St Patrick's Day Beer Glass Cupcakes and Homemade Cupcake Wrappers

St Patrick's Day is almost here, so I thought I'd share some fun cupcake ideas with you that I've made in the past!

In the summer of 2011, I was commissioned to make my very first wedding cake.  I was so excited!  Then, as I met with the bride-to-be to talk about her big day, my excitement turned to utter GLEE.  This wasn't going to be your traditional wedding cake...no no!  The wedding reception was going to be at the Redhook Brewery in New Hampshire, so they wanted their cake to fit in with that theme.  As we talked more, we decided to incorporate their beer theme into the cake in three ways:

1 - A cupcake tower with "glasses of beer" cupcakes.
2 - The wedding cake (instead of being your round tiered cake) would be a KEG cake!
3 - I was to find some way to incorporate beer into the cake recipe itself (see recipe here).

Today I'm going to share the first component of this fun wedding's how-to, the "glass of beer" cupcakes, since they'd also work for St Patrick's Day.  They are super cute and super easy to make.

To make these, you'll need:

Baked cupcakes
Buttercream or cream cheese icing
Rose piping tip
Cupcake wrapper template
Large image of beer bubbles (multiple pages)

The trick to these "glass of beer" cupcakes is the beer bubble wrapper.  Custom cupcake wrappers are really a piece of cake (har har).  No need to buy them online or spend tons of money at Michael's..,just find some pretty paper and use a template to make your own.  There are lots of templates online - here's one you can use.  Since "beer bubbles paper" isn't on huge demand, I found an iStock image of bubbles, purchased it, and printed off 50 sheets at Kinkos.  Don't let yourself be held back by what's typical - there are TONS of images online you can buy the rights to.

Just print the template and cut out the cupcake wrapper shapes carefully.  You're not actually going to use what you cut out - you'll use the remaining sheet with the missing pieces instead.

Lay your template over the back side of the pretty paper, and trace the wrapper shapes onto the paper.  Then just cut out your wrappers!

For an extra flair, you can use decorative scissors when cutting the top edge, or a paper punch to add more detail.

Once your wrappers are sufficiently embellished, wrap them around the cupcake to see how tight they need to be.  Unwrap, tape at the same spot you measured earlier, and then drop your cupcake in it's new wrapper!

Once I had the outside of the mug done (aka the cupcake wrappers), it was time to add the frothy top!  To make the froth, I used a small rose tip and filled my piping bag with the white icing.  The frosting technique for this is pretty loose - just pipe "fluffy" swirls on top to resemble what would be the froth.  Just try to keep the frosting pretty low - froth doesn't go over the top of your beer mug, so your icing shouldn't either.

Once the cupcakes were transferred to the cupcake tower, it looked like a tower of beer mugs!  Such a fun treat!

Check back soon, as I'll be sharing the Chocolate Stout Cake recipe I used.  It's so good I prefer it to every other chocolate cake out there.

My First Guest Post - Pink Valentine Cupcakes

Hello Much Ado friends!  It's been a fun week for blogging.  In the last week, I hit 10,000 views on my blog, had my first feature in a weekly wrap-up (my Blackberry-Honey Frozen Yogurt)...and now I'm excited to announce my first guest post!

I'd chatted with Elena over at 'A Casarella after awarding her the Liebster Award, and I told her I'd be happy to put together a Valentine's Day cupcake how-to for her readers.  I decided to put together several decorations you can make with one icing color and one decorating tip - no need to buy lots of tools for one day.

If you popped over from 'A Casarella, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss future posts!

Here are a few pictures to wet your whistle, but you'll have to check out her blog for step-by-step instructions so you can make them.

Pick your favorite design or do all three - they look great together too!

I posted another Valentine's Day cupcake blog last week with swirls of icing and fondant hearts - check it out for more V-day inspiration.

Thanks again to Elena for letting me crash 'A Casarella today, and I hope you all have a happy, delicious, and sweets-filled Valentine's Day!

Cake Decorating How-to: Valentine's Cupcakes

If you've walked in any store lately, you can't miss the fact that Valentine's Day is just around the corner.  Pinterest is exploding with fun ways to change your everyday food into heart-shaped treats and decorate your home for the sweetest day in February.  In honor of the sweetest day of the year, I put together a Valentine's inspired cupcakes you can whip up to impress your friends or that special someone.  (AND...as a special bonus, there's a cupcake nail polish design by my bud Bailey at the bottom!  Keep reading!)

These are so easy to make and take almost no time.  If you've never used fondant before, don't be worried - this would be a great decoration to start with!

All you'll need is:

Baked cupcakes

White buttercream frosting (here's a great recipe...or you could just use store-bought)

Fondant (red and white)

Red gel coloring ("No Taste Red" or "Christmas")

Several heart cookie cutters (different sizes, all under 1")

Small rolling pin

Piping bag

Large round decorating tip (1A)

Wax paper

Crisco

Start by mixing your fondant.  You can either buy pre-mixed red fondant at a craft store (try AC Moore or Michael's), or mix your own by using gel coloring + white fondant.  

For this design, I made several shades of red and pink.  I wanted to make sure that all the shades were in the same gradient, I started with one ball of white and one ball of red fondant.  For the below colors, I used the following ratios of white to red. 

From left to right, they are - all red, 1:1, 2:1, 4:1, and 8:1.

Tape a piece of wax paper to your counter top and rub some Crisco in the center.  This will keep the fondant from sticking to the wax paper as you roll it out.  Roll one colored ball on the wax paper.  Using the heart shaped cookie cutters, cut out several different sizes of hearts.  

Do this with each color, laying the hears on a separate sheet of wax paper to dry.  

Let these sit out until they are stiff enough that they won't flop over when you pick them up - at least an hour.  You can store them in a Tupperware container overnight if needed.

Now to put the cupcakes together!  

Fill a piping bag with your white icing that has a 1A decorating tip.  

Pipe a large swirl of icing on the top of each cupcake, like you would a soft serve ice cream cone.  Start by piping around the outside edge of the cupcake.  Without releasing pressure, continue your swirl with a second, smaller swirl on top, and finally a little third swirl, pulling up as you release tension on the bag.

Now stick your little hearts into the frosting.  Try to use each shade of red and pink in each cupcake and vary the combinations on each cupcake so they are all a little different.  I used one large heart, one medium heart, and 3 or 4 small hearts on each cupcake.

These would be fun to bring for a school party too, since the hearts are edible.

I'd shown my friend Bailey a picture of these cupcakes last week and we decided to have a little cross-blogging adventure.  She puts together super cute nail polish designs on a regular basis (we've even spotted a big YouTube "star" sporting her designs), so she agreed to do a "cupcake nails" tutorial inspired by these cupcakes!  (EEEEE!!)  I think my favorite part is the cupcake wrapper - super sparkly!

Without further ado (haha)...check out her Valentine nails blog and leave her some love.  :)

Happy cupcaking!

Christmas Photo Dump

We've had such a good time running from here to there the last week and a half, and have taken tons of random pictures along the way.  Here are a few things we've done so far.


We admired mamma's Christmas decorations and played with the puppies.  We had a full house this year - mom and dad's two dachshunds (Riley and Chloe), our dachshund (Toby), and Mark's big guy (Dexter).

Chloe, Toby, Riley and Dexter (behind the little guys)

Strrreeeeeeeettttttch!!!  

Trav's parents' church has a Christmas talent show/party every year.  This year I decorated 4 dozen cupcakes for the party.  Most of them had buttercream Christmas wreathes with little red bows!

Wallace Edwards and his nine grandchildren sing every year.  So cute!

Telling the Christmas story.

 We hunted Christmas lights and found some doozies...

This tree is taller than the three-story house it's beside!

Saw the "Tire Tree" on 301 that ended up on Jeff Foxworthy's facebook page...

 Had family friends over for a Christmas dinner...

This morning, we're heading to Virginia for Jenny's family's Christmas get together - always the Saturday after Christmas!  I'm excited to see everyone since I missed last year, but it will be bittersweet since after lunch/presents, we're having a Memorial Service for Travis' sweet uncle.


Wanna see more pictures from our Christmas vacation so far?  Check out what we did on Christmas Day and the Chrismon ornaments I love so much!

Cake Decorating How-To: Buttercream Christmas Trees

Today's cupcake tutorial is quite possibly one of the easiest Christmas decorations ever - a buttercream Christmas tree!  I promise your guests will "ooo and aaaaah" when they see your tiny masterpieces, and kids (of all ages) will love the generous helping of frosting on each cupcake.  They'd also look great paired with the buttercream wreaths I posted earlier this month.  They even use the same colors, which will make your life easy too.  :)  To make these cupcakes, you'll need:

Baked Cupcakes 

Buttercream Icing (white and green)

1 piping bag with a standard coupler

A medium open star tip

Sprinkles (round preferably!)

Once your cupcakes cool, spread a thin layer of white icing across their tops.

Mix and fill your piping bag with green icing (see this blog about coloring icing).  Using the open star tip, pipe two circles on top of each other (bottom a little larger than the top) - think soft-serve ice cream for the swirl shape!  This will be the "inside" your your tree.

With the same tip, make your ice cream swoop around the "inside tree" you previously made.

Now "decorate" your tree with sprinkles!  Make sure to give them a soft tap so they stay on the tree.

See?  I told you they were simple!