So THIS is what Unicorn Poop looks like - Cupcakes for Charlie

It's been a long while! Since my last BGC post, I had a baby and have been working on moving, etc. Jess has had tons going on as well. For starters, her son Charlie is in the hospital again. At the risk of publicly providing too much info, I'll direct you to his Facebook page since anything she says there is OK to be shared. https://www.facebook.com/prayersforcharliecole. If you are the praying type, the more good vibes being sent his way, the better.

I know she's normally the cupcake gal and I do the cakes, but I'm switching it up today. Since little Charlie was born, it's been one baffling medical mystery after another. Many long hospital stays. Surgeries. Life going on around all that. Jess has always been a great friend. Even (maybe I should say especially) considering all she has going on. I sometimes lose my mind and complain about things like losing a house I never had because the sellers backed out, or the fact that I can't seem to handle two kids at the same time and she gives advice. And listens. Never once did she tell me to suck it up because she has real problems and THREE kids. If the roles were reversed, I can't say I wouldn't have wanted to do that.

She's an awesome person and I wish there were something I could do to help, but I keep coming up empty. She recently told me about a Facebook group where people get matched with special needs kiddos and run for them.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/irunformichael/.  Charlie already has a runner so I thought, "Why not bake for Charlie?".

I thought about a perfect cupcake for Jess and Charlie and naturally, unicorns came to mind. I'm pretty sure she once said that unicorns are magical so that was stuck in my head. Plus, there was a recent party at her house involving a unicorn mask...So I was off to Google. Until I Googled "Unicorn Cupcakes" I never thought to wonder what unicorn poop looked like. I ended up in a rabbit hole of weird things like the picture below. These were everywhere. You can get your fill of it here. And I even found a picture of a woman with one tattooed on her...

But on to the cupcakes. I can't remember how this came up in a search for unicorn cupcakes (probably through a Pinterest pin) but this is the recipe I used. And it didn't quite work out how I wanted, but I used this video to see a tutorial on how to frost these things. Even if you aren't going to make them, you should check out this video. I watched it 3 times because the way she said "poop" made me giggle. Watch it. Trust me.

I just wanted to post a picture of these because they're awesome. I was just shopping for pretty cupcake liners and came across these and thought they were perfect for this project. They are Reynolds brand StayBrite. They don't fade during the baking process. I liked them because of that and because the plain Reynolds liners I normally use require that I spray them with Baker's Joy prior to baking. These didn't. No, Reynolds is not paying me to say this, but if they'd like to, they know where to find me.

I tried to do this just like Amanda Cupcake told me too but it ended up looking like this. There's actually pink in there too. Well, I didn't do it JUST like she said, so this happened on a few. I didn't stop filling at the halfway mark like she said. I also *might* have been lazy and instead of moving the oven rack for the little pan with two cupcakes, I may have jammed it in next to the big pan so it was slightly tilted.

They must have been alright, my son ate one before I could get it frosted.

I didn't quite get the swirling the way I wanted. I had 4 different colors and only 2 were prominent. Hey, we can't all be Jess ;) I also wanted to use a Wilton 1A size tip to frost these since it's more poo-like than a star, but I can't find that tip anywhere. Must be a hot item here in KC because I've been looking at multiple stores.

As a final Jess-like touch, I sprinkled them with pearl dust. You can't see it well here, but I tried. I think the application was wrong. I learned after I got it home, it's supposed to be brushed on. Oops. That would have been helpful. I've got that shimmery stuff is ALL over me. Luckily, I'm not going into the office tomorrow or people will think my weekend was much more wild than it really was. Speaking of not going to the office, now I don't know who will eat these things. 

Charlie, I hope you love them and that you get well soon!

~Brandi

Back in the Saddle (Oven?) Again

Well so as it turns out giving birth to a baby with a incredibly rare genetic mutation that causes a host of problems from hydrocephalus to a rare form of genetic cancer (rare is the word of the day!) kind of knocks you on your ass. All the things you used to do go by the wayside and everything changes. Having a baby changes everything as it is but having a special needs baby with cancer that you weren't prepared for changes it in ways you can't even imagine. It also means that people treat you differently and are always going out of their way to make life easier for you. So when it's a holiday or even and you say "can I bring anything?" they say "OMG no, of course not, you have too much going on please don't!" Which is a nice sentiment, it really is. Unless you are craving some sense of normalcy and miss things like baking cupcakes more than anyone even realizes. So when I heard at Thanksgiving that I did not have to bring anything I thought "cha! I'm totes bringing cupcakes and there is nothing anyone can do about it".

Well when your life is turned upside down and your brain is fried and you don't know whether you are coming and going and you decide to make cupcakes where do you turn for inspiration? I obviously don't even need to answer that question because obviously I go straight to my homegirl Martha Stewart. Thanksgiving = pumpkiny deliciousness. So I decided to give Martha's (word to my homie!) Pumpkin Cupcakes a try.

I topped them with a brown sugar cream cheese frosting. A basic cream cheese frosting with 1/2 cup light brown sugar mixed in. If I had put more time and effort into it I would have added some browned butter to the frosting as well to give it another level of flavor.

At the last minute I decided to top them with a candied pecan. I hastily looked up a candied pecan recipe and threw it all together. I'd love to share the recipe and tell you they turned out amazing but...no they turned into a big giant candied mess of grossness. I tossed them oh and the pan I made them in because they were stuck in the pan. I sent my husband to the grocery store up the street to their amazing bulk bin and had him get me a bag of candied pecans to top the cupcakes with. I really like the bit of crunchy sweetness that they added. I was taking them to a get together where there were some nut allergies so some cupcakes just got some extra sprinkles instead.

I'm not sure where I got the fall sprinkles but if I had to guess I would assume Sweet! Baking Supply because they have an incredible selection of sprinkles. I know sprinkles are "suave" or anything but I really do think they add a bit of fun to a cupcake and I think cupcakes should be fun.

In December my mom asked me to make her some cupcakes for her work Christmas party. She gave me free reign to make whatever I want and I was very excited to get creative! I'm including these as a pure cupcake porn blog bonus as I'm not really including the recipes. It's January and Christmas is over and eggnog cupcakes aren't happening again for another 11 months! This first batch was french vanilla cupcakes with eggnog frosting. Of course I added a variety of Christmas themed sprinkles.

I fully admit I have a lot of Christmas themed sprinkles. Sprinkles are around $2 a jar and they are incredibly hard to resist.

The other set of cupcakes I made looked incredible. As these weren't for me I never actually got to sample one. Dark chocolate cupcakes, peppermint white chocolate butter cream, chocolate ganache swirl & chopped candy cane Hershey kisses & topped with a starlite mint. The first batch I put a dollop of ganache on the mint but it looked like a creepy eyeball so I didn't repeat it for the other batches.

I definitely contemplated throwing some sprinkles on them because why not go overboard but I reigned it in at the last minute.

It's a new year, a new blog header (LOVE IT) and hopefully in the months to come I will be able to regain a bit of normalcy and make a few batches of cupcakes here and there.

2012 Recap

I'm going to pretend that this blog post is just a recap of the last few months in honor of the end of the year. But really it's not actually the end of the year (and there are more cupcakes that will be made in the coming weeks!) and it's not really a recap. I just want to show off all the cupcakes I neglected to blog about in the past few months because I was the first pregnant woman ever and the end of that pregnancy got rough and blogging seemed difficult.

Then I had the baby and that was even rougher and the weeks following were rough and now here we are still rough but blogging because I have cupcakes I am dying to show off!

First off were the cupcakes I made for the 4th of July. Red velvet cupcakes, strawberry cream cheese frosting base, cream cheese butter cream swirl & topped with blueberries. In addition around the outer edge was a layer of red pop rocks (flavor raspberry I assume) and topped with red, white & blue star sprinkles. These were so good and festive! I used red velvet from the box and as this was months and months ago I don't remember the frosting recipe but I am fairly certain I just threw ingredients in the mixer and called it good.

Next up (although technically they happened before Fourth of July but I forgot about them until I started this post) are cupcakes for my son Henry's 2nd birthday! Dark chocolate cupcakes, strawberry cream cheese & topped with his most favorite candy mini m&m's. He got very excited over blowing out the candles and eating a cupcake but in the end he ate all the m&m's off the cupcake and then ate ice cream. Toddlers have no appreciation! The cupcake was my go to recipe that I have posted before. The strawberry cream cheese frosting was just butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla & pureed strawberries. It was a fairly humid day and the frosting didn't get as stiff as I would have liked. Which is one of the reasons it wasn't piped on. The other reason was he's two and doesn't care!

Then came my children's combined birthday party. Henry was 2 on July 2nd and Arianna was 12 on July 14th. We did a combined party in our backyard (omgosh the weather was so amazing you never know what you are going to get weather wise in the summer in Seattle, last year my cousins outdoor wedding in July was rainy and cold!) and each kid got their own special cupcakes.

Henry got monkey cupcakes, I found a picture on pinterest no tutorial but it seemed easy enough to figure out on my own. They were Yellow funfetti (from scratch) cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese sour cream frosting. Monkey face made with nila wafers (mini and regular) and candy eyes. The candy eyes I purchased from Sweet! Baking Supply (I fully intend to put a click able link in here for them, I love them!) and the nila wafers just at the grocery store. The mini wafers cost more than the regular size, why?! Everyone seemed to enjoy the yellow cupcake but honestly I found the taste and texture to just be gross. No one complained so it may have just been me or else they just didn't want to be rude. I did not like the recipe and did not save it. The texture reminded me of a vegan gluten free cupcake I once ate and tasted like bananas despite no bananas in the recipe. The frosting I again just threw whatever I had in the fridge in the mixer and hoped for the best. It was quite delicious and quite decadent which is good because there was not a lot of frosting on the cupcakes so a little went a long way!

For Arianna I made panda bear cupcakes Bakerella  posted a blog on how to make mini panda cupcakes. I used her tutorial only making regular sized cupcakes and per the request of the birthday girl I added sugar mustaches courtesy of again Sweet! Baking Supply . The cupcakes were dark chocolate cupcakes, cream cheese butter cream. Face made out of Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips, candy eyes & sugared mustaches. The Ghiradelli chips were preferable as they are larger than regular chocolate chips. The dark chocolate cupcake was once again my go-to recipe.

So that is my year end recap...only I am making myself birthday cupcakes/thanksgiving cupcakes in the next few days along with obviously cupcakes for the rest of the holiday season. Hopefully I will blog about them before 2013 arrives!

Laziest Blog Post Ever

I've got a backlog of stuff that I have made and meant to do super fantastical funny blog posts for each one. But...yeah I don't know if you know this but I am like the first pregnant person in the entire world and I just can't get it together to blog. I know there are pregnant bloggers all over the internetz they even have pregnancy blogs but I am just too lazy and too pregnant to get it together. Plus I have a 2 year old. He doesn't really prevent me from blogging but I figured I should spread some of the blame around.

So there are a few yummy treats to post about but given my current pregnant/lazy state I will just be posting links instead of actual recipes. Actual recipes is hard. So for starters my niece turned 13! She had a two-part party and the first part was a sleepover. I put together some yummy treats for this sleepover. I made her a popcorn cake and some funfetti rice krispie treats. I have a link for the popcorn cake the rice krispie treats I just followed the recipe on the back of the box and threw a bunch of rainbow sprinkles in...fancy.

I should really learn to take fancier pictures so when I make super fancy things like rice krispie treats with sprinkles thrown in I will have fancy pictures to show them off with. But I don't even have a fancy camera and I have no real interest to add fancy photographer to my short list of awesome skills.

Popcorn Cake

I never tried any of the popcorn cake but there were plenty of rave reviews. The blog post fails to mention how messy and difficult it is to make so let me throw that out there. I got marshmallow EVERYWHERE. I also had to use two bowls to mix it all up it was not as easy as I expected but pepole really seemed to enjoy it so totally worth it. Again no fancy pictures to capture the fanciness.


The next part of her party was a regular birthday party and I made cupcakes! No links or recipes because the cupcakes were made from a box, one frosting recipe I made up as I went along and the other the recipe was a disaster and I spent a lot of time trying to make it work. I made vanilla rainbow cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese buttercream (oh super yum) and chocolate cupcakes with Nutella buttercream. The Nutella buttercream was the disaster. It took a lot of work and tweaks to make it work and I can't even remember all that I did. I topped the cupcakes with disco dust glitter and jeweled shiny sprinkles which I purchased at a lovely internet store called Sweet Baking Supply I have purchased so many great items from them everyone should check them out! I even just purchased a bunch of sugar mustaches for an upcoming cupcake design for my 12 year old's birthday!

I actually didn't really eat these as I have a hard time now fitting cupcakes in on top of any meal (remember only pregnant person in the whole world)  but I did taste the frosting and it was quite delicious. One more picture to show them off and make sure this blog post is super long.

So sparkly! The chocolate with nutella buttercream also received rave reviews but I don't like Nutella so I only took a tiny taste of the frosting to make sure it was edible and it tasted like nutella so...yum I guess?

The next thing I made was for memorial day. I made grape soda cupcakes. I actually also did not try these at all except for the frosting which was a plain buttercream. I topped them with a "straw" made out of grape vines which were super delicious. I ate so many that I was totally unable to fit in a cupcake and I forgot to snag one for later so I never tried them. Everyone enjoyed them though! Recipe here: Grape Soda Pop Cupcakes

I also made a set with purple sugar instead of sprinkles. My plan was to use purple poprocks because it sounded like fun, but I never was unable to find purple poprocks. I have a large supply of poprocks that I once bought just in case but I did not have any purple. Next time I make these I will need to get some purple pop rocks. Also I will probably use a cheap can of grape soda instead of using the fancy organic grape soda the husband insisted we use.

Whew so there we go. A mammoth blog post that is actually three blog posts in one. I have a few more cake making events before I go into retirement for the rest of my pregnancy (only pregnant woman in the world) and hopefully I will manage to blog those!