So I made a Minion Cake

Well hey there! Long time no see to all of you bakers out there. In the last few weeks I’ve learned that not only are Christmas and treadmills not friends, but Christmas and writing-about-baking are not friends! But that’s cool, because it’s a new year and I have plenty of new things to bake.

Last year (aka, December), not only did I bake up a storm for Christmas, but it was also my mother’s birthday. Not ideal for a baker, but you do not want to be slacking when making your mom’s birthday cake let me tell you. I’m sure you are familiar with those adorable Despicable Me movies, or at least the cute little minions that star in them. Who doesn’t love them? I was dying to make an improved minion birthday cake, the one I made for my brother was not my best work.

This was surprisingly easy to make, so I’ll give you some tips for making a one-eyed yellow sidekick.

1. Only buy white fondant. This may sound like extra work, because tinting fondant can be a pain in the behind, but I have latched on to a new baking trend: spray color! Yes, I cut the white fondant for all of the pieces I need (eyes, clothing, mouth, etc.) and spray them with food coloring spray. It’s surprisingly easy, and saves you from having to knead in four different colors of food coloring. Just make sure you cover your counters, that stuff can be very messy.
2. Keep it simple. The last minion cake I made, I tried to get too fancy and didn’t have enough time to make it work. This time, I only made the absolute minimum decorations and had time to make them look great. Simplicity will always look nice, so don’t be afraid to be lazy and skip those last few steps!
3. Improvise. I always have to improvise, but initially the minion cupcakes weren’t a part of my plan. I had too much cake batter, so I decided to make cupcakes with it. When they came out perfectly round and adorable, I figured Why not make more minions? More minions is always a good choice. Have fun with your decorating and don’t be afraid to stray from your initial plans, who knows what you’ll come up with.

So here are my two tries, which one do you like better?

First try last year

New and improved this year

Embrace Fall with Autumn Cupcakes

I am in denial. Every morning when I wake up cold, I think to myself: maybe I set the air conditioning too high last night? But it’s all just a lie, because I know that it’s cold because fall is officially here. Don’t get me wrong, I love fall. Gingerbread, hot cider, Charlie Brown Halloween TV specials? Sign me up! I just need to embrace it and don a sweater, that usually works. And I’m thinking, some fall cupcakes couldn’t hurt either, right? So here we go, autumn cupcakes to embrace this new season.

Classic Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Buttercream

Well aren’t you just blown away by my creativity? I guess this isn’t very original, but pumpkin cupcakes cannot be passed up! They’re too fantastic. Now, I don’t make up recipes, but I am like your resident-on-the-internet recipe tester. I have tried several pumpkin cake/cupcake recipes, and I have found a winner for you. Really, it was for you. I wasn’t craving cupcakes like, at all.

So, I hereby recommend this Pumpkin Cupcake Recipe from the Novice Chef Blog (check her out she’s great). I tried this recipe a while back and it’s definitely a repeat because there is a good amount of pumpkin flavor without being too heavy or seeming like pumpkin bread. She also has a cream cheese buttercream recipe here, which I recommend as well. I usually use a little more cream cheese, but you’ll do fine with this one. She adds maple here and I mean, how would I have passed that up? So here we have it, pumpkin cupcakes with maple frosting: a classic, delicious, party-pleaser, fall treat.

Carrot-Cake Cupcakes will never let you down

Am I on a vegetable theme here? I guess a pumpkin isn’t a vegetable, but I feel like carrot cake and pumpkin cupcakes are similar. Oh well, they’re both wonderful and I wasn’t leaving either out of this list. Here, the recipe is very important for a good carrot cake. My mom likes one that has pineapple in it; but really I think that’s gross, pineapple gets all chewy. I use the recipe from the Mickey Cookbook from 1986, because Disney people do not joke around when it comes to food (any Mickey cookbook is great really, we’ve had them in my house forever and you can’t go wrong). I usually like to top mine with a smooth cream cheese buttercream and a couple of walnuts. Simple, delicious, and just the right amount of cinnamon for fall.

Apple-topped Cupcakes, do they count as eating fruit?

Probably not, but I’ll still feel good while eating this cute little things. Honestly I don’t even remember what kind of cupcakes these are, so that’s all you! It might have been some kind of apple cupcake, but really anything works here. So, make your favorite or most appropriate kind of cupcake, check. Then make your favorite or most appropriate kind of butter cream tinted red, check. Warning! Red is extremely hard to achieve and takes a good ton of red food coloring, green apples may be easier. Then you can take some pretzel logs or some sugar cookie Pringles Stix for the stem, and your gooey fruity strip snack of choice. I prefer fruit by the foot, but I think fruit roll-ups are easier here because of higher concentration of green, your call though. These are great because it’s relatively lazy decorating that looks like you spent a lot of time doing, win!

French Pastries, oh là là!

This summer I had the good fortune to visit France and of course Paris. I don’t have to tell you that France is known for its fantastic pastries, bread, wine, ok just all things food. And it’s absolutely true, even the McDonald’s there is fantastic.

There is a famous pastry shop macaron bakery called Ladurée, maybe you’ve heard of it? I have never drooled so much in my life! You have to wait in line to get in the store, and a person ushers you in two at Then you wait in line in front of this spectacular case of the most magnificent pastries you have ever and will ever see. You have to decide while you’re waiting in line what to get, which is almost impossible because you want EVERYTHING.

And it’s true, the macarons there are spectacular and the pastries have the most intricate decoration. I was almost sad because I knew that my baking is no where near this heavenly goodness. But I can use it as inspiration to branch out into individualized desserts instead of just big cakes. France doesn’t have cupcakes, and while those little treats hold a special place in my heart, I think that there’s something to be said about a light yet decadent french pastry.

So I will be taking the challenge and I challenge you! Make something petit or take a stab at macarons, who knows what kind of beautiful creation you’ll end up with. À bientôt!

Bake for a Cause and Fund-Raise like a Pro

Someone very close to me has Multiple Sclerosis, a chronic disease that affects the nervous system with no known cause or cure. Since their diagnosis, I have participated in my local MS Walk with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Chapter to help raise awareness about this condition. The NMSS is a non-profit in need of donations and support to improve the quality of life for those affected by MS, and to go towards research to help those regain function and to end MS.

The first time I participated, I wanted to make a donation and raise awareness outside of the walk itself. I reached out to students and friends at my university with a bake sale, I had already had a reputation for baking some awesome stuff among my group of friends. After raising over $100 in a few weeks, I learned some valuable ways to have a successful bake sale that I’d like to share so you can raise money and awareness for the causes that are important to you.

The first step is to choose what you’re going to bake, which can be the most difficult. Variety can be beneficial for selling more, but it’s harder on the baker. Keep it simple! Hopefully you’ll be cranking out cookies faster than the Keebler factory, so set your self up with some simpler recipes, or recipes that yield a lot of goods. For my project, I decided on chocolate cupcakes with mint butter cream, chocolate chip cookie covered oreos, and Chocolate Crack.

I picked these things because they are appealing and delicious, easy to make, and easy to transport! Lugging this stuff around campus to deliver it to hungry students was a chore, don’t make it harder on yourself by making something that can expire without refrigeration. Packaging is another important part, but can be pretty expensive. Cupcakes were the hardest part, their frosting is easily smooshed and you want them to look pretty. Instead of buying expensive boxes, a woman in my local craft store gave me a genius idea: put the cupcake in a plastic cup and wrap it in cellophane with a bow.

This keeps your cupcake pretty and protected, and leaves a little weight for your wallet! Orange is the color for MS, so I used orange Tulle Ribbon to close all my bags and keep some nice branding in there. So reach out to your friends, make a Facebook event page for your bake sale, and do some good for your favorite non-profit!

Simple Tricks for Spectacular Cupcakes

Cupcakes have a lot of weight to carry for such tiny fluffy things. They are on TV shows like Cupcake Wars, Cupcake Girls, DC Cupcakes, and Georgetown Cupcakes; that’s a lot of pressure! Everyone loves to eat cupcakes, but sometimes these TV shows make your cupcakes feel inadequate. No worries, here are my top tricks to achieving some TV-worth adorable cupcakes without all the drama.

Cute liners do the work for you

Are you worried about tinting frosting? You may not have to, try some cute liners! They add fun and color without any extra work, just add some sparkly sprinkles to your frosting and you will dazzle everyone. Sometimes the light patterns won’t show up if you have a dark cupcake like chocolate. I think the Reynold’s Stay Brite liners with foil are great, they won’t fade!

You can also try the baking cups like the ones in the picture, they are a little smaller but cute and easy to use! Some people like to use a cupcake wrapper, but that’s a whole extra step at the end, I like to keep it simple.

When in doubt: sprinkles

 

It may sound obvious, but the right sprinkles on a simple cupcake can be just what you need. Sprinkle technology has long surpassed the traditional rainbow and chocolate; you can get sprinkles in any color and tons of shapes. With a cute liner or some tinted buttercream, sprinkles add just a touch of interest without working your fingers to the bone to make custom fondant decorations.

When you do want to do fondant, flat is fine!

There’s a lot of pressure to create a spectacular 3D figure for each of your 24 cupcakes, but who’s got the time?! Unless I’m looking to hire a bunch of Play-Doh experts, don’t sign me up for 3D fondant. Instead, you can layer different color fondant cut out from cookie cutters to decorate your cupcakes for any occasion. For these shapes I used my Cricut, it’s great for lazy people like me who hate spending time on fondant. It’s a fun craft activity to with friends or kids, and leaves much less mess and frustration.

Cupcakes should be fun and cute, don’t work too hard! These little things can’t take too much decoration, and are great for parties and hostessing. What are your favorite tricks for cupcake decorating?