Smidgen Cakes: Birthday

Showing posts with label Birthday. Show all posts

Friday, September 21, 2012

My Tiki and Tacos Moment

When the pinatas and tacos happen, you know the party is gonna be good! This is a tribute to my Tiki and Tacos and a birthday surprise party to make me feel very clever :)

This is vanilla butter cake with vanilla buttercream, tinted green for guacamole. The mini tacos are made from gum paste and filled with various colors and flavors- the ground beef is actually ground chocolate!

It was a bit of a rush job but overall, a great experience.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Vanilla Cherry Yum

Vanilla Cherry Cake with Vanilla Cherry Creamcheese Frosting. Happy 40th Birthday, Brother!

Friday, June 22, 2012

Pink and Purple Birthday

Smidgencakes has a customer who wants cupcakes for her one year old's birthday celebration. She asked for bright pink, light pink, lavender, purple, and white smooth icing...Butterflies, flowers, pixie dust (edible glitter) and such... One big cupcake and 30 regular sized cupcakes...

The only problem I had with this project is that the flavors weren't really specified but I assumed vanilla would be ok. I should have went with my instincts on the icing other than what I went with. Royal icing is the smoothest icing but it doesn't taste very good. Had I followed my instincts, I would have just made a smoother buttercream so that the taste profile fit the prettiness of the cupcakes.

Morale of the story: Follow your instincts. Cupcakes are made with love and if you don't love it, don't do it.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Liquor Cupcakes Adventure No. 2

Bring on the Jack and Coke Cupcakes! Adventures in Liquor part 2. I don't really like Jack Daniels. I am sorry but it is true. My friend drinks Jack & Coke all the time so I decided a little play on cakes for his birthday might be good.

Lets start with the cake. No matter how much cola syrup you add to your batter, it just doesn't make it to cola flavor. When I thought I finally had the right flavor of cake, I baked the batter. Wouldn't you know it? It comes out tasting more like root beer than cola. At least the cake was dense and moist!

Moving on to the butter cream...As I stated, I'm not a fan of JD. I added shot after shot to my butter cream because I didn't think I could taste the alcohol. Eventually I let my partner in crime taste it because I thought maybe my taste buds were on strike. The look on his face was that of a man who just took a shot of whiskey. Apparently, one could really taste the alcohol!

Great! I topped the cupcakes with a black colored sugar and a Gummy Cola bottle.

Everything was going according to plan but then the birthday boy didn't show up until 2 days later. Most of the alcohol flavor had evaporated out of the butter cream and the root beer flavor seemed to get stronger. In the end, they were cute and neat but must be eaten right away!

Let's Get Liquored Up!

Recently, I have had a few male friends with birthdays. Rumor has it that boys don't appreciate regular cupcakes like us girls do. One thing they do appreciate is liquor! I had asked a friend what kind of cupcake he thought his brother might appreciate. I didn't get much of a response so I guessed. He is Irish (go figure with the last name of Conkey) so I decided to make him Irish Cream Cupcakes :) I read a few recipes and decided I was ready to experiment on my own. I made chocolate chip vanilla cupcakes with Starbucks Coffee but replaced 80% of the water with Saint Brendan's Irish Cream. Next, I made a Brendan's & Starbucks Coffee Buttercream. I topped these delightful little cakes with a square of Jameson Irish Whiskey Chocolate Bar. Cheers to the Birthday Boy!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

The boy turns 14

Vanilla Lemon Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting per resquest...

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Tater Turns Twelve!

Ugh! Where does the time go? My little Tater Tot turned twelve on Saturday! We didn't get to spend time with her on her birthday so we are celebrating tonight. There is a special ordered dinner planned, at the request of our beautiful girl, of gnocchi in whitesauce with chicken and caesar salad. It should be delicious! Last night I stayed up making "Funfetti" cupcakes with a homemade white vanilla buttercream. The cupcakes were made from the box but the frosting was a fun and easy adventure, now that I have my handy dandy KitchenAid mixer. I am truly in love with that sexy piece of machinery. I love her so much that I named her Stella Bella Kitty. I adorned the cupckes with some colored hard candy in multiple colors. The bottom layer of cupcakes all had a corresponding color to the larger candy in the middle. The overall effect made them look like flowers. The next two layers of cupcakes were made with multiple colored candies. In addition, the number "12" tops it off for the perfect birthday candles!

In addition to making Tater's cupcakes, my boss turns 70 tomorrow! I made him dark chocolate cupcakes, filled with a rich chocolate mousse, and topped with orange chocolate frosting, infused with dark chilli chocolate chunks... I can't wait to try them...Death by Chocolate anyone?