This past weekend we were celebrating two birthdays. My youngest daughter turned 13 on the 19th and one of my grand daughters turned 4 on the 14th. August is a busy month for us. The grand daughters party was originally suppose to be on the 14th but so many of the guests were not going to be able to come that we rescheduled it for the 21st which conflicted with my daughters celebration.
Any way we ended up celebrating both birthdays on last Saturday. The new teenager also had a day at the movies, dinner of her choice and got her ear pierced on the 19th.
So for the official birthday party I made cupcakes for the grand daughter and a red velvet cake for my daughter. My daughters cake ended up in the freezer. There was so much cake and cupcakes at the party I decided we should save the red velvet cake for another day when we could enjoy it.
I learned a few things this past weekend.
1 The light in the kitchen of my new rental isn’t much better then the old one for food photography.
2 Do not expect to start frosting cups an hour and a half before the guests are due to arrive and have time to take decent photographs.
3 I am stressing way too much over my photographs!
4 I am stressing way too much over my photographs!
I would love to be able to post professional looking photographs on my blog but it is never going to happen.
I am not a food stylist.
I do not have a $1000 camera.
I do not have the time.
I am a mother and a grandmother who helps with the grand kids. I watch my 1 yr old grand daughter from 8 until 1 every day. I can not bake or cook in the morning and then take advantage of the afternoon light to go outside on my porch, set up a shot and take a hundred pictures so I have two or three decent shots for my blog.
Don’t get me wrong I actually love the photography part of this. But it is just not happening right now. There is too much going on in my daily life.
So some days you might find an awesome picture on my blog and some days you may find a half way decent one.
Today is a half way decent day.
I am not happy with the pictures but the cupcakes are long gone.
Last year I attempted to make fondant for the grand daughters birthday cake and it was a big failure. This year I decided to try one of the marshmallow fondant recipes. I had heard that the marshmallow fondant tasted much better. I myself have never tasted fondant. And I really don’t understand the concept of covering a cake with fonadant that you have to peel off because it doesn’t taste very good. That seems like a waste of time and money to me.
So the day I decide to make the fondant I sift all my sugar, throw the marshmallows in the microwave and go to grab the can of crisco out of the pantry. Guess what?? It is almost empty!! Not enough crisco for the recipe. I had butter on hand but I wasn’t sure if that would work.
Now I have to be honest with you.I can’t tell you what I used in place of the crisco right now. I will tell you that it was a hit. Everyone at the party commented on how good it tasted. My daughter said it tasted like candy.
I have to ask myself a question. Did I actually come up with something new? Something that no one has used before when making fondant? An ingredient that made my fondant taste very good?
I seriously doubt it. But before I post anything claiming that this is MY original recipe I need to do a little research.
I also need to cover a cake with it. Maybe it worked fine for the cupcakes because they are small. And it wouldn’t work at all for a cake.
I thought they turned out pretty good for the rush job.
those are cute! I have to figure out how to make Moose A Moose and Zee from NickJr Cupcakes…I should start playing with fondant and see how it works
Honestly these pictures do no justice for these cup cakes at all!!!!
It's refreshing to find a blog with a successful following and read that you're so honest and simple. I was getting worried that one thousand dollar cameras was a staple for successful blogs! lol I love the cupcakes, too!