rainbows on a rainy day

Well we had rain today, at one point the thunder was so loud it woke Abbie and the dog, then it hailed. But we had rainbows.



Rainbow cupcakes.
Here's how they started




*throwing in an Abbie shot*



Here's how they turned out





Here's how Abbie liked them






Next time, cupcake liners you can't see through, marshmallow fondant on top and painted rainbows on the fondant :)

And what a great idea for a birthday cake.

not cup cakes

....but something sweet.

Strawberry jam. They had a GREAT deal on strawberries at the Soulard Market when we were home, so I chopped them, froze them and then brought them home and jellied them :) I guess it's jam because it's chunky and not just clear, but it's yummy none the less. The strawberries weren't super sweet, but that's ok because there's 2 cups more sugar than strawberry in those jars. The lids all popped. I'm not sure how much strawberry jam is at the store, but for 15 bucks I got this much

I figure it's about 16 or 17 jars the same size as smuckers.

fondant

so I tried something new. I've never worked with fondant, I made it and worked with it. Simple yellow cupcakes with cream cheese icing under the fondant. Came out cute I think. I'm going to practice on a cake this weekend I think.

I was pretty tired by the time I got to work on them.

Not bad for sleepy I guess

and the fondant tastes yummy, not like the wilton or premade kind, tastes like marshmallows :)

Night

stay tuned for next week

We tried making cupcake pops, but huge disaster. Really not sure what I did wrong, but anyway, next week pretty cupcakes I think.

only orange

Rick requested orange cupcakes. I looked and looked and read and read and found a recipe I thought I'd try. Some had cranberries, some had other citrus, some were muffins, some didn't appear to have oranges at all and some just had too many steps. Here's what I ended with. I'm sorry I don't even remember where I found the recipe that I used.They look sort of lemony, but they are delightfully orange. The cake is very subtle. I'm wondering if they didn't quite cook enough, the tester came out clean, but they are a little soft if that makes sense. The icing is much more orange and sweet, but a nice addition to the soft sweet cake. Next time I'll get some of those candy orange slices or sugar some orange peel or something, wouldn't that be pretty.

Here's the rest of them.

They were very easy to make. I tried a couple new things this time. I sprayed the cup cake liners with bakers joy. Last week it just seemed like we'd lost so much of the cake to crumbs. Well the bakers joy was magic, but it made picking them up to ice them interesting. If we were eating them all tonight I probably would just have taken the wrappers off as I iced. I also decided to use a new method for adding the flour mixture to the mixing bowl. It's a big cake cutting guide, or like a pie crust rolling out mat, just a big piece of plastic really. Worked WONDERFULLY. I don't have a pouring shield on my kitchenaid and always make a mess adding things a scoop at a time or from a bowl, this time NO MESS. Sorry no pictures of that, but here are some more of the cup cakes.

by request from Abbie

Artsy picture of the Abbiecake

Abbie asked if we could have plain cupcakes, the yellow with chocolate icing. So here they are. YUMMY is all I can say. I googled best yellow cupcake recipe, and found one at http://http://52cupcakes.blogspot.com/2006/05/billys-vanilla-vanilla-cupcakes-with.html, outstanding. Then I found a link for chocolate butter cream, where have you been all my life chocolate butter cream!

I think I should have added a tiny big more milk for texture, but it was YUMMY.

They came out pretty well I think even with the less than perfect icing though. Notice the AMAZING new little stand my sister got me.

I suppose the true test will be how long they last. The cupcakes from last week had to be tossed when I started these, they weren't bad just not good. I've got 24, well had 24 of these to start.

now that's a cupcake

More real cupcakes tomorrow, but this one is too cool not to share.