It's Thanksgiving, ya'll!

I hope everyone had a fantabulous Thanksgiving... I know I did! Joey got to see his first hockey games ever (his uncle was playing), we ate super good food, and we got to spend time with family. Isn't that what it's all about? I'm sure that's what everyone did, except maybe minus the hockey. That's an Austin family thing. :) And I love it! I made Justin (my kid brother) some extra special celebratory cupcakes since he made the high school hockey team this year. They're little mini cupcakes you can just pop in your mouth, and I made a little chocolate team logo and his number to stick in the frosting.

I felt like a true pastry chef when I made the little chocolate toppers. :) I printed off his high school logo and put it under some wax paper so I could trace it with the chocolate. I heated red and blue chocolate and then piped it onto the wax paper. It was delicious! They peeled off the wax paper really nicely, and I didn't break any of them. I was pretty proud of myself for that. Again, the chocolate technique came from my 'What's New, Cupcake?' book. Congrats, Justin!


So I did end up doing some crafting for Thanksgiving, and since my crafts are fairly limited in the hotel room we call our home, I'm learning some new things. I did some cupcaking again! How can you go wrong with cupcakes? I made some Thanksgiving cupcakes made to look like stuffed turkeys. This one also came from 'What's New, Cupcake?'. The turkeys and turkey legs are made of rolled caramels, the turkey legs of potato sticks and the stuffing and lettuce are corn flakes. I will say the corn flakes got really soggy in the frosting. I ended up pulling them off and not eating them. Yuck. I did like the turkey legs, though because they were solid caramel! They were a huge hit, and everyone ate them all. I think Grandpa ate the most, despite the fact that my dad said Grandpa wouldn't eat them because they looked weird. :)

Scott bought me some new tools of the trade that I am realizing I don't know how I lived without. If anyone is going to get into any kind of baking hobby where icing is involved, please get pastry bags and tips. They work wonderfully as far as control and technique go, and they just make it more fun. It's not fun when it's difficult, right?

So I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and ate tons of food. Nothing brings people together like food does. On to the next holiday!

PS - Since I've received my yarn to continue my cardigan, I've completed both front panels and a sleeve. I just might make my goal of finishing before Christmas! One more sleeve to go... Happy Crafting!

Cupcakes are crafts, too!

I'm trying my hand at a new hobby. Rayna, do you really need yet another hobby, I hear you say. One can never have too many hobbies. I find joy in many things so why should I limit myself? So there. Yes, another hobby. But this one's delicious... I'm making novelty cupcakes! Well, I've made one batch, at least. But I do plan on making more! Scott bought me a really neat book for a housewarming present (warm my house with cupcakes!), and it's got so many cool recipes in it. I'm definitely planning on making more. I've already planned things like Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays ( I can't decide if I want knitting or goldfish cupcakes for my birthday. Maybe knitting goldfish? Awesome!).

For those of you who know me, I hate cooking. Maybe not hate it, but I'm terrible at it. I mess up macaroni and cheese, and I usually eat ramen when it's just me. I cannot cook. I will not cook. Although, I have been making Joey's food. That's beside the point, though. I can puree anything. That's not hard. So, anyway, cupcakes. Mmm, cupcakes. This book has everything in it. There are several recipes for cupcakes, which is good because I like everything in one place. There are also a bunch of frosting recipes. I went kind of cheap on that front. I bought frosting. :) Hey, you have to start somewhere. :) It's just as delicious, I can assure you. I'll get to making my own.

I made the Bake Sale Pies. Delicious! Anything with M&Ms is a hit with me. This was also marked as an "ez" recipe so it was a good place to start. There are so many cupcakes I want to make in this book. There are cupcakes that look like eggs, monsters, jungle animals, whales and bees, just to mention a few. Of course, there are also things you wouldn't want to eat. For some reason, there is a recipe for cupcakes with roaches on top of them and cupcakes that look like nasty rats. Ew. Definitely do NOT want to eat. This book has all the techniques and recipes you need to know to make their cupcakes. I love it! As you can see, Scott and Joey loved them, too. These cupcakes make a great snack! ;)