Some Bakin' going on around here!!

This is a chocolate cake, but not ordinary chocolate cake. First, the base chocolate cake is baked and holes are poked all over the top, then chocolate pudding mix is made and 1/4 tsp of mint extract is added to the pudding mixture and poured over the cake and put in the fridge for a little while. After everything is cold, make the frosting, but add 1/4 tsp of mint extract to the frosting and spread on the cake. THEN, cut up mint peppermint patties and sprinkle them (in our case the sprinkling was very dense) over the top of the cake. TA DAAA

My husband and dd#1 loved this cake, I am not so into mint so it was wasted on me.

These are Flower Bunch Cupcakes from Creative Cakes anyone can make by Jill foster. I used the basic yellow cake and buttercream recipes from wilton for these. The kids had a great time!

These are called Monarchs from Hello, Cupcake! by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson. I used my own basic chocolate cake and chocolate frosting.

This is only a fraction of what we made. We hosted the family so there were QUITE a few of us here!

These are the wings. You melt chocolate wafers in baggies, cut one corner and pipe the outline with the regular chocolate and the insides any color you want. Some of ours are two-tone and some are all pink or all yellow - it just depended on who was making them - then sprinkle with decorations. The 10yr old really enjoyed putting the butterflies together so that was her contribution. These were a complete blast to make and obviously great to eat. The kids were covered (literally) in chocolate after eating these.

Both these books are fabulous. They have great ideas, pictures and instructions. I forsee many more cupcakes from them. There has been a request from the 8yo boy to make the puppies on the cover of the Hello, Cupcake! book so I told him only if we can discover how to do it together. He is more than game!!