, along with some silver dragee’s for a little bling. Here we started on some daisy cutouts.

Skip ahead an hour- yep, only an hour, as we had 5 pairs of hands working diligently on cutting out shapes, “gluing” with piping gel, applying glitter, and assembling the details.

The bottom layer has polka dots of various sizes, some adorned with tiny hearts, other with blue or purple glittery princess gel frosting. The middle of course is all daisies of various sizes and colors, each with a silver dragee center. The top, however, was personalized to appeal to Meg’s love for sports. Yes, she’s a girly girl through and through, but don’t you dare get in between her and her sports teams, events, or games. As unique as the cake, Meg can pull off both . This is the girl who’s favorite color is pink, but will keep cable just for ESPN.

Another view- the giant glittery “M” with silver rockstar dragees along the edges. (That’s edible glitter too!) At the top, there’s a hand-drawn Penn State logo (edible markers on white fondant) and a Penn State jersey. Guess who she roots for?

After dinner, we disassembled the cake for some eating. We joked that she should keep this top layer for next year- freeze it like they do the top layer of wedding cakes. Here’s my shameless plot to get you to check back on this blog next year to see if she’s really done it. Oh, the suspense!

Nomnom, here’s to another year, some rich chocolate cake, and a terrific birthday Megs!

It was a bit challenging to keep them all the same, so I went a little buck-wild. I mean, in the movie, they are different in their own quirky ways. Some have one eye, some have two, some have hair, some don’t. And they are all working together to steal the moon (hence the moon in the middle).

This was the only process shot I got, mostly because my hands were covered in powdered sugar and my camera was being dumb. But it is the creation of the minion eyeball. This is pivotal to the piece!

Here we have a closeup of Rick.

 ”Whaddup, Larry?”- Gru

Kevin says “Happy Birthday, Bri!”

“Blabhablhablahblaaa” in minion= “We brought you the moon!”

Tasty Minion- the aftermath

The remnants! Happy Birthday Bri!

G’s birthday came and went… and we wanted to celebrate with one of her favorite past times- none other than Nintendo! There are plenty of Nintendo themed cupcakes out there, so we had to make ours extra special- you’ll see. They’re more interpretive than literal .

First step: Freshly baked fudgy chocolate cupcakes!

Next: Small batches of colorful Nintendo colors:

The background plan was the bright blue sky of one of the scenes of Super Mario 2. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. World 1. We rolled out some blue fondant and used tea cups to make the rounds:

A thin layer of buttercream frosting and a little stretching and we have blue covered cupcakes!

We set up a parchment covered decorating station on my breakfast bar. Here’s a preview of the tiny details: little mushrooms, a green tunnel, a spitfire plant, a coin, oh yeah, the works.

Here is the final product: all of the above elements, plus some creative/interpretive symbols for Mario and Luigi, i.e. the red and green hats, along with a parachuting Koopa Trooper (also done as a ‘loose representation’). There is a yellow sign that reads, “Hope this super year 1ups the last,” a combo of Becky’s impeccable block writing and Megan’s clever phrase idea. Lastly, all placed in a shoebox lined with aluminum foil to represent the TV.

Oh yeah, there’s my manicured finger at the bottom (my contribution)… I just went to a wedding, ok?

Happy belated birthday, G!

Becky’s birthday was in June. Yeah, I know, it’s October. But whatever, a cake is a cake. To be fair, we made this in July. I just have been slacking at blogging. Yeah, just call me the bottleneck.

Well, Becky is an absolute pirate nerd. She can name all of the real pirate ships in history, the types, what cannons they had on them, and is fluent in pirate-speak. She could walk up to your modern day swashbuckler, exchange a few “arrr, matey’s,” and walk away without being questioned for why she doesn’t have an eye patch on.

Needless to say, we went with the obvious pirate theme for her birthday.  Let’s just say… this cake tastes like ship!

Two 9×13 yellow cakes make the base of the ship.

Stacked cakes.

Trim the edges to get a ship-like shape.

Covered in chocolate frosting for that brown deck look! Lined the sides with chocolate wafer Pirouette cookies to be the “railing.”

Here come the details! A Tim Tam cookie makes the plank, some sprees for decor, tiny fudge striped cookies for the lifesavers (do Pirates know how to swim?), braided pretzels for the mast, chopped Pirouette’s and candles for the cannons (sticking out the sides), and of course, goldfish (self explanatory).

Check out this sweet rendition of a pirates steering wheel. It’s a yellow Starburst shaped into a wheel and cleverly placed toothpicks . Resourceful? There’s a pile of braided pretzels for fun, and whoppers as the cannonballs.

The “R.O” on the back of the ship is for Becky’s initials…. R for Rebecca. We started doing “B.O.” but… yea. You get the point.

Added some inedible Pirate ship sails and we’re in business!

Lighting the ship! Happy Birthday Becky!!!

Lemon Drop cupcakes (in amazing pirate themed, double lined with aluminum cupcake wrappers). I found the recipe online at the Better Homes and Garden recipe index. I’ll paraphrase and paste it here. But if you want the real deal without buying the magazine and misplacing it (like I did, I think it’s in my car)… here’s the link.

Making the frosting. It’s pretty sweet, and doesn’t have a strong lemon flavor, but combined with the cupcake? Scrumptious!

We sorta improvised on the piping. Plop!

Lemon Drop Cupcakes

Directions

1. Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, line twenty 2-1/2-inch muffin cups with paper bake cups. In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a 2-cup glass measuring cup combine milk and limoncello; set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and lemon peel; beat until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.

3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about three-fourths full. Use the back of a spoon to smooth out batter in cups.

4. Bake about 18 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool cupcakes in muffin cups on wire racks for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from muffin cups. Cool completely on wire racks.

5. Up to 1 hour before serving, generously spread or pipe Lemon Frosting on each cupcake.

Lemon Frosting: Allow 1/3 cup butter to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a large mixing bowl beat butter, 1/3 cup shortening, and 1 teaspoon vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Slowly add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating well. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Gradually beat in 2 cups additional powdered sugar. Beat in 1 to 2 tablespoons milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until frosting reaches a spreading consistency. Makes about 2-1/3 cups frosting.

What surprised me the most about these cupcakes is how absolutely lemony they were! I was skeptical at first of how the flavor would be, as I’ve been dissapointed in the past with other lemon recipes. But I think the addition of the Limoncello, along with a healthy amount of fresh lemon zest and juice, lent to a moist, flavorful cupcake. I’ve decided this will be my go-to lemon cake recipe from now on.

Lemon Ricotta cookies

This recipe is from Giada de Laurentiis, as I mentioned above. Same deal- paraphrased recipe and a link.

Ingredients

Cookies:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 lemon, zested

Glaze:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 lemon, zested

Directions

Sorry guys, no process photos. Just trust me, these are tasty.

I’m usually afraid of eating cookies because (this sounds bizarre considering how much I love to bake and how big my sweet tooth is) I don’t like things that are too sweet. This cookie struck the perfect balance for me. It had a nice light lemon frosting (which was a good touch) but could go either way. I felt like it was more of a food cookie rather than a dessert cookie, as in, it had substance as well as was fun to eat. The ricotta gave  it that oomph to bring it from being a nutritional wasteland to something that could pass as the occasional breakfast treat. Try them, and you’re in for a nice, dense yet soft cookie with a great flavor.

Bon Appetit!

It’s been a while since I posted a cupcake cake… and we just so happened to have celebrated our co-worker’s birthday with a cake at work. Megan, Bri, and I got together to bake a cake for the infamous Mickey M. (I’m not going to give full names to protect the secret identity of our friend. For those who know Mickey, you know why. I’ll leave it at that.)

Mickey is huge into racing cars… so we wanted to create something that reflected his hobby. Actually, there’s a funny story behind all of this. We initially wanted to create a replica of his face in cake, with fondant and all, because he’s got a great expressive face, and he’s always saying, “I crack myself up,” and we wanted to make him laugh. However, plans fell through on that one halfway through the baking process and we ended up with a race car instead. Count ‘em… 12 photos ahead.

Chocolate cake batter, mixing away:

Using a measuring cup to pour this cake batter makes it much easier for distribution, especially because of the runny consistency:

Baked and cooling:

Arranged in the shape of a race car: (We got our idea from another race car cupcake cake online, (thank you last minute googling), but I didn’t want to put it up here, because our car is extra special in comparison… and we were missing some key elements. So if you don’t know what it’s supposed to look like, you can’t be too critical, right? That’s what I think and so we shall proceed.

We decided on a green car. Here’s a new technique that I was particularly proud of trying: we covered the cupcakes in a layer of frosting, and then colored sugar to give it a clean, matte finish. Plus the frosting doesn’t melt everywhere. Seems simple, right? Not when you only have white sugar and food coloring! We were able to create our own colored sugar by mixing the two in a ziplock baggie. Good tip for those who don’t have colored sugar just layin’ around.

Since we had to transport this puppy to work, I used a shirt box and made it sturdy with a piece of cardboard wrapped in aluminum foil.

Ah, here’s where the creative part set in. We needed to make a person’s face and wanted it to at least resemble Mickey. People make fun of him for having a big head (he’s an excellent sport, did I mention that?) so we used a Ritz cracker shaped like a snowflake. Yeah, I didn’t have round ones. Don’t ask.

Isn’t it a spitting image of him? Yes, Megan printed this reference page from work, and we were being creepy and using it to ensure a resemblance. Of course, this was when we were supposed to create his face. However, it still came in handy. Check out how spot-on that replica is, you can’t even tell it’s a Ritz! Genius.

So the race car is coming together. This is the basic layout, minus the wheels.

Here we added the wheels:

Here’s the completed cake. We piped “HBM” where the fin was supposed to be. (HBM= Happy Birthday Mickey.) We also dipped the wheels in chocolate ganache for that shiny wheel like look. And added a few accessories made out of red fondant and sprinkles. So creative for a last minute change in plans.

He looks soooo happy to be driving! … in our benchmark cake, the driver had a helmet. But, the Ritz cracker wouldn’t allow for that, it was too big. That, and this is way more representative of how Mickey likes to live life on the edge and not wear a helmet.

Happy Birthday Mickey!

Taking a break from caking, I’m getting back to cupcakes…

Saturday was a boat load of fun as Miss Becky came over to bake with me! She was graciously bringing some of her favorite cupcakes to a birthday celebration that night, and we tried a new recipe for fun.

She picked an Amaretto (almond) cupcake from this gem of a magazine, Cupcakes, which she also gave me a copy of.

The birthday cupcakes were to be a vanilla cinnamon cake with chocolate frosting and some sprinkles (her personal favorite recipe). I don’t have either recipe available to post (I know, then what’s the point?) but I figured I’d start sharing anyways and upload recipes later. At least get the creative juices going and hopefully inspire you to either bake or go on the hunt for new cupcakes!

These are the vanilla cinnamon cakes, fresh out of the oven.

A simple chocolate frosting, consisting of some good Penzey’s cocoa powder, butter, powdered sugar, and a little milk:

Topped off! I appreciated the home-made-ness of this cupcake. There were no frills- just plopped that frosting right on top of the cupcake, no piping necessary.

Add some sprinkles and … I think this is laffy taffy. (Yeah, it was for color)… Birthday cupcakes!!!

Next up: Amaretto cupcakes with a mixed batter. The base of the batters was basically the same- we made the vanilla side spiked with some Disarrono Amaretto, then split the batter and added cocoa powder to half of it. This gave us the black and white look:

It baked up quite nicely with an excellent spongy texture.

You know the frozen yogurt machines that have three handles, with two flavors on the outside and the middle one producing a swirled version of the two? That’s what we tried to do with the frosting! It’s the same process as with the batter: create a regular amaretto base, divide it in half, and add cocoa powder to half to get the chocolatey look. To achieve the swirl, you just fill a piping bag with the two frostings, one on each side.

Yum… this had some great flavor and texture going on.

We decided on doing the “M” part of the Ironman logo. Chocolate cake covered with a vanilla buttercream layer and some bright red fondant!

Above is the IronMan Logo, courtesy of the Googs.

This was done on a Monday night, so I didn’t really take very many “process” photos. It was more like, laziness and a time crunch. But the head is a 6″ round cake and the “M” is a 9×13 cake, manipulated into the “M”.

Here’s the tiny impromptu detail (my proudest moment). The cake is pretty basic/plain, as we didn’t plan for any other add-ons… but we had to do something to commemorate the big 2-9. So I found a vanilla tootsie roll in Bri’s candy dish and rolled it flat, cut it into a square, and piped a 29 on it using approximately 10 semisweet chocolate chips melted in a plastic ziplock baggie. Not too bad, eh?

Bri opted for a vertical placement, like it’s a number badge going down the triathlete’s arm.

Here’s Mr. Ironman with an actual Ironman visor! When Bri presented it to Daniel, he donned all of his Ironman gear and they went to town on a photoshoot! I just didn’t want to post them without his permission, he’s practically a celebrity.

Happy Birthday Daniel!!!

The important thing is we’re back in the game, right? Anyways, I always have grand plans to bake around holidays (love themes!) if there are no birthdays or other events, but for some reason have just been so preoccupied lately. That, and the mundane baking wasn’t “blog-worthy” in my opinion. You know, the chocolate chip cookies, plain vanilla cupcakes with sprinkles, etc. I finally baked something (not that original) but at least it’s some colorful eye-candy to start out this year’s set of posts with. (Baby steps, baby steps.)

Colorful in a very literal sense, rainbow cupcakes! I meant to do something for St. Patty’s day (like a green velvet with some sort of weird leprechaun-esque theme) but gave up for simplicity’s sake. Plus this is loosely related. I mean, where are pots of gold found? At the end of rainbows, duh.

I just needed some whimsy to brighten up the day. Photo time!

1. It seems like a lot of work (it’s just really a lot of bowls)….and a good amount of food coloring!

2. Bri came to help me, and we started doing a reverse ROYGBIV, then dropped the “IV” because 7 bowls is just so much more ridiculous than 5. So… Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red.

3. Cheery dots of yellow:

4. Baked a rainbow!

5. Top off with a little dollop of white buttercream, like a fluffy cloud

6.  Cut open to reveal the psychedelic colors:

So I brought these into work, thinking, “hey, it’ll be a fun pick-me-up.” Unfortunately, I work with a TON of guys (literally the only full-time female in the department)…. anddddd well… you know what they say about men. 1 in 13 of them exhibits some sort of color blind tendency, versus 1 in 300 for women. Let’s just say, I don’t think they cared as much as long as it tasted good.

Anyone find a pot of gold?