09 Thursday Apr 2015
Posted in Baking, Cooking, Food Photography & Styling
Tags
cakes, cupcakes, dessert, dried pineapple flowers, edible decoration, healthy dessert, pineapple, vegan
Healthy edible decoration for your cakes!
Step-by-step directions–> How To Make Dried Pineapple Flowers.
03 Friday Apr 2015
Posted in Baking, FiestaFriday.net, Food Photography & Styling
There are some pretty cupcakes spotted at that new party hall, FiestaFriday.net. They’re for YOU! Go grab one for yourself!
Plus Fiesta Friday #62 is happening right now
19 Thursday Dec 2013
Tags
Christmas, Christmas baking, Christmas craft, cupcakes, DIY, how-tos, Santa, Santa hat cupcakes, seashell Santa, strawberry, strawberry Santa
Unlike Megyn Kelly, I really don’t care much about the color of your Santa. Or for that matter, whether your Santa is a penguin or a polar bear. Heck, I’m making seashell Santa and strawberry Santa! You think I’m qualified to be judging other people’s Santa?
Besides, I’ve got more important issues to think about. First, I have a daughter to console. Someone stole her purse when we were in the mall. No, she didn’t lose it. It was stolen, as in swiped off her shoulder. Her entire life was pretty much in it, her cell phone, Nintendo DS, wallet, notebook, and other knickknacks that tweeners must have with them at all times.
Does that sound like a trivial problem to you? Ok, how about my other problem? I have to decide which cologne I should buy as a Christmas present for hubby. He’s always worn this certain cologne, and generally he smells pretty nice. But recently I came across a men’s cologne I really like and would love for him to wear.
Here’s the dilemma. What if he doesn’t like it, since it’s quite different from the one he’s used to wearing? The more important question is, who is a cologne for, anyway, the wearer or the smeller?
***
Last year I worked with a wonderful teacher and friend. She must be the teacher that defenders of teachers union speak about. Willing to spend personal time and money out of her own pocket so that her students get the most out of their education.
The humor she brought into her classroom made her teaching effective. She frequently enhanced her lessons with meaningful and appropriate craft projects. The seashell Santa was one of those crafts, and she wisely provided both light and dark flesh color paints.
1. Clean the shells and drill a small hole on the top part of the shells (the pointy part) before painting. Mine came cleaned and drilled, courtesy of Miss B, the teacher I referenced above. Thank you, Miss B!
2. Paint the top/pointy part of the shells in red to make Santa’s hat. Let it dry completely.
3. Paint the rest of the shells white and add a small white ball on top of Santa’s hat. Let paint dry completely.
4. Paint an oval-shaped face in the middle of the white paint, using either light or dark flesh-colored paint.
5. Using a fine-tipped brush, paint the details of Santa’s face.
6. Add a hanger by looping a piece of ribbon or nylon thread through the small hole on top of the shells.
***
If you stay on pinterest long enough, you’re bound to find these. I can’t tell where the original recipe came from, it’s been repeated so many times. Whoever thought of these, you are a genius! So simple, easy, and yet so cute! Of course, you can tint your whipped cream with any color of your choice.
1. Slice the bottom part of strawberries (the leafy part) evenly, so that they will be able to stand up. These will be Santa’s bodies.
2. Slice the pointy part of strawberries to make Santa’s hats.
3. Add a dollop of whipped cream on top of the bodies. Put the little hat on top of the cream. Add a small ball on top of the hats, two chocolate sprinkles/morsels for Santa’s eyes, and two small buttons down the front of the bodies.
By the way, my daughter took a look at all the Santas and started laughing hysterically. Somehow she found them highly amusing, even though she also said they looked creepy. Looks like I no longer have problem #1. If she can laugh like that, she must have forgotten about her stolen purse. Thank goodness!
We decided that Santa hat cupcakes were less creepy. These are just mini cupcakes with whipped cream frosting and topped with strawberries. Don’t they look adorable?
08 Sunday Sep 2013
Posted in Baking, Photography
There’s an updated (read: better) recipe for these cupcakes at my dedicated food/recipe site FiestaFriday.net. Check it out!
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Look what my daughter is bringing to school tomorrow!
Why didn’t my mother make me this when I was small? Just kidding, Mom! I know how busy you were, raising 4 children and running a business. Thank goodness you didn’t get stuck in the kitchen. We wouldn’t have been able to receive the kind of education and privileges you and Pop afforded us, otherwise. I don’t think I’ve ever said it, but thank you!
My daughter, on the other hand, is equally happy having a mother who is stuck in the kitchen. At least I hope so. She was beaming as she looked at the cupcakes. That tells me something.
No doubt many of you have seen the beautiful dried pineapple flowers atop cupcakes, perhaps in Martha Stewart’s cupcakes book, or her online site, or other sources. Certainly I’m not taking credit to be the first in showing you how to make these. But I think I’ve come up with the easiest method.
Most instructions ask you to use a small melon baller to gouge each of the pineapple eyes. Quite sadistic, don’t you think? If you’re into that sort of thing, go ahead. Have a field day!
I prefer the less time-consuming method of either peeling the pineapple thickly to remove all eyes altogether in a few strokes, or making v-shaped cuts all along the rows of eyes, removing multiple eyes at once. If that sounds confusing, here’s a photo to show what I mean.
By the way, I like smaller pineapples for this project. Small pineapples = smaller flowers = perfect for cupcakes.
Once all eyes are removed, the pineapple is then sliced thinly into round pieces. The thinner, the better. It’ll cut down on drying time.
Now, you have a choice. Either dry these slices in the oven, which means you’ll have to watch closely and most likely have to flip every 30 minutes. Most instructions tell you to. And then, you might have to deal with uneven temperature spots in the oven, if your oven is as old as mine.
I prefer a simpler fool-proof method. Using a dehydrator. Plus I didn’t want to babysit a hot oven. This way, you can leave your pineapple slices in the dehydrator and forget about them for at least 5 hours. Take a nap, go shopping, read a book, what ever you like to do.
After 5 hours, turn over the slices. Then take a nap, go shopping, read a book, whatever you like to do, for another 5 hours. (The total drying time depends on the thickness of your slices and your dehydrator, of course. I’m just telling you what I did with mine.)
After 10 hours, the pineapple slices should be dry, but still pliable. This is when you want to shape them to look like flowers. The easiest way to do this is to place them in a muffin pan so that the edges curve up to form a cup. Leave them overnight until they hold their shape.
You can use them to decorate cakes or cupcakes, just like what I did with these pineapple coconut cupcakes. Now, who wouldn’t be excited to bring these to school? I know, my son! Too girly, you think? I’ll make him prickly cactus cupcakes next time!
Pineapple Coconut Cupcakes
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar + 1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs, separated
3 tbsp buttermilk or coconut milk
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup crushed pineapple, well-drained
1/2 cup coconut flakes (sweetened)
1. Pre-heat oven to 350° F, line muffin pans with paper cups.
2. Reserve 2/3 cup of juice from crushed pineapple.
3. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and coconut flakes.
4. In a large bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar until light and fluffy, add egg yolks, vanilla, and buttermilk, beat well.
5. Add the flour mixture and reserved juice alternately, beat until well blended. Fold in crushed pineapple.
6. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. (Make sure you use clean beaters!) Gradually add 1/3 cup sugar, adding a tablespoon at a time. Continue beating until stiff peaks form. Fold into batter.
7. Fill lined muffin cups 2/3 full.
8. Bake for 20 minutes.
9. Let cupcakes cool completely prior to icing. Decorate with toasted coconut flakes and dried pineapple flowers.
There’s an updated (read: better) recipe for these cupcakes at my dedicated food/recipe site FiestaFriday.net. Check it out!
The Novice Gardener 