Disco Dancin' Appletinis plus Corn and Petit Fours-

It was a busy week with lots of fun and cupcakes! I made the agave sweetened gluten free cookies to get rid of some of the piles of dry goods in the cabinet and for fun, anyone need any corn starch? But I put m&m's on them and frosted them with Betty Crocker frosting so Mr. Film School said they were good. He's very excited to have art you can eat in the house, he says, "I can't eat your script!" We were invited to a party in the park, which Buster thought was the best party ever- on a lawn with people and dogs and food! Mr. Filmschool and I won the corn hole game! So I had to make the corn cupcakes. Luckily we discovered that Shaw's on West Portal does have bins of Jelly Bellies and white taffy so I could make a cupcake of Cupcake the white bulldog. I brought some new dog attempts to the party for the last day of tap class. I didn't really name them all and give them all little personality traits- just one "Bits" the mutt made from all the leftover candy. Twisting the tootsie rolls and the carmels together gives the carmels some more oomph and they hold up better. For some reason they melt in the fridge. It was a special birthday for a special friend so I made her a custom design cupcake- disco mirror balls and martini cookies which sparkled up the dance floor.

When I Grow Up- I want to be in the Circus!

I couldn't decide if I should make Ray Ray the clowns or the "When I Grow Up" cupcakes for her graduation from her Master's in Education, so I made both. It's especially fitting since we used to say a lot of our friends from high school would grow up to join the circus, and in fact a few did. AND since Ray Ray is a comic in her other life, the clowns were also particularly apt. We were thinking about taking the cupcakes down to Bay to Breakers, but it was COLD at six am so we just went back to bed. We made our own Bay to Breakers out of cupcakes! At least we added some more pets to our repertoire- if anyone has a lion or a pink elephant or a monkey- or even a pet clown- we're ready. I really like the lumberjack- I gave him green eyes in honor of Elvis. I tried making greyhouds using the Bugles from the clown hats, but they turned out to look exactly like my costume for Templeton the Rat when I was in "Charlotte's Web" in junior high. More ideas brewing though! Someone may have a rat out there they'd want memorialized in cupcakes! Sixteen down, 34 to go!

Bears and Bugs- Don't Touch Those Scorpions!

I thought someone out there might have a bug or bear as a pet some day. Mr. Filmschool reminded me that Pandas are very rare. The bugs were super fun to make! The modeling chocolate is very delicate so those tiny little bug legs are pretty breakable. I think I didn't massage the chocolate sufficiently as well, there seemed to be a little clog in the tip that made things difficult. The bug templates were a little big for the cupcakes, too.

Cupcake Jungle for Mother's Day...

Launching our "Personal Pet Portraits in Cupcakes" side-project soon... stay tuned for launch party details!!!

Fat Cats- Louie Cupcake!

I think we might have to start another blog completely for Louie Cupcakes. I find the candy covered sunflower seeds from Pier One to be very expressive for making eyes and mouths, it's the non-uniform organic shapes. I made the cupcakes from the "Hello, Cupcake" chocolate cake recipe, which turned out very good even though I used half-and-half instead of Buttermilk and added some chocolate chips just to gain some space in my cupboard and because that's fun. I was going to make German Chocolate Cake because that's my friend's favorite and it was her birthday- but I thought it might clash with the marshmallows, mint, licorice, and chocolate covered pomegranate seeds.

The cats were easy and fun to personalize- the other two are Tilly and Gus.

Louie loves photo shoots, too, especially Roast Beef!

May Flowers!

It finally seems to have stopped raining! Looks like the April Showers brought us some May flowers! The Sunflowers were fun to make. Rolling out the spearmint leaves was super messy so I was glad that my green Tootsie Rolls came in the mail this week. It's very easy to shape them into gorgeous leaves. The petals on the flowers are super delicate, you can't touch them, they can't touch each other, they can't touch the sides of the cupcake carrier without getting damaged: some day we will have to figure out the perfect way to travel with our special cupcakes!

More pup-cakes! Shih Tzu and Pit Bull!

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.