Go, Baby, Go! Cupcakes and Cake Pops

This baby shower had a transportation theme and was so much fun to put together. On the snack table was cupcakes, chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and sprinkles.

Each guest was given a toy car and a cake pop for the favors. Either chocolate road cake pops, dipped in chocolate with a fondant car, or white cake pop cloud, dipped in vanilla with a fondant airplane.

See how addicted I am to these little cookie cutters? Adorable!

Here's more of the shower decorations and table spread (printables were from HWTM on etsy):

Petal Cake with Baby Hippo

Make this one for an adorable mom-to-be who was having a zoo themed shower (she absolutely adores hippos). The nursery colors were pale turquoise and grey.

It turned out so great. I'd seen the petal method (also called pulled dot) and thought it looked so fun. And it was very easy!

Cupcakes are frosted with buttercream and then I added a marshmallow fondant animals cutout. This project also got me addicted to finding mini cookie cutters in cute shapes. I have far too many now and yet I keep finding more!

My first attempt at the hippo ended up adorable, yes, but in fear of his fate as cake topper…

Poor baby…He also looked too purple. I started over with the MMF and coloring, coming up with a happier result.

Eagles Cupcakes

My friend's son recently turned 16. He's a big Philadelphia Eagles fan and she wanted cupcakes for his party so this is what I came up with:

And before I get snotty emails or comments, I am well aware that the Eagles are not affiliated with Dallas. But that happens to be the Birthday Boy's name.  :P

Cupcakes are chocolate with my signature buttercream. Decorations are marshmallow fondant, except for the black and white accents - those are buttercream. I got lucky on this one since I have a shirt-shaped cutter and an oval for the footballs. Ended up hand-cutting the Eagle heads but I really liked how they turned out so they were worth the effort.

Toy Story Cupcakes

"To Infinity, and Beyond!"

These cupcakes were for my friend's baby shower (because they were decorating the nursery with a Toy Story theme, focusing on Buzz Lightyear) but they would be great for a first birthday or even an older Toy Story fan. Hey, 40 is not too old to have an alien cupcake!

The cupcakes were vanilla almond with my signature buttercream piped on top. Toppers are all marshmallow fondant (except for black details, which are buttercream).

I had a lot of fun making these! And the aliens are my favorite. I contemplated not bringing them to the shower and just encasing them in varnish so they would last forever.

Carnival Tent with Popcorn Cupcakes

My friend's daughter wanted a carnival theme cake. No problem.

The tent is made using rounds with a Wilton Wonder Mold on top. The birthday girl is not a big fan of fondant so I frosted the cake in buttercream and used marshmallow fondant only for the details: stripes and curtains.

Now, the cupcakes were my favorite part! Just bake ordinary cupcakes and frost them with white buttercream. Then open a bag of mini marshmallows. Using kitchen shears (or another pair of clean scissors), snip about halfway down the end, turn 90 degrees and snip again, making four nubs. Slightly squoosh the nubs down and then affix to the cupcake. It'll take you 25-30 marshmallows per cupcake so I recommend gang-pressing your eldest child to marshmallow snipping duty. I finished it off with a spray of yellow food coloring. The cupcakes were baked in ordinary wrappers. I used real popcorn bags, trimmed down and wrapped around the cupcakes. You could also use red and white striped liners with popcorn stickers or labels you make yourself.

Ladybug with Flower Cupcakes

I made this cake for my neighbor friend who collects all things ladybug.

Chocolate cake frosted with my signature buttercream.

Assorted Cupcakes

I tried to come up with some simple to fancy cupcakes with a turquoise/calla lily theme.


Clockwise from the top: star tip with fondant initial, star swirl with green sugar crystals, round tip, white marshmallow fondant with marshmallow fondant lily, marshmallow fondant with fondant and buttercream initials, marshmallow fondant with cornelli lace in buttercream.

Footprint Cupcakes

I made these for a baby shower for a good friend who, after three beautiful girls, is having a little boy! I originally saw these in Wilton's Cupcake Fun book and then tweaked the design.


These are dark chocolate cupcakes with vanilla marshmallow fondant (MMF). The original design called for using the smaller ends of icing tips to cut out all the toes but with three dozen cupcakes, that's a LOT of toes! After slaving away over the blue ones, I opted to use buttercream frosting for the white toes. And I may just insist on doing it that way from now on!

Super Mario Cupcakes

In my efforts to post more of my cupcakes, I decided I needed more cupcakes worth posting. Then I saw a set of cupcakes made by Lorie at Be Different...Act Normal (one of my favorite sites to get lost on the Internet). And it just so happened that my friend's Wii-obsessed son was having a birthday!


I had a little too much fun making these! I used marshmallow fondant for the toppers. The smooth look is so pretty to me. Now I need an excuse to make more...

The cupcakes are Naturally Nora's Surprising Stars.

Magic Cupcakes

I make a LOT of cupcakes and for some reason, I never post them. My most recent batch was definitely worthy of a blog entry!


They look innocent enough. Lovely shade of blue. Simple enough sprinkles in either green or purple. You might be thinking, "Swell cupcakes there, Jessica G. Now let's see some real cake!" But no, my friends...take a look inside:


Pretty cool, right? I may never go back to solid color cupcakes ever again.

Tiny Cake

My Boo is a tiny little girl. No worries. Dynamite comes in small packages, right? So when it came time to plan her birthday party, Martha Stewart's Tiny Party seemed a natural fit.


Since a tiny cake isn't going to feed everyone, the Birthday Girl got her own cake and the guests could select a cupcake.


Per the Birthday Girl's request, this is a 4-inch dark chocolate cake, frosted in buttercream with royal icing flowers.


Birthday guests got mini cupcakes with the same flowers. There were also Mini Oreos, Mini M&Ms, Baby Goldfish, and scoops of ice cream made with a melon baller.

Read about party games and other activities here.

Tiki Mask

The Boy's birthday was a luau. I've made more volcanoes than I care to count so I wanted something new and fun. I found plates at the party supply store that supplied my inspiration:


Since there was no way this cake was going to feed the 30+ people we had invited, I made cupcakes to go along with it.


Cake was made using Naturally Nora's Surprising Stars mix so I made my dark chocolate recipe for the cupcakes, giving guests a choice. Hardly any cake left over and that was a good thing!

Read the blog post about the party here.

Updated: I recently made another version of the Tiki Mask using primary colors.


The Birthday girl is not a big fan of chocolate. Since the main cake was vanilla with chocolate buttercream, I made pineapple lemon cupcakes with coconut frosting. I thought it tasted better than it looked.

Hello Kitty with Cupcakes

Made for a 4th birthday party for one of da Boo's friends. Boo helped make the cake batter and couldn't have been more thrilled.

Once again, trying fondant. I frosted and rolled the cake the night before. When I went to bed, I thought it looked smooth and fairly flawless. However, the harsh light of morning showed me otherwise. Anyone know why a crease/wrinkle would appear near the edge of the cake?