Category: Baking

Yesterday Sawyer got to attend his second ever Birthday Party. I love the mass chaos that surrounds little birthdays. Kids everywhere, parents chasing after them. Especially the melt down hour, when all at once and suddenly all the kids at the party are crying and being whisked away! However Sawyer slept through almost all of the party! Right in the middle of it, asleep in his car seat, kids screaming, Happy Birthday being sung. That kid, sleeps through that but if I move wrong when he’s napping beside me, its game over.

I was so excited to be asked to make cupcakes again! Yay. I had huge plans for these wild animal cupcakes. A personal issue made me lose time and decide to go a much simpler route. And in the end I think sometime simpler is so much better. Plus its kids, they just want to lick the icing! And for some reason if I do end up doing an artistic spin on cake adults always push off eating it because “it looks too good!” For future reference, eat the cake. It makes me happier to see that little cake devoured than to go to waste after all the work!

It was a fun afternoon, loved being around all those other littles. There was a lot of babies around Sawyers age and it was fun to see them interact with each other. Sawyer definitely has a soft spot for the ladies! We need to meet some little men his age, but until then we’ll just keep adding to his girlfriends!

First of all I know too many boys who LOVE Star Wars. Second, I’m not counting just the littlest ones. I must also admit they have a big spot in my heart as well. Any time my mom and sister were out of together when I was little, my dad would rent Star Wars. It was our special thing. I’m not even sure how he got me into it being a little girliest of girls. (perhaps because I loved those little ewoks like teddy bears 😉 ) But its one my my favorite childhood memories. Thanks Dad.

Lets move on to the present. The boys I babysit are die hard fans. And they are only 3&5. Since they started watching them last year, seen every movie at least 3 times. Which was a welcome thing as before that I had seen Toy Story 3 at least a billion times. So this year for their birthday I got to make Star Wars cupcakes! Their mom grabbed some great stuff for them at Williams and Sonoma. 2 packs of cupcake liners + toppers. And some super cool stencils. I didn’t get to use the stencils but I had to share them because I think they are awesome! What a simple way for someone to decorate cupcakes in a big way!

I love that with these products anyone could make special cupcakes for the Star Wars fan’s in their life. I love making cupcakes for little kids especially though. They seem to always be twice as impressed. Even if they are just simple liners and toppers.

Now I just need to have some adult experimenting cupcakes. Mmm Those are my favorite. Its how I discovered my cookies and cream ones and those have been an all star favorite since the beginning of lissables! Anyone have some requests? Im also dying to try some frosting techniques on some cakes! Plus its some one’s birthday month! I have a special cake in store for the best husband around! stay tuned to lissables for all the fun coming up!

I’m behind on my dates. But I recently jumped back into the cupcake show. I will be sharing 3 different little boy birthday orders in the next couple days. The first up is my adorable nephews joint super hero party. Could any little boy ask for a better party. The answer is no!

My cupcakes were far from being the star of the show. This party had everything! A bounce house, face painting, balloon making, real super hero’s crashing the party and entertaining the kids. Seriously there was so much going on it was hard to keep track of it all. But I did a pretty good job with my camera!

I did 50 mini cupcakes and 12 regular. In vanilla and chocolate with tinted buttercream frosting. I love the bright colors and the fun liners. I topped off the birthday boys special jumbo cupcakes with superhero comic signs. Then at the party their mom added super hero rings to all the cupcakes for the kids. So cute. It was so much fun getting back into cupcakes. Cant wait to keep doing it!

This was Sawyers first Birthday party to attend. I think he was more confused than anything. There was definitely a lot of screaming and noise going on. But he managed to get his face painted. (for about 5 minutes before he started slobbering all over it and we had to wipe it off.) He even wore his super hero shirt and Daddy had a matching one! Adorable.

All in all, good cupcakes, birthday & fun!

Last year my first real post ever was about halloween. Can you believe its already been a year! So much has changed since then. Namely the new addition. But Im very happy about continuing my blog for one full year. And Im excited for the coming year too! Here are some highlights from Halloween this year.

It was Sawyers first Halloween. So not to be outdone he had 3 costumes! Some skeleton Pj’s with matching ones for his teddy, a Mike Wazoski onesie and a homemade Mummy outfit. He was just too cute to only wear one so we made sure he got a chance to wear all of them!

Brandon and I made costumes about 1 hour prior to leaving the house. Both involved printing paper accessories. And like every year Brandon tells me how much he hates dressing up and every year he does it just for me. Im a lucky girl. So this year we were Hello Kitty and Clark Kent. I would say for no time and just paper we did pretty good!

Even the dogs dressed up! Walle was a puffer fish for the second year in a row. And he seemed to like his costume just as much as last year. Karma was a shark, and just loved being in her costume. The best part was when kids came to the door and they would go running and barking towards it, we could grab the shark and puffer tails and hold them back! Genius!

And of course it couldnt be a holiday without special cupcakes! I was absolutely in love with this years halloween cakes. There was Furry monster cakes and mummy cakes. And all the left overs went with my nephew to preschool the next morning for all the kids. Just too cute. And they taste good too!

And of course we did some trick or treating too. We went to my sister in laws house for the night and went with my oldest nephew around the block. Sawyer hit up 2 houses but somehow after leaving my sister in laws house managed to have an entire bag of candy! Which basically was gone before morning. Gotta love the first halloweens!

And that was our awesome night. Hope you had a wonder filled night too! Happy Halloween!

Next up: Christmas decorating!

Here is another day for the kids. As we get closer to Halloween they get more and more excited for the night of candy! But you can make regular food fun too! Imagine your kids faces lighting up when they see the cleverly disguised food on their dinner plates tonight!

Mummy Dogs

I swear I have been waiting to have kids to make these! I think they may be a tad young for my hubby. But either way how can you resist the cutest that is mummy dogs! Grab some hot dogs cooked and some pilsbury cresent rolls. Cut the rolls into strips and wrap around the hot dogs. Cook according to directions. Add some mustard eyes and see your kids gobble them up!

Pancake Ghosts

This is a sweet morning surprise. Use a regular pancake batter and pour in the shape of a ghost. Add a couple chocolate chip eyes and mouth and you have a friendly ghost for breakfast!

Spooky Lunch Fun

Pizza using different cheeses to create a layer candy corn look. White yogurt with raisins eyes for ghosts, Bananas with chocolate chip faces can be ghosts too! Oranges with a drawn on Jack O Lantern face. Your possibilities with fun kid lunches are endless if you use your imagination right! A cheese string halved and pulled apart at the bottom, with food color faces. And of course gummy worms and other Halloween candies make a sweet dessert too! Your kids will be the envy of the lunch room when they open those plain paper bags to reveal this fun!

So there you have it Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all spooked!

So if you are wanting to send some cute easy cupcakes to work or school parties, here are some great idea’s! Make it even easier by using box cake mix. Yes you can go all out and make from scratch too but sometimes its just nice to go the fast way. Which PS I love to just make to eat raw. YUM! I haven’t done that in so long, for baby’s sake!

The Zombie Cupcake

Here your going to want to start with a chocolate cake. Dont use liners for this one, so you have a full effect of dirt. You can even add chocolate chips and/or nuts for a chunkier look. If you still feel the need for frosting of some kind stick to a glaze or ganache so its thin and doesn’t take away from your look. Then head to your favorite craft store and grab a bag of baby doll arms. This goes without saying, dont bake the arms in the cake. Add once your cakes are cooked and cooled. For an added touch add some cookie gravestones!

The Cupcake Liner Witch Hat Topper

This great site does some fun cake stuff. And this little tutorial is cute and simple.

instructions:

1. Grab a regular sized cupcake liner.  Fold liner in half.  Fold in half again, creating a pie-like wedge.  Tape the two flaps together using double sided tape, so that you have one solid triangle.
2. Fold in half again.  Tape again.  Now you should have a tall skinny wedge that is 1/8 the size of your original circle.  If your liner is now a flat triangle due to folding, fluff it up with your finger so that it makes a cone.
3. Insert a toothpick into your cupcake and place your cone on top of the toothpick.  This is the body of your hat.  The toothpick will help your hat stay in place.
4. Grab a mini cupcake liner.  Cut a hole in the middle of the liner.  I found it easiest to do this by folding it in half and then cutting out a ‘C’ shape on the folded edge.  Open up liner and slightly flatten with your hand.  This will be the brim.
5. Slide the brim down over your cone to complete the hat.  Smush and crinkle to add character.  Bend the tip of the hat, if desired

The Candy Corn Cupcake

Start with a vanilla cupcake and a plain liner. Then grab your favorite stiff frosting. I like a good buttercream for this one. They hold up better than store bought ones. Split your frosting into thirds making one slightly smaller (your white) and one slightly bigger (your yellow) Then use food coloring to tint your frosting yellow and orange, leaving the small one white. Then grab a frosting bag and a tip of your choice to pipe first a circle of yellow, then orange on top, then white to top and finish!

If Halloween is not your holiday you may be bursting to bust out the next holidays goodies. But you can modify them to make them work now! Find your favorite gingerbread recipe (sorry not a fan so I dont have one to suggest!) And cut out all your little ginger bread men.

Now decide how you want to decorate these cute little guys! Make some mummies with white royal icing and black highlights. Or just use white and make them a little skinnier than the usual chunky men! How simple but effective.

Yum! I saw this and beyond knowing it was cheesecake mouse I just thought the colors and presentation looks amazing! And its super easy. Like always I dont want you spending days over each project. Because you need to check back here daily for the next one!

Ingredients:

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk or cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 (8 oz) tub of cool whip

Orange and yellow food coloring

candy corn to top

Directions:

Beat cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer until fully smooth.  Slowly add powdered sugar, then milk (or cream).  Add vanilla.  Continue mixing.  Beat about 1 minute on medium to medium-high speed.  Fold cool whip into cream cheese mixture, and stir until fully combined.

Scoop about 1/3 of the Cheesecake Mousse into a bowl, and color orange.  Color another third of the mixture yellow.  Leave the remaining third white.  One color at a time (starting with yellow), scoop mixture into a piping bag or large ziplock bag, and squeeze a layer of the Cheesecake Mousse into small dessert dishes of your choice.  Repeat with orange and then white Mousse.

Refrigerate 30 minutes (or up to 1 day) before serving.  Garnish with candy corn if desired. Recipe yields 4 moderate servings or 6-8 mini servings.

Recipe Source: Glorious Treats

You may know what this new sensation is. Its spread the internet world and bakery world in the last year like wildfire. Cake Pops are a little dessert much like cupcakes but in bite size form. So basically you can eat more of them without knowing it!

They are very easy to make and always look fantastic. Very elegant. You can display them in two ways. I will be experimenting with the sticks next time, but this time I made them to sit in wrappers. If you feel like experimenting too here are some step by step instructions.

Make your favorite cake batter and bake a full cake as normal. Once its fully baked just toss it into a bowl. I used a fork to destroy it. I also pulled out all the edges that were a bit darker so the cake was one single color.

Then add your favorite icing. I made these as an after thought at 10pm so all I had on hand was instant icing. I would much prefer to use my own butter cream next time as I find the instant icing to be too thin. But its works in a pinch and they certainly taste good in the end so don’t worry too much about it!

Then mash it all together, and roll into small balls. Line a tray with parchment paper and pop it in the freezer. I really wanted my balls to stay as perfect as possible so I left my tray in the freezer and popped each one in as I rolled. But Im sure you could roll them all and then put them in the freezer too. Freeze them for at least one hour but more if possible. I did mine in two batches (white chocolate and milk) and the second batch was after freezing them overnight and it was a much nicer final result.

Dip the cake balls in melted chocolate. Make sure you melt it slowly as I have been known to impatiently set chocolate on fire in the microwave. 30 second intervals work best. I used a fork to roll the ball through the chocolate and then place them back on the parchment paper. As I said the first batch was only frozen 1 hour, so I didn’t notice small pieces had fallen off into the melted chocolate. I added some more as I was running out and when I microwaved them it baked the bits of cake even more, ending in this mess. (I added food color to show the texture better) Don’t make the same mistake and ruin a whole batch of chocolate.

After I let them sit in the fridge this time for 30 minutes I drizzled them with opposite chocolates. You can also pipe designs or add sprinkles at the same step after dipping them, so they stick. Then comes the packaging. This was such a great idea, i saw on pinterest! Have I told you all enough how great that place is. Take an empty egg carton, place mini cupcake wrappers in each slot. And add your cake balls. Perfect! I am shipping these and I needed a light way to display, but ship them safe. Fingers crossed they travel well.

I also have a few left overs. So I am taking some with me for the family I work for. I grabbed a Christmas jewelry box. We all get a bunch of them every season so it was easy to find a couple around the house. Same thing I added the cupcake liners and popped in the balls and another cute little gift.

I really enjoyed making these and cant wait to experiment more with them. In flavors, decorations and display. So make sure you check back often! And if you feel inspired to make them as well, I love to see and share reader creations so send me pictures and your story! lissables@gmail.com