Imma makin' Super Mario Bros. COOKIES!

Would you believe it? It's that time of the year again! Time to get into crazy baking mode, that is! 

Last year I made a Super Mario Bros. cake for the 8th birthday of my sweetie's child. This time around I'm settling for a less ambitious cake, since unfortunately I lack both the time and the storage space to replicate that feat - but, I can do COOKIES!

Many people see cookies as the easiest form of baking. I disagree with that. 

Personally I find cakes to be much less troublesome; I can't think of more than two instances where I seriously messed up a cake (and both times it was because of a notable mistake on my part), whereas I've had countless cookie misfires, even while following recipes to the letter. 

Meh. 

Not this time, though!

Of course, it helped that the recipe is from that veritable cookie lover's Bible that is Decorating Cookies: 60+ Designs for Holidays, Celebrations & Everyday, by Bridget Edwards.

Same of you might remember me raving about her (and her blog, Bake at 350) back when planning my Susan gingerbread cookies - which I made for a party we never had. Drat! - only this time I picked a chocolate dough. Kids adore chocolate cookies and that's a fact!

(Plus, this recipe has Nutella in it. Your argument is invalid.) 

Unlike my previous gingerbread experiment, these cookies baked flat and even and didn't spread at all. OMG I'm so happy about that!
That might be because I've been using cookie cutters, as opposed to cutting manually around a template - which allowed me to work quickly, manhandling the dough as little as possible. 
Also, I allowed the raw cookies a fair 10 minutes in the freezer before they went into the oven. And finally, I splurged on a few extra cookie sheets, so I didn't have to keep using the same one by refrigerating it with water between batches. I really believe it makes a world of difference!

Oh, and speaking about cutters: I got mine from WarpZone, an Etsy shop I am head-over-heels in love with. It's a nerdy baker's paradise!
They 3D-print cutters in every geeky flavour you can dream of - from anime to Game of Thrones, from Dr Who to My Little Pony... You name it, they have it!
And if they don't, they can make one from your own drawing. How awesome is that? 

I got the whole Super Mario Bros. range from them, knowing how huge a fan my hun's kiddo is... but I didn't want to mix up dozens of different icing shades all at once, so I stuck with three subjects: our two hero plumbers, Paper Mario-style... 

...plus the iconic 1-up mushroom. 

Hee hee! Aren't they friggin' adorable? Squee! 

..And here are the freshly iced cookies! 

Since kids are going to eat them, I didn't trust raw egg whites and used Wilton's Meringue Powder instead. 

I have mixed feelings about it, franky - it's super-easy to mix and takes colour well, and it doesn't clog up in the squeeze bottle's nozzle nearly as much as "real" royal icing. It seems to be sturdier, too - less brittle and crunchy, somehow more like candy melts than icing. 

On the other hand, it feels slightly chalky in my mouth, and the flavour, while not at all bad, is just different. 

Still, better safe than sorry!

[Cupcake Portraits] Discworld Personalities: Carrot Ironfoundersson

Carrot often struck people as simple. And he was. 

Where people went wrong was thinking that simple meant the same thing as stupid. 

Carrot was not stupid. He was direct, and honest, and good-natured and honorable in all his dealings. In Ankh-Morpork this would normally have added up to "stupid" in any case and would have given him the survival quotient of a jellyfish in a blast furnace, but there were a couple of other factors. One was a punch that even trolls had learned to respect. The other was that Carrot was genuinely, almost supernaturally, likeable. He got on well with people, even while arresting them. He had an exceptional memory for names.

For most of his young life he'd lived in a small dwarf colony where there was hardly any other people to know. Then, suddenly, he was in a huge city, and it was as if a talent had been waiting to unfold. And was still unfolding.

- Men at Arms

It has been a while, uh? 

Well, fear not! The Fanbaking Project is definitely on!

But I must confess, this third installment gave me lots of trouble. 

See, as the Discworld Personalities series took shape in my mind, I figured out I could stick to some kind of rotation to make things easier for myself, and in the end the one that made the more sense seemed to be a Witch - Wizard - Guard - Random sort of thing. 

Which is to say, my third installment had to be a guard!

Now I realize Vimes would have been the expected choice, and you peeps are probably waiting hungrily (literally!) for his cupcake rendition. 

Fact is, Vimes terrifies me. He's such a complex character, and he changes so much from one book to the next - in short, I don't feel I can nail him down just yet. 

I needed someone simpler to portray in the meantime! 

And yes, you guessed it right - Who could be simpler than Carrot himself? 

Image belongs to graffitihead @ http://graffitihead.deviantart.com/

(I don't think anyone who has seen that Twins movie can help picturing Schwarzy in the role...)

As he is introduced to us in Guards! Guards!, Carrot could easily be mistaken for your average Lawful Stupid character. 

I mean, come on - he's some sort of red-headed, law-abiding jock who considers himself a dwarf by adoption, and always does things by the book. It looks like he's a bit of an oaf, if a hugely sympathetic and cuddly one.

But from Men at Arms onwards, we get to know him as a much more well-rounded character. 

To begin with, he is the rightful heir to the throne of Ankh-Morpork - which he knows all too well but, even since Vimes made him see how monarchy is a bad idea indeed, he has a conspiracy of silence going on, to the point that he often negates the obviousness of it in such a blatant way, it's hilarious.

Also, he's shown to possess a keen intellect, a sharp eye for details and a love of books (although his punctuation skills when writing are nothing short of abysmal) - yet he remains very much the honest, jovial, trustful fellow we knew (and loved) from the start. 

The only fault I could find with him is his debatable taste in women - but hey, the guy's a dwarf; he likes his grilfriends hairy. Just don't get me started about this. No, really - I'm serious. 

To me, the point with Carrot is that he's the proverbial glass you measure your view of the world against. 

He's my BFF Flavio's favourite character, and he reminds me of him in many ways - they both believe everyone is nice deep down, and that any controversy could be easily settled if only people were willing to have an earnest talk about it. To the likes of him, Carrot's strenght lies in his guileless nature, as his very attitude and example make people hate the idea of letting him down.

Less optimistic-minded people like yours truly, on the other hand, would be tempted to say that such a view is far too naive, and Carrot only manages to get away with it because of his royal charisma. 

Who's right? No one knows for sure, with the possible exception of Sir Pratchett himself - and he's not telling. Because in the end, this is the true power of books IMHO: that while tricking you into believing you're only discussing fictional situations and characters after all, they make you look deeper into yourself and your beliefs. 

But enough with philosophy, and back to cake - carrot cake, that is!

Which may seem an obvious enough choice, but believe me - Carrot's name was not the sole reason for it! 

Fact is, carrot cake is as simple and reliable as a dessert could get. It's healthy and sensible and traditional - my version especially, since it doesn't include nuts, fancy spices, chunks of tropical fruit or anything. Just your basic, comforting, by-the book ingredients, plus a slosh of beer to honour the character's dwarfish upbringing... 

Carrot Cupcakes

Ingredients:

* 1/2 cup butter (softened)

* 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp 1/2 light brown sugar

* 2 eggs

* 175 g grated carrots (about 2 cups - see instructions)

* 1/3 cup beer (I used Budweiser - see instructions)

* 2 cups self-rising flour

* 1/2 tsp baking soda
* 1/4 tsp salt

1.  Scrape the carrots to remove all the dirt,  grate them, and allow them to dry thoroughly. (Don't skip the drying part, it's important!)
Also don't use the smallest holes of your grater, as I found out that if the carrots are grated too finely, your cupcakes will turn out soggy and dense, and will go bad pretty soon.

If you can grate them as coarsely as mine in the pic, the quantity you'll need is 2 cups, full but not super-packed. If you own a scale, you'd probably be better off weighing them! 

2.  Pre-heat oven to 320° F.

3.  Sift the self-rising flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. 

4.  Cream the butter and sugar. 

5.  Whisk the eggs slightly, then slowly add them into the sugar and butter mix, one Tbsp at a time or so.

6.  Check that your carrots are really really dry and dump them in. Add the beer as well. 
It will look like an ugly mulch. Keep mixing! 

Before going on with the recipe, allow me to spend a few words about teh beer. 
Professional chefs will usually tell you not to cook/bake with booze you wouldn't want to drink, but in my experience, baking with beer is a bit of an exception. 
Believe me, I've tried baking these with a couple beers I love - a refreshing, hops-rich Bock, and a wonderfully rich Amber Ale - and in both instances I got a nasty, bitter flavour in my cupcakes, and a creepy sticky texture. I almost gave up on the carrot/beer concept altogether. The one that did the trick in the end, was humble Budweiser: it made my cupcakes wonderfully light and soft, and the beer flavour in them is not overwhelming and pleasantly sweet...

7.  Add in the flour mix, one couple spoonfuls at a time. Your batter will magically look like batter again!

8.  Line a cupcake mold with wrappers; I picked some silvery ones to suggest the guards' armour. The batter is enough for 12 cupcakes (but if you go with the "crown baked inside" decoration that I'm showing you further on, you'll get 22-24 - KEEP READING!)

9.  Remember to place a water-filled silicon cup on the oven's bottom before baking. It is the secret to get soft, moist cuppies!

10. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the cupcakes feel soft and spongy to the touch. Test for doneness with a skewer - there's lots of wet ingredients in these babies, so you might have to adjust your baking time somewhat. 

11. As soon as the cupcakes have cooled down a little, seize one of them. Read it its rights, then eat it. And afterwards, you can write home about it. There, you're done! 


At the risk of sounding immodest, I will say I'm really happy with this recipe, and I'm not even a fan of carrot cake usually - and no, I don't have a bias against veggies in my desserts, and you should know as much. It's just that carrot cakes are typically soggy, with a slightly slimy texture that I can't stomach. 
Now these cupcakes, they're like an airy, fluffy, delicious sponge cake. You can taste (and see!) the carrots inside, but they don't feel weird and chunky under your teeth; and there's a hint of mellowness from the beer, although it's light enough that it doesn't feel like an "adult dessert" at all (you'll have to judge this for yourself, of course, but I'd say these are safe for even kids to eat.)

They're yummy as-is, or topped with a dusting of powdered sugar and cinnamon if you really can't stand not to have a hint of spice with your carrot cake. 
Or you could make some cream cheese icing to go with them, like I did for the photo shots. It's runny and messy, and I think its sweetness kills the cupcake's subtler flavour, but it's what you'd traditionally pour on a carrot cake proper, and - what with this being a Carrot-inspired recipe - I wanted to stick to the rules as much as possible. 

...But, wait! Is there no decoration at all on them? 

Sad but true. As fun as sculpted badges, swords, and regulation books would have been, I learned from bitter experience not to put fondant on top of slushy frosting - and this one's even soupier than Granny's! 
So, I went down a different route this time, and baked the decoration inside the cupcakes. Thus, when you cut them... 

...Carrot's distinctive crown-shaped birthmark is revealed! 

It is an easy enough technique, if a bit time-consuming. I don't know who came up with it in the first place; I've seen lots of tutorials online and I have no idea which one's the original. 

Basically, to make these you'll need to mix two batches of batter, and to tint one darker. 
Powdered food colours would be ideal for the job; liquid ones take forever (guess which kind I had on hand, uh?)

It doesn't look like there's a huge difference in the pic, but the colours will darken as they're baked. 
It's also worth reminding here that since the batter itself is orange, you'll have an easier job making it darker if you use a contrasting colour such as blue or green, as opposed to red or brown. You can add a bit of black too, but don't overdo it!

Next you need to grease a sheet cake pan and pour the darker batter in it. 
Bake it for slightly longer than you would the cupcakes, as you'll be cutting up the resulting cake, so you need it to be firm. 
I happened to have a crown-shaped cookie cutter, but you can easily freehand the outline, using a paper template as a guide - the simpler the shape, the better! 

Just make sure that your cake cut-outs aren't too big to fit vertically inside a cupcake mold! 
Mine were, so I trimmed off the base... 

...and stuck one little crown inside each wrapper, after putting a bit of the lighter batter on the bottom to help it standing. 
Remember: ALL THE CROWNS MUST FACE THE SAME WAY IN THE MOLD! 

Don't fret about the cut-outs being completely covered in batter; it will rise anyway, and if there's still some darker bits sticking out in the end, they will be covered by icing. 

Mine are actually way overfilled - the batter didn't spill out, but try to resist the urge to put in so much! 

As you take out the baked cuppies, YOU MUST FIND A WAY TO REMEMBER WHICH WAY THE CROWNS ARE FACED - because if the cupcake is cut at the wrong angle, of course you won't be able to make out the shape. 
You can simply mark the bottom of the wrapper with a pencil, or cut shield-like "badges" out of golden paper and glue them on the front of the wrappers - I went with the latter solution, as it also worked to reinforce the whole Watch theme. 

This was all there is to it, really. 
Enjoy your Carrot cupcakes, and please let me know how you liked them! 

Fruit is HEALTHY!

How many annoying blog posts about the weather being so hot have you read this week? 

I'm betting the topic is almost as likely to get the "OMG DELETE" treatment as the tired old "How can it be August already? Where has the time gone?"

I mean, it's summer and it's supposed to be hot, duh, no big news here, right?

Still, I will say this: there is such thing as too much heat. I mean, surely some sort of line must be drawn at a point when even I can't bear turning on the oven? 

The only positive aspect of this situation is, I'm eating plenty of fruit. 

Of course, me being - well - me, you can't really expect me to munch on a peach and be done with it. So, I'm going to share with you a bunch of recipes by other bloggers that I have personally tested, and utterly adored. 

Which are, being fruit-based, inherently HEALTHY. Wow, don't you feel righteous already? 

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I'm getting the weirdest one out of the way first - and let me tell you, it took a huge leap of faith for even me to be persuaded to put fruit into my pasta. 

I mean, you know by now I despise food bigots, and will happily mix flavours and influences from all over the world in the same meal - and in the same dish - if so I fancy.

I don't even like pasta that much, so I don't share the reverence some of my fellow countrymen have for its tradition.

Still, I couldn't honestly say that the idea of topping spaghetti with fresh peaches didn't freak me out a little. Which is strange, really, since I've already put fruit in every possible course except main until now, and always loved the result... 

Basically what I'm trying to convey is, I really needed the suggestion to come from someone I trusted. Luckily for me, Makiko of Just Hungry is exactly that, and more!

Her blog is my go-to reference for Japanese recipes mainly, but because she travelled extensively through Asia, America and Europe, she developed a cosmopolitan view of food (among other things) that I immensely respect and admire. 

Another thing I immensely respect and admire is her pic-taking mojo - how do you make a bowl o' marinade (with shredded basil leaves and chunks of peaches in it to boot!) look pretty? 

Get the recipe for Pasta with Peaches and Basil from her directly, and gape at her photos with me - they're so much more appetizing than mine!

(Hey, but I did put it on a purple plate! Serious colour theory going on here, b*tches! Do I get bonus points for that? Do I?)

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Onwards to the next treat, and once again we're marinating our fruit first thing - this time it's huge, sweet, gorgeous dark cherries into balsamic vinegar!

Here's when your cherries get roasted - which makes them way yummy and jewel-like glossy... 

...and finally they're smothered with Brie Cheese and chocolate (yep, you heard it right!) and turned into the most blissful grilled cheese ever!

The genius behind this lunch/dessert hybrid is Kevin Lynch of Closet Cooking. 
His blog I discovered only recently, but I'm loving it to pieces! First of all, Kevin's a guy and this fact alone makes for a refreshing point of view in a girl-dominated foodie world. 
Also, I kind of have a crush on his rationale for blogging... 

I came to realize that my meals were boring and that I had been eating the same few dishes over and over again for years. It was time for a change! I now spend my free time searching for, creating and trying tasty new recipes in my closet sized kitchen.

Way to go, bro! Seriously, what's not to love in this man?

The recipe for Balsamic Roasted Cherry, Dark Chocolate & Brie Grilled Cheese Sandwich is wonderful as-is, but I found the chocolate flavour to be a tad overpowering, so the second time around I adjusted the cheese-to-chocolate ratio slightly.

Also, since I'm a lazy bum who hates cleaning her oven, I pan-roasted the marinated cherries instead of baking them. I liked this version better, honestly, but it's of course just a matter of personal preference - also, I see lots of possibilities for experimenting with other fruit and types of cheese here!

Which seamlessly leads me to... 

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...this veritable pièce de résistance!

I don't know how well you can see them in the pic above, but there are figs on this pizza. Gorgeous, honey-sweet, HEALTHY figs...

...and then, of course, there's bacon and fontina and sharp gorgonzola. What?

A Fresh Fig, Bacon + Blue Cheese Pizza could only be the brainchild of Jessica of How Sweet It Is. 

Now her blog, it's one of the very first ones I found out and kind of loved - and I say "kind of" here because her recipes tend to be very hit-or-miss with me. I mean, she loves anything cheese, which makes most of them (such as, uh, this one) super extra gorgeous in my book. But she also loves melon and avocado and mascarpone. Ouch. 

Also, you know that friend everybody has, who is invaluable in that she'll recommend her favourite movies and TV shows and whatnot - and you know that you can pretty safely shun them, and watch the ones she didn't care for, and be sure not to be disappointed? 

She's kind of that to me. Honest, it's such a sure hit, it is uncanny. But her blogging voice is so lighthearted and fun and playful that I drink up her opinions as hungrily as her recipes, and of all the foodies I'm following, she's the one that feels like the closest friend to me (even though she doesn't know, LOL!)

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...OK, so I gave you lots of food for thought today (as well as, y'know, food plain and simple.)

How about you start doing something for your health now, and treat yourself to one of these recipes - or all three?

Guinness Black Bottom Mint Cupcakes

"Well, you can bake with Guinness, you know. It makes chocolate taste even more chocolatey."

Honestly, mentioning such a thing to my sweetie in casual conversation? You'd think I should know better by now. 

I had to make it happen in my kitchen. Which is totally fine with me btw, because it gave me an excuse to buy a four-pack o' Guinness. And the recipe only calls for one cup! See what I'm gettin' at here? 

To be honest, Stout is not my top choice beer-wise - I'm kind of more of a Red Ale girl. Give me one of those rich, sligtly caramel-flavoured, amber-hued beauties any day!

For baking, though, no beer ever gave me better results than Guinness - and not for lack of trying, believe me! 

(Hint, hint: a little something might be boiling for the Discworld Personalities series. Stay tuned...)

A Google search for "Guinness chocolate cupcakes" produced a ton of results, most of them St. Patrick's Day-related. Which is shame becaaaause, well, this is an awesome combo and deserves to be enjoyed all year long!

And among them all I easily picked Guinnes Black Bottom Mint Cupcakes, by Tanya of Lemons for Lulu. 

...What? They have mint. Your argument is invalid. 

Now this is the point where I'd usually do a quick introduction of my fellow foodie, but hers is a blog I was totally unfamiliar with. 

Now that I've tried these cupcakes though, I'm definitely going to add it to my feeds - they're beyond awesome! Go grab the recipe NOW!

These cupcakes turned out rich but not overly heavy, and with the perfect degree of moisture as far as I'm concerned (yes, there is such thing as "too moist" - I don't like cakes that are all sticky inside!)

Another thing I love about these babies, is thay they need no frosting, which makes them super easy to handle and carry around... although if you were to soak them with peppermint ale and spoon a nice big dollop of After Eight ice cream on one of them, no one would complain for sure! 

They are delicious warm, room temperature and chilled, and freeze quite well.  

You know what they say about happiness not being for sale? Well, Guinness is! 

And with Guinness, you can treat yourself to a batch of these cupcakes. Which is the same thing, or pretty darn close!

Banana Bread FOREVAH!

Picture this: you are wandering the aisles of your favourite ethnic grocery, scanning row after row of enticing, mysterious products. You are tempted to buy them all... but, your inner censor reminds you, you don't even know what they are! How do you learn how to eat them? 

At which point, of course - because you're a natural rebel and won't take this kind of sh*t by some pesky Jiminy Cricket - you grab a random jar and plop it in you basket. 

And your choice falls on ube (purple yam) - because of its lovely colour,  possibly. Or because Fate guided your hand. 

Now when you're dealing with an exotic ingredient, you have two options: you can either scan those glossy haute cuisine magazines to see how some famous chef used it to add to his latest creation's mystique, or search for blogs by faraway foodies who regard it as everyday fare. 

Can you guess which way I go? 

Thus it happened that I stumbled into this recipe, that I promptly proceeded to not bake at all - seriously, I ended up eating my ube with a spoon and filing the cake for future reference, so this post has nothing to do with it at all. Just bear with me for a while, ok?

Look, the point of this whole story is: I discovered this wonderful blog called Bake Happy, by a sweet Filipino girl with a difficult name: Aikko. 

Of all the fellow bloggers I touched briefly upon, she's the one I feel closer to. 

She has a dull-sounding job and bakes as a hobby, and you can tell she loves every moment of it. To me, living on the other side of the world, her ingredient lists feel exotic - yet her desserts come through as homely and comforting, with none of the pretentiousness of some experimental pâtissiers.

Much like me, she updates her blog erratically, with a fun mix of personal stories, super-cute decorating tutorials and recipes. 

She truly is a happy baker, and I wholeheartedly believe that - while recognition is good, and money definitely would be great - this is what creating desserts is all about. 

Among her recipes there is one I have baked more times than any other in my whole life, and no kidding. One that I find myself craving every few days, so much so that I keep making it even now, in the middle of July, when the mere thought of turning on the oven makes me cringe. 

It's her mother's banana bread. Trust me, you're going to LOVE it!

I won't overwhelm you with tons of WIP shots for once, as Aikko's put up a great tutorial already and, let's face it, her pics are far better tham mine could ever hope to be (I'm digging the hot pink background, gurl. I honestly am.)

Only one thing I will add, just because I believe it's worth repeating ad nauseam: for this recipe you need your bananas to be ripe. And by "ripe" I seriously mean, this ripe: 

I won't say I'm at a point where I buy bananas to deliberately let them go all brown and squishy, because that would make my life a very sad business, I guess. 

But, hey... friends don't judge, right?

Now here's a (stunningly bad) close-up of the baked bread. Can you make out the little brown flecks in there? They're proof that there are no artificial flavourings inside this baby. Just real, honest-to-God bananas!

This bread is yummy as it comes out of the oven, but will turn more and more awesome the longer it sits on your counter. If properly covered, it keeps at room temperature for a surprisingly long time - I store mine under a glass dome and it lasts me for over a week!

(Of course if you really want to, you can freeze it as well. I like to bake it in a Bundt pan, as opposed to a more traditional loaf shape, so it's easier to portion and freeze in single servings...)

Now this banana bread is as simple as it can possibly get, which is the very reason why I love it so much. 

I mean, I know people out there bake all sort of things into their banana bread - pineapple chunks and spices and nuts and chocolate chips - or drenching it with booze... and I've tried many such recipes and enjoyed them all... but this is the one I keep making over and over again. It's a breakfast staple as far as I'm concerned!

Still, if know me at all, you'll have noticed by now that I can't leave a good thing darn well alone. 

So here my evil brain goes, "What if I bake it exactly the same, only swapping the 'nanas for some other fruit?"

...like MANGOES, for example! Since they are, like, my favourite fruit in the world? 

Enquiring minds want to know, and all that. So I made it happen.
FOR SCIENCE!

The mango bread didn't rise nearly as much as its banana counterpart, and ended up much more dense (although still moist and delicious.) 

I couldn't taste the mango in it, which was kind of disappointing - then again, I'm 100% anosmic, so maybe someone with an average sense of smell would have been able to detect the fruit. 

Smothered with mango sauce and teamed up with fruit salad and a dollop of (guess, guess?) mango jam, it still made for a filling, refreshing summer lunch!

It's surely something worth experimenting with, using different fruit - apple butter for sure, and maybe pureed prunes? 

But for my breakfast needs, I think I'll stick to Aikko's (and her mother's) recipe - it's just that good!

Superhero Cupcakes - at last!

Remember back in February, when I told you I was making superhero-themed cupcakes for the opening session of my friends' new RPG campaign, set in the Marvel universe?

Well, as you know, that batch... didn't turn out as expected. So I took a page from any good supervillain's book and bided my time. Planning ahead. Waiting for the next special session...

...which could logically, at that point, only be the closing one. 

(Insert cheesy flash-forward effect here, s'il-vous plaît...)

And here are, at last, my superz cupcakes!

I knew Flavio wouldn't be able to attend the session, which is kinda sad, I presume (since, unlike me, he's a rabid superheroes fan). But to me, my uber-picky BFF's absence meant that I wouldn't be limited to chocolate cupcakes anymore! 

Before going into that, though, I have to tell you about the decorating part - although I know my readers are smart and will have recognized the edible sugar sheets already!

I used Wilton's, and boooooy... is that stuff brittle!

And pricey. Did I mention pricey?

Now seriously, this is all there is to it. I cut some spikey balloons - there must be a proper definition for these LOL - in outrageously garish primaries, then sketched your typical superhero comics sound effects with a food marker, and cut these out as well. 

I used tiny sewing scissors and lots of patience, and still had managed to break many of the onomatopoeias... 

(See? I can use the correct technical terms when I want to!)

Although you can't see them from the photo above (which is the only one I had the time to take before the cuppies were carried away - so much for me planning ahead, all evil mastermind-like...), the wrappers were as relevant to the superhero theme as the cupcakes themselves. 

I bought them from one of my favourite Etsy shops, cakeadoodledoo - I got the boy design only, at 15 € (plus shipping) for a set of 12. 

I truly recommend you Tricia's shop, really - her wrappers and favour boxes are funny, creative and extremely functional. You might, of course, balk at the cost, but for that very special occasion once in a while, they're well worth splurging! Plus, Wilton's laser-cut wrapper packs don't come for much cheaper either... and Tricia's are handcrafted!

Image belongs to Tricia @ https://www.etsy.com/shop/cakeadoodledoo

(The following pics were stolen by my sweetie with his trusty smartphone during the gaming session itself, btw...)

As you can see, the edible paper sort of softened into the frosting. This is actually supposed to happen btw!

The food marker bleeding, on the other hand, was unexpected and a bit of a bummer... but I guess it's my fault for using a very soft, cream cheese-based frosting. I bet it wouldn't have happened, had I used proper buttercream or ganache instead... oh well! 

Now about the cupcakes themselves! 

They were lemon-flavoured, as I still have plenty of the gorgeous lemons I brought back from my blitz holiday on the Amalfi coast. 

The original recipe's called Lemon Blossom Cupcakes and it's from a cookbook called The Cupcake Diaries, by Katherine Kallinis and Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne - but you can get it from here as well, courtesy of Bundt-loving blogger extraordinaire, The Food Librarian!

(She's absolutely right about the grated zest quantity btw... My lemons were huge but 1/2 cup just doesn't make sense. I used 2 of them and called it a day - and I think more than that would have been overkill actually!)

The cupcakes turned out delicious and very lemon-y, if a bit too dense and buttery for my taste. I'll take crumbly over moist any day, but that's just me - I have uncontrovertible evidence that the gamers loved them as they were!