Dinky Dooz

These mini sandwich cookies were so yummy and also easy to prepare. What made them extra special ( besides the fact that they contained mini M&M's and I love ANYTHING mini) is that you could easily make the mini cookies before hand and assemble them later.

I got the recipe for these tasty treats from Annie's Eats, she calls them Dinky Doozies. I madet these as a small x mas treat for the children in my daughters class and they were a hit because they were overly sweet and perfect for little hands.

Twinkle Toes Tip: As mentioned, make the cookies a day ahead and assemble them the day off for time management and freshness.

Enjoy!!

Teacher Appreciation Cake

For Teacher Appreciation Week I made a great cake for the teachers at my children's school to share!

Car's and Caillou

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!
The movie Cars has been a hit with my whole family, so it was no question what the theme was going to be when my youngest son's 3rd birthday came along. The great thing is, my best friend has a daughter who was born in the same day and was also turning 3 so I spent a couple days making two very different cakes!

This was a simple sheet cake. I planned on making a 2 tier fondant cake but changed my mind when the thought of the one I decided to make came into my mind.

Everything is made of tinted frosting and the side was sprayed with Color Mist. It was the first time I used it, but I think it came out very nice.

As I said there was another birthday to celebrate on this same day.

 Her theme was a Caillou cake. This took some creativity on my part because Caillou as a theme is hard to find. What I came up with is below.

This is the basic design, once this was finished I added some finishing touches.

The birthday girl was turning 3 and I also added "happy Birthday" in pink sugar on top to "girlie" it up.
Once at the party,  I added Caillou figurines to the cake as well.

Christmas Treats

Christmas is a busy time for everyone. When it comes to baking I was all over the place this year. From baking things for kids in the classroom to baking things for adult parties etc. My oven was definitely working hard and so was I.

First off was a Christmas tree made from cupcakes. This was for the classroom and the kids just loved it. 

I made this the night before and once the cupcakes were finished, it was simple to put together as you can see.  There IS one thing missing though...THE TRUNK!

I used Kit Kats to add the trunk to the bottom. I'm not sure what happened to the image I had. But overall the kids loved it. 

My next Holiday treat was one of my favorites. Red Velvet Cupcakes. All things were made from scratch including the icing and they tasted amazing. 

I added candy pearls on the top for a little added charm. These cupcakes were transported 2 hours away and came out great!

TT Tip: When transporting things like cupcakes, keep the icing in a container inside a cooler and frost cupcakes after you arrive at the location. 

My last Holiday Treat was more cupcakes but these were intense. Chocolate peppermint cupcakes. These took a long time to make and included ingredients I hadn't used before in baking ( like instant coffee) but the taste of these was just enough peppermint and just enough chocolate. 

These treats were garnished with peppermint bark and they were a holiday hit. I'll definitely make these again 

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BOO!Cake

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday next to Christmas. I had just been successful making my first
Cupcake Cake with my Pizza Cake, so I decided to make another.

There was going to be a contest at this party so I really went for it.

This graveyard was fun and not hard to make. After the cupcakes the ingreiants included:
Gum paste
Lollipops
Frosting
Milano Cookies
Black Licorice
Food Writer
Oreo Cookies

The dirt fir the graveyard is made from Oreo cookie crumbs. Rather then waste the cookies however, I put them on the bottom of the cupcakes for an extra treat.

That's a yummy Pizza Pie

I decided to expand my horizons and start making cupcake cakes. Trends change all the time from layered cakes, to cake pops, to cupcakes cakes and more. Why not try something new?

For my son's birthday he wanted a party that was all about video games and laser tag. I had just made the Mad Hatter Cake and wanted to try something different so I figured a cupcake pizza was the way to go.

I was able to get a pizza box from a local pizza place so it really git in well.
I used fruit rolls for the pepperoni and milk duds for sausage. The "cheese" was a neat trick with grated white chocolate.

Merry Un-Birthday

For my daughter's 6th Birthday she wanted a Mad Hatter themed party. Keep in mind I said Mad Hatter NOT Alice in Wonderland. She was very careful to make sure I understood that.

A child after my own heart, she has fallen in love with Tim Burton's take on Alice in Wonderland and not that of the cartoon produced also by Disney. 

The party was to be dark and creepy. However, I knew there needed to be some color involved (we are talking about 5 and 6 year old girls) and I know not all children are as strange as mine. :)

I made the cake based on the Mad Hatter's hat from the animated Alice In Wonderland. 

I used a Wilton Food Writer to draw the "stitches" on the hat to make it look worn and used. I also used different color fondant to make the patches all over the hat. 

You can see the hat is leaning slightly, this was don eon purpose, again so it looks old and worn out. 

TT Tip: to make a cake lean like this one, I off set the layers of the cake and then used a bread knife to carve off the edges that hung over so it was smooth. I then added the dowels so it wouldn't fall over.

I decided to try my hand at making hand made embellishments to the cake because I can never stop when it comes to these things! lol

The Cheshire cat was made with a gum paste/fondant mix and so was the pink stopwatch. The details were put on again with the food writer and they were left to dry over a couple nights. As you can see there is also the famous 10/6 tag sticking out of the ribbon on the side. 

To throw in a little mischief I also added a card solider. The finishing touches were the doorknob and a few little mushrooms. 

TT Tip: To make the card bent, I laid it over a rolling pin over a few nights, once it hardened it held it's bent over shape. 

Because there were a few other fun "treats" to this party, I'm going to show those too. 

While shopping for last minute items at Party City, I came across some mini plastic teacups and mini rainbow spoons. 

I couldn't pass them up so I bought them without any plans as to what to do with them. In the end I decided on rainbow jello. It was a great way to add more color to the party and the size was perfect for the kids. They looked great on the table and they tasted great too!

S'mores Cupcakes

I've been on a new cupcake flavor kick lately and decided to try one of my kids favorite things as a recipe.
S'mores!!!

This is fun because just like a s'more the cupcake has 3 layers. Graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallow.

The graham cracker bottom was cooked for a few minutes before the batter was added so it was nice and crispy. Yum. 

TT Tip: Once the cupcakes are finished, you can garnish with a graham cracker or take a hand torch and torch the top a little, just like a real toasted marshmallow. 

The icing isn't really marshmallow because that would melt down and become a mushy mess, however, this home made icing tastes just as good as marshmallow and holds up much better. 

Chocolate Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I mentioned the other day that I have been wanting to try new recipes and I finally did.

I decided to go with a chocolate cookie dough cupcake recipe that I got from Annie's Eats. This is a great site with lots of fun recipes and I thought this would be a good one to try.

Most of the ingredients I had on hand but I did need to go out and get a few things like chocolate chips and extra brown sugar.

I used my big mixer with the paddle attachment to mix the batter in the beginning. This is great for creaming together butter and sugar.

Once the batter was all mixed together It was time to put it in the pan and get it into the oven. I made a batch without cupcake wrappers just to see how they would come out. As these are for testing anyway I figured it couldn't hurt.

They batter was heavy and thick, so baking time ran close to 20 minutes. I was so impressed by how nice they looked when they came out. They actually looked like chocolate cookies!

I knew from the beginning that I would need to make a filling. The filling was going to have to be chilled for an hour in the fridge as well so I started this right when the cupcakes went in. This way, by the time both batches had cooled it was time for the filling to come out. The cupcakes are to be filled so the center needed to be removed after cooling. The filling was made without eggs so it is like cookie dough without worrying about ingesting raw eggs :)

TT Tip: I recommend using a paring knife and cutting an upside down "cone" shape in the cupcake. Using a knife gives you more control and keeps the hole from becoming too big.

I also went ahead and made the icing while I waited. The icing ingredients were similar to the batter itself minus the rising agents and eggs. It also called for brown sugar AND confectioners sugar. This left the icing a tad gritty for me. I will have to look into ways to keep that from happening in the future.

Once the cupcakes were filed, I iced them using a Wilton tip and garnished them with mini chocolate chips.

The cupcakes were a great hit for everyone that tried them and I am really glad I took the time to try out the recipe. I will definitely be trying more soon and posting my tips and experiences here. Please feel free to share any questions you have. Thanks

Cupcake Fun

Sometimes it's just nice to make cupcakes for fun. Although I usually stick to making cupcakes and cakes for special events,this was a spur of the moment deal.

I made these very simply with a 5 year old helper. They were vanilla but for fun we tinted them purple with Wilton's gel color and added some very big sugar colors to the top.

The cupcakes were moist and very very yummy.

TT Tip: If you are making something for yourself or close family, consider going the semi home made way and but your frosting or use a box cake mix to save time. 

New Cupcake Flavors

I have recently come across some new flavors for cakes and cupcakes. If I am to be honest with myself (which I always try to be) I would like to try and make ALL of them today, right now!

This always happens when I come across something new. The problem is that I can't realistically make 2 or 3 dozen cupcakes to try out a new recipe. I don't want to eat all of the cupcakes ( and I will) and I also don't  have the time. With 3 kids and a house to keep in order, a new recipe takes time. It also takes tweaking.

Sometimes a recipe that works for one person, doesn't always work for the other.

It would be nice if I could get a babysitter for a few hours just so I could stay home and try out multiple recipes. I could then give the cupcakes and cakes away. Or heck, sell them at a bake sale of some sort. I wonder how legal it is to hold a bake sale out of your home if you are donating the money??
This will be something I will need to look into.

On that note, I would like to give myself a really good reason to try new recipes as well as bake to keep in practice and try new things. So if anyone in blog work would like to see something new, or wants to try a recipe but is worried about how it will come out, please let me know and I will make it first and post about it on my blog. Thanks!

Get Along Little Doggie! ( A Toy Story Cake)

This cake was made for a 6 year old girls birthday party! She really likes Jessie from Disney's Toy Story so this is what we came up with.

The whole cake is covered in vanilla flavored fondant. The bottom tier is made to look like blue jeans, complete with pockets and the zipper tab.

TT Tip: Do not try to stick fondant to itself with water. Because fondant is water based, it will melt and make a big mess, it is better to use butter cream, or a fondant and water "paste"

Because Jessie is a cowgirl, the second tier is covered with black cow spots. To break up the space between the 2 tiers there was a red fondant rope added.

TT Tip: Black fondant will fade if left in the sunlight or under flourecent lights, it's best to make anything black at the last min and try to leave it out of the light if possible. 

The color scheme of Jessie's character is blue, red, cow print and yellow. As this cake is for a girl,I had to add more color. The flowers that are on the cake are made from royal icing. They were left to harden and placed on with butter cream icing. When the cake was delivered, we added a Jessie figurine to the top.

BAMM, POW, ZING ( Simple Batman Cake)

Who doesn't love Super Hero's?! There are so many to choose from, making a Super Hero Cake might be a challenge. Luckily for me, I had a little fellow who knew just what he wanted. BATMAN!!!!






As he was going to be helping in the process, I wanted to make the cake simple. We went with an 8 inch round 2 layer white cake. Originally, I was going to cover the cake in fondant, but I didn't want him to feel left out so I went with butter cream.  I tinted the butter cream sky blue because we wanted to give the impression that the Batman emblem was in the sky.

The Batman sign is made of Fondant that I tinted black. The yellow background is also made of fondant and tinted golden yellow.

Twinkle Toes Tip: I trace the image I want to cut ( in this case the Batman sign) on to parchment paper, then I cit it out and lay the paper over the fondant to get a great likeness to the real thing. 


The border around the cake are small fondant balls tinted black. The balls were added to tie in teh colors of the cake on top to the bottom.

The cake was auctioned off at a cub scout meeting and made quite a few bucks. It was a lot of fun and I would do it again anytime!