Jean Grey School cupcakes
In the Marvel Universe late last year Wolverine opened the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. This new mutant school is imaginary of course but that doesn’t stop them from having a pamphlet with faculty, a list of classes and of course: a twitter feed.
My friend Sarah’s fave Marvel character is Phoenix and last year I made her Phoenix/Jean Grey cupcakes. So this year for her birthday, I took the JG school logo and made lolly cupcake toppers. I like to imagine them being laid out for the Jean Grey School homecoming.
ingredients:
white chocolate
black frosting
Make the lollys by melting white chocolate in a double boiler and pouring them into molds. Pop them out and set aside.
I copied the image of the logo off my phone. Using a #2 tip I piped black frosting in two simple parallel lines.
Then added the straight line for the G and the curved edges to finish it off.
Sarah loves Coke about as much as she loves Jean Grey so I made some Coke-float cupcakes and placed the finished lollies in as toppers.
I wish my mutant power was to be able wash dishes using only my mind. School’s in session!
Ninjago cupcakes
This week the Kid turned 8! Last year he had a party where I made all Lego themed foods. This year was more low key but Legos were still a huge part of his big day!
We took a trip down to Legoland in San Diego (mecca for all brick-loving kids) and got to see Lego art form at its best. Right now the kids are really into Ninjago. Pronouced nin-jah-goh, personally I think it should be pronounced ninja-GO, but what do I know. Of course it’s not only a toy but also a tv show. Mmmhm, figures. The little Lego ninjas sure are cute and perfect inspiration for cupcakes!
I decided to make chocolate lollipop toppers, focusing on just the ninja mask – the eyebrows are what gives them character!
ingredients:
yellow candy melts
red frosting
black frosting
white frosting
cupcakes (I used cookies and cream, recipe here)
I melted candy melts over a double boiler, then poured them into lollipop molds. I’ve become addicted to chocolate molds. I’ve used them for everything from Phoenix-Jean Grey cupcakes to Lego minifigs!
Since Lego heads are yellow, the yellow pop provided a good background for the face.
Using a #5 tip and red buttercream I piped the outline of the ninja mask.
Then I filled in the two outer edges – leaving an opening for the eyes.
Using a #2 tip and black tinted frosting I piped two small round eyes.
Then I added the arched eyebrows. The eyebrows really start to give the ‘face’ some definition.
A white dot for the pupils completed the eyes. I popped them in the freezer to give them a little shine.
I placed the finished lollipops into cupcakes topped with chocolate ganache. They made the perfect birthday treat for my Lego-loving 8 year old!
JAWA vegan cookie-cupcakes!
Anytime a new Star Wars or Marvel cookie cutter comes out at Williams Sonoma, I immediately start sketching ideas. I’ll admit I’m not a fan of just making frosted cookies, only because I try to come up with ways to get creative with the cookie cutter itself – from Captain America hand pies, SmoresTroopers cupcakes to Yoda oreos.
The new Droids and Aliens cutters came out and I was drawn to the Jawas. I was always fascinated with how the hoods covered them entirely and how deeply inset their faces seemed to be – what exactly was behind those beady yellow eyes? I knew I wanted to capture that same idea when using the cookie cutters.
I was going to a Merry Sithmas party believe it or not, and one of the guests (Autumn, for whom who I made the Game of Thrones cupcakes) had a lot of food allergies. She is always left out when it came to desserts and seeing as how she LOVES Star Wars as much as I do, I decided to come up with a totally Vegan cookie and cupcake combo.
Vegan chocolate cookie ingredients:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder (I prefer Valrhona
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
edible sugar pearls
Vegan Chocolate cupcakes (recipe here)
Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter frosting (recipe here)
In a bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer stir together the vegetable oil and the sugar until combined. Add the flour mixture and the water.
It will be crumbly, but knead it together and roll it into a ball and flatten to a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge until you are ready to use.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep baking sheets with silpats. Once the dough has chilled, roll it out onto a floured board. Using the cookie cutter, cut out the Jawas.
Use a paring knife to cut out the ‘face’ part of the Jawa, leaving an empty hole in the cookie.
Transfer the cookies to the prepped baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
Frost the cupcakes and place the Jawa cookie on top. Add the sugar pearls for eyes.
Now you have a very sneaky little Vegan Jawa!
Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
These cupcakes are so deeelish you won’t even notice they’re Vegan! Think – peanut butter cup in a cupcake form. Mmm…
Vegan chocolate cupcakes ingredients:
2-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups white sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup coffee
1/2 cup water
chocolate peanut butter frosting ingredients:
6 ounces chocolate chips
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup water
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep cupcake pans with liners (24 total).
In a bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer stir together the sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla and apple cider vinegar.
Alternate the flour mixture with the coffee and water until combined.
Pour the batter into the prepped cupcake liners and bake for 14-17 mins depending on your oven. Don’t over bake! Let cool on a wire rack.
While the cupcakes are cooling, start the frosting. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave.
In the bowl of an electric mixer stir together the melted chocolate chips and the peanut butter. Slowly add the powdered sugar alternating with the water. You might need 1 or 2 Tablespoons more of water to get the frosting to the right consistency.
Frost the cooled cupcakes and you have a deliciously Vegan chocolate peanut butter treat!
Game of Thrones ‘horse heart’ cupcakes
I’m always up for a cupcake challenge, especially a nerdy one. However, my friend Autumn was having a baby shower and she special requested cupcakes themed for the tv show Game of Thrones. In the show Daenerys eats the heart of a horse to give her unborn son strength. Uh…I’m not even going to link to that clip, just…yeah.
Autumn, never one to miss an opportunity to incorporate pop culture/fantasy/gore into a party – baby shower or no, had to have horse heart cupcakes. (I made normal not-so-gross cupcakes for other guests, like her Grandma.)
I have a hard time making things that aren’t pleasant to look at, (I like cute things!) and this was a challenge. When the Baby saw them and gagged…well, I knew I was right on track.
ingredients:
16 ounces frozen strawberries, thawed
1/2 cup strawberry jam
1/2 cup sugar
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
2/3 cup cold water
red velvet cupcakes
cream cheese frosting (recipe here)
2/3 cup guava jelly
red gel food dye
After many sketches and ideas, I decided to make the heart out of pâte de fruit – which is basically a French fruit jelly, think of a more solid jell-o. And I bought anatomically correct heart molds from my local candy supply shop. Me: “Do you have heart molds? No I mean real hearts.” The store: “Of course! What size would you like?” Craziness.
To make the pâte de fruit put the thawed strawberries in the blender and pulse until smooth. Then add the jam and sugar and puree it all together.
Strain the puree into a large pot and then boil for about 8 minutes, stirring constantly so it doesn’t boil over. Set aside.
In a small bowl sprinkle the gelatin packs over the cold water. Once the gelatin is absorbed (into a gross clump) microwave it until the gelatin dissolves. Approx 15 seconds, depending on your microwave.
Stir the dissolved gelatin into the fruit puree and let it cool down slightly.
Spoon the puree into the heart molds, filling it up to the top. My molds were for lollipops and using the sticks actually helped get them out of the mold easier.
Place the filled molds in the freezer. Even tho they become solid, they thaw out perfectly and retain their shapes.
When you are ready to unmold, pop them out and keep them in an airtight container in the fridge.
Slide them off the lollipops stick and place them on top of the frosted cupcakes. The white frosting helped the heart show up a little better on top of the cupcake.
For the oozy ‘blood’ I added a touch of red food gel dye to the guava jelly and whisked it quickly to loosen it up. I spooned that over the hearts to give a more realistic look.
The pâte de fruit held up great and really took to the molds! The hearts looked very real in person (ew) but thankfully were still tasty! May Autumn and her new baby have a happy, healthy future! (I hope her Grandma didn’t freak out.)
Power Rangers cupcakes
The Baby turned 6! ~sniff~ How did that happen?? Unfortunately fortunately my kids know that any birthday treats they ask for, I will make. From Elmo, Godzilla, Batman – I’ve done ‘em all. And this year the Baby wanted Power Rangers. Huh. Now how was I going to pull that one off?
ingredients:
White Candy Melts
Dark Green Candy Melts
Blue Candy Melts
Red Candy Melts
6-Inch Cookie Sticks
cupcakes
frosting
I decided to go the edible route and do choco-lollipops, like I did with the Phoenix-Jean Grey cupcakes. Candy melts are by no means high-quality but they get the job done and have great bright colors.
For the Rangers themselves I ordered a Power Rangers mold online and listen up – here was my downfall: I only ordered one. Which meant to make 18 lollipops took a looooong time. I should have ordered at least two to make my life less hectic.
Since I wanted my pops to have more definition I used two different colors of candy. First I melted down the White Candy Melts
I then filled in the Ranger’s “mask” and also some triangular details on the suit. I popped the mold in the freezer to set for about 5 minutes.
I melted the green, blue and red (Ranger colors) candy melts in a double boiler and spooned it on top of the hardened white chocolate.
A little tapping goes a long way. Small repeated taps of the mold get the air bubbles out.
A quick set in the freezer and the pops come right out! So fun!
The Baby specifically asked for chocolate ganache cupcakes – now there’s a baby foodie if I ever heard one. And I also made red velvet cupcakes for the parents. Right before serving I stuck a Power Ranger lollipop in each of the kids cupcakes. It was fun to see everyone’s faces when the cupcakes were brought out!
While this seems time consuming it’s actually faster than fondant work and a fun way to present cupcakes to kids at a party. Try molding chocolate – you’ll get addicted like I am…
Punisher pie-cakes
My friend Janna loves the Marvel comics character Punisher. Punisher isn’t your typical tights and cape kinda guy, no – Frank Castle punishes people and exacts revenge while wearing a black tee emblazoned with the symbol of death’s head with a gun cartridge forming the teeth. Uh. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Ok, it is, but anyway – the familiar skull icon that he wears on his shirt is known as the Punisher symbol.
As much as Janna loves Punisher, she loves pie even more. So it makes perfect sense to make the symbol out of…pie crust! I would have just made pies but it was the day after Thanksgiving and we were all pie’d out. So I made a filled cupcake and used the pie crusts as cupcake toppers.
ingredients:
chocolate cupcakes
fresh strawberry jam
mascarpone frosting (recipe here)
pie dough (recipe here)
egg wash (1 egg + 1 Tablespoon cream)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep a baking sheet with a silpat.
I started with a picture of the Punisher symbol, printed on cardstock about 2-1/2 inches tall.
Cut the symbol out to form a template. Roll out the pie dough to approx 1/4″ thick.
Use a knife and cut out the shape of the skull. Then using a clean x-acto I went in and cut out the details of the eyes and nose.
The lines for the mouth are made by pressing a knife into the pie dough to get an impression, don’t cut all the way through.
Mix up the egg wash and brush it on the pie dough cutouts. Sprinkle the tops with a little bit of sugar.
Bake for 8 minutes or until just slightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack.
Pie dough is great for forming shapes because it doesn’t stretch much and you can still keep a lot of detail work.
Once the pie crusts have cooled, assemble the cupcakes. Cut out a hole from the cooled cupcakes and fill with strawberry jam.
Top with mascarpone frosting and a Punisher pie-crust symbol, and you have the meanest yet sweetest pie-cake ever!
Charlie Brown Thanksgiving cupcakes
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Everyone remembers Charlie Brown’s fateful menu made by Snoopy – of buttered toast, pretzels, popcorn and jellybeans. What kid didn’t want that for Thanksgiving?!
I decided to recreate this famous holiday meal in cupcake form. Makes perfect sense…right?
First I printed out a cute Pilgrim Snoopy and glued it to a popsicle stick. This would serve as the backdrop for the treats.
ingredients:
pumpkin cupcakes (recipe here)
whipped cream cheese frosting (recipe here)
mini toasts
mini pretzels
popcorn
jelly beans ( I used jelly bellies because they are smaller)
Then I assembled all the pieces of the ‘holiday meal.’
This makes an adorable addition to pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. A sweet and tasty homage to my childhood memories.
cupcakes for Rancho Obi-Wan
This weekend was the grand re-opening of Rancho Obi-Wan, the world’s largest privately owned Star Wars collection. It’s an astounding tribute to all things Star Wars housed in 5000 sqft. Rancho Obi-Wan is owned by Steve Sansweet who recently retired as the Head of Fan Relations, Lucasfilm’s Star Wars ambassador.
I was asked to make some sweets for an invited guest to take up to the event. I pulled some tricks from my very own “Ultimate Star Wars Party” because what would be more fitting for a Star Wars tribute than:
Princess Leia cupcakes (recipe here)
SmoresTrooper cupcakes (recipe here)
Blue Milk cupcakes (recipe here)
Yoda cupcakes (recipe here)
Rancho Obi-Wan looks amazing and I only hope that I can visit it someday. Also this weekend my friend Bonnie Burton visited L.A. and we held our own #BonnieCon in her honor. So of course I wanted to make her some Leia and SmoresTrooper cupcakes of her very own, too. It was truly a Star Wars weekend all around!
Mustache cupcakes for Chrissy’s bday
My friends Christine and Grant both had October birthdays and they had an epic joint-bday party! For Grant’s birthday I made custom Geoff the Robot cupcakes and for Chrissy – well, it called for a good ol’ hipster mustache. A chocolate one.
I am addicted to molds lately. I buy a ton of them, and I’m always trying to think of new ways to incorporate them into my baking. In this case I knew that chocolate mustaches on a stick would be a hit at a party.
I tempered the chocolate over a mock double boiler until it was just the right consistency.
Then I carefully filled the molds, making sure I got all the crevices of the form. I added a stick and then covered that up with more chocolate. I tapped the mold on the counter to make sure all the air bubbles were out.
After I let it set, they popped right out! Man, I love molds! I made up some white chocolate ‘staches as well and placed them in some red velvet cupcakes.
They were so much fun and quite the photo opp at the costume party!
(Yes, she is purple. But not all the time.)
