My Other Display Samples

I know I was supposed to post pictures of the other display samples I made for the Art Sparks event before now. The thing is, I procrastinate, and so I ran out of time and didn't even get two of the dummy cakes decorated--although they are iced. I had grand visions of setting up an awesome table to promote my cake decorating classes, snapping a few photos of it to impress everybody, and then posting all about it. That didn't happen. Despite arriving with a good 45 minutes to set up, I didn't have a chance to take a picture of my booth. Honestly. I was busy the entire five hours because everybody wanted to decorate a cookie or cupcake. Some folks opted to do both, which I suppose I shouldn't have allowed, but there ended up being plenty for everyone and I even had a few left over.

Apologies for the glare on this.

Technically, since my clases are for teens and adults, the cookies and cupcakes were for ages 12 and up to decorate. However, this was a family-friendly event, and while I did my best to encourage the moms and dads to decorate a treat for their kids, I wasn't able to stick to that policy very well. I also really wanted to take pictures of cookies and cupcakes the visitors to my station decorated, but I didn't have a spare moment. There were maybe three very brief lulls, but I had to use that time to quickly reorganize and try to get things tidied up as much as possible. Whenever icing, sprinkles, and kids are involved there is going to be some mess. That just goes with the territory. But it was loads of fun.

I would like to thank Publix for providing the cupcakes, cookies, and icing, and I especially want to thank Roundabouts Cupcake Sleeves for generously sending me enough cupcake wrappers so that everyone who decorated a cupcake had their choice of Valentine's Day themed sleeves, A Tisket, A Tasket, and Tickle the Ivories. I quickly ran out of the candy hearts, so it was the most popular design. I really wish I had pictures, because some of the cupcakes were really awesome.

I had to wait until I got home to take photos of my other display pieces. So, as promised, here they are. I think they held up pretty well considering I didn't so such a great job of packing them to bring back home, and I let people touch them. I also made a white color flow heart with smaller pink hearts on it, but the pink really bled into the white and looked awful, so I threw it away. I'm bummed that a string on the football laces broke off, but other than that these things stayed pretty much intact. I definitely like the laces positioned in the middle of the football as opposed to on the top edge, but I had to try both ways in order to see which would look better. I'm not so great at visualization.

The cupcakes didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. I used some old Wilton rolled fondant to makes these, and they were way too heavy and took forever to dry. Next time I'll just spend the money and get some styrofoam balls or something more practical to use. I meant to pipe little pastel dots around the chick to make it look like he's sitting in a field of Easter eggs, but I forgot. Also, the dark purple grapes bled a little. I'm not sure why, as that's not an issue I've encountered before.

This is actually a cake board I decorated a while ago to put in the display case at the Rec center as an example of what students can learn in Buttercream Basics. Since I'm not scheduled to teach that class again until March, I swapped it out for the cake dummy I decorated to represent Buttercream Flowers. I wish his eye wasn't baby blue, as I think it looks kinda creepy. I should have made it black.

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I had the obligatory hearts and love cake. Please pretend like you don't notice the dips on the top. They're not entirely my fault, as the styrofoam had some nicks and dips in it, but I still should have filled those in with royal icing before covering with rolled fondant.

I wanted to do a tablecloth cake, but I'm not entirely happy with the bottom border. I probably should've just piped simple beads, but I had already done that on the other two cakes and didn't want to be repetitive. Also, the roses aren't supposed to be a dingy grey color. I think some Nu Silver was left on my brush when I went to apply the Super Pearl. Oh, well. At least I used a better green for the leaves this time.

Here is my redux from this week's Should've Done Sunday. Yes, this cake was entirely inspired copied from my cake I did in the Fondant II class (as were the roses on the cake above). But nobody else knew that.

All in all, it was a great day, and tons of fun. Hopefully this week I'll get around to trying a recipe that's worth sharing.

Roundabouts Cupcake Sleeves

I have something really cool to share with you guys! It's another quick and easy way to dress up your cupcakes. Roundabouts Cupcake Sleeves are self-adhesive and grease-resistant decorative paper wrappers that go around the base of cupcakes. Then you just add whatever sprinkles, candies, or other toppings you'd like to complete your design.

Created by a busy mom, Roundabouts Cupcake Sleeves come in eco-friendly and recyclable packaging. There are a dozen sleeves in each pack, and I received 2 holiday themed sets to try: Nutcracker and Delicious Drums.

   

The packets open at the bottom, and inside are the cupcake sleeves, detailed instructions printed on a handy door hanger for easy viewing, and a tip sheet.

Mise en place.

For these, you can use any flavor cupcakes and icing you want. I used just plain old yellow cupcakes (from a mix because I ran short on time and ingredients) and vanilla buttercream icing. Of course, you'll want to make sure the cupcakes are completely cool before working with them. I prefer to pipe the icing onto my cupcakes because I think it's easier and less messy, but you can use a spatula if that's your preferred method.  For the drums, I decided to follow the example picture and use pretzels for drumsticks.

The instructions say to ice the cupcakes first. I was hesitant to do it that way because I was worried that I would mess up the tops trying to put the sleeves on, but the instructions also say to let the iced cupcakes chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to set up before adding the sleeves. I figured it might work out okay, so for once I actually followed directions, and they came out fine. Since I was covering the tops of these with white sugar sprinkles and nonpareils, I knew that the icing had to be fresh in order for the toppings to stick. As soon as I iced each cupcake, I dipped it into the sprinkles.

  

I like to pour the sprinkles into a small, shallow bowl for this. The bowl needs to be wide enough for the cupcake top to fit without touching the sides.

  

Once I had them all iced and dipped, I put them on a tray and stuck them in the fridge as directed. While they were chilling, I went ahead and started on the nutcrackers. For these, I couldn't find any black sugar crystals, but I did have some red and silver ones, as well as some chocolate jimmies, so I had a variety of colors to play with.

Mise en place.

While the drum cupcakes were supposed to be flat, the nutcrackers needed to have more rounded tops. To accomplish this, I piped a big mound of icing and then dipped them in the sprinkles.

 

In order to get the edges covered, I tilted the cupcakes and rolled them in the sprinkles. The jimmies didn't do as good of a job covering the icing, so I think next time I'll use chocolate so there isn't as much white showing through.

  

Then, I just repeated the process with the silver and red sugar crystals.

  

Again, I had to tilt the cupcakes and rotate them around in the sprinkles in order for the edges to get covered.

  

By the way, any leftover sprinkles can be saved for later. The easiest way I've found to get them back in their container is to dump them onto a paper towel, pull up the corners to make a funnel, and carefully pour them back into the bottle.

  

While the nutcrackers were enjoying their time chilling in the fridge, I finished the drums. Simply remove the backing off the adhesive strip and carefully wrap the sleeve around the outside of the cupcake, attaching the ends.

 

The directions say to place the cupcake on a flat surface to do this, and I highly recommend doing it that way. Trying to hold the cupcake and wrap the sleeve around it resulted in mismatched ends. The adhesive is very strong--which is a good thing because you don't have to worry about it falling off, but it also means you can't reposition it once it's attached to the other end.

Oops.

Once the sleeve is on securely, add 2 pretzels for drumsticks, and it's done! I personally found the pretzel sticks to be a bit long, so I broke them in half. Also, I had to press the pretzels into the icing in order for them to stay put.

  

The same method applies for the nutcrackers. My only snafu making these was letting some sprinkles get on one of the adhesive strips, which caused it not to want to stick. Luckily, I had some clear tape handy, and nobody noticed.

Oops again.

I think I like these topped with the silver sugar crystals best, but the red looks pretty impressive too.

  

The chocolate jimmies even look good on them, I'm just overly picky and would rather not have the white icing showing.

I really had a lot of fun making these. You could get much more creative with them and do all kinds of different designs. The sleeves themselves are very easy to work with because they're pretty thin and supple, while still being very sturdy. I'm rather clumsy and can be a bit heavy-handed, and I was able to use them without ripping or tearing them, so I know they can take some rough handling. Also, you don't have to worry if icing gets on them, as it wipes away easily and doesn't leave any grease spots, which is fantastic.

But hey, you don't have to take my word for it because the company is letting me host a giveaway for their Roundabouts Cupcake Sleeves, so you have a chance to win a set of your own! Click here to enter.

I received the Delicious Drums and Nutcracker Roundabouts Cupcake Sleeves for free in exchange for my honest review.