Cupcake Cake Pops

 I have seen lots of these cupcake cake pops online, but this was my first time making them. They weren't any harder then making regular cake pops, just required a couple extra steps. I think they were originally done by Bakerella here. To make them a little bit more fun I used striped paper straws instead of lollipop sticks. You can follow the steps below to learn how to make them.

Buttercream Flower Cupcakes

I also made these cupcake for Payton's 1st Birthday party. Amy had found the inspiration on Pinterest here, and I just did my best to make them look like the picture!
I used a large petal tip to decorate them, tip #127 with butter cream frosting. I colored half of my frosting a pale pink and the other half ivory. To create the rose flower you start at the center of the cupcake and hold the tip straight up and down, with the thicker edge of the tip pointed down. It helped me to hold the cupcake in one hand and the frosting bag in the other. For the first petal you circle it around to make just a small opening at the center, like a real rose would look at the center. Then you begin to add petals around, by tilting the tip out the petals will form a more opened looking rose and vice versa.
The other flower is formed by holding the same tip flat (horizontally) against the cupcake top with the thin edge of the tip facing out. You pipe about 6 or 7 petals around the outer edge, then 4 on top of those in the center. I have included the buttercream frosting recipe below. You use a lot of frosting to frost these cupcakes, I made 24 cupcakes and used almost all of the frosting that I made from the recipe below.

Buttercream Frosting:

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
• 1 cup solid white vegetable shortening
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
• 2 lbs confectioners' sugar, sifted (about 8 cups)

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment cream together the butter, shortening, vanilla, and heavy cream until smooth. Add the sifted confectioners' sugar about 1 to 2 cups at a time. Scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Once all of the sugar is added mix at medium high speed for 1 to 2 minutes. If the frosting seems too stiff add more heavy cream 1/2 tablespoon at a time, it will thin out very easily. However, you will want this frosting to be stiff for piping the flowers onto the cupcakes.

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Pink Ruffled Cake

I have seen lots of pictures of this pink ruffle cake on pinterest and made one for my friends little girl Payton. I also made one for Piper for her first birthday with a paper straw birthday candle. Martha Stewart has a recipe here for how to make a pink ruffle cake. There is even a great video you can watch that shows you how to make these adorable little ruffles...sometimes it is much easier to learn something like this by watching instead of reading. You can view the video here on You Tube by My Sweet and Saucy.

I made this one with 2 6" inch cakes and colored my butter cream frosting a pale pink color. Then I used a petal tip, #103 to create the ruffles. You start at the base of the cake with the thinner edge of the petal tip facing you. Then moving the tip back and forth you move up the cake. Creating columns of ruffles until you have gone all the way around the cake. Once you have covered the sides of the cake you can cover the top with ruffles or just frost the top smooth. If doing ruffles, start on the edge and circle around, again with the thin edge of the petal tip facing you. This is easier to do it you have the cake on a turn table. You do this until you reach the center and the whole cake is covered in cute little ruffles! It's really simple and easy to do!