Nutcracker Cupcakes

For one of our Thanksgiving desserts this year, I made these cupcakes, with special picks to celebrate the fact that my daughter is dancing in the Nutcracker.  I found the kit with these darling Nutcracker picks at Williams-Sonoma.  Aren't they fab? The ballerinas even have tulle added to their skirts!

For the cupcakes, I wanted to make something "salted" because lately I've been obsessed with salted dark chocolate.  So I made spice cupcakes (from a mix -- easy, peasy), and then made the icing from scratch: a salted caramel buttercream.  I wasn't using a recipe, so I was kinda flying by the seat of my pants.  But I thought they were super-yummy, and there were no complaints at the dinner table.

I'm sorry to say that I didn't take any other pictures at Thanksgiving!  I was too busy cooking, and then cleaning, and then giving in to my turkey coma....  I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A Fun New Swap, a House Update, and an IKEA Shout-Out

I'm so excited that Heather is doing another fun petite box swap -- this one with a black and white theme.  Spots are limited, so if you're interested, run on over to her blog, Speckled Egg, and sign up!  I'm feeling inspired to do something spooky for this one; visions of the Munsters are coming to mind.  :)

In other news, we are still living at a hotel.  Of course, it's a huge blessing to have a place to live, but it's been 3 weeks now, and we are looking forward to going home soon.  They were in the process of staining/coating the new hardwood floors this week, so we are hopeful that we may be able to partially move back over the long Labor Day weekend. 

I made a pilgrimage to Ikea today.  We are very fortunate to have a huge (and I mean Death Star huge!) Ikea only 5 minutes away.  But the truth is that I rarely go, because it's so big and so crowded -- you kind of have to psych yourself up for it.  But I need a new desk for my office (I've been using a large folding table as a "temporary" desk for the last 2 years), so today I ventured over there, arriving right at opening time.  I found my new desk (I'll post pics soon) and I have my eye on some new bookshelves as well.  It's hard to beat those Ikea prices, I tell ya!  But the big news was what I found in the housewares area:  towels and aprons covered with cupcakes!!!

Sorry about this kind of weird far-away picture of the apron, but it was all I could find on the web.  The towels are darling, too, and I think the set of 3 was $7.99.  Just can't beat that!

Hope you have a great holiday weekend!

Cupcakes!

I've been busy making cupcakes for a classroom birthday celebration today, so I thought I'd share.  Chloe asked for chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting.  So, I went with a butter fudge mix, and made a vanilla buttercream frosting from scratch.

When planning these, I found two new things in the baking aisle that I wanted to share.  First: edible glitter!  How did I not know about this before??  Here's how it looks in the package:

I was excited about this glitter -- VERY excited.  Honestly, I didn't love it on the cupcakes as much as I thought I would.  I like the way the white glitter looks on the white icing, but the pink.... not as much.  Still, what  a fun idea!  I'm wondering what else I can use this for.  [ADDED NOTE: now that we've actually eaten the cupcakes, I have to pass along that I don't like the way the glitter tastes.  I thought it would taste like sugar sprinkles, but it tastes kind of like, well, paper.  Not yummy.  So, if you're going to use it, I'd use it on something you're decorating for show, not on something you're planning to eat.  Maybe it's just me, but I wanted to let you know.]

My other discovery was in the candy-making section: molds for candy cupcake picks!  I bought a crown mold, and whipped up these:

I made them a solid color and then "painted" on a contrasting color with a toothpick.  That worked okay, but I think I need some more practice.  These are so darling, they're fine in just one color, I think!

Anyway, here's how they came out.  Hope the kids like 'em!  :)