Foodie Friday—Cupcakes!

Yes! It’s Friday; and, I’m happy to post about the latest cupcakes I’ve made. I absolutely love making cupcakes (even though I didn’t get to eat any of these). Making cupcakes is so much fun for me; and I love everything about making cupcakes—from using different color cupcake wrappers, choosing the frosting color, and lastly, using them for my cupcake topper photo-shoots.

While I was planning how I was going to make this cupcakes I thought, perhaps some people would love to see how I go about making them and here’s how I do it!

First, I flip through one of my favorite magazines, The FoodNetwork Magazine, and decide which color I’d like to use. I have a special issue that has a list of icing colors and the amount of food coloring drops needed to acquire the color I may desire; and, for this project I wanted to use the color Jordan Almond—which is listed at 12 drops of blue food coloring with 1 drop of red food coloring per 1 cup of icing. 

Second, I add two cups of store bought (non-creamy icing) to a bowl, add 24 blue food coloring drops and 2 red food coloring drops then mix. 

Third, I grab my wonderful collection of assorted cupcakes, and choosing my favorite ones. 

Lastly, I pipe the cupcakes and get them ready for their photo-shoot! I made new cupcake toppers using a cloud shaped craft punch, and hand stamped, hand cut toppers using my favorite stamps by Lawn Fawn. Aren't they super cute?

Photo-shoot days are always fun but adding cupcakes to the mix makes them even more exciting and I’m glad I was able to share this with you. If you'd like to purchase some of these adorable cupcake toppers they'll be available in my shop very soon. I hope you have a perfect Friday! Enjoy your weekend :-D 

Tissue Paper Pom-Pom Tip for Hosts’ and Party Planners’

Hello! Today I wanted to share this cool tip for party planners and decorators. Last year I was the host of a baby shower, and one of the many tasks’ of a being a host is to ensure that there’s a lot of eye candy for the mother to be and guests; and one of the cute decorations I made was the popular tissue paper pom-poms. Now, this was the first big party I was in charge of arranging so I knew little to nothing about what it would take to pull it off. However, I managed to do a great job planning this bumble bee themed party regardless of my poor party planning qualifications’. After the party I did notice a few things that prevented me from a smooth decor set up, and I said to myself, “What could I have done differently?” Then a few months later, while preparing for another party, I came up with a little invention that turned out to be such a time saver!

One thing I never came across while viewing many tissue paper pom-pom tutorials was how much of a hassle it would be to hang the pom-poms after you’ve made one. I’m sure some may think common sense should have played a role in my pom-pom making and I should have thought ahead about it--but I didn’t. It didn’t even cross my mind until I was ready to hang them and it took me so long to string each pom-pom up. However, now I have an easy way to prepare my pom-poms way in advance and have them ready to for a quick hang-up.

What you’ll need: A thick marker, floral wire, and wire cutters.

Next, go ahead and cut a piece of wire at the desired length (I usually do about 15 inches).

Then wrap the wire around the marker like so:

Then give it a few twists’.

Remove the marker: and what you’re left with is a perfect circle big enough to fit any size string or ribbon.

Next, wrap the two open wire pieces around the pom-pom like so:

Remove the access.

And there you have it! A pom-pom that’s finished and ready to be stored away for the big event. What I usually do is make about 20-30 of these extremely in advance, and decide later whether I’m using fishing string or thick ribbon to hang them. It may not seem like the perfect invention but I’m telling you—it saves me so much time.