So, who would have thought that I (and Kevin) would have the energy to make more sweets after making 125+ cookie favors last weekend? Well, I guess we are crazy because we wanted to take on more even though we don't have AC in our kitchen. Its a hot one here, 60 miles outside of the nation's capitol. In fact, today its almost 100 degrees in the shade.So what did we try to tackle in this heat? Cupcakes with CHOCOLATE graduation cap toppers. What happens to chocolate when its hot? It MELTS!!!! So, this is not a project I would advise anyone to do this time of year if your house is not climate controlled.
I have seen so many great graduation cupcakes online, but by far the best have been by Glory of Glorious Treats. Her cupcakes are gorgeous, but I thought that I could make grad caps much tastier than the fondant ones.
So I thought chocolate!!!! Okay, so I will say upfront, we had some "make it work" moments that would have made Tim Gunn proud. Chocolate is quite messy at high temperatures, it won't set up, you can't touch anything with out melting it or leaving your fingerprints... I left quite a few on the caps, even though we eventually moved into my office where there is a room air conditioner, but in 90 degree weather that only does so much...
and then there's the humidity. Water and chocolate don't mix because when chocolate comes in contact with water it "blooms" which is a fancy way to say that it develops white spots all over your beautiful finished product. Again, the humidity in the kitchen was awful and it was only slightly better in the A/C. But we made do.
So here is how we made the grad caps... Kevin made peanut butter fudge which we cut into circles with a small cookie cutter. The cutter was about 7/8 of an inch and I then cut the circles to be about the same height. Refrigerate the fudge for a little while so its nice and firm for dipping.
I used a double boiler to melt my chocolate, but you can also use the microwave on a very low setting if you stir it often. Also, use really good chocolate!!!
Place a fudge circle on a fork and drizzle chocolate over top.
After the fudge is completely covered, tap the fork on the bowl until the excess chocolate drips off. Before you place the chocolate on wax or freezer paper to dry, drag the bottom of the fork against the edge of the bowl.
Normally, when I dip chocolates (instead of using molds) I let them set up at room temperature. These were not so cooperative, since our kitchen was sweltering, so I eventually put them in the fridge for a few moments until the chocolate hardened.
If you are short on time, you could skip a step and use these little gems... Same idea, less mess!
Only problem with using Reese's is that then you don' t have swiss cheese shaped peanut butter fudge left over! Now what could I possibly do with this? ;-)
To make the cap tops, print out a sheet of squares that are about 1.5-1.75 inches. Tape the sheet to a cookie sheet with painters tape and them tape a piece of wax or parchment paper over top. Pipe chocolate squares by tracing the outline and then filling it in. As you can see by the looks of my hand, chocolate can be messy, but this really isn't too hard. Place the cookie sheet in the fridge to let the chocolate set up. Once both parts are set up, gently remove the squares from the wax paper. For this task I used an offset spatula. Glue a square to the bottom of a fudge piece and let set up again.
For the cupcakes, I made the Chocolate Stout Cake that I made for my St. Patrick's Day post. For the frosting I made peanut butter buttercream. I wish I had a recipe to share with you, but the one I used was way too soft and I had to play with it to get the right consistency.
Once you pipe the buttercream on the cupcakes, place a chocolate graduation cap on top. What's left? The tassel of course! I was making these for some of my students who are going on to pursue a career in music/acting, so I piped a line of chocolate onto the cap and then covered it with star sprinkles. I did this with tweezers to keep everything neat.
Okay, so back to the humidity issue, you can see in the photo that there is condensation on the chocolate. This is because when you remove the chocolates from the fridge, the water in the air condenses on the chocolate. This may cause your chocolates to bloom, but we got really lucky.
Refrigerating chocolates is not usually a good idea, but of course buttercream must be stored in the fridge, so I wouldn't suggest making these days in advance of your graduation celebration.
I found these awesome boxes at Michael's as well as some premade creations by Making Memories that were ideal for budding performers. I thought the Reach for the Stars stickers were perfecto!
The package looked as pretty as the cupcakes which is always one of my top priorities! Again, I used a color scheme, gold, black and white which makes coordinating easy.
So enjoy looking at the baked goods, because its too hot to bake now. I'll have to come up with something sweet that doesn't require the oven! Congrats to all the grads out there!
Sweet Charity
Our amazing friends Paul and Angie got married this past Monday at Glen Echo Park. Its this really cool old amusement park that is now owned and run by the National Park Service. The only ride left is the carousel but there are all these awesome neon signs throughout the park. They got married in the Cuddle Up and the reception was in the bumper car pavilion. 
I had planned to do all of the packaging stuff in advance, but things have been crazy busy so we started about 10 days before the wedding, making dough, ordering the paper, making the bows etc. I couldn't have done it without my awesome husband who on top of working and cookie baking, officiated the wedding.
My wonderful neighbors Jim and Diana hosted a Cinco de Mayo party on Saturday night so Kevin and I made some lovely Cinco de Mayo cookies. I wanted to go all out and make many different shapes, so in all I think we made 12 different types of cookies. Because I decided to do these last minute, we didn't use cookie cutters. I printed out pictures of Mexican icons and cut them out. You cut out the cookies templates and place them on the rolled out dough and then cut them out with a paring knife. This method is time consuming but it saves so much storage space since you don't need to but cookie cutters.
I wanted to create a cookie that was original so I thought of the wonderful Mexican folk dancers with big, colorful and ruffled skirts. I drew a picture and then made a photo copy to use as a template. Before I decorated the cookies, I drew guidelines with food-safe markers so that I wouldn't be completely free handing the design.
I am mostly happy with the results. This is the first time in a long time that I hav used meringue powder to make my royal icing. I usually use egg whites because the flavor is so much better, but there are obvious safety issues. I must say though, that I have never gotten sick from using raw eggs. But I decided to test the meringue powder because I am making cookie favors for a wedding later this month and I wouldn't want a salmonella disaster!
I really shouldn't complain too much though because they were a hit at the party. I flavored the icing with orange and pineapple extracts which brought a tropical flavor to the cookies which was fitting to the theme! 
and pinatas...
and limes, magaritas, chihuahuas, maracas, cacti, guitars, sombreros, panchos and bowls of guacamole and chips!!! All the hard work making these cookies made me hungry for Mexican food, which Jim and Diana so graciously provided. Yum yum!!!! The food was incredible and made me want to make some savory food for the blog... maybe once I run out of sweet ideas!!!
After almost all the jellies failed I figured I needed something else to fill the baskets besides peeps and hard candy, so I started thinking about all the leftover Wilton's Candy Melts I had left over. It got me thinking about peppermint patties which are so easy and fast to make. I had never had peppermint patties with white chocolate but I figured why not try it!
Yesterday, I finally put the eyes and flower centers on my second batch of peeps. Its amazing how much a little dab of black royal icing makes! It makes up for my first attempt! 
How pretty would these peeps be as a centerpeice on your table? Its too bad that I already had plans to package them in small cellophane bags and in the Easter baskets for my neices. So I spent hours today printing stickers, cutting card stock, stapling, etc... In all, I made 13 packages, varying the stickers and card stock to match the peeps. 
It took about 4 hours! So much more time than I had expected! Especially since I started the stickers weeks ago. But the end product was worth it. I can't wait to pass them out to my neighbors tomorrow!
I mean, who wouldn't want a package of these? 
They look so sweet and springy! Is that a word? I will have to try that in Words With Friends to see ;-) 
And again going witht he flow sometimes works out. Having the macaroon shaped marshmallows allows the more traditional peeps to shine while almost putting them in a scene. Like maybe they are little pillows for the chicks and bunnies... 
I think this one is my favorite! The polka dots are just so cute and the complimentary colors are so striking. This is the only slicker I cut out like this because I just didn't have the time to do all that intricate cutting today, but you can see how nice the effect is.
So, overall, I guess its not too bad, but I guess you just have to go with the flow. I have dreamt up some cute chocolate egg ideas to replace the failed jellies, so hopefully I will manage to get back on schedule before its time to actually start cooking Easter dinner.
So I found this cute little ceramic Easter basket at Kohls and it inspired me to make some wonderful treats to fill it. Best part is, I had Kohls cash and it was on sale so I paid like $4 for this cutie. I was thinking about making more chocolates for the upcoming holiday, but I changed my mind. I like color schemes because it makes the gifts I make look so much more put together. So I decided that making pretty pastel candies would be just the thing. So...
