Latissa's New House

  10-20-10
  Ok so I'm a little late with Latissa's house warming gift.   Latissa, my coworker, wanted me to make her a cherry lemonade cupcake.  I haven't quite mastered making "only one" cupcake so I made her a dozen and experimented with a cream filling in half of them.  As I write...the verdict is still out on which ones she preferred.  Anyway, while we were at work recently my mind came up with an idea that I thought would make a perfect house warming gift.  A house made out of chocolate and her surprise cupcake inside.  Part of the reason I was a little late with Latissa's gift was due to the fact that I had to order a house mold.  No...Not HOUSE MOLD, a mold of a house    I ordered the mold but it was a bit smaller than I thought.  So I made a tiny cherry lemonade cupcake for the inside of the house and regular sized ones because there's no such thing as just 1 cupcake.
  The house was made out of toffee chocolate.  I whipped up a few peanut clusters with the extra toffee chocolate because I knew Latissa liked peanut clusters.  I added her address (minus the Street) to give it an even more personal touch.  Making tiny numbers using a toothpick was a challenge!!!  The house wasn't as perfect as I would've liked but it was my very 1st house.  I haven't mastered painting with chocolate just yet.  It's really hard and time consuming to add multiple colors of chocolate.  I just thought the windows and doors would stand out more if they were framed in another color.  Latissa said she also liked white chocolate so white it was.
SO NOW IT'S TIME TO MOVE IN...Oh that's right, she's already moved.

First up ... cherries tossed into the cherry cake batter.

And a few tiny ones minus the 2 I ate.  (I had to test them)  
I only needed 1 for inside the house anyway.  

And here's the beginning of a tiny
cherry lemonade cupcake.

There all finished.  Probably more icing than cake?

I ate the other 2 without icing.

  I REALLY was testing them!

 Now inside Latissa's toffee chocolate house.
Who needs furniture when ya have cupcakes.

Ok a little less glare in this shot.

I had to remove the cupcake to get the clusters inside. 
I would've had lemonade iced toffee chocolate peanut clusters
if I had tried to add the clusters with
the cupcake already inside. 

Ok a little less glare.  
   Lemonade iced
toffee chocolate peanut clusters.....NO

 Less glare.

I had a little bit of trouble sealing this side of the house because the chocolate had toffee in it.  The chunks made
some of the edges rough.  Next time I mold the chocolate I'll fill the edges with plain chocolate if there are other
ingredients in the chocolate (like toffee or peanuts).  That way my edges will be smoother.

Say good night cupcake.

One last peek ... call it a roof inspection.

Looks like I missed an air bubble on the floor ... hope the house inspector doesn't catch it.

The door could've been better.....Fire the painters!

 A 2 car garage.... I'm jealous

Now for the normal sized cupcakes.
Cut a little hole.

Add a couple of cherries.

Put the cut out cake back on top...
looks a little Asian don't ya think?

I felt the urge to add eyes and a mouth here.

Where did the little guy go?
OOPS... I forgot to take the final picture. 
I covered the hat with icing too.

Then for the experiment.
I cut off the top.

Replaced the top.

Covered with icing and a cherry.

Just one with a stem... 

Why just 1 with a stem you may ask....
because I wanted it to match.......

.....the GIFT BAG!

They look related don't they?
But where oh where to deliver them to  ???

Oh ya...Right here.

I added a paper front porch to cut down on the glare.

All done.... Ta Da

Oh ya...and all the cupcake relatives. 

THE END
Latissa may the coming years spent in your new home be

filled with sweet memories.

GOD BLESS 

  

Leftover Cupcakes

10-18-10
  This morning I still had some leftover strawberry cupcake batter and icing that I didn't know what to do with.  I didn't have any of the strawberry cheesecake though which I liked much better than the cake.  So I made 5 strawberry cupcakes minus one that I ate because I iced it too soon and the icing started to melt.  They were pretty good considering they weren't ..... CHOCOLATE.

I cut a hole in the center of each cupcake.
I took two shots of this cupcake to see which background
looked better.....BLACK

..... or white
Looking over my pics, I think I should've gone with black?

 Next I added a whole strawberry...minus the stem  

Round one of the topping... or should I say ring one.

Then another ring around the strawberry.

I don't know if you can see it clearly but I cut the strawberry 

in 4 slices.  I didn't cut it all the way through.  I just thought 

it might be easier to bite off.  Remember I already ate the

one that I iced too soon.

Then after I piped 3 rings of icing I capped the hole at the

top with one big floret.

Now what to do with 4 cupcakes hum?   

   I know.... give them to my neighbors.