Pirate Ship Cake

So a colleague of mine asked me to make a cake for her son’s birthday.  She told me that he would really love a pirate ship and a sea monster would be cool too.  After a little research into what has been done before, I adapted many different tricks and trials and this is what I came up with!

For the cake, I added an extra egg to each batter (a Funfetti cake and a chocolate cake) which definitely made the cakes easier to carve.  I also put them in the freezer for a few minutes before shaping them which also helped.  I used Twix for the side boards and Hershey chocolates to wood boards down the center of the boat (dusted in gold sprinkles).  I used kabob skewers for the sails and put them through a Rolo candy at the base.  The sea monsters are made of mini cupcakes with marshmallow eyes and the beach is chocolate frosting topped with honey nut cheerios that I put in the food processor.

Needless to say, Hayden was all smiles when we delivered the cake to his front door this morning!!

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Twinkie Cupcakes

What kid doesn’t love Twinkies? So one of my advisee’s who is also lives in my dorm’s birthday is today, and he LOVES Twinkies!  So in honor of his birthday I decided to make the Twinkie Cupcake recipe that I found on Pinterest.  While they are quite sweet for my liking (must be the bag of confectionery sugar and two cups of Fluff), Twinkie lovers will go weak in the knees for these bad boys.  Thanks to thedomesticrebel.com for the recipe!!

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

• 1 box yellow cake mix, plus ingredients on back of box
• 1 box Instant Vanilla pudding

Cupcake Filling:

• 1/2 cup Fluff
• 1 stick butter
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 teaspoons very hot water

Frosting

• 1/2 cup Fluff
• 2 sticks softened butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• About 1 bag (32 oz) powdered sugar (I used a little less)

Cupcake Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 muffin tins.
2. Prepare cake mix according to package directions, adding the pudding mix and divide amongst cupcake tins.  Bake according to box directions (about 15 minutes).  Cool completely, the core out the cupcake’s middles (I used the top of my garlic press, but you can use anything round).

Filling Directions:
1. Dissolve the salt into the hot water. While the water is cooling, in a separate bowl beat together the marshmallow cream, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract until fluffy. Beat in the salt water. Mixture should be light but not as stiff as frosting.
2. I spooned the filling into the hollowed out cupcakes, but you could also pipe the filling into each cored cupcake, filling just to the top. Refrigerate cupcakes while you prepare the frosting.

Frosting Directions:

1. Beat together the fluff, butter and vanilla until creamy. Gradually begin adding powdered sugar in, about one cup at a time, until frosting is light and fluffy.
2. Pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes covering the filled part of the cupcake.

Girl on Fire Cupcakes

So for about a year my friends have been telling me to read The Hunger Games.  They were enthralled by the series and couldn’t put them down.  However, when I heard them all talking about the storyline and the books in general, I always thought to myself, that sounds freaken awful!  A government that throws teenagers into a “Colosseum” to kill each other, definitely not for me. But I think we can all see where this is going…

When our librarian asked for teachers to volunteer to lead book groups over our March break, I told her I’d love to lead one.  I rarely find time to read when classes are in session so I figured it was a perfect time to catch up.  She sent a few suggestions based on books I was interested in, but when I saw the commercial for The Hunger Games movie, I thought, perfect.

I had a pretty large group of kids sign up to read it and will be leading my first book group discussion tomorrow night.  In honor of The Hunger Games and Katniss Everdeen, I made some “Girl on Fire Cupcakes.”  I used a box mix, as kids often don’t appreciate the work that goes into making things from scratch, but I’m looking forward to their feedback!  Sometimes teenagers can be the toughest critics!

 

They weren’t too difficult to make.  As I said, I used a boxed yellow cake, making it according to the directions.  Then I divided the cake into 3 semi even bowls and died one red, one yellow, and one orange (yellow + red) and swirled a bit with a toothpick.  Next, I layered the colors in the cupcake tins with the red on bottom and yellow on top.  After baking according to box directions, I let them cool (important).  While cooling I mixed 2 cans of frosting (1 decorating and 1 vanilla) and split into 3 bowls.  I dyed them orange, red, and yellow and put into my decorating syringe layering them and frosted the cupcakes!  Good luck making them them…

“May the odds be ever in your favor…” – Suzette Collins, The Hunger Games

Rubber Ducky Bathtub Cake

So it is that time of year again, Dessert Auction time. While the last two years I have made cakes to represent hot dogs and hamburgers, this year I was looking for something a little smaller and less expensive to make. I came across many ideas online, but decided to mesh a bunch of them together and create a Rubber Ducky in a Tub Cake. Overall, the cake was pretty easy to make, and the end result was pretty darn good if you ask me (and the students who ended up winning the cake for $540). First, I baked off a white cake and a chocolate cake in four 9inch round cake pans. Sure, I could have made them from scratch, but that would have cost more, and really, the kids don’t care if it’s a box or if you spend three days making the thing. Next I stacked three of these cakes on top of each other, cutting the tops level and using frosting in between. I snuck some Sweedish Fish in there too for a surprise.

Next, I frosted the sides of the cake, attaching Kit-Kats to the sides of the cake as seen above. The frosting was plenty to hold the kit-kats onto the cake, but I tied some ribbon around it just to be sure. I then added some blue frosting to the top to act as the water and put the cake in the fridge over night.

Next day being the dessert auction, I colored some cool whip blue, as I thought this looks more like water than frosting does and put a little rubber ducky on top with some more Sweedish Fish jumping out of the top. I think this is a really cute idea for a baby shower or to celebrate a baby’s birthday! (by the way, this super cool cake earned $540 for the Junior class to put towards their prom!)