For the last three years, my husband and I have spent our Halloween dressed up and celebrating at our friends Erin and Steve’s home, where they graciously supply us with a bevy of snacks and finger foods all night long. This year was no different; however, I was asked to create some sweets as sort of a gift from Erin to Steve, seeing how he had been incredibly busy, clocking in an insane amount of hours at his job, and had little time to prepare everything for the party (she’s a great wife!).
The theme of party was “Superhero/Cartoon character”, and I was really excited about this because I don’t often get to do a “masculine” theme (plus, I definitely love superheroes and cartoons). I knew I definitely wanted to do some “comic book” style graphics to really convey the superhero/cartoon theme…I just wasn’t sure how that was going to carry through to cupcakes and cake pops…
Here’s a first look at the creation of the sugar cookies — which I must say, were a really big hit! (Yes, that is my laptop in the photo…I was watching Season 1 of Friday Night Lights while decorating)
Hehe. I was heavily influenced by the 1960s Batman television show…
The graphics on these cookies were created with Wilton’s Edible Food Writers, which I purchased at Michaels. I had originally intended these markers to be used on the white chocolate cake pops, but unfortunately, chocolate is not a Food Writer-friendly surface. I had to switch gears, so I decided to colour in my yellow star cookies…and I think they worked out even better!
The cupcakes and cake pops were a little bit more of a struggle. Fondant is really the best decorative material to work with to create some really great designs on cupcakes, but I don’t like using fondant because I don’t like the taste of it (especially cheap fondant). I did, nonetheless, need something to make the cupcakes more appropriate for the party theme, so I caved and used fondant…but only for teeny little lightning bolts to top off the buttercream icing.
In hindsight, I would probably not use only white buttercream icing for cupcakes again because it sort of leaves a “blah” look, even with the yellow fondant and colourful paper liners. As well, the cake pops were slightly disappointing to me because if I had known that the Food Writers would not have worked on the chocolate, I would have dipped the cake in yellow chocolate for that extra punch of colour. Nevertheless, everyone was really excited for the desserts and I was really proud of how the cookies turned out! Steve was pleasantly surprised, and I’m glad to have helped him and Erin make this year’s annual Halloween party a success!
P.S. Please note that although I can design sweets, I only bake sweets for personal parties and/or friends’ events. I am not a licensed baker and do not have the tools and capacity to sell my baked goods as part of my business.
