Picnic Ants - Take Two

 As stated above, this is the second attempt with the ants cupcakes.  

Ellie and I had a lot of fun the first time and I thought they were totally adorable 

so I just had to do them again for another crowd.

This time I used chocolate covered raisins instead of jelly beans 

because I thought the larger ant looked cooler.

 I really like these cupcake liners but they are not visible in the pictures of the 

cupcakes so I had to include this one instead.

 My batter is measured out perfectly using my kitchen scale.  

 I frosted them with light green, then rolled the edges in green sanding sugar.

Head, abdomen and thorax are pretty much all the same size.

 Aren't they cute with their little legs?  These turned out well.  

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of an individual cupcake including the liner.

If only I could have found a little piece of watermelon candy to have an ant "carry".

I looked for it but couldn't find the right sized one.  Oh well, maybe next summer.

Picnic Ants - Take One

 These ants were my first attempt.  The idea book had the ants on light green frosting but I thought they would be cuter on green sprinkles.  I was wrong.  They didn't really stand out on the dark green.  Maybe if I had light green sprinkles instead of the dark green.

We used black, brown and red jelly beans.  

The red ones were cinnamon flavored since they were supposed to be fire ants.

 The chocolate frosting was also Trader Joe's premade mix. 

Because, of course, my summer is too crazy busy with too many trips and no time to bake real stuff.

 Ellie, my niece, did most of the decorating work on the cupcakes.  She is a natural!

 We lined up our ants so we could figure out how many we had.

 Some cupcakes were lucky enough to have two ants.  :)

 The ants legs were piped with black frosting from a little ziploc bag. 

Ellie did all the legs too!

Oh, two cute!!  Get it? "Two" instead of "too"?

She's My Cherry Pie

 Little Cherry Pies.  Fun to make, although I can't imagine how m&m's taste on a cupcake.

 My little cherry pies helping with the cupcakes.  

 I actually made vanilla cherry cupcakes since they were supposed to be little cherry pies.

Pie "crust" frosting

Pie topping (under the m&m's)

Also helps to start from the middle.  Place the center candy down and then circle them around and around.

 In this picture, you can only see the first layer of frosting crust. 

I decided that it needed to be thicker so I added more later. 

You can see in this picture how I added more frosting.  I just used the ziploc bag trick again.  

I squished it out and kind of curled it around.  A cleaner look would have been to use a flat tip.  

Maybe next time. . .

Rainbow in the Clouds

 

Rainbow in the Sky!  Jayden loved these!   Maybe one of my favorites too.

 I used a sprinkle cupcake mix.  Yes, that's right, I said a mix!  Summer is crazy busy since we're gone for extended weekends every week.  I can't seem to catch up with housework so I've decided that this summer, I will focus my time on "decorating" cupcakes.

Blue frosting for the sky.

 Because I finished these cupcakes at Rosario, I used the amateur's version of the piping bag.  Works okay, except that if the bag is very full, and you use it for a while, it will ooze out of the seal at the top.  Best option is real piping bags.  Go Wilton!

 They actually look so pretty with the silver lining.  

 Piping on the clouds.  Very fun to do.

 Now the rainbows were actually quite challenging.  They're floppy, of course and won't stay up in a curled position.  I tried letting them out to dry for over 12 hours.  Still too floppy.  So in a last attempt, I laid them on foil and placed them in the oven at 170 degrees in an effort to dry them out.  Foil is actually a very bad idea cause it sticks but I didn't have any parchment in the cabin.  When I took them out of the oven, they looked really soft and mushy but they hardened rather quickly.  Very quickly, actually.  The last two bows were brittle and a little cracked.  I recommend heating only half dozen at a time for 10 minutes or so. 

My sweet boy is proudly carrying the cupcakes while his friend Matthew decides which one he'll eat.

4th of July

 

Very busy lately.  Have hardly been home at all but I really wanted to make some cupcakes for the 4th.  So I made these from a BOX!  Even made the frosting from a box!  

 

 Evidence of the "made from a box" cupcakes.  At least I baked them myself.  

 Interesting frosting.  Added some softened butter and a bit of warm water.  Then I checked the ingredients of the frosting box.  Powered sugar.  That's pretty much it!  I paid a premium price for powdered sugar in a cool box.  I'm pathetic.  That's what I get for trying to take short-cuts. 

I added a little extra water and made it almost glaze-like.  After I frosted the tops, the frosting dripped down around the sides.  Looked super yummy. 

I didn't get to taste them so I guess I'll have to make this "recipe" again.  

Only I think I'll make my own box of powdered sugar.