My first baby turned 8!

I just can't believe it, my oldest turned 8 a couple weeks ago. It only seems like yesterday I was in the hospital scared to death being told I was going to be induced, 1 month early! It has been a long ride, but he has change me for the better. I would not be where I am today without him.

Enough of the sap. We are lucky enough in our school district to still be able to take homemade treats to school, so I of course had to dig deep to my inner Brea Vandekamp, as my sister calls it, to make something amazing. Bradlee has really I mean REALLY been into playing Mine Craft lately, so of course his treat had to include something of that nature. So I decided to make Creeper cupcakes, and let me tell you they were delicious. 

For these cupcakes I used one of my favorite go to chocolate cake recipes. You can find it on the back of the Hershey cocoa powder container. I like using this recipe, it's quick and easy and I always have all the ingredients needed. 

Chocolate Cupcake:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350°F. 

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake for 18 minutes.. Cool completely. Frost as desired. I usually get between 26-30 cupcakes with this recipe. 

I have to admit this is the first time I have ever made/worked with fondant. I was actually surprised, it wasn't completely terrible, and a lot easier then I thought it would be. 

Marshmallow Fondant

1/4 cup shortening, divided 

1 (16)oz bag of mini marshmallows

1/4 cup of water

1 tsp Vanilla

2 lbs of confectioners sugar, divided

Start by coating microwave safe bowl with shortening, reserving about 1TBS of shortening for later. 

Add marshmallows and microwave on high in 30 second increments until all marshmallows are melted. Slowly add water and vanilla continuing to stir until smooth. 

Slowly add the confectioners sugar 1 cup at a time, until you have a semi sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of sugar for kneading.  

Cover palms of hands with remaining shortening, and place fondant ball onto a surface dusted with powdered sugar. Work knead the dough until no longer stick and is smooth in appearance, can take about 5-10 minutes. 

Some say the dough needs to be refrigerated overnight. I just left mine on the counter for about 20 minutes and began to add the color and it worked just fine. 

Make sure when you are adding food coloring you use a gel food coloring, the liquid will mess with the consistency of the dough. 

You can roll fondant out with a rolling pin to desired thickness, or I used my kitchen aid roller attachment, I had enough of a workout kneading it. 

For the creeper cupcakes, I added green food coloring to the dough and cut it out in 2" squares using a ruler and pizza cutter. For the eyes and mouth I just used a small kitchen knife to cut it out by hand.  

Laying in bed last night I realized I cut his mouth shape out wrong. *Face smack* To my surprise my son didn't even notice, I don't think any of his classmates did either! *YAY*

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Cupcakes for breakfast!