Chi-O Cookies 2011 Part III: DIY Cupcake Stands

Literally made these the day of Chi-O Cookies.  Since we were short on time and tight on budget, my goal was to create centerpieces that doubled as dessert stands.  Presenting Candy Land Cupcake Stands made straight from the game board!  This project was super easy and inexpensive.  The board games are from thrift stores, wine glasses from the dollar tree, and one dollar movie-sized candy boxes from Target.

Candy Lands as far as the eye can see...

Attach wine glasses to board with a really strong glue.

Fill glasses with colorful candy of choice.

Cut another game board in half, finish off edges with black paint, and glue to wine glass rims.  Finish off with the little gingerbread playing pieces!  See Part II for more decor ideas.

Chi-O Cookies 2011 Part I: The Dessert

Chi-O Cookies 2011 was a total success!  After sifting through hundreds of blogs for the past few...months...bookmarking photos and recipes for dark chocolate this and vanilla bean that, I had to come to terms with the fact that I couldn't turn our sorority house into Candyland overnight AND bake every single thing that called for flour.  It came down to whatever I could do in the 12 hours before the event.  Naturally, we pulled an all-nighter-baking-bonanza, complete with a 4am emergency frosting run to Safeway.  Here are the pictures of the cupcakes that I made (9 dozen total...yeahhh don't talk to me about it). See Part II for the decor.

Vanilla cupcakes with a caramel center, topped with brown sugar caramel frosting and sprinkled with coconut.

Chocolate Banana cupcakes  dipped in chocolate ganache and topped with a chocolate covered banana.

Dark chocolate cupcake with a chocolate ganache center, topped with vanilla frosting with caramel drizzle.SO. DELICIOUS.

And blue + green cupcakes for Dr. Seuss's birthday! The plastic cupcake containers were perfect for transporting them all to the Chi-O House, I picked some up from the grocery store for a dollar a piece.

An Ode to Joy: Vanilla and Chocolate Cornbready Cupcakes

Cupcakes are many things.

They are pretty.
And they are fluffy.
Bite-Sized!
Delicious.
Definitely not allowed in my new eat-healthy-get-fit plan.

But one thing that they should not be: Cornbready.

Yeah, these little cuties definitely tasted like cornbread.  Quite possibly because, in an effort to be "healthier," I halved the sugar that the recipe called for.  This probably breaks every single rule in the cookbook.  Didn't think it would matter, but nope, they definitely tasted like cornbread.

This normally wouldn't be such a big deal, but this was the first recipe that I tried from Joy the Baker.  Joy is an inspiration to professional and amateur bakers, cooks, and people who just plain love to read witty things.  Her blog is so fantastic and expansive, the photographs she takes are positively mouth-watering, and I have gotten lost for hours and hours on end just sifting through her posts.  OH and she also hosts super awesome, trendy, and delicious events in Los Angeles (hometown shoutout)! So, in between writing papers, studying for midterms, and trying to figure out a general plan for my future, my pastime as of late has been bookmarking her recipes, and trying to not drool on my laptop.

Back to my predicament.  Cornbread cupcakes?? Who would eat that? This was super embarrassing...I mean, it was just 12 cupcakes.  One stick of butter. You can't mess that up!  I needed a solution, stat.  I turned to what I knew and took a page from the last batch of cupcakes that I made.  I cut out the top of the cupcake and infused them with chocolate ganache. Problem solved. Sort of.  If you could get over the mealy texture.

In any case, the frosting turned out pretty.  And I highly doubt any of the 18-21 year olds buying them at our sorority's table on the quad even noticed.

chocolate cheesecake cupcakes

with ganache frosting.  Did you get all of that?

Chocolate + cheesecake + cupcakes + ganache + frosting.

Those are some good words right there.

It's a lot of chocolate, and a lot of delicious.

Is it okay that I'm slightly more excited about the cupcake wrappers than the actual cupcakes themselves?  Mostly because the wrappers are a delightfully bright turquoise and frill out at the top.  It makes me want to string cute, colorful cupcake wrappers around my room.

Not a bad idea.  And low-cal too.

The recipe can be found here via The Food Network.

Baking cupcakes with a surprise in the middle makes it that much more impressive. Just my opinion.  Thanks to Kaylee for helping with...most of the baking.

Cupcake Break!

Ah, finally.  After an extremely stressful and exhausting day, I think a cupcake post will do me good.  I've been obsessed with these adorable vintage posters from WWII.  Interestingly enough, 2 and half million prints were made, but since they were only to be used as a last resort, they were never distributed. The original slogan was "Keep Calm And Carry On," but recently I've seen a variety of inspiring (and delicious) takes on it.  This one is my favorite! (Are you surprised?)

So true.  I feel so overwhelmed with everything that needs to get done--can I please have a few more hours in the day??  I love it all, but sometimes I need to take a step back and put things in perspective.  In the midst of our crazy, jam-packed college schedules, it's nice to just sit down, keep calm, and eat a cupcake :) You can find this print and many others at KeepCalmShop on Etsy!

Speaking of cupcakes, I am serious about opening up a cupcakery out of my apartment.  I just got an order for Greek-inspired cupcakes for my friend's toga party this weekend...that should be an interesting batch to make!

 


Cupcakes dipped in Nerds candy for--what else?--the epic neighbor nerd party.

Chi-O Cookies Part 2, the Decorations

Is it too late to declare a major in Party Planning, with a minor in Centerpiece Crafting?  Because that is exactly what I want to do.  I'm super passionate about good design and making everything look aesthetically pleasing.  Color-coordinated papers, ribbons, flowers, buttons--you name it, I love it, and I'll create something with it.

My living room was an explosion of pink for the past month as I created placecards, cake stands, candy holders, and banners for Chi-O Cookies (see Part 1).  With a little bit of mod podge and a hot glue gun, the room was transformed into a colorful candyland of desserts. A big thank you to all my sorority sisters--you girls were such a tremendous help!  Shout-out to my mom, The TomKat Studio, Hostess with the Mostess, and Cupcakes Take The Cake for their wonderful inspiration!

 The hot pink, robin's egg, and chocolate brown color scheme just happens to be my favorite colors, what a coincidence :)

 

Pinwheel idea courtesy of the Paper Source blog

 

I was thrilled when I found this 3-tiered cupcake stand at the thrift store downtown for $4!  Not that I needed another one, but it was so pretty and vintage and I just couldn't leave without buying it.

 

Inspiration for the Chi-O Cookies banner from Design*Sponge

 

  

After reading a post about making your own cake stands (also from Design*Sponge) I knew I had to try it!

  

 

LOVE the idea of painting and mod podging terra cotta pots and saucers! (idea from Once Wed)

Chi-O Cookies Part 1, the Dessert

I am so excited to post these photos from my sorority’s annual winter fundraiser!   I have so many pictures that I'll have to do this in two parts: dessert and decorations.  Chi-O Cookies is an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet and all proceeds from ticket sales and donations go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.  The event was such a success, and the best part of it was that we got to take the leftovers home...for our roommates of course!

After months of looking at all the eye-candy on the dozens of cupcake blogs that I’ve discovered, I finally got the chance to bake and decorate pretty cupcakes for the enjoyment of the Davis community :)

 

Strawberry Blonde Cupcakes.  I tasted the batter, and it was...interesting.  My friends liked the cupcakes though, so it's all good!  I'm not partial to strawberry cupcakes, that's probably why.  I just like the pretty pink color!

Minty Oreo Cupcakes.  Love the turquoise color.  It's hard to tell, but the cupcake wrapper has white polka dots!

Perfectly Pink Chocolate Cupcakes with Nestle Crunch heart

Need to transport your mini cupcakes? An egg carton works perfectly!  Just make sure the frosting isn't piped too high!

  

Safeway was kind enough to give me these cupcake cases for free!!

   

Lollipop Cupcakes!! These make me so happy!  Idea from Hostess with the Mostess, love this blog!

So Much Better

"But I am seriously in love with you!" exclaims the bubbly heroine in Legally Blonde.  And what better way to forget about the Warners of the world than with something pink?

Two different swirls topped with a candy heart!

 

This gorgeous laundry line art piece is courtesy of Design*Sponge.  I'm going to use it as my inspiration when decorating for my sorority's upcoming philanthropy event!

A Sweet Education

Things I have learned about the cupcake baking process...

1) Baking and decorating an hour before an event is never a good idea.  Pop rocks end up getting stuck to your fingers, you never have enough green jelly beans, and the frosting starts melting.  Which brings me to number 2...

2) Make your own frosting.  Using frosting out of the can is convenient, but its too soft.  I've read on ALL of the blogs that you need to make your own buttercream frosting.  So that's the next step.  Find a recipe and hope it tastes good! With allll the time that I have, right???

3) Experiment!  I used Pop Rocks and jelly beans and crystal sprinkles in this most recent batch of cupcakes, as well as a new decorating tip.  Of course, you can't tell the difference because of the melting frosting.  This will change.

4) You will yield more cupcakes per batch if you don't lick the batter as you go :)

 

Turquoise and pink swirly chocolate cupcakes.
 

Cupcakes with jelly beans are dipped in Pop Rocks!

Cupcake Fail Wednesday

Sweet deal, a back-to-back cupcake post.  Mostly because I just wanted to share this.  This is called a Cupcake Fail.

Kinda dropped the cupcake on this one.

Cupcake Tuesday

Who needs an occasion for baking cupcakes?  I have a meeting tomorrow so sure why not?! Pretty cupcakes make for happy people.  We're still trying different styles with different tips (that's what she said).  I'm just using store frosting because it saves time, we'll see if I get adventureous enough to make my own.

This is usually how our conversations go after the cupcakes are frosted...

Me: We really should put the cupcakes in the fridge...

Tier: Are you on crack?!?

Me: But the frosting is MELTING!

Tier: NO it isn't!!!

Me: FINE well it's losing its shape...
Tier: Do you want them to be all cold when they're eaten?

Me: I like them cold!!

Tier: *face palm*

We make a good team :)

Stay tuned for Cupcake Fail!

Casitas Cupcakes! the beginning...

Once upon a time, I wanted to be a cake decorator.  I was in kindergarten and we were writing biographies to include at the back of a story that we had written and illustrated ourselves.  I remember that I had proudly said that I was going to be a cake decorator when I "grew up".  I used to love going to our neighborhood Hughes (which hasn't been Hughes for a long time now, sad face...miss those rainbow cookies) and watch the pastry chefs ice the cakes.  I thought it was the coolest job ever.  And then they stopped, quite possibly because having a little girl stare at them for hours on end messed with their concentration. Psh. Amateurs.

15 years later, I have rekindled my love of decorating cakes, but this time in the form of cupcakes!  I'm totally obsessed with everything cupcakes...especially this one blog, Cupcakes Take The Cake (check it out).  I bought two cupcake trees and a basic cupcake decorating kit to start fulfilling my new dream of becoming a cupcake decorator.  Have you ever seen What I Like About You?  There are a million things I like about that show, (hi Nick Zano), but I totally want to be Val and own my own bakery...a cupcakery to be exact (plus how cute is that word??).

SO. My brilliant idea is to start a cupcake company out of my apartment.  I'd call it Casitas Cupcakes which is super cute, and appropriate, because that's where this (soon to be) famous bakery (because it WILL become famous) all started!!  Tier, my roomie-slash-best friend is going to be my main Sprinkler, as long as I don't feed her any pink cupcakes (red dye #527).  Cupcake cheers!

Vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting & pink crystal sprinkles

 

Pretty pink cupcakes for late night study sessions at the sorority house :)

New Year's 2010 - The Opening of the Time Capsule!

Hello 2010, you came around at the perfect time! I've tied up the loose ends of 2009 and am ready for a whole new year full of possibility.

I was lucky enough to spend new year's weekend at not one, but TWO beautiful beach houses in Oxnard with my family and family friends.  Our families got together on the eve of the turn of the millennium and created a time capsule.  We included newspapers, pictures, and other objects that we thought captured the spirit of that time.  We said we would all meet up in 10 years, and open up the time capsule.

So this year was THE year!!  After much anticipation (at least by my sister and me), we opened it.  I knew that I had put in butterfly clips and pokemon cards, but I was so surprised to find that I had written a letter to my future self--that was pretty cool (and very forward-thinking for my 11-year old self!). It was definitely a New Year's celebration to remember, full of cupcake baking (don't forget the multicultural one), getting stuck in stairs, backpocket deals, half-eaten chocolate lollipops, Vons biking adventures, beach bonfires, and getting owned in Monopoly.  Here's to the next 10 years!!..when I'll be 31...oh boy... :)

The lovely place settings: champagne flutres filled with m&ms, ferrero rocher, and a handmade chocolate lollipop!

These cupcakes were so delicious, and so pretty! my favorite part is the silver sprinkles, very new year's :)

sisters <3