Under the [Sweet] Sea

I am going to cut right to the chase and say I just finished my absolute favorite cake pop display OF ALL TIME. 

Ok, now that that's over with... I have not posted in a while because of life. Life is busy! I moved, so that took an insane amount of energy and time. I am still recovering from the exhaustion but, moved in and it is starting to feel like home!

A few weeks ago my friend asked me to make this display and in my head I'm like "Elena how are you going to pull this off, you're moving. You're going to be in boxes, how are you going to make 40 cake pops (which turned into 60) in time!" Then I was told the theme--- The Little Mermaid.  After that there was no question.. this was happening!

Anyone who knows me at all knows my obsession with The Little Mermaid. Currently, if you walked into my parents' house and into my room you'd find a giant shelf filled with Ariel things. But that's not all.. she is basically everywhere in my life--coffee mugs at work, produce shopping bags, my keychain, my cell phone case, my socks, window sticker on my car... she is even on the bedspread currently on my bed in the apartment until I find one I like! She is everywhere.. Ariel is a part of me! I grew up with the movie and watched it so much I think I killed the tape.  It's the part of me that will never grow up.

So, needless to say I was quite passionate about this project.  I wanted the characters to come alive so I played a lot with fondant, even tinting it myself which I haven't done too much of.  The fondant "sea life" tray I picked up was perfect, even the conch that Ursula steals Ariel's voice with worked out perfectly! I am not a great sculptor so I knew I couldn't make the characters from scratch, so I printed them in colored paper and then built the lower half of their bodies onto cake pops!

So happy with this one! I really hope everyone enjoys them as much as I loved making them!

Next up: Valentine's Day Dinos.. yes.. Dinos :)

-Elena

Congratulations! You're Half Way to 50! Have a Cupcake..

There is a trend among my friends and peers right now.. and it's, dare I say it... turning twenty five. 25. Two-Five. A quarter of a century.  Half way to 50. What?? Yup. It's happening.

I have to say, this "milestone" number doesn't have me too worked up.. I actually feel like I am in my prime! I feel healthier, happier, stronger, smarter and more confident now than I did when I was 18, or 21.  Things are happening! Life is getting exciting! There is no slowing down, and the only way to go is up! So, a word for all my twenty something friends and readers out there-- don't fear the joining of these two numbers... the best is yet to come!

I made some cupcakes for a high school peer who was celebrating her sister-in-law's 25th birthday this weekend.. They came out all sorts of glizty and glam with some flowers and fondant accents.  Let me tell you, butter cream comes out AMAZING in the winter, when the house is hot! This butter cream was out of this world.. I'm tempted to go in my fridge and get one of the leftovers I have in there just thinking about that damn butter cream. YUM. It's all I can say.  These cupcakes were fun, I played with different tips like closed star, open star, rose tip, and an open coupler.  I am not a cupcake master yet, but I think these turned out cute!

So here are the pretty cupcakes.

Also, my friend&coworker Becky celebrated her 25th on Saturday!  We drank wine and took shots of whiskey and shared bites of cake pops. It was raining and humid out and it didn't matter that the cherry chocolate cake pops were melting, it was chocolate, and cherries. Maraschino cherries.. fresh, with juice and all..baked in cake and mixed with that awesome amazing butter cream I just went on and on about above..  Not sure what it was this weekend, but my baking was just on and I was loving it!

Happy Birthday Becky!!

And there are still more 25th to celebrate soon!  My best friend Maureen is at the end of the month, then mine shortly after that.  I think I'll have to bake for myself? How does that work!?

I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine was amazing and relaxing--and I got to visit my cousin aka sister Anastasia today which was lovely!  Time to finish up these boring Golden Globes before hitting the hay, another week is upon us, people! Make it a good one :)

-Elena

Snowflakes and Square Cakes

BRRRRRR… It’s cold. Hate to state the obvious but, wow… It is relentless!  Though I love New England and would never leave permanently, it’s the cold stretches like this that make me very tempted to hop on a plane and fly to Weston, Florida and crash on my brother’s couch for a couple of weeks!

 

The sub zero temps have made it hard to find motivation to go out and do things, but with moving day quickly approaching, I have been so busy prepping that I’ve barely baked!  I am, however, getting extremely booked up for the spring with wedding season coming up which makes me very excited! Lots of bridal showers with smiling brides and sunshine!

 

I did get the chance to make there little cakes last weekend—I had a ton of leftover buttercream from the super heroes cake I did in December and had been wanting to use it up.  It was already tinted dark blue, so I couldn’t really use it for the holidays so I decided to save it and make some square cakes!  I like this take on cupcakes.. cupcakes are not my favorite things in the world. I enjoy making them because piping buttercream is fun, but really I am not all for globs of buttercream piled high on a small cake—hence why I am a cake pop feign!  So I wasn’t feeling cupcakes, and didn’t have enough buttercream to really frost a ton of cupcakes, so square cakes were born!!

 

I made my chocolate batter and poured into a pan of little squares.

 

I threw all the buttercream into the Kitchen Aid and remixed for about 10 minutes to get some moisture and air back into it.

 

Meanwhile I dug through my sprinkles and found two I thought were appropriate for the cold weather! These would give my cakes a nice, wintery feel.

After the cakes were finished, I cooled them on a rack and took a sharp paring knife to cut the tops off that had rounded a bit while baking, so they were flat and ready for icing!

 

I didn’t want to smear the buttercream on, but I also didn’t want to spend hours piping, so I went with a simple star tip!

 

After that I topped with the sprinkles and added a bit of pearl spray to give them a wintery luster!

YUM!

 

Stay warm everyone!!

 

-Elena