Crafts and Cupcakes

I've been MIA from the blog lately but have been busy with cupcakes.  I love getting calls and emails from friends and family requesting my cupcakes for their special occasions.  I've been so focused on flavors and recipes that I haven't been able to give much thought to themes and decorations.  I'm looking forward to adding a little flare to my creations.  I've always liked DYI projects and crafts so it has been fun incorporating a little of that into my ideas.

My latest request was from a special 5 year old who wanted a Star Wars theme for his birthday.  I was a bit intimidated at first for I have never seen any of the Star Wars movies.  I've always wanted to see them and it has been added to my bucket list to sit down some snowy day and watch them.  Being such a popular theme I was surprised that I couldn't find much of any Star Wars merchandise in the form of cake or cupcake decorations.  As mentioned earlier, I enjoy dyi crafts so I knew I could just make some added flare the cupcakes needed.  I knew I couldn't actually draw what I wanted so I was instantly in search of paper crafts I could transform into cake and cupcake toppers.  I found some confetti at the party supply store that were the perfect size to make into cupcake toppers.  I just punched circles from card stock slightly bigger than the confetti circle and affixed the two circles together atop a toothpick.  Easy peasy, just like that!  The cake topper is a chip board accent piece I found at Archiver's meant for scrap booking.  Again, I cut card stock slight larger than the piece and affixed the two together over a few toothpicks....instant cake topper!  So easy, nothing fancy and well within my artistic capabilities (limited, very limited).

I had wanted to add a personal touch and asked the birthday boy who his favorite characters were.  He told me they were Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano.  Again, not having seen these movies, I quickly googled them to figure out how I could incorporate them into the cake or cupcakes.  Ahsoka is pretty flashy and I had no idea how I would draw that or incorporate her character.  Thinking I would cut my losses and skip that part, I had resigned to the fact they would not be added when I stumbled upon a perfect find.  World Market (love!) happened to have TWO Star Wars character Pez dispensers.  Anakin and Ahsoka!  What were the chances of those being the only two they had?  Not my first pick for decorations but I picked them up anyway.  Cookies-N-Cream cupcakes were made upon request and then a small chocolate cake with creamy buttercream frosting.  In a last ditch effort at an artistic attempt, I tinted the buttercream two shades of gray in an attempt to match Ahsoka's hair (is that even hair?).  I free handed swirls to cover the fact that I can not frost a cake smoothly to save my life.  All the tips from my Wilton Cake Decorating Basics class escaped me.  The cupcakes and cake were then perched on my new Wilton 3-Tier Cake Stand.  I added a Darth Vader candle holder for a finishing touch.

Not great but a good first attempt to a theme design.  I have a lot of practise coming up in the next month or two.  I'll be working on cupcakes for a 1st birthday, mini cupcakes for an Anniversary, jungle animal cupcakes for a baby shower and Valentine's treats for a bake sale.  My coworker and I are planning the bake sale and I also get to do some crafting for the display and decorations of the sale.  Here's a little bit of what I'm working on.  I'm enjoying some creativity outside of the kitchen!

Lemon Raspberry and Chocolate & Red Wine are flavors on my radar to be made in the test kitchen soon.  I might also see how I can incorporate some Girl Scout Cookies into some cupcakes too.  Sales started this week, so let the brain storming begin!