Well… Another great weekend… until it ended with lice! Not something you want to hear, I know. A few months ago we found a few on Patricia and it turned out Julius also had a few. This time we found them on Julius and it turned out I had a few… Last time it put me in a state of panic for 2 weeks afterwards as we washed and dried and vacuumed everything in our house. I probably did 20 loads of laundry. I’m not going to lie it took a toll on me mentally. This time Will and I both took a mental health day to go to the lice clinic, do laundry and clean and vacuum the house and furniture. We didn’t even finish all the laundry that day but we made a huge dent and it was so much better than trying to do over 2 weeks all while working. And of course this weekend our guests come stay… We wanted to make sure we don’t scare our family away. Side note the lice clinic we found is awesome. They guarantee no lice after treatment (which consists of this hot dry air blowdryer thing followed by dimethicone). This is kind of unheard of, and is a very recent scientific lice treatment break thru! Thank goodness for science.
Before finding out about lice we had a great weekend (in retrospect thank goodness we were outdoors and wearing hats nearly the whole time)! We went to NYC, had some bagels, saw my friend Cathy, went to Rockefeller plaza to see the giant tree (from MA this year!) and FAO Schwartz, went to Times Square to write our wishes for the new year on confetti they drop with the ball, saw a bunch of cool window displays then went to Bryant Park for some dinner and dessert at the winter market. It was a great quick trip!
Speaking of quick these cupcakes for Julius’ party were pretty quick to make and it was great I could make the fondant for them several days in advance which makes decorating them easy! That said they wilted a bit because I put the fondant on then covered them overnight. Next time I’ll wait until the day of to add the fondant (or I’ll have to use something that won’t wilt like gum paste). Luckily this was a lesson learned for Patricia’s party so she didn’t have floppy unicorn horns. When I asked Julius if he knew what my fondant decorations were he said “yeah! They’re science cups.” Which I thought was adorable…
Science Beaker Cupcakes
What you’ll need:
- fondant (I make my own from this recipe I got in a class at Amanda Oakleaf Cakes)
- food coloring for the fondant (gel is usually more vibrant)
- Black food safe marker
- 1 batch of Chocolate Cupcakes (I use this one)
- 1 batch of Chocolate Frosting (I use this one)
- A knife and a steady hand or make your own cookie cutters
- sugar pearls
1. A week before you want to serve the supcakes you’ll want to form your fondant beakers. I first made some teeny cookie cutters. This kit I got off Amazon has really come in handy. I have made like 7 different weird shaped cookie cutters from it since I bought it 5 years ago.
2. First mix in food coloring to your white to form colored liquid. You don’t need very much for this. I made purple, green and orange. Take one of your colors and form it into a roll. Take an equal sized ball of white and form it into an equal sized roll.
3. Put some powdered sugar down to prevent sticking then roll out the two together to form a very thin (2-3mm thick) dual color strip.
4. Using your cookie cutter (or a knife and a template) cut out a bunch of beakers. Make sure the colored part is the bottom of the beaker to look like liquid.
5. Repeat above steps 2-4 for other colors of “liquid” and beaker shapes.
6. Let the above beakers dry for a couple days. When dry use a black food safe marker to form tick marks for measurements.
7. Frost your cupcakes. I used a large cupcake star tip starting in the center and then continuing outwards to form ring of frosting around the edges. Then I placed the fondant beaker directly on top.
8. Add some sugar pearls around the top of the beaker to look like bubbles.
Note: You’ll want to serve a few hours after you put the fondant on top or it might become moist.
