Double Batch

Several months ago I volunteered to make cupcakes for a post Parade Barbecue for a dog therapy group. They were going to be dog cupcakes that represented each dog in the group. This was before my oven broke. After my oven broke I was still going to make them...just at my mom's house and she was supposed to help me at least watch my children while I worked. Then my mother got injured and there was no way she could help me, but that wasn't going to stop me. I was still going to bake them in the neighbor's (best neighbor ever!!) oven like I've done the whole time the oven was broken. Then I got a message from an old friend asking if I could do 30 cupcakes for a baby shower the same day. Glutton for punishment? Nah. I just like a good challenge! She said the theme was birds and nests with colors of turquoise and chocolate and a design immediately popped into my head. I simply HAD to try my hand at it. And I was making cupcakes anyway, what's a couple dozen more? Fortunately the design I had in mind for the baby shower involved hand modeled chocolate which could be done ahead (we won't talk about how I dumped the tray on the floor after it was done and chilling in the refrigerator and had to start over...I still almost cry thinking about all those hours of work), and meant that most of the decorating work was done and I would only have to place the decorations on the freshly baked cupcakes, thereby saving me plenty of time for the dozen-odd different dog designs I had promised. Then (loud cheers) the oven part came in!! So at least I could use my own oven. We had a very touching reunion as I baked five dozen cupcakes in two flavors to gently break it back in. The dog cupcakes were a fabulous delicate white/spiced strawberry that surpassed the cake I used for the flower cupcakes in August. And the baby shower cupcakes were Red Velvet. The aroma of those Red Velvet cupcakes was so heavenly that I almost refused to let them out of the house! Sweet home-baked perfume. Seriously if someone hadn't been paying (yep, it was my first paid job) for them I think I would have kidnapped them and eaten them all myself while wafting the cocoa-buttermilk scented goodness into every corner of my home.

I didn't get pictures of the undecorated doggie cakes because my camera had dead batteries by the time I got to them, but here is some of the finished product.

They absolutely loved them and everybody got their own dog, we didn't however share with the dogs. They had to satisfy themselves with dog treats.

Red Velvet with Cream cheese frosting.

I made a couple of different designs so they would look good displayed on the cupcake tower.

The main design- hand modeled chocolate branches and bird dusted with luster dust.

A couple other designs to keep it interesting. The flowers are rolled fondant, again painted with luster dust.





Now aren't those just the best cupcakes ever? (Okay I admit I'm biased)

And just because this was a professional job and I thought it was fun, I drew a logo on the box.