John Deere-like cookies and cupcakes

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and fondant tractor toppers

I used Wilton fondant. The green, yellow and white are as they came in the package, I added Americolor Super Black gel food coloring to fondant to make it black. I did the original image on the computer, printed it out, cut it out and then used it as a template for the tractor - all in green. The I cut out yellow and black circles for the tires, additional green pieces for the fenders and white windows. This was my first time making fondant toppers - I'm so happy that they were a success.

Vanilla sugar cookies with royal icing

I had no idea that John Deere was so popular with little boys! I have had two 3 year old boys to do cookies for in the last 4 months. Apparently they really love JD.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes - Red and White Vanilla Buttercream

These cupcakes were made for a Christmas Eve get together.

Dark Chocolate Cake recipe made into cupcakes.

2 cups boiling water

2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Ruddy Red cocoa powder from Bulk Barn)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

2 1/4 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I use Nielson Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla) 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 ºF. This makes over 3 dozen cupcakes so prepare pans accordingly.

In a medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Scoop batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes - check at 18 minutes. Allow to cool.

Wilton's Giant Cupcake Pan

Wilton Giant Cupcake Pan

I found this pan for $20 at Home Sense - it is $50 at Michaels.

I decided to grab it and try it out before my grandson's birthday. I read a lot of comments on the Wilton forums before I gave it a try. The pan comes with a recipe for chocolate pound cake but from what I read, it seemed that it wasn't a good idea. Most of the comments said that modifying a cake mix was the best way to go. 

I used Betty Crocker cake mix but instead of oil, I used butter. Where the box called for water, I used milk and where it called for 3 eggs, I used 4. The pan is uneven - the bottom holding more than the top - which can cause the problem of one side being cooked and the other side not being cooked through. What I did was measure 2 & 1/2 cups of batter for the top side of the cupcake - on the empty side, I put water  and baked for 35 min or until done. *You must grease the pan well - I used Wilton Cake Release* After the top was done, I cooled it on a rack and cleaned the pan, coated the other side (bottom of giant cupcake) with cake release and added the rest of the batter...again, I put water in the empty side. Baked until cooked - toothpick test comes out clean. Cool on rack.

I had a bit of a "hump" on both cakes so I trimmed the humps off. I stuck the two sides together with icing and then decorated the cupcake as a whole. My first try was a Cherry Chip cake mix which I altered as mentioned above - but I also added some almond extract and chopped up maraschino cherries. The frosting was buttercream with juice from the cherries, almond flavoring, pink gel food coloring and some cherries pureed. 

I was moderately pleased with how the giant cupcake turned out but everyone was thrilled with how it tasted!
I continued to read more info about the best way to bake and decorate this big baby and came across a tip on how to decorate the bottom of the cupcake. Use the pan as a mold - melt candy melts or chocolate and pour into the bottom of the cake pan (the bottom of the cupcake) and coat the inside, chill and unmold. I tried this for my grandson's birthday cake and this is how it turned out....

French Vanilla Cupcakes

French Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

I made these the day before St. Patrick's Day but I hid the "green" inside the cupcake - I turned some of the batter green with food coloring and layered the batter in the muffin cups. When the ladies at "games night" opened them up, there was the surprise for St. Patty's Day.

I used Nielson Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla - generously! The tasted and smelled delicious.

Birthday Party Cookies

Roll-out cookies for a birthday party.
These were practice cookies - my grandson's birthday was coming up and I wanted to try making some party cookies. I didn't have cutters so I drew some cupcakes and party hats on paper and cut them out as templates. I just used a paring knife to cut the cookies out using the template - takes longer than using a cutter but you gotta improvise sometimes.
I used Lila Loa's chocolate roll-out cookie recipe which can be found at: http://lilaloa.blogspot.ca/2011/03/end-all-for-chocolate-cookies-recipe.html
and Callye's sugar cookie recipe found at: http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/blog/2011/06/basic-sugar-cookie-recipe-2/
I also made these cookies....

and 1s which I also had to draw and cut out now, the flowers I had a cutter for those.