Minion Cupcakes for Charity (Made from Royal icing Minion Cookies)

Next on the list for Birthday Dreams charity cupcakes was a request for a special 2 year old that wanted Minions. Now I've done the Minions out of modeling chocolates (see this post here, photo below). So this time since I'm getting more comfortable with royal icing, I thought I would make minions out of sugar cookies.

 

 

What you Need:

Sugar Cookies cut into circles (see my fav sugar cookie recipe below)

Royal Icing in Yellow, Red, Blue & Black (recipe below)

AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring Yellow, Black and Silver (to dye Icing)

Pipping Bag
Black Edible Marker 

Tint your Royal Icing to the perfect shade of yellow. I use the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do this about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details. I like to do my cookies the night before to give plenty of time for the icing to harden. I took a plastic piping bag and added the details with White, Silver and Black royal icing. I have found in the past making this a little thicker than your outlining consistency is best if not they run together and you get a cyclops (which kids think are cool but not the look I was going for).  NOW this time I was rushed and didn't let the cookies dry long enough, making the eyes should have been done in steps and let dry. SINCE I was rushing I didn't let it and my eyes turned out a little wonky. ALSO the ONLY silver coloring I found was in airbrush coloring which made the royal icing a little too thin. So next time I will do better, that is always my goal. ALSO I ran out of black AmeriColor and had to run to Michael's which ONLY carries Wilton in a NON squeezable bottle. I so hate these bottles the squeeze bottles are the easiest and LESS messy!!

Click HERE to see who I link with.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.

Paw Patrol Cupcakes Made for Charity

The charity Birthday Dreams (bring birthday's to homeless kids) that I bake for asked for a Paw Patrol design. I did some searching and a thought this would be a fun design to make paw prints, bones and a 4 for the age of the homeless child. 

 

 

What you Need:
Modeling Chocolate in White and Blue (See Recipe at the bottom)
Circle cookie Cutter
Bone Mold or Cookie Cuter
Number Cookie Cutter  
Frosted Cupcakes

I made blue modeling chocolate and then rolled it out and cut out circles (I used the side of my cutter that had the fancy scallops). I rolled out some white modeling chocolate to make the bones, numbers and the paw details. For the Paws I used 3 small circles and for the pad of the paw I used a medium circle and formed into a rounded edge triangle. I then put the toppers on top of frosted cupcakes.

 

Click HERE to see who I link with.

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).

Ghoul Cupcakes made for charity .. Perfect for Halloween also (Nightmare Before Christmas)

The charity Birthday Dreams (bring birthday's to homeless kids) that I bake for asked for a Ghoul design. I did some searching and a thought this would be a fun design to make Nightmare Before Christmas themed. This looked perfect for the ghoul themed requested.

What you Need:
Modeling Chocolate in White and Black (See Recipe at the bottom)
Circle cookie Cutter
Small Oval Cookie Cutter 
Black Food Marker
Frosted Cupcakes

I made white modeling chocolate and then rolled it out and cut out circles. I rolled out some black modeling chocolate to make the eyes. I made a few that I left in the oval shape, a few I took the oval cutter and cut off some of the top to make different eyes. I took a black food marker to make the mouths and nose marks. I still have not found a perfect food marker to make clear marks on modeling chocolate. Let me know if you have one. I then put the toppers on top of frosted cupcakes.

Click HERE to see who I link with.

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).

Summer Cookies Made (Royal Icing) .. Flip Flops, Sunglasses and Sunshine Cookies

For our family reunion I always try to bring a fun desert or cookie. Since I've been getting more comfortable with royal icing I thought I would make some fun summer cookies. I googled summer cookies and found several ideas so I went to Hobby Lobby and found this three pack of cookie cutters and thought I can do this!

 

What you Need:

Cookie Cutter (Sun, Flip Flop and Sunglasses)
Sugar Cookies cut into suns, flip flops and sunglasses (see my fav sugar cookie recipe below)

Royal Icing in Green, Yellow, Orange, and Black (recipe below)

AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring Green, Yellow, Orange, and Black (to dye Icing)

Pipping Bag

Candy Hearts (for Flip Flop)
Small Candy Pearls (for Sunglasses)
Black Edible Marker 

Tint your Royal Icing to the perfect shade of yellow. I use the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do this about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details. I like to do my cookies the night before to give plenty of time for the icing to harden. 

I took a plastic piping bag and added the details with Black royal icing for the flip flops and sunglasses. I have found in the past making this a little thicker than your outlining consistency is best if not they run together and make a big glob. For flip flop I added a small heart decoration for the toe part. On the sunglasses I made the glass shade part and then on the corners I added some small pearls for fun details.

For the sunglasses I used the black edible marker to draw on the face. I tried piping it on but I liked the look of the marker better.

 

Click HERE to see who I link with.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.

Kiss Butt Cancer Cookies / Cupcake Toppers ... Bikini Cookies & Lip Cookies

A while back my former personal trainer reached out to me to make some special cupcakes for her sister who was doing her last chemo treatment! I was so honored to be able to do this special cupcakes. She wanted something fun but also tasteful. I went on a google search and found an idea to make bikini bottoms and glitter lips. She had Lymphoma so we did purple shades.

What you need:
Lip Cookie Cutter
Heart Cookie Cutter (Flipped over to make a bum for the bikini)

Royal Icing in Purple (recipe below)

AmeriColor Gel Food Coloring Purple (to dye Icing)

Pipping Bag
Edible Glitter
Candy Flowers (for Bikini)
Edible Saying bubbles 
Edible Markers to write on saying bubbles 
Frosted Cupcakes

For Lips I did the dipping method and then sprinkled the edible glitters on them. Once dry I took a pipping bag to do the outlining of lips.

For Bikini Bottoms I pipped on a triangle on the upside down heart to make the bikini bottom shape. I added a candy flower on each hip of bikini.

I picked up some candy saying bubbles and wrote on them Cancer Kiss Butt.

Tint your Royal Icing to the perfect shade of purple. I use the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do this about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing and then you let dry! Once dry you can add your details. I like to do my cookies the night before to give plenty of time for the icing to harden. I took a plastic piping bag and added the details with Red, Blue and Black royal icing. I have found in the past making this a little thicker than your outlining consistency is best if not they run together and you get a cyclops (which kids think are cool but not the look I was going for).

Click HERE to see who I link with.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.