Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

I think these are my favorite cupcakes EVER!! It's just too bad I have nothing planned to do with them! Anyone having a Finding Nemo party today?

When I searched the net for Finding Nemo cupcakes, I couldn't find any besides fondant fish on top...so I thought I'd better create a whole tower! Oh, and the cupcakes are a recipe I made up with mandarin oranges in it. I'll get around to posting it sometime...

I love Bruce! Everything is frosting except for the eyes are mini choco chips and the teeth are slivered almonds. Oh, I cut the fins from thin cookies that I got from Ikea.

I love Crush too! Isn't he fun? Sloppy, but fun ;) This was the last one I made and you can tell! It is all frosting except for his eyes have candy melts tucked in the frosting.

So you are probably wondering what these are supposed to be...the orange ones are Nemo's brothers and sisters that didn't make it past the beginning of the show :( The eggs are a nice tribute to them though ;) In front is the "butt" (If you haven't seen the movie, Nemo calls the boat a butt) with divers (sour patch kids) in it and one in the water.

Here's Nemo and a Marlin that doesn't look right...they are swimming next to their anenome home made from twizzler pull and peels. Nemo and Marlin are made mostly of frosting, with candy melt eyes and cut orange slices candy for their fins.

Last but certainly not least is Dory. This one was really hard. I really wanted it to look like Dory, and since she is skinny, I didn't want to just use the top of a cupcake. So I used two large, oval butter wafers and stuck them in the cupcake. That is why it is lopsided...the cupcake didn't stay together. But I fixed it with frosting and spent awhile crafting this out of frosting and a couple more wafer pieces for the fins. The eye base is white candy melts. I didn't get it quite right. Oh well, it was still fun to make!

Shovelin' Sand Cake Tower

Yep, that's a cake! Here's the shovelin' sand cake I made today...I saw some cupcakes similar to this in the book Little Cakes from the Whimsical Bakehouse and I thought it would make an adorable cake. So I bought this sandpail, shovel, and sifter thing at Wal-Mart today and here it is! When I shared what I was doing with a friend, she said people have done this before, which doesn't surprise me. There are people out there who are a lot more creative than me! I used a 6X4 inch cake pan and cut the edges to fit the sandpail. I put a thin layer of vanilla buttercream frosting on top so the topping would stick. The "sand" is crumbled cupcake, which I saw in the book, too. Here's what the cover looks like:

I would HIGHLY recommend this book...the ideas in it are adorable! I only got a chance at the bookstore to peek in it, but it was enough to catch inspiration for this cake tower (shown below)! They have a cute website at http://www.whimsicalbakehouse.com/.

Here's a little sour patch kid with his "lifesaver!" This cupcake was my idea, but I bet someone has thought of this before, too. I used mirengue frosting with blue food coloring (see next post for the recipe) and used the back of a spoon to make the waves. Sour patch kids are my fave candy, so I thought to use them right away. I originally had some circular mini-pretzels picked out for the life preserver, but then I realized Lifesavers would be perfect! I LOVE going down the candy aisle, there are so many things you can use to decorate!


I didn't get a close look at the cupcakes in the book, so I tried this. I made the shovel from Airheads and a lollipop stick. Just use scissors to cut the pieces. I cut about an inch off of the Airhead and curved it to look like a shovel. I also cut the corners off of the bottom to round them a little. The handle on the shovel was a little difficult...I rolled the Airhead with a rolling pin to flatten it and cut out the handle piece. I cut out the middle so it looked like a handle. Then I cut out a thin piece to stick to the back of the shovel handle to make the handle stay on. The pail's handle is cut from Airheads Extremes.

Below is an example of the cupcake with the nut cup colored with a marker to make it look more like a pail. My idea was to have a whole cupcake tower ready with the pails decorated by the time my guests arrived, but as usual, baking took longer than expected!

Here's another idea for beach cupcakes. I just used the mirengue frosting and colored goldfish crackers.

Where the Wild Things Are Cupcake Tower

Here's a pic of the (shortened) cupcake tower I made for Max's first birthday party. My inspiration came from blue cupcake's cupcake tower that was inspired by the book. Check out her cupcake towers, they are amazing!

http://bluecupcakebyjulie.blogspot.com/2009/03/cupcake-towers.html

Making the Cake:
The "king of the wild things" cake I created was a little difficult, but it was fun to make. I used a 6x4 inch cake pan to bake a chocolate cake mix (didn't have time on Max's day to bake from scratch!). I lost track of baking time as usual (I promise to have more clear recipes in the future!), but I used the toothpick test to make sure it was done. When the toothpick came out clean, I took it out of the oven. I know this cake can be improved upon, but I used graham crackers to make the top of the crown. I took a square piece and cut it gently with a knife diagonally. Then I flipped it to make the crown pieces.




The graham crackers I used were really flaky and broke easily, but I managed to get enough pieces to make the cake work. I frosted the cake first (forgetting to dye the frosting gold-oops!) and put a lot of frosting on top and around the top. I frosted around the entire graham cracker piece with a small butter knife and stuck it on the cake. I continued until the crown was complete. I added frosting where needed and tried to smooth it out. Finally, I added dusting crystals, but it didn't cover the whole thing like I wanted. The frosting wasn't smooth enough and it was hard to add to the side of the cake. I would frost and dust the cake first next time. It would be hard to dust the frosting on the crackers before you stuck them on because you have to touch it and it will get messy. Ideas, anyone? I also really wanted to add "they made him king of the wild things" to the cake somehow, but didn't quite get to it.

Monster Cupcakes: These monster cupcakes were inspired by the ones on blue cupcake's cupcake tower. Since I haven't used fondant (yet!) I decided to create my own version using cashews, lemonheads (with the eyes drawn on with edible markers), and slivered almonds. Aren't the paper cups cute? I got them at a fabulous cooking store, Orson Gygi.

To decorate with frosting, I used tip #12 round and piped it up. (Is that the right term? I'm still learning, here!) After the party, I got around to creating the monster that has hair in the book (see below). I used tip #233 multi-opening. Isn't he funny? Obviously, I need to practice using that tip some more. And now for the recipe...

Old Fashioned Applesauce Spice Cupcakes - adapted from a Duncan Hines (r) Cakebox Recipe

1 package spice cake mix (I used Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe)

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cups applesauce

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare cupcake pan by adding paper liners (or greasing). Combine cake mix, eggs, applesauce, and oil in large bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Pour into cupcake liners, 3/4 of the way full. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting - adapted from my mom's vanilla buttercream frosting recipe http://www.potsandpins.com/blog/2008/03/sugar-cookies-f.html

1/2 cup butter, softened (do not substitute)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
powdered sugar (approximately 4 to 5 cups)

Cream butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add vanilla, milk, salt, and cinnamon. Add 2 cups powdered sugar and blend, adding more powdered sugar to get the consistency you want. (To pipe the frosting, you'll want at least 4 cups total. You want it thick.)

After you taste it, you may want to add more cinnamon and blend again.

Max cupcakes: To decorate this cupcake, I used tip #22 star, and the cupcake toppers my mom made.
To make this cupcake, I used a lemon cake mix, but I did make the frosting from scratch. If you love lemon, you will LOVE this frosting!

Lemon Buttercream Frosting - adapted from my mom's vanilla buttercream frosting recipe http://www.potsandpins.com/blog/2008/03/sugar-cookies-f.html

1/2 cup butter, softened (do not substitute)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest from 1 lemon
powdered sugar (approximately 4 to 5 cups)

Cream butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add vanilla, milk, salt, and lemon zest. Add 2 cups powdered sugar and blend, adding more powdered sugar to get the consistency you want. (To pipe the frosting, you'll want at least 4 cups total. Just keep adding a cup at a time until it is thick enough.)