Kids in the Kitchen Can Be a Recipe for Success

By on Friday, August 30th, 2013

082613E00_Cupcake3_4in_c_t618Like many children, Natalie Hope started out in the kitchen watching and helping her parents. But unlike many children, Natalie continued on her own, experimenting and advancing her skills. With the help of Food Network programming and parents willing to be guinea pigs for her creations, Natalie entered and won the She Expo’s cupcake competition last month. What makes the 10-year-old’s accomplishment so impressive is the fact that the competition had 63 other participants, a mix of professionals and amateurs. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Christmas Crunch Time!

By on Monday, December 19th, 2011

Good Morning ATC Community! and welcome to the official start of crunch time.  These are the days that we second-guess whether we did enough of everything and end up doing too much!

If you’re like me, you’ve baked a fair amount of holiday treasures.

But holiday week is a bit like a marathon and, in the home stretch, who isn’t looking for fresh ideas to keep inspired?  The challenge I set to myself is whether I can come up with a week of images, recipes, and instructions to keep us all – myself included – at 350F from now through next Saturday.

These Baked Ideas images are cookies, but so fresh and original they will inspire your cupcake decorating ideas. Here’s a smorgasbord of cookie decorating ideas from “Baked Ideas” by Patti Paige, along with the Baked Ideas’ Facebook page  and the video on the Baked Ideas mini gingerbread houses.  3,000 each season!

If you’re still looking for last minute gifts, Baked Ideas even sells yoga cookie cutters.  How did she do that?  Here’s her video on piping royal icing onto each one of the yoga posed gingerbread men and here’s the Baked Ideas gingerbread recipe.

Ah-ha!  My Muse gripped that one!

Today, I’m going to springboard those Baked Ideas into spice cupcakes with yoga shapes drawn on the top, including some Sandskrit symbols, such as “Namaste.”  And I know just who is on my list for these yoga cupcakes

Now that’s what I mean about taking inspiration and giving yourself permission to be creative at the holidays!  What’s your idea?

Countdown:  6 days.