Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Birthday Party Minion Cupcakes

My children both have their birthday in October.  This year, my ex husband and I are on much better terms, and decided to have a party with the boys, their friends, and both our families.  We didn't have a theme, or rather the theme was everything!  Transformers, Power Rangers, How to Train Your Dragon, and more.  As a former grocery store cake decorator, I fancy myself talented to a degree in this department.  While on Pinterest (LOVE) I happened upon the MINION CUPCAKES.  This was a great way to round out the everything theme!  After browsing a few sites that I found via GOOGLE.  I ultimately decided to make these yummy treats after seeing the great close up pictures.  I'll give a little explanation, and make my best attempt at loading pictures to so you can see how this went down.  I did different hair on each minion, and let my boys pick the eye colors, and weather it had one eye or two.

What you need:

Cupcakes, frosted
Chocolate frosting or black decorators gel
Twinkies
Smarties Candies
Sandwich or cake decorating bag (if you are using frosting)

I made one dozen cupcakes and a single layer cake.  I do suggest only making the minions just before the party!  I made mine the night before and they did get a little stale (as stale as a twinkie can get anyway!)

Start by cutting the twinkies in half for as many cupcakes as you need.  Lay them out on parchment paper.  If you are using frosting, you will then need to put some of the chocolate frosting in the baggie or decorators bag and cut the tip pretty small!  Next, make a blob to stick your eye/eyes on.  Place the smarties on the blob, and outline making it look like glasses or goggles.  You can then use the gel or frosting to draw a mouth, and hair sprouts.


Great!  Now, you want to make sure you don't have too much frosting on the cupcakes, or too little!  just under 1/4 inch of frosting is about what I had on mine.  enough to make them stick, but not so much it buried the minions!

I didn't have an extra cake carrier for these bad boys.  I had made the plain decorated single layer cake in my dome!  I just had to be extra careful not to tip them over!

This is a very fun project!  It was a HUGE hit at the party!

You can find lots of examples of this on the web too!  Enjoy!

Monday, November 5, 2012

There's a first time for everything!!

As many mothers do, I struggle with what to make for the kids, that is healthy (or healthy-ish) and still a crowd pleaser.  When I make something yummy and amazing, I take a picture and post it on Facebook.  This always generates lots of "When should I be over for dinner?" or "Where's mine?".  So rather than continuing to blow up my own page with pictures of food, I have decided to start a blog.

So Friday night, I decided to make fish for dinner.  I decided to NOT reach for the yellow or blue box full of fish tenders.  Instead I walked up to the fresh seafood counter, and asked the boys to help me choose some fish for dinner.  The winner?  SALMON!  Now, how do I cook fresh fish!?!

Knowing they wouldn't want to eat plain broiled fish like me.  I decided to try my hand at fish nuggets.  I mixed up some egg and milk in one bowl, and bread crumbs, corn meal, garlic powder, salt and pepper in another.  I dredged and crusted up those tasty little bites and pan fried them in a little olive oil.  Served these tasty bites up with some asparagus and scratch tarter sauce (dill relish and salad dressing).  The broiled portion of the meal also turned out perfect!  I rubbed down the remaining 1.5 pound salmon fillet with lemon, a sprinkle of salt, and some thyme, and tossed it under the broiler for just a couple minutes!  Slightly browned, flaky and juicy!  My only regret is that I didn't snap any pictures of this meal.

I can't wait to share MORE wins with you!  I promise as I get better at this whole blog thing, I'll get more pictures and TRY to get some actual recipes on here (instead of "a little of this and a little of that").

Here goes nothing.  Publishing my first blog....