TMNT Cupcake Toppers (Modeling Chocolate)

I've made a few different versions of TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), I like to make different versions when I make them. I signed up for another Birthday Dreams cake delivery for a sweet little homeless boy. Please look up this charity with the holiday's coming less people donate and they could use any donations you can give.

What you need:

Modeling Chocolate (Green, Red, Orange, Purple and Blue) - see recipe below

Circle cookie cutter

TMNT Cookie Cutter (Bought on Ebay)

Roll out your green modeling chocolate, I like mine to be on the thick side. I then cut out circle's for the face's (I made 24 total). I set these aside on some parchment paper and got to work on the mask. I made all 4 characters so I needed 6 mask total of each color. I rolled out each color and used the cookie cutter using only the mask cutter. I then dabbed a little water to the back of mask and attached to the green circle. I then used mouth cutter to make the smirk. NOW you can do this with a tooth pick also. I didn't like the rest of the cutter when I used it before so I use parts of it that I like.

I let them sit out a while to harden up then attach to the top of my cupcakes! And your done!

For those who haven't seen my post about Modeling Chocolate:

Modeling Chocolate

12oz Candy Melts

1/4 Cup light corn Syrup

Melt your Candy Melts in microwave (mine takes about 2 minutes). Stir them to become smooth and add the corn syrup.  It will become thick and form a ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and let it sit out and dry.  Takes a few hours or over night is best. (Alexis note: I found to roll this out use a little powder sugar (like you would do with flour), also you have to kneed it a little like you would dough to make it easy to roll out).

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

For a fun exta I also tried the rice in the cupcake pan for baking!
I must say this trick worked great (I've done it several times since), the rice soaks up any grease the you get when you use from scratch cupcake recipe!

TMNT Cupcake Toppers (Made from Modeling Chocolate)

Yesterday I showed you the Mountain Dew Cupcakes I made for the party, today is what went on top of the cupcakes. I've become a huge fan of modeling chocolate, so easy to work with and it holds up to the temperatures we've been having lately. And who doesn't LOVE some chocolate and shaped into something amazing!

I just kind of eyeballed this and ran with it! 

What you need:

Modeling Chocolate (Green, Red, Orange, Purple and Blue) - see recipe below

Candy Eyeballs

Circle cookie cutter

Square cookie cutter

Knife

Roll out your green modeling chocolate, I like mine to be on the thick side. I then cut out circle's for the face's (I made 24 total). I set these aside on some parchment paper and got to work on the mask. I made all 4 characters so I needed 6 mask total. I rolled out each color then I took a square cookie cutter. I cut each square in half and then using my fingers shaped them into mask. Each one was a little different do to this but I loved they had character. I then took 2 Wilton Candy Eyeballs and added to the mask (use a little water as glue). I then dabbed a little water to the back of mask and attached to the green circle. I had previous bought a TMNT cutter (that I wasn't impressed with) but I liked the mouth piece. NOW you can do this with a tooth pick also.

I let them sit out a while to harden up then attach to the top of my cupcakes! And your done!

For those who haven't seen my post about Modeling Chocolate:

Modeling Chocolate

12oz Candy Melts

1/4 Cup light corn Syrup

Melt your Candy Melts in microwave (mine takes about 2 minutes). Stir them to become smooth and add the corn syrup.  It will become thick and form a ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and let it sit out and dry.  Takes a few hours or over night is best. (Alexis note: I found to roll this out use a little powder sugar (like you would do with flour), also you have to kneed it a little like you would dough to make it easy to roll out).

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

TMNT Themed Party .. Mountain Dew Cupcakes with Mountain Dew Frosting

For Caden's school party I made these Mountain Dew Cupcakes and they were such a hit I had to make them for the pool party we did also. These was a pretty simple recipe and the color was such a great pop and tasted pretty yummy also!

I found this recipe for Mountain Dew Cupcakes on All Things Cupcakes.

For Caden's class party I had a little more time on my hands so I made modeling chocolate TMNT characters to go on top. For the pool party I just featured the cupcakes!

Mountain Dew Cupcakes

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
3/4 cup Mountain Dew
1/4 cup of lemon and lime juice (juice from 1 lemon and 1 lime)
zest from 1 lemon and 2 limes (separate into 2 piles, one for buttercream)
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

** Neon food coloring (I added this in to the cake mix also)

1. Beat butter on medium for 30 seconds.
2. Add sugar and lemon, lime zest. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time, Scrape sides of bowl in between additions
4. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add to mixer bowl. Turn on low for 5 seconds.
5. Add the Mountain Dew, lemon/lime juice, and lemon extract (and food coloring) . Mix to combine.
5. Scoop into cupcake papers about two-thirds full.
6. Bake for 18-20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Mountain Dew Buttercream

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
4-5 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons Mountain Dew
Juices from half of 1 lemon and half of 1 lime.
Lemon and lime zest (rest of zest from cupcake recipe. Or zest from half of 1 lemon and 1 whole lime)
1 teaspoon lemon extract
neon green food coloring (yellow and blue if you dont have green)

1. Sift powdered sugar into a bowl or onto parchment
2. Beat butter at medium-high speed until creamy
3. Add half of the sugar, turn mixer on low for 5 seconds.
4. Add the Mountain Dew, zest, and lemon extract . Beat until combined.
5. Add food coloring to the desired color.
6. Gradually add remaining sugar until you get to the consistency and sweetness you like.

Making the Cupcakes:

Making the frosting:

Cupcakes on the table at Party!

Thanks for Stopping by!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Birthday Dreams - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cupcakes

As some of you that follow me know that I love a charity called Birthday Dreams, they bring birthday's to homeless kids.  I love to bake cakes (or cupcakes for them) and I'm trying to get the word out about them.  If you don't live in the Washington area a cash donation would go a long way.  

I signed up for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party for a 6 year old at one of the rescue missions close to home.  I went on the search and goggled some ideas. I found several different cakes but I thought cupcakes would be the easier way to go. I then went on the search for a TMNT cookie cutter. I found one Ebay that was perfect, I ordered the 2 inch and the 3.5 inch.  I ended up using the 2 inch, the ONLY bad part was when I tried to cute out the mask part it was too small and didn't pop out right so I made them my own and molded them to the way I wanted and made eye holes.

My first act was to make the TMNT characters. Now usually I use my Rolled Buttercream Fondant for making characters.  But I saw a Blog Hop post for Candy Clay on Pint Sized Baker. I must admit that I had my doubt's while making this candy clay.  When I first mixed it up it was oily and not holding up and few hours later it was still not like I thought it would be.  Thankfully OVER-NIGHT and it was ready to go! Phew!!

Ingredients:

1 bag (12oz) Candy Melts (In Color you need - I use Wilton Brand)

1/4 Cup Light Corn Syrup

Dump bag of candy melts into microwave safe bowl.  Melt in microwave, my takes 1 min 30 seconds to melt. BECAREFUL not to burn, YES I've done it before and posted my disaster mess.  Once melts are melted stir in corn syrup.  I will start to form a ball (it will be greasy). Wrap in plastic wrap, press down to make it flat.  Let the candy clay sit for a few hours, mine took until overnight. In the morning it was hard and ready to go.  I found a little bit of powdered sugar on my work service made it not stick also made it easy to roll out.  I am now IN LOVE with technique and will be using from now on.

Karyn from Pint Sized Baker had a suggestion of Oil Candy Color if you need a more vibrant color.  I find Candy Melts come in almost every color you could need, but the white with a color could always be done.

Next on my list to make was the cupcakes, chocolate was requested.  I found this Super Easy Chocolate Cupcake Recipe on All Recipes.

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup shortening 1 2/3 cups white sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules 1 pinch cayenne pepper

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups water

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 12 cup muffin pans or line with 18 paper baking cups.
2.	In a medium bowl, beat the shortening and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla, instant coffee and cayenne pepper. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter, alternating with the water, just until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.
3.	Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. When cool, arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter and frost as desired.

Last thing to do was to make the cupcakes come together.  After the cupcakes had cooled, I frosted them with my go to Sturdy Buttercream frosting.  Then I topped with my TMNT Characters.

Need:

Cupcakes

Frosting

TMNT Cookie Cutter (2 inch fit the best of cupcakes)

Candy Clay - Green

Candy Clay - Orange

Candy Clay - Blue

Candy Clay - Purple

After Candy Clay has set up (mine took overnight), roll it out a little powdered sugar helps the sticking.  I found after you unwrap the clay you have to mold it into a ball then roll it out for best use.  Take the face cookie cutter to cut out the faces, I made 24 of them one for each headache.  NOW I tried to use the mask cutter but it was so small that the mask wouldn't pop out right. So I made my own mask by rolling out a small rectangle.  I form one end to look like a mask flapping int he wind.  I took a pick and made eye holes.  I took the mouth cutter to make the mouth's on each face.  The Candy Clay held up so great better than any fondant I've used.  They went on top of the cupcakes perfectly!  Did I say how much I love this technique.

All Boxed up and ready to go:

Thanks for stopping by

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

Cake Decorating Plans

Happy Friday Everyone!  I have yet again have a packed weekend!  I haven't even had time to make a post about my trip to Canada!  Over the weekend I will have to write that up!

I of course come back and sign up for a Cake to make for my favorite charity Birthday Dreams (bringing birthday's to homeless kids).  I signed up for TMNT and then a day ago I see a SOS on Facebook they need 2 more cakes for this week.  I of course say I can do one more ... lol.  So that will be my job this afternoon is delivering the 2 cakes.  

My TMNT Turtles

for a 6 year old

Footballs Cupcakes

They told me it was a sports themed.

I was thinking ok a young kid made a plan.

THEN I got the email with details for 16 YEAR OLD.

Crap I changed plan and this is what I came up with.

And every time I bake it's a mess around here

Rick always says this so when I saw this

Shirt I had to laugh!

Maybe Rick will buy it for me .. LOL