Baking, lots and lots of baking

So...the month of October is baking month for me. First...60 yellow cupcakes and 30 train cookies. I also made some cupcake toppers from cookies, shaped like 3's. All this for a friend's three year-old son's birthday party.


So Thursday I mixed up and rolled out 3 batches of cookie dough and let it sit in the fridge til Friday.

Friday was my furlough day (hence the baked goods for hire). So i baked all the cookies, trains and little 3's...then my friend Angela came over and donated her time in exchange for nachos, pomegranate margaritas (trader joe's pomegranate limeade...yum) and a couple beers...and helped me decorate...oh her furlough day too.

We decorated in stages, outlines, then red, blue and finally yellow...

With little 3's in the windows...since the lil' guy is turning 3 and all. We decided that less is more on the detail...since neither of us were very good at the detail. If we'd added more lines in black before we flooded it might have worked - but after the fact...not so much. :)

They turned out pretty cute - and basically look like trains - about 33 turned out well enough to pass along to them.

Then onto the cupcakes - I baked 60 cupcakes...turns out she only needed about 24...keep reading...

I made the chocolate frosting from the "America's Test kitchen" Baking Cookbook - turned out AMAZING if I do say so myself, plus making it in my food processor was a new trick, but I like it and will definitely make it again. :)

I'm not much a frosting person, but this vanilla frosting, also from America's Test Kitchen was sooooo good - I had to stop myself from just eating it by the spoonful...I think the vanilla paste was a good touch too! (thanks Bake at 350 for that inspiration). I took the unfrosted cupcakes (all 60) over to my friends house and her 6 year old helped me frost 2 dozen...I frosted, she put the cookies on top, and a great job she did. Even alternating the colors of the 3's without me even suggesting it :)

Because I had 60 cupcakes and they no longer needed that many - I decided to try cake truffles, using my homemade vanilla icing. They tasted GREAT...but not so pretty this time around. Maybe next time...however - that same 6 year old had a great time helping...and they'll taste just as good.

About a dozen cupcakes transformed into cake truffles...

Can't wait to have a few later this week - they're being kept in the freezer to limit temptation.

So...mid-day on saturday (party was sunday), my friend called to tell me that her little guy, the one turning 3, came down with Croup, and was in the ER all night and that they had to cancel the birthday party...but...she was planning to still deliver cookies to the little friends, and we froze a bunch of the cupcakes for her to take to pre-school when he feels better. And she was generous enough to still pay me for what she'd ordered. :)

So...next week - Same friend, but this time a Hello Kitty theme...stay tuned. My first real unassisted birthday cake - covered in fondant...oh the pressure.