Today's post is a "cake" I made for my fiance's step dad's and my fiance's birthday in November. Before we get to food part, I'd like to share a few pictures with you all of my little man, Gio. Yes Gio is my dog, but I think of him more as my son :) Anyway, yesterday Ben and I decided to run to Sam's Club for water - raise your hand if you never just come out with what you went there for - I am raising mine lol
Sam's Club is very smart about how they do things, the way most stores are, to get you to buy something you would never consider. While walking to the water, in the back of the store of course, we passed the pet aisle and on the end cap were dog toys of different marvel super heroes - Avenger, Spiderman, Hulk, etc. Well seeing that we hadn't bought Gio a new toy in probably two weeks, just kidding it's been longer, we decided to pick one for him and we chose the Hulk. I wish the below was a better picture of him with his new toy, but he was having such a ball playing with it that it was hard to capture a decent picture :)
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| Gio waiting for me to come over and kick it, so he can fetch it. |
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| I am too his left and he doesn't want me to have it. He's playing keep away |
Pull-apart Cupcake Golf Hole
My blog today is going to deal more with how to put this together and decorate than actually baking. When it comes to cupcakes, I use a box mix; however, I do create my own wonderful butter cream icing , which I will share with you all.
Cupcakes
Any box cake mix flavor you want, plus all the ingredients to make it
Butter Cream Icing
1 C butter, softened (it has to be butter, margarine has too much oil and it will separate when it gets warm)
1 t vanilla extract
1 lb powdered sugar (use a scale to measure, I'll explain in a moment)
1-3 t milk
Almond extract or whatever extract other than vanilla you may want
Decorating Items
1 btl green sugar crystals
2 pretzel sticks (small one)
Fruit roll-up/fruit by the foot
White gum balls
White parelis
Nilla wafers, crushed
White smartie
When I designed this "cake", I did it in stages. A few days before the get together, I made the cupcakes and put them in the fridge. I have learned over the years that it is easier to already have the cupcakes made and focus on just decorating the day of the event. There is never enough time in the day to bake cupcakes, decorate accordingly, get ready and out the door in time. So, make it easy on yourself and make these ahead of time :)
On the day of the event, start by making your butter cream icing . You'll start by creaming together the butter and vanilla on a higher setting on your mixer. Be sure to put the butter out the night before, so the morning of it will be nice and soft. I warned up above about not using margarine. I have tried a few different methods with margarine all with the same result As the icing sits and/or if it is hot, the icing will become grainy and separate. It still tastes delicious, but the look is not the same. Please remember to use butter :)
Only cream the butter and vanilla until combine, don't over mix! Once the creaming is done, turn the speed down on your mixer to low, and add the powdered sugar, slowly! I cannot stress enough how important it is to use a scale to measure out the powdered sugar. I know that it comes in 2 lb bags, so you figure if you use have it will be fine. I have learned the important of measuring ingredients and the difference it makes to texture of your final product.
As you add the powdered sugar a little at a time, let it incorporate, once it's incorporate, add more, until you have it all in there. At this stage it is going to be very thick, which is why we add milk :) I usually use 1 t milk and about 2 t almond extract. It's a judgement called, decide what consistency you want the icing and go for it :)
The original recipe did not call for almond extract, but I added it to give the icing that extra "wow" factor and it works! I haven't tried any other extracts except almond, but I plan to and am sure it will work the same.
It is now time for the fun part, put this all together.
Split the icing into three different colors - white, pale green and dark green. You want to get the different parts of the golf hole. You need 4 white cupcakes, 8 pale green and 7 dark green. Icing each cupcake with it's particular color. For the white cupcakes, take the crushed Nilla wafers in a bowl and roll of the top of the cupcake in it, so it looks like this:
Take the dark green cupcakes and roll in the green sugar:
The next is a series of pictures, how I put mine together, you can ultimately do whatever design you want, just remember to keep the white together, pale green together and dark green together. I put mine on a cookie sheet for easy transport.
Are you starting to see the golf hole? :) We have a few more embellishments to add. On the pale green cupcakes, put some icing in a piping bag and pipe dots all over to create a grass look, see below:
This will take time. It's a slow process. I will say upon looking back that I should have refrigerated the icing for a bit to let it settle. My hands were hot and the icing became very liquidy by the end. I was actual doing this outside on our porch because it was colder out there then in our apartment :)
Once you've completed the "green". Finish up by piping the same dots around the outer edge of the dark green cupcakes, the fairway/tee-off area.
We're almost done, just some final little touches. Roll out a piece of the fruit roll up and cut into a triangle. Wrap around a pretzel stick and place in the "green" (pale cupcakes" wherever you want the hole to be. You can take some icing and pipe on a hole number if you want before assembly. Next take a dab of icing and place on the bottom of a white smartie and stick to a pretzel stick. Place in the "fairway/tee-off area" wherever you like. Finally, take some white gum balls and some whire parelis (little decorating balls used as sprinkles). Coat the gum balls in a little corn syrup and roll in the white parelis - you've made golf balls. Sit one "golf ball" on the tee in the fairway and one anywhere you'd like.
Well that is all! I hope you enjoy this recipe. It's perfect for the individual you loves golf. It required a little work, but the end result is just amazing :) Have a wonderful, blessed day!
Tomorrow, I will be featuring a new rib recipe I am making for dinner and a new roasted potato recipe - check back :)
