St. Valentine's Day

People have been exchanging Valentines for over 200 years. Originally, though, it was a day devoted to sacrifice. But in the high middle ages, thanks to Geoffrey Chaucer, it became associated with romantic love. While the message and the presentation may have changed the concept is still the same. Valentine's Day is a day when people give each other gifts to show how much they love each other. This picture is a Valentine from the year 1887.

It's crazy to think that cupcakes like the one in this blog can trace their tradition back so far. All you need for making this cupcake is pink dye and red and white fondant. Remember that you can play around with the colors and make it your own. 

I first dyed some white icing pink and iced my cupcakes. I then began to roll out my red and white fondant. Once again I rolled it out really thin so I will have some left over for the next cupcake I decide to make. Once I rolled out the fondant I cut out two different sized hearts (one big and one small) with my heart shaped cookie cutters. I did this both for the red fondant and the white fondant. this way you have one red big heart, one small red heart, one big white heart and one small white heart. I then placed a small amount of icing on the small red heart and then placed it in the middle of the big white heart and then placed the small white heart in the middle of the big red heart. So the hearts should be opposite colors on each other. After that I simply placed the fondant heart on the cupcakes and I was done. 

I hope you enjoy this cupcake and try changing to colors up if you want. You can't mess it up! Just try and simply make it your own. 

Chocolate on Chocolate

Here is another fun yet simple cupcake for you to do with friends or for your Valentine. Who wouldn't love to get cupcakes for Valentine's day? I know flowers and a box of chocolates are the traditional gifts, but times are changing so do something fun and surprising! It's good to change things up sometimes and your Valentine will least expect it! These cupcakes won't take any time at all to make so you will still have time to prepare dinner or finish shopping for your loved one :)

It's chocolate on chocolate. So for all you chocolate lovers, this is the way to go!

I put about a spoonful of chocolate icing in a zip-lock baggy and then cut a 1/2 inch hole in one of the corners so it would pipe out thick and smooth. I then squeezed the icing onto the cupcake in a spiral motion going upward. I then sprinkled a few white imperials on the icing. It's up to you as to how much you want to put on there, and you can even leave them off if you don't like sprinkles.

For the fondant heart, I dyed white fondant red and then rolled it out rather thin because it will go farther the thinner it is. I took a small heart cookie cutter and cut out a heart from the fondant. I simply placed it on top of the icing. Make sure it's secure or it might slide off and you will have to cut out another heart.

I hope you enjoy this cupcake and I promise you can make these. Always remember to have fun and make them your own!

Mr. Owl

This is such a cute commercial and it's from the 70's so I know you've probably seen it. This commercial always makes me smile :) My favorite animal is an owl so that's where I got this idea for this particular cupcake. So I took my favorite animal and turned it into a Valentine's Day cupcake and I have to say I think they turned out really cute. They were a little more tedious than some of my other cupcakes, so I had to spend a little more time on them.

I used pink icing, fondant and red and pink dye. I first dyed my icing a light pink color and iced the cupcakes. Then I dyed my fondant red and rolled it out really thin. I first cut out the owl by hand but you could also print an owl template from your computer if you need something to go by. There is nothing wrong with that, in fact, it's something I do all the time! Once I had cut out the owl bodies I set those aside and cut out two small white fondant heart shapes with a heart cookie cutter. Then I put them on the lower part of the Owl body. I then pinched two tiny balls off the white and rolled them up and pushed two of each on each Owl for his eyes and then went back with a black food marker (used for drawing on fondant- you can find these at Michaels) to dot the middle of each eye. The next thing I did was cut out two stripes of the red fondant for the branch for the Owls to stand on. You can cut these however you want. You can cut a straight line or you can split it at the end to make it look more branch like. I put one branch on each cupcake and then added my Owls. I placed them on the cupcakes to make them look like they were sitting on the branch. I added a few white fondant dots to different areas of the cupcakes, but you don't have to that. If you do, you can place them however you would like.

I really hope you try these. Also, don't be afraid to change the color of the Owls and the icing. No matter what colors you use they will turn out GREAT! Don't forget to watch the video above, I promise it will put a smile on your face :)

It's the Simple Things that Count

This is one of my favorite cupcakes. I really enjoy decorating all types of cupcakes but the ones I think look the best are the simple ones and you can't get more simple than this :)

I started off with some whipped vanilla icing (you can dye the icing a certain color or just leave it white, whatever you would like). I put about a spoonful of the icing into a baggy and then cut one corner of the baggy at about 1/2 inch. I then started putting the icing on the cupcake by starting on one side of the cupcake and swirling upward.

For the fondant heart and dyed white fondant red (but you can dye it whatever color you like) and rolled it out. I tried not to roll it out super thin because then the heart would be too flexible and wouldn't stay up. Once I rolled the fondant out I used my heart shaped cookie cutter from the previous blog and cut out a medium size heart. Then I simply placed it into the top middle of the cupcake and I was done.

Anyone can do this cupcake and you can add as many things to it as you would like and try all the colors that you want. Always remember it's your creation :)

Fidelity

regina spektor - Fidelity
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Regina Spektor is one of my favorite artists. She has an amazing voice and all her songs are very original. This is one of my favorite songs by her, and the first Regina song I had ever heard. The cupcakes not only go with this particular song but also go with the next month coming up which would February. And of course the next big holiday is none other than Valentine's Day!

These cupcakes were fun and simple. I only used heart shaped cookie cutter and red and pink dye for this cupcake. I first cut the top of the cupcake off as smoothly as I could. Then I turned the separated top of the cupcake over so the soft cake part was facing up. I then placed the cookie cutter in the middle and pressed down firmly and gently removed the cookie cutter with the heart shaped cake coming out with it. You want to be as gentle as possible so you don't break the top of the cupcake.

I then dyed my icing with red and pink dye to give it the colors of Valentine's Day, but you can use whatever colors your little heart desires :)

I iced each cupcake (one red, one pink and one white). Then I placed the top of the cupcake with a heart shaped hole back on top of the iced cupcake so you can see the colored icing through the heart hole. I then got the remaining icing of each color that went with each cupcake and filled in the heart cut out. I filled it to the top with icing, but you could choose not to fill it, or only to fill it halfway depending on what you and your guests would like. After I filled in the heart cut out I tried to make the icing as smooth as possible and then I was done. It's as simple as that :)

Also here's a little tip. Hobby Lobby has some great cookie cutters to choose from and they are also pretty inexpensive. And Walmart has their aisle of Valentine's things out so you could also look there for cookie cutters. I hope you enjoy and have fun with these cupcakes because I know I definitely did. Also feel free to listen to and watch the video above. You might just become a Regina fan :)

Forevermore

You know how you see something that reminds you of a song and you cant wait to get home or get into your car to turn it on and start singing to it? Well this is the song that this cupcake reminds me of. After I decorated this cupcake this song came popping into my head and I just wanted to play this song on repeat (yes, I am a repeat person) :) It fits this cupcake to a T. It's the cupcake that you could see yourself wanting at a tea party with you and your dolls when you were 10 years old.  It's light, airy and sweet.

This cupcakes was extremely simple. I used fondant for the flowers and the vine. I iced the cupcake with fluffy white icing and then began rolling out the fondant. Here's a tip for you, try to roll the fondant out pretty thin, this way you will have some left over for another cupcake and you won't have to mix more. You can choose whichever colors you like for the flowers. I had these colors already made so I used what I already had. Once I rolled out the fondant I took flower shaped fondant cutters (cookie cutters will work too) and pressed out the pieces. I then placed little yellow dots of fondant in the center of each flower and placed them on the cupcake. I rolled out the green fondant and made little swirls for the vines and placed those on the cupcake and that's it! Like I said, simple but sweet. I hope you enjoy this cupcake and this song that reminds me of it. Every cupcakes fits with a song :)

Happy New Year!

Last week my husband and I went back home (to Alabama) to visit friends and family to celebrate New Year's. While I was back home I got to hang out with some friends that I have missed dearly. We had a girls night of talking, laughing and of course decorating cupcakes. After a while of trying to think of what to make, we all decided to make our favorite breakfast foods. Who doesn't love breakfast?!

Clockwise from the top: Lynette's cookie & mouse, Jennifer's eggs & bacon and sausage biscuit & strawberries,  my Poptarts, Kimberlee's doughnut & cereal, Karly's cinnamon roll & waffle w/ butter and finally my flower cupcake in the middle.

All in all we had a great time. It was fun and rewarding getting to help other people create and decorate super fun cupcakes. My friends did an amazing job and in the end the only things I really contributed were the decorating supplies. After a great night I'm already looking forward to the next girls night with friends :)