Art With Ashley: Baking

Recently I was asked to make some cupcakes that incorporated the theme of Lighthouses. I said that I would do it (knowing that there must be a zillion tutorials about this sort of thing on pinterest.) To my surprise there wasn't that much out there on lighthouse cupcakes. I knew I wanted something that was large enough to stand by itself and look like a lighthouse but also not take over the entire cupcake. I also didn't want to make them out of fondant.

So here is what I came up with. :) Hope you enjoy this little tutorial!!

What you will need:

2 boxes of cake mix - one chocolate and one butter cake mix

1 box of Mini Cup Ice Cream Cones (I found them at Walmart)

1 box of Strawberry Fruit Roll-Ups (6 rolls to a box)

1- Jar of Cream Cheese Frosting

1- Package of Graham Crackers

1/4- Cup Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup Melted Butter

Yellow and Blue Food Coloring

Hand full of chocolate chips - For melting

1. Break your Graham Crackers in half and place them in a food processor
2. Add 1/4 cup of Brown Sugar
3. Mix until it resembles sand. (Remove any large left over Graham Cracker parts... some of them just hang around on the top of the mix and never get broken down)
4. Add 1/4 cup melted butter and mix until well incorporated

(I only used the crumble for 24 of my cupcakes)

5. Mix your batter and fill cupcake liners as directed. Cover batter with crumble. Then bake as usual.
6. While those are baking scoop out a little less than half of your frosting and put into a microwavable glass. (one that will allow you to dip things in)
7. Microwave frosting for 30 seconds. (If you dip your spoon in it should just coat the spoon)
8. Take out your cones and carefully dip your cone into the frosting glaze.
9. Make sure you get close enough to the top to cover most of your cone.
10. Let any extra frosting drip off and gently scrape excess on the side of the glass.

11. Carefully flip the cone up and grab the bottom edge with other hand. Set it down on a foil lined baking sheet. I only did one package of cones so I dipped 21 cones.
12. Unroll your fruit roll-ups and cut into small strips. (You may have to play around with length on some of these to get them right. The bottom stripe is one full length of strip and the top stripe is 3/4 a full length of strip. After they are all cut carefully wrap them around the cone.
13. When they are all wrapped with the fruit roll-up I put them in my refrigerator to harden.
14. After they are hardened, mix yellow food coloring into the remaining melted frosting (from dipping your cones)
15. Carefully remove your cookie sheet from the fridge and dip the top parts of your cones in the yellow to "light" your lighthouse.
16. Make sure you let them drip and carefully scrape off any excess or the frosting will drip all over your top stripe.

17. Finish baking and cooling your cupcakes. They should look like the cupcake below. (I love how the crumble looks like rocks and sand!)
18. With your remaining frosting add blue food coloring and mix well. Scoop into a ziplock bag and carefully cut a tiny hole at the bottom (remember you can always cut off more but you will hate it if you cut off too much.
19. Slowly squeeze zigzags across one side of your cupcake.
20. Grab a butter knife and pull the frosting around so that it covers the one side of the cupcake.
21. Use your knife to tap the frosting... creating "waves"
22. Place a small amount of icing on the bottom edge of your lighthouse to hold in place.

1. For the other cupcake I wanted something a little different So I drew a picture of an anchor and then placed wax paper over it. (I placed all of this on a small cookie sheet)
2. Take about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and place them in a mug. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir... continue increments of 30 seconds until chocolate is fully melted.
3. Scoop chocolate into ziplock bag and cut a tiny... (I mean really tiny hole) in the bottom!! You can see how tiny that hole is in the photo.
4. Carefully squeeze the chocolate on to the anchor shape. Try and work quickly because your chocolate will harden in your bag!!
5. Continue until you have made enough for your cupcakes. (make a few extra just incase you break some)
6. Place them into your freezer for at least 10 minutes. This will help them become nice and hard.
7. Meanwhile create fun little circle patterns with your frosting on your left over cupcakes... make swirls or waves or whatever makes you happy. (Just remember to go light of the frosting unless you want to have to make an extra trip to the store to get more)
8. Remove your chocolate anchors from the freezer and carefully pull them off the wax paper and place them on top of your cupcake.

That's it your done :) Enjoy your beautiful cupcakes!

- Craft Hard

One of the best things about the holidays is the fact that sweets are abundant. I have a major sweet tooth and a love for baking, dangerous combo I know. So for all of those are in the same boat as I am I thought I would do a post of all my recent baking adventures. The good, the bad and the ugly.

THE BAD & THE UGLY:

For those of you who are familiar with making Pumpkin Pies you will recall that one of the important ingredients in the recipe is evaporated milk. Well I decided to try out a new recipe this year... it can be found here------->Maple Walnut Pumpkin Pie

This recipe surprised me by changing it up and replacing the evaporated milk with sweet and condensed milk. I rummaged through my pantry to find a can of it. I found one way way way in the back corner along with a few other ingredients like fish oil... oyster sauce... wheat flour... I think you get the picture. I pulled out the can and searched it for an expired date. Some little red flag was going off in the back of my mind saying... "the last time you used this batch of sweet and condensed milk it was bad!!" I tried hard not to listen to myself and reasoned that the last time I used must have been when I first got married about 3 years ago so I must have replaced them by now, plus it was the day before Thanksgiving and I really didn't want to go out and battle the grocery store crowds.

I opened the can and looked inside... it didn't look terrible, but it had been so long I couldn't remember what it was supposed to look like. Just then my husband walked in... I told him I thought that the sweet and condensed milk was bad. He said no it looked fine and we both did the "smell test" and he even volunteered for a taste test. He stuck one of his fingers on the lid and I knew right then it was bad. It just glopped down the side and looked oily and bad. He still stuck it right in his mouth. He said it tasted fine... I protested and said it was bad. Suddenly it was a battle of who was right... he continued eating it and I began calling my mom to determine who was going to win the fight. She said... "when in doubt throw it out."

Unfortunately our internet was down so I couldn't skype her to show her. I decided to call a friend, she had an extra can and was more than willing to let us have it. (Thanks Jenn) I took off down the street with my open can of grossness and my husband came running after. When my friend opened the door she gasped and said, "YEAH that is BAD!!!" I laughed and we opened up a new can so my sweet husband could see what it was supposed to look like.

Thankfully he didn't get sick from it and we didn't actually put it in our pie :)

The can in dispute...