Mama's Kitchen Assistant

Kitchen Helpers

Today I had lots of kitchen help from Ella & her friend, Ava. Miss Ava has been spending every Tuesday morning with us for the last few weeks while the girls learn how to share & play together. This morning they did a beautiful job helping me by cracking eggs & stirring cake batter in the nook. You can see our finished product in the last photo. Five lovely rose cakes for a marriage class at the church tonight.

Garden Rose Cake

Frank & Sally, the lovely owners of the house where we're staying, often host lunches and tea parties for people in the area. Yesterday, a large group came to celebrate a 75th birthday party and Sally asked if I would like to make the cake. After 1/2 a second of contemplation, I decided that I would love to make the cake. I started brainstorming about possibilities and flavors and colors and wasn't quite sure what we'd go with. Then, on Sunday morning, it came to me.

A rose cake. Chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream.


This was the first rose cake that I've made, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out! The table set for lunch and tea created a lovely backdrop for pictures.


Honestly, the hardest part was trying to keep Ella's fingers off of it! I started at the kitchen table and had to move to the counter. Then she wanted me to hold her, which wasn't going to happen. There are many things I can do while holding a wiggly two-year-old, but decorating this cake is not one of them. Sally helped keep her busy while I finished the cake and popped it in the fridge to keep until the party. I'll definitely be making this again in the future!

Happy Day, Grandma!

A couple weeks ago, Miss Ella, Uncle Jake & I cruised down to Moose Lake State Park to celebrate a very special day. Not only was it Mother's Day, but it was also my mama's birthday. Pete was on call, so we had already celebrated my Mother's Day. Therefore, the day was all for grandma.

We started with a picnic of hot dogs over the fire, which Ella clearly loved.


Then we hit the trails with Grandma & puppy Gracie.


Ella was all about the lake and grass and ants. She's an outdoor girlie.


Then it was time for cake and gifts. After sitting in the sun during our hike, the cake was a little melty. Still the same chocolatey-peanut butter goodness! (And don't you just love her shirt?)


Here was the pre-melted cake. Chocolate with chocolate-peanut butter frosting, mini chocolate chips, and little peanut butter cups. Yum!


Happy birthday, Grandma! We love you!

Cupcakes!

Last Tuesday I had the grand privilege of creating just over 200 cupcakes for a giant celebration here in Duluth. The event was to celebrate our pastors' three kids. Two graduations and a birthday. I'd say that's reason to celebrate!



These beauties were a first for me. I don't feel like the picture adequately captured the color, which could be described as mango. The flavor, however, was almond. So yummy.


These raspberry cakes were the first to go. White cake filled with real raspberries, covered in raspberry frosting and chocolate sprinkles. Topped with a raspberry...of course.



One of my personal faves is this dark chocolate cake with mocha frosting, topped with an espresso bean.


For someone who loves candy, you can't beat vanilla cake with creamy vanilla frosting, topped with gummy bears and Mike n Ikes. Sugar, anyone?


Mint and chocolate are a lovely combination. These babies were finished with a mini Oreo.


This was the first time I've ventured into the world of peanut butter and chocolate on a cupcake. Why did I wait so long? Absolutely delish. Chocolate cake, chocolate-peanut butter frosting, topped with Reese's cups and Reese's pieces. Heavenly for any peanut butter lover.


You can see Sierra's table with the mango-colored and raspberry cupcakes. Congrats on your college graduation, Sierra!


Jackson, excellent choice on the candy-covered and mocha cakes. Way to sacrifice and allow your table to hold the mocha cupcakes, since I know you're not a coffee fan. Your party guests loved them! PS...Happy 23rd birthday!


And Jericho, these are two of my favorite combinations: chocolate mint & chocolate peanut butter. Congratulations, high school grad!


I love baking! I know that's no surprise, but it's different when I get to bake for new people. It's thrilling to watch so many people enjoying something I made. And I must say, Ella was an angel as I worked to frost and decorate all the cakes at the venue before the party. She sat and watched me and enjoyed a movie. She's a wonderful little kitchen assistant!

The Week in Cupcakes

Unintentionally, cupcakes were plentiful last week in the Olsen house. I thought I'd share a few of them with you.

This first pink one was actually not completely made at home. I taught my mom and the other ladies at our fun weekend in St Cloud how to decorate a cupcake. As my mom says, you know it's a good cupcake when there is just as much frosting as cake. I couldn't agree more! Chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting. And sprinkles, of course.


Here is just one of the quad of cupcakes delivered to our dear neighbors the day before they moved away. Chocolate cupcake with almond frosting.


This is what we took next door. Each was slightly individualized for a specific member of the family.


This was a quick one for Ella's afternoon snack. I topped the chocolate cupcake with whipped cream and a blackberry. She loved it.


These lovelies were made for our new neighbors the day after they moved in. All chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. The middle has mini chocolate chips with a mini Chips Ahoy cookie, a few had raspberries, and the others were just sprinkles.


The cake plate awaited with similar cakes as the photo above. These were for a girls dessert night I hosted on Friday. There's never enough chocolate with girls around.

And this little beauty is my new cupcake cook book, given to me by my sweet friend Zaundia. My first recipe was mint frosting. Yummy yummy yummy. How long do you suppose it would take me to bake my way through all 500 recipes?? It's a nice thought.


Oh, cupcakes. They really are lovely little treats, aren't they?

Cupcakes!

So it turns out that 18 dozen cupcakes is a lot of cupcakes! Who knew? I baked and baked the second half of last week and ended up with 7 varieties of the little cakes for a women's event at our church on Saturday morning.


Vanilla cake with almond frosting.


Vanilla cake & real raspberries with raspberry frosting.


Dark chocolate cake with mint frosting.


Devil's food cake with chocolate frosting & mini Oreos.


Dark chocolate cake with vanilla frosting & festive gum drops.


I had so much fun with the colors.


And with the sprinkles.


(Check out this cupcake post for frosting tips & recipes.)

Little labels like this one printed on cardstock helped clear up any flavor confusion for event guests. (This was another flavor that I didn't capture in a picture. They were all chocolate with mocha frosting and brown & white sprinkles. Probably my favorite flavor.)

I displayed the cupcakes on a decorated table near the coffee bar. A string of silver star garland and bowls of silver Hershey kisses made it feel quite dressed up.


Someone asked me yesterday if I'll be making cupcakes again any time soon. My answer was yes, but probably not 18 dozen. When I took on the challenge, I had no idea how I would do it exactly, but I thought I could figure it out. I was so glad that the ladies heading up the event at the church trusted that I could actually produce something decent, and for the women who so sweetly washed all my dishes! And for Pete who ran to the store when I ran out of flavoring and powdered sugar. And for the girls who played with Ella for hours on Friday night while I was decorating and Saturday morning during the event. Goodness, what a team! It was a ton of fun, honestly, and it really is a great feeling knowing that I made over 210 cupcakes. Yay.

So...what's next??

Recipe: Birthday Cupcakes

Last Sunday was Malena's first birthday party. Little Miss Malena was born just five weeks after Ella. What fun to have a cousin so close in age! The party was held at a park and the weather decided to cooperate quite nicely. All the kids played in the grass, ate lots of cake, and helped Malena open her mountain of gifts.

After singing Happy Birthday, Malena dug into her very own little cake!

Ella enjoyed a mini cupcake. She's a huge fan of frosting. (Remember this?)


A few weeks before the party, I offered to make cupcakes for the event. I haven't had much experience with cupcakes, so I thought it would be a great time to experiment. Pete was gone for a few days last week, so I took full advantage of the kitchen space and started baking. I pulled a couple ideas off websites, but they all turned out to be pretty cheesy. I wanted something good. I finally combined a few different ideas and came up with the final product - vanilla and chocolate raspberry cupcakes with raspberry frosting. Pink, pink, pink!

I also took the opportunity to try using fondant for the first time. I found a small package of ready-to-use white fondant at Michael's along with a few small flower and leaf fondant cutters (just like cookie cutters), and a small jars of pink icing color, much more potent than regular food coloring. I added the tiniest dab to the white fondant, kneaded it, and ended up with some very pink flowers.


I put a few of the bigger flowers in these little bowls and a few others in an egg carton to give them some shape while drying.


Then came the cupcakes. I used simple vanilla and chocolate cake recipes and mixed in about a cup of chocolate chips (only to the chocolate batter) and another cup of cut raspberries. By carefully folding in the raspberries after the cake batter is ready, the raspberries won't get too smooshed. That's especially important when mixing them into a light-colored batter like vanilla. I didn't want to end up with pink cupcakes. I wanted that for the frosting!


Finding the right frosting recipe was the hardest part of making these cupcakes. Each tasted too sugary or too buttery. I tried four different recipes before finding the perfect one.




Remember, I didn't have any previous experience with cupcakes, so I had no idea how I was going to get the right look with the frosting on top of the little cupcakes. I did some searching online and found a great tutorial on the Wilton website for getting a perfect swirl. You can check it out yourself here. All you'll need is a 1M decorating tip and disposable decorating bags. Both are available for only a few dollars at Michael's. (Simply drop the tip inside the decorating bag, trim about 1/2" to 3/4" off the bottom corner of the bag with a scissors, and adjust the tip so it is snug inside the bag. That way frosting won't ooze out while you're piping it.)

Here's what I ended up with. I did the same to the white cupcakes, but instead of using black raspberry jelly, I used red raspberry jelly. It gave them a slightly different color.


I was worried that the frosting might melt or settle while driving them to the party, but even after sitting in the sun at a construction stop for five minutes (yes, I timed it) the frosting kept it's shape.


After frosting them, I decorated each with the little fondant flowers I had made a few days before.


Display Note: An important trick in getting homemade baked treats to look more professional is to plan out how they will be displayed. I used foil cupcake papers, which cost only slightly more than regular papers. Then I used this plate stand from Target that was a gift from Becky at my wedding shower and carefully arranged the different types of cakes on each level. Around the bottom of the stand, I displayed mini versions of the same cupcakes. They were a perfect size for the wee ones at the party. See? Much better than leaving them in a cake pan or on a cookie sheet!


Of course, Malena had to have her very own cake on her first birthday. I used the same chocolate and vanilla batter from the cupcakes and made a two-layer cake using a couple of very little cake pans. Then I covered the entire thing in lots of red raspberry frosting and arranged the fondant flowers and leaves around the top, keeping in mind that I wanted one little candle in the center. Finally, I used a fine violet cake glitter (also available at Michael's) for the center of each flower. Malena had a lot to dig into with so much frosting on her cake!


I had a ton of fun making these cupcakes, and now I feel like I know what I'm doing! It won't take long at all to make these again in the future.

Let me know if you have any questions about the cakes or frosting and feel free to try them on your own!

Enjoy!