Decorating your lonely cake stand

I made some fake cupcakes a year ago and I have shared my "secret recipe" of these non baked goodies with everyone last year.  If you missed it, click here to see our "recipe".

I mentioned that I have registered to enter a fondant decorative cupcakes contest at the OC Fair this year last week.  One of the requirements for submitting my creation is to make "fake cupcakes".  So now I am going to share with you how I twisked my "old recipe", which I shared with everyone last year and make the fake cupcakes ever more realistic.

What you need:

Tooth picks
Styroform balls
Brushes
Acrylic paints
Plaster of Paris
Vinyl Spackling
Cupcake Liners
Cupcake pan

1)  For the base of the cupcake, please refer to here.  I still suggest to use Plaster of Paris for the base becuase the weight could secure your top portion better.  Line the cupcake liners in a cupcake pan and pour your "batter" (Plaster of Paris) inside the liner.  After pouring the Plaster of Paris in the cupcake liners, make sure to put couple tooth pick in the middle of the "batter" because they will help to "connect" the top cake portion to the base (see Step 3).

2)  Get some styrofoam balls, cut them in half (I used my bread knife to cute them, and it worked perfect.)  Brush some acrylic paints (I used brown here for my "chocolate cupcakes") to make cover the white color of the styrofoam balls. (

3)  After the "batter" and the cake portion are totally dry out (the "batter" take longer time to dry, probably half of the day, the cake portion should be dry out in 3-4 hours max). Now we could put the base and the cake portion together.  The tooth picks we inserted to the "batter" on Step 1, will hold these two portions perfectly together. 

4)  Get a small jar of Vinyl Spackling from your local home improvement stores (such as ACE, Home Depot, or Lowe's).  If you don't want to add any color inside, you could use it alone as a basic white "butter cream" frosting.  If you want color for your frosting, add few drops of acrylic paint of your choice and mix well.

5)  To avoid messiness, I highly recommended people to use disposable cups and spoons to mix the color in the "frosting".

6) Put your "butter cream frosting" in a piping bag and pipe on top of the cupcake, let's dry for few hours. 

DIY Picture Flower Pot

We had a great Mother's Day celebration with my husband's family the past weekend.  Besides my own mother and my grand mother (too bad these two very important women are not with me in the States this year), another very special woman I appreciate the most is my husband's mother.  My husband and I concluded - the best mother and mother-in-law we could ever ask for!  And how funny is that my husband was telling me when he was looking for a serious relationship; he always wanted to look for someone just like his mom.  And not for long he found me and my personality is just like his mom.

I always love to hand make something speical for the people I love and treasure the most for their special day.  Sure, we could always spent some money to buy a nice gift and a beautiful bouquet from the mall or at the store.  But in my stubborn mind, I truely want these people to know how important and special they are and how much I love them by making them something they won't see it at the store; and hopefully, they will remember the gift forever.

Last year, my mother-in-law left an old picture album on their dining table.  I causally flipped through it and found a lot of great and valuable pictures of my husband.  I snapped some pictures by using my iPhone and I knew that right away one of these days, these lovely pictures will become handy for me to make some great art works or crafts.  When Mother's Day was approaching, I was thinking to make my mother-in-law something nice to appreciate her love, care and support to my husband and I the entire time; what better than something she could eat, something she could laugh about and something she could add to her office desk?  So here the idea was arised - a pot full of memories and "Cupcake in a Tube"!

I editted the pictures to make them looked brigher and sharper before printing them out from a color printer.  Then I stick the paper on a thicker paper and cut them out.  Next, if you have some left over gift tags from Christmas, you could add them behind the pictures to make a little talking bubbles.  If not, you could always buy a paper puncher from any craft store and make your own talking bubbles.  If you don't like the talking bubbles idea, just simply leave the picture alone.  I added the bubbles because I wanted to add some humors (my husband and I are both very goofy and funny persons, and that is totally our style *laugh*).  Now they are ready to put on a lollipop stick (could be purchased from your local craft store).

Then, I went to the craft store to get a flower pot and some ribbons for decorating.  As soon as I saw this turquoise colored pot; I knew that I didn't need to look any further=p.  The turquoise color reminded me of my husband and my wedding ceremony (deep brown and turquoise were our themed colors).  I wanted to make my pot chic and still girly.  So I picked up a roll of skinny black with white polka dot ribbon and a turquoise colored ribbon to make my pot modern and chic=)  I also designed the "We L<3ve You" label by using a design program; and cut it with my cutting machine.  Now,  everything is ready, and I could use my glue gun to glue everything on the pot. 

There are multi different ways to put in the pot for securing your "photo" flowers.  I have a great and inexpensive way to put your "photo" flowers/cake pops/cake in a tube, pretty much anything on a stick format - go to your local 99 cent store to get a pack of elbow macaroni and filled in the pot (cheap and easy!).  Of course, you could always buy a styrofoam and cut it to fit in the pot; however, I found my way to be faster, cheaper and easier=)

The day before heading to my in-laws' house, I made our new product - cake in a tube to put in the pot (cake is pound cake with strawberry and whipped cream in between)!  I decorated the plastic container with the ribbons I bought from the store to tight the pot and everything else together.  And I wanted to give my mother-in-law a little surprise when she eats the cake. I cut the strawberry into a heart shape and put on top of each "cake tube"<3.  This gift idea is not only good for mother's day.  You could use it for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, or any other special occassions you could think of.

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Ev'rywhere you go; Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again With candy canes and silver lanes aglow. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Toys in ev'ry store But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be On your own front door.

25 days till Christmas - These cupcake ornaments could make your Christmas extra warm and sweet, check them out!

Want to make your own cupcake ornaments?  I found this website to teach you to make a very easy and simple cupcake ornaments, check it out--->here.   

I Love Sewing Cupcake Toppers

Hi, how's your weekend?  I had a great but busy weekend this week.  Went to visit my family and my new nephew, attended my good friend's wedding and went to Mr. G's grandpa's birthday party.  But don't worry, no matter how busy I am, I have never forgot about my C for Cupcake Cupcakery's blog to remain connected with everyone.

I made these cute sewing cupcake toppers couple weeks ago.  They are a great way to dress up your cupcakes, cookies or other baked goodies.  Just want to remind everyone that I just opened our C for Cupcake Cupcakery Etsy shop online (click here to check out our online store) to sell cupcake toppers, cupcake wrappers, gift tags and much more...I know I know, now my online store is still pretty empty.  But I promise more items will be posted soon.  

The idea and concept about my Etsy shop is serving more people! My online cupcake business is limited to serve those who live in Orange County, Los Angeles County and part of Inland Empires.  I also know that a lot of people like to bake by using their own recipes, but they may not have time to make the "accessories" to dress up their baked goodies; therefore, our C for Cupcake Cupcakery Etsy Shop could serve those customers, who live outside of the LA and OC area, and also serve those who love to bake, but do not have time to make the "accessories" to dress up their baked goodies.  Hopefully, I could share more sweetness through my Etsy shop with everyone. 

I will post more projects on my Etsy shop soon, stay tuned!

Exciting News: C for Cupcake Cupcakery Etsy Shop is now open!

Everyone, I am beyond happy to announce that our C for Cupcake Cupcakery Etsy Shop is offically open.  You might have a question in your mind what the difference between C for Cupcake Cupcakery and the C for Cupcake Cupcakery Etsy Shop.  Here is the answer: 

C for Cupcake Cupcakery allows me to make cupcakes for everyone within LA County, Orange Coounty, and part of Inland Empire area.  It's good and I am so happy to serve people, who love our products.  However, it's limited me to serve people, who also love my products outside of these areas. In order to serve people outside of these areas, I created C for Cupcake Cupcakery Etsy Shop; it allows me to serve everyone within the States.  Unfortunately, my Etsy Shop won't sell any CUPCAKES!  But we do sell  our 100% hand crafted fondant cupcake toppers, cupcake picks and cupcake holders to dress up your home made cupcakes and appentizers.  In addition, we will also sell wrapping supplies for your party (such as gift tags, baked twines, favor boxes, cupcake party package, etc) for your home made baked goodies and party favors. 

For my Etsy Shop's policy, payment and shipping inofmoration, click here.  I am going to add more items soon, stay tuned!  Please check out our Etsy Shop and spread the words out for us to your family and friends.

Cupcake Ukulele

I love Etsy - is a high-class Craiglist for people, who enjoy making/selling and buying crafts or unique and original art works.  I bought couple things from the website; and I had great experience with the sellers.  The items listed on the website are not cheap, but surely you could take home a one of a kind item.

I came across this Celentano Woodworks shop on Etsy, and guess what I found?!  I found a very unique and cute cupcake ukulele ($450usd).  They have other very cute and special designs listed on the website, and according to their website, if you saw anything you like from the site, you could send them an email and ask for a quote.  All their designs can be made into a ukulele, guitar, bass, mandolin, and more.  How awesome it is!

Realistic Fake Cupcake Business Card Stand

If you are our royal fans, you probably remember that I made some realistic looking fake cupcakes few weeks ago.  Last weekend, I wanted to master my fake cupcakes making technique by making more of them.  So I bought few different colors of paints (they were on sale, yay!) and making some more fake cupcakes.  I made 2 of them look like the cupcake on my business card.  And these 2 are actually business card stand for my lovely business card.  Another two, I just simply "frost" them to make them like the one your mom baked at home.

Check out my new creations, yo...

The back was designed to look like the cupcake on my business card.
The front one was intended to make it look like a real cupcake your mom baked at home.

I love it!

Cupcake Soap Recipe

Couple weeks ago, I made some unbaked realistic fake cupcakes with plaster of Paris.  Few nights ago, I made some cupcake soaps.  It's actually harder than I had expected.  I am not a regular soap maker; therefore, I only bought very limited materials to make my cupcake soaps.  If you are interested to make some at home, here are the materials you need:

• A package/box of ready to microwave soap (I bought a 16 oz one from Michael's.  Original price was 9.99, but I got a 40% coupon from them.  It saved me few bucks.)
• Soap colors (I bought a package of red, yellow and blue).  You will need two different colors, one is for the "cake" and one is for the "frosting".  (from any craft store)
• Fragrance oil (I bought vanilla one because I want my soap to look and smell like a real cupcake.) (from any craft store)
• Silicon cupcake cups (from any craft store, Target, Walmart or baking supply store)

These are all the materials you need for making a cupcake soap.

First step, melting about 6 oz soap in the microwave for about 2 mins.

The soap will turn to be liquid, now add the fragrance and put color in and mix them well.

After mixing, pour the soap mix into a cup.  Let it cool down for about 25 mins in room temperature.
Or you could put it in the fridge to speed up the process (about 10-15 mins).

After 20-25 mins, you could pull the soap out from the mold.

Now it's time to make the "frosting".  Same process of first step, just add different color. 

It's the most complicated part - you need to put 4-5 pumps of gel soap and maybe half tablespoon of water.  Then whisk it with your hand mixer or stand mixer for about 3 mins.  

Using your mixer to whisk for 3 mins. 

After 3 mins, you start seeing a peak on your whisk attachment.  It means that it's ready to frost.

You could either use a Ziplock bag to frost
or using a frosting bag with tip to make your "cupcake" fancier.

I have some flowers and beads handy, I added some for decoration.

Done!  They make good decoration on my cake stand.
Also, they make great Christmas gift and party favors.

Tips:

1. Making the frosting is the hardest part.  When you whisk it, the temperature of the soap goes down very quickly.  You need to be fast to frost your cupcake once you see the peak on your whisk attachment.
2. One good thing about making the soap is if you messed up the frosting on your cake, you could just peel the frosting off from the cake, and re-do it again.
3. If the frosting dried up before you finish frosting, put it in the microwave to reheat it and whisk it again.
4. This is my first time, I am sure next time I will make it a little faster and better and less messy.  It's very hard to do the frosting.  I really need to get the technique and skill down.

Impression is Everything

I am having an order request for a bridal shower this weekend.  So my client suggested me to get a business card holder, so she could put my business cards at the party.  I surely think that is a great idea to promote my business.  So I was searching at the store and online, and tried to find "the perfect holder".  Unfortunately, I could not find one I like. 

The next day, I told my client to display my business cards on the table at the party for now because I could not find anything I like.  After talking to my client, I went home and told myself

"you never get a second chance to make a first impression."

I ran straight to Michael's (my favorite store, except for the mall), and grap few materials.  After couple hours of crafting, I made my very own business card holder.

My holder ties to the theme of my business card and it is so unique!

YAY!

Forever Fresh *Fake* Cupcake "Recipe"

I remember when I first saw fake food was at a Japanese restaurant when I was a little kid.  Most Japanese restaurants like to use plastic made food for showing their customers the menu.  I always want to own those fake food at home, just by looking at them made me hungry and happy.

Few years ago, I stopped by an antique store on a random weekend.  And I saw a realistic looking fake cupcake there, I was thinking how they made it.  Making a realistic fake cupcake popped up in my mind again recently.  I went online and see what I need to buy to make my very own first fake cupcake.  There are couple methods to make this sweet fake treat - 1) using expansion foam to make them (I will probably try this method later.) 2)  using plaster of Paris to make it (I found this "recipe" from the Cakespy website.

I chose the second method because it requires less materials, less time consuming and it's cheaper than the first method.  Also, the second method made a heavier "cupcake", so I could use it as a paper weight at work or in future, I could make some for holding my business cards.  You could also make them in a mini size (just use a mini size cupcake cups and a mini cupcake pan).  They will be a great party favors for your guests.

You will need:

• 1 can of plaster of Paris (you could find it from any hardware store or craft store).  I got a small can from Michael's.  The original price was $5.99, but since I have a 40% coupon, I paid less than the price on the tag.
• Cupcake cups (silicone or paper work just fine), I used paper ones.
• Tap water 
• Acrylic paint - be sure they are the water based one (from craft store) - you might need two different colors, one is for the "cake" (bottom) and one is for the "frosting" (top)
• Beads/cupcake toppers (optional)
• Ziploc bag (optional)
• Disposable spoons and bowls (optional) - you don't NEED them if you don't have them at home!  But they definitely make your life easier and less messy for cleaning up afterwards.

A small can of plaster of Paris and acrylic paints from Micahel's

Paper/silicone cupcake cup and a cupcake tin

Mix one cup of plaster of Paris with one cup of tap water and tint them with the paint.

I use cream color for my "cake" because I wanted to make a white cake with strawberry frosting cupcake.  You could choose whatever color you like.  But keep in mind that, choosing a darker color for both frosting and cake would be better.  After mixing together, the color are less noticeable.

You mix them and mix them well...then pour the "batter" into the cupcake cup

all the way to the top.  

I kind of smoothed the top a little bits.  

But you don't have to since the "frosting" will cover the top.

Let the "cake" air-dry for about 30 mins

Take them out from the pan and they are ready to be frosted.  

You don't need to wait for them dry out totally.  

As long as the top part is dry, you could frost them.

Mix the plaster of Paris with water, but this time you want to make the "frosting" 

a little thicker by using a little more plaster of Paris 

because you don't want the "frosting" dripping down from the top.

Also, I used a small Ziploc bag to frost my cupcakes (optional).  You could also use a spoon to put the frosting on top.

Dry for another hour.  If you want to put the "toppings" or "the "toppers", 

you should do it before they start hardening.  

These cupcakes will stay fresh forever!

I am sure I will make more when I got time in future.  That will be a great way to spread the cupcake love to strangers, who love cupcakes like us.  If you happened to see one at a gas station or at McDonald's in future, that's the love from us, C for Cupcake Cupcakery!