Halloween Cupcakes ~ Pumpkins and Spiders

I had a few kiddies coming for a playdate today as well as my annual Halloween party for the daycare so I used cake mix and Betty crocker frosting to whip up these cupcakes quickly for the kids. 

For these simple pumpkins I used white cake mix and fluffy white frosting.  Used my orange food colouring on both and swirled the icing on in a circular motion.  Added tiny M&M's for a leaf.  Easy peasy.

For the spider, chocolalte cake mix and icing.  I was supposed to use shoestring licorice for the legs but couldn't find it anywhere so I cut my own.  At least the legs look hairy, I guess.  Sprinkles for the spider hair and red M&M minis for the eyes. 

I had to use my cute pumpkin and Bat non pariels too so the last chocolate cupcakes got those.

MMMMMM, fun and tasty. 

Happy 2nd Birthday to Remy & Violetta!

Iggle Piggle sits atop a lemon cake smothered in blue cream cheese frosting with rainbow non pariels on top.

Upsy Daisy sits on top of a lemon cake smothered in pink cream cheese frosting, sprinkled with rainbow jimmies!

1st Layer Cake ~ Trying my hand at cake levelling

Happy Mother's Day to me!  My family bought me a set of Pyrex bakeware for Mother's Day.  It's not in yet, but I know about it since I picked it out myself.  HOW ORIGINAL!  Perfect gift for the budding baker.  Thanks family!  I'm especially thankful for all of the amazing little hand crafted pieces of artwork from my children.  These kids rock.

Lots of together time today.  Breakfast feast with my own Mommy.  A drive to take in some countryside.  Some yardwork and outdoor play.  And alas, some baking. 

Lily was my partner in crime today.  When all was done, Griffin asked for a piece and said "Hey Dad!  When it's Father's Day, the boys will bake a cake together too!"  and my heart broke in an instant.  He felt left out.  Waaah!  So I reassured him that my next baking project with be with him alone.  Silly Mommy thought he was having fun with his outside time.  My son, I could go on forever...but I digress. 

I really just wanted to try my hand at two particular things today.
A)  Levelling cakes. 
B)  Smoothing Icing with a sheet of paper.

Here are the pics and captions of the day.

Two 8" white cakes

I'm still learning.  These were slightly cracked.  Still delish.

I fooled around with a mixture of icing and mandarin oranges.  I ended up not using this. 
I'll use whipped cream with the oranges next time.  Or vanilla pudding?

My first levelled cake.  I used this big knife instead of the Wilton levelling device. 
Saved the cake tops for future cake pops.

Making a damn around to keep the filling from spilling over.

Chocolate pudding

All spread

The top layer levelled, and then set upside down on our chocolate pudding filling.

My Wilton Cake Icer and 16' featherweight bag.

First time trying this out too. 

I had a lot of bubbles.  No biggie though.

Smoothing it out with the spatula

Using some letterhead to attempt smoothing the layer after 10 minutes. 
In this case, 10 min wasn't long enough to create a crust and this method didn't work for me. 
Boo hiss!

Tried it with wax paper to see if I'd have a different result.  Still didn't work.

Handed things over to my girl on Mother's Day.

Making pink flowers

Not sure how this jumped so far into the pics, but Lil tinted her own icing.

Cute border of flowers.  Not bad for a 7 year old!

Adding some yellow nonpareils for the centers.

Pink nails!

Starting to feel like spring!

Some of her finished flowers

Working on the lettering now.  This is where it got funny.

GOT to love this cake.

I better not find this on Cake Wrecks!  For a 7 year old, this is a Cake Masterpiece!

Angelfood Cake FAIL ~ A Boxed Mix to Boot

Overcome with the temptation to whip up a sweet treat after refusing to feed my children caffeine and rum laden tiramisu cupcakes, I whipped out the nearest cake mix and decided to try an angelfood cake.  My Mother in Law had recently given me a neat pan that would work well for this type of cake, so it was a done deal.  With the toddlers eating their lunch, I just added water and got to the mixing and picture taking for your viewing pleasure.  I had hoped to make an amazing Italian Meringue Buttercream from scratch to accompany it, but let's just say...we didn't get there.

Skip to the part where the babies were finished with their lunches, washed up and ransacking the family room.  With a few minutes left for the cake to finish, I took advantage of the time allowance to "help" them tidy up.  This involves a whole lot of me singing and doing huge gestural movements to model the "how to's" of cleaning.  In the end they pass me a couple more and throw the odd toy back into the mix.  Today was a little hairier than usual and while two of us were tidying on one side, two more were dumping on the opposite side.  I lost track of my Angel food cake. 

Lesson learned:

Timing is everything.
I can't wait for my kids to be old enough to wash dishes.  These cupcake pans were a disaster.

Here are the results:

Betty Crocker Angel Food Cake mix.

Love this new measuring cup.  Readable from the inside.

The pan handed down from my Mother in Law.  Recipe called for a 3litre pan, but mine is more of a 1 litre pan.

Whipping it up

I should have just let the babies fingerpaint with this loveliness!

Filled the pan

Had plenty leftover to try these, although there were no cupcake instructions on the box. 

This is the ladle I always use for batter.  The directions specifically said "ungreased pan".

At least I can say we were off to a good start.  The whole process was super quick.

Popped into the oven.

Beginning to rise.  I left to tidy up.

Oops.  Angelfood Jerky.

At least the cake looks good!

Oops, even the cake needed less time.

But it was white on the inside.

And I ate a bunch that I ripped off before chucking the burnt stuff.  Mmmm, warm cake mess goodness.  It's a shame I wrecked it.