Tiger Cupcakes--They're Grrreat!

Looking through my Google Photos, I found some cupcakes I hadn't shared anywhere except Instagram!  I figured it's a good time to post these, since America seems to be hypnotized by a certain Netflix show to which I still haven't succumbed... 

I made these last year because the newly-built school where I'd be teaching Kindergarten had a tiger mascot, so I made tiger cupcakes for the orientation potluck!  Here's a little step-by-step, and I was thrilled with how they came out!  (You know when you have an idea for something and then you do it, and it matches with exactly what you'd pictured?  That's the feeling I got.  I DO NOT get this perfect match-up of expectation vs. reality all the time, which is why I was so pumped!)

Here's a photo of all the stuff I had ready (ended up not needing the yellow candy melts):

I started with a box mix (because sometimes you just want to decorate) of devil's food cake, and put some vanilla frosting as a base on top of the cupcakes. 

I then added a ring of orange frosting from a pouch, and smoothed it out/blended it with an offset spatula, leaving some white in the middle for the snout:

Next, I stuck on 2 orange Froot Loops for the eyes, black sprinkles for whiskers, 2 spots of black gel icing for eyes, and a big pink heart for the nose!

I then used the same black gel icing for one little, curved stripe along the sides, and 2 on the forehead:

And that's it!  I just had to do the same thing over and over a couple times to make my full set, and then pray the hot, humid weather wouldn't make the gel turn streaky!  But everything worked out just fine!  There were so many desserts, only a few people had my tigers, so I was able to share them with my local Starbucks baristas, since I was going there ALL THE TIME over the summer to make sure I got out of my apartment!  The best part of making cupcakes is sharing them with people!

Mrs. Potts Cookies!

My friend Katherine recently returned from a trip to London, where she found these adorable teapot cookie cutters to bring back for me!  So I of course decided to make Mrs. Potts cookies!!

I don't know about you, but when I make sugar cookies, it's always a huge mess:

Yikes!  But they all came out clean:

I used a sugar cookie recipe handwritten by my mom which I found in a cookbook in our dining room. So I don't know where it's from originally!  I looked up a hard icing recipe from allrecipes.com which worked out veeeery nicely!!  The almond extract really made it tasty, and the consistency was perfect for spreading on my cookies!  Especially when I didn't have any fancy cookie-decorating tools, and decided to use my offset spatula (that I use for my cupcakes). 

Then I added some color:

Purple and yellow, and some pearl sprinkles to make her fancy!

I didn't know what to do about the faces… I'm so used to using candy bits and sprinkles for cupcake decorating!  I had just purchased a nail art kit from CVS that came with a nail art brush, which is real small and thin, and since I hadn't opened it yet, it was clean enough to use on these!  I dipped it in a drop of food coloring for the eyes and mouth!

Hey little guy!

Here they are on a doily: 

I made some variations, like closed eyes and gold sprinkles on the handle:

I put one of my best Mrs. Potts on 2 of my fancy schmancy tea saucers for a fancy photo!

It was a lot of work, making everything from scratch, but I was so happy with the results, and they tasted delicious!!!

Psych Pineapple Cupcakes!

My favorite TV show, Psych, had its series finale last night on USA.  Jim & I watched (well, I re-watched) the entire series in the last 3-4 months and happened to catch the last episode we needed to be caught up literally JUST IN TIME for the finale.  In fact, I think we missed a couple seconds of the beginning of the finale!!  It was that close.

As any true Psych-o would be, I was super into celebrating the last episode.  I painted my nails like pineapples (the show's running gag for those of you who aren't "psych-o"), made pineapple earrings (available in my etsy shop, Have A Nice Clay and pictured below), wore my lime-green sweater (the "Psych" logo color),  taught myself Gus's "Jamaican Inspector-Man" song on ukulele (from Psych: The Musical), and made pineapple (hummingbird) cupcakes.

Now let's get down to cupcake business!

The first part of the batter made a pretty pattern as I spatula'd it down.  This is just the basic flour, sugar, baking soda mix.  At some point there was also cinnamon, eggs, vanilla… But let's not get particular.

Hummingbird cupcake batter (at least in the Martha Stewart recipe) calls for crushed pineapple (the reason I chose it for Psych), shredded coconut, chopped walnuts and mashed banana (check out all those fun adjectives!  crushed, shredded, chopped and mashed! watch out, onlookers!).  Now, I have a few loved ones who do not like coconut (but I love them anyway)--my boyfriend Jim, and my dad.  Since I was making these as a surprise for Jim (and a treat for me), I realized maybe he wouldn't love a surprise involving coconut.  So as you can see in the above photo, I split the base batter in 2.  In one half I mixed all the fruity nut things, and in the other I left out the coconut. 

Crushed pineapple: 79 cents at Stop & Shop!

Coconut, pineapple, walnut, banana goodness.  Now, I'd made cupcakes for my friend Kelly's baby shower years ago, and I still had these cupcake liners left over:

They are very specific, so I can't use them for work functions or parties unless I want people to think I'm stealthily notifying them of a personal situation.  I used them for these cupcakes mostly because they are the only liners I have that have any green to them (the side, which I realize I didn't get a photo of, has a green stripe in the middle, along with white and pink).  Then I realized they DO have something to do with Psych--a couple episodes before the finale, Lassiter has a baby girl!  Hooray!  Here they are, ready to go!

If you're making hummingbird cupcakes, watch out--the batter is really tasty!  

As an aside right here, I just wanted to show off my footwear for baking.  I sprained my ankle last week & have to wear this "boot" for 2 weeks.  Wearing a heel on my other foot made it much easier to get around.  And here is my adorable apron that Jim got me :)

Anyway the kitchen smelled amazing.  I labeled which plate had coconut cupcakes on it and which had no coconut.  Then I went to bed.  The next day I put cream cheese frosting on all of them:

Then I broke out the icing gun Jim got me for my birthday!

Or should I call it a "decorating tool?"  Anyway the box is super colorful and has examples of all the kinds of decorations you can do with the assorted tips it comes with (there's even one for FILLING a cupcake with icing! Mmmm):

It was wonderful to use!  Simple to fill (I just spatula'd in all the icing and screwed the tip back on), precise handling, you control the speed, and it's easy to clean for a quick color-change too!  I used green to make the pineapple stems first, with the thinnest tip so it came out in thin lines.

Then I made dots of yellow with a thicker star tip for the spiky exterior of our friend the pineapple.

I'm super happy with how they came out!!  This icing tool is awesome!!  And my design actually looks like a pineapple!  :)

I experimented with different stems:

I only really needed a couple cupcakes.  The recipe called for 40.  FORTY!  I halved the ingredients to make 20 (it actually yielded 18) and then packed 4 in one of these adorable cupcake boxes I got from AC Moore:

Perfect for our Psych viewing party for 2!  Coconut on the left, no coconut on the right, and pineapple in ALL!  I thought the finale was PERFECT.  Plus, during the after party show, they featured a clip of ME playing ukulele to their theme song (it was a collection of clips of fans singing the theme song, and they used mine for the end of the song)!  It was an exhilarating moment!!  You can see my rendition here!  

how 'bout them apples? (two cooking adventures in one post!!)

I went apple picking for the first time in my life last month. Apparently apple picking season is over come October, but Mike & I didn't realize this and got a stick and a bag (an expensive bag) and went about rattling the trees on Dr. Davies Farm.
We came right when a school was leaving. There were a lot of little apples in piles at the base of the trees.
The stick with the picker part was so long!  But I was able to use it!
Heck, we got a lot!
We ended up getting 52 apples. Whoa. Here I am with twins:
It was a fun day :)

Mike & I aren't huge apple enthusiasts, but you'd think we were, what with 52 apples and all. Neither one of us even likes apple pie, so we looked online for some alternative recipes.

APPLE CRISP

First, of course, you make a face on your apple with the peeler. And you put on your apple apron. Haha. Then you peel the rest of the skin off.
Naked apples!!
Mike begins a long night of chopping:

Pecans, then the apples.

And the pecans go in with the brown sugar.
Oh, gee! I needed a lemon.
How'd that get in there? Must have found a lemon tree among the apples ;)
Here I am mixing everything together with my clean hands.
We set out to make one pie. We had too much and ended up making two!


Butter this time. For the crisp!

Butter and flour, etc.... I thought it was a good idea to mix with my hands to really get the butter through.  Mike had to scrape chunks off my fingers, but it was fun. Then we sprinkle it on top of the pies!
Then they go in the oven!
And while you wait, I suggest picking up some caramel dip (Mike's idea):
We had some Reeses Pieces left over from another project and it was a great combination.

Yum!
Oh! Crisps are done!

We served ours with butter pecan ice cream and cool whip :)

Then of course we made caramel apples a few days later!

CARAMEL APPLES

This is what we used:
We made a little race out of unwrapping the individual caramels :)

Then I washed the apples.
We put wooden skewers into the 4 apples.

They look pretty fancy already:
While I microwave the caramel & a little bit of water (it looks gross)...
Mike crushes the Reeses Pieces (Chunks wants to help again)


We didn't have to de-wax the apples or anything because they're fresh from trees! Here I am happily covering an apple in caramel. It's harder than it looks!
The caramel was thick & I found it hard to twist the stick & distribute it evenly. Oh well! It looks pretty anyway!

Ta-Da!!
We had to cut the skewers so they'd fit in my cupcake courier to bring home. Later we cut them up and ate them in sections... and it was delicious!