...random thoughts, opinions and secrets on children... aging... cooking... crafts... nature...divorce...second chances...
and whatever else I deem curious...
~Copyright 2017. Hootie~

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Sweet 16!


Last Monday, my baby turned Sweet 16! It was her golden birthday too! To celebrate her day she and several friends got dressed up...teen girls, they LOVE dressing up...and went to lunch. After paying for lunch, I took the girls back to our place where they changed into hiking/kayaking clothes. We hiked to the nearby lake where I had reserved kayaks for them. Winston actually led us to the lake and he and I stayed close while the girls were out. I took Winston to a cove where he could swim and I could watch, and photograph, the girls. After an hour on the water we made the return trip to our house. Dessert time!

Here's how the cupcakes I made and my daughter helped decorate turned out. Many thanks to Sweetcakes for her advice! Details below...

Store bought, ready-to-go, fondant was used for the flowers. I wasn't ready to experiment completely with this task, plus I left this part up to my creative daughter!
The cupcakes were a recipe from the FamilyFun cookbook. I got out of the habit of using store bought cake mixes about 10 years ago. I would certainly re-use this recipe and will gladly send it to anyone who requests is (as well as any other recipe I ever mention!). The only thing I did differently was to add food coloring. The cupcakes would have been more of a pale yellow than what we were wanting. I added 16 drops to the mix! :)

Sweetcakes advised me to bake and cool the cupcakes then cut out a cone part from the top. I wanted to added ganache to the middle of the cupcakes. After cutting the cone shape, I trimmed it so it would become a cap. Sweetcakes and I talked flavors and if you read back to my original thoughts you'd see I probably had too much going on...flavor-wise. White chocolate ganache was changed to chocolate ganache. Buttercreme frosting was almost cream cheese frosting until Sweetcakes reminded me it should be refrigerated. Not really a problem except that would make the ganache harder than what we were looking for. Cold ganache firms up, room temperature ganache is creamy! In the end I decided upon vanilla frosting that I colored pink. Both the ganache and the frosting were homemade.
Here's the ganache, made the day before. This was my first time making ganache and I didn't think it was going to work out. It seemed too runny after the recommended two hours of cooling. I let it sit longer though and it was perfect!
Putting it all together!


Well? What do you think?
Here's how they looked on the inside!
*****
And here's my Sweet 16 year old!

7 comments:

Steph said...

Congratulations!!!! The cupcakes and your daughter are beautiful!

Lauranie said...

The look positively GOURMET!! Great job from a fabulous mother/daughter team!! She is starting to look more like you! Beautiful!! :D

Lisa said...

Thanks Steph and Lauranie!

L- my daughter is at that "I so NOT like you stage" so I don't think I mention to her your comment! :) I vaguely recall being in that stage myself awhile ago.

parTea lady said...

It sounds like you had a wonderful birthday celebration for your beautiful daughter.

The cupcakes turned out really pretty and I bet they were delicious.

sweetcakes said...

The cupcakes turned out great! And it looks like you have so much fun making them! Bravo! Congratulations on "Sweet 16" Michelle!

Lauranie said...

Oh girl...sorry! I am NOT looking forward to that stage!! I didn't go through it...I liked my parents, and since I was GROUNDED FOR LIFE starting at 14, I spent a WHOLE lotta time with them!! HA!

Lisa said...

Wow, what great cupcakes! Not suprising though, everything you make looks fantastic. I'm totally willing to be your taste-tester you know... anytime. Heehee...

Hey, thanks for visiting today Lisa, your comment cracked me up! I don't feel like I get that much done sometimes, but this last month I was busting out embroidery pieces left, right & center. Swap-bot is fun and TOO addictive. It's like all the sudden you have two pieces that need to go in the mail ASAP and you haven't even started them. Good thing for strong tea and insomnia!

Visit again soon!

oxo,
Lisa