Princess Castles & Tiaras Cookies

I have had these cookies baked a few days and I had planned on having these finished sooner. I guess later is better than never! This Girl 12-Cavity Non-Stick Cookie Pan by Wilton was something I just happened to find when gathering supplies for the Princess Castle Cake that I just made. The pan was on clearance for $5 so I couldn't resist it! Instead of cutting out the shapes, the dough is just pressed into the cavities.

The vote is also in, my children all prefer the shiny Icing Recipe from Cookie Crazie vs Royal Icing, so that is what I decided to use for these. I have to admit that I prefer the softer texture, the shine, and the flavor of it myself, but it is different to work with though. I find it is not as easy as royal icing, so royal icing is still my favorite to decorate with.

There are a total of 6 different designs in the pan, see the designs at Girly Cookies!

---

I link up at these fun parties!

Princess Castle Cake

It's official! My baby girl is 4!

She is a girl that knows what she wants and after a zillion trips to Michael's in her lifetime! She has had her eye on this cake kit for a couple years. She wanted a Princess Castle Cake last year and then had a last minute change to a Hello Kitty Cake. This year my little princess was sure she wanted a castle cake!

So this is where I have been hiding out. This is why I haven't baking up the sweets like I usually do. I had to start this cake 3 days in advance by making over 300 tiny flowers!

This Wilton Romantic Castle Cake Set comes with 32 pieces, none of which are ready to go on the cake. 2 days in advance, I covered the turrets in pink royal icing and rolled in clear sparkling sugar. I also outlined the windows and doors, adding sugar to those as well. I also baked the 2 layer 6-inch and 2 layer 10-inch cakes a day in advance.

Cake assembly day should be a piece of cake, right? Wrong! I still had to attach dowel rods to the towers that would be inserted into the cake with white chocolate. I iced both the 6-inch and 10-inch double layer cakes in white and then of course had to insert the dowel rods into the 10-inch cake to support the 6-inch top cake. I also realized I forgot to decorate the windows on the towers, so quickly decorated those just using buttercream and also added pink sugar pearls, which worked fine.

I used tip 67 to create all the leaves and bushes. Tip 3 for the stringwork and tip 17 for the pink shell border. I also made the mistake of attaching the turrets and towers before making the shell border, so I was having to work at piping it in all sort of odd directions. I ended up not using all of the pieces, some by choice, there just wasn't enough room! I also forgot to add 2 of the finished towers, and when I realized it, it was too late! Oh well, it still looked fine! If I were to make a cake like this again, I would go with a 12-inch bottom cake.

Back of castle

I did have little Disney Princess figurines to go all around the cake, but on our trip to Target to get the party plates and napkins, my little Princess decided on Hello Kitty partyware! By the time the cake was finished, the sun had set and I had no natural light to take pictures in, so I was unable to get the perfect picture like I had hoped for. Oh and the little bushes in the front of the castle, perfect to hold the candles! If not for those, I am not sure where I would have put the candles!

Front of castle

In the end it was all worth it seeing her eyes lit up and her saying "I love my Castle Cake so much, you are the best, thank you Mommy!"

Happy 4th Birthday to My Princess!

---

I link up at these fun parties!

Featured at:
Mom on Timeout
These Peas Taste Funny
Bacon Time
Serenity You
Crafty Moms Share

Pink Princess #28- The Crown Princess (Final)

The Crown Princess

This is it! We have arrived at our destination...the end of the book...the Crown Princess.

I started working my way through the Pink Princess Cupcakes book back on July 5th 2011, with the goal of making one design from the book each week. I have now made all 28 Pink Princess Cupcake designs or at least my version of them. I let the book inspire me and most of mine were quite different. I also made most of them out of order from the book, but this cupcake, the final cupcake, is truly the last design in the book.

I started this adventure with the Pink Princess Cupcakes Book by Barbara Beery and Princess Cupcakes Kit with booklet by Laura Starr.

On this adventure, I used a lot of these Disney Princess Sprinkles made by Wilton (found at Party City), along with many other sprinkles and candies, lots of frosting, and around 500 cupcakes and liners too!

The final design was quite simple and I tried to stick pretty close to the original. I made it with a strawberry cupcake, pink buttercream icing piped with a 1M tip, pink sugar pearls, gold sprinkles, and crown sprinkles. I couldn't photograph the last set of cupcakes without using the castle background from the Princess Cupcake Kit, that I used so many time in the beginning of this adventure.

So there you have it, my Pink Princess adventure, from beginning to end. At times, I couldn't wait to make the next cupcake in the book, once I made 3 designs in one week! Other times, I thought the end would never come and took 2 weeks off from Pink Princess to give myself a break at Halloween. Today, I almost dropped a tear photographing the final Pink Princess Cupcakes and I am kinda sad that it is over! I have learned so much from this book. I used to think books like this were written to show one how to make something and make it just the same as in the book. On this adventure, I have learned how to be inspired by something without striving to be the same. I have so many new ideas floating around in my head for my own series now, still figuring out the details to that! Anyway, thank you to all that have followed me on this adventure from beginning to end. Thank you to those that have joined me somewhere in the middle. For those that are just seeing this for the first time now, you can view them all at once- Pink Princess Cupcakes. I did enjoy this adventure and I hope you did too! Pink Princess Cupcakes by Barbara Beery is a wonderful book aimed towards children and I do recommend this book for Princesses of all ages. She has written many books like this, which are all on my wishlist, but now it is time that I start a new adventure, my own adventure....

   

The End

   

---

I link up at these fun parties!

 

Pin It

Pink Princess #24- Glass Slipper

Glass Slipper

This is #24 of 28 different designs I have made that are inspired by the Pink Princess Cupcake Book! Barbara Beery, the author of this book, has been a huge inspiration to me. When I made the commitment to myself to work my way through this book back in July, I thought with a book like this or similar cupcake design books, that I needed to make my cupcake look just the same or as close as possible. As I have progressed through this book, I have learned to let my creativity flow and let the cupcake become me, what is in my heart, not what is in someone elses. I have learned to use this book as inspiration, rather than as a manual. I have also learned to take something that I am not necesarily crazy about and change it to something I love! I do hope that I have in someway inspired you to find your creative side, maybe a part of yourself that you didn't even know existed!

However, I am working my way through the book, so in my for this cupcake "Glass Slipper," I need a shoe cookie and a cupcake. The rest is up to me!

 I got so into the cookie, that I have really made this design all about the cookie, spending more time on the cookies than the cupcakes.

It turned out that I liked the fondant covered Fall Harvest Cookies so much, that I had to do something like that to these too! It is super easy to decorate cookies with fondant and makes for a very clean looking design, nice lines, plus not as time consuming as royal icing. In the Fall Harvest Cookies I had made, I put the fondant on the cookies immediately out of the oven and it melted right to them. There was just one problem, I made the cookies a couple days early and they were cooled. How would I stick fondant to an already cooled cookie? Well, it was easy! I cut the fondant with the same cookie cutter. Then working one cookie at a time, I microwaved the cookie for about 18 seconds on a microwave safe plate. The cookie came out hot enough for the fondant to stick right on! We need to backtrack a second to the bow and the flower....

I made the bow and flower by pressing fondant into these molds. The bow was made with the Wilton Fabric Fondant and Gum Paste Mold and the flower was made with the Wilton Nature Fondant and Gum Paste Mold. I have all 4 of the molds and love them! To start I wasn't really sure how much I would use all of the molds, but in 1 month, I have used them for 3 totally different projects already already. The molds are easy to use, just dust with a bit of cornstarch, press in the fondant, and bend the mold and it pops right out! Now, why we were backtracking... The flowers sit right on the shoes, not a problem, but the bows hang off. The bows need to dry for about 24 hours, depending on humidity, so that they stiffen up and won't droop once they are on the cookies. I would probably say give them 2 days to dry, but I already had the cookies made, so I just waited one day. I stuck the flower and bow onto the shoe with gum paste adhesive, but water would work as well. After the decorations are on the shoe, they need to dry laying down for a couple hours, if you plan on sitting them on top of a cupcake.

I was really close to just making this post all about the cookies, but they were made to sit on top of a cupcake and since I wanted all the focus on the shoe, the cupcakes were quite plainly decorated, just some white frosting and pink sugar pearls. That's not all frosting either, the Cinnamon-Vanilla Cupcakes rose with a large dome like that. I probably couldn't get the same result again if I tried! I want to try making them again before I share that recipe! Besides, this cupcake is more about the decorating than the cupcake part anyway!

Here are the cupcakes!

 

I am really running out of Pink Princess Cupcake designs to make now, just 4 to go, I think I just may start making my own designs after that! My youngest has been asking for an Aurora Cupcake, from Sleeping Beauty.

  

The Next Pink Princess Cupcake I will be making:

Cool Peppermint

  

Be sure to check out all of the Pink Princess Cupcakes that I have made and if you have a little Princess on your holiday shopping list, the Pink Princess Cupcake Book is sure to delight, there is a whole series of these books, not just this one!

  

---

These Cupcakes are Shared at:

Talking Dollars and Cents: Muffin (&Cupcake) Monday, The Southern Institute: Creative Me Monday, The Kurtz Corner: Tuesday Tutorials, Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday, Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday



Pin It

Twilight Apple Cookies

The Forbidden Fruit

This is it, just 3 days until the release of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1!

It is also the week of my first giveway sponsored by TLC (Twilight Loving Care) Creations!

Hint #2- The giveaway will appeal to both Twilight and Foodie Fans alike!

The apple is the "The Forbidden Fruit" that tempted both Adam and Eve. It was also a tempting apple that the Queen used to poison Snow White. Desperate Housewives opens with an apple as the housewives are always tempted. There is also the new fabulous Sunday night drama, "Once Upon a Time," where an apple tree has appeared in every episode! An apple on the cover of the first Twilight Book, Edward is Bella's Forbidden Fruit. I wonder why it is that kids bring apples to their teacher? Maybe the school kid is trying to tempt his teacher into good grades.

Whatever the occassion...these apple cookies are so versatile! They are easy to make too, visit my Fall Harvest Cookies post to learn how!

  

The Twilight fun all begins on November 18, 2011!

Pin It

Pink Princess #23- Kiss Me / The Princess and the Frog

Kiss Me

The Princess and the Frog

The title in the book is "Kiss Me," but I call them "The Princess and the Frog!"

This is #23 of 28 different designs inspired by the Pink Princess Cupcake Book that I am recreating. As I near the end of the book, I am left with the ones that I didn't choose to make first, since I have been making them all out of order. I wasn't so sure about this design to begin with. I couldn't find a similar froggy candy mold to the one used in the book and my froggy candy mold is quite different. I also I wasn't really digging the original colors. We love Disney around here, so being a Princess book with a frog theme, it hit me..."The Princess and the Frog!" Tiana is such an awesome Princess... because she cooks! I decided to change the colors to go more with the movie colors and the colors changed it all! I am so happy with the outcome here!

Aren't they cute?

The happy couple, Prince Naveen and Princess Tiana in the middle and their other little froggy friends all around! These would not only be great for a Princess and the Frog party or fan of the movie, but I think they would also be great for an anniversary for someone that loves frogs!

  I sang my way though making these cupcakes! I have the song memorized, since I listen the Disney Princess CD on repeat in my car! You can hear a snipit of Everyday Princess on Amazon.com!

Here are my favorite lyrics from the song Everyday Princess sang by Tiana (actually sang by Anika Noni Rose):

"Now life is what you make it
We can all be royalty
It’s a prize for you, so take it
You never know what you can be
It sure is great having breakfast in your bed
With a sparkly crown sittin’ on your head
But that’s not me, I wear mine cookin’ up new dishes
Because I’ll never be your everyday princess"

 

Be sure to check out all of the Pink Princess Cupcakes that I have made!

 

The next Pink Princess Cupcake that I will be making:

 Glass Slipper

 

---

These Cupcakes are Shared at:

A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Six Sisters' Stuff: Strut Your Stuff
Serenity You: Serenity Saturday
Talking Dollars and Cents: Muffin (and Cupcake) Monday
Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday
Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday
The Artsy Girl Connection: Pin'Inspirational Thursday

Pin It

Pink Princess Cupcakes #22- Pink Snowballs

Pink Snowballs

It has been a little over a week since I have made a Pink Princess and about time! This is #22 of 28 total designs from the Pink Princess Cupcake Book by Barbara Beery that I have recreated. I began this adventure back in July, working my way through the book making every design. Sometimes I try and make them the same as in the book, other times I have put my own spin on them. This is one that there is really no other way than following the book. I didn't want to make 24 cupcakes so I used my trusty Martha Stewart Yellow Cupcake Recipe which makes just 12 cupcakes and cuts in half perfectly! Yes, I only wanted to make 6 of these after all the cake we have had the past couple weeks, the family is more into cake pops right now! Because I was only making 6 cupcakes, I had to cut the meringue topping recipe down to 1/3, which worked out fine since the recipe called for 3 egg whites. So on top of this cupcake is a meringue. It needed to bake 1 to 3 minutes until golden brown at 500 degrees. At 1 minute some of the tops were getting quite golden at the peaks and I didn't want them to burn, so I pulled them out and left the others in for another minute.

When I was taking pictures of the cupcakes, my little Princess was peeking behind! She was so very excited, she loves Princess stuff and couldn't wait to have one of these pink cupcakes! Oops...I realized I forgot to add something to the cupcakes!

Hershey's Chocolate Syrup!

It does seem a little odd, but in the book the cupcakes are drizzled with chocolate syrup, so I did the same. My little Princess was so ready to eat one of these and then she took a bite...YUCK! It wasn't what she was expecting, not having frosting. They tasted fine to me, but aren't as sweet as what you would expect being used to a cupcake with frosting. So my Princess ate an apple, she pretty much only eats fruits and veggies anyway. She is my healthy eater and that is a good thing! I guess we will see what the rest of the family thinks when they arrive home!

 

The Next Pink Princess Cupcake I will be making:

I am still trying to decide, its a toss up between the Glass Slipper or Kiss Me cupcakes!

   

Be sure to check out all of the Pink Princess Cupcakes that I have made!

---

These Cupcakes are Shared at:

Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesdays

The Artsy Girl Connection: Pin'Inspirational Thursdays

Pin It

Pink Princess Cupcakes #20- Bubblegum

Bubblegum

This is Pink Princess #20 inspired from the Bubblegum Princess design in Pink Princess Cupcakes by Barbara Beery. I say "inspired from" because since starting this adventure of working my way through the book, the cupcakes I have made resemble her cupcakes less and less as I have taken them in my own direction. It's not that I don't love her designs, because I do! I am just trying to make them more "Me!"

The cupcake itself...was inspired by my lack of eggs today! So I was just keeping my fingers crossed that if I threw some basic stuff in the bowl that it would work and they would rise...and they did! I also chose to use water for the liquid and not milk or buttermilk, because the thought of milk with bubblegum flavor just grossed me out! They actually turned out pretty nice, better than expected. The cupcakes rose and had a pretty nice texture, and would be a good option for someone that needs an egg and dairy free cupcakes either because of an allergy or like me out of eggs.

      

Egg & Dairy Free Cupcakes

1-1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour + 2 tablespoons cornstarch (homemade cake flour!)

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup Crisco Natural Blend Oil (this was a winner on America's Test Kitchen)

1 cup of water

1/2 tsp Bubblegum Flavoring (LorAnn Oils) -or- use 1 tsp of any other extract!

         

Put all dry ingredients in a bowl, then add wet ingredients and mix on medium low until smooth, about a minute. (I also colored my batter pink with pink food coloring.) Fill liners 2/3 to 3/4 full and bake in preheated 350 oven for 18 minutes or until tooth pick tests clean. Makes 24 mini cupcakes.

I used Wilton White Decorator Icing colored pink on top. I have a 4.5 pound tub of it in the refrigerator and it just works out easier than making icing from scratch sometimes! I also added 1/2 tsp of the Bubblegum flavoring to the icing. The balls on top are Whoppers Milkshake Strawberry Malted Milk Balls. They aren't as pink as I had hoped, but I couldn't find anything better to use and I didn't want to use actual gumballs, just to be pulled off and thrown away!

 About that Bubblegum Flavor? It makes for a very interesting cupcake! It seems odd that something that tastes just like bubblegum is actually meant to be swallowed!

  

The Next Pink Princess Cupcake I will be making:

S'mores

Be sure to check out the other Pink Princess Cupcakes that I have made!

*Note added 10/20/2011: The tip I used for the icing is "8FT" by Bakers Craft.

---

  These Cupcakes are Shared at:

A Well- Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Talking Dollars and Cents: Muffin (and Cupcake) Monday

Home Savvy A to Z: Savvy HomeMade Monday

The Southern Institute: Creative Me Monday

The Kurtz Coner: Tuesday Tutorials

Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday

Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesdays

Frugal Wannabe Cooks: Foodie Wednesday

Lady Behind the Curtain: Cast Party Wednesday

This Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked

These Cupcake are Featured at:

The Kurtz Corner: Tuesday Tutorials

This Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked



Pink Princess Cupcakes #19- Wild Thing

Wild Thing

Last week, I made the Pink Princess- Fairy Princess Hat Cupcakes and on that post, I said this week I would be making the Bubblegum design...well SURPRISE! I didn't!

 

I have made all of the Pink Princess Cupcakes out of order, so #19 here may not be #19 in the book. Anyway, this is my #19 of the 28 Pink Princess Cupcakes that are inspired from The Pink Princess Cupcake Book by Barbara Beery. In the book, the icing was piped on to match Zebra and Leopard cupcake liners. The cupcake liners that I found are by Fox Run and the leopard is in different colors than the liners in the book, plus in the set I have there is also a Giraffe liner. I did my best to copy the liners that I had. Easier thought than done!

 

For these cupcakes, the cake mix that I used is by Duff...this is the first time that I have tried the Duff Premium Cake Mix- Spice with Chocolate Bits. It was half off at Michael's, so why not? It taste good, similar to other spice cake mixes in flavor plus it had little chocolate bits in it. The cake was also super moist, but didn't rise like I had expected it too, this would be great for a cake that needs to be flat on top, but not so great for cupcakes. I would like to try some of the other Duff Premium Cake Mixes. If you have tried any of the Duff Premium Cake Mixes, I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences with it! I am not sure if maybe that was why it was half off, or if it was just a bad baking day on my part...

The icing is white Wilton Decorator Icing from the big 4.5 pound tub, I was all about shortcuts today! I used cocoa powder to get the various colors of brown and the black icing is the Wilton Ready To Use icing in a tube.

If it were not for the animal print liners and my saying so, you may wonder if I have ever seen an animal or been to the zoo in my life. I was wondering that myself while piping these prints. I love going to the zoo, quite often actually! Just a few years back, or maybe a few more than a few years, I even had tons of stuff in animal prints, just never attempted the print in cupcakes! Well, now I have and this is as close as it's gonna get!

That is Pink Princess #19, be sure to check out all of the Pink Princess Designs I have made.

The Next Pink Princess Cupcake I will be making:

Bubblegum (really!)

---

These Pink Princess Cupcakes are shared with:

A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences

Tatertots & Jello: Weekend Wrap up Party

Serenity You: Serenity Saturday

Talking Dollars and Cents: Muffin (and Cupcake) Monday

Home Savvy A to Z: Savvy HomeMade Monday

Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday



Pink Princess #18- Fairy Princess Hat

Fairy Princess Hat

This is #18 of 28 Pink Princess Cupcakes that I am recreating from the book Pink Princess Cupcakes by Barbara Beery. I can't believe that there are only 10 more to go!

These are started with your favorite cupcakes and an ice cream cone. Frost the cupcake and roll edges in sprinkles. Frost the cone and roll bottom edge and top edge in same sprinkles as cupcake. Sprinkle a second color of sugar over the rest of the frosting. At this point the cone looked a little rough so I piped on some starts at the border of the frosting with pink sprinkles. At the top of the piped strings, I alternated a crown sprinkle with a pink candy pearl. (The crown sprinkles came in a Wilton Princess Sprinkle set at Party City.) I made my ribbons at the top of the hats from Laffy Taffy. I first tried to microwave it, and that just made a mess. It works best if you just warm it in your hands and slowly stretch it. In the book this design is created with different materials for a similar design, you should really check out the book if you haven't!

These would be super cute for a Princess Party!

Let me warn you, they are messy to eat, so party outside!

Another idea for these cupcakes would be to turn them into witches hats by using Halloween colors and sprinkles!

The Next Pink Princess Cupcake I will be Making:

 Bubblegum

Be sure to check out all of the Pink Princess Cupcakes that I have made!

---

These Pink Princess Cupcakes are Shared at:
Jam Hands: Recipe Sharing Mondays
Home Savvy: Savvy HomeMade Mondays
Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday
Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday
A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Pink Princess Cupcakes #17- Teacup Treats

Teacup Treats

This is a cake in a cup...a real cupcake!

This is #17 of 28 different cupcake designs from the Pink Princess Cupcakes Book by Barbara Beery that I have made!

    

For this design you will need:

Oven-safe cups

your favorite cupcake recipe

Cool-Whip

Chocolate Jimmies

Raspberries

   

The Cupcake recipe that went with this design was a Banana Cupcake. I wasn't sure how well that would go with the raspberries and decided to create a Raspberry Zinger Tea Cupcake instead! This cupcake an easily be made with any recipe and any berries on top.

Hint: a batter that would make 12 cupcakes, will only make 4 of these Teacup Treats

     

Cupcake Ingredients:

(Makes Four Teacup Treats- baked in a 1-1/4 size capacity cup)

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1-1/4 cups all purpose flour + 1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup strong brewed and cooled Raspberry Zinger Tea (Celestial Seasonings)

(To make the tea: Microwave 1/2 cup water until boiling and soak Raspberry Zinger Tea Bag for 10-15 minutes.)

Mix sugar, eggs, applesauce, and vanilla in mixer for about 1 minute. Add dry ingredients, continue mixing while slowing adding Raspberry Zinger Tea. Spray 4 oven-safe cups with cooking spray and fill cups 2/3 full of cake batter. The cups that I used were 1-1/4 cup capacity.

(I actually forgot to spray my cups, and amazingly, the cupcakes did not stick, not sure if it was the recipe I used or the particular cups, or if the spray may not be needed at all.)

Place cups on heavy duty cookie sheet and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 26-28 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. The cupcake will be very moist.

Cool cupcakes on pan on baking rack. Once cooled, top with Cool Whip, chocolate jimmies, and raspberries.

These made a great after dinner cupcake! They are sweet, but not too sweet and have wonderful flavor!

The Next Pink Princess Cupcake will be:

Fairy Princess Hat

  Be sure to check out all of the Pink Princess Cupcakes that I have made!

---

These Cupcakes are shared at:

Jam Hands: Recipe Sharing Monday

Home Savvy: Savvy HomeMade Monday

Talking Dollar and Cents: Muffin (and Cupcake) Monday

Sew Stylish Boutique: Crafty Lassie Tuesday

Sweetology Tea Party Tuesday

The Kurtz Corner: Tuesday Tutorials

Crazy for Crust: Crazy Sweet Tuesday
Lady Behind the Curtain: Cast Party Wednesday
This Chick Cooks: These Chicks Cooked

Pink Princess Cupcakes #16- Fairy-Tale Fortune

Fairy-Tale Fortune

I am now at #16 of 28 cupcakes made from the Pink Princess Cupcakes Book by Barbara Beery.

As most cupcakes designs start with a cupcake, so does this one! Once again, I used the Allergen-Free/Vegan Chocolate Cupcake Recipe from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes Book, it is such a simple cupcake, simple ingredients and turns out well for me.

The frosting is a chocolate buttercream. (1/2 cup light margarine, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar, a heaping 1/2 cup of cocoa powder, and a large splash of milk to bring it all together)

For the fortune cookies, store bought of course, I dipped in Candiquik, colored pink with Wilton Pink Candy Coloring. Here we go...pink candy again! 2 blocks of  Vanilla Candiquik is enough to dip 12 fortune cookies. And yes, I have a little leftover! Working one at a time, after dipping, I shook the fortune cookie off and immediately sprinkled with chocolate jimmies and placed on waxed paper for a few minutes to set while I frosted the cupcakes.

Maybe it is because there is a little fortune in each one, but these cupcakes are fun to me!

My fortune said:

"Luck is on your side today."

Hmmmmmm? I wonder what that could mean?

Don't forget to check out all of the Pink Princess Cupcakes that I have made!

As for the next Pink Princess Cupcake that I will be making...

I haven't decided yet!

---

These cupcakes are shared at:

A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday

Jam Hands: Recipe Sharing Monday

Pink Princess #15- Pixie Princess

Pixie Princess

I have made lots of sweets this week, but somehow we are still out of cupcakes! So guess what time it is? Time for the next Pink Princess Cupcake from the Pink Princess Cupcakes Book by Barbara Beery! This is #15 of 28 designs from the book that I am making. Once again, other than a similar color and having a flower, my cupcake really doesn't resemble the cupcake in the book. First, I didn't have any real Pansies, so I went with Royal Icing Lavender Apple Blossoms. I also went a different direction with piping on the frosting. This book gives ideas that are very easy to take and make them your own! That really makes this book a lot of fun! I did use a recipe from the book called "Favorite Vanilla Cupcakes" this time, well pretty much, I changed it up a little taking out the butter* and adding in the low-fat margarine and unsweetened applesauce for less fat and calories and still good flavor! I also cut the recipe in half, otherwise I would have had 64 mini cupcakes!

 

Favorite Vanilla Cupcakes- Makes 32 mini cupcakes

adapted from Pink Princess Cupcakes Book

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce*

1/4 cup margarine (half of a stick, I also used low-fat)*

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-1/2 cup self-rising flour

Beat together first 3 ingredients until mixed well. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing between each one. Add vanilla. Add flour 1/2 at a time and mix on medium just until mixed.

Since I was making mini cupcakes, I used my Babycakes Cupcake Maker. It makes 8 mini cupcakes at a time and only takes 5 to 7 minutes to bake.

I had not used this recipe before I had to figure out how much batter to put in the liners. It turned out they needed to be half full or just a little more, 3/4 was too much. They do rise quite a bit. The cupcake maker cooks from both the top and bottom surfaces when it is closed, if the liners are too full, it will brown the top a lot. To start from being cold, it took 6 to 7 minutes for the first batch to bake. All of the additional batches took 4 to 5 minutes each. A few of the cupcakes seemed a little dry, others were perfect, so these are very easy to over bake, so be sure to check on them!

When I first got the cupcake maker I tried using spoons, spatulas, whatever I could think of to try and scoop the cupcake out of the hot maker. It turns out that a tooth pick poked into the cupcake will help lift it out the best. Also as you can see from the picture on the left, the mini cupcake liners are a little too small really for the maker, but they will widen out when baking, so the cupcake turns out a little bigger than mini size. Standard liners are too big.

For the cupcakes, I decorated them using buttercream icing and a Wilton size 104 tip. I then sprinkled white/clear sparkling sugar on them and topped with the royal icing flowers.

Here's my little garden of flowers!

Be sure to check out all of the Pink Princess Cupcakes that I have made!

 

The Next Pink Princess Cupcake that I will be making:

Fairy-Tale Fortune

  

---

These Cupcakes are shared at:

A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Jam Hands: Recipe Sharing Monday
Talking Dollars and Cents- Muffin (and Cupcake) Monday
Home Savvy: Savvy HomeMade Monday
Sew Stylish Boutique: Crafty Lassie Tuesday
The Kurtz Corner: Tuesday Tutorials
Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday
Chef in Training: Tuesday Talent Show
Rook No. 17: A Little Birdie Told Me
Crazy for Crust: Crazy Sweet Tuesdays
Hoosier Homemade: Cupcake Tuesday
These Chicks Cook: This Chick Cooked

Daily Organized Chaos: Foodie Wednesday

Lady Behind the Curtain: Cast Party Wednesday

Pinch of This, That & the Other: Whisking Wednesdays

Miz Helen's Country Cottage: Full Plate Thursday

Pink Princess #14- Tiara Princess

Tiara Princess

I seriously cannot believe that I am already halfway through the Pink Princess Cupcakes Book by Barbara Beery! I have made them all out of order of course. I really hope you have enjoyed seeing the cupcakes so far, as much as I have enjoyed making them! This is a really great and fun book if you don't already have it, you should! I have recreated each design to suit my needs or whatever I happen to have in the cabinet, so a lot of her designs look quite different from mine, but with the same basic idea.

The point of the Tiara Cupcake is to serve it in a Tiara.

This tiara actually had a comb attached, but I removed it for photographing. There are some different types of tiaras out there and you can find them very inexpensively starting at $1 each at Party City or even less for mini tiaras!

For the top of the cupcake, I first iced it in buttercream and then I piped the light shiny pink on with a size 3 tip and piping gel tinted light pink. I finished the cupcake off by adding some decorating sprinkles that I already had.

Be sure to check out all of the Pink Princess Cupcakes that I have made!

 

The next Pink Princess Cupcake that I will be making:

Pixie Princess

   

---

These Pink Princess Cupcakes are shared at:
A Well-Seasoned Life: Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Talking Dollars and Cents: Muffin (and Cupcake) Monday
Home Savvy A to Z: Savvy HomeMade Monday
Sweetology: Tea Party Tuesday
Rook No.17: A Little Birdie Told Me
The Kurtz Corner: Tuesday Tutorials
Sew Stylish Botique: Crafty Lassie Tuesday
Crazy for Crust: Crazy Sweet Tuesday