THE QUEEN OF HEARTS ✚ Cupcakes & Cocktails

Cupcakes & Cocktails: Cold Winter's Night

Cupcakes & Cocktails: Snow White

So, now you know that I am certainly no experienced mixologist and I also can't even handle the taste of alcohol. But it's because I don't like the taste of alcohol that I became interested in learning how to make cocktails, so I can make drinks that are actually delicious but still get me drunk. ;) For now, I am finding recipes online to recreate (adjusting sometimes to what I actually have available) but as I learn more, and stock up my own bar, I'll be able to experiment with drinks to create my own. 

Why didn't the layering thing work? I think it's because the recipe said green apple schnapps but I used green apple Sour Puss because that's what I already had. The densest liquid stays at the bottom, which is the sugariest, I think. I guess Sour Puss is sugarier than schnapps, so it didn't want to stay on top. It went to the middle, actually, I guess some of the vodka without enough grenadine in it went to the top. If I had had enough green apple to make another one (I made one in the video and then another for the close-up) I would have put way too much grenadine in, to make sure it was dense enough to stay on the bottom.

Recipes:
Black Velvet Cupcakes and Cream Cheese Icing
Poison Apple Martini

Of course, I couldn't resist taking some Snow White photos while I was all dressed up. The first & last time I wore this costume was Halloween (my birthday) 2012. See those photos and how I made it here.

Cupcakes & Cocktails: The Little Mermaid

This video was super fun to make. I love my seashell crop top that I made with iron-on transfer paper, and I'm so lucky that I found shorts the exact shade of green to match Ariel's tail! I started off trying to do a higher-pitched sing-songy Disney princess kind of voice to be Ariel but it somehow turned into a sort of cliché dumb blonde kind of thing. Or just me being weird and stupid as usual but with a slightly different inflection. 

Sea salt buttercream (recipe found here) sounded super weird to me, but I knew sea salt & caramel was a popular flavour combo these days, so I figured it wasn't too much of a stretch that sea salt & dark chocolate turned out to also be a popular flavor combo. The icing doesn't actually taste salty. It's not like a chocolate cupcake you dropped in the ocean. (Although, I'm sure that's how Ariel would prefer to eat her cupcakes.) I found that the salt actually enhanced the sweetness of the icing in an unusual way. If you think about it, any sweet thing you make always has a pinch of salt, right? And some people (not me) actually enjoy sweet and salty foods in their mouth at the same time. It's something about contrast and juxtaposition that enhances both flavours.

The fish bowl cocktail (recipe found here) was an ambitious idea. It's clear to me now that the person who wrote out the recipe must not have actually made it like they described. The photo on the website has the ice and fish candy, but no nerds. You do not want to see what the drink looked like after I was done cleaning up after my video. (Hint: My friend said it looked like a disease.) The nerds as aquarium gravel is adorable, but not practical if you're going to take more than 2 minutes to drink your drink. I also should have had more ice and/or less drink. You can see as I'm pouring in the drink the point that the ice starts to float and my fishies fall to the bottom. You need enough ice in there that it doesn't move, so the fish candies stay in place. In the end, it didn't matter how cute the drink looked because it was actually soooo delicious! I have absolutely no taste for wine, beer, or any drink that actually tastes like alcohol, so I was pleasantly surprised when I took my first sip and it just tasted like a fruity drink. I'm also not a fan of pineapple juice, but in this drink it's just enough to make it taste very "tropical".

Are you surprised this is the first time that I've dressed up as Ariel when I've had my red hair since October? I am. When I went red with my hair it was more about fulfilling my dream of having long red hair that I'd had since I first dyed my hair bright red when I was 16. I didn't realize the Ariel comparison until I actually had the very long red hair. That's when I decided I would keep the red until at least May so that I could cosplay as Ariel for Ottawa ComicCon.

So, I'm finally getting around to making the most of my red hair by rocking the pin-up look for my TableTop Day photos (Red hair looks so good with the pin-up style, amiright?), and now being a modern/hipster Ariel for a video. My next red-hair-essential look will be a Snow White themed episode of Cupcakes & Cocktails (Skin white as snow, hair red as blood, lips black as ebony... That's how it goes, right?) I'm loving the red hair lately so much that I'm tempted to keep it into the summer months so I can actually wear my hipster Ariel outfit and get some good outdoor photos of my Ariel cosplay (her blue dress look). However, maintaining a very specific shade of red hair is a lot more work and dye ($$$) than my previous hair color, purple/pink. Purple is more forgiving because I liked it to be various shades of purple & pink, in various degrees of fading. Red has to be refreshed frequently or else I get people saying it's pink, which has always been a big pet peeve of mine.

Well, enjoy your cupcakes and cocktail. (They're honestly sooo delicious!) I'll leave you with my best #HipsterAriel impression.

Baking Inspiration: Rosebud Cakes

I do a lot of the buttercream decorating on cakes at work while my co-cake decorator, Theresa, specializes in fondant. She brought Rosebud Cakes' work to my attention a while ago. She had always thought that the custom caricatures were created with modeling chocolate, but when the bakery posted step-by-step photos of the process, she was amazed to find out that they were created with buttercream icing.

 

I don't think I could create caricatures of people, but I am interested in trying out this kind of buttercream sculpting. Before working at the bakery, I had learned that I am not a sculptor; fondant cakes were not my forté at all. But I had no idea what you can do with the right icing. I've done cakes out of just buttercream that, a year ago, I wouldn't have thought possible without fondant (ie. An Audi) and used piping tips and techniques in new ways to create textures. (ie. These swans) I love would the challenge to create more 3-dimensional cakes & cake toppers with buttercream.

Image credits: Rosebud Cakes Facebook

Baked: Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is the third vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe that I've tried. The first was from The Joy of Vegan Baking. It used powdered egg replacer as the eggs. My cookies always turned out flat and kind of gross looking, tough not soft.

My next recipe was a friend's recipe for her delicious, soft, chewy cookies that she would spoil us with in high school. I veganized it by using soft tofu to replace the eggs. My cookies never turned out as big and fluffy as hers used to, but they were chewy and delicious. The only thing about the recipe that I didn't like was the soft tofu. I used less than half of the container of tofu, and it only lasted a couple days in the fridge, so I was always wasting tofu. And, it's not an ingredient I have on-hand, so if I had a craving for cookies, I had to add tofu to my grocery list instead of being able to whip up a batch right away.

This latest recipe is from Chloe's Vegan Desserts and it is my favorite so far. It uses only ingredients that I always have on hand, which makes it easy. I first made them a few weeks ago, and I had to substitute a bit because I wasn't quite as prepared as I thought, and I tried out chocolate chunks instead of chips. The cookies were delicious, soft, and chewy just how I like them. I didn't love the chunks instead of chips, though. They made the cookies wonky shapes and did not distribute the chocolate evenly in each bite.

I wanted to perfect this recipe, so I made it again yesterday, with a few changes. I tried out tiny chocolate chips (even distribution of chocolate) and I chilled the dough before baking (prevents spreading, so your cookies stay thicker). I had two trays of cookies. The first tray I baked for the recommended 12 minutes. They turned out to be a few minutes under-baked. So, I kept the second tray in for longer and they were about 5 minutes over-baked. The photos above are each tray right out of the oven. The cookies look so much bigger right out of the oven, but as they cool they deflate. It always makes me a little sad because I think without eggs you can't get those really big fluffy chewy cookies, but vegan cookies are still just as delicious and have a great chewy texture (if you bake them right).

Below, you can see what each tray of cookies ended up looking like. They're both chewy and delicious, but the under-baked are soft and the over-baked are a tougher kind of chewy, with a bit of a crispy finish. I prefer under-baked to over-baked, but if I wanted to eat raw cookie dough, I would have kept snacking from the bowl, instead of stopping to make it into cookies. I will have to try this recipe again soon, with regular size chocolate chips and the perfect baking time. I'm glad I've finally got a recipe that is easy to put together and gives the perfect result. A good chocolate chip cookie recipe is an essential for any baker.

January Round-Up

Movies Watched
Baraka and Samsara -I'd call these two films documentaries, but then you might expect something narrated by David Attenborough. But these films don't have narration. They just show you the world. People, nature, technology, life. You might not make it through one if you're a bit ADD, but if you can sit back and just enjoy, you will be amazed. The world is a wonderful place. (It's also a horrible place, though. I couldn't bear to watch scenes from factory farms and the like. But, hey, it made me feel something. And in my book, that's a movie worth watching.)

Hugo - If I had known that this movie was so much about early surrealist film, I would have been eager to see it much sooner! It was a beautiful movie, a bit of mischief and mystery, and some really cool old films which gave me film school flashbacks.

The Secret of Kells - The illustration/animation style is just beautiful. You must see it. It's not a grand, epic film, it's really just a fairy tale. It's lovely. And Irish. Don't you just love listening to Irish people talk? It's so musical. Sigh. I just want to exist inside this movie.

Sleepy Hollow - This was intended for pre-Halloween viewing, but I didn't get around to it until now. I think my favorite part was Johnny Depp's hair. But I also liked that the headless horseman was very real, and there was a very interesting story behind it. I always thought the headless horseman was like a ghost people see, but they never have any proof. But this story has a lovely, gory ending.

Jack and Diane - I'm still not sure what the symbolic purpose of the "monster" side of things was... Nevertheless, it was still what I thought it would be; a story of two girls meeting and creating a very strong connection, and then going through some shit. I like character-driven movies like this.

Mirror Mirror - I'm always right when I have a gut-instinct about a movie. This movie was not well-received when it came out, but I thought it looked colorful and cheeky. I was right, of course. It's absolutely stunning visually and it makes me laugh out loud at the adorable dwarfs. I highly recommend it for any fairy tale lovers.

TV Watched
Friends - This was my 'background watching' show for the month. I just always need something playing on the TV. Friends is one of the very few laugh-track sitcoms that I can watch. I generally can't stand that filmed-in-front-of-a-live-studio-audience style of show.

Him & Her - I re-watched the third season and then watched the fourth, final, season. This British show makes me laugh out loud so much. It also taught me what being in a relationship in your twenties is like. I assume. The fourth season was a little different style, though. It gave me anxiety. I got very worked up. The hilariously awful characters that I never took seriously were suddenly in a very serious situation. But I still laughed a lot.

Books Read
Inferno by Dan Brown - I love Dan Brown's books. I have them all. I mean, they all pretty much do the same thing- there's a great mystery to be solved, the world is in danger, the stakes are high, etc. But that doesn't stop me from getting addicted to the story. I read most of this in one day. This one deals with the themes of Dante's Inferno and the problem of overpopulation- seriously, we need to do something about it and a character in this book makes a drastic, but effective, move to help the entire world. I couldn't wait to discuss the book and ideas with my friends.

Bossypants by Tina Fey - I've been reading non-fiction more than fiction lately. I thought I better read this one since I read and enjoyed others like it. It had it's humorous moments, but generally, I wasn't in love with it. It's a good read, but overall I felt like I didn't get anything out of it. I guess I'm just not that interested in Tina Fey's life story. (Also, she didn't mention a single thing about Mean Girls!)

Music Heard
Beyoncé - I finally bought BEYONCÉ early this month, watched the entirety, and have been obsessed ever since. I think I've had any/all of the songs stuck in my head everyday since. I came home and danced to it almost everyday for couple weeks. I really need to watch it again, too. Goddamnit, Beyoncé has out-Beyoncéd herself with this one. (And I haven't even had a Beyoncé album since Destiny's Child, just some singles.)

Chloë Howl - I'm anxiously waiting for her latest single, Rumour, to be available on iTunes. She just has a few singles out so far, but I am loving her Brit pop style and can't wait for more.

Cakes Made

(New Year's Eve)

(At work)

Videos Made

Fun Had 

We had a pretty mellow New Year's Eve at Kim's house this year. We were planning a masquerade party like we did last year, but no one could come. So, we just had fun playing my new game Catchphrase with Kim's family all night.

Kim, Kelsey, and I finally made it to Alight at Night. Upper Canada Village is a tourist/school field trip kind of pioneer village. For the Christmas season, they cover all the buildings in lights and open up at night. There really isn't much to it other than seeing the lights, but we enjoyed the night out.

I got my Camp Takota t-shirt and friendship bracelet in the mail! But I haven't taken a photo in it yet, oh no.

I painted some things that have been sitting around waiting to be painted. 

Way back in August, I submitted a piece about being an introvert to Hello Giggles, which they posted. Very exciting. It was the first of three that they've accepted. Last week I got a few messages from people about the article, which I thought was an odd coincidence. Turns out Hello Giggles re-posted it on their Facebook feed, so new people were reading it. I love reading the comments and getting messages from people about pieces I write. The Hello Giggles community is great. :)

I made the decision to simplify my Internet life by deleting my The Bakestress Facebook page, moving The Bakestress videos to my main YouTube channel, and, finally, importing The Bakestress blog back into this blog. I haven't been baking much on my own since I got a job as a cake decorator and I'm no longer interested in making cakes for people as a side business. I still love baking, though! I'm just not ready to commit to The Bakestress brand right now. I'm having too much fun writing lately and, of course, I've been busy with The Unicorn Hunt.  

We wanted a calendar at work, so I printed off Mandy's Man Calendar. Unfortunately, no one at work seems to know and/or care about the gorgeous nerdy men featured, but at least I will enjoy it. :)

Kim and I went to Milestones to celebrate her milestone and I chose to have a grown-up drink, a Lipstick Martini (aka a raspberry martini). It tasted like Swedish Berries, which I loooove. Adding raspberry vodka and martini fixings to my liquor store list.

The Unicorn Hunt // DIY: Unicorn Horn Cupcakes

In episode 3 of The Unicorn Hunt, we made cupcakes to lure in the unicorns featuring fondant unicorn horns (so the unicorns would know the cupcakes were for them). Now, you can learn how to make your own fondant unicorn horns, so you can lure some unicorns over!

Halloween Cakes: Dia De La Meurtos Sugar Skulls

For my birthday/Halloween (it's the same day!), I decided to make several small cakes, rather than one big cake. I had a lot of fun making and taking photos of my birthday/Halloween cakes last year. I thought this year my friends and I could have fun painting these sugar skull cakes.

To go along with my sugar skulls, I created a candy table. Lots of candy, lots of glass containers, plates, and stands with a few Halloween decorations thrown in.

I couldn't have a candy table without a plate of my famous candy sushi.

You can tell which two of the six my friend Kim painted because she is a perfectionist and I was just having fun.

The Unicorn Hunt // DIY: Unicorn Poop Cookies

Aren't they adorable?! Here's how you can make your own!

Here are some tips we left out of the video:

Chill your dough as often as possible. After you make the recipe, after you color it, and after you create your cookies. Cold dough is easier to work with and putting cold cookies into the oven stops them from spreading even more.

You may be tempted to flour your work surface when working with cookie dough, but in this case it will not help. Although the stickiness of the dough can seem to make rolling out thin logs tricky, using flour means that your strips of dough won't stick to each other when you try to roll them together into one cookie.

The long, thin strips of dough will break often. It's no big deal, just stick it back together and be careful as you roll.

You will find as you roll from one end there will be a point at which it seems like you're rolling the wrong way. You should start rolling from the other end, in the opposite direction. Your twisting will come together in the middle and your dough will be fully twisted.

You can try spraying water from a spray bottle onto your cookies to help small sprinkles stick. Larger sprinkles are easy enough to press into the cookie by hand.

The vegan sugar cookie recipe I used was from BettyCrocker.com.

Have fun and watch out for the next episode of The Unicorn Hunt on November 27th!