DIY Bear Cub-cakes

Hi all!

This past weekend, my father celebrated his birthday.  His name is Dov, which is Hebrew for “bear”, so I decided to make adorable bear cupcakes in his honor.  I thought it would be really fun to post a step-by-step guide showing you how I made them, so without further ado, here’s the recipe!

Ingredients:

2 12-cupcake pans

24 cupcake liners

1 cake mix box of your choice

1 tub of chocolate frosting

1 box Teeny Bits cookies or mini Oreos (any bite-sized chocolate cookie will do)

1 container of chocolate sprinkles

1 container of chocolate nonpareils

1 small tube of black icing

1 bag of chocolate chips

1 bag of white chocolate chips

1 offset spatula

1 cake pan or plate

Step-by-step:

• Pre-heat your oven according to the cake mix package’s directions
• Prepare cake mix according to package’s directions and line pans with cupcake liners
• Pour batter halfway into each cupcake slot
• Bake according to package’s directions or until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool completely.

• Evenly frost the tops of each cupcake with a tablespoon amount of chocolate frosting, using an offset spatula

• Fill a Ziploc bag with frosting and cut a small hole at the tip.  (Pro tip: you might find it easier to place the Ziploc bag in a cup, fold the sides over the rim, and fill the bag with frosting that way)

     

• Place 1 chocolate nonpareil flat chocolate-side up (sprinkles-side down) on the lower 1/3 portion of the cupcake and cover that with frosting as well - giving you the elevated snout part of the face

• Place 2 white chocolate chips - flat-side up - above the frosted nonpareil, creating the bear’s eyes

• Take 1 regular chocolate chip, flatten it out by cutting the tip off and place it on the upper ½ side of the frosted nonpareil as the bear’s nose

• Take one mini chocolate cookie of your choice (if you are using mini Oreos, split them and scrape the crème off) and cut it in half
• Take both halves of the mini chocolate cookie and dab a small amount of frosting on their bottoms, and then place both halves on either sides of the cupcake above the white chocolate chips, creating the bear’s ears.  (If the cupcake was a clock or a steering wheel, you would stick the ears at the 10 and 2 positions)

• Place the cupcake in a cake pan and cover the cupcake with lots of chocolate sprinkles (Pro tip: using the pan or plate to catch the sprinkles that fall out will let you reuse the sprinkles for other cupcakes, and also help make clean-up easier.)

• Using the small tube of chocolate icing, dab a small dot on each white chocolate chip (making an iris on each one)
• Using the same chocolate icing, create the bear’s mouth by making a rounded “w” on the bear’s snout, with the middle of the “w” touching the bottom of his nose

And that’s it!  You’re all done!  You might find the process a bit tedious, but once you get through the first two or three cupcakes, you’ll get the hang of it and the rest will be a piece of (cup)cake.  By the way, you can easily take this concept and, with a little touch of creativity, transform the bears into any other animal - add whiskers and small teeth to make mice, or use vanilla frosting and bits of chocolate to make Dalmatians!  Depending on what you choose to do for the ears or fur, you can really make cupcakes look like anything!  I thought mine turned out really well and were so cute, and they were a big hit at my father’s birthday dinner!  What do you think?  Please let me know how yours turn out, or if you have any other cool ideas of what kind of animal cupcakes you can make.

XOXO,

Grace

Easy DIY Thanksgiving Turkey Cupcakes

Hi all, I thought I’d post this fun and cute turkey cupcakes recipe and how-to before Thanksgiving starts.  This will especially come in handy if you are looking for a cute way to spruce up your dessert this holiday season, and your guests are sure to gobble them up in no time!

What you'll need:

2 12-Cupcake pans

24 cupcake liners

1 cake mix box of your choice

1 tub of chocolate frosting

1 22oz. bag of candy corn

1 small tube of black frosting

1 small tube of white frosting

1 Ziploc bag

1 offset spatula

1 red Fruit by the Foot roll

Step by step:

• Pre-heat your oven according to package’s directions
• Prepare cake mix according to package’s directions and line pans with cupcake liners

• Pour batter halfway into each cupcake slot
• Bake according to package’s directions or until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely.

• Evenly frost the tops of each cupcake with tablespoon amount of chocolate frosting using an offset spatula

• Fill a Ziploc bag with frosting and cut a small hole at the tip
• Using the filled bag, pipe the head of the turkey on one side of the cupcake by squeezing and holding in place (until you have your desired size).

• On the opposite side of the head, pipe a line- curving with the cupcake, approximately 2 inches (where the tail feathers will go)

• Place 5-6 candy corns with the white tips going into the cupcake and the flat yellow side sticking out- and they will naturally fan out
• Take one candy corn and cut the white and orange part off and place in the center of the chocolate head to create the beak

Picture shows both tail and beak steps

• Using white icing, dot 2 white spots until you have reached your desired size. Flatten out any sharp points with your finger
• Squeeze a dot in the center of each white eye using black icing to create the pupils

• Cut a small rectangular piece off of a Fruit by the Foot roll and place half above the beak, letting the other half dangle 

And voila! There you have it!  A simple, easy and adorable way to make innovative Thanksgiving treats for your next holiday party.  Hope you found this recipe easy to follow and helpful and that you give it a go!  Let me know your family’s reaction and how they turned out!

Happy Thanksgiving!

XOXO,

Grace

DIY Picture Collage

Hi lovelies,

I recently worked on a DIY picture frame collage at home and thought I’d share it with you.

There are a few ways to go about making a picture collage at home-- you could use the same sized frames, similar frame styles but different sizes, or completely different styles and sizes.  I went with a cleaner look and used similar styled frames in 2 different sizes.  I used two 8X10 and six 5X7 frames.

What you’ll need:

• Frames of your choice
• Wax paper or tracing paper
• Artist’s tape or scotch tape
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Measuring tape
• A leveling tool
• Nails
• Hammer

Begin by tracing each frame onto tracing paper.  Cut each outline so you have individual pieces of paper.  For each piece, measure the position of the hook on the frame using the measuring tape and mark it with an “X” (you can also poke through the middle so you’ll get an existing space for the nail).  I suggest figuring out the layout of your choice (feel free to be creative) on the floor or table so it’s easier to move things around. 

Once you’ve come up with the layout design of your choice, measure its entire length, and mark the middle point on the wall.  Take the middle frame outline (in my case it was frames), use the leveling tool to make sure it’s straight and tape it in that middle mark on the wall.  Measure out the space for the next stencil using the measuring tape, level the next piece, and tape it onto the wall.  Continue measuring the spacing and leveling of each additional piece you are taping on the wall until you’ve done them all. 

             

When you’ve finally taped all of the stencils on the wall, hammer a nail right on the “X” mark of each of them. 

     

Place your desired photos into the picture frames and simply hang them on top of the stencils with nails. 

Go ahead and adjust the frames if they are a bit off center, but rest assured that gravity will help you out and straighten most of them out. 

(FYI the images may look slanted because they were taken at an angle, but believe me, they are as straight as an arrow)

Once all the picture frames are in place just remove the stencils and tape from the walls (be careful not to damage anything if you’re not using the artist’s tape), and voila! You’ve just created your very own picture collage!!

Easy-peasy right?  :o)

I hope you’ve all enjoyed this post and please let me know if there’s anything else you’re interested in seeing!

XOXO,

Grace