Hawaiian Birthday Cupcakes

This post is way overdue, but luckily I still remember to post it before it's getting too late. Last month, my husband's family was throwing a surprise birthday party for his uncle's 50th birthday.  We all had a great time at the Hawaiian themed birthday party.  We even got a pig for his birthday!  My mother-in-law asked me if I mind making them some cupcakes for our uncle's birthday; especially she knew that I got caught up with other orders.  I said no, I don't mind.  So I made some pineapple cupcakes with creamy coconut frosting and decorate with yellow plumeria flowers (made of marshmallows). 

They came out really cute and they were so easy to make.  If you want to decorate your cupcakes in a easy way, marshmallows will be your new best friend.  You need a bag of the big size of marshmallows and cut them in lenthwise four times, so you will get five petals.  And then just spread a little food coloring in the middle and arrange them on top of your frosted cupcakes.  And I also used some melted candy wafers to make some "50" decorations for the cupcakes.  Everything was so tropical and matching the theme of the party=)

DKNY New Cupcake Fragrances

DKNY is launching three limited edition cupcake inspired fragrances.  Three fragrances in flavors of Pink Macaroon, Creamy Meringue, and Tark Key Lime comes packaged in pastel pink, yellow, and green apple-shaped covers.

The Pink Macaroon is a soft, feminine fragrance that is concocted in notes of almonds, rose marzipan, nectarine, kumquat, pomegranate, and fruity flavors.

The Creamy Meringue on the other hand, is a cupcake-inspired scent blending notes of soft lemon cream, bergamot, freesia, frangipani, and passionflower. 

Last but not the least; the Tark Key Lime is a refreshing fragrance that blends notes of orange zest, bergamot, lime, mandarin, citrus flavor, and neroli.

“Color * Smell * Taste”

COLOR, smell and taste are the 3 important characteristics of real Chinese cuisine.  These 3 characteristics also apply to all baked goodies.  Researchers stated that COLOR does play a very important role in food.  Let’s find out how COLOR affects our appetite!

Blue m&m’s?!

Several years ago, the makers of "m & m's," added Blue colors to its assorted colors-candy bag.  Blue? Why Blue? Although they reported that this was the result of a vote by the fans, it raises a few questions. It may very well be the last color left in the bag after the novelty wears off.  Of all the colors in the spectrum, blue is an appetite suppressant.

Research backs up the idea that certain COLORS suppress your appetite while others excite it. Gary Blumenthal from International Food Strategies reports that, “COLOR and the appeal of various foods is closely related. Just the sight of food fires neurons in the hypothalamus.  For the sighted, the eyes are the first place that must be convinced before a food is even tried.

Here are some COLOR and psychological effects on appetite, as reported by Lifemojo, Wednesday (05/11/2011):

RED    Red is the COLORof the full emotional and very energetic COLOR. This COLOR can increase the rate of respiration and raising blood pressure, and also can increase appetite.

ORANGE       Orange can help increase the supply of oxygen to the brain, producing a refreshing effect and stimulates mental activity.  The COLOR of orange makes people feel comfortable and are associated with healthy foods and can stimulate appetite.

YELLOW       Yellow is a bright cheerful colors. Yellow improves concentration, also stimulates the appetite, because this is related to happiness.

GREEN          Green is associated with natural colors, health and often used to demonstrate product safety. Because of its relationship with nature, green is considered as calming and relaxing COLOR.

TURQUOISE This COLOR can stimulate appetite. This color and orange COLOR combination could even be a combination of colors that ‘delicious’.

After a long reading and learning how all the COLORS affect our appetite, it's time to try our lemon zest vanilla cupcakes topped with orange frosting and home-made candied orange.