Tag Archives: sprinkles

June 26, 2014 · 8:00 PM

Pokemon Pokeball Cupcakes

This is me and my friend Gino.

Gino is one of the best guys I know. He is an accomplished artist, he is unyieldingly patient, he is a dedicated friend, and he is jubilantly kind. Though he may tell you otherwise.

So, for Gino’s birthday, I made him Pokeball cupcakes…because he likes Pokemon!

Here are 3 Pokeballs…

And here are 4 of my Pokeball cupcakes…how did I do?

Here’s how to make your own Pokeball cupcakes….gotta catch ’em all!

Here’s what you’ll need…
24 cupcakes
24 white Mentos
red sugar sprinkles
white icing
black gel icing

Here’s what you will do…
1. Bake your cupcakes. Let them cool.

2. Work on one cupcake at a time, because the icing will harden as you go, and you need it wet for the sprinkles to go on.
3. Frost 1 cupcake and put a Mentos in the middle.
No need for fancy tips and special tools when frosting this cupcake…just smooth it on with a knife, the back of a spoon, or a spatula. Don’t even worry about getting it smooth. As you can tell, I wasn’t too picky about that, and I think they turned out just fine.

4. Put the red sugar sprinkles into a bowl.
5. Dip half of the cupcake into the sugar sprinkles.
Don’t worry if some red sprinkles get on the white side. It happened to plenty of mine, and they still turned out great. But I guess if you ARE worried about that, then you can just get a toothpick and pick them off. But Gino didn’t care, he was just excited to have his very own Pokeball cupcakes. I’m sure your friend will also not care if there are a few stray sprinkles. It will still look and taste great!

6. Use the black gel icing to draw a circle around the Mentos (right against it), and a line between the red sprinkles and the white icing.

7. Repeat with the rest of your cupcakes.

8. Enjoy! Best when shared with friends like Gino.

2 Comments

Filed under Cooking, Cupcakes

Tagged as birthday, black gel icing, cupcakes, friend, icing, Pokeball, Pokemon, sprinkles, white icing

December 9, 2012 · 9:13 PM

Thick, Soft Sugar Cookies

I have officially found the PERFECT sugar cookie recipe!!!
They seriously melt in your mouth!
And it’s so easy! And it doesn’t need to chill!
If you like thick, soft sugar cookies, then this is the only recipe you need.
The trick is to roll them out thick and bake them for less time than you think they need.
As far as how many cookies this makes, it really depends on how big your cookie cutters are. Mine were really varied, and each batch made about 40 or 45 cookies.

Even the icing recipe is perfect!

But we’ll start with the cookie recipe…

Here’s what you’ll need:
1 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3 teaspoons extract
*for classic sugar cookies, use 3 tsp vanilla extract
*for vanilla-almond cookies, use 1 tsp vanilla extract and 2 tsp almond extract
*for peppermint cookies, use 1 tsp vanilla extract and 2 tsp peppermint extract
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
5 1/2 cups flour

Here’s what you do:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In mixer, cream butter and sugar
3. Add eggs
4. Add vanilla
5. Beat well
6. Mix in the sour cream
7. In a different bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
8. Mix flour mixture into butter mixture (if it is too sticky to roll out, add more flour…1/4 cup at a time, until it’s good enough to roll out)
It was at this point that I really wanted a Kitchen Aid, because my wooden spoon broke! I couldn’t believe it! I mean, it was getting old, but seriously?! Luckily I have other wooden spoons…but I still want a Kitchen Aid really badly…
9. Roll out on floured surface to about 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick. Really.
10. Place on cookie sheet. You can put them pretty close…mine were probably between an inch and 1/4 inch apart…
11. Bake for 7-8 minutes.THEY WILL NOT LOOK DONE! But don’t give in to your temptation to cook “just a little bit longer” or you will get crunchy cookies instead of soft, pillow-like cookies.
This is what mine looked like when I took them out of the oven:

They are still very pale and have no browning anywhere. If you have a golden brown color along the edges then you have baked them too long.

12. Wait about 5 minutes and then transfer carefully to a cooling rack. If you wait longer they will get soggy on the bottom.
13. Frost with icing (see recipe below) and decorate with sprinkles!

Now it’s time to make the icing!
I used a handheld electric mixer, because that’s what I have. My cooking buddy and best friend Michelle made this recipe, and said she used her Kitchen Aid and whipped the icing for 5 minutes and it turned out delicious. So it just depends on if you want whipped icing or regular! I prefer regular, but if you want whipped, then whip away!

Here’s what you need:
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons extract
*for classic sugar cookies, use 2 tsp vanilla extract.
*for vanilla-almond cookies, use 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 tsp almond extract
*for peppermint cookies, use 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 tsp peppermint extract
1/4 to 1/3 cup milk

Here’s what you do:
1. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter.
2. Mix in the vanilla
3. Mix in the sugar until crumbly.
It will look something like this…

4. Gradually add milk until frosting reaches desired consistency
5. Add food coloring of your choice, if you so desire.
6. Frost your cookies!

I collect sprinkles…I seriously LOVE them. If you are feeling generous, but you can’t afford to buy me a Kitchen Aid, then sprinkles will always make me happy! (Update: I have a Kitchen Aid now! Read about it here!)

Its really that simple! And they turn out perfect every time. TRUST ME…I MADE THREE BATCHES IN FOUR DAYS.

I know, that’s a lot! But I made them last Sunday just to try out the recipe. My friend Jacey and I baked them, and then my friend Cara and I decorated them. And then I made them on Tuesday so I could bring them to my ASL class on Wednesday…and I made them again on Wednesday so I could bring them to my CPSE 463 (Assistive Technology for Students with Disabilities) class on Thursday….so there you have it…3 times in 4 days! They’re just so good, I want everyone to have some!!!

If you bake as much as I do, then you will definitely want tons of flour from Costco…I also get my powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and butter from Costco…things I always use when cooking!
Here’s some personal favorites….Cara and I had so much fun decorating!

If you make some, please let me know how yours turned out!

4 Comments

Filed under Cooking

Tagged as Christmas, cookies, dessert, sprinkles, sugar cookies

August 5, 2012 · 4:24 PM

Hamburger and Hotdog Cupcakes

Ya like?

Ya wanna know how to make ’em? Here’s what you’ll need:

For each HAMBURGER cupcake, you will need:
-1 cupcake
-1 Grasshopper cookie
-2 Nilla Wafers
-Sesame Seeds
-Orange juice concentrate
-Shredded coconut
-Icing
-green food coloring
-red food coloring
-yellow food coloring
-1 green gumdrop

For each HOTDOG cupcake, you will need:
-1 cupcake
-1 circus peanut
-1 caramel square candy
-yellow food coloring
-Icing
-Shredded coconut
-Green food coloring
-Sprinkles

Here’s how to make the HAMBURGER cupcakes…
1. Dye about 1/2 cup of icing yellow…yellow enough to look like mustard
2. Dye about 1/2 cup shredded coconut green…green enough to look like lettuce
3. Slice the green gumdrop into slivers to be the pickles
4. Dye about 1/2 cup icing red…red enough to look like mustard
5. Frost your cupcakes with this delicious icing…https://byuflamingo.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/buttercream-icing/ (at this point you would sprinkle some sprinkles on top of you would like…I simply forgot!)
6. Put a Nilla wafer on upside-down. This will be your bottom bun.
7. Pipe yellow icing onto the outline to look like mustard.
8. Place the Grasshopper cookie on for the meat patty.
9. Pipe yellow icing on to stick on the pickles (gumdrop slices) and lettuce (green shredded coconut).
10. Get a Nilla wafer…use your finger to spread orange juice concentrate on top of it. That makes it sticky so the sesame seeds will stick to it.
11. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top of the Nilla wafer. This is your top bun.
12. Place your bun on top
13. Share with your friends and family!

Here’s how to make the HOTDOG cupcakes…
1. Make a slit in the circus peanut. Not all the way through. Just so it can open like a hotdog bun.
2.Heat up the caramels for a few seconds until they are soft enough to mold into a hotdog.
3. Put the hotdog inside the hotdog bun
4. Pipe some yellow icing on top for mustard
5. Chop up some of the green shredded coconut so it looks like relish
6. Sprinkle some of the relish on top of the hotdog.
7. Ice the cupcake
8. Sprinkle with some colorful sprinkles if you wish
9. Put the hotdog on top!
10. Share with your friends and family!

I had so much fun making these cupcakes with my dear roommate Jessica!

Here are a few more pictures of the process and the result! Happy cupcaking!

4 Comments

Filed under Cooking, Cupcakes

Tagged as cupcakes, hamburgers, hotdogs, shredded coconut, sprinkles

March 25, 2012 · 8:13 PM

Flower Cupcakes

Aren’t those just so cute! I found the idea on Pinterest! http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Desserts/Hello-Flower-Cupcakes.aspx

I was not aware that McCormick had recipes on their website…but obviously they do! I’ll be perusing around there more often now…. Here is how to make these adorable flower cupcakes…

You will need:

Cupcakes
Icing
Sprinkles
Marshmallows
Gumdrops
Shredded colored coconut (if so desired…I just had some left over from a previous project)

Wanna know how to color your shredded coconut? Just put the coconut into a plastic baggy, add some LIQUID food color, and shake it around! Add as much food coloring as you want to get your desired look as you go. Done.

1. Make the cupcakes

First I made cupcakes. Because I am in Provo, UT, I have to make sure I alter them for high altitude…..I have made the mistake of NOT doing so, and I have not forgotten since then. Also, I always use Funfetti Pillsbury cake mix for my cupcakes….unless someone wants chocolate. But I don’t like chocolate cupcakes. I like Funfetti. ALSO I always spray the cupcake lines with cooking spray (canola oil) before I add the batter.

2. Make the icing

I had left over icing from my the minion cupcakes I made yesterday! https://byuflamingo.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/minion-cupcakes/

But I wanted green icing for the base of these cupcakes, so I added some gel food coloring until it was the hue I wanted.

3. Get your sprinkles ready

I LOVE SPRINKLES.

I always have an assortment on hand.

I collect sprinkles.

If you are going to use only one kind of sprinkles for your flowers, then you will only need 2 bowls (1 for the green sugar sprinkles, and one for the petal sprinkles). But if you are going to do an assortment like I did, you will need lots of little bowls.

Make sure you have a bowl of green sugar sprinkles. This is for the edges of the cupcakes.

4. Ice the cupcake

5. Roll the edges of the cupcake in the green sprinkles

6. Slice the marshmallows

Cut the marshmallows crosswise in 4 slices…..like this….

They automatically turn into petal shapes! And if you cut one kinda weird…that’s okay…still use it…I did! See?…..

7. Make the marshmallows pretty!

Be sure to use the side of the marshmallows what curves upward….does that make sense?

The concave side is the side you WANT to use:

The convex side is the side you DO NOT want to use:

Press the concave side of the marshmallow into the sprinkles/coconut until it is coated.

8. Put the petals onto the cupcake!

I added them 1 by 1 as I pressed them into the decoration, but you could just as easily decorate all the petals and then put them onto the cupcake.

9. Put a gumdrop in the middle!

When I was at Macey’s (the grocery store….not Macy’s the department store) with Shaylea and were looking for Smarties for the minion cupcakes I made yesterday, I also got gumdrops for these. I picked out the yellow and white ones from the bulk candy section – it was a bit of a challenge to pick them out with the large scoop they had…but I managed!

YOUR CUPCAKES ARE DONE!!!

AND THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!

And due to the fact that I love taking pictures of my cupcakes, here are some extra pictures….

Chloe’s Closet: Day 56

Today was turquoise/purple day!

Jenna and I made chocolate covered strawberries! Well, Jenna was the mommy that made them, and I was the kid with a short attention span that helped out. But I did get to partake of the delicious goodness! And boy, they sure were delicious! I put sprinkles on some of them, like a true kid would.

Can you tell that they were delicious?

Hmm…well if that last picture of me taking a bite did not convince you of the deliciousness, how about this picture Jenna got of me being blissfully happy?

Okay so then…Jenna took this whole outfit picture of me…I’ve got what’s left of my strawberry and I’ve also got Jordan’s paddle…

My dress is the Faded Glory brand, and I love it! It’s from Wal-Mart…it’s really old… The undershirt is a Half Tee…the scarf is one of the free ones I got from Kohl’s! Don’t remember what I’m talking about? Go here: https://byuflamingo.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/chloes-closet-day-4/

And then I was sitting on the couch. And Jordan was on the other couch. And we were both listening to Kenzie. And I took pictures of my awesome shoes.

The clear Converse if one of the 2 pairs of shoes I’ve ever paid full price for. Limited edition, gotta love ’em! Oh, and don’t mind the almost-hole in the heel of the purple sock…due to the fact that my shoe is clear, you can see my almost-holey sock. Anyways, the other shoe is one of the CHEAPEST pairs of Converse I’ve ever bought! And one of my favorites! $2.50 ($5 for the pair) at Famous Footwear! Gotta love clearance and BOGO!

And then I was about to get ready for bed when I realized I wanted to show you all my cool hair. I think this is my new favorite way of doing my hair….messy bun with random clips and curls!