Tuesday, April 9, 2013

A Long Overdue Update

Hello cupcake fans!
It has been way too long. So sorry for not keeping this blog updated!
We are sad to announce that Whisk Upon a Star is no longer open for business.
The demand and rising costs eventually became too great for our little cupcake-loving hearts to handle.
We definitely haven't given up on baking. We will still continue to make cupcakes for our family and friends (and post pictures!), but we will no longer be accepting orders.
Thank you for all of the amazing support.
For pictures of the cupcakes we make for fun, check out our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/whiskuponastar
And be sure to check out Dee's cake toppers and clay creations on her blog:
http://deeconstructed.blogspot.com/
This isn't goodbye. We'll try our very best to update this blog periodically with our latest baking projects.

Til next time!

~Teresa and Dee


Friday, October 1, 2010

Lost In Sprinkles

Hey folks! Sorry we've been away for so long!
Things have been busy, busy, busy...
But we have a ton of orders coming up - which means we'll also have an endless supply of cupcake pictures for our blog. We thought we had a pretty busy summer here at Whisk Upon Star but fall is going to be 10x as crazy!
Last weekend, we did an adorable set of Ni Hao Kai Lan cupcakes for little Nara's birthday. After months of putting it off, I was finally able to take pictures of the fondant decorations AS I was making them - with the help of my lovely fiancee of course! (Note to self: It is virtually impossible to hold fondant in one hand, a sculpting tool in the other and the camera in the ... um third hand?)
Anyways, until I get those posted, here's a link to the luau themed cupcakes we made for Auntie Josie and Auntie Dolly's birthday:
Mahalo!
~Deanna

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Cupcakes In Sin City!

Oh man are we glad to be back in San Diego!! We just came back from our trip to Las Vegas - where it was a suffocating 110 degrees!! Luckily all of the casinos on the strip are armed with state-of-the art air conditioning. While taking a cool stroll through the shops at the Monte Carlo, we stumbled upon this adorable little cuppy shop - The Cupcakery! http://www.thecupcakery.com/


If only this were real!All of their cupcakes looked delicious but this one really caught my eye! Look at all that sparkly chocolaty minty goodness! Behold the Grasshopper...

I immediately fell head over heels in love with the edible glitter The Cupcakery used on their cuppies. It looked so similar to craft glitter - I almost didn't eat it! I've seen other types of edible glitter before. They usually look like a cross between sanding sugar and fish food (Ew I know!). But this glitter was gorgeous! It had a really pretty iridescent sheen to it. So sparkly!
Anyways, enough about the glitter! The Grasshopper did not disappoint! The chocolate mint frosting was the perfect consistency. It was nice and creamy - not at all heavy! The cupcake itself was a little too rich. But I'm more of a fruity cupcake kind of gal so I guess I'm just not used to all that chocolaty goodness!
Anyways, that's my mini-review of The Cupcakery in Vegas.
If you're planning a trip to Sin City, definitely go check it out!

~Edible Glitter and Kisses
Deanna

Friday, July 16, 2010

Ode To Flan

With flan - I've never been a fan..
Until I met this handsome man...

Who took some milk out of a can
Mixed it with eggs in a pan...
And made the world's most bestest flan!
He makes my heart do a hand stand....


The End

Here's the recipe he used...courtesy of the fabulous Ms. Paula Deen!

Coconut Flan

Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup shredded coconut flakes
Fresh whipped cream, for garnish
1/4 cup shredded coconut flakes, toasted, for garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the sugar until it caramelizes. Pour it into a flan dish, pie plate or round souffle baking dish with shallow sides, swirling it around to coat the bottom.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until foamy with a wire whisk. Beat in the condensed milk, coconut milk, vanilla extract and 1/4 cup coconut. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. It will need to bake in a water-bath in the oven. Set the dish into a large baking pan with sides and carefully pour water around the flan to come 2/3 the way up the sides. Carefully transfer to the preheated oven. Bake for about 1 hour, until the flan is set and the center only jiggles a little bit, like a cheesecake would. Remove from the oven and water-bath and allow to cool completely. Turn the flan out onto a flat serving platter. Cut into slices for serving. Garnish with whipped cream and toasted coconut.

Servings: 6 to 8 servings
Prep Time:
Cook Time: 1 hour 10 min
Difficulty: Easy

Show: Paula's Home Cooking

http://www.pauladeen.com/index.php/recipes/view2/coconut_flan/



Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Ellypant Cake Toppers

Just wanted to share a picture of the little elephant wedding cake toppers we made over the weekend. These little pachyderms are made out of polymer clay instead of fondant - at request of the awesome bride and groom.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Behind The Cupcakes: Thirty and Fabulous!

Ordered By: Hoa and AAJA San Diego
Occasion: Savy's 30th Birthday
Flavor(s): Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting
Chocolate Raspberry with Cream Cheese Frosting

Theme: A Few of Savy's Favorite Things
Thirty is an awesome number. Researchers say it's the number of seconds it takes for a person to fall in love. It's the number of minutes it takes Rachel Ray to make a meal. It's the age Teresa tells people she is - but isn't (Just making sure you're reading Treese!) Our gorgeous and incredibly talented friend Savy turned 30 last week. She's the Vice President of the San Diego Asian American Journalists Association and her friends at AAJA wanted to surprise her with cupcakes at their meeting. (p.s. If anyone ever wants to surprise me with cupcakes, I'm all for it!! Anyone? )
Savy's favorite cupcakes are Red Velvet, so we whipped up a batch of those. Teresa also made a batch of chocolate raspberry cupcakes for the first time. They were delicious!
The tartness of the raspberry provided a great contrast to the sweetness of the chocolate. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see a little bit of the raspberry glaze peeking out from under the frosting.
A few years ago, Savy adopted a little dog named Toto. He is the cutest little thing! You can tell he really loves his mommy, he follows her around everywhere! So of course I knew I had to make a little Toto out of fondant. When I first started making him, he was completely nekkid. Fur is HARD to make! But then I realized - he just wouldn't look like Toto if he didn't have long white fur. So I rolled out a couple strands of fondant and added it to his ears...then a couple to his face. Before I knew it, the whole puppy was covered in fondant fur.
And he turned out pretty darn cute...

I also made a Toyota symbol, to represent the other love in Savy's life - her brand new Prius!
There was also a little Vietnamese sandwich (Umm...ok balogna sandwich, I couldn't figure out how to make pâté or cilantro!)
And a girl can't live without her iPhone and her purse!



~Special thanks to Hoa and AAJA-SD for ordering these cupcakes!!


Monday, June 28, 2010

Whisk Upon A Star's Canine Employees

Meet Kona and Kash! These two monsters like to keep me company while I work on our cupcakes. Kash is my little spectator. He usually sits on the couch and watches my every move. Kona is the troublemaker. Over the last few months, he developed a strange affinity for fondant. He loves the sweet stuff - but since he has a sensitive tummy I told him he couldn't have any because it has sugar in it. This edict inevitably led to what we now refer to as the "Mad Hatter Massacre of 2010." It took me two days to finish the decorations for the Alice in Wonderland cupcakes. When I was done I put them in a little air tight container and left it out on our dining room table. I went to take Kash out to potty and when we came back inside, there were dozens of little fondant heads and appendages sprawled out across my living room rug. In the two or three minutes that we were gone, Kona had managed to knock the box off the table, break it open and mutilate all of my poor, defenseless little creatures. There were fondant body parts everywhere! It was gruesome! It took me over 14 hours to re-create the Mad Hatter decorations. Luckily, they ended up looking even better than the first batch. I guess I have Kona to thank for that...or not!
Anyways here's the low down on my boys:


Kona
Breed: Boxer
Age: 4 years old
Favorite Snacks: String Cheese, bananas,
Goldfish (the crackers not the swimmy ones),
scrambled eggs and sweet potato ice cream
Hobbies: Counter surfing, playing at the dog park, passing gas,
wrestling with Kash and running in the sand at Dog Beach

Kash
Breed: Boston Terrier
Age: 3 years old
Favorite Snacks: Peanut butter, yogurt, string cheese,
scrambled eggs and duck treats
Hobbies: Running in circles, chasing rabbits, humping things, killing stuffed animals and sunbathing


A few years ago, we decided to have a little doggie block party to celebrate Kona's birthday. All of our neighbors brought their pups over for a playdate and we served these cute little banana pupcakes. They were really easy to make and the dogs LOVED them! By the time we were done, Kona had frosting all over his face and our neighbor's boxer Colt had scarfed down three of them!
Here is the recipe for those of you who have furry babies at home:

Banana Pupcakes
2 cups water
2 bananas
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1 egg
2 tablespoons honey
Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl combine water, mashed bananas, vanilla, egg and honey. Add flour and baking powder. Mix well. Pour into cupcake pans. Bake 20 min or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Frosting - In a mixer combine 12 oz nonfat cream cheese, 1 teasp. vanilla, 1 teasp. honey. Add 3 teasp cinnamon or carob powder, if desired.
(Or you can subsitute the cream cheese frosting for peanut butter!)
- Recipe courtesy of Jill @ BoxerTalk!
The Birthday Boy - Kona Bear

June Bug loved the frosting!
Roxie
Colt
And for the record - yes, we did try the pupcakes for ourselves! They tasted like bland banana flavored muffins with frosting on top. Definitely not something I would make for humans...
~Deanna