Earth Day - Dearth of Cupcakes

For Earth Day Buster and I decided to go to the beach and pick up cigarette butts instead of making cupcakes. We did run into our "Personal 'Pup'-arazzo"- Michele Rider from Light Rider Images http://www.lightriderimages.com/ who took this gorgeous photo of Buster hanging out with an all-white Bulldog named Cupcake- here they are negotiating a unilateral stick accord.

We also had to do some Spring cleaning- getting those toadstools off of our webbed feet and the mildew off the antiques with white vinegar.

Instead of heading South to the Party Store and the Professional Baking Store- I went to Nordstrom's Rack and spent a whole lotta money on clothes- so the skinny on how expensive it is to buy cupcake fixin's has to take into account what we'd be doing if we weren't making cupcakes. No more cupcake breaks!

Alan Richardson, co-author of "Hello, Cupcake," commented on our Dolores Park made out of cupcakes and said, "Beautiful Cupcakes"! Just like Julia Child writing to Julia! Yay!

Somehow a close-up of the tap shoes didn't make it into the blog last week.

And Mr. Filmschool said we could say anything we wanted abut him- so here he is enjoying the cupcake representation of me, with my cd in the background:

He was sad that there were no cupcakes for him this week, so... no more cupcake hiatuses... I've got 32 weeks left in the year and 40 more decorating recipes! That ought to keep me out of Nordstroms! And we'll make some more Earth Day cupcakes- I want to try the bugs. Every day is Earth Day around here, seeing as Mr. Filmschool and I met volunteering for an Environmental Film Festival 18 years ago this month.

Black and White but Tap Shoes, CD Release Party and 51-50 Party

Ten down, 40 more to go!

Mr. Filmschool says, "After all the words and pictures, it's a dang good cupcake!"

I volunteered to make tap shoe cupcakes for my tap dance teacher's SURPRISE 60th Birthday.

I shaped the shoes out of circus peanuts and then did the black food coloring/chocolate frosting whipping-dipping and DRIPPING technique. It occurred to me after I made 48 tap shoes that I could have cut the circus peanuts in half longways and they would have looked more like tap shoes than tranny platforms. I have to say though that I thoroughly studied tap teacher's tap shoes and they are like those character shoes with a little heel and wingtippy-ness, not like the Capezio sort of shiny ballet shoes that I have. I also realized too late that I could have let the tap shoes drip on one piece of parchment paper and then pulled them off and let them drip some more on another piece of parchment paper. I am getting Schooled in dripping. The tap class LOVED the cupcakes! One day I will be good at tap dancing AND cupcake making! I repurposed the leftover cupcakes for the Bitter Mystics CD release party at Biscuits and Blues. I was playing with my guitar teacher and it was his 51st birthday party as well- last year was his 50th so he was calling it his 51/50 party.

Good thing we didn't go reveling down the street and all get 51/50-ed! It was an AMAZING show- the band was SUPER tight and tons of people came out- very Saturday Night DOWNTOWN in the Big City.

Happy Birthday all you little Aries Rams- maybe that's my next cupcake- Zodiac signs....

I am one shoe loving lady, though. I think shoe cupcakes might be my next favorite after pets. Pencils down.

Family Tree

My cousins came to town so I figured what better time to make the family tree cupcakes! One good thing was that I was able to use all the flesh tone frosting from the babies a couple of weeks ago- don't worry, I meticulously check expiration dates! That Betty Crocker frosting is built to last!

The book had you create your own hair templates and then color them in with modeling chocolate that has to be microwaved for 5 seconds at a time until it reaches the right temperature- a task that looks pretty daunting- especially trying to get our hair right! Most everyone in mother's family has beautiful silky straight blond hair- except for me! Getting those squigly bangs right on myself was actually the hardest part of the hair. And I ended up looking like Loretta Lynn- which is I suppose better than looking like the lady on Market Street with the wings on her head who played the synthesizer in the 1990's- but I guess she looks a little like Lorretta Lynn, too. My mother turned out the to be the best likeness. What a windfall for my therapist! ;-)

Thanks so much to all the family across the country who sent pictures and memories of Grammy: what an amazing family she bore! 105 living blood relatives at last count! If you want to be represented in cupcakes- you'll have to come visit!

I wanted to show Roni how we're related- my grandmother is her grandmother's grandmother.

I think I have to do some research on those metalic dragees- non-toxic and edible but don't eat them? I remember putting them on angel sugar cookies for Christmas when I was a little girl. Lots of memories stirred up in making this cupcake family tree. I have to say painting the tree was a nice break: the materials didn't get too worked being out of the fridge for 15 minutes; I didn't have to wash my hands every second; it didn't matter if I sneezed on it; and I didn't have to worry about how it tasted!

Mr. Filmschool is playing fetch with Buster and working up an appetite for eating one of my family members....

Pupcakes

Personal Pet Portraits in Cupcakes! My first *PAID* commission! Happy Birthday, Rebecca! Go Aries Women! This is Chelsea the English Cocker Spaniel and Cody the Yellow Lab. Again, watch out for that black food coloring- it's messy. We learned a lot about blending and shading on this one. And we have a new motto "don't skimp on the frosting"!

Must stop thinking about cupcakes and go practice for the big show at Biscuits and Blues on Saturday!

Hello, Cupcake! Challenge #13

Hello, Buster! Hello,Cupcake!

Hello, Kitty!

Bunny

Cupcake Cupcake

Toadstool (I know, everyone made those)

Saxophone

"I Left My Heart In San Francisco"

Vegan Easter Egg

Penguins

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence put on a groovy Easter Party every year. I thought of making the cupcakes and somehow affixing them to Easter bonnets-bound to win the Easter Bonnet contest right there! But it rained on Easter. Yes, that's why this whole plan was disastrously ruined. That and the black food coloring.

It was hard to get the Starburst beak to stay affixed to the penguin's face. And that whipping and dipping the chocolate frosting technique is a little messy. Starbursts are pretty easy to mold into interesting shapes, but roll them out on the wax paper. And don't let Mr. Film School eat them while he's sleeping! They are not compost! They will last all year- until the Christmas Cupcake Castle when we throw all the leftover decorations on one big Christmas Circus Tent!

Seven decorating recipes down, 43 to go in 270 days!

Here we are at our Dolores Park made of cupcakes!

Down the Rabbit Hole...

One thing we've learned so far is do not try to find out of season items - Valentine candy boxes are expensive on Saint Patrick's Day! So we thought we'd better get all those Easter cupcakes done now! Start planning on inviting me to all your Christmas parties!

I had to buy the white circus peanuts for the rabbit feet on the internet as I could not find them in San Francisco. George Howe sent them within the week and with shipping it was only sixteen dollars for two bags, honestly less than it would have taken me in time and gas in the Prius to drive all over Northern California. Mr. Filmschool thought they were awesome and took them to work to celebrate his 4 year anniversary there. Those kids LOVE them some cupcakes- so we saved money on buying them some fancy donuts!

At least Louie doesn't laugh at me for breaking out the tweezers!

Another tip- you can put your white non-pareils in an old frosting container for storage- but make sure there's no holes in the bag when you pour them in! I also exploded the bag of jelly beans into my coffee on this one. Hey, nice jelly beans!

Vegan Easter Eggs

Yep, it's San Francisco and we've been invited to another Vegan Easter. I got a vegan cupcake recipe off the internet and headed to Rainbow Grocery. Lotsa Earth Balance margarine, sugar and vanilla soy milk. The egg shapes are made from vegan honey grahams. The frosting was pretty hard to work with, and I looked up "gelatin"-- you don't want to know but it is not vegan- so that limited some of our decorating bits.

Louie is the Easter Mean Maine Coon.

Somehow we did not get any photos of the Vegans reveling in their vegan Easter eggs in a wriggling frenzy...

Kids Love Cupcakes!

No 1000 words needed!