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. :)

My Cupcakes All Dressed Up!

Happy Belated Easter! Its been a while eh blogspot? I havent forgot about you I've just been super busy with life, and of course making cupcakes!

The ones below were made for my wonderful friend Lynda's birthday shindig this past weekend. In addition, I also made a big batch of bitties for my friend, Geralyn (no pic...too tired), and some for my lovely sister Mia's Mary Kay Grand Opening Party. Soo busy!

So I made all of these on friday, and my was it a lonnnng day full of cupcakes! As most of you know it was Good Friday, so I started baking around 10...pm! I finished all of them around 3...am! Ahh I was SO tired the next day. Oh, I also had a baking accident around 2am. I had turned off the oven because I wanted to go to sleep, but my mom convinced me to finish then because the next day was going to be too busy to finish. So I made some batter and preheated the oven. Not knowing I left some chocolate mint cupcakes I had made for an experimental grasshopper oreo cupcake, with the batter left over from the bitties. :( So those will have to be tested another day. What a tragedy! lol.

Anyhow, here they are! Her usual order is 12 of each of these: Guava, Red Velvet, and Coconut. Neat pics, eh? My mama helped me! And then when she got busy, dad helped! Thanks photo-savvy parents! :D

Guava.

Coconut, with the guava cousin in the background:

An experimental guava coconut cupcake:

I wanted to mix coconut in the guava mix, but wasnt sure how that would have turned out so I just took it easy and layered.

And, the classic red velvet.

Here are a few of the cupcakes all nicely packaged and ready to go:

So, for my sister's party, I decided to try something different with the red velvets. I decided to try and make red velvet cheesecake cupcakes! I got the idea at a friends babyshower a couple of weeks back, and finally got to try. Overall, it was pretty tasty. Next time I want to have more cheesecake flavor in there, so I'll add more layers, or do mostly cheesecake and some red velvet. We shall see. But here they are!

And here's a last photo for you to drool over...i mean enjoy! ;)

Goodnight!

Non Cupcakes

This was a cute little set I made for Dio's baby shower. As you can see I went with the Winnie the Pooh theme :]

The cupcakes are either towels, onesies, or beanies. It took a little longer than I thought it would to get the items to really look like cupcakes, but I am really happy with the way it turned out :)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes

Old post i never got to:

Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcakes, or Reese's Cupcakes if you will! Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter center and peanut butter cream cheese frosting. YUM.

Match Green Tea Cupcakes

I stopped by Lupicia last week, and saw a teeny tin of matcha tea on the clearance rack. $5!? I'd always wanted to make matcha cupcakes, especially after I tried a version from Love at First Bite in Berkeley.

So, I ended up making Genmaicha Matcha cupcakes. Why, you ask? Because the tin of Matcha was deceiving! There was so much less in there than I though. So I did the Genmaicha and Matcha, or you like, double green tea cupcakes!

Heres a pic of em' fresh outta the oven.

After they cooled I tasted one, and was a tad disappointed because they were a tad dry. To offset the dryness, I brushed a couple of layers of a matcha sugar glaze on top of em.

And here is the final product: Double Green Tea Cupcakes with Matcha Cream Cheese Frosting!

Overall, I was pretty impressed. My recipe turned out a little dry, but I've been good about documenting my notes in the kitchen, so next time, they'll be perfect! I'll update when I get feedback from my guinea pigs...I mean, my co-workers ;)

Smore's Cupcakes

Wow, I don't know what to say, I've had many cupcake adventures since I created this blog in Sep of last year, but it is my goal to keep up at it :). So, lest start with the most recent adventure.

Behold, (one of the versions) Smore's Cupcake!

This one here, is a chocolate chip cake, with a grahm cracker crust. I topped it with fresh, homemade marshmallows, torched em' and drizzled crumbled grahm crackers and chocolate ganache.

I was pretty happy with the outcome, especially with the fresh marshmallow topping! (thanks martha stewart! ;] )

It got rave reviews from my tasters, who suggested I try adding nutella in the middle...which is an idea I have tried! Well, kind of...

Here is a picture of an earlier version of smores cupcakes I made during the holidays. As you can see, I added chocolate ganache in the batter, which made for an awesome creamy chocolate texture. For this frosting I used the whipped marshmallow straight outta the box, which was not the best idea. It was very messy!

I think the next time I make the smores cupcakes, I'm going to combine both of the cupcakes! :)