What? Halloween is only 9 Months Away! ;)

I've been on a bit of a hiatus.  I hadn't intended to be away for so long, but life happens, right?!  I had this Halloween Cupcake-scape in cue since last October and initially thought it was too late to post it.  But then again, why not?!

The idea came from my an order my neighbor placed for a birthday cake for her son, who was turning 6.  He requested a Halloween theme to celebrate, and we arrived at this idea instead of a traditional cake. 

Begin by baking cupcakes in the flavor of your choice.  While they are cooling, start on the chocolate trees.  You can find directions for making them here.  They cannot be easier to put together!

While the chocolate trees harden, arrange the cooled cupcakes in a random pattern close enough that they are touching.  Dye a batch (or can) of icing green to create a "grass" color.  If you would like to use homemade icing, you can find my favorite recipe here.  Using a Wilton Grass Tip #233, start piping the grass.

Now comes the fun part - using your imagination to create any type of Halloween scene you'd like!  I decided not to be too ghoulish, as this was to be for 6 year-old children.  I made some white chocolate ghosts using a ghost lollipop chocolate mold.  These, too, were super easy.  Melt white chocolate, pour them into the molds (first, I melted a bit of dark chocolate, just a small amount, and used a small brush to paint in the eyes and mouth), add the lollipop stick and place in the refrigerator to harden.  When you pop the ghosts out, you can use the lollipop stick to anchor the ghost into a cupcake.  

I also added a chocolate tree, sprinkled a few autumn leaves quins underneath the tree, placed a few sugar pumpkins around, and randomly threw on some candy skulls.  

Lastly, I added a "BOO" banner to tie it all together.

This was a really fun cup-"cake" to put together.  The birthday boy was happy and the kids loved it.  Mission accomplished!

I'm looking forward to blogging about desserts and such in the coming weeks.  I haven't been blogging, but I sure have been baking the last few months.  I'm excited to start experimenting and trying new things and hope you'll find some things of interest, too!

Happy New Year to you all, and thanks for continuing to follow Life Is Sweets!!

Cookies for the Cure!

A few days ago I returned from a trip to Napa Valley, California with my husband and I was deprived of something I will never again take for granted:  the internet.  I hadn't realized how dependent I've become on it and how my life is adversely affected when I'm without.  I mean, I survived and all, but I wasn't able to get all of my blogging done and I spent way too much time trying.  And no, it wasn't because I drank too much wine that I had troubles!  Our hotel had the worst "high speed" connection I've ever used.  So, I will be posting my last pink treat for my Breast Cancer Awareness (last) Week today.

My idea was to make pale pink heart sugar cookies with a white chocolate ribbon.  They didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned.  The ribbons were more difficult than I expected.  I need more practice making shapes by piping melted chocolate.  I actually enjoy doing that, so I will come up with more projects to work on to perfect it.

I started by mixing up a sugar cookie dough, rolling it and cutting heart shapes with a cookie cutter.  I baked them for 9 minutes exactly.

While they were baking I mixed together confectioners sugar together with water, drops at a time, until it was the consistency I wanted.  In this instance, I didn't measure anything out.  I added a few drops of red food coloring to make a pale pink.  I wanted to use a squeeze bottle to ice the cookies since I was using one color on the entire cookie.  To pour the icing into the bottle, I used a funnel.  This method works really well.

Once I added the icing, I thought the cookies needed some sparkle, so I sprinkled some hot pink disco dust on them.  In between icing and baking the cookies I melted some white chocolate Merkens chocolate wafers in the microwave.  I placed the chocolate in a piping bag and made the ribbon shape on waxed paper using the same method as the chocolate trees I made for the autumn leaves cupcakes.

Once the ribbons hardened, I carefully peeled them off of the waxed paper and pressed it into the middle of an iced cookie.

So, now October is coming to a close and another month focused on Cancer Awareness will have passed.  I know I am not alone in hoping that we find a cure and October will once again be known primarily for Halloween and the arrival of autumn.  Until that day comes, October will be the month we honor, celebrate, and fight together.