Frogs and Pooh Bears

 

 Hey guys :)

I had a couple of birthdays at work last week, so I spent most of my afternoons in the kitchen.

I tried a few new things and used some old familiar techniques to make something special for each of my coworkers.

Frogs Cupcakes and Winnie the Pooh

Overall, I was happy with how both of my projects turned out.
I mean sure, there were bits that I wasn't thrilled with, but it's really just me being hard on myself.

Everyone liked them, and that makes me happy.

On the left are the frog cupcakes I made for my boss.

I was inspired by a recipe in Cupcakes, Cookies and Pies, Oh My!, and changed it a little to make it my own. I decided to use liners that look like flowers (which was cute, but sucked ALOT when I started dipping the frogs in frosting), and made them less complicated than the ones in the book.

To make these you need 2 cupcakes for each frog.

One will remain in the liner as the base, and the other will be peeled and cut to resemble the head of a frog.
I stacked the head on top of the regular cupcake, using frosting to adhere them together.

I then covered the heads with a thin layer of regular frosting and stuck them in the freezer.

To make the smooth texture of the green frosting, I microwaved the frosting for 25 seconds (15 seconds, stop and stir, then 10 seconds). I dipped each of the heads into the frosting, all the way down to the liner (which is why those petals were kind of a pain in the ass, 20/20 hindsight, right?). After letting the excess drip off into the cup, I set them right side up and off to the side so that the frosting could harden.

As for the rest of the decorations, I made the mouth but cutting out a small slice of the cake (the shape reminded me of an orange wedge). I stuck mini M&Ms all over the head and used candy eyes that I bought at a hobby store. 

 ** I eventually decided against the tongues. They looked a little too "snakelike" for my taste.

TIP: if you EVER use M&Ms (minis or regular) for decorating, just keep in mind that they cannot (I repeat, CANNOT) handle the condensation of going from the fridge to room temperature. They WILL lose their color, and WILL drip dye all over your frosting. So if you're going to use them, I recommend waiting to apply until just before serving. Either that, or just keep them at room temperature after decorating (which a lot of people aren't comfortable with).

For some reason (and I'm pretty sure that reason is how hot is in my apartment), each frog was harder to decorate than the last. The first one was absolutely perfect, and they got derpier and derpier as I went.

I'm guessing that the frozen cupcakes were beginning to thaw and the frosting was beginning to harden, so it was a battle on both sides.

Overall, I was happy with them, and Natalie liked them, which is what's important :)

On the right is a picture of my first ever fondant figure.

I've been meaning to start using fondant for a while, especially since it's kind of the next step in cake decorating. I finally bought a pack of pre-colored fondant after a "Cake Boss" marathon, inspired and ready to learn something new.

My coworker loves Winnie the Pooh, so I figured I could kill two birds with one stone by making her a little fondant Pooh Bear to put on her cake. I used a lollipop stick (NOT a used one, that sounds like a silly thing to say but you wouldn't believe how many people asked me) to support his body and used yellow and red fondant to make his body and shirt.

TIP: It isn't as easy as it looks. It's not like playing with Play Doh, it's sticky and affected by heat. Also, it settles. For instance, when I finished with my figure, it looked like normal Winnie the Pooh. After sitting for the night in a tupperware container, he looked like Winnie after WAY too much honey.

As for the cake itself:

I made red velvet cake and used cream cheese frosting (oh my god so good, and I don't like cake) I covered the very top of the cake with green fondant (I wanted to cover the whole cake, but didn't have enough :/) and used a special decorating tip to create the grass. I added flowers and wrote "Happy Birthday" (I'm TERRIBLE at writing in icing :/) and put Pooh on top :)

Other than the settling and the fact that the fondant started to crack a little bit, I'd say my first attempt was a a success :) I'm actually really excited to work with it more.

But yeah, that's what I did this week :)
I've got more birthdays on the horizon, and have lots of ideas that I can't wait to share :)

See you soon!