Campfire Chic Bites

I created these for a Girl Scout bridging I have coming up this year. It didn't go quite as planned... How do you make these?

Easy!

Step 1: Screw up this recipe:

http://www.marthastewart.com/332838/chocolate-graham-cracker-cupcakes-with-t

Step 2:

Try to make cupcake balls and fail.

Step 3:

Put disaster on aluminum foil and add the word "chic" to the title to make it look like you meant to do that.

Playing along with Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom .

Salted Caramel Cupcake

Enough said:-)

Playing along with Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom and Wordful Wednesday on parenting By dummies:-)

Valentines Treat

This is what I threw together for our family Valentines Dinner:

Emergency cupcakes with leftover pastry cream. Drag a toothpick through the middle of the cream to make the heart and top with red sandy sugar. Simple. That's love:-)

Playing along with Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom and Wordful Wednesday on parenting By dummies:-)

Daisy Cupcakes

I made 100 of these last week: 29 went to the Milwaukee Children's Choir for their Roots and Wings festival. We could attend so, I thought the least I could do was bake. The rest went to a service area Girl Scout Learn It Earn It event. Our troop just completed our Daisy Flower Garden journey so, I thought it would be appropriate to "plant" them in ground up Oreo cookies in a small planter a la last year's Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Cheese challenge:-) I hope that all were very well received:-) Playing along with Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom .

Pro/Am Cupcake Clash!

Oh my gosh you guys!! This challenge was Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee on crack!!! 2000 people came through the doors this Sunday to sample the best that Milwaukee has to offer in "Perfect Pair" cupcakes. I mean, look at this crowd!!!



Of course, I was there with my submission: Titanic Cupcakes:

When I first heard the theme of Perfect Pairs, this idea of doing the love story from the movie hit me like a ton of bricks. I wasn't going to do the challenge. After all, it was 500 cupcakes. That's a lot of work. But, when I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about telling the story in cupcakes on a 6-foot boat display, I knew I had to do it. So Sunday was my exorcism of this idea.

The story of Jack and Rose was the center of my theme. Jack was represented in Cracker Jack Cupcakes:

These were peanut butter cheesecake on a popcorn crust with caramel topping and garnished with a single piece of popcorn.

And Rose was Heart of the Ocean Cupcakes:

They were blue velvet cupcakes with sea foam frosting.

I didn't win but, I did get to meet Duff Goldman from Ace of Cakes:

A HUGE thank-you going out to Sandy Ploy who put this enormous event! This is definitely one to remember:-)

It is definitely a happy Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom !

Tackling Bone Soup

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom . Last week, I volunteered to bring treats to the costume party at school. Of course:-) This is what I came up with:

I was inspired by Cookies and Cups' skeleton cupcakes. Mine didn't come out nearly as good as hers but I was happy with my presentation:-)

Tailgate Cupcakes

Happy Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Mom and Wordful Wednesday on SevEn cLoWn CirCus! Monday, I competed in the Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Tailgate Challenge. We were given the task of coming up with a cupcake that represents tailgating to you. Here is my submission:

Grilled Strawberry Short Cupcake

Grilled Sponge Cake

Dipped in Strawberry Syrup

Topped with Whipped Cream

Garnished with Fresh Strawberries and Mint

Since I just took my older daughter back to the University of Wisconsin: Madison, my presentation was all about Badgers. I love that you can see the arch of the Hoan Bridge behind us! It's a Milwaukee landmark that leads you to the neighborhood I grew up in so, I thought it was really fitting:-)

I didn't win but with a view like this, I didn't mind at all:

Tackling Extreme Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom and Cupcake Tuesday with Hoosier Homemade:-) Last week, I competed in the Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Extreme Cupcake Challenge. Here was my entry:

They were:

If you can read the signs from my stellar photography, they read:

Rock You Like a Hurricane Cupcakes
Lime Cupcakes with
Passion-fruit Curd Filling
Topped with Rum Brown Sugar Meringue Frosting

Just like the hurricane cocktails they serve in New Orleans. I especially liked the frosting. The brown sugar really brought out the rum flavor; more than regular sugar:-)

The display included a boarded up window with a spinning turn-table (which was the eye of the storm), a fan under some fabric to look like waves and those battery votive candles under cotton to look like lighting. I didn't win but I sure loved creating this extreme weather and flavored cupcakes:-)

Next month...tailgating cupcakes...hmmmm....what to do....what to do?

Tackling Candy Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom . I tackled another Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Challenge and this time, the theme/ingredient was Candy. Since I have a young daughter at home, I immediately thought of Candyland. Here is what it looked like:

They were Funfetti cupcakes with peppermint frosting and sugar cookie playing pieces. I did six of the characters in full size cupcakes:

Plumpy

Mr. Mint

Grandma Nut

Princess Lolly

Queen Frosting

King Candy

Tackling Cheese Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom . This week, I tackled another Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Challenge and this time it was Cheese!! Well, I couldn't pass up a chance to showcase my famous Chocolate Cheesecake and here they are:

I made chocolate cheesecake cupcakes with a chocolate truffle snuggled in the center of chocolate candy clay to make Brown-Eyed Susan flowers. I added the flowers to a window box to make:


Can you believe that people actually thought that I was Suzy from Suzy's Cheesecake? Too funny!!! Here I am in all my presentation glory:

And I say glory because:

I don't know if you can make it out but, the score board says, I WON!! First for presentation and second for taste:-) Yeah Me!! What a fun event!

Spaghetti Cupcakes

Happy Friday Followers! I want to win some cash! Midday Escapades told me that Toothsoap.com is going to sponsor a special GRAND giveaway exclusively for Friday Followers: three $100 prizes....cash!! Check it out:

With all my giveaways and crafts and painting, I completely forgot to show you guys the cupcakes I made for my daughter's Student of the Week reign.

At my daughter's school, right around their birthday, each child gets to be Student of the Week in their classroom. As part of this wonderful celebrations, the kids fill out a book and a poster that tells all about them. They write about their hobbies, their likes, their dislikes and their favorite things. Since my daughter's favorite dinner is spaghetti, I thought it would be fun to do Hello, Cupcake!'s Spaghetti Cupcakes and here they are:

Don't they look real? She provides such great instruction, there is no way I could screw them up. The kids loved them and my daughter loved being the center of attention:-)

Tackling Bacon Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom . This week, I tackled another Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Challenge and this month, the star was bacon. I made Mock Rumaki Cupakes:

Mock Rumaki Cupcakes
Cupcake Ball instead of Chicken Liver
Almond in Place of Water Chestnuts and
Bacon is Playing Itself

UPDATE: These little mock appetizers were the hit of room and I won the celebrity pick! Yeah me:-)

Tackling Valentines Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom . This week, I made some Valentines cupcakes for a Daisy meeting tonight. Here is how they turned out:

They are just yellow cupcakes with homemade pink buttercream frosting.

I had some embellishments leftover from my youngest's birthday cake (tune in next week for pictures of that!).

The septor is for one of my little Daisies who is allergic to dairy (can you imagine...me...with a Daisy who can't eat cupcakes???)

Tackling Extreme Chocolate Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom . I had another Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Challenge. This month we competed for the best Extreme Chocolate cupcake. My entry was Not Your Mama's Sundae Cupcake. Here is what they looked like:

This ia an ode to Bi-Rite Creamery's Sam's Sundae in San Franscio. It hosts a white chocolate "bowl" with chocolate cake "ice cream scoops", chocolate mousse "topping", olive oil "sauce" and coarse salt " jimmies". Yummo!!

Tackling Werewolf Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom . This week, I tackled Werewolf Cupcakes for a neighborhood Halloween party:

Happy Halloween:-)

Tackling Literary Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom . This week I tackled the Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Literary Challenge. We were suppose to interprete a book, or a character or a plot in cupcake form. I chose Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. May I present: Raven Cupcakes:

They are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting decorated to with The Raven.

Tackling Daisy Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom .

My youngest expressed interest in scouting which, as a former girl scout, thrilled me to death. So much so, I found myself volunteering to co-lead her troop with another mom. I am very excited about this and so is my daughter. I ironed all of her thingies on to her vest and she is sharp and ready to go.

And of course, I volunteered to bring the first snack. What is more appropriate for our first meeting than Daisy Cupcakes? Check em out:

Not my best work but I think the girls will like them:-)

Tackling Fashion Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom and Cupcake Tuesday at Hoosier Homemade. This weekend, I competed in Project Cupcake: The Ultimate Fashion Themed Cupcake Challenge. The competition was presented by Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee and Goldi's Shoe Parlor and it was much girlie fun! It was just the best way to spend a Saturday afternoon with me hanging with my cupcake girls:-) Awesome time!

Anyway, my cupcake was Leather and Lace Cupcake:

It's kind of hard to see it in this picture but these are chocolate cupcakes with white buttercream enrobed (pardon the pun) in candy clay which is embossed to look like leather and lace...hence the name:-)

Update: James Conway took this shot from the event:

© James Conway Photography, 2009.

Tackling Summer Fruit Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom and another Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Challenge. This month, the theme is summer fruit. What says summer to me more anything? Lemonade, of course. And that is what I made: Lemonade Cupcakes:

These are yellow cupcakes with lemon curd filling and lemon poured fondant in the shape of lemons inside jello to look like lemonade.

Wait...what? A cupcake in jello?

That's right! A cupcake in jello to look like a lemon in a glass of lemonade. I think it was pretty cool! Who puts cupcakes in jello? Uh...me:-)


And, I am totally a media-whore! Wisconsin Foodie was here this weekend filming me for an upcoming fall episode about this very challenge. They were they filming at the challenge too!! Totally, fun (which by the way, if you find yourself in a similar situation...don't say fun like 50 thousand times...you will just sound dumb.)

Tackling Vegan Cupcakes

It's time for Tackle It Tuesday with 5 Minutes for Mom . I tackled cupcakes for the Iron Cupcake: Milwaukee Vegan/Glutten-Free Challenge.

I chose to go vegan and my entry was a Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cupcake with Vegan Chocolate frosting. I presented it as a bushel basket full of zucchinis coming straight from the farm to the farmers market.

And....I won the grand prize from the sponsor, Beans and Barley. I got a HUGE reusable shopping bag and a mug. Yeah me! I also got one a Taste of Home Cupcake Cookbook in the raffle. Double Yeah! Good night for me:-)