Fondant Penguins

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I'm turning my attention to Christmas and so I spent some time today making some holiday fondant decorations. I decided to share my step-by-step instructions and photos for making the little fondant penguin above as he would be so cute atop any holiday cake.

Start by making an oval shape in black fondant and pinch a little tail shape at the back.

Next up, add a small round ball of black fondant for the head. I use a toothpick and a dab of water to secure them together.

Then make two long teardrop shapes and attach them to the sides with a little water. This makes the penguins flippers.

Cut out a teardrop shape in white and place it upside down on the front of the oval to make the penguins belly. Then cut out a white heart shape and attach to the front of the head as the face. Add two little orange balls at the bottom for the feet.

The final step is to add two little black eyes and an orange beak. Just form them with your fingers and attach with a tiny dab of water.

And there you have it, a little fondant penguin perfect for the holidays!

Easy Pumpkin Cake Recipe

Many of you know by now that I love easy cake recpies that start with a boxed cake mix and here's another fun one I found (courtesy of CakeCentral.com) that's just perfect for Thanksgiving.

Ingredients:
1 box of spice cake mix
1 cup of all purpose flour
1 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 eggs
1 cup of water
1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Directions:
Start by whisking together all the dry ingredients. Then add the remaining ingredients and beat for about 2 minutes on low speed. To make cupcakes, bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes. This recipe will make about 36 cupcakes. For decorating, I would use a cream cheese frosting and maybe even add a touch of cinnamon to it for an added twist. You can finish them off with some fondant leaves or pumpkins, or simply sprinkle them with some chopped nuts.

Kind of a fun alternative to the traditional pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving!

Gifts And Gadgets

I thought I'd put up a post with some of the things that are on my Santa list this year. I'm always on the lookout for new and useful gadgets that will help me out in my cake making efforts. Now I just have to share the list with Santa :)

First up is this decorating bag holder from Wilton. Love the idea of being able to easily grab my decorating bags and not have them lying all over my counter.

Next up are these great flower formers. I always struggle to keep my flowers shaped nicely before they dry and these trays are a fantastic way to stop drooping.

I'd also love to have on hand a set of hexagonal shaped cake pans. I think this is a fun shape for making kids cakes and gives you six flat sides to decorate on each tier. Could be fun to put a different kids character on each one, for example: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto. Of course if you wanted to do Snow White and the seven dwarfs, you'd need some octagonal shaped pans instead...hmm, might have to find those before my little girl's 4th birthday party since she is crazy about Snow White these days.

Last up is this great tool caddy. My current tool caddy is bursting at the seams and I really need something a little bigger to keep me organized. This one is on 3 levels and has space for everything. And anything that helps me be a little more organized is a good thing :)

What's on your Santa list?

Pilgrim And Indian Cupcake Toppers

I spent a little time today experimenting with some cupcake topper ideas for my Thanksgiving cupcakes. The result was some little pilgrim hats and indian headbands. I simply cut the shapes out of fondant, stuck them together with a dab of water and used some edible food pens in neon green and orange to decorate the headbands.

One trick to share for making the feathers. I used a little circular cutter and cut out a circle. Then I took the same cutter and cut both edges of the circle thus creating two feather shapes. You could also use this technique to create small leaves.

I think these will work well with the turkey cupcakes I plan to make also. I'll post again with the final results once they're all made. Are you making any cakes or cupcakes for Thanksgiving? If so, I'd love to hear about it.

Giving Thanks With Cupcakes!

I'll be making some cupcakes for my daughter's preschool when they have their Thanksgiving potluck and so I went hunting on the web for some inspiration and ran across so many fantastic ideas that I thought I'd post a round-up of some of my favorites.

The first comes via TwoPartsSugar. I love the combination of turkeys with the pilgrims and native american. Just too cute all around!

These next cupcakes come from SweetenYourDay.com and I love the bright colors of fall and the fact that these turkeys are made entirely from frosting rather than fondant. Very creative!

This next one is a big favorite of mine and the one I'm leaning towards replicating for my daughter's preschool. It comes from BettyCrocker.com and I love the use of the candy corns for the tail feathers and beak.

Next up are these fun cupcakes topped with marzipan pumpkins from Cupcake-Decorating-Ideas.com. I especially love the little leaf sprinkles on these.

My last choice is from who else but MarthaStewart.com! I love the use of coconut because it really makes the feathers look fluffy and the gummy fish tail feathers really appeal to me because I happen to love gummy fish (I would just make sure to avoid the green ones...lol).

Hope you enjoyed these creative ways to celebrate Thanksgiving with cupcakes and if you have any fun fall-themed cupcake photos you'd like to share just send them my way!

Princess And The Frog Cakes

With the new Princess and the Frog movie out, it didn't take long for the matching birthday themes to arrive. There are already some cute Princess and the Frog cake toppers available like the one pictured above.

But if you want your actual cake to be a little more creative, and yet still easy, then here's an idea for you. Buy a heart-shaped cake pan and bake your cake. Once cool, you can simply shave off the pointed end of the heart to make it more rounded and you'll end up with a shape that looks very much like a lily pad. Either frost the cake green or cover it with green fondant. Then decorate the cake with little lilac colored flowers cut out from fondant with a small flower-shaped cookie cutter (see how to make little fondant flowers here). You can then use a Princess and the Frog cake topper as the final decoration.

Check out the CakesAndKids website for all the latest Princess and the Frog birthday party supplies.