Picture-a-Day #15

I love making cupcakes.

More specifically, I love decorating them in weird and wonderful ways. Today's my Dad's birthday, so I decided to make him a race car out of cupcakes!

I got the brilliant idea from the book I'm holding in yesterday's picture: "What's Up Cupcake?" by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson.

The book is great - it provides instructions for various awesome designs, and also sparks inspiration for original ideas.

Of the several designs I've recreated from "Cupcake?," I've never been able to find all of the suggested ingredients for one. I suspect this is because the book uses American products, and in Canada we don't carry all of the same things. The good thing is that with a little imagination, you can easily adapt!

In this case, the authors suggest using vanilla wafers for the driver's face. As far as I know, we don't get the type of round vanilla wafers they recommend. Instead, I got creative - I melted some white chocolate and piped it into a circle on some wax paper. I placed a toothpick on top, covered it in more white chocolate, and once it settled in the fridge for a few minutes, it was ready to be stuck into a cupcake.

I always enjoy decorating cupcakes in cool ways, and I take pretty much every opportunity I get to do so. It's really rewarding because people are generally really appreciative of the awesomeness and effort that goes into them.

When I'm making cupcakes for someone's birthday, I always do designs that make me think of them. My Dad loves cars, so I thought this was perfect. He loves his cupcake race car, so I'm happy!