Archive for the ‘Kim's sweet treats’ Category

Having a little fun with my boys this weekend we created our version of the crashing witch cupcake to go with our Halloween decor. Here’s what you’ll need:

• can white icing
• orange food coloring
• black writing icing tube
• tangerine candy cane (or any other flavor you want)
• Starburst (one square per shoe)
• resealable freezer weight bags
• #233 grass tip
• connector
• black and orange sprinkles

And here are the super simple steps:

1. Ice your cupcake with white icing and sprinkle with orange and black dots.
2. Tint a heaping tablespoon of icing orange and place in a resealable bag with a #233 tip (grass tip) and a connector.
3. Pipe her ragged dress in the center of the cupcake.
4. Break your candy cane in half.
5. Heat two Starburst in the microwave for 8-10 seconds and then mold them into the shape of shoes on the candy cane ends.
6. Pipe shoe laces onto the shoes with the tube of black writing icing. (Allow it to set for a few minutes before inserting it into your cupcake so that it doesn’t run.)
7. Insert your witch legs (AKA candy canes) into the center of your cupcake.

Hope you love making these as much as we did. Happy baking!

My youngest is turning three and he wanted a wild west cowboy bash. So as you can imagine, I gave him one. {wink} Those who read me often know that he has severe food allergies so I needed to make a cake and treats that were dairy and nut free. (He was released from the egg allergy thank goodness; cake is not cake without eggs!)

Candidly I was really unsure what I was going to do until a few days before the party. I decided on a chocolate and vanilla cupcake tier with a 4×4″ cake (for my little guy) on top. Not only does the tier give the table height, but it also made a clear separation between his cake and the guest cakes… especially since I tried my hand at chocolate transfer. {loved it!}

So for his cake, I could use dairy-free chocolate transfer (trust me you can’t tell the difference in taste), but I’ve only been able to find it in regular chocolate, no white chocolate or other colors, and I didn’t think that was very interesting so I opted for a rice crispy  (which he loves) sherrif badge. No worries, I made more as favors for his little buddies.

However, I did use chocolate transfer for my guest cupcakes. This was actually my first attempt and I was amazed at how easy it is. Here are a few tips:

1. Print out your design. If small enough put multiple designs on a single sheet.
2. Tape your template to a cutting board (so that you can turn the image if you need to).
3. Cover the image with wax paper.
4. Use melting chocolate (available at all craft and baking supply stores). I used Wilton red, yellow and dark chocolate.
5. Use a freezer weight resealable bag, heating your chocolate in 8-10 second intervals and massaging it with your hands between heating. (Make sure and insert your connector before melting your chocolate.)
6. Pipe your design backwards, meaning pipe the design you want to show on top first and then layer the rest of the design on top of it. Here’s a pictorial from the Love-Sweet-Love blog.
7. Allow the chocolate to cool, peel it off, flip it over and apply. Tah-dah!

As for the cake plate decoration, this part was a lot of fun because I got to use my glue gun! You guys know I love it! {giggle} Anyway, I embellished Martha Stewart’s square tier cake plates (8″, 10″ and 12″) with a 2″ bandana ribbon and twine. I applied the glue to the ribbon and then applied the ribbon to the cake plate. Doing it this way allows it to cool slightly before applying to the plate. As for the twine, I put it on second leaving a two inch overhang at one corner. Once the glue set, it is almost instant, I separated the twine ends and frayed them slightly.

I’ll post more ideas, including how to make the sheriff rice crispy treat, from our bash later this week. So stay tuned and happy baking!

We should all treasure our American holidays: Memorial Day, July 4, Veteran’s Day. I’m proud that as a country we celebrate those who serve to protect us and those who have fallen to save us. 

These cupcakes are my (small as it may be) way of saying thank you to those in my family who have served (my hubby, all of his brothers, his dad and our neice and nephew; the two youngest in Iraq). I hope you enjoy them and make them for your next American celebration!

Here’s what you’ll need to decorate your cupcakes:

• Red, white and blue icing (remember that gel food coloring work best)
• #46 icing tip
• Lollipop sticks
• 2 resealable plastic bags
• 2 icing tip connectors

And here are the simple steps:

1. Once cooled, ice your cupcakes with white icing {cream cheese is my fav!}.
2. Color some white icing red and some blue. You’ll likely use several drops to get even a small amount of icing bright enough.
3. Snip the corners of your resealable bags and insert your connectors.
4. Spoon your red icing into one bag and your blue into another.
5. Apply your #46 icing tip to your blue bag and using the flat side pipe three stripes (1/3 the length of your flag) and then another stripe from the top {see picture}.
6. Take your icing tip off the blue bag, clean it out and apply it to the red bag. Pipe the red stripes starting at the top of the flag using your blue stripes as a guide to keep them even. Make sure you skip just below the blue as that should be a white stripe.
7. Finally, cut a lollipop stick in half and apply it to the side of the flag for your pole.

Have a wonderful holiday!