Thursday, August 30, 2012

Summer Cupcakes

Every month or two, Jared has a pot luck lunch with some of his co-workers.  They always select a theme for each lunch and divide up the food responsibilities.  Jared ALWAYS has to bring a batch of "Mrs. Parsons Cookies" as his co-workers call them.  Then he usually has another responsibility, and it's almost always another dessert.

Today the gang is having a "summer foods" themed pot luck.  In addition to my obligatory cookies, I was asked to make some other summery dessert.  I was really torn on what to make. 

And then I remembered some cupcakes I had referenced in my April Fool's Day food blog post.

So I baked a full batch of white cupcakes and a full batch of chocolate cupcakes (while helping Nolan with his homework and helping Nora go potty on the toilet...go ahead and be impressed).

I had to run out to the store for some specific candies for decorating.  I even had to send Jared out to THREE gas stations in search of Circus Peanuts.  Everyone was out of them, which I'm guessing is because they are so disgusting that no one wants to sell them.  When he finally found a bag of them at the scuzziest gas station around, they were super old and all stuck together.  I used what I could because of how hard he had worked to find them.

So, my cupcakes were all made to look like summer foods.

Hamburgers:





And steaks, hot dogs, and kebabs on the grill:




I used the nasty Circus Peanuts to make hot dogs in buns to go on top of extra cupcakes:


The hamburger buns are white cupcakes with the middle third cut out.  The hamburger patties are the top third to half of the chocolate cupcakes.  I used red and yellow frostings as ketchup and mustard, and I tinted coconut green for the shredded lettuce.


I just set the assembled hamburgers on the wrappers and put them in my beloved cupcake carrier.




The "grills" are chocolate cupcakes with a thin layer of chocolate frosting.  I tinted some vanilla frosting gray and piped lines for the grill grates.  Then I had lots of fun making the foods to go on top.

The steaks are caramel cream candies shaped by hand.  You should have seen me trying to figure out what shape to make them ("This one looks like an ear and this one looks like Africa.").  The hot dogs are caramels that I cut and rolled by hand.  The kebabs are toothpicks with cut up caramels and red, yellow, and green candy fruit slices.  I dipped a toothpick in black food coloring and drew on the grill marks.







I really wanted to make these cupcakes that look like corn-on-the-cob, but I couldn't find any store near me that sells Jelly Bellies by the individual colors.  I tried a little something with yellow Reese's Pieces, but it wasn't good.

All the summer foods cupcakes ready to go:




If you'd like to make these yourself, here are the inspirations I followed:
Dogs and Burgers at Family Fun
A Grate Gift for Dad at Family Fun
Memorial Day Cupcakes at Hoosier Homemade

Now we'll just see if the guys think they taste good!

Jessica

1 comment:

  1. These look awesome! Did everyone enjoy them? Potluck day used to be my favorite day! I would circle, highlight and dry a big smiley face on the calendar!

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