Albert Einstein 'think!' Cupcake

albert einstein 'think!' cupcake

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"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

Albert Einstein

Ahhhh, love Albert Einstein and he is the perfect cupcake topper for my single coffee mug gift. Try your hand at a making a figure topper of your favourite sportsman, actor, loved one or scientist by starting with photos.

For Albert Einstein, I started with a Google image search and printed out a few for my inspiration board. 

Then using pre made white fondant with a little CMC powder added, I coloured and rolled the balls I needed to make up the figure.

Here are the balls for the hair, eyebrows and mustache plus the balls for the head, eyelids, eyes, ears and nose

partially made Einstein, plastic wrap balls are are used to support drying pieces.

From here I attach the pieces with a little water and with the aid of my inspiration photos start to build the figure. I used a toothpick to mark out his wrinkles and hair details. I made off centre clothing the same way.

Black food marker was used to mark the hair, moustache and eyes.... and coloured petal dusts with the aid of a small artists brush were added for shading.

That's about it... do give it a try with your own photos of choice as your inspiration. 

Ohh, and trying to "think" of gift ideas? It is the time of year for the single "coffee mug" gift, my best friend Jacinta and I have fallen in love with UK designer Keith Brymer Jones Word range of bucket mugs, cups and bowls. Loads of different "words" are available in the range such as "love", "caffeine", "teatime" etc. 

We got ours in Australia from Victoria's Basement and Peters of Kensington . Amazon UK has them too and Amazon US has a huge range..... Keith Brymer Jones Word Mugs and Bowls

Happy Baking :)

Fast Bubble Sugar Cupcake Decorations

             mini cupcake topped with bubble sugar (isomalt) topper

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Well, you know I love a bubble sugar decoration... today an even faster way to produce *isomalt bubble sugar toppers. 3 minute baking time, cool and taaa daaa you have bubble sugar toppers for your cupcakes and plated desserts.

For this method use CakePlay isomalt sticks or left over cooked isomalt. Ideally two Silpat baking mats but two good quality silicone mats will do. 

CakePlay sticks are precooked isomalt, available in clear and a range of colours. I used left over cooked isomalt that had already been coloured with americolor electric shades. 

Method

Pre heat oven to 180c (355 F)

Grind a few sticks or left over isomalt in a mortar and pestle (or zip lock bag and a rolling pin) until you have a fine powder. Isomalt shatters quickly with little effort.

Sift the crushed isomalt over your first Silpat. Reverse the second Silpat and place on top of the crushed isomalt to create a "sandwich". 

Bake 3 to 4 minutes in preheated oven. Remove from oven and allow to cool without lifting the top Silpat.

Once cool peel back the top Silpat and break bubble sugar into shards. Wearing gloves will protect the pieces from fingerprinting. Pieces are tissue paper thin, yet sturdy enough to handle. 

Happy Baking :)

Coca cola cupcake topped with traditional bubble sugar, where hot sugar is poured over a tilted alcohol covered tray.

*Why Isomalt??: Bubble sugar made from sugar tends to be a thicker and we don't want to take out someone's crowns when they are eating your cupcake. The isomalt method is alcohol free. Isomalt holds up better than sugar work, that said it's always best to top your cakes/desserts just before serving.

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You might also like to see another method of making bubble sugar with isomalt...

Baking isomalt powder bubble sugar

Or try your hand at toffee springs 

Dan the Shrunken Head Halloween Cupcake

                 Dan the shrunken head halloween cupcake

I've been drying chicken in the oven for dog treats this week, the pugs love the shrunken pieces... and yep, this is segue into today's shrunken head cupcake.

Firstly, don't stress about your sculpting skills when you whip up shrunken heads of your hubby, boss or teenagers... you really just need to pick up a few identifiable features. 

Here is Dan, my step son. I could have put his hair shape and beard on a ping pong ball and people would have still said "it's Daniel". Sooo, a bald head, eye glasses, big ears, red hair, curly hair or maybe a nose ring will make up the features of your shrunken head. 

Dan's shrunken head started with this basic shape modelled from a 50/50 modelling paste/modelling chocolate combination.

It's easy with modelling chocolate to smooth and blend joins (like the top of Dan's nose), the heat of your fingers will do it. The addition of modelling paste or fondant with CMC powder added will make sure your piece dries firmly, important if you are living in a warmer climate.  

The bonus of making Halloween shrunken heads and zombies is that if a bit doesn't look right you just give it a squeeze or break a bit off, "it's shrunken". 

Have fun.

Happy Baking :) 

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You might also be interested in an easy white modelling chocolate recipe

Attack of the Swamp Zombie cupcake

                            attack of the swamp Zombie cupcake

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The dietician on talk back radio was saying "don't deny your chocolate cravings just buy a Freddo Frog instead of a whole block of chocolate"... first thing I thought... hope that includes cream frogs! 

Some might consider 1950's sci fi and horror films schlock; I prefer to think of them as little gems, their black and white film reels disguised with bright and lurid poster art.

1950's poster art

Besides they are so much fun and a great inspiration for Halloween cupcakes. Today's cupcake relies on "a hand", it can be a zombie, a sea creature or perhaps an alien hand. Make your hands with fondant or modelling paste the night before you need them, insert a tooth pick or a piece of dry spaghetti amd the leave to dry. Next day pop them in your fondant, iced or frosted cupcakes and they are ready to hold your treat of choice.

I used Cadbury Cream Freddo's, they come in Strawberry or Peppermint. 

Just before serving I broke the Peppermint filled Freddo Frogs to allow for the right amount of Halloween goo. 

Happy Baking :)

Day Of The Dead Catrina Cupcake

day of the dead catrina cupcake

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Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died.

wikipedia

La Calavera Catrina ('The Elegant Skull') 1910 zinc etching by Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada.

Popularized by José Guadalupe Posada, Catrina is the skeleton of an upper class woman, and one of the most popular figures of the Day of the Dead celebrations, which occur during two days, November 1 and November 2.

Ha, I love the day of the dead celebration; it's fun, macabre and makes for a fabulous themed event.

Whether you want to make a Catrina or the simpler skull cupcake picks at the end of today's post, throw a day of the dead party this year!

starting the skull

Catrina starts with a basic white fondant skull shape. Features for the skull are indented and surrounds built up with modelling paste. You can see I've marked out where the mouth will be and a hole was added to the bottom for a toothpick. Once dry, lustre, petal dust and edible food marker added shadows and features to the piece. The hat itself is a round of thinly rolled modelling paste with a shell tool used to mark the edges. 

Scruffy flowers were made with coloured modelling paste. Small pieces of each colour were rolled thinly and the edges were either pulled out with a small ball tool or cut into a fringe with a craft knife. From there they were rolled up and the excess pinched off the end to form a flower. 

Finished flowers are very small and if you are thinking this all sounds a bit fiddly perhaps day of dead mini fondant toppers are what you are after. 

Mini Day of the Dead fondant cupcake picks are super cute, easy enough for the kids to make and look fabulous topping a display of mini cupcakes. 

Mini Day of the Dead fondant cupcake picks 

basic white fondant skull shapes

Form a basic skull shape from white fondant, use a toothpick to pierce a hole in the bottom of the skulls.

Let your skull shapes dry for a few hours (or overnight) and then using edible food markers, edible glitter and lustre duster to decorate your pieces. Insert half toothpicks that have been coloured with food colouring into the skulls and top your mini cupcakes.

Happy Baking :) 

Looking for Catrina and Day of the Dead figures? SilverCrow has a range of traditional and not so traditional Day of the Dead pieces. Search 'Day of the Dead' once there.

one of the many day of dead figures available from SilverCrow

Or perhaps a Catrina pill/mint box?   

you might also be interested in gothic horror cupcakes 

Fondant Masquerade Masks

                   green with envy fondant masquerade mask

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You are invited to the ball, the Masquerade ball... 

Special post today on getting more use out of your silicone moulds. Hmmm, doesn't sound that "special" does it? But what you make will be!!

Don't you love those cake decorating silicone moulds, press in a bit of fondant or modelling paste and hey presto you have a modelled shape in no time. But, but, but, what happens when you have used your mould a few times and you're bored with the shape? Does it end up in the draw with all those other moulds that you just "had to have"? Why don't you try extending the shape, you'll have the time saving aspect of using a mould combined with your own decorating ideas. 

measuring a tiny 4.5 cm (less that two inches) across the  jewel mask uses the same mould as the green with envy mask in cake one.

The masquerade masks on cake one and two today are make with the same mould. Cake three adds a mask to the mask mould and cake four gets it's pizzazz from a side extension. All cakes displayed in fondant covered mini cupcakes today.

For the gold and diamond mask I've added a "mask onto the mask"

Pretty in pink mask has a simple side extension added.

Extensions to your masks can as simple as rolling a thin snake of fondant, from there you twist, twirl and roll to create trims and ribbon.

Create extension pieces by matching the base with mask depth, thinning out from there as required. I use small pieces of plastic wrap to create shapes in the fondant before and after they have been attached to figures. When adding fondant feathers and the like, make sure they are rolled as thinly as possible as you don't want to add too much weight to your pieces.

Use a tootpick/cocktail stick to create twirls.

I used Americolour food spray paint sheen colours undiluted to paint the masks. Try mixing two colours together for a unique finish. A small brush like the type used to paint toy models is ideal for painting trims and details.

 first of two coats on mask, orange food pen circles eyes before painting to change colour of painted finish.

All bits and bobs attached with water with the exception of the isomalt gems I attached those with a dab of melted isomalt. Some of the fondant I marbled by twisting several colours of fondant together, I like how that adds a textured element to the feathers. Americolor gel paste was used to colour fondant. Ummm, what else... oh, ok if you want to put your masks on toothpicks make sure you make a hole with toothpick in the unmoulded piece before it hardens.

Have fun getting more from moulds and happy baking :)

Stockists: Full face mask moulds from Cakes Around Town (Australia) Masquerade Masks mould from Baking Pleasures (Australia) and Windsor Cake Crafts (UK)

Baking Pleasures has the airbrush sheen colours in Australia (*note we are paying a lot more than the US price)

Amazon (US)  

Want more fondant? How about Eric the Valentine Emu

or go gold with a fondant gold fish

Wild Hibiscus Mini Cupcake

                                  Wild Hibisicus Mini Cupcake

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The roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) is a species of Hibiscus native to the Old World tropics. In Australia we know the roselle plant as 'Rosella'. wikipedia

Rosella cordial and jam has been made in Australia since the colonial times, popular in Queensland where the Rosella plant flourishes. It's a bit cold where I am for a Rosella plant, but spurred on by successful plantings on the gardening forums I'm going give it a try and plant this spring. It can be grown as a perennial or annual, so I'll be trying to grow this small shrub as an annual.

 image wikipedia commons

Love, love, love the raspberry/plummy flavour of Rosella jam and can't wait to make a batch myself, but in the interim I have a jar from the supermarket and syrupy wild hibiscus flowers that I used to top today's cupcake.

wild hibiscus flowers in syrup and rosella jam

You may have seen these wild hibiscus flowers in a champagne cocktail, though they are equally at home paired with brie as part of a cheese platter or topping a pavlova. Fabulous stuffed with sweet or savory fillings, or try dipping the bases in white chocolate to serve with after dinner coffee.

I used flowers straight from the jar to top today's mini cupcakes; the rosella flowers are sweet, soft and fleshy with notes of raspberry/plum and rhubarb. 

For chocolate flowers pat the flowers dry with paper towel before dipping the bases in tempered chocolate. The chocolates can be make ahead of time, with the flowers taking on more of a fruit leather texture as they dry.

rosella jam; I'll be using this in upcoming weeks

the petals open and take on an opaque quality as light streams though the glass

I used soda water in a wine glass for the photo today, to illustrate the bubbles opening the petals of the flower. If you are planning to use wild hibiscus flowers in champagne flutes at a wedding, first test that the flowers open in the glasses you have chosen. You need a champagne flute that isn't too narrow at the bottom to allow room for flowers to open.

Have fun trying them, happy baking :)

For cocktail recipes and more visit the official Wild Hibiscus website here

You can find jars of the flowers in varying sizes in Australia from the bushtucker shop in Europe from Wild Hibiscus shop Deutschland. Plus good kitchen supply and bar supply stores.

And of course they are available from Amazon too.

You might also like....

golden apple cupcake

recipe mini vienna almond shortbread chocolate bars, topped with gold leaf tipped vienna almonds

Han Solo Cupcake

chocolate cupcake, red cocoa frosting, chocolate Han Solo in "carbonite", chocolate pop rocks

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Lawyers, counsellers and doctors oh my!!

Well, here I am and the shock of my marriage break up dulled by being caught up in lawyer, counsellor and doctors appointments. 

Like Han Solo I'm trapped, not in carbonite but in a swirl of paperwork that binds me to my husband. Hopefully I'm not on my way to Jabba the Hutt!!

Now, lets talk chocolate :) 

Silicone ice-cube trays double as moulds for your chocolate creations, today I've used the large Han Solo mould for my cupcake topper. Your chocolate tempered or otherwise doesn't have the "high shine" finish of using hard plastic moulds, but this is more than made for with the plethora of designs that are available in silicone. 

Han Solo ice-cube tray

I half filled the mould with melted chocolate, sprinkled on chocolate pop rocks, then filled the rest of the mould. You end up with a "Choc Rock Han Solo Block"... or something like that.

Chocolate pop rocks

Use food paints and lustre dusts to colour your finished pieces. I sprinkled extra pop rocks and chocolate rocks on the frosting.

Thank you everyone for your messages/comments of support. I have read them all, please forgive me for not replying at the moment and I'm going to give Valentines cupcakes a miss this year too... but I'll be back in March with "bunnies" and Easter goodies.

The Lone Baker xx

Christmas Rush Raspberry Tuiles

Two ingredients (rasberries and sugar) Rasberry Tuile Topped mini cupcake

Good griefl, I swear I had black and silver cases in "medium", but all I find was mini's. This left me with toppers that were far too large and since I'd already applied silver leaf to black choc candy coated balls I had to come up with a different topper. 

Two ingredient 'Raspberry Tuiles' have a long oven drying time, but other than that were simple and quick to make fitting in perfectly with "Christmas rush" mode that I'm well and truly in!! 

Now I did burn the first batch, second batch I reduced the cooking time by 20 minutes and they worked perfectly. I used a metal ruler and a sharp knife to cut strips; I then bent the strips and pinched ends whilst still warm.

The strips dry quickly to produce a crispy tuile that is intense in flavour, colour and is also vegan and gluten free. They are best made close to serving and perfect to top a range of desserts.

You just need raspberries and sugar for these... do give it a try and watch chef *David Carmichael the Executive Pastry Chef at The New York Palace demonstrate how the make the tuiles (recipe included).

*Note: chef Carmichael uses 4 pints (8 cups) of raspberries, I halved the recipe.

 if you use a silpat you will end up with a waffle pattern on the shiny side.

Happy Baking :) and Christmas preparations!!  

A Spun Sugar Purple Christmas

spun sugar purple christmas tree mini cupcake

Goodness me, I must admit I haven't enthusiastically embraced my husbands choice of "purple" as a Christmas theme but I thought I should make an attempt and produced a batch of fondanted cupcakes... I stood back and they looked far too "menopause mauve". 

Instead I'll go with purple spun sugar Christmas tree toppers for my mini cupcakes. Watch out for tea light holders in your chosen theme, they make for fab mini cupcake stands like the one I've used today. 

cream horn form

To make the spun sugar tree you will need cream horn forms and follow the instructions for one of my earlier posts; blue sugar springs. Instead of using a spoon to create a spring use a kitchen fork to produce threads to wrap around the form. Start of third of the way up and scroll to the top. 

I used an empty egg carton to hold the cream horns whilst sugar is drying. Sprinkled on edible lilac disco glitter and star sprinkles. 

Storage: like all sugar pieces trees are best made on day of serving. Sugar work breaks down quickly in a humid enviroment. 

 Have fun, happy baking :) and Merry Christmas!!

Not enough purple for you? Try purple butterflies.