How To Make Twilight Cupcakes

First of all, you must start with a deep love of all things Twilight, as well as a love for your friend on her birthday! ;-) Then you should google Twilight Cupcakes in Google search to see what those bakers who have gone before you have created. I got lots of great ideas online, and to think I originally wondered if my search would return anything. I should have known my fellow Twilight lovers wouldn't let me down. Then you should go all over town shopping for supplies. I really got into the supply shopping and went a tad overboard, but it was fun so that's what matters.

I used a Funfetti cake mix & icing, LA's favorite. Then there was the ready-to-use white fondant from Wal-Mart and the multi-pack of black, light & dark brown, and pink from Michael's. Fyi, Michael's has an AMAZING aisle full of baking/decorating supplies. I LOVED it! I grabbed some cornstarch because I read online it would help if the fondant was sticky when you tried to roll and knead it. It really came in handy. Then of course you need cookie cutters to cut out the fondant. Party America & Party City came in handy when it came to the fangs and Twilight magnets and bookmarks, which I hot glued to the cookie sticks so I could stick them in the cupcakes. Of course I also needed assorted decorating tips, glitter & sprinkles, decorator icing bags, and edible color markers. Somewhere in there I hit up Hobby Lobby too. My shopping became a bit obsessive.

Then, I just winged it. I looked at the online photos and the covers of my Twilight books and just kinda tried to imitate those. I spent about 4-5 hours on the Saturday afternoon before LA's birthday party busting out these cupcakes. I would recommend starting a day or two before so that you aren't rushing around like crazy. The fondant decorations can be made in advance and you won't be so frenzied. The vampire bite mark cupcakes above were obviously the easiest. It's just vanilla icing and red decorating icing made into teeth marks!

Rolling the fondant out wasn't the easiest thing ever with my wooden rolling pin. I think if I work with fondant in the future I will buy the specific fondant roller that is available at most stores. You decorate, you learn. I used the round cookie cutter to get the perfect cut-out shape for the fondant decorations where I copied the Twilight book covers.

Then, I just copied the books. It was actually lots of fun to do. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to get the details pretty closely to the original. They aren't perfect by any means, but you get the idea.

Tray one of Twilight cupcakes. The vampire bite marks and fangs are pretty self-explanatory. I did dark brown sprinkles on the cupcake with Jacob Black's (Taylor Lautner's) picture to symbolize him being a werewolf, with brown, wild hair. Bella Swan's (Kristen Stewart's) picture is in a multi-colored cupcake. The yellow sprinkles represent her being from sunny Arizona and the added in purple and pink represents her being a real, human girl. Edward Cullen's (Robert Pattinson's) photo is in a white, shimmery, glittery cupcake because of how Edward, and all vampires, look in the sunlight. And then there is the middle cupcake in the front row with flowers. This symbolizes the meadow in the Twilight saga where many important moments happen, especially between Edward & Bella.

More Twi-cakes. Again, Edward and Jacob's photos are placed in the respective glitter and brown cupcakes. However, this time Bella's photo is in a half vampire/half werewolf cupcake. Is she Team Edward or Team Jacob?! Then of course I had to have Team Edward and Team Jacob cupcakes and an I LOVE Edward cupcake...because I do. And, like I said, I just tried to copy the book covers. I also couldn't forget the 32nd candles for LA to blow out!

Inspiration.

Happy 32nd to Leigh Ann!

Fishy Lunch

We have a pond/lake behind our building at work. It's a pretty, serene area with a fountain, willow trees, walking path around it, and is full of fish. The week before last Deborah & I noticed someone feeding the fish bread during our lunch break. We thought this was a great idea, so we both brought our old bread to feed them as well. I'm not sure how healthy it is to feed bread to fish but they LOVE it! As you can tell, they all gather around and actually fight over the pieces. We quickly figured out the sly gray fish are the fastest at grabbing the bread. The big fish and turtle don't get to enjoy it as much because they are way too slow. We found it hilarious when the fish would jump out of the water and splash us! The two days we fed the fish were SO relaxing, even in the 100 degree weather. It was a great way to de-stress on our lunch break. Too bad we had to return to the sea of cubicles when our hour was up!

Splish splash!

Jumping to grab the bread!

Mouth wide open!

Big & slow = no bread!

Twi-hard? Really?

I don't get it. I don't understand all the drama with the whole Twilight Saga. Vampires and Werewolves? Seriously? Who cares?! I think I am part of a handful of people who have never read the books and/or seen the movies. I don't even know what they are about, besides involving those two mystical creatures. I do not get the hoopla. I have friends who go to the midnight premieres, wait in line for the DVD releases, talk about it non-stop. Yet I still don't get it. I just tune them out and move on...UNTIL NOW.

Yes folks, I am ADDICTED! No, addicted may not be the right word...OBSESSED. Yes, that's more like it. "Hi, I'm Kristi and I'm a...Twi-hard."

It's really all Leigh Ann's fault. She's been telling me forever that I would LOVE Twilight. That it was my kind of story. I would just roll my eyes at her and never gave it a second thought. I don't read, so count me out of reading 4 500+ page books and I did NOT want to see those movies. I don't even like Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson as actors...UNTIL NOW.

Leigh Ann bought me the Twilight book as a gift over two months ago. I thought "Oh great, I'm going to feel bad that she wasted her money on getting me this because I'm never going to read the thing." But then boredom set in late one night when I couldn't sleep and I saw the book laying on my coffee table. I thought "Why not? Maybe it'll put me to sleep." Little did I know that was JUST the beginning. I started reading and was hooked. I couldn't put it down. I read it in just three days and it had 498 pages. ME...read a book...and it was Twilight for pete's sake. Aren't teenage girls supposed to be the only ones reading this mess?! So of course I had to see what happened next with Edward, Bella, and Jacob. I got my hands on New Moon and finished it in three days as well. I LOVED these characters. (Totally Team Edward, by the way!) When I wasn't reading the books I was thinking about them. Really?! Who does that. Right after I finished New Moon I quickly ran down to Kroger and bought Eclipse. Thank goodness for their book section! However I was a bit embarrassed by the conversation with the lady working the register, the sack girl, and the sack boy from the next register. I'm pretty sure my face turned red and I hung my head. Yes, I LOVE these books but I kinda don't want the world to know this 30 year old is reading them! lol! Just like the other books I finished Eclipse in three days as well. And of course it was unbearably good at this point, and I hadn't purchased Breaking Dawn yet so I couldn't keep reading. I had friends in town for the weekend and wasn't able to get to a store to buy it. I was like someone who needed their drug fix. I was definitely having withdrawals. I couldn't sleep while my friends were in town and was bitterly mad I didn't have Breaking Dawn to get me through the night. After they left town I headed to Target to grab a copy. This book took me a week to read because life got in the way and it was 754 pages. I was holding my breath during the whole book though. I KNEW how I wanted it to end but had NO CLUE what direction author Stephenie Meyer was going to take it. I have NEVER been so wrapped up in fictional characters.

Of course after reading the first three books I then HAD to see the first three movies. I watched Twilight and New Moon on a Thursday night after work and then headed to the theater with the girls on Saturday to see Eclipse. Seeing the movies brought about my love for Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Well that...and googling them during my reading to learn all about them. Yes, I may be a bit overboard. While reading the books I kept picturing the two of them as the characters and then watching the movies brought it all to life. I'm kind of totally obsessed with RPattz. I'm an E! News junkie and when they mention his name I've been known to run from other parts of the apartment just hear what they are saying about him. Oh, and same goes for Robsten (Robert+Kristen). You know they are a couple in real life, right? So that intrigues me all the more. And of course I want them to stay together so that the new two movies, yes Breaking Dawn is going to be split into two movies coming out in November 2011 and 2012, are amazing and have that chemistry. Yes, I know, I know. Get a life! I may possibly need an intervention in the future, but for now, I'm quite content in fairytale/celeb land. However I feel a bit like a middle school girl who has her fave celeb posters on her bedroom walls. Hmmm...

No, I didn't purchase 'Robsessed' at Wal-Mart, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to!

So what does one do when they finish reading a series/saga and have watched all the available movies? One visits the author's website and reads Midnight Sun, which is Twilight from Edwards perspective. Unfortunately she stops halfway through the book, right when it's getting good, because it had been leaked on the internet. She says she'll finish it some day. She better. It's AWESOME! Then when you are done with that you can always re-read all the books again. Would that be crazy?! Nah, I don't think so. I just finished re-reading Twilight this past weekend. ;-)

Now I leave you with a paragraph from New Moon where Edward is trying to convince Bella of his love for her. Yes it's cheesy, but awesome. I think that's why I love the story so. It's a love story, just with vampires and werewolves. Ha! It definitely pulls at the romantic girl heart strings in me. If you haven't read the books or seen the movies rush out and do so right now. Go! Seriously! Oh, but the books are better than the movies and THAT'S coming from a girl who never reads...UNTIL NOW.

"Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars - points of light and reason. ...And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn't see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything."

Awe...I swoon.