Well, due to a hectic summer, it has been a while since I last posted. Since posting last, I have captained and ran in a 200 mile relay race (Cascade Lakes Relay) and officiated and provided cake and cupcakes for my friend's wedding. And while doing this, attempting to train for my third marathon, working full-time, raising four kids, yadda, yadda, yadda. Anyway, I am back and anxious to show off a few more cupcakes and also talk about my adventure making my first wedding cake.

So, where to start? I should back up a few months and talk about a controversial cupcake flavor.

These cupcakes were to be the "Luke Skywalker" of Episode 4 but my husband has been insisting they are instead the "Wedge Antilles". I don't know, maybe you can be the judge. These cupcakes were a basic vanilla cupcake with a swirl of vanilla and orange buttercreams. The frosting tasted just like a vanilla/orange swirl dixie cup.

Luke Skywalker

Wedge Antilles

I still say Luke Skywalker and since this is my project, I get to make that decision!

For my friend's wedding, the bride requested four different flavors of cupcakes and three of those just happened to be Star Wars inspired cupcakes.

From top left to bottom right: no name, the "Princess Leia" episode 4, the "Ewok" and the "Lando Calrissian".

 

Princess Leia of episode 4

The "Leia" is a simple red velvet cupcake with vanilla buttercream. A simple, yet elegant cupcake for the princess.

Ah yes! The ever adorable Ewok. Nothing says "Ewok" like chocolate cake topped with a swirl of chocolate buttercream and a glob (yes glob) of coconut pecan deliciousness.

Ewok

The "Lando" cupcake is a deep dark mocha cupcake topped with a luscious swirl of espresso buttercream and a chocolate covered espresso bean. This cupcake is unique in that brown sugar is used instead of white resulting in more depth of flavor for the chocolate cupcake.

Lando Calrissian

Russian ground attack craft

A common craft used for ground combat and made mainly in Russia.
It uses electricity for fuel and to generate a force field.This was one of Brody's favorite  model totorment.



            weapons:turret armed with     two machine guns and two Anti-Tank missels
             max.speed:169mph.
             engine:twin turbine engines
             fuel:electricity

American main attack ships

The American main attack ship is the most common ship used in
combat inside the earths atmosphere.
Heavily armed;it was the obvious choice.It's only weakness was it's lack of defense made up by it's amazing speed reaching 1,235,657 mph it was one of the fastest star fighters in the galaxy.

        max. speed:1,235,657mph
        weapons:two machine guns,two turbo blasters,and two torpedo launchers
         engines:super power engine thruster
                                                                                                                  fuel:melted crystal   

personal hovercraft

My first model

  This one person hovercraft is primarily used for city travel and short flights.It was my first model to survive my brother Brody. The smooth design of the P.T.C (personal transport craft) can reach speeds of 245,000 mph.
                                  max.speed; 245,000
                                  weapons;none
                                   engines;twin repulsion thrusters
                                   fuel;gasoline

The Ewok

  Mmmm... The Ewok. It even kind of looks like those playful, life-size teddy bears. This cupcake came about by accident but I absolutely loved it. I was in the process of baking basic chocolate cupcakes for a co-worker's child's birthday party. The first batch I made stuck to the pan and ended up with rough, messy edges. So I had 24 chocolate cupcakes sitting in my kitchen looking very sad. Fortunately I had coconut, pecans and coconut milk on hand and was able to whip up the Coconut Pecan Frosting from the Vegan Cupcakes cookbook. The frosting came out a little drier than I had anticipated (I probably cooked it too long) so I decided to pair it with chocolate buttercream. The end result was fabulous! While my friends may disagree with me, I think I might actually like the Ewok better than the Chewbacca.

The Chewbacca

  Well, at long last, a start to my cupcake series on flavors inspired by Star Wars. My first flavor choice was the Chewbacca. There was (and still is) much debate over what "The Chewbacca" should look and taste like. There is a very good likelihood that this flavor will evolve over time. However, for now, this is where "The Chewbacca" stands. I knew I wanted to incorporate peanut butter, caramel and chocolate into this cupcake. The final cupcake ended up being a basic vegan chocolate cupcake, a most assuredly NOT vegan peanut butter buttercream, chopped toasted almonds and the absolute best part, a salted caramel drizzle. I chose almonds out of sheer laziness. I had them in the house. My initial idea was to use peanuts, but it was a fortuitous substitution. After all, almonds and salted caramel is probably one of the best flavor combinations ever! Especially on top of vanilla ice cream, but I digress.
  As I have mentioned in a previous post, I like to try to make everything from scratch whenever possible. So, true to my word, the salted caramel sauce was also homemade. I came across a frequently used recipe on line that requires exactly four ingredients: sugar, cream, butter and salt. The recipe also turned out to be incredibly easy so I was very pleased overall. Unfortunately for me, the salted caramel recipe made about two cups worth, so I have plenty of excess sitting in my fridge, tempting me to eat it on ice cream. I am normally not too tempted by ice cream in the house, but this darn caramel sauce makes the ice cream simply irresistible.

How I Fell into Cakes

  About four years ago, a couple of friends and co-workers decided to take a cake decorating class at the local craft store. I had no real expectation for this class. I wasn't sure how well I would do. I did, however, have certain expectation of what I thought cake decorators did. I was a little disappointed to find out from the teacher that when someone orders a wedding cake from her, they receive a box cake and the big bucks are simply to pay for the time spent decorating. Box cake! Seriously! I was incensed. And, to make matters worse, we were instructed to make "butter cream icing" with Crisco Shortening. Box cake (aka, high-fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oil) and Crisco (big ole' tub of hydrogenated oil)! No way was I to be a part of that. I decided then and there to make from scratch, whole-wheat cake with non-hydrogenated oil frosting (ideally butter whenever possible).
  I managed to get through the first class on butter cream decorating. My piping skills are not fantastic and I am horrible at making flowers, but I continued on to Royal Icing Flowers and then eventually fondant and gum paste. Having no artistic abilities makes cake decorating difficult, but for some reason I still really  like to do it. So, I specialized in weird or childish cakes.

For example: pink "puffy fish" cake for my daughter's 2nd birthday party. So what if it looks like an pink underwater sea mine.

And the purple octopus for my daughter's 3rd birthday. She has a thing for sea life.

 The bottom two cakes were actually my first cakes I was paid to make.

  Anyway, jump ahead a couple of years, I am on maternity leave with baby number 4 and starting to get into vegan and gluten-free baking. I like to accommodate people with allergies and my kids had friend who couldn't have dairy (amongst many other things) and my mom was experimenting with gluten-free. It was at this time that cupcakes began to take center stage in my baking life. I purchased the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and I discovered the joy of egg-free, butter- free cupcakes. Not only are they incredibly easy to make, but they are also super light and fluffy. Before I knew it, and much to my surprise, my cupcakes were becoming the talk of my friends and co-workers.