Tuesday Toppers: Flower Pot

In todays edition of Tuesday toppers i'm going to show you how to make a flower pot that you can fill with a beautiful bouquet of flowers to give to the gardener, rose lover, or since mother's day is just around the corner, the favorite mom in your life :D. Its pictured with the small ribbon roses that I showed you how to make last week, but you can also make little daisy's or little forget-me-nots. You can make it as fancy or as simple as you like. Here's what you will need to make one:

-rolling pin (for ribbon roses, see last weeks tutorial)

-fondant smoother

-paint brush and water

-leaf veiner

-Terra cotta, pink, and green fondant

-divide a 1 1/2" ball of terra cotta fondant in half and roll each half into a ball.

-For the base of the pot, roll one ball into a log with the fondant smoother.

-With thumb and index finger pinch top and bottom edges to make them more defined.

-Pull the top edge out so that it is larger than the bottom.

-Using the fondant smoother even out the slant.

-For the top, take the second ball and flatten slightly with the fondant smoother.

-Pinch top and bottom edges again to define them more.

-With small amount of water attatch base to top. With leaf veiner push the base up against the top to close the gap.

-The finished pot.

-Here are the roses and leaves I showed you how to make last week.

-Place three leaves on first (ignore the fact that on is on backwards ;).

-Place the roses on next and intermingle the rest of the leaves using a small amount of water to attatch.

You now have a beautiful pot of flowers that will last until... well.. someone eats it!

Have fun and enjoy!

Tuesday Toppers: Small ribbon roses

First off I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for keeping us in your thoughts. We were both very glad that he ended up not having to have surgery! Apparently the surgeon looked at his ct scan and did see what he thought was appendicitis, but since his pain had stopped, his white count was normal the second time, and there was no fever in the morning he just had him stay in the hospital for observation finally letting him go yesterday evening!

Now onto the fun part! Just in time for Mother's Day (well in the US anyway sorry overseas readers i'll get you next year, hehe) I made up some cupcakes with some of my personal favorite things. I love to garden and I love roses, so i thought it would be neat to combine the two, and what a great way to include my small ribbon roses since i've gotten quite a few requests for a tutorial on them! So here's what you'll need to make them:

-Rolling pin
-Fondant smoother
-Knife
-Leaf veiner
-Pink, light, and dark green fondant

- Take ball of pink fondant and divide into three strips.

- Roll each strip into a log.

- Flatten each strip out pretty thinly.

- Fold over.

- Take one end and fold down to form center.

- Now start rolling.

- Keep rolling until you get the size you want.

- Bring end down.








- Cut off bottom.





- You can pull edges out a little with your finger if you need.





- For leaves. take the two greens and cut each color into two pieces, roll into a ball, and flatten with fondant smoother.





- Pinch both ends with thumb and index finger to make a leaf shape.





- Using leaf veiner, add leaf details.









Have a great day everyone!

update

thank you so much everyone its been an odd morning here at the hospital. he went through the night and met with the surgeon this morning and for some reason what the radiologist saw last night and what the surgeon saw this morning weren't the same thing and since he's not in pain anymore and his white count is down he's not going to have to have surgery! thanks for all of your prayers! it means a lot!

Tuesday toppers postponed

hey lovely readers i'm afraid i'm going to have to postpone tuesday toppers for a day or two because my dear hubby is having surgery this morning and i won't have the time to get the post up. luckily it's just a minor appendectomy, but if you could keep him in your thoughts and prayers it would be much appreciated.

i do promise this one will be a good one and worth the wait :D.

Flower cupcakes

Just couldn't resist decorating some.

Best Ever Chocolate Cupcakes

Well i'm ashamed to say that I am hopelessly addicted to P-Dub, and her cows and her punks and her yummy looking recipes that make me want to go cook something everytime I take a look at her website. For all of you who haven't yet read her blog, I would highly recommend it! but be warned its addictive! she has this sense of humor and down-to-earthness about her that is so refreshing. Go check her out, the pioneer woman, after you read the rest of this of course :).

Now the reason for this post. She recently had Bakerella come to the ranch and make cupcakes and thats where I found this recipe for her Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever. She made the recipe into cupcakes for them to decorate, and they had the nicest little dome and it was made up of ingredients that I always have on hand. So i decided to head into the kitchen and bake the family up a batch of them. I only made a half batch because although after trying them and wishing I had 12 more of them to eat, my hips are glad I only did half.

PW's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever (Cupcake edition)
(this is a 1/2 recipe that yields 12 cupcakes)

1 stick unsalted butter (she used salted, but i don't ever have salted in the house)
2 heaping tbsps cocoa powder
1/2 cup boiling water
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt (adjusted because I used unsalted butter)
1/4 cup buttermilk ( or 1/4 cup milk and 1/2 tsp vinegar)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F/180C

In saucepan melt butter. While doing that put 1/2 cup of water in the micro. to boil. (takes about 1-2 minutes in mine). Add cocoa to butter and stir. Add in boiling water and let boil for 30 seconds. Turn off heat and set aside.

In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, and salt. Pour in chocolate mixture and mix together just until combined.

In glass measuring cup measure out buttermilk (or make sour milk mixture) add in egg and beat. Add in vanilla and baking soda and mix together well.

Pour into flour/chocolate mixture and mix well.

Divide into 12 cupcake papers and bake for 18-20 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

I didn't use the Frosting she used for her sheet cake, i just used my old standby chocolate frosting.

I will have to say these are really as good as she says they are. I will have to try out the sheet cake sometime with her frosting too! I'm sure its just as amazing!

Now go make some of these! Trust me!

Tuesday Toppers: Spring Chicks

The family and I celebrated Easter this weekend and because of that I made a cake to celebrate new life. I mean who can resist the cuteness of new born chicks and the sign that spring has truly arrived and flowers are starting to come into bloom. So this week I decided to do a tutorial on how I made the little chick cupcakes. Then I really looked at them and couldn't decide whether they look like little birdies or little chickens so i'll leave it up to you to decide, lol. Either way here's what you will need to make one:

-Rolling pin

-Knife

-#6 piping tip

-1" circle cookie cutter

-White gel food coloring

-Small tip paint brush or toothpick

-Yellow, black, and orange fondant.

-Take yellow fondant and roll into a smooth ball approx. 1 1/4" in diameter.

-Gently pull one end, shaping for tail.

-Pull up slightly.

- You now have the chicks body.

-For the wings take the small ball and flatten it out.

-Using the 1" cookie cutter cut out a circle.

-Cut off both sides leaving a small amount in the center. Discard center strip.

-Slightly curve tops by pushing center downward gently.

-Make eyes by flattening out small amount of black, cutting out circles with tip of #6 piping tip as shown.

-For beak, take small amount of orange and shape into triangle.

-All the pieces nice and neat :D

-Place wings on side of body with small amount of water.

-Do the same with beak and eyes.

-To finish off eyes, take white gel food coloring and with paint brush or toothpick make dots in upper right hand corner of eyes.

-Happy Spring everyone!