Keep on Rockin' those Cupcakes

All done! 49 down, none to go! Although I will be open for business for any type of custom cupcake you can imagine... as long as they're pink...

The last three designs were the Snowmen, the Nutcrackers, and the Snow Globes. I looked in 6 different stores to find the carrot noses- no go. I used candy corn instead. I think you could use orange starbursts or orange modeling chocolate. I had so many bags of candy and twinkies and gumdrops and modeling chocolate and cookies in the cabinet that I didn't even know I had the one black spice drop left for the snowman's hat on the snow globes. So make sure you pick through all your candy before buying any more! We had a super fun party where we had guests decorate their own cupcakes- such great ideas! I always thought if I ever had a really big event and I was going to get Ace of Cakes to make me a fancy cake- I would get the pink Hello Kitty Fender Stratocaster. I made some for myself out of modeling chocolate! It has been a great adventure- so many fun ideas and such a lovely way to make people happy and do art (that's edible!). We'll keep on rockin' and cupcaking and see you at the next parTAY!

Penultimate!

Oh, it's fun to use big words!!! Almost as much fun as sculpting Tootsie Rolls and Twinkies! Winkie Face! Decorating ideas number 45 and 46 were the Thanksgiving Turkeys and the Partridge in the Pear Tree. Three more to go! I have to tell you that there is no such thing as caramel jimmies. Dusty Daly City Professional Cake Store Proprietress told me this a few months ago, and lengthy internet searches have proven it true. It takes a special kind of weirdo to roll out tiny pieces of actual caramels and then mince them and then put them on the turkey with tweezers, but I did that! Then we decided that rainbow jimmies are just that much more festive. Louie likes birds. I'm not so much of a fan, so eating birds of whatever various flavors is my preferred avian interaction. We had a lovely holiday and hope everyone else did, too. Looking forward to some serious cupcaking cheer and then taking our creative endeavors to ever more artful heights- on Dasher, on Dancer!

Artists n Alligators

Love 'em, don't eat them! Or it's okay to eat them if they're made out of cupcakes! It's almost as if I planned making the alligator frosting from mixing all the Van Gogh frosting together... what does it mean?

Halloween!

Treats and Costumes make us happy...

but the werewolves WERE scary! The Giants winning the World Series was kind of fun, too! Good thing it was distraction day at Civilized Canine Class, good job Buster! All super fun cupcakes to make, just a slight issue with getting the Oreos to open cleanly. I had to have a special Oreo engineer come in. And I just used dark chocolate frosting instead of breaking out the black food coloring. Good thing the pumpkins and the Giants' colors are the same! We like to yell, "San Franciscoooooooooo!"

Rolling Out the Cookie Line! and Earth Mama Wreath

The cookies are here! There is enough butter in the world which makes it a better place.

We sent some Braille Cookies to the National Braille Press in Boston for a big show they were doing, and some Dalmations and Blonde Cocker Spaniels to Chicago for a special birthday. All arrived essentially in one piece and still full of love!

To celebrate the availability of Buster Cookies around the country- we are having a contest for a Buster Cupcake and Cookie jingle or slogan!

Grand Prize - A Buster Circus with Buster in an outfit- Me on Sax and Guitar- and a dozen cookies or cupcakes!

Second Prize- A Buster Cupcake Circus Tote-Bag, a t-shirt, and a dozen cookies or cupcakes!

Third Prize- A dozen cookies sent US Mail to your door!

The Winner will be announced on November 15th. Get your ideas to me on Facebook, here on the blog, or at my email. "Nothing says 'Somebody really really loves you' like Buster Cupcakes" [or your slogan or jingle here]. Order your holiday cookies today!

We made the Autumn Leaves Wreath this week for an Earth Mama baby shower. Even a Certified Environmental Horticulturalist had some difficulty finding suitable leaves in San Francisco. Not so many small maple leaves around. And, of course, stepping over the ravers break dancing in the street when you're stealthily sneeking through the neighbor's yard in the dark of night stealing leaves. We tried Ivy leaves but they were a bit too curly. We turned to the leaf press, so that might work at some point. Did coating the leaves with butter help? When does coating things with butter not help? I switched to using the modeling chocolate in the piping bags instead of bowls, because getting any chocolate on the back side of the leaf broke the whole thing. Not surprisingly easy. 38 down, 11 to go!

Eat More Grooms!

I surprised Mr. Filmschool with the wedding cupcakes for our anniversary! He was surprised! Since I couldn't get anyone to get married just so I could make them the wedding cupcakes...

Add your loved ones to the topper! Surprisingly this was not the most involved one of the recipes. That honor still goes to the Princesses! Although we were wondering if maybe you used the big gum drops instead of the spice drops for the dresses if it wouldn't be easier. Or fondant! The challenging bit of the wedding cupcakes was mainly hiding everything from Mr. Filmschool and breaking into the neighbor's kitchen to make the leaves. Well, I didn't break in, but I did have to cut leaves off her tree and paint them with chocolate in her kitchen. She had the brilliant idea of coating the leaves with shortening before painting them, so she let me use her organic vegan shortening, too. I am guessing butter might work as well. I had a brush but I used my fingers, I didn't break any of them until I started painting them later with the luster dust and the heat of my fingers melted them a little bit. But they were very impressive to the house environmental horticulturalist. I ate the groom, he was delicious. Mr. Filmschool ate the bride, it was really cute. Buster and Louie get lunch meat for posing, not cupcakes! I did the wreath, too. So we're all set with plenty of luster dust, mini dragees, white pearls and crystal beads if anyone else needs any wedding cupcakes! Could be good for showers, too! 37 down, 12 to go!

All Aboard, Aliens!

My friend has a band called "Sputnik" so I made him the Aliens for his birthday! Also his mom was scared of the Aliens so I had to make them. Don't let the neon green whipping, dripping, and dipping deter you from trying these, they are actually pretty simple. And I came up with the brilliant idea of putting another liner/cupcake cup on AFTER you whip, dip and drip to keep the frosting from getting all over the place. Of course I thought of this after I made some penguins for a five year old's birthday party- I bet that was a wee bit messy--- that black food coloring! I did carve a twinkie into the shape of a keyboard for the aliens and whipped, dipped and dripped it, and then added keys with white frosting- quite a hit! I did the starry night ones and planets with the same technique.

We also had a Muppet Sing-a-long for a big birthday- too bad I didn't get a chance to prop up the cupcakes with pieces of the espresso maker and take some serious pictures... At least I got one of the Swedish Chef, Mr. Filmschool's favorite, but then I ate him. Call me Chef! ;-) I found a recipe on the internet for super moist chocolate cake and it had no eggs in it- but it was super moist! All this egg drama has me even a little more cautious about the constant hand washing... What does the Swedish Chef say, "oshky boyshky..." I don't know why the photo is sideways. Louie just jumped on the keyboard to help me...

Must Be Summer!

It was a hundred degees on tuesday in San Francisco so we must be entering our glorious dog-days! Louie is not a fan. We may actually have to drive down to Sears and get a fan for our once a year hot day...

At least we have friends in sunny places! I had to order the fruit leather for the sharks' mouth off the internet, I have some extra weird colors like tie-dye if anyone has any ideas... The pool party was a blast and we had fun singing campfire songs, I even played a different guitar! When I'm in charge we're going to play "American Pie" twice!

The butterflies were pretty challenging, trying to get the chocolate to swirl around before it hardened. Mr. Filmschool took them to the garden where they'll find some real butterflies to befriend. We did play "You've Got A Friend" twice, and it wasn't even me that requested it again! Raise a cupcake everyone- "To Life, Friends!"

Sleeping with the Fishes, TV Dinners, and mmmm, Bagels

So many parties, so little time! They had a camp-over at the garden so we got to make more of Mr. Filmschool's colleagues- I love it when they love the cupcakes!

The TV dinner was a good time- remember before there were microwaves? I loved that little dessert! And who can resist a dee-licious bagel with a homemade-with-love cappuccino! I get to show off my other talent- foaming! We have a great idea to outfit the Prius with a little espresso cart and take it to the dog park to serve coffee drinks and dog pastries- I can't wait to make a giant cupcake to go on top of the car!

Off to check out more dog parks! So far we like the one with the sunshine, little dog area and astroturf....

Horses

So we counted up again how many recipes are in Hello, Cupcake! and it isn't 50, but 49. AND we recounted how many recipes we've completed- it's now 28 so we only have 21 left to go! And we're sad about that because it means that we won't have to hunt for any more weird candy on the internet or search out dusty old cake decorating shops in Daly City because we already found them all! We also finished reading Julie&Julia and we are sad that we perhaps are not neurotic enough to be a memoirist even though we are pretty dang neurotic. Oh well.

Of course one of the horses had to be pink as that is an immutable law of cupcakes. Extra circus peanuts and extra cookie wafers make it so.

We did the Horses for which we sent away for the white circus peanuts many moons ago and have been saving the dried onions since Thanksgiving. A little more room in the cupcake cabinet! I did have a crazy dream about the speckle-y jelly beans which might make me neurotic enough for something...

Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue!

And plenty of Baseball as the Giants loose to the Rockies in 15 innings... I made lots and lots of cupcakes and had the gang come out to help me eat them all- the Flag recipe calls for 96 cupcakes. I made them out of organic fruit juice sweetened carrot cake with organic blueberries and strawberries since we had to eat so many...

Buster and Mr. Filmschool like carrot cake and we all looked super cute in our matching t-shirts and cupcake hats. Better to eat lots of cupcakes than weird stuff off the ground. Everyone had a great time and no cupcakes had to spend the night in the emergency room. 26 recipes down, 24 to go!

Take the Garden Gnomes Bowling, Take them Bowling

Bowling pins seemed a little drab- so we livened them up by turning them into Garden Gnomes- complete with leftover spice drop ale tankards! Always a party at the garden! It was Mr. Filmschool's birthday along with several co-workers so our little cupcake factory has been working over-time.

We have a friend who has some chickens- so we made her some special cupcakes- a friend in a big show so he got some comedy/tragedy masks- and we can all do with a little help from mother nature now and then.

25 recipes down- we're half-way there, it must be time for a big party!