Mod Podge Giveaway!

one of my favorite blogs, modpodgerocks, is giving away a trial pack of mod podge... check her out and enter, and get inspired by her blog. i know i am!

p.s. i know i haven't posted in a while... i've been ridiculously busy with school, and my camera broke. i got a new camera but haven't had time to post about my baking adventures. hope i can post soon.

Giveaway: Win $75 Gift from All Modern

one of my favorite craft blogs is dollar store crafts, and now they're giving away a gift certificate to all modern! i'm so excited... i hope i win!

Patriotic Cupcakes

(picture from the salty cod)

what's more patriotic and american than apple pie? the answer is simple: cupcakes.

cupcakes came about in the 1800's in america, making them another great american invention. the name comes both from the small proportions--the original ones were baked in earthenware cups and such--and from their proportions, measured in cups. the original cupcake recipe is 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 4 eggs. and, this was a big switch from weighing ingredients to measuring them by volume, using the anglo-american 'cup' instead of the metric system. this switch made them easier for the everyman (well, everywoman really) to make, as did the cupcake's diminutive size, because big cakes often took a really long time to cook over a hearth and often burned, but those problems were reduced with cupcakes. (thanks to food timeline and cupcakes take the cake for the history!)

alright, enough with the history lesson, let's get to the baked goods! i made some patriotic cupcakes for the fourth of july (which i fully realize was a good two weeks ago). first, i made some delicious red velvet cake cupcakes (yes, from a mix), and piped on some (canned) cream cheese frosting, and topped with blue sugar for a patriotic flair--red cake, white frosting, and blue sugar!


then, i made some red, white, and blue cupcakes--the batter itself was red, white, and blue! i divided the white cake batter (again, mine's from a box) and dyed one part red and one part blue (BIG NEWS: i got wilton gel colors! so now my stuff will be nice and bright, not like the weak colors i had on my cupcake burgers). so, i saw this on chica and jo and knew i had to make them. only mine weren't as swirl-y as chica and jo's, but they still looked awesome. and the patriotic cupcake wrappers didn't hurt...


and i frosted mine with (canned) chocolate cream cheese frosting, because i have a penchant for chocolate. i wanted to pipe it on and make it look all spiffy... but after i piped a few, the frosting started melting and sliding off. so after i frantically yelled for my mom to come help me, i scraped all the frosting off and just spread it on with a butter knife. but they still needed a little something extra... so i put sparkle sugar on them, and that did it! i love sparkle sugar... that stuff makes anything better.


here are some of the cupcakes, ready to be transported to work. since i made two different kinds of cupcakes, i had a ton left over after our little independence day cookout, and my coworkers were glad for it!


P.S. why no red, white, and blue sprinkles, you ask? because i scoured every wal-mart, target, michael's, market street, tom thumb, kroger, and party city within a 20 minute drive of my house, and there were none to be had! i find that quite odd, but it's alright. my cupcakes turned out cute anyway, even if they would have been cuter with some darned sprinkles!

Candy Jewelry Box

i was bummin' around on the wilton website, and found this:


it's a ring box, made out of red candy melts and fondant, with a truffle center... and you are supposed to stick a real ring in it to propose with.

how ridiculously clever is that? you could also probably do the same thing with cake, using bakerella's box of chocolates cake as inspiration. i would absolutely die if a guy proposed to me with something like that. well, i'd say yes first, then i'd die.

my mom said, "no guy is going to go through that much trouble to make that little thing."
my first response was, "for me they will!"

my second response was, "well, maybe he can get his sister to make it for him."

Cupcake Burgers

i was inspired by the always-fabulous bakerella to make cupcake burgers for father's day. they're so cute, fairly easy, and pretty darn delicious too! plus, i got some icing tips, one fat star and one plain fat tip, and couplers at wal-mart on clearance, so i could make them look pretty good too. here are my tips on my "pastry bags," aka ziploc bags with their corners cut off (i can only be so fancy).


so, down to the details.
supplies:

• one box white cake mix
  
• one box brownie mix
• one can white frosting
• food coloring
• optional: sparkling sugar (a course sugar; i got mine at wal-mart in the baking aisle next to the other cake decors)
  

yup, it's that easy. but for pete's sake, buy name brand mixes- it's worth the extra quarter. i used a store brand for these, and they were very dry the next day. oh, i ate them, but i didn't like them. i ended up just eating the brownie part with the frosting on it because the cake was so dry. but, moving on...

simply make the cupcakes according to the package directions (using liners so the sides aren't too brown). and make the brownies according to the package directions too, but bake for about 15 minutes in a 13x9 pan (so they'll be thin enough).

when cool, cut the cupcakes in half along their equators (not their international datelines, of course). cut the brownies into circles (i used the lid of my non-stick spray as a brownie cutter) and place in between the cupcake "buns."

meanwhile, divide the frosting into however many different toppings you want (i had three), and dye accordingly. you can use whatever "toppings" you like, but mine ended up having cheese, ketchup, and lettuce. the cheese was supposed to be mustard, but it wasn't quite yellow enough. bakerella used fancy frosting dyes so hers were much brighter, whereas i only had regular food coloring on hand. but, no matter, still cute!

then, frost on the toppings. i used the plain frosting tip for the cheese (just in a circle) and the ketchup (sort of squiggled on, almost like a flower), like so:


and i used the star tip for the lettuce, squiggled on sort of in between the ketchup, so that it would show through when the top was put on, like so:


and here they are with their tops on:


so cute!
and to make them look like sesame seed buns, i brushed a little melted butter (butter makes everything better) on top and sprinkled with sparkling sugar, which tastes much better than the real sesame seeds that bakerella used.


and here's my dear ol' dad about to chomp down on one of these bad little boys!

S'mores Pops

i'm very proud of these because i came up with the idea all by myself. i feel so creative! it occurred to me after i went camping and still had some leftover marshmallows from real s'mores.

they don't look particularly delicious, but they really are. and so simple, too. basically, they are marshmallows on sticks, dipped in chocolate, and covered in graham cracker crumbs. so let's break it down.

1. i had these lollipop sticks that i bought on sale. they were a bit long, so i cut them roughly in half (just eyeballed it).


2. i stuck the sticks into the marshmallows. i stuck the unfinished cut end into the marshmallows to camouflage the rough ends.

TIP: the more stick in the marshmallow, the better. they get a little heavy with the chocolate on them, so they need support. put the sticks as far into the marshmallows you can without poking out the top and insert the stick through the longest part of the marshmallow, as shown below.


3. melt some chocolate flavored candy coating. i got mine from walmart. i also put in about half of a hershey's bar to make it more chocolate-y.

TIP: i put the bowl of chocolate on top of a heating pad to keep it from solidifying so fast. and, i covered the heating pad with some saran wrap to protect it from drips. you can sort of see it in the picture here.


4. dip the marshmallows on sticks into the chocolate. make sure to get chocolate all over it, even on a bit of the stick to help the marshmallows stay on the sticks.

TIP: after you dip them in the chocolate, you may need to scrape some of the chocolate off. "what? scrape off chocolate?" i hear you saying... but if you don't, they'll be too heavy and the graham cracker and chocolate will fall off.

5. dip, roll, and/or sprinkle the pops with graham cracker crumbs. i used the bottom of a glass to mash the graham crackers into crumbs. but, i hear you can also buy the crumbs in boxes if you like.


6. let the chocolate solidify, and they are ready to eat! i laid them down on wax paper because they were too top-heavy to stick in styrofoam or something. voila! let's take another look at them...

A Hot, Fresh Batch of Links

um, these things are amazing. i wish i was this creative!

crafts:

• mod-podge window quilt project (you could do this with any frame, really)
• tissue paper flower ball party decoration (what an easy party decoration!)
• yoga pants from a men's long sleeve tshirt (do i need yoga pants? i might...)
• shrinky dink flowers and leaves (i smell a new pair of earrings for meredith very soon)
• shrinky dink photo jewelry (i don't know if i'm artistic enough to pull off wearing something like this, but so cute!)

baked goods:

• fourth of july cupcakes (the colors are easily customizable for any occasion)
• blueberry cornmeal pancakes with orange maple butter (they sound more difficult than they really are- you can make the butter ahead of time, and even the dry stuff for the pancakes can be done ahead as a sort of mix)

Inspiration!

from dollar store crafts...


thumb tacks, string, and clothes pins make a "quick and dirty" inspiration board anywhere! i am totally going to put these things all over the place. the back of my door, over my desk, on my closet doors... to inspire me to greatness!

Carrot Cake Balls

i decided to give the cake balls another go, this time with carrot cake (and cream cheese frosting, of course) because that's what was in the pantry. and i coated them in white chocolate. i did a much better dipping job this time than last. for one, i made the balls smaller, using the larger end of a melon baller instead of just guessing. they held together better when they were smaller. also, i kept the chocolate warm by putting the ceramic bowl on top of a heating pad. i put the heating pad in another bowl to distribute the heat better, and put saran wrap over the heating pad to protect it, and so my dad doesn't get chocolate on his back the next time he uses the heating pad.

also, my technique was just better, in dipping the ball and wiping off excess chocolate and scooting onto the wax paper. i guess it just takes practice. and i drizzled the balls with white chocolate, which helped to camouflage any imperfections.

also this time, though, i made two 8" round cakes instead of one 13x9" cake, using half a can of frosting for each cake. i admit, this was at the request of my mother. she liked the cake balls but thought they were a little too sweet (they are), and being somewhat wary of some of my culinary innovations and experiments, she preferred the tried-and-true regular cake over the cake ball invention.
but that doesn't mean that i just made a plain ol' cake. well, i sort of did. but i added a little embellishment, while i had the white chocolate out for the cake balls. criss-crosses on wax paper...


then stuck into the cake!

sorta looks like it's from a fancy bakery, don't it? sort of. let me make a point here- the criss-crosses are important. if you just do loops (so the lines are all parallel, essentially), they just fall apart. so, criss-cross, people!

here's a piece of cake and some cake balls, before headed over to the neighbor's house.

and, the inside of a cake ball, before meeting its delicious, impending doom in my mouth.

see those little orange bits? carrots, right? wrong. they are "carrot flavored bits," as proudly advertised on the cake box's front! they're carrot powder, sugar, and some other binding stuff. the cake still tasted good, it just didn't really taste like carrot cake. more like a plain spice cake, which was still good, as i said.

I've Been Wordled

alright, i admit i wordled myself. so, here it is. the word cloud for my young blog, with the bigger words being the ones used more often. it's so cute! :)

i'll have to do it again at a later date and compare, to see how my blog has changed.

Oreo Truffle Cupcake Bites

one of my very good friends from high school recently graduated from rice university in houston. so, i wanted to bake/make something for him. well, i went to michael's, and went a little crazy. in most people's eyes, i made reasonable purchases, but i could hear my mom saying, "meredith! you don't need all of that stuff!" so, what did i get? some squeeze bottles, and a candy cup mold, and some blue candy melts (rice's colors are blue and white). i guess, all things considered, not that overboard.

anywho, i combined two bakerella inventions to make one awesome gift. i made oreo truffles in the shape of cupcake bites. yummy!

ok, down to the practicalities.
first, i crunched up some oreos. i smushed them in a plastic bag, then used a coffee grinder for any big bits that were left. then i mixed them with softened cream cheese. i only used about 1/3 of the cookies (one row from the package's tray) and about 1/3 of the cream cheese.

second, i melted some blue candy melts in one of the squeeze bottles and squeezed (or squoze?) some of the melted blue into the candy molds. then i put a ball of the oreo mixture into each candy mold well. i used the larger end of a melon baller for this- it worked perfectly.

third, i melted some white candy coating (almond bark from wal-mart) in another squeeze bottle. bakerella dipped her cupcake tops in the 2nd color, but i just squeezed/poured it on top. it overflowed a little, but then they looked like little muffins/cupcakes when they came out. and topped off with some blue sugar for flair.

here's the finished product! they tasted great, and looked fabulous!

Birthday Cake Balls

when i couldn't sleep during finals, one of the things i was obsessing about was cake balls and cake pops, and their various incarnations, from bakerella. so, i decided to make some cake balls for my mom for her birthday on may 9 (i know, i'm just now getting around to posting... i'm just lazy. don't really have another excuse). inspired by these cake pops, i decided to make some that had little B medallions on them (my mom's name is beverly). so, i made the B's first- just printed out some script-y B's in reverse, then taped some wax paper on top. then i melted some chocolate and vanilla candy bark (bought at my trusty wal-mart) and used a ziploc bag to pipe out the B design and a free-hand flower around it, then filled in with the opposite color. they turned out so cute! as my mom pointed out, they sort of look like barbie B's. here's a picture of some of them just spread out on a plate (the pics are a little yellow b/c i didn't use a flash, and i didn't feel like photoshopping them to correct the color. but you get the idea- black and white).







so then, i baked a cake. just a mix from a box, and i crumbled the baked cake and mixed it with a can of white frosting. it tasted great, only problem was i used funfetti cake mix... which wasn't so fun. i thought it would be cute with the sprinkles, but after i mixed it up with the frosting, the sprinkles just sort of dissolved and made the cake balls look like oatmeal or something. i thought i had a picture of that rumbling around somewhere, but i can't find it.
oh well, it still tasted good, and it was covered in chocolate so you couldn't even see it until you bit into it, and by that time you were like, dang this tastes so good i don't care what it looks like!

so then, i dipped the balls in chocolate... yum. i'm not very good at dipping things, so they turned out sort of messy. i think i might have made the balls too big, which contributed to the poor dipping (too big to handle, and fish out of the chocolate). not as pretty as bakerella's, but they still tasted goo-ood. and i stuck the little medallions on top, and that took your eyes off of the dipping goofs. here's the finished product:


some of them, you might be able to tell, i dipped in chocolate first and put them on wax paper to dry, then dipped the bottom in white and put them in the little paper cups. that turned out ok- less messy than the whole-chocolate method, but the tops ended up being flat. which was actually ok, because then i had a good platform for the little medallions. i just used a little melted candy coating to stick them on.

you can see the messiness a little closer here.





and here's the cake balls, with a sneak peak for next time... oreo cupcake bites for payton's graduation!


UPDATE: i found the pic of the bitten funfetti cake ball. so, here it is. it actually looks better in the picture than it did in real life. but, like i said, it still tasted good!