Label Remover

If you're having trouble peeling off a label or sticker without leaving a gooey mess behind, try applying white vinegar until it's saturated.  It will peel right off!

Playful Spring Cupcakes

 

I made these playful cupcakes for the students with special needs to sell on their coffee cart at school.   I was worried that the icing would turn the students mouths different colors but the students loved them and they were gone within 5 minutes. 

Give them a try!

Ice cupcakes with white, orange, green, blue, and yellow medium consistency icing.

Ladybug: On orange iced cupcake, use spatula to imprint a line down the center of the body.  Use tip 12 and black icing to pipe dot head.  Use tip 2 and white icing to pipe dot eyes, nose, and outline mouth.  Use tip 2 and black icing to pipe dot pupils and dots on body. Cut black shoestring licorice and insert for antennas.

Rainbow: On white iced cupcake, use tip 5 and violet, pink, blue, green, and yellow icing to pipe rainbow and sun.  Cut 2 white miniature marshmallows into 1/4 squares and add for clouds.

Fish: On blue iced cupcake, use tip 12 and orange icing to pipe dot body.  Use tip 3 and green icing to pipe zigzag tail, fin, gills, bead mouth, and sea weed.  Use tip 2 and white icing to pipe dot eye and tip 2 and black icing to pipe dot pupil.

Teddy Bear: On yellow iced cupcake, use tip 12 and brown icing to pipe dot head.  Use tip 5 and brown icing to pipe dot ears and muzzle.  Use tip 3 and black icing to pipe dot eyes, nose, and outline mouth.   Use tip 3 and multiple colored icing to pipe dot confetti.

Worm: On white iced cupcake, use tip 5 and green icing to pipe increasing sizes of dots from tail to head.  Use tip 3 and white icing to pipe dot eyes, tip 2 and black icing to pipe dot pupils and outline mouth, tip 2 and green icing to pipe dot nose.

Cyclops: On light green iced cupcake, use tip 3 and dark green icing to pipe dots.  Use tip 3 and black icing to outline and pipe-in mouth.  Use tip 3 and white icing to pipe dot eye and tooth.  Use tip 3 and black icing to pipe dot pupil.  Cut black shoestring licorice and insert for hair.

Color-by-Number Guide to Make Different Icing Shades

Take the guess work out of coloring your icing!

I snagged this chart from Pinterest.  I will be adding this to my quick reference binder.  I use the food coloring paste instead of the drops so I am going to have to figure out the portion amount.

Be sure to visit Rachel Sanders' BuzzFeed to get 35 Amazing Birthday Cake Ideas.

Number Cake Tutorial

That's Life Magazine has posted an awesome tutorial on creating number cakes.  Click here to view it on their page. Want to bring something special to the traditional cake? Food Editor Darlene has a number of great ideas for you to try.

You'll need 2 x 453g tub Betty Crocker Creamy Deluxe Vanilla Frosting. Serves 10 Decorating time 30 min 1. Arrange the cakes on the board, trimming cakes and assembling to connect and make the number shape you desire. 2. Using your choice of decorations, spread with frosting and decorate as desired. Your choice of decorating ideas: Under the sea Add blue food coloring to frosting, swirling color through for varying intensity. Decorations like pre-made sea creatures decorations, sour strap, and fish and crocodile sweets. Butterfly garden Tint frosting in orange and decorate with pre-made butterfly decorations Farmyard friends Tint frosting in leaf green and use pre-made farm animal decorations Off and racing Tint frosting beige and use chocolate bars to make a racetrack, decorate with novelty cars and signs. What a zoo Use white frosting and decorate with animals and tinted coconut. Chocolate fantasy Spread with white frosting and top with pieces of chocolate or novelty shaped chocolates. YOUR NUMBER'S UP If you wish to make your own cake, her are the alternatives to making the shapes used for the numbers.   Store bought cake Swiss roll Double layer sponge cake Double layer slab cake Make your own (Cake mix required : Baking temperature and time) Swiss roll Bar tin 1 x 340g buttercake cake mix-divided into two bar tins : 180C (160C FF) for 25-30 min. Double layer sponge cake 2 shallow 18cm or 20cm cake pan 1 x 340g golden buttercake mix : 160C (140C FF) 40-45 min Double layer slab cake 25 x 35cm shallow oblong pan 2 x 340g golden buttercake mix : 160C (140C FF) 25-30 min One 1. You will need two purchase two Swiss roll style cakes for number one. 2. Place on cake onto the board. Cut a 6cm piece from the remaining cake to make the post longer. Cut a second slice and cut in half to make the base. Trim a wedge off cake for the top and position in place. Two 1. You will need to purchase a double layer sponge slab for number two and make a template for the number. 2. Place the template on the cake and trim around the edges, discarding the portions of cake that are not required. Three 1. You will need to purchase a double layer sponge cake for number three. 2. Take each layer of the cake and remove an 8cm circle from the middle. Remove about a 1/4 of one cake for the base of the three and about 1/3 of the remaining cake for the top. Position to make the number, trimming as required. Four 1. You will need to purchase a double layer sponge slab for number four. 2. Cut the slabs in half lengthways. Position the four pieces into the number four using the pic as a guide. Five 1. You will need to purchase a double layer sponge slab for number five and make a template for the number. 2. Place the template on the cake and trim around the edges, discarding the portions of cake that are not required. Six 1. You will need to purchase a double layer sponge cake for number six. 2. Take one layer of the cake and remove a 6m circle from the middle. Cut a piece about 6cm wide to make the top part of the number. Seven 1. You will need two purchase two Swiss roll style cakes for number seven. 2. Arrange the cakes on the board, trimming wedges from each roll and assembling to connect and make the seven shape. Eight 1. You will need to purchase a double layer sponge cake for number eight. 2. Cut a 6cm circle form each cake. Then trim about 2cm from the side of each cake. Push the cut edges together to make the number eight. Nine 1. You will need to purchase a double layer sponge cake for number nine. 2. Take one layer of the cake and remove a 6m circle from the middle. Cut a piece about 6cm wide to make the base of the number nine. Assemble as the pic indicates. Zero 1. You will need to purchase a double layer sponge cake for 0. 2. Take one layer of the cake and remove an 8cm circle from the middle. Place onto the board. Cut two 6cm squares from the remaining cake and place between the two semi-circles to make the elongated shape.

Sheriff Car Birthday Cake

 

What do you give to the officer who spends all of his time working for his birthday?  A sheriff car birthday cake...  I really enjoyed making this cake.  I used the Wilton's cake pan to make the car and sugar sheets for the wording.  It was a time consuming task but definitely worth it when he walked in and his face lit up like a 5-year old at Christmas. 

Baby Shower Sleeping Babies

 

Materials Used:



Colored Mini Marshmallows
Black Food Coloring
Colored Cupcake Liners
Chocolate, White, Yellow, and Red Candy Melts
Blue Food Coloring
Brown Food Coloring
Teddy Grahams
Candy Molds
Toothpicks
Chocolate Frosting
Teddy Grahams

I made these sleeping babies using standard size cupcakes for the body. The heads were made in my Baby Cakes mini cupcake machine which I just absolutely love.  I secured the head to the body using two toothpicks.  The bonnets and pillows were made using colored marshmallows which I secured by piping small dabs of canned chocolate frosting.  The bottles and rattles were molded using candy melts. Teddy Grahams were used for the little bears. The eyes and hair were piped on using black icing.   Buttercream icing was the choice for this project.

Princess and the Frog Cake

 

 

Princess and the Frog cake was made using the frozen buttercream transfer technique instead of the piping technique used in Wilton Course 1 Lesson 2.

 

I found a coloring page of Princess Tiana.  I traced the picture using a black sharpie so that the picture would show through on the other side of the paper.  I turned the picture over to the transverse side and taped it to the back of a cookie cutter sheet.  I then covered the picture with wax paper and piped the outline with black icing.  I filled in the colors with brown, red, and green icing.  I completely covered the back with white icing.  The picture was placed in the freezer for about 90 minutes.  After it was completely frozen, I placed the picture on top of the cake and outlined the design in white and placed  the green zigzag border taught in lesson 2 around the cake using Wilton Tip 18. 

Rabbit Hole Cupcakes

 

 

I made these cupcakes with my kids for Easter.  I found the idea in the What's New Cupcake book and altered the recipe a little. I did not use the circus peanuts and chocolate covered sunflower seeds.  They were pretty quick and easy to make.  

Materials Used:

Yellow cake mix
Cream Cheese Icing
Chocolate Icing
Green Wilton Paste Food Coloring
Whopper Malted Eggs
Flower Candy Decals
Oreos
White Fondant


Directions:

We started out by baking 24 yellow cupcakes.

 

Grass cupcakes-Wilton grass tip (Tip 233) and cream cheese icing dyed green using Wilton green paste food coloring.

Dirt cupcakes-6 cupcakes were iced with chocolate frosting and rolled in crushed oreos

                         

 

Bunny cupcakes-white fondant was rolled and shaped into bunny feet and tails.  I used brown icing to pipe the bottom of the feet and to hold the feet and tail in place.

 

 

We strategically placed the burrowing bunnies throughout the grass cupcakes and finished decorating the grass with Whopper Malted Eggs and Flower Candy Decals.



 

Teddy Bear Cake

Lesson 1 teaches about choosing the right pan, preparing cake pans, mixing batter, filling the pans, testing for doneness, removing the cakes, making icing, preparing the bags with couplers, leveling the cakes, icing the cake, and decorating tips.

 

I made the icing according to the recipe in the book and decided to use it for practicing since I don't really care for the taste or texture.  I was pretty familiar with preparing my bag with the tip and coupler as I learned it from the class last year.  My practice with using the star tip went well.

 

My final product for this lesson: The Teddy Bear Cake



 

Materials Used:

 

Wilton's teddy bear pan

 

Star Tip 18

 

Candy eyes (found at Wal-Mart)

 

Decorating candy string for the mouth and to outline the feet (found at Wal-Mart)

 

Chocolate chip morsels for the nose, mouth, and nails

 

Homemade Cream Cheese icing

 

Wilton brown, blue, and red food coloring paste

 

Lessons Learned

 

Cream cheese icing gets soft really quickly and makes it difficult to pipe designs.  I had to keep refrigerating the icing to harden it up so the bear took quite a while to decorate.

 

Use dark cocoa powder in icing to help cut down on needing to use so much food coloring.

 

Make sure to release bag before lifting tip.  This helps with getting a better shape for the stars.

 



Wilton Course 1-Decided to Learn

 

 

I have decided to teach myself how to decorate cakes.  This is my second attempt at learning.  I tried to take the Wilton course last year but did not have a very good instructor so I became a little discouraged.  I've decided to give it another try because I enjoy being creative and baking.  To get me started, I purchased the Wilton Course 1 kit, Course 1 book (not included in the kit),  cake leveler,  food coloring paste, and few additional items (apron, plenty of paper towels, scissors, tape, spatulas, cake pans, and muffin tins).

     

Follow my journey through learning how to decorate with Wilton Course 1.