Cocktails! Cupcakes that is!

It's all about the cupcakes. 

Strawberry Daquiri - Strawberry cake with strawberry rum frosting.

I recently had to make batches of cocktail cupcakes, yum! I was asked to make Margaritas, Strawberry Daquiris, Mojitos and Pink Champagne. It's always a toss up for me which one is my favorite. I love lime and the Margaritas pack a lot of lime, but the Mojito has mint which I love as well. Is it bad to just go ahead and have both?!

 Margarita - Lime cupcake with lime tequila frosting.

 Pink Velvet - Pink velvet cupcake with champagne frosting.

It's always fun to make a cocktail cupcake. I get a thrill when I taste the cupcake and it's so much like the cocktail. Or when I open the package after they are frosted and it's like cocktail hour sitting in a little cupcake box. The scent that comes from the cupcakes is awesome, just like the real deal.

Mojito - Mint & lime cupcakes with mint, lime & rum frosting.

I had cupcakes and frosting left over and it was fun to mix and match the flavors. I'm just going to say, Margarita and Strawberry Daquiri work very well together. Yum :3

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It's That Time Again...

The Threadcakes cake competition is already being mentioned on Facebook. I can't believe it's already time for a new one! If you haven't heard of it you have to take a look - Threadcakes

I haven't entered in the last two years, which makes me a little sad. I just haven't had the time! But I will definitely start early this year. Some of the entries are amazing! I entered in 2009 and made a tiny cake based on a t-shirt design from Threadless. All the cakes in the contest are based on t-shirt designs on the Threadless site.

I think I might try to revisit my 2009 entry and improve on it. If I'm feeling a bit crazy I might try to submit more than one cake. It would definitely mean starting long before the competition starts just so that I can have time to make something really nice.

You have to choose one of the eligible designs. It doesn't have to be a literal interpretation, you can go with your own idea of the t-shirt. I decided to be literal. Well almost. It wasn't an exact copy of the design but very close. It was too cute a design not to include most of the elements. You have to be sure to take pictures of all the steps while you're making the cake.

Here's the design I chose for the 2009 competition

And then the step by step showing the baking of the cakes and building of the design out of fondant and rice treats.

I did all my baking and frosting mixing with the hand mixer before I finally got a stand mixer. :3

I made the cake in a 6" pan and decided to throw some of the batter into cupcake pans as I wasn't sure what I wanted to make the main figure out of yet.

MMF (marshmallow fondant yum!)

Rice treats!

Argh forgot to rotate the picture! Sorry >.<

Almost done! The figures were so much fun to make.

And the finished cake! I think the mouse wound up bigger than the cake itself LMAO

The cake was incredibly fun to make and it was my first experience working with fondant to make characters. 

I want to share the recipes I used to make the cake, the MMF and the rice treats for this cake. The cake recipe I found to be delicious.

1234 Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 3 cups Swans Down Cake Flour (I used the cake flour I had available)
  2 teaspoons baking powder
  1/2 teaspoon salt
  1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
  2 cups sugar
  4 eggs
  3/4 cup milk
  1 teaspoon vanilla
  1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  GLAZE: (I did not use this for my cake as it was getting covered in buttercream and fondant)
  1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  1 tablespoon bourbon
  1 teaspoon orange zest, grated
  1 – 2 tablespoons orange juice concentrate, thawed
  Combine sugar, bourbon, zest and enough orange juice to make a thin glaze. Drizzle onto cake

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift flour with baking powder and salt. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat on medium speed 10 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk and flavorings, creaming until smooth after each addition. Spread batter into prepared 10-inch bundt pan. Bake until tester inserted into cake comes out clean, about 1 hour and 25 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool on rack.

Rhonda’s Ultimate MMF

Ingredients

• 15 oz. mini marshmallows
  2 T water
  1/2 tsp salt
  2 tsp lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
  2 tsp light corn syrup (helps w/ pliability)
  1 tsp vanilla
  1/2 tsp lemon extract
  2 lbs (approx 7 C) confectioner’s sugar, sifted
  1/2 C Crisco or vegetable shortening

Instructions

Grease microwave proof bowl w/ Crisco. Also grease wooden or heat proof spoon. Pour marshmallows and water into bowl. Microwave for approximately 2 minutes stopping and stirring at 40 second intervals. Mixture should be soupy.
2. Take out of microwave and immediately add corn syrup, lemon juice, salt and extracts. Stir well. Sift confectioner’s sugar into mixture, one cup at a time. After approximately 5 cups, grease your hands well with Crisco and knead the mixture in the bowl. Add the sixth cup and continue to knead. Now grease your work surface well and turn mixture out of bowl onto counter. Sift remaining sugar, regrease hands, and knead well. If mixture seems soft, add one additional cup of powdered sugar.
4. Shape into a mound and put a coating of crisco on outside. Double wrap in cling wrap and insert into ziplock bag. Press air out of bag and seal. Allow to rest overnight, but, can be used after sitting for a few hours.
6. **Quick note, if you can order the Princess Cake and Cookie emulsion it will be well worth it. It gives this fondant a delicious flavor and I have been able to convince brides who hated fondant to order fondant wedding cakes after sampling my fondant. Hope you like it!

Rice Krispies Treats – RKT

Ingredients

• 4 cups (1 lb bag) of rice krispie or similar cereal
  5 cups (16 oz bag) of mini marshmallows
  1/4 cup butter or vegatable oil

Instructions

1st melt the butter thoroughly in a medium sized pot, then you dump the marshmallows in.
2. Keep mixing until the marshmallows melt and they no longer have a shape.
4. Add the cereal.
6. Stir quickly to make sure all the cereal gets covered in marshmallow. And that’s it.

I've used these recipes many times and I really like using them. The pound cake is tasty and the MMF is delicious and easy to use. 

Now to get planning for this years Threadcakes competition!

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