marbled heart topped cupcakes.....!

....so these were totally made from leftovers that i had from this post....red velvet cupcakes...but the "red" from beet juice....and basically not so red.....(see below)....

....and the hearts are made from candy melts (i know i know....enough with the candy melts....but have i mentioned how much i love love love candy melts?....i totally wish someone would do a blog giveaway with all the colors in the rainbow of candy melts....i'd totally do whatever they wanted me to do....follow your blog....like you on FB.....like your sponsors...do your laundry....whatever and like 3 times over to enter that!.....or maybe i'll just wait for those michael's coupons to come out...!)

....anyway....i had melted too much and kinda hate wasting perfectly good candy---who does right?......so was playing around with the mold and mixing colors....and ended up with these cute little marbled hearts.....and if you have not used candy melts before....tap the molds hard to get out any air pockets.....and work fast because it hardens pretty fast....oh and for these add a toothpick to make little heart lollipops/heart picks....

...probably not really needed but had some white peppermint life savers around so used them as the base for inserting the heart picks.....the frosting is vanilla buttercream....but tinted pink with some of the beet juice (which was used as the coloring for the cupcakes)....it's such a pretty shade of pink....fits in nicely with valentine's day coming up...

....and the cake is not really that deep red like normal red velvet cupcakes....but it's growing on me and i may try some beet powder next time to see if that works any better.....and since there's beet in these i pretend they are a little more healthy than the normal version....that works right?....

....happy early valentine's day....!

happy heart day cake....!

...nope didn't mean valentine's day.....happy heart day.....january 16th is a really special day around here....today is the 3rd anniversary of our daughter's new heart.....she had a transplant when she was 8 months old.....(and knock on wood....has been doing absolutely fantastic ever since)....spent the entire day as a family enjoying the day....and made her this heart cake....because it is such a special day....and actually it will work for valentine's day too....!

....found this red velvet cake recipe....and since i've been meaning to do less with the artificial colors....went with beet juice for the red coloring.....you mix about 4 ounces of beet juice with the cocoa powder.....it's not a really intense red....and with the cocoa it ended up coloring the cake like a cafe au lait color...hence the "red" velvet.....(i was so tempted to just add some red americolor.....but in the end wanted to see what the beet juice did....if anything....)

.....the cake is a 6 inch layer cake.....baked 3 layers....and once cooled cut each of the layers in half....so there were 6 layers iced with vanilla buttercream.....crumb coated first.....

.....then iced with a thicker layer....and used a spatula to make the side markings...amanda from i am baker gives a great tutorial on how to do this.....the hearts are made from what else...?....candy melts!....made from a heart mold in all the different colors.....before they were totally hardened....add a tooth pick (kinda like a heart lollipop) so you can insert them into the cake....the little hearts in the middle of the candy hearts are from a valentine's day sprinkle mix.....attached with some melted candy.....

...so you can see that it wasn't really a red velvet cake with the beet juice....next time i might try beet powder to see if that works any better for red coloring....if anyone has any other suggestions let me know....!

....but it was pretty tasty regardless...and we just called it a chocolate cake and the kiddos had no problems with that....!.....also need to work on getting more even layers with a layer cake....all in all an awesomely awesome day....

....and if you are not already....please please please consider becoming an organ donor....there are so many people on waiting lists and our little shmoopy would not be here had another's family not given such a special gift.....find out how...here....thanks so much!

superhero cupcakes.....!

....so aside from star wars....we also have big superhero fans living in the house....lots of battles going on....blankies used as capes....with super fast running and yelling and stuff....and we were going to visit friends that are also in the same boat we are (with 3 kiddos....2 boys and a girl plus a 40 year old kid)...so decided to superhero up....!

.....start with a bunch of these.....(used a doctored chocolate box cake...add an extra egg, 1 cup of buttermilk to replace the water, same amount of oil, and added a generous squirt of hershey's chocolate syrup).....

....you'll also need these for the toppers.....and print out your superhero logos...(again...thank you google images...!)....also as a side note...can i tell you how much i love love love candy melts....?....they are so easy to use and adaptable....i've used them so many times with great results...here, here, here...and here....as examples....

...as a little something extra....filled these with buttercream too....used the cone method....where after the cupcakes are cool...use a knife and cut out a cone shape.....cut off some of the smaller end of the cone...fill the cupcake with your favorite filling....then replace the shortened cone.....it works great....

...then frost with whatever frosting is your fav....i use this one all the time and it's so simple and pretty yummy....just tinted red....blue...and yellow.....

...for the superhero logos....tape some parchment down and slide the logos underneath...nuke the outline colors first in a zip lock baggie for 20 second intervals until "pipeable"....then outline....(be sure to warn your 3 y/o not to run head first into your legs while you are doing this because that may result in some funky batman bats....not that i care about that at all....nope not at all.....right?)....


...anyway....after the outlines are dry...it only takes 5-10 minutes or so....(or you can pop them into the fridge if you don't have 10 minutes to spare)......fill in the other colors....i flipped them over once dry to use the "flat" side...so if you want to do this then make sure you get all the crevices filled in well (use a knife to spread it out or you may end up with some holes when you flip them over)....didn't do this for the superman symbol....well because i forgot to reverse the pic when i printed it out....doh....!

....it's a little more bumpy than the other logos...but think it ended up ok....well good enough for the kiddos.....!...and spiderman is just black royal icing with vanilla candy melt eyes....couldn't be any easier.....

.....also to mix it up a little....added different color frostings for the fillings because what kid doesn't like a super colorful superhero cupcake....?...and if you didn't recognize....that's wonder woman....not the worldwildlife fund...or world wrestling federation....!

....i think next time i'd do the side kicks....they always get the shaft.....no one ever says....mom!...i gotta have a robin cake for my 7th birthday.....!......or.....please please please i need an arthur costume....or....check out this awesome jimmy olsen tattoo....it just doesn't happen....oh well next time junior cape crusaders.....

ummm cupcakes...???!

....looks like a cupcake.....but could be meat....could be cake...it looks like meatcake...!...or rather meatloaf "cupcakes".....yeah i know i know this is not really a sweet treat.....well maybe if you love meat it is....but needed to bring an appetizer to a party....and it's still cupcake shaped so i'm going with it here...!

...these are really easy....use your favorite meatloaf recipe....i don't really use a recipe...kinda wing it and use whatever's in the house....but this is similar to what was used:

1 pound lean ground beef
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 large clove garlic, chopped fine
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon basil or italian herb mix
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 egg, slightly beaten

...saute oil, garlic, carrot, and onion until soft but not brown.....let cool then add to the ground beef....add rest of ingredients and mix.....add to cupcake liners (used the aluminum ones with the extra liner as i wasn't sure if they would leak through plain liners)....

...then bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or so....after removing from the oven add a piece of provolone cheese on top of each "cupcake".....

...then "pipe" with mashed potatoes....

3 large white potatoes
3 tablespoons butter
about 1/2 cup milk
salt/pepper to taste

...peel and dice potatoes into cubes...boil in water for about 20-25 minutes or until a fork goes into the potatoes easily...drain....add butter and beat with mixer until smooth...add milk slowly until you get the consistency you want (to be able to pipe)....

...topped them with a piece of carrot (defrosted frozen carrot square!).....and eat....!....these are much better warm...so when taking to the party they cooled a little and i was afraid to reheat because i wasn't sure what would happen if they were nuked....but next time i'd try that to see what happens....!...i bet these would be great for a super bowl party too....

...anyway....more actual sugar stuff soon....!

paying it forward giveaway...and updated with winner!

....aren't these super cute?....and nope didn't make them....but spotted them while post christmas shopping at a pier one.....on clearance and they were just too cute to pass up....but my kiddos were super lucky this holiday season....and got way too much stuff....thanks to some very generous family and friends...(except for that big plastic police station thingee with a super loud cb radio which the kids apparently love to scream into at the top of their lungs....a key piece of this parent torture device will go missing very soon....shhh).....

...anyway....recently i won this cool book from Loren of The Baking Sheet....and that was a real treat...!....i said i would pay it forward soon....so here it is...to say happy new year to everyone....this wooden confectionary set is the giveaway....and i'm really not asking much....become a follower of the blog...and leave me a comment that you did....and if you follow on FB....i'll throw you in again (if you already are a follower of the blog and on FB....just leave a comment saying that or with whatever info you'd like to share...i'm not picky....even if it's "sheesh another giveaway that i have to become follower...!"....that's fine...i get it....but still do it to enter the giveaway :) ....plus you have a great chance of winning!.....

....and who wouldn't want this for their little one(s)....and if you want it for yourself....that's cool too...!......because it is really awesome to get neat stuff in the mail for free....and really i'm just trying to make someone smile when this shows up at their front door one day soon.....and spreading kindness and making more people smile in the world is so simple but so important....

....i'll leave the giveaway open until midnight Jan 9th EST.....but regardless do something nice to make someone smile today....and leave a comment if you do...that would be even more awesome then winning this....!...happy new year to all....and thanks to everyone who does read and follow the blog....started this without much thought about why...but it really is great to find others that share in the baking enthusiasm....!....more real treat posts to come soon...!

....I had my little's pick....so the winner is Baker's Treats! I'm not finding your email so please send me one at sugarswingsservesome@gmail.com so I can send it to you! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to play :)