H D

My dad's birthday was this week.  He bought a new Harley Davidson motorcycle earlier this spring.    He is loving being a Harley owner.  He has seen Harley Davidson cakes before and said how cool they were, so I thought I would make him one :)
I wanted to make the logo and thought the best way would be with Royal Icing.  I have worked with it some before, still trying to be more comfortable with the icing.  I knew this would be hard because of all the small detail work. 
I taped the logo down and put a sheet of wax paper on top.  I first traced the white.

Then, I piped all the orange

Lastly, I filled in the black. 

I am happy with how the logo turned out.  It was time to bake the cake.  I was waiting for my eggs, butter and whipping cream to warm for 30 minutes so I prepped everything else.  I NEVER do this!  I normally am measuring as I go.  I had to take a pic :)  I will say it was so nice having everything prepped and ready to go in the mixer. I will start doing it more often.

It was a vanilla cake frosted with Buttercream.  I put some flames on the bottom for a border.

My dad loved his cake :)

Hope you all have a great week!
Thanks for looking :)

Bacon!

Hello All!

I had a request for bacon cupcakes this week.  Not the flavor, just the design. 

Lets start with the chocolate recipe:

Mix the dry ingredients together

Eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla

Have I mentioned I love my KitchenAid :)

Bake, and voila!  Chocolate cupcakes

I used a buttercream frosting

I made little bacon strips out of fondant. 

Chocolate Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter softened






2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Paper line 20 muffin cups.
Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in small bowl.  Beat sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla in large bowl.  Gradually beat in flour mixture alternating with milk.  Spoon 1/2 cup batter into each muffin cup.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pans for 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

I have started a new facebook page, check it out :)
http://www.facebook.com/simplysweetmn

Hope you all have a great week!
Thanks for looking.

Oven love

Hello all!!

We finally got a new oven :) 




















I had to test it out.  So, I made three different kinds of cupcakes.  Excessive, yes, but worth it.

First, I made a marble cupcake.  I have a cake due in October for marble and wanted to try a new recipe.  I am pretty pleased with it.

Second was a carrot cake cupcake.  I have made this as a cake before.  The new KitchenAid has been wonderful!  It is so nice to be able to prep something else while it is mixing.  I wish I would have invested in a mixer a long time ago.

Save the best for last, Boston Creme Pie Cupcakes.  It is a yellow sponge cake with a pastry creme in the middle and chocolate ganache on top.  So good!  It took a lot longer to make, but was worth it.

I made the last two for my co-workers to say thank you for the KitchenAid.  It is the least I can do.

I am so glad to be able to bake again!  Hope you all have a great week.
Thanks for looking :)

Box Pops

Hello!

We closed on our house two weeks ago :)  I am so excited to be a homeowner.  We have had good things and bad things happen these past two weeks.  One of the bad: my oven is broken :(  I am waiting for the repair man to come out and look at it.  My co-workers went in and bought me a Kitchen Aid mixer for a housewarming gift, so I am going nuts not being able to bake!

One of my girlfriends and her husband love my baking. To them, I am Cupcake Jenni. She saw a Cake Pop kit and thought of me. 



 

It came with all the essentials.  I just needed to add water, oil, egg and butter

She brought it in for me today to make for them. I was a little leery, but without an oven, I was willing to do anything to bake. The kit required me to microwave the cake so it worked out perfect. I still don't know how I feel with that....
I rolled the balls and got everything ready for dipping

You can convert the box into a cake pop stand to let them dry

The concept is great, but they didn't taste as great.  If you are ever looking to make some for the first time, call me and I can help you through it so you can get pops that look and taste fabulous!!

I am hoping to have my oven fixed by this weekend so I can bake some cupcakes.  I have a couple recipes already picked :)

Till then, thanks for looking and have a great week!

S'mores galore

Hello all!  I said I was done, but I couldn't resist :)

I have wanted to make s'mores cupcakes for a while.  They have always seemed like a fun cupcake to make.  All my baking stuff is packed, but these were easy enough for me to make without needing anything.  The only thing I really needed was the hand torch to toast my marshmallows.

 
It starts off with a graham cracker crust on bottom.  Then it is a chocolate cake.  Melt the Hershey's chocolate and spread on top.  Cover that with a marshmallow frosting.  Top off with mini marshmallows and a chunk of chocolate and voila! 

I think they are a great summer treat :)

Now I am done baking till we move.

Hope you all have a great week and thanks for looking!

Cookies :)

Hello All!

Sorry, it has been a long time.  We had computer problems for a while. 

My friend, Katie and I made cookies this weekend.  I have dabbled in Royal Icing a little bit before.  Just enough to know the basics.  So, we made some cookies :)  We first made the sugar cookies.  Katie picked up some fun cutters, so we made a variety.  Once the cookies were cooling, we started on the icing.  It came out very thick at first.

We thinned it out and started decorating.  The thing about this icing is you need time.  You have to let one color set before you can move on to another or they will run together.
Our first ones were cupcakes.

We also made some cute high heel shoes

Who doesn't love margaritas

Sandals are always a summer hit

Lastly were sunglasses.

It took all night, but I had a blast decorating with my friend.

We are in the process of buying our first home (YEAH!).  All my baking supplies have been packed away.  I will try to post some past goodies that were missed in the midst of computer problems. 
Till then, have a great week!

Hi Hat Cupcakes

My dear friend Katie and I made some cupcakes together.  I have wanted to make these cupcakes for over a year.  I got the idea from Bakerella http://www.bakerella.com/hi-hat-cupcakes/ They have always intimidated me.  If I didn't have Katie there, I would have quit half way through making them! 
First, we made the chocolate cupcake. 

Then, we had to make the frosting.  It was a swiss meringue buttercream version.  That is what gave us so much trouble.  If you ever go to make it, make sure you de-grease your utensils first! 

We then had to make the chocolate coating for on top.

Ta-Da!!

They were very fun to make and eat :)
Thanks for looking and have a great week!