PacMan Birthday!

If there was an award for the worst blogger of all time, I would probably get it.  I’ve been so busy with work after a re-org that my writing has fallen aside a little.  Fortunately, I’ve still been baking, reviewing bakeries and keeping it real.  I’ve also developed an addiction for Fro-Yo.  What is it about self-serve frozen yogurt that gets people going?  Not to mention the ability to pour on the jimmies (sprinkles) until you can’t even see the fro-yo beneath only to have the high schooler at the register look at you judgingly?  Anywho, let’s talk baking!  One of my favorite days of the year is my birthday – if you know me and you’re reading this, you should know that!  Nine years ago on my birthday, my adorable sister did the unthinkable to steal my birthday thunder by having a child.  My nephew Braden was born and the entire family rejoiced in the hilarity that is having to share a birthday when all you live for is your birthday.  Incidentally, when Braden was old enough to understand that we “share” a birthday, he was none too pleased about it either.  In the years that followed “the birth” I have come to terms with the fact that a kid’s birthday always takes some sort of precedence.  So, as is the case, for many family birthday parties, I am the baker of choice for the cake! 

Braden is a huge video game fan.  He has all sorts of game devices:  a Wii, a Nintendo 3DS , an iPod touch pretty much devoted to game playing.  And through all of the amazing graphics and animations that are available for these systems, I was thrilled to find out that he is a huge PacMan fan.  I mean, what child of the 80’s didn’t love Pacman?  I still recall learning the ‘greater than’ and ‘less than’ signs in elementary school by drawing a little Pac man symbol around them and reasoning that Pacman would eat in the direction of more little dots.  Well it turns out that Pac man is now all souped up with some amazing graphics and faster moving ghosts and now he even moves in other directions besides right angles.  (How much math did we learn from PacMan?!)  So when Braden said he wanted Pac Man for his cake, how could I do anything but a round cake with a chunk cut out?!    But any idiot could do that.  And this idiot did…..  but PacMan is not a one man show.  He would have nothing if not for Inky, Winky, Pinky and Clyde – the famed “Ghosts”!  so It seemed like the perfect time to break out the air brush machine. 

I made a combo of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes – just a standard recipe for each and then covered them with an drape of fondant which I airbrushed to the appropriate bright colors.  Then a dollop of white chocolate for the eyes and how CUTE did these turn out!  I’m totally in love with them.  Without having kids of my own, I rarely get to experience the thrill of having other moms be completely jealous of what you made for your kids’ party.  Eat your hearts out moms!

I likes my men young and my cakes tall.

Apparently the star of this blog aside from me is my buddy Trevor.  You may remember him from such posts as my trip to Ireland, the Trevor Cupcake, and the beer caramel sauce recipe post that featured his beer company:  Evil Genius.  So when his birthday rolls around, I know it's time to show my appreciation for him listening to all my daily crap.  He's a chocolate lover so I roll with my standard chocolate cake recipe.  I make three layers of the cake and filled them with chocolate ganache and white chocolate fudge frosting.  Then I topped the whole thing with a milk chocolate fudge frosting.  (hmmm - no buttercream this time - that's weird).  Anywho, the combination of all the chocolates was awesome and everyone loved it.  But my favorite part was the decoration this time.  I used a simple but new (to me) technique to make the topper.  I wanted to do his company logo but instead of the
"Evil Genius" in the circle, I wanted "Happy Birthday".  So I tried my first buttercream transfer - brilliant!  

Here is the logo  (just the circle part - not the black square):

And here is my cake:

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's not QUITE as perfect as I would have liked but really really not bad.  The logo is actually buttercream.  I used the Wilton premade black because it's too hard to make black frosting.  The lettering I freehanded and but you have to do it backwards!  All you have to do is print out a mirror image of your picture and then put a piece of parchment over the picture and trace the picture with frosting.  Once your have all the front facing things on the picture colored-in, you just pipe on a thick layer of buttercream over the whole picture and put the whole thing in the freezer.  Freeze at least overnight until solid and when you're ready to use it take it out and carefully peel off the parchment - it comes off pretty easily.  Finally just cover up your edges with a border- see my ropey type design around the circle and voila!  Done!  

The buttercream thaws nicely and doesn't run at all.  You can cut right through it after a few hours out of the freezer.  

YAY!  Happy Birthday Trev!  <3

The Awesomest First Blog Post You've Ever Read

Here it is people - my riveting attempt into the world of blogging.  Soon, I'll be rocking your world with a comprehensive overview of sweetshops across America and abroad but for now I thought I'd start with a look at my journey in the magical world of cupcakes.  Cupcakes are so 2009.  and 2010. and 2011 and 2012 and are hopefully around for a long time.  There was a time when cupcakes were just for kids.  Even if your mom couldn't create a 3 tier wedding cake, a Halloween costume or barely throw together macaroni and cheese out of a box *I'm looking at you Big Mama!* You knew that when it was your birthday, there would be a box cake mix and a tub of frosting with your name on it slapped together and presented to your class in your honor.  It was your day!  You could look around at your classmates with pride as they licked Betty's finest frosting off their fingers with crumbs all over their chins and sticking to their math worksheet.  It was your day, your moment and your chance to look at these kids smugly and think "yeah - that's right!  You had a cupcake today because of me so I don't wanna hear your crap today!"  Back in the day, the kids with summer birthdays didn't get this honor.  Now I think they celebrate summer birthdays in classrooms all throughout the year.  My older siblings' birthdays are in August - I don't think they ever had cupcakes in school.  They also didn't have hand-me-downs so we all had our crosses to bear in the Snarky household.

The rise of the cupcake in the last few years brought on a new life to niche bakeries.  In a time where big box stores have taken over many industries, bakers have had a resurgence through these niches and the local bakery has made a comeback.    Cupcake shops, trucks and carts have put cupcakes on the map.  TV shows like Cupcake Wars, Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes took cupcakes and cake decorating and the art of cupcakes from birthday celebrations to serious works of art. Love them or hate them, the celebrity baker has brought this art form to the general public and given many of us courage to try new things in the kitchen in hopes of emulating the magic we see on TV.  Cupcakes are now all grown up.  Complex flavors, creative fillings and newer methods of decorating have put cupcakes back into our lives and are mainstays at parties, restaurant dessert menus, coffee shops and even weddings.  I love the cupcake.  It's the perfect dessert.  Just the right size and with such variety of frosting and decorating techniques, there are literally millions of ways to make a cupcake.  You're limited only by your imagination.

I found cupcakes as my creative outlet during grad school.  Balancing a full time job, two-three nights a week at school and a 40-50% travel schedule was putting me in a frazzled state.  Cupcakes started as a treat for a finance class but has since turned into a full time hobby.  Then graduation came and it seemed like I could make a hobby a business but the gang in my state's legislature prevent me from having a home-based baking business.  Since I'm not really looking to leave  my real job (*which also has me cavorting with real bakers!) I bake for fun and for friends.  Sometimes those friends do fun stuff like get married and let me bake a lil' something for their special events.  So I present to you my first wedding cupcakes.   They are a mix of a chocolate stout cupcake with whiskey ganache filling, a red velvet, a champagne cupcake with a pastry cream filling and a good old fashioned vanilla cupcake.  I'm so lucky to have participated in my friends' wedding this way and I'm thrilled that I've gotten a lot more requests for more events!  I can't imagine my life without frosting...mmm....