Easter Cake

A couple years ago, I saw an Easter cake repinned over and over again. I decided that it was cute and that for Easter that year, I'd make a cake and decorate it like what I had seen on Pinterest. I thought it turned out to be adorable. Mine was a bit different from the pin, which is what I prefer to do. I love to take an idea and then make it my own. 

As usual, I made my cake and frosting from scratch. I made a yellow cake and vanilla buttercream. My vanilla buttercream is probably my speciality. I LOVE making it and use it often. Although I use other flavors and other frostings, the vanilla is most definitely my favorite. 

This cake had Peeps brand bunnies lined up around the edges. Easy. I bought a few packages of Peeps, in different colors for variety. After my cake was frosted, I lined them up around it, carefully pressing them into the buttercream so that they would stay. I then scattered Easter M&Ms across the top, as well as around the top of the side of the cake all the way around. After that, I put some Peeps chicks on the top. 

The original cake had the M&Ms arranged around the bottom of the cake, rather than the top. It also had significantly more M&Ms on top of the cake and did not have any additional Peeps on top. I thought that the amount of M&Ms on top was a bit excessive. I also knew that my family (myself included) would not want to eat so many M&Ms. They would've gone to waste had I used so many. Personally, I liked the appearance of my cake better than the original pin. Of course, I made it so that it was pleasing to MY eye, so that's to be expected. 

This was a super popular pin. Did any of you try it?

Patriotic Shorts

Two summers ago I was trying to find a pair of American flag printed shorts to wear for he Fourth of July. I couldn't find what I was looking for that was a decent price (who wants to pay a lot for shorts that they won't wear often?) or in the correct size. 

Naturally, I took to Pinterest to see what I could find. As luck would have it, I found an idea to make my own. I picked up a reasonably priced pair of denim shorts on sale at Kohls, as well as some items at the craft store and decided to create my own. The cost of the shorts and supplies was far less than what I was finding shorts for online. 

These were quite simple, and quick to make. I washed and dried the shorts and then set to work making them. I cut some stars out of construction paper to make stencils and taped them to one side of the front of the shorts. I painted the area white. I then pulled tore strips of masking tape and arranged them on the leg (still on front) of the shorts. I painted the area between the tape white. After it dried, I took the tape off and painted the areas where the tape had been red. 

That was it! I created my own flag shorts quickly and at a lower price than I found online. 

Sesame Street Cupcakes

When I see an idea on Pinterest, I generally use the concept and alter it to fit my taste. There were several versions of Sesame Street themed cupcakes on Pinterest when I searched. Some were adorable, and some, not so much. The creators used different items for decorating the faces of the adorable little characters. 

I am a bit of a snob when it comes to baking. I hate using boxed mixes and canned frosting. I just prefer the taste of homemade versus pre-packaged. I'm also able to alter ingredients as needed that way. I think they taste better too. I think that there's a part of me that feels like they're appreciated more when they are made "from scratch." For these cupcakes, I made homemade vanilla cupcakes and vanilla buttercream for the Cookie Monster and Elmo cupcakes. I did a sugar-free version when I made Big Bird, since the little guy's Grandfather is diabetic. I used food coloring for all of the characters' colors. 

I started with Cookie Monster, as he was the favorite character of the little guy I made these cupcakes for. I wanted to be sure I had some Cookie cupcakes. He was pretty basic, and I did pretty much what everyone else did for decorating. I cut out sugar sheets for the mouth and eyes, and used a food marker to draw on the pupil of the eyes. I bought a package of mini cookies and put them in various states of being, on Cookie's mouth. 

Elmo was done in a similar way. I made his eyes and mouth from sugar sheets and used the food marker for the pupil of the eye. Instead of using a jelly bean for his nose, as I saw on many of the cupcakes, I used orange Reese's Pieces (easier to get more orange pieces that way!). 

Big Bird was done a little differently. Although the cake and frosting were sugar-free, the decorations were not. I informed the Grandpa of this so that he could avoid eating them. I explained that they were used to help create Big Bird, which he understood. Big Bird's eyes were also made from sugar sheets, and colored with food markers. His beak was done a bit differently than others I'd see. Some used fondant. Some used frosting. Some used jelly beans. I used Starbursts. I cut the candies and pieced them together with some of the frosting I made for the big, yellow guy. 

Easy. As long as you take your time, crafting these guys is a pretty simple process. I saw some not-so-pretty versions but I think that's because people (most likely) rushed when decorating. As with all things, you can generally tell when someone has rushed through something. I think that my version turned out to be pretty cute!