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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Cupcakes Featured on City of Creative Dreams

What a great way to start my Christmas day off to see I was featured on City of Creative Dreams blog hop City of Links #51. These Minnie and Mickey Mouse Cupcake Toppers were the easiest ones I've made so far, I actually thought it wasn't one of my best creations. These cupcakes were made for a Charity Birthday Dreams help out that brings birthday's to homeless kids.


City Of Creative Dreams

 

Hope you have a GREAT Weekend!!

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Cakes for Charity ... Mickey Mouse Cake

Another cake for Birthday Dreams done.  This is actually a cake I've done before so it was easy to do since I had it in my head how to do.  I had a little 2 year old boy at the shelter who requested a Mickey Mouse Cake, I went to the Mickey Mouse Cake I made for Caden last year.

What you Need:

Your favorite cake recipe (I made a chocolate cake as requested see recipe below)
2 6" Round baking pans
1 8 or 9" (I prefer 9) round baking pan (I just used 2 9" and cut out 2 circles out of one cake)
Frosting (I used my Sturdy Buttercream Frosting)
A big surface to put the cake on (I used a cake board)



Make your cake mix (see recipe below). Pour mix into greased pans and bake until done (I swear by Wilton's Cake Release). Stick a toothpick in to check it is done, as soon as the cake comes out of the oven, take a butter knife and run it around the edges of the cake to make sure it is separated from the pan. Let the cakes cool 15-20 minutes. 

While cake's cool I split my batch into 3 colors.  For the yellow I used a 1/4 cup then broke up the rest of the frosting into 2 batches.  One in Red and one in Black.  I used AmeriColor Super Black, Super Red and Lemon Yellow food gel (I pick mine up at Hobby Lobby but Amazon also sells them).


Then, remove them from the pan, evening the tops (which will then become the bottom, if needed). Place the cakes on your cake base (I used a cake board). Classic Mickey has 2 ears connected to the head (so you cut a moon off each small circle - see picture below).  The Tootles version you would leave the small circles with no cutting.  Once cake is cooled, I frost it.  I decided that I would do the top half (the ears and half the large circle) black and the bottom red.  I then put the cake back into the fridge to harden up the frosting.  I then took yellow frosting to make to ovals like buttons on the red and added a little black to look like button holds.  I also added red frosting gel with the #2 on each ear.  


For the Chocolate Cake I used a Moist Chocolate Cake found on Foodess.  I volunteered at the shelter the following week with my church and the mom I made the cake for her child came up to me to tell me how moist and yummy the cake was.  I was so tickled to hear this. I made another cake for her daughter and used the same cake recipe (Barbie post to come tomorrow).

For the Chocolate Cake Recipe:
Ingredients
  • 1¾ cups all purpose flour
  • 2 cups granulated white sugar
  • ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1½ tsp baking soda
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup buttermilk (or substitute by putting 1 tbsp white vinegar in a cup then filling the rest up with milk; let stand 5 minutes until thickened)
  • ½ cup butter, melted
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup hot coffee (or 2 tsp instant coffee in 1 cup boiling water)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch baking pans (or line with parchment paper circles) and set aside.
  2. In the large bowl of a standing mixer, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract and beat until smooth (about 3 minutes). Remove bowl from mixer and stir in hot coffee with a rubber spatula. Batter will be very runny.
  3. Pour batter evenly between the two pans and bake on middle rack of oven for about 35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs attached.
  4. Allow to cool 15 minutes in pans, then run a butter knife around the edges of each cake. Place a wire cooling rack over top of each pan. Wearing oven mitts, use both hands to hold the racks in place while flipping the cakes over onto the racks. Set the racks down and gently thump on the bottom of the pans until the cakes release. Cool completely before handling or frosting.


You don't have to bake to help Birthday Dreams, please check them out.
Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Mickey Mouse Party ... Food Ideas

And we end with the fun themed food made for this party!  I had so much more planned but time got away with me with work etc.   So we end with some fun food items!


Here is what we have this post:

Caden actually made these himself for me!  All I had to do was the cut the tops off the strawberries and wash the fruit!   Found this idea on Creative Kid Snacks, they did Minnie so I just switched the name to Mickey :).

Mickey Mouse Bow-Ties



Strawberries
Grapes (or Blueberries)
Plastic long toothpicks (found at Dollar Tree)

Wash the fruit first, then cut the tops off the strawberries.  One strawberry then grape then end with strawberry on the toothpick!!  Super easy and they were so cute, so many compliments on this one!



Mickey Mouse Watermelon



Watermelon
Small Mickey Mouse Cookie Cutter


Cut your watermelon thin I did not and it made it hard for the cutter to cut through.  I put them in my nice serving tray and perfect size for little hands.


Mickey Mouse Cookies



Ingredients:
2 cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Adjust oven racks to upper and lower-middle positions.  Preheat oven to 325°. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl; set aside.  Mix butter and sugars until thoroughly combined.  Beat in egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.  Add dry ingredients and beat at low-speed just until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Roll dough to make Mickey's ears by taking about 1-1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and rolling into balls. Make 12 of these small balls.  Next divide the dough evenly to make 6 balls for Mickey's head. Using the two prepared cookie sheets, place 3 balls of cookie dough for Mickey's head on each cookie sheet, evenly spread apart, then assemble the ears in the correct position to make the Mickey shape leaving a tiny space between the ears and the head.

Bake, reversing positions of cookie sheets halfway through.  Bake until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, about 11-14 minutes. Do not over bake.  Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

I found this idea on Love to be in the Kitchen.  So her's came out perfect, MINE expanded and looked like Mickey needed to go on a diet.  So I did what anyone would do, cry ... THEN I took out my cookie cutters, I was able to cut one big cookie and 2 small cookies in Mickey shape!  She also dipped the ears in chocolate, but let's just say I was lucky to get what I ended up with. 

Mickey Mouse Munch



Lastly but as I was told by everyone at the party this was the best stuff ever.  I found this GREAT recipe at my amazing friend Brenda over at Chatting Over Chocolate.  Her's was much prettier then mine because I had this brilliant idea to pipe my chocolate on.  WELL I couldn't find my pipping bag to save my life and thought I'll just use a zip-lock bag. WELL the bag exploded the chocolate gobbed in a big ball so I went to plan B and put the mix with the glob in a bowl put the lid on and shook it up!!

Ingredients:
Popcorn, popped
White Chocolate Almond Bark (I used Red Wilton Melt's)
Red and Yellow Mini M&Ms (I used Red, Yellow; Brown M&M's)
Red and Yellow Sprinkles (I skipped)
Boston Beans (they were Red)
Chocolate Covered Raisins

What to do:

Spread popcorn out on wax paper (or foil) covered baking sheet.  Drizzle chocolate over the popcorn (now this is where a heavy duty piping bag is BETTER then a zip-lock bag).  Add your candy (I added in the Boston Beans and Chocolate covered raisins for the red and brown color).  I added in yellow, red and brown m&m's.  I thought the red melt would be perfect for a pop of color. NOW if I did it correct it would be pretty ... but as I said it tasted awesome.

And that is a wrap on our birthday party!

Mickey Mouse Projects Done:

Monday, July 22, 2013

Mickey Mouse Party ... Mickey Mouse Thank You Gifts & Revamp Dollar Store Bowl

We continue another week of what we made for the Mickey party!  I didn't want to overwhelm in one post with everything so I'll just overwhelm you for few weeks of Mickey Party Items made ... lol.

In this post what you'll see:

I have this thing about giving either crap dollar store items and/or candy as thank you gifts. Usually I don't even do them because I know most parents are like me and hate to see that stuff come home with them.  This party I did do thank you boxes but I only included Mickey Mouse coloring books and homemade crayons.   I did try to find Mickey Mouse fruit snacks to add to the box but for the life of me and 4 grocery stores later no luck, I swear I use to buy them all the time.  I did find Jack and the Neverland Pirates (hey it's part of Disney) that I bought and through in  but didn't get a photo of that.


Mickey Mouse Crayons (Thank You Gift)



What You Need:
Crayons (48pk at Dollar Tree $1)
Silicone Mold (found on Amazon)
Cookie Sheet
Sm Plastic Bags (50pk at Dollar Tree $1)
Black Card Stock Paper
Mickey Mouse & Friends Cricuit Cartridge (found on Amazon)
Stapler

Unwrap Crayons (this is the hardest part, I find the dollar tree ones the wrappers almost fall off).  I break them up and put them into the mold, you need to have it almost overflowing to fill it up when melted.  I used between 6-7 crayons per each Mickey Head. Now the fun part is putting like colors together into the molds.  I learned from my previous experience that I needed some tin foil to make the molds steady when the crayon's melted.  Bake at 350 for 20 - 25 minutes.  Be careful when you pull them out so the melted crayon doesn't spill over.  I put mine in the freezer to firm up.  I then 2 crayons in a small plastic bag and topped with a small Mickey head I cut out using the Circuit.



Mickey Mouse Coloring Books  (Thank You Gifts)


What you Need:
Mickey Mouse Coloring Books (Dollar Tree $1 Each)
Twine or Ribbon (I used twine I had it on hand from previous project)

I rolled each coloring book like a newspaper and tied it with twine.  Yup easy one!


Mickey Mouse Treat Boxes (Thank You Gifts)



What you Need:
Red Boxes (found a 3pk at Dollar Tree $1)
Black Card Stock Paper (Mickey Star)
Mickey Mouse & Friends Circuit Cartridge
Hot Glue Gun

Using my circuit and my Mickey Mouse & Friends cartridge I cut out the Mickey Mouse Stars.  I then took my hot glue gun and glued the star down to the box.  Tada done!  Another simple one that really made it look like something special when the kids were leaving the party.


What went into the Thank You Gift Boxes

Last on the list was a simple red plastic plate I found at the dollar store and added a little bit of white ribbon to jazz it up and be able to put on the table with food.  This was a simple and cheap thing to make picked both items up at the dollar tree.


What you Need:
Plastic Serving Tray (Dollar Tree)
Ribbon (Dollar Tree)

I found this nice serving tray at the Dollar tree but thought it would be nicer with a little bit of ribbon added to it.  So I weaved it in and out of the holes and tied a bow.  Took me about 3 minutes to do.  


Oh yes there is so much more to come!

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Mickey Mouse Party ... Cupcakes & Cake Pops

Now on to cupcakes and cakepops, my favorite part of any party I do!  I love cupcakes and have them decorated up and be the ahhh of the party.  I know it's the little things that make me smile!

For the cupcakes you know me I couldn't just do ONE version, yup I had to do THREE!  All were pretty easy I just used fondant and some cookie cutters and professional looking cupcakes here we come (ok well not high end but hey I think they look better then the crap ones I've bought before at the grocery store).   Plus I hear they tasted better, still on diet and not even sampling.

Cupcakes What you Need:
Favorite Cake Mix (I used my Homemade Yellow Cake Mix)
Favorite Frosting (I used my Sturdy Buttercream Frosting)
Favorite Fondant (I used my Rolled Buttercream Fondant)
Extra Powder Sugar (for rolling fondant out)
Cookie Cutters (1 Small Mickey Mouse Head, 1 Large Mickey Mouse Head, 1 Medium Circle).
Clear Cup (optional)
Clear Bag (optional)
Ribbon (optional)


So I must admit I tried to do a fun technique I found on How to Cook that.  Her cool trick was to have a Mickey Mouse head in the center of your cupcake no matter how you cut into it.  I thought I would be good and use a batch of brownie mix I bought at a party lite party (yes they have baked goods now).  Now I've made other things from this Two Sister's brand.  Sadly I should have taken the clue when they came out a little dense and not right.  I should have went and made the mixture she used, but I was running behind and tried it.  Let's just say you can KIND of tell it's suppose to be a Mickey (click the picture to zoom in).


I first made one batch of cupcakes (24 cupcakes) made in Mickey Mouse cupcake liners.  I also found a pretty red scalloped cupcake holder that I put the finished cupcakes in.  Then I frosted all the cupcakes with white frosting.  Next I dyed the fondant using Wilton Gel Colors (using red and back).  

Cupcake #1 - Mini Black Fondant Mickey Head


I rolled out my black fondant and using my small Mickey Mouse Head  cookie cutter.  I found this mickey mouse head cookie cutter on Amazon.  Make sure to have extra powder sugar when you roll out fondant so it doesn't get sticky.  If I had more time I would have let these sit out a few days to harden up so they would do better in the heat we had.


Cupcake #2 Mickey Mouse head on a red circle!


I then used a circle & the small mickey mouse head cookie cutters in my rolled buttercream fondant.  I cut the circle first and with a little water to the back of the mickey head to act like glue to the red circle.  I put on wax paper and let them sit out again if more time I'd let sit out a day or two to dry out so in the heat they would have held up better.

Here is the step by step photo!

As usual I put my cupcakes in a clear plastic cup easy for transporting.


Cupcake #3 Two tone Mickey Mouse head.  


For this I had my fondant already dyed Black and red.  I then made two strips of of fondant the red being almost double the size of the black since you want the bottom red to be larger.  I used a large Mickey Mouse Head to cut these out. They came out to be about the size of the whole top of the cupcake, but the ears stuck out over the top of the clear cup.  Again if I had more time I would have let them sit out a day or two to dry out.



Then comes the cakepops, ok here is the story on these babies!  I decided to try the way everyone talks about a cake mix then mixed with frosting.  WELL Friday night I went to my bestie's house to help me with the party foods.  WELL I made the cake balls and then was going to decorate them the morning of the party!  I totally left them in her freezer ... ugh!  So before I went to work Saturday am (I got up at 5am and made some new cake balls this time using my cakepop pan NOT doing the whole frosting trick).  Then I worked and rushed around to get out the door.  YUP you guessed it totally didn't decorate the 2nd batch either!!!

So I had my women's group on Wednesday after the party so why not take them to the girls, I also had some cake mix & frosting left over and didn't want to throw out so I made some cupcakes for the kids group also!

Mickey Mouse Cakepops - 



What you need:
Cake Batter / Baked in Cake Pop Pan
Sticks
White melts for glue the stick into the cake pop
Black melts (save a few to cut in half for the ears, melt the rest)

So batch #2 was a simple yellow cake that I dyed red with my Wilton Food Gel.  I used my handy dandy cake pop pan my MIL bought me for my bday a few years back. I think my next purchase will be one of the mini cakepop cookers.  The red cake balls came out great, I put them in the freezer to cool. I took a small amount of white melts you could use the black but I thought I didn't have enough and dipped the stick into and into the froze ball.  I put them into the fridge to cool and harden up.  I then took black melts (saving a few for ears) and melted in microwave remember to do in 30 SECONDS and stir it can burn!  I like my cake balls to be frozen to dip into the melts.  I tired using a whole melt chip for an ear but my balls were too moist so I went to next plan to cut a melt in half and placed on the dipped cake ball.  I the put them into the fridge since with the sticks it was too high to harden up.


Next on my list was the left over red cake mix from the cakepops so I filled up a few cupcake liners and used up my black frosting I had left over and topped with some red circles / Small Black Mickey Heads.  Follow the steps above this is just a quick add on!


A few more to come, so hold on!

Mickey Mouse Projects Done:

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Mickey Mouse Party ... Mickey Head Banner and Hot Diggity Dog Station

Now on to a fun Mickey Mouse Banner with Caden's face and the coolest Hot Diggity Dog Station.   Simple but fun things that makes the party theme worthy!


I started with this fun banner made with mickey mouse heads I cut out on my circuit using the Mickey Mouse & Friends Cartridge.  I saw a couple of ideas on Pinterest and kind of ran with it.  



What you Need:

Heavy Black Card Stock - Cut in Mickey Mouse Heads / One triangle
Heavy Red Card Stock - Cut in Mickey Mouse Head / One Triangle
Photos - I did black and white and blew up so it was a close up pic of his face
Circle Cutter
Ribbon
Glue

Using my circuit cartridge I cut out Black Mickey Heads and one Red Head to be my center.  I blew up 3 pictures of Caden and printed on my printer and used my circle cutter to cut out the head in a nice clean circle.  I then glued the picture of Caden onto a Mickey Mouse heads.  Hot glue is my friend but you can use whatever glue you like.  I then measured out ribbon for how long I wanted the banner to be.  I glued done Mickey Heads to the ribbon and tried to space them out evenly.  I made a triangle with one color on bottom and then cut some holes of the 2nd triangle and placed on top so you could have a peek a boo of the 2nd color.  I placed this on the red mickey head to be like a party hat.   When done I tied it up to my parents gazebo!


Next on the list was to do a fun Hot Diggity Dog Station I found this idea on Catch My Party.  This was so fun and everyone thought it was such a cute idea!




What You Need:

Hot Dogs
Ketchup
Mustard
Relish
Mayonnaise
Pickles
Cut up Red and/or White Onions
Cheese
Buns
Frito's (to top the chili dogs if they want also)

I found really cute hot dog size plates they look like the ones you get at a ball field.  I found them at Target in their $1 bins, SCORE!!  I set those out and I found also at Target in the clearance section a set that holds the Ketchup, Mustard and Relish.  The other sides I found these really cute little cups at the dollar store that were perfect fit for the other condiments.  I had my dad working the grill and we even toasted the buns for those who wanted it.  The perfect treat for all.  


 I even made Homemade Chili for those who wanted Chili Dogs!  I found this recipe for Chili Dogs on Simply Recipes, I added chili beans, Red Kidney Beans and Black Beans because chili is not chili with out beans to us!


And for those who love lil' Smokies I took a crescent roll cut it in half and wrapped the lil' Smokie like a mini pig in a blanket.  I made 72 of those suckers and they went like hot cakes!


Oh yes there is so much more to come!

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