DIY: OWL CAKE & CUPCAKE TOPPER

Just stopping in to say HAPPY MONDAY with this quick cute little Owl tutorial! 

I was SO excited when someone finally asked me to make an owl cake. I have been waiting for an excuse to make these cute little guys for so long! They are absolutely perfect for a little girl's birthday but since I have all boys none of them were interested in owls. :)

  

You can make these things as big or small as you want to depending on what you need them for. The size that I made them would probably be the perfect size for cupcake toppers. But I actually made two, and used them on top of a cake. 

They are really easy and quick to make. Not to mention super cute! The whole process is very simple so go grab your fondant and let's get started! :)

First roll out your darker color fondant. In this case I went with a pink theme owl so here I have the darker color pink rolled out. Cut out one large circle using a round cutter.

Now use the same cutter to take off just a little from the top so that we have a nice curve for the ears of the owl.

Next I have my light pink fondant rolled out. Cut out a circle using a round cutter that's a little smaller (left) than the one we used earlier (right)

 

While you have your light pink fondant rolled out, go ahead and cut out the two wings using a leaf cutter like the one I used pictured above. Note: If you don't have leaf cutters, you can also use small upside down hearts to make the wings which also looks cute. :)

Next make two small impressions on each wing. You can pretty much use any tool that you have on hand to do this,
 

 

Here I have my smaller light pink circle. Using a tiny round cutter, or the other end of an icing tip like I did, I just cut two curves into the circle to make room for the eyes.To make the eyes, just roll out white fondant and use this same icing tip or cutter to make two white circles.

Now for the beak: First take a small amount of orange fondant and roll it into a tiny ball. Then using your finger, roll it into a tear-drop shape in the palm of your hand.

Using a small paint brush and a tiny bit of water,you can start putting the pieces of your owl together. 

   To make eyes stand out more, roll out black fondant and cut out two circles using a cutter or icing tip smaller than the white ones we just did. Here I used the bottom of a Wilton 1A to get the perfect size.

To be sure that the feet are consistent in size, cut out two orange circles for the feet using a cutter or icing tip, and roll them into little balls. Then use a small amount of water to attach them to the owl.

I hope you guys found this helpful. Please feel free to leave questions and comments below! :) 

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE-DOUGH CUPCAKES

 This week I had a craving for something amazing. So my first thought was cookie dough. In all honesty y'all, I was really tempted to make cookie dough, drizzle chocolate over it, grab a spoon and dig in. But then I pictured myself doing that, and thought it seemed pretty silly. :) I wanted to bake something that was going to satisfy my craving and then some! Besides, cupcakes are a much more elegant way to stuff our faces right?

 

So when I searched the internet and came across the idea of putting raw cookie dough (without eggs of course) inside of a chocolate cupcake, I knew this was the cupcake for me! Everything about this thing is amazing!

 

If you have any excess cookie dough after filling your cupcakes. You can just flatten it out a little on the top like this. A little extra cookie dough never hurt anyone right?

 

This is the cookie dough scoop that I used to get a consistent amount of dough for the filling. If you don't have one of these that's okay. You can just use your cute little peepers to eyeball the amount you will need to fill each cupcake.

WARNING: After you have your mini cookies baked, I would recommend throwing away any cookie dough you have left. I made the mistake of keeping it around and found myself eating it right out of the container the next day...

Inspiration:  The cake and filling recipe was adapted from The Cake Blog, and the frosting was adapted from Tidy Mom.

Chocolate Cookie Dough Cupcakes

 For the Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

•     Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pan with liners.

•     First combine all dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.   Whisk until well combined.

•     Add oil and sour cream and mix at a medium speed.

•     Gradually add water and continue to mix.

•     Add vanilla and eggs and  until combined.

•     Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter.

•     Bake for 16 minutes or until your toothpick comes out clean.

• After your cupcakes have cooled, hollow out the centers. I used a large icing tip (pictured above) to do this.

 

For the Cookie Dough filling:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

•     In a mixer beat butter, sugar and vanilla until creamy.

•     Gradually add in flour and sweetened condensed milk and mix until well combined.

•     Stir in chocolate chips.

•      Fill center of cupcakes with Cookie Dough.  I used a cookie dough scoop  to get a consistent amount for each. Then I used my hands to roll the scoop of cookie dough into a cylinder shape and pushed it into each center.
• If you want to decorate your cupcakes with mini cookies, use some of the remaining dough to bake mini cookies at this point.

For the Frosting: 

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup light brown sugar
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp, salt
3 tbsp, milk
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

• Beat butter and brown sugar with paddle attachment  until creamy.

• Mix in confectioners' sugar until smooth.

• Beat in flour and salt.

• Mix in milk and vanilla extract until smooth.

Decorating:

• Fill a piping bag fitted with your choice of icing tip and swirl on top of cupcakes. 

• Sprinkle with chocolate chips. 

• Top each cupcake with one of your mini cookies.  

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DIY: DUCK DYNASTY CAKE

Duck Dynasty is all the rage lately! People around my neck of the woods are pretty enthusiastic about this show. I haven't really had much time to sit down and watch it myself but I have to admit, the characters seem pretty interesting. Well with all the fascination surrounding this community of hunters I wasn't surprised when a few people finally asked me to do a Duck Dynasty cake. I have to admit, I was really hoping to do a beard cake. I might be a beard lady. Hard to say really. Okay let's not talk about that. Beards and cakes don't mix well. :) 

Anyhoozles, the best part of all the new fads for me, is always the opportunity for a new cake. Something different. Or even something simple. In-fact that's what I love most about cakes like these. Some of the most appealing designs to me are always the more simple ones. 

This logo was really simple to achieve. There are several ways to transfer an easy logo like this. When possible, I almost always make them from fondant. For me, fondant is just my go-to. Here's how I did it: 

Making the Logo:

•  To make the logo, print a picture of the "duck"  found online like this one here. Then cut it out to use as a template. 

• Then I roll out black fondant and cut around the template using an Xacto knife. 

• Next  roll out white fondant and cut out a large oval to put behind the logo. 

• Then take the duck pieces that you have cut out and place them on the white fondant oval, using a tiny bit of water to secure them in place.

• Once you have your symbol you can use letter cut outs to write any message you want.   

 Hope everyone found this helpful!  Be sure to leave comments and let me know what other kind of tutorials you would like to see. 

Here is an example of another Duck Dynasty cake I did using this same method.

 *Side Note* The only reason some of my cakes have the "CakeTheDay" water mark is because that is what my website used to be (a long time ago) before I changed everything to RevaCakes.

PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE CUPCAKES

 I'm a little late in posting this because I actually made these around Thanksgiving. I can't even believe how busy I am baking this year! :) I made these pumpkin cupcakes for someone at my son's daycare, and also gave some to my co-workers. They were a big hit! And the best part is, I stumbled upon this recipe by accident and out of desperation!!

So I was up super late one night getting ready to fill this order and I hadn't even started baking yet when I realized I didn't even have any eggs. :( It was way too late to run to the store and this order was due the next morning!! So I had no choice but to figure it out. I grabbed a box of Duncan Hines Spice Cake mix from my cabinet and this is what I came up with. I am so amazed at how these turned out and I will be using this recipe from now on!

P.S. The topping is crushed graham crackers!! Yummm!!!! 



Enjoy!

Feel free to leave comments and suggestions! :)

Cupcake Ingredients:

1 Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix

1 small can pumpkin pie mix

1/2 cup water 

Baking Instructions:

NOTE: Do not mix cake mix as instructed on box. Only use the ingredients listed above. :)

Fill cupcake liners 

Bake at 350° for  20-25 min 

Cream Cheese Frosting:

4 oz unsalted butter (softened)

4 oz cream cheese (softened)

2 cups powdered sugar (sifted)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Beat together cream cheese and butter. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup to 1 cup at a time with mixer on low speed until creamy. Mix in vanilla extract.

HEADPHONES CAKE

I had the most fun making this cake. I really did. When I was asked to make a cake that included headphones I had to go all out and make everything edible. Yes, you can even eat the headphones. 

One of my favorite things about cake decorating is sculpting and molding things out of fondant. I just think it's so neat to create something that doesn't look like it should be eaten, but is 100% edible. 

Update (2015) : A few people have asked for a tutorial on the headphones. I will be doing one soon! Pinky promise!

I even hand painted little musical notes with black food coloring!