Cupcake Fun and a Giveaway!

I had a lot of fun sharing different cake decorating tips last week, and thought I would turn my attention to my favorite form of cake: cupcakes!

I had the opportunity to go to one of my favorite cupcake cafes when I was in St. Louis last week, The Cup. Their cupcakes are gorgeous in a really simple way, and also delicious. Check out this baby:

When I took the cake decorating class a few years back, I was most excited about our last class, which focused entirely on cupcakes. It was so much fun to see the different things that you can create, simply by changing out the tips on the piping bag. I usually focus more on taste than toppings, but it is really fun to see what you can create. Here are a few:

This ladybug was just a smooth layer of red icing, a line and a few dots with chocolate icing, and then a chocolate drop and some white dots, which you can get at the craft store.  


 You can also bake cupcakes into an ice cream cone, and then top with frosting using a 1M tip (the big star). Topped with some sprinkles and a cherry = awesome! The 1M tip is the one that makes the nice big icing swirl on top of the cake. Much prettier than plopping down icing with a spatula.

Our instructor also made a delicious chocolate mint mousse-like icing for this one, which is my "ice cream." She also used this as a cupcake filling. It was surprisingly easy to fill cupcakes without making a mess, using the Bismarck tip. Give it a try!


So I will own that I didn't make this one, the instructor did. She showed us how to do a bunch, and then let us take her examples home. This sunflower was made with a leaf tip and yellow icing, followed by some small dots of chocolate. You could also do mini chocolate chips for the center. That leaf tip is great for making a lion face too.

Another fun tip for cupcakes is the grass tip, which can either do something like this...

From Lace Bakery

Or you can make muppet fur!

From Bake Factory UK

Pinterest is a great source of inspiration for cupcake decorating. Here are a few of my favorite pins that I would love to try. I have a lot of cupcake recipes saved for different flavors, these are more focused on the decorating piece.

Minion Cupcakes (made with twinkies) from Do It and How

Caramel Frappuccino Cupcakes from Pixie Crust

Stuffed Carrot Cupcakes from Cupcakes Take the Cake (The carrot is actually a chocolate covered strawberry!)

I am inspired to get my bake on.

So, for all of you blog readers out there, it is time for another giveaway! And if you haven't guessed it, this one is all about cupcakes!

The Goods: To help you decorate some cupcakes of your own, this giveaway comes with four essentials:

•  Wilton 12-piece Cupcake Decorating Set. Includes star tips 1M (rosettes, stars, drop flowers), star tip 22 (zigzags, pull-out stars), round tip 12 (outlines, dots, messages) and Bismarck tip 230 for exciting filled cupcakes, plus 8 disposable bags, and an instruction booklet.
• Wilton 4-pack of couplers. (Couplers hold your tip onto the piping bag, and are super helpful.)
• Wilton Garden-Tone 4-icing gel colors set. Colors include Buttercup Yellow, Aster Mauve, Delphinium Blue and Juniper Green in 1/2 oz. jars. These are the best colors to use to create vibrant icing.
• Festive plaid cupcake wrappers. These will make some happy cupcakes. : )

(picture of the giveaway coming soon - had some trouble uploading pictures last night)

How to Enter:
This is where you have to come out from the shadows. I know you are there readers, but you will have to make yourselves known to enter. There are two ways:

1. Follow/subscribe to my blog (click Join This Site on the right), and shoot me a comment so I know you are subscribing (I can't always tell if you are a new follower, plus this helps me know that my current followers who are also interested) - Counts as one entry!

2. Add a second comment on this post with a recipe for your favorite cupcake, or one you plan to try (links are cool) - Counts as one entry! (Make sure I have your name too)

I will draw a winner next Monday and make arrangements to get this fun little kit to you. No worries, you can still enter if you live outside of Milwaukee, but in the United States. Sorry, no international shipping.

Know that I love things like random number generators, so I promise that all drawings will be totally legit. No funny business.

Good luck! 

An Education in Baseball

In the past, I would typically go to a baseball game or two each season. My attention was usually focused on which snacks that I would want, and determining what would be considered a reasonable amount of time before going to get the next one. When I lived in Iowa, we only had a minor league team, and so going to a game was more about the atmosphere than the game itself. On the other hand, people in St. Louis take their baseball very seriously. That made it really fun to go with friends, as long as they were not playing the Brewers.

Now that I am back in Milwaukee, Chris and I have already gone to 5 Brewers games this season, plus we have traveled to Chicago to see a White Sox/Red Sox game, and have taken the VIP tour of Miller Park. And I own two more shirts than I ever have before. At least since I was a little kid. Plus an Italian Sausage Racer Bobblehead!

I have found that when you date someone who loves baseball, you can either sit bored through a lot of games, or you can try to love the sport too and ask lots of questions. I have chosen route B, and boy have I learned a lot about the sport.

10 Baseball Things I Have Learned

1. The difference between a designated hitter and a pinch hitter, why teams use them, and which leagues use each.

2. What a pitching rotation is, and why players typically play every 5 days.

3. What a player's On Base Percentage (OBP) means and how it is calculated. (Ex. Ryan Braun's is really good. Rickie Week's is really bad.

4. What Fielder's Choice means.

5. Why a pitcher may intentionally walk a player and/or hit them with a pitch. Which just seems too mean to do on purpose. But I guess it happens.

6. When it is useful to use a pinch runner. Like when you have a slow runner on base in the bottom of the 9th and can sub in a fast one. Ex. Gomez in today's game.

7. What counts as an error. We had a few of those today.

8. How players are awarded an extra base when a ball is thrown past the base and out into the stands. Yeah Gomez!

9. The differences between starting pitchers, relief pitchers and closers.

10. It is really cool to see a pitcher's major league debut, but getting called up does not always mean they will get to stay. Thornburg is a young, talented pitcher, but he probably needs to develop more in Triple-A.

Plus 10 More For Fun.... 

1. I prefer the old Brewers logo to the current ones. How can you not love the ball and glove that also are an "m" and a "b"? Amazing!

2. Ryan Braun has a really great butt, so if you can get a seat behind left field, it is totally worth it.

3. Miller Park has a number of great snacks that come in plastic helmets - nachos, ice cream, cheese fries, and cheese curds. Why eat food in a regular container when you can get a nice helmet collection going?

4. Ryan Braun is a Nervous Nelly. He wears out the grass where he stands, and they have to replace it between each home series. There was some brand new sod on the day we were there for our tour.

5. The club house for the visiting team has a sign warning them not to get on Bernie's slide. When I asked, the tour guide said they would not have the sign up if there hadn't been attempts in the past. Apparently the visiting team players must like to get into some mischief!

6. It is more fun to go to games where they give you free stuff. Like bobbleheads. Or free tickets to Festa Italiana.

7. It is a good idea to be cautious about buying a jersey with a player's name on the back. You never know when they will be traded. And those things aren't cheap!

8. It is really fun to watch baseball games with Canadians. Well, drunk Canadians.

9. The players hit foul balls into the press box a lot. Rather than constantly repair the damage, they just started marking them.

10. You can leave a game a little early thinking the team has a safe lead, and it can totally change course. It's so unpredictable, with its highs and lows.

What do you love most about baseball?