DIY: Eggnog Cupcakes with Spiced Rum

Baker's Royale has made a picture look so delicious we wish we could eat two dimensional objects!!  These look unreal.  We know that our frosting will not look this amazing, but if they taste anything remotely like they look we couldn't be happier...

  

Makes 24 cupcakes | Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 muffins tins with cupcake liners.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• ¾ cup eggnog
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Spice Rum Buttercream:

• 5 large egg whites
• 11/2 cup sugar
• 4 sticks unsalted butter, diced and softened
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup spiced rum

Instructions:

To make cupcake:

1. Measure out flour and set aside.
2. Add sugar and butter in a bowl and cream on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs in 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the eggnog and vanilla to start. Mix after addition until incorporated-do not overbeat.
3. Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer cupcakes from tins to cooling rack. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

To make Spice Rum Buttercream:

1. Combine egg whites and sugar in a bowl placed over simmering water. Bring mixture to 160 degrees F while whisking constantly.
2. Transfer mixture to stand mixer bowl, fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on medium  high speed (speed 8 on a KitchenAid stand mixer) until mixture cools and doubles in volume and forms stiff peaks; about 10-12 minutes).
3. Add butter in one piece at a time, mixing to incorporate after each addition. The mixture may appear clumpy and almost curdled looking at first-this is normal. Keep mixing and it will become even and smooth again.
4. Add salt and spiced rum and mix to combine.

 

DIY: Cupcake Ornaments

Keeping with our holiday theme from yesterday - we believe in prepping for the holiday early so there is less stress - we would love to share this tutorial from Goldiloks: Jacktress of all Trades on how to make Cupcake Ornaments.  They are adorable, easy and cheap! You all should know by now that this makes us love it all the more. =)

These adorable cupcake ornaments were partly inspired by the lovelies over at Bake it Pretty & my fave blog Prudent Baby even made some. I tweeked them slightly and used actual miniature ornaments and white paint ( you guys know I can't leave my paint behind!) Also, I opted to use regular hooks instead of twine or ribbon. You could choose which ever you like better. Ready?

what you'll need:

1. mini cupcake liners

2. painted and glittered/ snow flocked ornaments (simply paint "frosting" and dip it into glitter or fake snow while the paint is still wet)

3. berries (you can buy these from Micheals, about .75)

4. glue gun (excuse the grossness lol)

Now this is SUPER EASY. ready? k.

1. glue the bottom of the ornament to the cupcake liner (I like to glue mine at a slight slant)

2. Snip a few of the berries from their branch, set aside. Apply a tinybit of glue next to the top, and place the "cherry" (berry) on the glue. Let set & dry. 

Your all done! You can either at a ribbon to hang it from or simply use a regular ornament hook. Easy right? Now go make hundreds of them to give away or adorn your tree. ;D

DIY: Dollar Store Candle Makeover

We love dollar store shopping, despite its dangerousness since we have ZERO self control in there....

But thanks to Banman Land's blog, we'll have some direction on what we want to buy next time we go!  We love being able to jazz up our dollar store finds, and they've done a wonderful job with these number candles!  So easy, so quick, but so very cute!

Ok, I have revamped a few Dollar Store candles and gotten a lot of questions and comments so I thought I'd talk you all through it.

Here's what Maddie's birthday candle looked like when I bought it.

Kinda predictable.

I grabbed some glittery puff paint

{not to be confused with glitter glue}

I stuck all sorts of cute buttons and tiny rhinestones in the inside of the outline with the puff paint.

{If I hadn't liked the teal outline for my party theme, I would have re-outlined it with my sparkly puff paint)

I let it dry for an hour

{at least}

After it was dry,

I gently stuck a toothpick into the bottom of the candle.

Here's what it looked like when I got finished with it.

{oops, this is BEFORE the toothpick but you can imagine what that would look like, right?}

DIY: Felt Flower Cupcake Toppers

Soooo, we don't really need an excuse to eat cupcakes on the regular, but hey...it doesn't hurt to have an excuse anyways, right?!  It's good to know that The Proper Pinwheel shares our affinity for all things sweet.  This fantastical cupcake tutorial speaks to us in so many ways.

To make your own you’ll need:

• Felt (9 x 11 inches)
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun
• Toothpicks

Cut 3 x 9 inch strips.

Fold the strips in half lengthwise and cut (starting at the folded side!) 3/4 of the way to the edge.

Repeat the whole way down the strip.

Once it’s all cut, pull the top half to the right 1/4 inch.

Start at the right end and roll it up as tight or as loose as you would like. Use small drops of hot glue to secure it along the way.

Put a little drop of hot glue on one end of a toothpick and stick it inside the flower. Pinch the bottom tight until the glue dries, and you’re done! Stick these little flowers in the tops of your cupcakes and admire the cuteness.

Collapsible Cupcake & Cake Carrier 

DIY: Security Envelope Sparklers

We love these versatile designer sticks from The Ravenna Girls blog!  Make them for cupcake toppers, drink stirrers, appetizers picks, or anything else you can think of!

All you need is one or two security envelopes, scissors, bamboo skewers (cut down in length) and double sided tape. Glue stick would also work, as would toothpicks if you don’t have skewers around.

Cut down your envelope so you have one large rectangle of pattern to work with, then just cut on the diagonal into long thin triangles. You can also cut along the long length for a little variety.

Put some double sided tape or glue on the back side of the paper (the white side). I put about 1/2″ of sticky to get an attachment that held. Then, wrap the full triangle tightly around your skewer or toothpick.

Hold in place for 10-15 seconds, then gently unroll the paper and pull it away from the skewer. Voila! A little blue paper “sparkler” for your holiday decor.

Play around with the length and size of your triangles for a little varied effect. Then go to town!

DIY Pinwheel Cupcake Toppers

We can see 100 uses for these!  Who doesn't love pinwheels?  You could adjust this same idea for place card holders, hand made cards, larger toy versions, home decor...have fun!

Bertie's Bakery has a whole section on DIY and Freebies...so check 'em out!

Step 1:

Cut out 2”x2” squares of what ever color double sided paper you want! (Double sided paper just means paper that is going to have either color or designs on either side, instead of just white…unless that’s what you want of course!)

Step 2:

Cut diagonal lines starting from each corner going into the center about 1”. You do not need to flip over the paper, I just wanted to show you my two sided paper!

Step 3:

Now fold the first corner (A) into the center of the square. Don’t crease this fold, just kind of bend it so it holds its shape. Do this to each “A” corner on the squares.

This is what your squares should look like once you have molded/folded each of the A corners inwards.

Step 4:

Now take each pinwheel and cut a small slit in the bottom of one of your folds. This only has to be big enough to slide a toothpick through. I like doing it this way because it hides the toothpick and glue, and it just looks a little bit cleaner. If you do not have a blade to do this with, no worries we can just glue the toothpick to the back. 

Step 5:

Open up all of your folds and slide the toothpick through your newly made slit. Hot glue toothpick to the center of the square.

Step 6:

Using little dabs of hot glue start re-folding in each “A” corner and folding them there until the glue has cooled and the fold is now permanent.

Keep going all the way around.

Step 7:

Once all the corners are folded in and glued, add one more dab of hot glue and adorn the pinwheel with any thing you like. I used fake pearls that I had saved from an old necklace I used to love! But you could use buttons, pompoms, or even paper circles from the left over paper.

See wasn’t that easy?