Happy Christmas! Penguins on a Lake

I’m pretty sure this is what the moon looks like at night!
These are Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate frosting. The “moon” ones are topped with a cinnamon sugar and American Flag. The other cupcakes are topped with Dark Chocolate shavings. Perhaps the most simple cupcakes I’ve ever made but I’m so happy with them

This was such a fun cake to make. Someone approached me about making a cake for his wife. He said she likes flowers and likes to travel. Somehow we collaborated on the idea of making a suitcase shaped cake for her. Other than that information he said she liked chocolate/to make the cake chocolate. I thought it sounded boring so came up with the idea of making “patches” for the cake. Each patch is something  about his wife that I came up with based on what he told me about his wife. The whole family loved it and they were more than happy to drive three hours to me to pick the cake up. It’s most certainly a cake I’d love to redo/perfect

How much fun does this cake look? Guess what it’s even more fun when you slice inside of it! The top tier consists of two layers separated by a cake plate. Each layer is covered in sprinkles so the cake plates do not stick to one another. It was my first time using this trick and it was such a success! Since you cannot see the sprinkles the kids were absolutely surprised and thoroughly enjoyed it   It was much better than the confectioners sugar approach…I’m very pleased with this cake and wish I had a better picture for you.

These were some of the best times I’ve had baby sitting in my life. I used to care for four children and every so often my bosses friend would drop her two girls off to play with our gang. Almost every time resulted in making some confection. One of my favorite things to make was easter basket cupcakes and I was so happy to share them with the children.

When I was in High school I liked to make everyone Valentine’s. When easter came along I realized I could not afford, nor was it practical to make everyone I held dear an easter basket so I came up with this! It’s cupcakes baked in a flat bottom icecream cone. The biggest challenge is making the cupcakes stand up without falling down. You can make them directly in the cone and the cone will not burn. Once cupcakes are made I use twizzlers as handles and “fill” the basket with easter candies such as peeps, jelly beans and chocolates. I’ve never seen someone NOT smile when receiving these cupcakes.

I will warn you the twizzlers snap if you place them on too early so it’s best to make cupcakes and stick twizzlers in as close to serving as possible unless you live in a high humidity environment. They also make “marshmallow poles” around easter that also work well as handles. Please let me know if you have any other creative ideas for handles.

As well, I found the perfect way to present cupcakes/prevent them from falling! I serve them in a plastic cup! Place the cupcake in cup then fill the cup with jelly beans. It’s one of the most dear treats you can ever make!