Surprise Cupcakes

Made these babies the other night. Working on the recipe and then I will share it here.

I'll just say this, It involves Ferrero Rocher + Nutella.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend.

XOXO

Lidia

homemade fondant. easy, cheap & tasty.

Strawberries and little blossoms made out of homemade fondant.

Ever since I learned how extremely easy it is to make my own fondant,

I haven't bothered buying the stuff from the bucket.

Store bought fondant is too expensive and the taste is too processed for my liking.

Hello Kitty cupcake toppers made out of homemade fondant.

All you need to make your very own homemade fondant is marshmallows, water,

vegetable shortening, powdered sugar and a bit of patience. Oh, and gel food

coloring, to color your fondant, in your choice of colors of course.



I love working with fondant to make small details that I can add on cakes and

cupcakes, like these small strawberries, leaves. blossoms and hello kitty toppers.

Occasionally I will cover cakes in it but I'm old fashioned and would rather

smother my cake with a nice frosting!

Marshmallow Fondant

Ingredients:

- 16 oz. white marshmallows

- 3 T. water

- 2 T. vegetable shortening

- 2 lbs. powderes sugar

Place the first three ingredients in a large bowl and then

place in microwave for one minute, stir ingredients together

with a spatula covered in non-stick pray until completely melted.

Add powdered sugar, enough to get a manageable dough.

It usually takes me about a cup and a half less than

the two pounds of sugar. You don't want to add so much

sugar that it completely dries out your fondant.

Once you have a manageable dough  grease your hands with

veggie shortening and use your hands to knead

the fondant until completely smooth about 5-8 minutes.

Cover in platic wrap and place inside a plastic bag.

Store at room temperature. Do not refrigerate.

To color fondant just add a little gel food coloring and

knead fondant until you work the color evenly into the dough.

To make fondant strawberries:

1. Color a piece of your fondant (size depending on how many strawberries you need)

using a pink or red gel food coloring and another smaller piece using a green gel food coloring,

for the leaves.

2. Roll into separate small balls, once you have as many as you need, give them a strawberry 

shape by molding with your fingers. Poke holes to resemble seeds using a toothpick.

3. Sprinkle cornstarch on you work surface (so fondant doesn't stick to surface) and roll out 

your green fondant, using the wilton small daisy fondant cutter cut out as many flowers as

you have strawberries. Use small paintbrush and water to adhere leaves to the tops of

strawberries. Let dry loosely covered with plastic wrap or in air tight container.

Use to decorate Cakes or cupcakes. For blossoms I used the wilton blossom plunger

like this one here. For the hello kitty toppers I used hello kitty cookie cutters from Sanrio.

Enjoy

xoxo

P.S. If  you have any questions, I'd be happy to help you out!

Super Simple, Super Scrumptious. Pistachio Cupcakes!

 

I found this recipe for pistachio cupcakes that immediately caught my attention.

Pistachios might be my favorite nut. I usually don't make recipes that aren't from

scratch because i think baking from scratch is just a lot more fun but this recipe

looked so unique i couldn't help but trying it out plus Two Tiny Kitchen did a

really good job on convincing me. There is no excuse, You HAVE to try these.

Pistachio Cupcakes, recipe adapted from Two Tiny Kitchens

 * makes 24 cupcakes 

-  1 package white cake mix

- 1 package instant pistachio pudding mix

- 1 c oil

- 3 eggs

- 1 c club soda

Frosting

- 2 envelopes dream whip

- 1 1/4 c cold milk

- 1 package instant pistachio pudding mix

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients and beat at medium speed for about 5 minutes.

Pour batter into cupcake tins and bake for about 18-22 minutes.

2. For frosting combine milk and dream whip, beat on high speed

until peaks form. Add pudding mix and beat until thoroughly mixed.

Spread on cupcakes and refrigerate.

Strawberry & Cream Cupcakes

I recently came across a really neat blog called sugar crawler and

that is where I came across this recipe which I immediately

fell in love with because of how visual appealing it is, sorry my 

pictures are not as fabulous as hers but I am pretty sure these cupcakes

where just as delicious! I loved how simple this recipe was to prepare.

You should definitely try it now while you can still get fresh strawberries.

recipe adapted from sugar crawler

makes 12 delicious cupcakes

 Ingredients:

- 1 c ap flour

- 3/4 c sugar (scant)

- 1 1/2 t baking powder

- a pinch of salt

- 3 T unsalted butter, room temp

- 1/2 c milk

- 1/2 t vanilla extract

-1 egg

- 12 large strawberries, chopped into small pieces

 - 1 c whipping cream

- 12 small strawberries to garnish

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, line a 12 cupcake/ muffin pan with liners.

2. Place the first five ingredients in a large bowl and beat on low speed

until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.

3. Pour in milk and vanilla and beat on medium speed until all ing. are

well combined.

4. Add egg and beat well for a few minutes to ensure all ing. are

well incorporated.

5. Divide chopped strawberries between liners and spoon batter on

top until 2/3 full.

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden.

When completely cool frost with whipped cream and garnish with

strawberries on top.

Chocolate Cupcakes, Pink Butter Cream & Butterflies

                        

 Baked these for my Boyfriends sister's birthday (:

I made the butterflies by piping melted chocolate onto

wax paper and adding little sugar pearls to make the body.

Flowers made out of fondant.

Cupcakes, Cupcakes & more Cupcakes

Made cupcakes for my friends 20th birthday:

Devil's food + coffee cream cheese icing



Devil's food w/coconut filling + coconut icing with a bit of shredded coconut jelly on top.





Received a lot of compliments, especially for the coffee cream cheese ones.
I absolutely loved the coconut cupcakes.

Cookies & Cream Cheesecakes Recipe

I made these for my boyfriends birthday this passed weekend
and everybody loved them so much, it made me happy.

cookies & cream cheesecakes
recipe from the book: Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Ingredients:

- 42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreos are my fav.)
30 left whole, 12 coarsely chopped
- 2 pounds cream cheese, room temp
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs, room temp, lightly beaten
- 1 cup sour cream
- pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
Line muffin tins with paper liners &
place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. On med.- high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth.
Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined.
Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine.
Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-filled cups,
filling each almost to the top.
Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until filling is set ( about 22 min.)
Cool completely and refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to overnight.

I had plenty of left over mix,
so i bought a box of white cake mix and made this today:
Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Cake (:




I love to bake and i also like to paint.
I painted this for my boyfriend, it was part of his birthday present: