Hello Kitty cupcake cake

http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915022968723/edit/
http://dviquez.blogspot.com/2011/04/fiesta-hello-kitty.html

So it's not really Hailey's birthday until next month but her best friend is going on vacation and will not be able to make it. We decided to have a small celebration with just them to make sure they did something together. For awhile now she has been going back and forth between Ariel and Hello Kitty for her party. After I saw this cupcake cake on pintrest I knew this would be nice to make for the park

I got up a little early (not really for me- but for most people they think 6am is early.) and started my fun-da-middles  cupcakes (those ones with the cream filling baked inside). I like those because to only makes 12 and when I didn't want a lot of left overs it would be perfect.

Well, it wasn't becasue I was up at 6am before drinking coffee and mixed the oil and water measurements up...Yeah, that really does make a difference. The cupcake comes out really dry and gross. So I sadly tossed those out and made a new batch. While they were cooking I made the Wilton Butter Cream. Here is also a tip. If your butter cream is soft looking like this:

it isn't going to want to decorate well. Add a little more powder sugar until it's stiffer, like this:

 This thickness (to me) is more ideal for decorating because I use less and the decorations (such as flowers)  decorate better.


 After the cupcakes were cooked and cooled I placed them in the travel case I had. Here is the thing people don't think about when they are making a cupcake cake: You can't line them straight like this:

If you do the icing will start falling through the holes after a little while. You have to have them fill in the gaps, like this:

Anyway I typically  put a lot of icing in the center and smooth it around with my spatula to give it a base. Then I take the picture I want and with a tooth pick I sketch it into the base. This time around I'm using the star tip  and making little swirls (typically I color the cake in with more smooth icing).

I just keep going in circles with the icing until I'm done

Then I added the face and outlines. By this point I had used 4 cups of powder sugar and was not interested in giving the kids a bunch of extra sugar. So we put some light pink sprinkles around the edge instead.

My other cupcake cakes

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Roses on a cake

http://pinterest.com/pin/195765915022580103/
http://zoebakes.com/2011/04/22/how-to-pipe-icing-roses/

At preschool we are celebrating two of the teachers birthdays. I consider these women family after the last 2 years. They've helped Hailey immensely when it came to learning to speak and to grow as an individual. I typically make the cakes for each birthday in the classroom. Its usually Bugs Bunny, a truck or Kermit (check them out here) I've improved over the years and have really come to notice a difference when working with icing from a can and butter cream icing

I made the cupcakes and let them cool for a couple of hours. and set them up on my cardboard (typically I'll use an old pizza box wrapped in wrapping paper to have a clean surface. Notice how the cupcakes are not lined up perfectly? If you don't do this,  when you ice them the icing will fall through the gaps.

Then Pascal and I made the butter cream (I'm a bit of a Disney fan)

 Using my cake spatulas I heaped some into the center (about a large spoon full) and smoothed it out over the surface of the cupcakes

 First I made the vine background (not pictured)using tip 4. Using tip several 104 tips I made some roses:

Hold the nail in the hand you do not write with. squeeze a small pile of icing onto the  base. Look at the tip, make sure you have the "wide side" down, twirl the nail clockwise while squeezing the icing out, wrapping it around the icing base counter clockwise.  (I confused you, huh?) They need to move in opposite directions..

Don't worry.. try again. I'll wait.......


Okay. Now that we're ready to move on, still holding the icing bag so the "wide side" is down you're going to squeeze the icing and make kind of a lover case "n" motion with it while twisting the nail clockwise

Do it again....

and again, and again until you've gotten to the bottom. Now the fun part is either taking the scissors you bought from Wilton or a regular pair of scissors (slightly open) picking it up and placing it on the cake!!  I'm not joking.... If you master that in one try I'll be amazed.

Anyway repeat as many times as you want with as many different colors. The rose buds are kind of a back and forth brush stroke motion (left to right)  then I add a leaf with the leaf tip.


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