Grill Brownie Cupcakes

It may not offically be summer quite yet, but the heat has arrived and so have the picnics!

These brownies are easily made using your favorite brownie recipe or mix baked in cupcake liners. A little orange sanding sugar, a tube of ready made black icing, and a few Hot Tamales make decorating these easy!

Another version of these brownies with candy aisle hotdog gummy candy placed on top.

Perfect for any summer party or picnic!

   

Enjoy!

~ Christina & Katie

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We link up at these fun parties! 

Red, White & Blue Link Party

Hey everyone! It's time for another party! With Memorial Day and 4th of July coming up, Happy Hour Projects and Mrs. Fox's Sweets teamed up to bring you the Red, White & Blue Link Party! Together we bring you the best of both worlds from crafts to baking!

<center><a href="http://mrsfoxssweets.blogspot.com/2012/05/red-white-blue-link-party.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc7XbKm0hasFDEY8kka44op9-R4nk23WxQQH-5z1hMPnXDA67wKAP7zLTDaVvwft0V_M9NVqAb3f1AblqNrPZxSPTvBaIV6Y2wUmmViqBdnADeH87bDdgVvfDYvNrOg8E5qrFCZeRq1lk/s240/redwhitebluebutton200.jpg"/></a></center>

Link up your recipes, projects, anything red, white & blue to celebrate!
We would love for you to add our button to your post, party page, or wherever you would like, not mandatory, but the more the merrier! Help us make this our biggest party yet!
(Actual party button will be smaller than the one above- I just wanted to use the big one for this post! Thank you Adrianne for making another fabulous button for our party!)



Happy 4th of July Cupcakes!

Wishing You All a Happy and Safe 4th of July!

Quick and Easy Cupcakes!

Started with Pillsbury Funfetti mix, added some almond flavoring.

1M Almond Buttercream swirl, Patriotic wraps, sprinkles, and picks!

(Works best if you put the cupcakes in the wraps before icing!)

Plenty of time left for FIREWORKS!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

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These cupcakes are shared at:

Mom Crazy Cookie: This Weeks Cravings
Cupcake Apothecary: A Themed Bakers Sunday

Fireworks Cookies

Everybody's Making Them!

Yes, this is the cookie design on the cover of the Martha Stewart Living Magazine and yes, I am making them too! Why not? They are eye catching and easy! I used this method on the very first Halloween Cupcakes I made and a similar method on Shamrock Cookies.

I started by making my favorite sugar cookie recipe: Martha Stewart's Essential Recipe No. 2: Sugar Cookies. This recipe has never failed me! This time I used almond flavoring. I cut them out using a 4" round cutter, so these are big cookies! The recipe makes 12 cookies at the 4-inch size. I just made 10 with some dough left over to try out my new cookie press!

To decorate the cookies, all you have to do is outline your cookies with royal icing and a size 3 tip (you can find the recipe I use at my Margarita, Flip Flips and Cheap Sunglasses Cookie Post). Let the outline dry a few minutes and then thin out your icing and fill 'er up! For these cookies you don't want to let the first color dry before adding rings inside the cookie with various colors and size 2 tip, so make sure all your bags are ready to go! Drag a toothpick through the wet icing and that's it! It is best to work with just one cookie at a time!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

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These Cookies Were Shared At:

Sweet As Sugar Cookies: Sweets for a Saturday

A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Cupcake Apothecary: A Themed Bakers Sunday

Wilton Course 3: Gum Paste and Fondant- Lesson 3

The day has finally arrived...the final lesson of the final Wilton Course!

With the 4th of July just being a few days away I have decided on a Patriotic themed cake!

I am using a 6" 2-layer lemon cake, covered in white fondant imprinted with the Wilton Star Power Fondant Imprint Mat. There will be red and blue stars all over it, with a star spray coming out of the top of the cake and pearl dust for shimmer.

Before class, I prepared 6 star sprays, using 20 gauge wire. I cut out 6 medium size stars and 12 small stars from a gum paste and fondant 50/50 blend and carefully slid them onto the wires and put them aside to dry for a few days. I also cut out 16 red and 16 blue medium stars to place on the cake after we cover the cake with fondant in class. That will be a total of 50 stars! Well...that is if they all fit!

I used 2 cake boards, one with a hole in it to support a hard plastic straw that is going up through the center of the cake to support the star spray.

For class we need to bring our cake, already iced, whatever size we wish, and enough fondant to cover it. We will be covering our cake in class and making a ruffle that we can use on our cake if we want.

 So that's it! That's my cake!
My first fondant cake EVER!

The classes have been fun and I have learned a lot from a lovely teacher. Evangeline, just like the star in the sky from The Princess and the Frog, thank you for all that you have taught me. I have made some lasting friendships and will see you gals around! It's late so I won't write a book on each of you this time!

Here is what the rest of the class did:

Connie's Cake

Cynthia's Cake

Dana's Cake

Janet's Cake (Leslie's Mom)

Leslie's Cake (She's only 18! Amazing!)

My Previous Classes

Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics- Lesson 1

Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics- Lesson 2

Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics- Lesson 3

Wilton Course 1: Decorating Basics- Lesson 4
Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design- Lesson 1
Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design- Lesson 2
Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design- Lesson 3

Wilton Course 2: Flowers and Cake Design- Lesson 4
Wilton Course 3: Gum Paste and Fondant- Lesson 1
Wilton Course 3: Gum Paste and Fondant- Lesson 2

  View the Wilton Website for more class information

PS... There is a Cookie Bouquet Class in August...so stay tuned for that!
PPS...I only ended up using 35 of the stars.



Flashback to July 4th 2010

It's Flashback Friday!
This is a "now just occasional" segment that I post to show you some of my past adventures...

For this cupcake, I painted the inside of the piping bag, prepared with a 1M tip, with red up one side and blue up the other side and filled with Vanilla Buttercream frosting.

I experimented with a couple different star tips too 

My daughter is the cookie maker in the family and made these stained glass 4th of July cookies!

She started out with our favorite sugar cookie recipe: Martha Stewart Essential Recipe No. 2: Sugar Cookies. She rolled out the dough and cut out with a large star cookie cutter and then cut out the center with a small cookie cutter. She put Jolly Rancher candies in a zipper bag covered with a towel and used a hammer to break it up. Once the cookies were placed on the cookie sheet, she filled the center with the crushed candies. After the cookies baked, she iced them with Vanilla Buttercream icing and this is what they looked like! This was her first cookie project using this technique and I think she did a fabulous job!

Here are all of the different cupcakes and cookies that we made for July 4th, 2010!

Even the inside of the cupcake was Patriotic with Pillsbury Stars & Stripes Funfetti cake mix!

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These cupcakes are linked up to:

Cupcake Tuesday

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Salty and Sweet, crunchy and colorful, these chocolate covered pretzels are a quick and easy, not to mention an inexpensive treat!

You just need a few items:

Melting Chocolate- I used Candiquik

Pretzel Rods- I got these from the Dollar Tree

Sprinkles- I used Wilton Patriotic Mix

The Candiquik was some that I had leftover from another project, stored in a 1 cup size glass bowl. I started by melting the chocolate in the microwave for about 35 seconds. Once the chocolate was melted, I poured it into a plastic disposable cup. (Not pictured...changed my mind into the process!) The cup made it really easy to dip the pretzel all at once. (I don't have a picture of this step since both my hands were busy!) I then shook the pretzel off until the chocolate was about done dripping and held the pretzel over a plate and sprinkled with the sprinkles.

I placed the pretzels on a wax paper covered cookie sheet and put them in the refrigerator for a couple minutes to speed up the drying. Nothing much to clean up, I only had dish that I melted the chocolate in and the plate that I sprinkled the pretzels over.

One package of pretzel rods, 1 container of sprinkles, and about 1/2 package of Candiquik is enough for about 16 pretzels.

These can be adapted for any occassion or no occassion at all!

I just used a small jar for a display (in the first picture). I really couldn't find anything else that would work. A wide mouthed vase with colorful ribbon tied around it, filled with these chocolate covered pretzels would make a nice table centerpiece! I read from other bloggers that the Dollar Tree is a great place to find great containers for displays! I guess I need to keep my eye open for one when I am out shopping! Wilton also makes Pretzel Bags that can be used to pack these with a pretty ribbon for party favors or even for a school lunch treat!

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This treat is linked to:

Mom's Crazy Cooking- This Weeks Cravings

Alli N Son: Sweet Tooth Friday

Sweet As Sugar Cookies: Sweets For Saturday

This treat was featured at:
Annie's Home

Flag Day Cupcakes

Today, June 14th, commemorates the adoption of the US Flag in 1777!

That was 234 years ago!

For the cupcake I used Pillsbury Stars & Stripes Funfetti Cake Mix

Red, White, & Blue Vanilla Buttercream 1M Swirls!

HAPPY FLAG DAY!

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These Cupcakes are linked up to:
Cupcake Tuesdays! (Father's Day Post)
Cupcake Tuesdays! (July 4th Post)
Sweet As Sugar Cookies: Sweets For Saturday