Duckie (Disaster)

A duckie disaster?! What is that you ask? Well, I'll tell you. I learned a few lessons last night/this morning...but first, here's a happy little duckie sitting on top of a blue velvet:

So my auntie ordered these cupcakes for her co-workers baby shower. When we were brainstorming, we thought, red velvets are popular, how about a blue velvet!? Sounded easy enough when I thought about it in my head...but boy was I wrong!

I was pretty good with time too, I made the frosting two days ago, and made sure I had all my supplies and stuff. I also found these adorable liners at the cake store I went to in Sac earlier that day.

So my first lesson learned: One cannot make baby blue velvets. It just doesnt work. The cocoa in there turned the batter a dark muddy blue, and in my nervous state, I added other colors to try and lighten it and ended up with a dark green velvet--at least I'll know what to do for st.paddys or christmas! But I was so sad I wanted to start over...because they ordered blue velvets and not green!!

So second round, I added very little chocolate, and that still affected the color. I ended up with a more seafoam green than blue. Frosted em and decorated and passed out around 1am.

In the AM, took my mom to work, and on the way, I learned my third lesson: When you brake unexpectantly hard, cupcakes will fly all around. Fail! My beautifully frosted and sparkly cupcakes were flattened. So I drove home and defrosted, and then re-frosted. It wasn't that big of a deal, but man I was pretty upset this morn. And, I safely delivered them to Kaiser for my auntie to bring to the baby shower. Yay!

So here's some pics...and these are pre disaster in the car :p

Oh, I also went to Michael's and found that Duff Goldman (from Ace of Cakes) has his own line of baking stuff there. It's totally whack and overpriced though! $20 for a bucket of buttercream!? and $20 for a bucket of fondant?! Come on! That's crazynesss! I was a little intrigued by some of his products...like the spray paint for cupcakes! How cool!

So this is a pic of some extra cupcakes I frosted using the offset spatula, and if you can see hints of pink and purple on the cupcakes, thats the spraypaint! :D I'm excited to try it out on flowers.

And I just like this one...it turned out nice hehe

Ok, til next time bloggyland!

xo,

Treen

Cookies and Cameras and Cupcakes OH MY!

Hi Everyone in blogger land!

I'm so sleepy right now...I'm just hanging out at Blue Dot Cafe in Alameda, trying to catch up on my blogging and photo uploading! :)

I had a super fun weekend...went to LA to watch the GLEE concert! It was so amazing! I think I may have to make some glee cupcakes. :D

Anyhows, last week, I worked on two cupcake projects!

First, here is a picture of my version of the Cookie Monster Cupcakes:

I made these for Emily, my Brother Bears girlfriend. She was celebrating her 20th bday and she totally loves cookie monster!I was really happy with the way they turned out! They are a vanilla cake dyed blue with a surprise oreo at the bottom! Topped with cream cheese frosting, blue jimmies and a chocolate chip cookie:

This is a picture my brother took:

It's one of Emily's many cookie monsters scoping out this crew of cupcakes that look like him! Allen made a little slideshow of them...like cookie monster sees the cupcakes and wants to eat the cookies so he plots and eventually opens the case and gets them! It was really cute. :) And, Emily loved them so these were a success!

And my second project was for my Mama's photo exhibit. They are red velvets with Chocolate fondant cameras. I made the fondant a few days before, and it took so long! I was on a search for black fondant but couldnt locate any, so I just decided to make it. And I was very happy and impressed with the color and flavor! It was true black and not grey, which took me a very long time to get to btw.

I made the cameras on thursday, while my mom and I were glued to the TV...the season finale of Grey's was so intense! They were really fun to work on and I was pretty happy with the way they turned out...they were all a bit different...some had longer lenses...i think thats what they're called lol...and some I even made as simple point and shoot cameras like mine.

Here is a picture of them at the show...I wasn't able to attend because I was in LA, but my mom told me they were a hit! :)

I have a project this week, and I'm brainstorming ideas in my head! Until next time!

-Trina

Toy Story Aliens

This is my cutie patootie cousin Noahcakes. It was his 4th birthday this past weekend! The theme of his party was Toy Story, so I made toy story cupcakes! Well I made cupcakes of these little guys:

I'd been calling him the Alien from Toy Story and I guess its pretty accurate because it turns out that their names are Squeeze Toy Aliens...lol.

Anyhow. Here are a few pics:

Me making the frosting...I think this around 9pm...super sleepy because I picked up my neices so they could help me...but it turned out to actually be a little more work lol. But we had so much fun all day, and when my sister came to pick them up, I recruited her to help me. :)

Happy Aliens, with some different expressions:

Here's a complete little guy (with a powdered sugar dusty face that needs to be cleaned) :

Complete! The cupcakes were s'mores: ghram bottom, vanilla cake with chocolate ganache filling and marshmallow frosting.

And this is how I felt after I was done: Crazy tired, but happy with the turnout :D

When I checked on the cupcakes in the am, I wasnt happy. The marshmallow frosting was so uncooperative...did I mention I made it TWICE the night before!? Argh. Sooo I scraped em all off and made a batch of my fave cream cheese frosting. It looked (and tasted) so much better.

Driving the cupcakes from Hayward to San Jose in moderate heat was not an easy task. The alien faces were drooping and frosting was melting...oh my! Luckily most survived. I did learn that when I make fondant toppers, its probably best to keep them separate and assemble on site.

Here is a pic of the happy guys at Noahs picnic:

And here is a pic of me and the birthday boy! I loved how I caught him asking his mom if it was "cupcake time yet" :] cutie pie! And it looked like everyone enjoyed them too! Especially the bday boy...two in hand and frosting on his lips...heheh Yay!

SF Bloggers Bakesale

Wow I am so behind on my blogging! Ahhh! Even though I'm like more than a month behind, the baking hasn't stopped...in fact, I've been getting everything in line, finally got my business cards, and a nifty new blog title (thanks Auntie Rach! :] ).

So last month I participated in the first Annual SF bloggers Bakesale!

It was an awesome event hosted by Ms. Anita Chu (http://dessertfirst.typepad.com/). It was a nationwide bakesale day for food bloggers across the US! We raised a grand total of $1650!! That is amazing! It was a fun filled day of meeting fellow bloggers, sharing delicious treats, and raising money for an awesome cause that is very close to my heart.

Here are a few pics from the event:

my grasshopper oreo cupcakes (chocolate mint and crushed oreos). Sold for $1 each...I was a little moded because I failed to read numerous emails that said to individually pack the goodies... luckily someone had this awesome stand for me. :)

And a few other shots of goodies all around me...

Speaking of Bakesales...I just wanted to let all of you know that I am hosting a bake sale in my neighborhood! :D It's gonna be on Sunday June 13 at All Saints Church in Hayward...from like 8 - 1 :) I'll have more info shortly, but just save the date and come hungry and ready to spend some $ on yummy treats!

Also....I have a few more shots of my little treats....they had a little photoshoot!

Oh and this is from March! Ahh I told you I was waayyy behind teheheh...its an horchata cupcake bouquet I made for my awesome boss. She loved it...success!

Tomorrow I'll be whipping up a batch of smores cupcakes for my little cousin, Noahcakes bday! Im excited because I'm making toy story cupcakes! I promise I'll get that post up faster than this post. :)