Pinkalicious Cupcakes

I was recently asked to make cupcakes for a little girls birthday party that was Pinkalicious themed. Apparently there is this whole world of children's books that I didn't know about. There is not only Pinkalicious, but there is also Purplicious, Goldlicious, Silverlicious... all equally popular. In the Pinkalicious story a little girl eats too many pink cupcakes causing her to turn pink- The only cure is to eat vegetables! Those tricky authors :-)

The plan was to match the cupcakes in the book as closely as possible. I used chocolate cupcakes since the birthday girl herself requested they be chocolate, and a classic buttercream with pink food coloring. In the book each cupcake had a cherry on top but since regular cherries run everywhere I rolled them in sugar the night before and put them in the fridge uncovered to help dry them out a little - very sweet but very cute. A dash of pink and white sprinkles and voila! Pinkalicious cupcakes. I also dipped strawberry marshmallows in pink white chocolate and sprinkles for marshmallow pops. Jill at Stamped Paper co made the adorable crown toppers to add to the theme. I hope these ideas inspire you if you are planning a Pinkalicious party...

Sports Themed Cake Pops

Basketballs, Baseballs, and Soccer balls! I got an order recently to make cake pops for a little boys class on his birthday and I wanted to share them with you. I think they turned out really well for never having made any sort of sports accessories before in the past. I used vanilla cake with white chocolate for the soccer and baseballs and orange for the basketballs. The trickiest part for me was the lines on the basketballs. When planning I thought I would just pipe them on with chocolate but that was nearly impossible. Then I thought I would draw them on with the edible markers but no one tells you that edible markers do not write on candy coating AT ALL! So my last idea was to use black food coloring watered down to make the stripes. I used a very small paintbrush and lightly painted the lines on. For the soccer balls I first cut out small stars in black marshmallow fondant using a star cookie cutter. I then used a sharp knife and cut off each point of the star which left me with little octagons just like a soccer ball has, I put a little melted white chocolate on the back of each one to act as glue. For the baseballs (my favorite) I just used a red frosting pen and piped out the red lines.

I will warn you - the black food coloring on the basketballs will get all over your mouth when you eat them but that is part of the fun! I went to the craft store and just got a simple white metal tin and put floral foam inside to hold up the cake pops with ease. Since I am crazy I also got some long grass from the floral section and cut it down to stick into the foam to simulate sports grass. It was the perfect stiffness to stick into the foam easily, and thanks to help from my friend Taryn we finished in no time. I really like to make the packaging fun when I am baking for a theme. I hope you enjoy the photos and try making them on your own at home...

Baby Monkey Dessert Table

Whew! Finally doing another blog post with yet another baby shower dessert table. I realized it was time to sit down and post these images since the baby was born this weekend that this shower was held for. So exciting, and baby Avery is a beautiful healthy baby boy with two great parents.

Tracy (mommy) wanted a blue and brown monkey theme which I thought was great. Not only are monkeys cute they provide some great inspiration for banana themed desserts. I included the labels I made to show the full menu as well as to show the simple design. Just like the last dessert table I posted I hope to post some of the individual recipes but for now here are some images...

Color palate

labels - click to enlarge

Peanut butter chocolate layer cake

Mini Dirt Cakes

Chocolate and vanilla cake balls

Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies

Mini banana nut cupcakes

mini monkey breads

Supply sources:

Brown and white striped cups and blue and white polka dot cups, and blue and white striped straws: http://www.shopsweetlulu.com/

Blue and white polka dot platter: www.ikea.com

Ruffled edge platter: www.sweetandsaucysupply.com/

My first dessert table...

I have more images and recipes coming soon but I wanted to share this first batch with everyone. This was for my friends baby shower. They are having a little boy and they wanted green brown and white. No theme - just elegant baby...

the color palate

Caramel stuffed sugar cookies and Coconut cream whoopie pies

S'more marshmallows and white chocolate lemon truffles

Popcorn and Lemon Coconut 4 layer cake

I ordered these adorable green and white straws online to go

with Skinny Girl Margaritas to carry out the green theme

Red velvet cake balls

Lemon blueberry poppy seed bread with lemon glaze

Yellow cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting

Here are some more amazing photo's from the Dad - they turned out

great and you can really see the little labels I made... thanks Aaron!

I used a little green food coloring to get a green gradient in the cake, everyone loved this