Mini 3 Tiered Wedding Cake - My First Attempt!

Mini 3 Tiered Wedding Cake! 

I got this awesome little pan from Amazon and couldn't wait to try it out! It makes 2 mini cakes at a time. I also wanted to experiment more with my Wilton Food Gel, so a lot of baking fun was had this weekend! I made a vanilla cake, and colored the batter with 3 different color gels. I topped it off with an orange buttercream frosting, and of course had to color the icing orange =) The colored tiers didn't come out exactly as I'd hoped, but it still tasted good! See below for more photos!

Started off by making a simple vanilla cake batter. 

Next time, I will only use egg whites if i'm coloring the batter.

Wilton Food Gels! These really beat the pants off any food coloring I've ever used. So vibrant!

My idea was to color each tier differently. Better luck next time HA

After 50 minutes of baking (and me sweating it out) I finally took this baby out of the oven!

I searched high and low for recipes using this mini cake pan but couldn't find any.

It was tough for me to judge the bake time, since the tiers are sized so differently. 

Also, I clearly over-filled the pan! Looks kind of like a muffin =)

Here it issssssssss! So the purple color really didn't translate too well,

the orange and green looked a lot better.

As you can see, I have to get more practice on properly filing the tiers.

I trimmed off the excess from the bottom so the little cake could stand on its own!

The inside! The colors look a lot more vibrant inside the cake. 

I will definitely be using the purple again!

My orange buttercream frosting! My fiance really likes citrus-type desserts, so I made this for him

Finished mini cake! 

It's a bit hard to see the layers, next time I might try a different icing that's easier to decorate with.

Still think it's pretty cute, I will post more photos if I try again!

Hope you guys enjoyed, and that everyone is getting through Monday the best they can!

xoxo

PINK Chocolate Chip Cookies! Photos and Recipe!

They came out so beautiful right?! Ever since joining Pinterest, my life has taken a drastic turn into non-productive land. All I want to do is look up 1000 recipes, and bake them all at once. To say i'm obsessed would pretty much cover it.

I've seen a new fad going around the Pinterest world - pink chocolate chip cookies! I thought it was such an adorable idea, and had to try it out for myself. I just bought Wilton's Food Coloring Gel (below) and could not wait to try them out. They are like food coloring on steroids, seriously. If you want very strong colors, it takes a large amount of food coloring to achieve it. A few drops of this gel and wow! Bright pink, beautiful cookies woohoo! 

I found the chocolate chip cookie recipe on Pinterest as well, they are so soft and doughy, I prefer them this way! I used about 3 drops of the pink gel to achieve the bright pink color. Happy baking!

Mini Lemon Cupcake Recipe - To Die For!

I made these mini lemon cupcakes for my annual Christmas cocktail party, and they were a HUGE hit! I wanted to try something a little different this year - no plain old vanilla or chocolate over here! Anyway, I thought the minis would be a great cocktail party size - gotta leave more room for cocktails right? HA. 

I found the recipe online and will absolutely keep it in my back pocket! The lemon cake was so soft, and the lemon frosting gave it such a great citrus kick! Often times, cupcake recipes are built for the regular sized cupcakes and not the minis. You could use the same recipe, but have to judge the bake time on your own which we all know could end up a disaster. Over cooking the minis for even a minute and they are hard as a rock - ugh! But fear not, this recipe (bake time and all) is for mini cupcakes! 

I got the cute little Santa-themed cupcake wrappers at Michael's, along with my new obsession - edible glitter hearts! They come in all colors - I picked the gold to accent the lemon colored frosting - absolutely love these! Check out the photos and recipe below! 

Ingredients: (makes approximately 24 mini cupcakes)
For the vanilla cupcakes – recipe adapted from Sprinkle Bakes
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp sea salt
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup buttermilk
2 tbsp milk


For the lemon icing
4.4 oz. butter
8 oz. confectioners sugar
Lemon extract (to taste)
Yellow food coloring (optional – I did not use any as my lemon essence was already coloured)
Lemon zest to decorate

To make the cupcakes 
Preheat the oven to 165°C – 330°F and line muffin trays with muffins liners.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside. Then cream the butter and brown sugar using an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until pale and fluffy.

Add the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, beating until well incorporated. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating it with two additions of buttermilk and milk. Beat until well combined

Put the batter into the lined muffin tray cups, filling each to 2/3. Bake for about 15 minutes (25 if you make bigger cupcakes). When cooked, let them cool down in the tray for 10 minutes, then put them on a wire rack to cool down completely.

To make the lemon icing 
Beat the softened butter with an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment for a few minutes and then incorporate the icing sugar, lemon essence and the yellow food colouring (optional). Mix well.

Enjoy!! xoxo

Cupcake Earbuds!

My mom got me these adorable cupcake earbuds for Christmas and I am obsessed!

Also, a huge thank you to my wonderful brother for my new ipod!

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

NYE Cake Pops!

Hi all! My cousin and I made these adorable cake pops for NYE this year! Check out the below for more photos, recipes and fun!

Red velvet cake pop with vanilla buttercream icing (a dash of green food coloring)

and some pretty pink sparkling sugar!

My new cake pop stand - thanks Mel!! This stand doubles as a cupcake stand too.

I have the BabyCakes Cake Pop Maker - it's so easy to use!

After you make the batter, the pops only bake 4-5min and they're done!

 

Experimenting with different sparkling sugars

These sugars really stick to the icing and don't fall off

 

Cake pop recipe - I took this from the booklet that came with the BabyCakes Cake Pop Maker

I've made most of the recipes from this booklet and they are all awesome!

My sparkling sugars. This thing is so fun and can be used for cupcakes, cake pops, donuts, cakes, etc.

 

Hope everyone had a fantastic New Year's!!

DIY Peppermint Candy Tray - Takes Only 10min!

Merry Christmas Eve! I'm sitting down for a few minutes to tell you about the coolest little Christmas craft i've done in a while! A DIY Peppermint Candy tray! My friend Nicole gave the recipe to my mom, and I thought it was the cutest thing!

You know all those red and white candies that are just about everywhere during the holidays? Take a ton of those, pop them in the oven on a baking tray for 10-12min, and guess what? You have a hardened, shiny, BEAUTIFUL serving tray to put baked goods on top of! It's safe to say i'm obsessed, and want to make 20 of them. Anyone can do it, I promise, and it's so much fun! Here's what you'll need:

• A bag of peppermint candies. We tried finding the green and white ones as well but couldn't.
• Parchment paper
• A baking tray or pan in any shape you'd like

Here we go...

Cut parchment paper to fit the tray. I would leave a little extra room on the sides like the above. Line up your candies - make sure they're touching.





 All lined up and ready for the oven!





The finished product! Keep a close eye on it. As soon as you see it has been melted all the way, take it out and let cool!



A close up!







Take candy tray with parchment paper out of pan when it's cooled. It will peel right off.



 My mini cinnamon buttercream cupcakes proudly displayed on the peppermint tray! (Recipe on those little guys to come later)



A peppermint bowl! This was kind of a mistake that turned out awesome. We tried making a circular peppermint tray that burnt a bit (too much vodka while baking maybe?) We cut off the burnt edges, and molded the tray into a cute bowl! Wait until it cools a bit, and you can mold it any way you'd like.




Try it! Merry Christmas! xoxo

Mini M&M Bite Sized Rainbow Fish Cupcakes

I am complete in love with these rainbow fishy cupcakes! Although I would love to take credit for these, I saw the recipe on this baking blog (click to read!) I made these for my company's bake sale to support BCRF and they all sold out! I would definitely make them again - for a kid's birthday or even a cocktail party - everyone loves them!

These little guys work with any cupcake recipe of your choice (store bought or homemade) We wanted to go the extra mile and make homemade funfetti cake! It's easier than you think - make a normal vanilla cupcake batter, and simply add rainbow sprinkles before baking. You could make chocolate, or any other flavor. The part that matters is the decorations!

As for the beautiful fish - you will need a few things to decorate:

• Vanilla icing - split into a few different bowls and add desired food coloring. I seemed to have misplaced my red food coloring (tragic!) so we made green, blue and yellow fish. Again, you could buy icing or make your own.
• Mini M&Ms. My fiance was wonderful enough to sit there and actually sort the mini M&Ms by color. The original recipe matches the icing to the M&Ms but we mixed it up a bit =) Check out the photos below!

 Greg sorting the M&Ms. What would I do without him?!

 The sorted minis in little martini glasses!

 Our vanilla batter sorted by color! The yellow was my favorite =)

 Melissa and Greg decorating!

 The finished little fish! We tried putting tails on them using the M&Ms, but it didn't stay too well. Still think they came out great!

 Our school of fish

 More!

The fish displayed at the bake sale!

The beautiful funfetti - so satisfying to make your own!

Hope you guys enjoyed this post! Any questions about how to make these, just comment below!