Candy Cupcakes Part III - Mini M&M Bite Sized Rainbow Fish Cupcakes

Oh how I *so*  love these little guys!!  Once again, I've been seeing them on blogs and Pinterest, so I don't even know who to give credit to for this idea...but whoever you are, well done!!  How great are these?  I even had a lot of fun putting them together.  And, it's so easy!  This would be a great activity to do with children.  Here is the first time I came across these cupcake fish.  I made a few slight changes - I did not place the M&M's on an angle and I added M&M tails.

To begin, you need either store bought or or make your own mini cupcakes.  You can find mini-muffin liners at the grocery store and they can be placed in a mini muffin pan.  Fill the liners about 2/3 full.  It's much easier to frost them if the cake is even with or a little above the top of the liner.  If they don't quite reach the top, you can put them aside to use for the "water".

To assemble these you need a bag of M&M Minis, White Icing (either a can or homemade.  I always recommend homemade.  It really makes a difference!), Orange, Yellow, Green and Blue food dye, and either 2 Ziploc baggies or  piping bags.

Split the white icing into five parts.  Dye one yellow, one orange, one green, one blue, and leave the last white.  Set the white aside.  Next, decide how many cupcake minis you would like to be fish and how many to be "water".  Set the water cupcakes aside.  Start icing the designated fish ones in each of the four dyed colors.  Once you have completed this step, it's time to add the M&Ms...the best part!

The photo below shows the first steps of placing the M&M's.  Coordinate the M&M colors with the cupcake icing color.  If you are anal like me, you will be careful to make sure the"M" logo is facing down.  Add two red M&Ms for the fish lips:

The next part of the transformation is to add the eye.  Fill a Ziploc bag or piping bag with 1/2 of the white icing.  Snip a very small bit off the corner of the baggie or  bottom of the piping bag.  I used a Wilton Tip #3, but realized I didn't need to after all.  Squeeze a dot of white icing where you would like the fish eye to be located:

Now take a brown M&M and gently push it into the center of the white icing dot:

Adorable!  Right?!  Next I made the "water" cupcakes to place randomly around the fish, as if they were swimming around.  In the second Ziploc bag or piping bag, I placed the white and blue icing together.  I squished the two colors a bit, careful not to fully blend them:

Snip the end of the bag again, a little wider this time to make more of a wave pattern, and ice the cupcakes.  I used a piping tip for a little more texture, but if you don't have one to use, it'll be just fine.  I used an up and down motion sort of like this ^^^^ in two or three layers on top of eachother until the cupcake was covered.    Then, I arranged the cupcakes and water on a Fish Platter:

So cute!  Yet, something was bothering me.  I realized it was missing tails!  The photo I first saw didn't have tails, and lots of others didn't, either.  A few I saw used flattened Starburst Candies shaped like a tail and placed on the end, but I didn't have any.  Instead, I decided to use some of the leftover white icing I'd used for the eyes as "glue" to add some M&Ms for tails.  This worked fantastic!  

Now I was happy!  The "gluing" of the tails worked because the M&M Minis are so light.  I'm not convinced this method would have worked with regular size M&M's.  I believe their weight would have made them fall off the edge.  However, this was a success and I just love these little guys!!  I like anything with fun, bright colors, really, though.

Well, tomorrow is my last day of Candy Cupcakes.  Stay tuned for M&M Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes!

Snowflake Cut-Out Cookies

From my home to yours I'd like to wish you all a HAPPIEST NEW YEAR!!  May 2012 be your best yet!!!

Unfortunately for me, this holiday season I've been plagued by a cold/flu that won't seem to go away.  This meant I did not make nearly as many treats as I'd have liked.  I did the best I could, though, and had a great time with these snowflakes.  I really do love making cut-out cookies!  I find the icing of cookies very relaxing and great opportunity to be creative.  Snowflakes are the perfect shape to experiment with new designs and have some fun decorating.

I made both small and large cookies.  For the background of the cookie I chose a light blue so the white flake design would stand out more  I used the standard outline and flood method.  To decorate the small flakes, I used a #1 tip with a very thick icing mixture of water and sifted confectioners sugar poured into a pastry bag.  The icing was thick enough that my hand began to cramp up from squeezing.  I made the icing so thick because I did not want it to spread and not keep its' shape.  Despite the discomfort, I love the way they turned out!

I need much more work on my hand control to make the lines even.  I free-formed the designs and want to try different patterns.  I'm actually excited to make more!

For the large snowflake cookies, I used a #2 tip with what I THOUGHT was a thick enough icing, but it wasn't.  So, the lines spread out more than I'd hoped.  Since they were large it wasn't that big of a deal, so I finished them with the icing mixture I had prepared.  They were pretty, but I still think they would look lovelier with a thinner flake line.  When I make them again I'll post an update!

Tiffany's - Not Just For Breakfast!

To begin this week I wanted to make something fun, so I chose to bake "Tiffany" blue colored cake pops. For an extra bit of color I made a deep pink strawberry cake for the inside. I love the way they turned out! The only challenge I faced was the consistency of the chocolate. It was too thick to smoothly coat the pops. After some research I found that Paramount Crystals will do a great job of thinning the chocolate, so I will buy some and try it for myself. I'll do another cake pop post once I have them and let you know the results! In the meantime, onto the "Tiffany" pops!

After baking a cake and letting it completely cool, it must be broken down into a sand-like texture. One way to do this is to cut the cake into fourths. Take two pieces at a time and "sand" the cake chunks by rubbing them together. The method I use is taking a fork and gently running it through the cake repeatedly until it turned into fine crumbs.

Next, add frosting. This is a tricky thing. If you add too much the cake does not stay put on the sticks while dipping into the chocolate. If you add too little, the cake will not form into balls and keep their shape. One tip I can share - ADD A LITTLE FROSTING AT A TIME! You can always add more, but you can not take excess frosting out. You may be surprised by the small amount of frosting that goes a long way. For approximately 3/4 of a cake I added about 2 large spoons full of frosting. It was plenty. After mixing (with a spoon to fully incorporate the cake and frosting) you should have a sticky, doughy result that can be shaped into balls.

Proceed to roll the mixture into balls. Some like to use a cake pop/cookie scoop for size consistency. I do it by hand and don't find have any issues. For now, that works just fine for me. Once the ball is rolled place it on a cookie sheet. Repeat until you have used all of the cake/frosting mixture.

Next, you will do one of two things. You can either place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator for a few hours, or in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. I can be at times impatient, so I use the freezer method. Beware, however, if the balls are too cold when you dip them, the chocolate coating will crack. It's a fine balance that you will work out through practice, trial and error.

While the chilling is happening, begin the chocolate melting process. I used Wilton chocolate melting discs. You can also use white chocolate bark, and I will be investigating Ghiradelli melting chocolate, which I have read tastes GREAT and has a nice sheen to it. I have many bags of the Wilton chocolate, however, and until it's used up will not be purchasing any more! Okay, so now melting the chocolate (I use the microwave method. An alternative is to use a double boiler):

Pour the chocolate melting chips into a microwavable bowl. Heat at 30 second increments on power setting 2

Stir the chocolate at each 30 second interval. It will appear lumpy and seem like it will never be smooth, but have faith and continue heating!

Finally, smooth, melted chocolate.

Now it's time to add the color. When dyeing chocolate, you MUST use candy dye. Using icing colors will not work, it will cause oil separation and ruin the chocolate. I used Wilton Candy Dye. You can purchase it at craft stores, such as Michael's.

To achieve that classic Tiffany Blue color, add small amount of the blue candy color to white chocolate. Since it was my first time and I was nervous about adding too much blue, I used a toothpick to add the coloring. Once again, you have to just kind of use trial and error to get the color right. Also, again, you can add more coloring, but you can't remove it once it's once it been mixed! Eventually, I achieved the right hue. Be sure to time the melting and coloring of the chocolate so it will be complete at the same time your cake balls are finished chilling. Remove them from the refrigerator or freezer and get your lollipop sticks (can be purchased at a craft store, such as Michael's) ready - it's time to dip!

Every girl's favorite shade of blue!

Unfortunately, with only two hands (and both were busy dipping), I could not photograph the process of making cake pops, so I'll have to describe the last few steps. First, take a lollipop stick and dip about an inch and a half into the chocolate. Insert the stick inside a cake ball approximately 3/4 of the way up. Next, dip the cake ball into the chocolate and make sure the entire ball is covered and the bottom is sealed with chocolate. If you don't seal the entire ball the cake will ooze out. Once you've gotten reached this point in the time consuming process, you don't want small openings in the chocolate  to ruin your pop! Once the pop is coated, let the chocolate set by placing the it into a piece of styrofoam to keep it upright (pre-poke holes in the styrofoam before dipping into the chocolate). Here is an example of "setting" cake pops:

And there you have your cake pops! Here is a finished Tiffany pop. I love it:

Add a plastic wrapper with some ribbon and you have a beautiful party favor, dessert offering, or snack!

They are quite time consuming, but worth it. If you have a few hours you can set aside, try making cake pops yourself and enjoy!!

P.S. Tiffany did not compensate me for this mention. I just LOVE everything Tiffany!  Who doesn't?  :)

I shared this recipe on:  Things that make you say Mmmmm....Monday

Recipe Roundup