Success With Cupcake Wrappers – {Baking Tip}

Have you ever bought the cutest cupcake wrappers only to lose the pattern once you've baked the cupcake and you don't like the gap of placing your cupcake into another wrapper once it’s baked? Me too, so I decided to test my theory.

Knowing that cupcake wrappers stay together well if you don’t separate them, what about using two unseparated wrappers during the baking process?

It works!

The key is not to separate them otherwise they will turn out as if you had just placed your original cupcake into a new outer wrapper.

It might depend on the paper used in the wrapper but it's worth a try. :)

Happy Baking!

4th of July Cocktails - Red, White and Blue Daiquiris

Happy summer!

This week I’m re-posting my recipes and ideas to kick off summer and start planning for our 4th of July party. I have 3 perfectly colorful patriotic cocktails that all begin with the same base with slight variations.

The cocktails can either be made with rum or made completely non-alcoholic so everyone can have something colorful and icy to sip.

Besides adding a festive touch to your party, the daiquiris can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the freezer in plastic containers or plastic ziploc-type food storage bags.

Your guests can choose their daiquiris or layer all three colors into the glass. The individual flavors blend perfectly: "Red" (strawberry), "White" (lemon-lime), and "Blue" (tinted with a splash of blue curacao, an orange flavored liqueur). Layering all three colors in the glass is my favorite look for the the 4th of July.

The Cocktail Base:
1 - 6-oz. can frozen lemonade concentrate (2/3 c.)
1/2 of a 6-oz. can frozen limeade concentrate (1/3 c.)
2/3 c. light rum *you can use the 6 oz. lemonade can to measure
1/4 to 1/3 cup powdered sugar (or more to taste)
3 c. ice cubes
Garnish (see below)

White Daiquiris ~
In a blender combine lemonade and limeade concentrates, rum and powdered sugar. Cover and blend until smooth. Add ice blending until slushy.
Makes 6 ~ 5oz. servings.

Blue Daiquiris ~
Prepare as for white daiquiris, except add 1/4 c. blue curacao along with the frozen lemonade and limeade concentrates, rum and powdered sugar.
Makes 6 ~ 6oz. servings.

Red Daiquiris ~
Prepare as for white daiquiris, except use one 6-oz. can of frozen lemonade or limeade concentrate. Add 2 cups frozen unsweetened strawberries or slightly sweetened red raspberries to the blender with the concentrate, rum and powdered sugar.
Makes 6 ~ 6oz. servings.

For Non-Alcoholic Daiquiris ~ Substitute pineapple juice or water for the rum. Add a touch of blue food coloring for the blue "daiquiris".


Tips:

• The drinks can also be pre-poured into glasses and left in the freezer. This will save even more time during a party and frost the glass.
• If drinks are kept in the freezer, the alcohol in the drinks will keep the mixture from freezing solid and will retain a perfect slushy texture. If your drinks are non-alcoholic, the mixture will freeze solid but will thaw quickly.
• If you layer the red, white and blue daiquiris into one glass, spoon the second and third layers over eachother instead of pouring. Pouring may mix your colors depending on how liquid the consistency is.
• The non-alcoholic strawberry daiquiri recipe makes a great icy dessert that can be spooned into a dish.

For extra bang! and pop!~ Dip strawberries into white chocolate and sprinkle with patriotic confections. Cross-cut star fruit is also a festive rim garnish. All can be prepared ahead of time and added to the glass rim just before serving. Serve with a decorative straw. I found "firework straws" (as pictured) in the past at Pottery Barn and Pier 1 but I think most party stores now carry them.

p.s. With the recent events in my life a cocktail posting was a bit uncomfortable but I had planned to post this before the accident. Something about getting back up on the horse and all that and resuming my normal life as the responsible person that I am and not letting another's bad actions take anything away from my life or rob me from any enjoyment I find in entertaining family and friends. I'm finding healing physically is the easy part. xoxo

Collegiate Cupcakes - UCLA

To honor and celebrate a very special recent UCLA graduate I made UCLA cupcakes for his graduation party.

I started out with a new oh-so-yummy vanilla cupcake recipe, made a variation using vanilla bean paste and voila!

Next, I had to lock in my colors. I fell in love with the Decco Drops I found at Williams-Sonoma (in-store) so I had to commit to using a slightly more aqua color than the true Bruin baby blue.

This also meant using gold foil liners for all the cupcakes and not brining in another color of blue in a paper cup liner.

I used my favorite buttercream icing recipe from the bag of C&H Powdered Sugar. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone!

The toppers were easy to make.

I googled and downloaded the photo of the Bruin bear, adjusted the size, printed him on photo paper for the best colors and resolution, cut him out, double stick taped him to a 2 1/2” circle I punch out from scrapbook paper. While I was at the scrapbook store, I came across mortar board stickers and since this was for a graduation, I thought the Bruin bear needed to get his tassel on! The stickers fit him perfectly!

For the stick I used a lollipop stick. To adjust the size, just bend and snap!

But not like this unless you want a 98% return on getting a man’s attention and when used appropriately, an 83% rate of return on a dinner invitation. Whether you use the bend and snap method for lollipop sticks or for a date, secure with tape for either application.. "Oh my gosh, the bend and snap, it works every time."

For the rolled fondant covered cupcakes I wanted a raised “UCLA” script on top so I had to figure out a way to do this.

At first attempt, I used a cut out “UCLA” made from fondant to add to the top. The fondant was drying out as I cut it with my x-acto knife giving me rough edges plus it was too fragile to work with. It looked a lot like the actual template which I knew wasn’t the look I wanted.

Next, I tried rolling the script template over the fondant but that gave me a concave look.

Remembering the technique I used for the wedding cookies, I made a reverse template placing it backwards and under the fondant, rolling over it to squish the fondant through the template giving me the raised look I wanted.

I then painted the gold outline which is part of the UCLA script logo using gold luster powder mixed with any clear liquor (I used vodka) to liquefy the powder which lends to a paint consistency.

Ready. Set. Party!

Of course, no gift from a USC grad to a UCLA grad could be complete without some Trojan horse being brought into the mix.

Fight On!

And congratulations to an outstanding young man who will one day be a wonderful physician.

I wouldn't have said this last week with so much enthusiasm but...
I am thrilled to see my 54th birthday today! Thrilled!

I want to thank each one of you, dear friends, for your words of encouragement, compassion and prayers this week. I believe words and spoken intentions are very powerful and I want you to know how very much I have appreciated every positive thought you have sent our way. Your kindness of spirit has helped to lift mine and I am truly grateful.

Thank you from my heart.

Have a wonderful weekend.

xoxo

The Very Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

This past Saturday my husband and I were hit straight on by a speeding drunk driver at 3 p.m. I was driving and the impact came to the driver's front but totaled the entire front of the car. We were on the outside lane coming up to the curve on a two-way winding country road and the drunk driver was speeding so fast he couldn't make the curve and drove fully into our lane. If we hadn't been in our lane I'm convinced he would have veered completely off the road.

There was no time to react. My husband saw this was going to happen before I did as from his vantage point he could see slightly further ahead. He said "They're going to hit us" and with those words I immediately saw a white bullet slam into us and felt an unbelievable thud force. The next thing I noticed were deflated air bags with frayed edges and a haze in the air in the front seats where we were still seated. The horn was stuck and blaring. I heard my husband's voice through my confusion of disbelief , "Are you okay?" I was thinking, "my god, what happened" but just answered, "yes." Being satisfied with my well being, he left the car to meet the driver of the bullet in the road. I wanted out of the car. It felt wrong to be there and too small. I tried to open the door like I normally would have and it wouldn't budge. I had to pry it open with my leg. I had a strong urgency to get out of that confined space and stand. The door made a terrible popping sound that was startling. As if the airbags weren't enough proof, hearing metal resistant to a normal movement made me realize how serious the situation was.

The car started to roll backwards as we were on a slight incline. I sat back down and put it in park but I think it already was. I can't remember doing that. For a moment I thought about getting out of the car and letting it roll. I got back out of the car and tried to stop the momentum by pushing it forward. Clearly I wasn't thinking well then I thought of stepping on the emergency parking brake which worked. I then noticed my bare feet on the asphalt. My watch band was open. Later we noticed a button was missing from my husband's shirt. It was odd to see missing pieces on your person. I ran my tongue across my teeth. All there. No dire pain to move.

Angels from nowhere seemed to appear - "I saw it all. How can I help?" came from one wearing glasses and age around her eyes. She retrieved my shoes and lead me out of the broken plastic and metal fray and sat me in the brush at the edge of the road. Someone began rubbing my back coyly asking me general questions. I was thankful she turned out to be a nurse at a nearby hospital. Another angel offered her an ice pack to put on my right breast that was beginning to hurt with immense pain. Soon thereafter I noticed the front of my neck was starting to burn. Another couple of whiter haired angels said the white bullet had just passed them over a double yellow line and they had mentioned prophetically to one another that that car was going to hit someone. The husband didn't want to get involved but the wife gave us her name, address and phone number. I was finding out there is no stronger bond than middle-aged sisterhood.

There was no cell reception in the area so another angel got in his car and drove to get help. Soon a CHP plane began to circle. After that the emergency vehicles came. The Sheriff's car was coming around the same bend in the road so fast that if he had decided to veer off the road to avoid the wreck he would have hit me sitting in the brush. My personal angel with the ice bag and I both held our breath. He stayed on the road stopping in time but I'm sure the officer also had unseen assistance to break successfully. It was my second close call within a half hour.

Finally someone pulled the wire on the horn and I was able to hear what was going on in the fray. My husband was still working on pure take charge adrenaline taking pictures with his phone and getting information. He'd check on me once in awhile and was assured by my back rubbing angel that I was fine. Meanwhile on the take charge side, the driver of the bullet confessed to have been drinking. One of his passengers was apologizing. I didn't care. I felt no compassion. Eventually the driver was arrested on felony drunk driving.

As we were being transported to the hospital I began to have trouble breathing but oxygen helped. They took a picture of my heart and gave me an EKG. All was well but my BP was highly elevated. My husband's leg was wrapped up but he was able to sit up. I hoped he could have a moment to relax but I knew his thoughts were on me, how do we get a car and how do we get our son home from college, the primary reason for our little get-away.

A few chest x-rays and a narcotic or two later, we were given our walking papers or should I say hobbling papers. My husband made the call to our college boy against my wishes. In my mind we were fine, there was nothing he could do since he didn't have a car and I didn't want his last night to be ruined with this news. With the car rental office closed my husband thought perhaps friends of his might still be in town who had a car that could pick us up. We were about a half hour away from the motel we were to stay at.

We called one of the three cabs in town which took us from the hospital to the towing yard to get everything out of the car. It was so sad. So sad. I know this sounds odd but I felt our car gave its life for us. I was telling my husband as we were driving up the coast the day before how much I loved my little car. I was feeling such gratitude for her. Now she sat there. Broken. Most likely irreparable but somehow there was a sense of satisfaction emanating from her. It could have been the Motrin, Valium and Percocet simultaneously coursing through my sore body but I've always felt a bond with my little Lexus RX. The only car I ever have.

We then continued in the cab to the motel where we had our reservations. On Sunday, we secured a rented mini-van to pack up our son and come home. We had to abandon his bike as the connection between the bike rack and the car was not working out. Like our car, we chose to believe the bike had served its purpose this year and we had to let it go. My son took his last ride on the bike up a ways to a nearby dorm, placed it in the rack unlocked, stepped back and took a picture with his phone. It was a sad moment too. Another casualty of the weekend with a sense of gratitude for services rendered.

On the long drive home where further stiffness set in and sudden red bumper lights caused increased anxiety the three of us took comfort in many "I love yous" and hand squeezes offered from the back and front seats and through phone calls and text messages from the people we love and who obviously love us very much.

Around 9 p.m. and fairly close to home we stopped for dinner at Maggianos and uncharacteristically splurged on spumoni ice cream offering a toast to celebrate the completion of a sophomore year and as my scholar son chimed in in a very Dickinsonian way, "To life."
It was a good moment. It was very, very good.

Today being the third day, as we were told in the hospital, is proving to be a rough day. More bruises are showing up on arms and legs, necks are stiff, backs have pain, ears are ringing, arms tingly and numb, fingers are not sliding deftly over the keyboard. The saving grace of my seat belt has left its marks to be remembered by - my neck looks like I escaped a hangman's noose just in the nick of time, and perhaps I had. I am bruised from one hip bone to the other across my abdomen and the extent of bruising to my entire right breast alarms me every time I glance at it in the mirror. It gives new meaning to the lyrical words, "purple mountain majesties."

We are alive.
The driver and passengers of the white bullet are alive.
I'm thankful as to their fate but I'm also angry at how their judgement and lack of concern and thought for anyone but themselves has caused this change in our lives - physical, emotional and financial.

But we are alive.

"God shed His Grace on thee."

Collegiate Cupcakes In The Making

I've been busy making UCLA cupcakes for a special graduation tomorrow. I still need to add the gold outline and detail and I've got others to get in the oven today and decorate tonight but I wanted to wish everyone a good weekend since I'll be taking a few days off as collegeboy2 heads back home for the summer.

As much as we're looking forward to having him home again, I'm really going to miss being able to walk around in my undies whenever I feel like it for the next few months. :)

Cookie Cutter Textured Sheet Set Give-Away Winner...

The winning entry for the Autumn Carpenter Cookie Cutter Texture Set is...
Miss Sweet Tea!

Congratulations Angela!
Send me your address, darlin' and which set you'd like.

Generator Min: Max: Result: 13

There were 17 entries for this cookie decorating specific give-away. Again, for some reason when I copy and paste the random.org info it doesn't reflect the max. number.
Oh well, it worked anyway. :)

Thank you for entering.
I love coming across new products and sharing them with you.
I received no compensation in return for my endorsement of this product. I just think it's neat and thought you might think so too.

The AC Cookie Cutter Texture Sheets Sets are so reasonable I encourage you to get a set, try it and have some fun.

Raspberry Ice KitchenAid Stand Mixer

I have 3 KitchenAid stand mixers.
Don't hate me because I'm certainly culinary-appliance spoiled.

I'd be adding the Williams-Sonoma Susan G. Komen edition stand mixer if I hadn't received a Pro 600 series model for Mother's Day this year.
I now have 575 watts of marvelous with a 6 quart capacity sitting on my counter and we're still making friends but my head has been turned by this beauty ~

"Hello Gorgeous!"


It's the Raspberry Ice Artisan, 5 quart, 325 watt.
Perfect for regular needs.
It's exclusive to Williams-Sonoma with sales benefiting the Susan G. Koman foundation.

I can see it on my counter with flame decals adorning it like Alton Brown's.
Who wouldn't want this bad girl in their kitchen all tricked out?

I took a trip to W-S and it is absolutely beautiful with the metallic sparkling paint job glittering in the light. I am so smitten, I admit it. My birthday is next week. Can you see 4 mixers in my kitchen? Please someone buy it so I can share in your joy and get it out of my system. :)

For a limited time only. When it's gone, it's "Arrivederci, baby cakes!"

Everything's Coming Up Flower Cookie Pops

When I was asked to make cookies for an exhibitor at a landscape trade show I immediately thought flowers would be a natural tie in. The "Vegas" theme of the show would play a part too.

I thought cookies would be a unique and fun give-away gift and I could also utilize them in containers for the table decoration.
I learned that at a trade show such as this the objective is to get people to visit your booth and leave their business cards for potential leads.

People drop their cards in a container on the table (usually a fish bowl or basket) and later a card is chosen for a winning gift but we wanted to give everyone a cookie who dropped a card into the basket. I thought being a landscape company a planter box would be more in tune to what they're all about.


My idea on the cookie pops were to make them big, bright and colorful on long sticks so they'd be very visible as people held them walking around room.

What You'll Need:
Start with my sugar cookie recipe.
12" long lollipop sticks
a tub of Satin Ice White fondant in Buttercream flavor
piping gel & brush
various food colorings for fondant
cello bags
Wrappia paper raffia in green


1. Roll the dough a little thicker than you might usually do.

The cookie shape must be very cold for the best results.
I made all my shapes first and put them into the frig to harden then popped them out of the frig as cookie sheet space became available.

Cookie Tip #1
Always use a room temp cookie sheet. But you knew this, right? Too warm of a sheet and your cookies begin to melt and will spread while baking.
Too cold of a sheet and your cookie dough will be sitting in a hot oven waiting for the sheet to heat up to the proper temp to start baking the bottom of the cookie.

This is my own secret but it's time to share.

Cold dough + room temp baking sheet =
The perfect non-spread cookie

"Spread the word, not the cookie."

I know, so deep and profound. ;)

2. Run the stick up from the bottom of the cookie to the top feeling with your fingers on top of the cookie so you don't push the stick through the top of the cookie.

Turn the cookie over to check the back.
If any of the stick is showing here's what to do ~


2. Take some extra dough from cut out scraps and place a patch over the exposed stick (flatten it out more than the picture) and it will bake right into the cookie. You don't need to adhere the dough pieces together with water.


3. Flip the cookie back over, bake pretty side up.


The melted buttery baking magic will happen in the oven and then *ding* you'll get this ~
a perfectly solid cookie that will never fall off the stick.
You can see I patched the entire stick on this cookie.


Decorating The Cookie~
For fun, the hosting association chose the theme of "Vegas" for the exhibitors.

I wanted the cookies to be a mix of bright, warm colors and not the black and red of the playing cards so I had to think of another way to add the Vegas theme into them. I knew I was going to use the playing cards but I wanted to add something to the cookie itself.

I decided just a subtle touch of a playing card suit in the black and red colors would be perfect as the center of the flower. I remembered I had aspic cutters that were very tiny and they worked perfectly for this task.


To make the small spades, diamonds, clubs and hearts pop I placed them on top of a white round of fondant which was all attached to the larger colored fondant flower.

Cookie Tip #2
We found out when you're in a hurray to attach fondant together piping gel will not set up in time. Brushing with water might have worked but I made sure no layers were going anywhere with dabs of royal icing between the layers. We did however use piping gel to adhere the big fondant flower to the cookie. The surface of the cookie and fondant sticks together almost immediately and bonds like super glue.

Cookie Tip #3
One big tip I can give you is if you're going to be rolling out fondant production line style for lots of cookies, you don't have to adhere them together as soon as you roll and cut the fondant.


For example, I placed the flower fondant cut outs on top of the cookies to mold to its shape then came back much later, picked up the fondant flower that was hardened and brushed on the piping gel. If you were to lay the fondant on a flat surface while you continued making cut outs and it dried somewhat it would not be molded to your cookie shape.


Think of rolled fondant on a cookie as a mask that can be molded to fit over whatever shape it's going on. It can always be secured to that shape later once you have the shape in place. I found this out quickly through trial and error and it was invaluable when making dozens of fondant cut outs at a time.

Time To Wrap It Up
You know the saying, "All business up front and a party in the back?" I flipped it around for the playing cards. The "party" was the face of the card and the "business" was the flip side with a sticker covering the entire surface which read ~
"We'll deal you a winning landscape!"
The company's name, logo and web address was also included.


I punched a hole in the card and tied it to the flower pop with green wrappia (paper raffia) and cut it to look like a leaf (the leaf shape was my friend Shelly's idea - thanks girlfriend! I was just going to tie a bow but her idea was much cuter.).

It worked out great with the wrappia but it was a time consuming process to spread it apart, fold it and cut it on a bias. Luckily, the basketball game was on and I put my man on task to spread the paper open for me.

Then a quick tie around the bagged cookie, thread the card onto a wrappia tail, square knot it together, fan out the ties again, fold a tie in half and cut on the diagonal, fluff out again and all done!


I made 3 arrangements in terra cotta pots for one area of the table. The remaining individual cookie pops were placed in a large open handled basket so someone could stand in front of the table and be visible.


The cookies were a huge success as no one had seen anything like this at the show before and potential clients were coming up to see where the cookie pops were coming from.

I also want to give a shout out to my friend Shelly, who was my fondant gluer this time around and who assisted with my niece's wedding cookies by being my fondant roller, cutter and bow tier. I so appreciated and valued your help and witty conversation.
Say the date and a day at Burke Williams is my treat! xoxo


And speaking of rolled fondant my give-away for a cookie cutter textured fondant sheet set of your choosing ends Sunday night. Click here to enter.

Have a b-e-a-utiful weekend, friends.

Fondant Cookie Cutter Texture Set {GIVE-AWAY}

I want to spread the rolled textured fondant-on-cookie love so I contacted Autumn Carpenter whose cookie cutter texture set I used for the wedding cookies. She has generously offered the give-away winner a cookie cutter textured set of their own choosing from her website.

Here are just a couple available.

This is the set I used. The Wedding Cake Set.


Here are some posts I wrote about working with the Wedding Set this past spring and about working with the textured sheets.
Embossed Fondant Wedding Cookies
Lamb Cookies

I love the Sports Ball Set.


I sure could have used this when my guys were playing soccer and baseball.

How cute would golf ball cookies be for Father's Day or the tennis ball for a Wimbledon party? I'm visualizing bright pink tennis balls for the ladies tennis club, cello bagged, with a tag with the club's logo printed on it, tied with pretty ribbon or school colors.

Uh-oh. I think I'll have to buy this set myself.

Autumn also offers instructional videos that are very helpful in learning how to work with fondant.

Fondant has come a long way, baby, since when I first made it and used it years ago. I also learned by trial and error the Satin Ice White that I use comes in both Vanilla and Buttercream flavors. There is a HUGE difference in taste although the color is the same. I will only use Buttercream. It tastes great. So much so that I find myself taking a nibble here and there. Hmmm. Maybe I should use the Vanilla.

Don't let fondant intimidate you.
It's easier to work with than pie or cookie dough and you reuse the scraps over and over again.

Rolled textured fondant on cookies is the perfect place to learn!

To Enter ~

1. Go to Autumn Carpenter website,
pick out what cookie cutter textured set you'd like and leave a comment and your contact info!

You must be a follower of my blog or let me know you are a new follower.
I'm grateful and appreciative of my followers and I feel they deserve the best chance to win! :)

For Extra Entry Chances To Win ~
Extra Entry #2 ~ Post about this Give-Away on your blog with a link back to this post.
.
Extra Entry #3 ~ Add a photo from this post on the sidebar of your blog with a link back to the Give-Away.

Extra Entry #4 ~ Tweet or Face Book about this Give-Away with a link back to this post.

*All entries must be left on separate comments.

Give-away ends Sunday, June 5 at midnight, Pacific.

Good luck and happy baking!

The give-away is now closed.
Congratulations to entry #13 - Miss Sweet Tea.

Thank you for playing along! :)