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Monday, February 28, 2011

Academy Awards Night!




A  few good friends met us at our favorite bar to enjoy the Academy Awards yesterday. I decided to take this opportunity to try something new that I've been wanting to do ... I've watched all those baking shows like Cake Boss and Amazing Cakes and the like where they include sculptures using rice krispy treats as a base which I've never tried before. I whipped up a batch of those sticky treats and I got a found a tip about crushing up the rice krispys for a smoother surface ... that actually did work out well. I knew that I wanted to attempt to recreate an Oscar statuette. I found a few pictures online and began the process. I think it was a good effort for my first time ... I do need to work on proportions since I think it looked a bit more like E.T. than Oscar ... but oh well. I used a wood dowel through the middle for support and to have something I was able to stick into the base. I then made a batch of modeling chocolate to go over the rice krispy treat figure ... I had some metalic gold powder coloring to give Oscar his golden glow. I did have to put it into the microwave to warm up the treats as I found out when they cooled down it was harder to use them for sculpting.
I made up some devil's food chocolate cupcakes and decided to give them a shot of coffee flavor ... I swapped out some nice strong coffee to some of the liquid in the recipe. I make up about 5 dozen mini cupcakes and let them cool down. Gave one a taste and decided that it didn't have enough of the coffee flavor. I thought I'd throw some instant  cappuccino into some warmed milk in the buttercream frosting I made up. Think I'll get some instant espresso for next time for a more intense coffee flavoring. I had some molding chocolate left over so decided to roll it out and press out small stars to top them off ... and of course, they needed to be gold as well ... so I took a little cup and made some "gold paint" by pouring little bit of vodka into the dried gold powder. This worked great. All the stars got a little paint job. Here are some pictures to show how this all turned out.
Hopefully my next try will be a bit easier subject matter. : )


























Sunday, February 27, 2011

Maple Bacon Cupcakes

Well ... I've been wanting to give these a try for sometime ... we had some left over bacon from breakfast last weekend and I put it to good use! I think I overbaked them a bit ... they weren't as moist as I'd like them to be (next time I'll watch them closer) but they did have a good taste. Bits of bacon in the batter and maple syrup were a nice combo. I also think that I'd try to frost them with cream cheese frosting next time as well. I did love the chocolate dipped bacon pieces on top. Here's how they looked ...






Breakfast Cupcakes ... LOVE IT!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

A new gadget ... from My Little Cupcake Pop ...

Hi ...

I just ran across this cute little gadget and thought I'd share it. I just ordered one of these ($5.95 + shipping) so can't say how well they work ... but I think it should be a winner! Check out the website below to see it:

http://www.mylittlecupcakepop.com/






Can't wait to get it and give it a try!

Tony

Monday, February 21, 2011

Lee's Birthday Party

A good friend Lee is having a birthday and we all celebrated it a few days early. I found out that he likes COOKIES n CREAM ice cream .... so, I decided to make some cookies n cream mini cupcakes along with some cake pops using the same cake inside with Oreo Buttercream frosting. I customized them with paper disks I printed up with "It's Lee's Birthday".  Lot's of fun was had by all!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEE!









Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentines Day Baking ...

Actually I made these on the 13th .... but they were for friends to celebrate Valentines Day ... Chocolate Cakes baked in a small heart pan ... bite sized goodies that I then drizzled white chocolate over and sprinkled with chunky sugar! I did put some on sticks with the intent to dip them in white chocolate but that didn't work so well ... they weren't as dense as cake pops (no frosting inside) and just fell off the stick into the chocolate ... oh well, live and learn! They were loved just the same with the drizzles on them!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY ... Hope yours is SWEET!!!

Chocolate Cakes --- bite sized







Heart Shaped Cake Bites were a HIT!

Heart Cakes on a stick

Lee having fun with the cake on a stick ...

Oh just eat them already!!!  LOL

Brian and Pepe enjoying a treat!




Peter ... My #1 Fan and ONLY blog follower to date!!