Hello Kitty

What fun these cupcakes were!  And they actually turned out alright.  

 I mixed my own pink fondant.  Here's some suggestions for doing it:

1.  Using surgical gloves is recommended so you don't get dye all over your hands.

2.  Use paste food coloring, rather than liquid.  That way it will not get too sticky and wet.

3.  If the fondant gets too sticky or wet, let it air dry for a minute or two or add a little bit of powdered sugar.

 Just thought Maci's little fingers were cute.  When I wasn't looking, she tore into the fondant and stuffed a bunch in her mouth.  She's such a sugar-hog!

 Jayden cut out the flowers for me.  He washed his hands very thoroughly and then let the air dry for about 5 minutes.  Moisture on hands will make fondant work very difficult.

 After the flower is cut it looks like the one on the right.  Taking a little extra time to soften out the edges with your fingertips will be worth the extra effort.  On the left looks much nicer.

 I cut out the ears with scissors and kind of shaped them with my hands.  I ended up making them too big and would recommend that they be more rounded, less long.

 I placed frosting underneath the fondant face to add some moisture and yum to the cupcake.
Use Wilton's "Food Writers" to draw whiskers on the fondant.  Food Writers can be purchased at any craft store in their baking section.   Very cool.

Elise was one of the first little girls to enjoy the fun Hello Kitty mini cake.

Papa's Seagulls

My father-in-law is a seagull scientist so, in his honor, 

the kids and I made these on our last weekend at the cabin.

 Tying the little licorice lace around each set of three sticks was no easy task. 

Perhaps next time I will "glue" the sticks together with a little frosting before garnishing them with lace.

 Oh, but they do look cute, don't they?

 Because I got tired of making the piers, I thought it would be just fine to 

have some seagull floating on the water.  They do that, you know. 

 This sad little gull had a rough time.
First of all, the marshmallows are a pain in the neck

to cut out.  They're all gooey and sticky and smush when you try to cut them. 

I tried using a knife, a scissor, a round cookie cuter.  I ended up using the scissor.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if running my scissors through
a little flour would have helped them to not get so sticky.  Hmm. . .

 The "wing" on the side was supposed to be a little curled bit of frosting.  

But as you can see with this close-up guy, my frosting got a little smushy.  

The ziploc bag was getting tired.  

 Oh, yes, and of course, I weighed the batter again.  I'm really liking this system of perfection.

Perfectly baked.  Although the "blue" cake batter looks a little seafoam green.  

But that's accurate, right?

The kids loved them so they were a success.
Never making them again, though. . .

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.