Call Me Amaesing A Niche of Tasks and Inspiration

I found this cool recipe online on how to make Cookie Monster Cupcakes. Me and my brother decided to give it a shot.

All you need is a batch of cupcakes (chocolate preferred), mini Chips Ahoy cookies, frosting (powered sugar to stiffen if you get store bought frosting), piping bag, coupler, piping tip #233 (grass tip), and some food coloring.

Bake a batch of cupcakes according to the box. I suggest adding an additional tablespoon or so of batter to each tin to make the cupcake more rounded. I'd say about more than 3/4ths full. So when they come out they should have a dome on top. Not like these cupcakes. My brother made them.

When completely cooled, begin to frost each cupcake with a thin layer of frosting. This helps the blue "hair" of Cookie Monster stick better to the cake. Use a sharp knife to cut out a wedge of where the mouth would go, and be sure to eat all the scraps.

Then stick a Mini Chips Ahoy cookie in each of Cookie Monster's mouths. If you find any broken pieces, be sure to eat all the scraps.
nom nom nom..
Take the remaining can of frosting and use your blue icing color to mix in. Add about six tablespoons of powered sugar to thicken the frosting. Fill piping bag with coupler and tip #233, then add your blue frosting.


Begin frosting all around the cupcake with the grass tip, making sure he's covered thoroughly.

Cookie Monster sure is shaggy...

Note: I've also seen Cookie Monster cupcakes made with dyed sweet coconut shavings instead of frosting. Since I'm not a huge fan of coconut, I decided that frosting was the right way to go. Plus you get to lick all of the scraps..


Now he just needs some eyes.


Wilton white candy melts are perfect for eyes. Take each disk and use chocolate frosting for each pupil. Then place them on the cupcake, making sure that each eye is facing a different direction. it's weird to say but it's true. Cookie monster doesn't look right with sane eyes.


One down, many more to go...


All done!!!






Happy Baking!

For my own 23rd birthday, I decided that it would be only best if I made my own cake. It was a good excuse to bake something that I haven't made before, and in this case, I've never made a two layer cake. Usually cake making comes in the form of cupcakes, or a cake made in a 9''x13'' pan with frosting on top. I decided to get away from this childish practice and make a two layer cake. This would involve baking in two round cake pans, leveling them with a serated knife, decide on what type of filling for the middle, and what type of frosting I woud make. With several hours to think about this, I settled on:


A 11'' funfetti round cake
cream cheese filling
vanilla buttercream frosting (from scratch)

Fast forward a few steps (I didn't take pictures of the baking process. But let me tell you, it was delightful. Just added some sour cream in the batter to heighten the moisture of the cake, and after cooling, I leveled both round cakes with a serated knife. Then I began making the frosting.

I had so many icing colors that I had purchased from the Wilton Tent Sale. I didn't know what color to choose. But after browsing the web and finding some inspiration, I settled on a teal icing color, which when mixed, turned more into a light blue. I love it.

Buttercream frosting, with a little more vanilla extract added. I love frosting. But whisking by hand really sucks. Let me tell you. It really sucks. I need a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. STAT.

Fast forward. This is my cake, with the cream cheese filling, and the beginning of the vanilla buttercream.
This is me trying to level the frosting with my 9'' spatula.

Viva baker's secret. It's not really a secret, but I think it should be sacred for bakers only as how to get cake icing this smooth. Literally almost flawless.

I had no more patience to try and get all the bubbles out, time to take out all my piping tips.

Ahhh Wilton 56 piece set in carrying case. (with 20+ more added to collection). Let's try the star tip.
Braided edge.
Let's do shells for the top border.
Don't touch... not done yet...

Ooooooh this is starting to look good. I love the color combination. Light teal with white.


Let's add some flowers. Fast forward a lot. My first time doing hydrangeas. Harder than I thought. I don't know how they make the rounded tips and perfect lengths for each level. But not bad for first time right? I didn't want to use another piping bag for green leaves so I just cut ziplock bag and it turned out just fine.
The almost finished product. I added some daises and other flowers, along with some green leaves. Just need to write my name and "Happy Birthday" and it will be done. Ignore the frosting dent on the top left of the cake - I had a piping bag-to-icing accident. There was skipped heartbeats and watery eyes. Not really - more like loud cuss words.
Fast forward: a rosebud vine. I've never done this before either! the best part is that you use the same piping tip (#104) that you use for full roses.
I think these are adorable.
I also like the colors I used for the flowers. I kept some flowers white to go with the borders of the cake, but I used a light pink from a pastel set from Wilton, and also the Leaf Green color, a MUST for cake/cupcake decorators.
hmmm.. what else can I do...

DROP STRING BORDERS! This was really fun doing. The only problem I had with drop string was that my consistency of my buttercream was too stiff, I should have thinned it out a little. But it wasn't bad at all.

Last but not least, "Happy Birthday Diana". It felt very weird writing this for myself. It's my birthday cake. I made my own birthday cake, and wrote happy birthday to myself. Weird? nahh.
The finished product.


Where did this cake end up? Good Question.

Placed in a cake carrying case.
8:00am: in the car
8:15am: On the train
8:50am: in the fridge at work
4:00pm: back on the train
4:30pm: on a table at the Palomar hotel
7:30pm: all around Jewel Osco in Chicago
8:40pm: in the fridge at Bucca de Peppo
9:00pm: dining table at Bucca de Peppo, accompanied by a plethora of candles
9:10pm: in the stomachs of my wonderful friends
10:00pm: leftovers back on a table at the Palomar hotel
11:00am: leftovers back on the train
12:00pm: leftovers back at kitchen table, where they first took shape in becoming a cake.









P.S. Sorry for the lack of updates. I still have so much to write about. But right now I'm in Maui on my birthday. Yes. Maui. It's actually 2am in Chicago right now, which makes it officially my birthday (only 9pm Maui time here) !Then when I get back home I will have much more to talk about. But until then,



Happy Baking!!