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!
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!
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.
Frankenberry Treats
Every year this cereal hits the shelves and every year I fall for it and buy it, especially when it’s at the after sale. This year I decided to dress the cereal up in its own costume as a marshmallow treat!
ingredients:
2 Tablespoons butter
4 cups mini marshmallows
6 cups Frankenberry cereal
Grease a 9″x13″ pan with melted butter. Set aside.
In a large pot heat the marshmallows and the butter. Once it starts to break down and melt, stir well.
Fold in the cereal, careful not to crush it.
Once the cereal is coated in the marshmallow mixture, pour it into the prepared pan.
Push down to even it out flat, and let sit to cool. Cover with plastic wrap until you are ready to serve. Then cut into squares.
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.)
Geoff the Robot cupcakes for Grant Imahara
My friend Grant had a birthday this weekend and since my gift is usually cupcakes I try to make them customized just for the bday person.
Grant is known for being on Mythbusters and he also has an impressively robotic resume. He has worked on BattleBots but he even worked on R2D2 – the ultimate loveable robot. He also designed and created Craig Ferguson’s sidekick Geoff Peterson on the Late Late Show. Geoff The Robot has quite the following and is very popular.
I thought making Geoff the Robot cupcakes would be something different and also in the ‘spirit’ since Halloween is so close. After all, Geoff’s head is, well – a skull. (And I do love working with skulls, especially ice cream ones.)
Because I am a total perfectionist, I just couldn’t find the right sized skull for the cupcakes. Just as I was about to hand carve them (because I am nuts) – good ol’ Wilton came to my rescue and I found these sugar skulls
Geoff is most known for his glowing blue eyes and signature mohawk. For the eyes I used a #3 tip and piped in some frosting to secure the edible sugar balls – they totally looked like his blue optic eyes.
For the mohawk I just simply took a Jumbo Heart Sprinkle
My ‘Geoff heads’ went on top of Root Beer cupcakes covered in ganache. The dark ganache was a good backdrop for the white skulls.
I took them to Grant’s big co-birthday bash (he shared his party with our other friend, Chrissy. More on her bday cupcakes in the next post) and they were a hit! They also fit right in with the costume/Halloween theme!
Mocha Matcha Cupcakes
My friend Deb is a cartoonist – her strip “Bento Box” is currently running in the Honolulu Star Advertiser. I am lucky to have friends that love comics and food as much as me and when they come bearing gifts, I always know it’s going to be good!
Back in July at SDCC Deb stopped by my table and gave me a can of Matcha cocoa. Very cool stuff! The minute she put it in my hand I knew exactly what I was going to do with it…
ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
3 Tablespoons Matcha cocoa
2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coffee
chocolate frosting
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, matcha cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time. Then the vanilla.
Alternating the flour mixture and the buttermilk until combined. Add in the coffee.
Pour the batter into the prepped liners. Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.
Frost with chocolate frosting and serve!
Blue Milk Cupcakes
Man…isn’t it the worst when your Dad cuts off your hand? Or when you find out you just kissed your sister? Yikes. Better just sit back and think about the good old days when you lived with your Aunt and Uncle…oh wait. They were killed…by your father’s orders. Hm, Luke just can’t catch a break.
I first made Blue Milk for the Ultimate Star Wars Party and it was a huge hit! These Blue Milk cupcakes will take you to your happy place. Soft and delicious, topped with a light mascarpone frosting – you just can’t go wrong. Pure comfort, it’s like being in your mother’s womb…when your father force choked her. Yeesh.
ingredients:
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
1-3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
2-1/4 cups cake flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 cup BLUE milk
1 Tablespoon vanilla
electric blue gel dye
Mascarpone Frosting (recipe, here)
To make Blue Milk get a Bantha, no wait… Just get one cup of milk and add a few drops of electric blue gel dye. Gel dye is the best because you need very little. I can’t stand liquid dyes, they totally alter your cake. Gel dyes are better and pretty inexpensive. Once the blue get dye is added, stir up the milk and you will get an instant gorgeous blue.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Carefully add the eggs one at a time until incorporated, then add the vanilla.
Alternate the dry ingredients with the Blue Milk until combined. You may need to add more gel dye to the batter for maximum blue-ness. Add a few drops as needed.
Spoon the batter into prepped liners, 1/2 to 2/3 full.
Bake 15-17 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.
Top these with a super light mascarpone frosting and you’ll have the sweetest treat in the galaxy!
Hulk ice cream sandwiches (Green Tea Spice Cookie + Milk Chocolate ice cream)
When the I got the Marvel cookie cutters the first obvious cookie recipe that came to mind, with Hulk being green and all, was of course my matcha (green tea) sugar cookie recipe. If it was good enough for Yoda it was good enough for Hulk. But Hulk has a slight temper and I thought spicing them up would be a good bet.
Then I filled the cookies with a smooth homemade Milk Chocolate ice cream. Such a delicious combo it might even keep Bruce Banner calm as can be.
ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon matcha (green tea powder)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 egg
Milk Chocolate Ice Cream (recipe here)
Matcha is a fine, concetrated green tea powder. You can find it in asian markets, the asian section of your grocery store, or online.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt and matcha. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until combined. Add the egg and the lemon juice.
Slowly add in the flour until it is incorporated. The dough will form quickly, and when it starts to pull away from the bowl, it’s done!
Split the dough into two and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill until you are ready to use.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prep baking sheets with silpats.
Start rolling out the dough. I use powdered sugar instead of flour so it doesn’t get that dough-y taste and the sugar adds a slight sweetness. Roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. The best things about these cutters is they don’t stick!
Use your cutter to cut out the shapes and transfer onto the silpat lined baking sheet.
Bake for 8-10 minutes depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.
When the cookies are cooled, scoop the Milk Chocolate Ice Cream on one side (face down) of the cookie. Then press the other cookie on top to make a sandwich. Keep in the freezer until you are ready to serve!
