Galaxy Cupcakes: How To

I had a bit of a tough task this past week.  We planned on attending the Cincinnati Astronomical Society's picnic and I wanted to create a theme-appropriate dessert to share.  After searching the internet for some inspiration, I decided to make Galaxy Cupcakes!  These are perfect for stargazing parties, astronaut themed birthdays, and even an Astronomical Society picnic!

Here's what you need:

Cupcakes - any kind will do, my favorite is confetti, so that's what I made.
Icing - vanilla is preferred, but cream cheese or at other white base would get the job done
M&Ms- you'll need different sizes (you can see I opened the peanut butter ones already)
White Sprinkles - tiny nonpareil will work best
Food Coloring - I used blue, dark navy, and brown, but you can use blue and a bit of red. 

Let's get started!

Start with a plain cupcake.

Next, frost the top in a spiral, this helps with the "galaxy" effect.

Third, sprinkle with some sprinkles for stars!

Last, add a large yellow M&M for the "sun" and then mix the other sizes to represent planets.  I mix matched the sized, but tried to keep four different colors (blue, red, green, and orange). 

Here they all are, packed up for the picnic!  No two look alike!

Enjoy and happy stargazing!

Confetti Icing

I love all things Confetti - cake, cookies, pancakes, oreos, teddy grahams, and my new favorite - Icing!  I have a new and easy way to decorate baked goods from just two ingredients!

Bill of Materials

Icing

Sprinkles

I suggest using a light color icing because you might not see the sprinkles through a dark chocolate.  You can use the sprinkles that come with icing or buy sprinkles in bulk!

First, pour your icing into a larger bowl big enough to whip it around.  Stir it around to soften the icing up a bit.

Second, dump your sprinkles into the bowl.  If you aren't sure how many you want, start with a few and whip it up. 

Add more sprinkles as necessary.  I like for my sprinkles to dominate the icing!!

Then use icing as you would normally. Either spread with knife or using pipping bag. 

Make sure you use a large enough icing tip for all the sprinkles to flow through - other wise they will get stuck!

Tada!

Easter Cupcake: Peeps

I wanted to make a fun and interesting Easter Treat for this weekend!  When I started thinking of Easter treats, I immediately thought of PEEPS!  These little fellas show up in grocery stores about a month before the holiday and I think they are so cute!  (cheep, cheep!)  I decided to use them to decorate Easter cupcakes!

First, I baked a batch of cupcakes in brightly colored cupcake wrappers.  I wanted the little chicks to look like they were sitting in a field of grass, so I used green icing and a Wilton leaf decorating tip (#70) to create leaves.  

Cupcakes can sometimes be fragile, so after they were iced, I put them in the container that they would be traveling in for our Easter morning festivities.  When it comes to constructed cupcakes, the less movement from platter to container, the better.

Lastly, I sat each peep on top of a cupcake and "smushed" it down a bit.  The peeps popped back up, but this held the marshmallow to the icing a bit better.

No worries for those of you that are not a fan of sugar coated marshmallows-  I used pastel colored M&M's to decorate a few cupcakes to look like the Easter Bunny hid some eggs!

 What is your favorite Easter Treat? Do you like Peeps?  Let me know what other creations you have made with these delightful chicks!

Happy New Year!

I am back from a LOOOONG break trying to get my life back in order from a BIG move!  

Buying a house is a HUGE event in one’s life, and if you've ever bought a house, or had to move all of your earthly possessions from one place to another, you KNOW what I’m talking about!

I want to take a few minutes (or posts) to bring ya’ll up to speed as to what has been going on!  I have had a LOT of really cool events and parties go on in the last couple months that I want to share how I organized for them and how they went!  (That is the point of this blog in case you were curious!)

Let’s recap the LAST event in my townhouse apartment – New Year’s Eve 2012!

Due to most of the items in the apartment being packed up, NYE was a very low key event (meaning, the Mr. Fix-it Fiance, and his Awesome Accountant sister were the only attendants!) and all of these pictures were taken with my phone, not my trusty camera!

The food and drink was VERY simple!  Pink Champagne, because you can't have a NYE party without Champange, accented with Champange cupcakes, with Pink Champange frosting! 

I set out the cupcakes as a "DIY cupcake bar" so that we each could decide exactly HOW MUCH icing we wanted on a cup cake.  This is a great idea, because not only is it fun to frost a cupcake to one's liking, but also those who don't like icing, don't have to eat it!  I LOVE win/win ideas!

I was told that eating doughnuts on New Year's is a tradition, and that they bring luck!  Since we hadn't heard any final details about the closing of our house, I thought we could use ALL the good luck we could get.  I used doughnut holes instead of full doughnuts... 

  

This is the spread of my last event in my townhouse apartment!  I am SO excited to share with you all of the new events that have gone on since New Year's Eve!

One last picture of my yummy cupcake!  

Bake at 350 Feature

This week's Post is featuring probably the most scrumptious blog you can find!  

Bake at 350!

Bridget, the blogger behind this sweet and sugar based blog is a cookie lover that bakes, decorates, eats and blogs about her many cookie creations.  

One visit to her blog and you will understand why I chose to feature Bridget and her amazing  cookie creations.  Not only does she have excellent pictures that showcase her brilliant baking,  (like the one below that shows one of my favorite blog posts:  cookies that look like cake...nom nom nom!)  She also shows you how you can make them yourself by providing detailed step-by-step instructions for each of her tasty treats.  She passes along an unbelievable amount of detailed baking information that she has gathered as she created each of her amazing baked beauties!!!! 

Hey There, Cupcake!

Decorated sugar cookies are a FABULOUS way to add a bit of fun to a theme of a party, and you can use Bridget's tips from Bake at 350 to create gorgeous creations such as these.

Now go on over to Bake at 350 and get baking!!  

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

Today's Post features a FABULOUS recipe from Betty Crocker. 

It is perfect for a New Year's Eve celebration because not only is it cake, but it has a taste of Champagne (a NYE staple.)  I made this recipe last year after I saw it featured on Betty Crocker's 2011 calendar and it is VERY delicious!  

Pink Champagne Cupcakes