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©Life of a Foodie and Her Family 2008-2013, Lynn Tabor

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8/29/2013

Camouflage Cupcakes

Another friend asked if I could make Camouflage Cupcakes for her son's birthday.  Sure....but somehow I was going to get that frosting more than one color!!!!  Oh and Miss V was offended that she didn't get to help the day before with Phil the Minion, she said that I cannot frost her friend's cupcakes.  Wow...got it!


 







This time, I attempted just TWO colors.  I mixed up the buttercream and tinted half Americolor Avocado Green and left the other white.

I used to plastic piping bags and filled them 2/3 the way full.  Placed those two bags into one bag fitted with a Sunny Side 1M Tip. With this tip you also need the Large Coupler Set. I use standard size bags from Sunny Side Up.  They also have a larger 16 inch bag.

Minion Cake

So the other day a friend sent me a picture of a Minion cake from the Betty Crocker Site and asked if I could make something like that for her son, who happens to be in Miss V's class.  Oh sure!  The more I thought about it, it kind of looked boring, it is just a flat sheet cake carved with frosting.  Well I turned to my favorite site Pinterest for inspiration and found it!  Here is a link to the inspiration Minion.  I chatted with my friend a bit about cake flavor and went out and picked up two French Vanilla Cake mixes, a couple cans of white frosting, 4 bags of mini marshmallows and powdered sugar.

When I got home Tuesday morning from dropping Miss V off at school, I started working on Mr. Minion.  I made the two cake mixes and put them in a prepared 11x15 sheet pan.  It took about 30 minutes to bake.  Wilton has a great chart on how much batter per pan and cooking temps and times.  You can find it here.

I then put out my fondant mat and used Minion Yellow Duck tape to keep it in place.



While he was in the oven, I made a batch of Marshmallow Fondant.  I kept it simple and just used clear vanilla extract and water.

When the cake was done, I flipped it and let it cool on a wire rack.

With the first batch of fondant, I colored some with black, grey, brown, pink and left some white.  So I made some shoes, hair, hands, parts of eyes, and buttons from the black.  With the white I designed some teeth, and eyes.  I made the pupils out of the brown.  With the pink I made a cute little tongue by using a small heart shaped cookie cutter.  I also made the goggles from the gray.  I rolled it out pretty thick and used different sized round cutters.



I wrapped the extra fondant up in plastic wrap to keep from drying out.  Then it was time to carve the Minion.  I kind of stood and looked at him for a few minutes deciding how he should look.






He then went into the fridge to cool down for about 30 minutes.  When he was cool, I gave him a quick crumb coat and added a little tiny section from the scrap cake for legs.  Minions have to have legs.

Then back into the fridge.  I normally like to put them in the freezer, but the cookie sheet he is on is to big to fit in the freezer.

While he was chilling in the fridge, I put the eyes together with the goggle frames and looked at the scale and looked pretty good.

When he was done with his chill time, I made another two batches of marshmallow fondant and tinted it yellow with Americolor Lemon Yellow.  Rolled it out and covered Mr. Minion.


I put on the eyes/goggles and the mouth to check for scale on the body.  Whoa....I did not like the mouth at all.  It made him creepy!


That mouth came off very quickly!  Then I made another batch of marshmallow fondant and colored it with Americolor Royal Blue.  Rolled it out and made a nice straight rectangle then put it on as his overalls.


I cut straps and put them on and put a little black button on each one.  I wanted that to dry a little so I made the goggles metallic looking by using a bit of silver luster dust and lemon extract.  You can see the difference here.


When both were done I let them air dry a bit and placed them on Mr. Minion.



Next came his eyes

Tried the funky mouth again, just to make sure.


He still looked creepy so I rolled some more black fondant and made another mouth.


Yep that one looks much more friendly and silly!  Next up arms!  I did put a toothpick in the upper arms to keep them attached to the body and did the same with the shoes.  The rest of the parts I used a dab of corn syrup.  Works like a charm!



Next up was hair!  I did use toothpicks to keep the hair sticking up.



I think he is done....then went into a box for safe keeping overnight.


I kept thinking how flippin adorable he was!  He was a lot of hours worth of work, but he was so worth it!

Mr. Minion (Miss V called him Phil) took a ride to school on her lap.  She was guardian of the Minion.

8/26/2013

Camouflage Cupcakes

Miss V's school had a special Math Boot Camp this summer for a few of the kids.  The two teachers that put it together also have sons in the Army hence the "Boot Camp" theme.  On the last day, they had a party to celebrate their hard work.  I offered to bring cupcakes and found a great tutorial on Crafty Mama.

I started with a white cake mix and a devils food mix.

Divide the batters between four bowls.

One plain white, one devils food, one tinted with Americolor Avocado gel and the last one white mixed with a bit of the devils food batter.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Line the muffin pans with white cupcake liners.

I used my mini cookie scoop and added a bit of devils food to each cup. Then some of the green, then white, then brown.  Repeat until the cups are about 2/3 full then bake. 





Remove the cupcakes and place them on a cooling rack.  Cool completely.




While they were cooking I made a double batch of Buttercream Frosting.

6 Cups Powdered Sugar
4 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
2 tsp vanilla extract
A little milk

Whisk butter in your stand mixer until smooth.  Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and mix to combine, repeat until all the sugar is incorporated.  Add the vanilla and a dash of milk.  Whisk on high for approximately three minutes until light and fluffy.

When done, divide the frosting into three bowls.  Tint one with Americolor Avocado, one white and tint one with a bit of brown food gel.

The tutorial said to place the frosting into separate piping bags, then put them in one large bag with a star tip.  This just didn't work for me at all.

So Miss V said to put a little of each color into one bag and let it mix naturally.  So I did and she loved it.  I didn't, but they weren't for me.




They were a huge hit!  Miss V loved the buttercream frosting and asked that I never ever buy canned white icing again!!!!

8/23/2013

Egg, Cheese, Potato and Bacon Breakfast Bowls

The other day while Miss V and I were grocery shopping, she saw Jimmy Dean Breakfast bowls.  They were on sale so I let her pick two to try.  Well yesterday morning she had the one with bacon.  She ate probably a third of it and was full.  She liked it, but said it was just to much to eat. That made me think a bit....I bet I could make some, but have it Miss V size.

This morning I had to stop by the store and I picked up some bacon for her Miss V sized breakfast bowls.  I had plenty of eggs, hash browns and cheese.


I used 7 eggs and half a small carton of egg whites.  I blended them up with a bit of milk in the blender.  Cooked the bacon in the oven, wow does that save on clean up.  Then cooked the hash browns.  When everything was done, I let it all cool down.

 
Mmm, yummy hash browns!
 


When everything was cooled, I then assembled them.

First a layer of the hash browns


Then some eggs

Sprinkle of cheese, this was Mexican blend


Then some BACON!
 
I ended up with nine Miss V sized breakfast bowls.
 


I really don't like to heat things in the microwave.  I think I will just pop them out into a Fiestaware bowls and cover them.  I think they will take about 2 minutes to reheat.