TJ's WIP: Floating Cupcakes.

Hello Hello!

Here's a little WIP for you again ^_^. Ms. Doodologist correctly pointed out "Rapunzel of the Cupcakes"...something like that hehe. Either way, I found a cool concept sketch of Rapunzel on the internet and used this as a reference for the character and voila...floating cupcakes were born. I already showed a little peek a while back, but I did snap more pics while I was working on this one as I showed peeks on my fanpage, so I figured to placed them all together and create a little post for you guys! Hope you like it and have fun staring!!

 

 

 

You know, with this little painting it really was all about subtle details. After the two bigger washes of color, I just added colors here and there, to bring out certain characters. I think if I added too much watercolor layers, the painting would lose it's "floaty-ness"...I have no other word to describe it, sooo I hope you get what I'm trying to say haha. I also didn't re-line every thing with black either. The final picture has been edited a bit in Photoshop, just to make sure the colors are brought back to life again. Can't have dull pictures, now can we?!

Hope you liked this little WIP!!

Cupcake Randomness or not so Random?

Well Hello Everyone!

It has been a bit quiet here. I was planning to post something last week, but I got sick and well this put a halt to everything. I'm slowly getting back, but will take it easy for just a couple more days.

My mind took a trip on its own (well, many trips, but these are stories for another time) and started wondering something. How do you eat your cupcake? Yes. Cupcakes are involved again. Why do I want to know this? No real reason here. I'm just dragging you into my randomness (I'm doing a TOP SECRET Master Research on Cupcakes...*adjust glasses*). If you are completely confused by this question, let me help you out by giving you a few options…

1. Twist the bottom and place on the frosting for a sandwich cupcake. (side note: I read this method on the internet a few days back, apparently one gets a good frosting/cake ratio by doing this.)

2. Use a fork. 

3. Fork? Goodness no. I have a delicate procedure for this. First I bow, then I unwrap the cake, take tiny bites while both pinkies are stretched, search for crumbs and then fold the wrapping before I place it in the bin.

4. Stuff my face. Duh.

5. I...can not tell you.

Of course you can add your own option. You want to know what I do? Obviously stuffing my face when I’m outside and using a fork when I’m at home....

....maybe not hehe ^_^. As you can see...I got plenty of time to think while I was sick hehe.

With this uber important question I shall leave you to enjoy your Friday & weekend or you can stare blankly at a wall while you analyze the way you eat a cupcake OR come up with a interesting new way to eat a cupcake. Now that should be interesting to read haha.

Ciao Ciao!

TJ's Projects: A Cupcake Tutorial

Hello helloo!!

Hmm that was said in a weird opera voice...in my head anyway.

So, no recipe this time, but a drawing tutorial! A while ago, I got asked by the lovely Marieke Bos, if I was interested in participating in a creative project. It's for the site Swap-bot and here lots of creatives swap handmade goodies with each other. The group Dutch Swappers magically transformed the month December in an online advent calendar and every day a creative swapper reveals his/her gift.

And yes, you guessed it right, today is my day and I decided to create a quick tutorial on how I draw my cupcakes ^_^. There are really just a few basic lines and by switching up the expression you can create a new little cupcake in a few seconds. This is the first time writing a step by step tutorial and I will record a short video how I draw and paint it soon. However, the quality isn't THAT great. I will re-upload it soon again. My laptop shut off while I was saving the tutorial, so I lost some of my editing. Not a big deal...until I noticed that the file had become corrupt. The horror. I had a deadline to upload it a bit after midnight on December 13th, therefore I couldn't re-create what I had, so this tutorial is a quick version.

If something doesn't make sense, do let me know. I can keep this in mind for when I create the right version of this tutorial. I have another way of drawing a cupcake and if you guys like this one, I'll show you the other one as well.

Oh! I do have a cupcake recipe for you guys soon...hehe. Until then, don't forget about the Limited Christmas Cards and my Zazzle shop.

Have fun trying it out and if you drew it and want to show it...let me know! If there are enough cupcake doodlers, I will create a folder on my Facebook page so people can post it there. I'd love to see it :D Feel free to experiment with the frosting shapes and faces. I'll show lots of cupcake examples soon!

Ciao ciao!

TJ's Kitchen: Appelflappen

Greetings Lovely People!

Something new for you to read: A recipe! Yes, a lot of you know that I love to bake and I bake more than cupcakes hehe.

I wrote the recipe down for my friend, Bill Friday, and figured to post it on my blog as well. I haven't got those in-between pictures though, but I think this recipe is simple enough to go without that.

Whenever I make this recipe I use apples that have been on the table for a while and no one wants to eat them anymore. I don't have exact measurement for you as I don’t measure the cinnamon and sugar. Older apples are naturally very sweet.

Of course you can make your own puff pastry dough, but as I'm known to be lazy, I buy packages with puff pastry sheets. This is a quick snack and since I don't have a lot of time to bake complicated things, I go for an easier solution ;) Each package contains of 10 square sheets.

All in all, a very easy and tasty snack. So let's start!

Ingredients for the filling
Apples - I usually use 4-5 medium sized apples for 40 small pastries (2 packages of puff pastry sheets)
Cinnamon
Granulated sugar
opt. vanilla sugar
opt. sultanas

Extra sugar for the topping.

How to
- Peel and cut the apples in small cubes. Place it in a bowl and add the sugar, cinnamon and if you want sultanas. Exact amount can't be given as it really depends on the natural sweetness of the apples and to your own personal taste.

- Cut the puff pastry diagonally, so you'll get triangle shaped pastries. Add a bit of filling, pinch down the sides with a fork and then give it a wash with milk. Lastly, sprinkle granulated sugar over it.

- Bake it on 190 Celsius/375 degrees for 20-23 min. Of course you can create other shapes if you want. When the pastries are golden brown, they are done.

Buon appetito!! You can eat it warm or let it cool. They are best eaten on the same day. The longer you wait, the less crunchier they will become.

Extra thingies
1. You can mix granulated sugar with a bit of cane sugar for extra crunch.

2. You can also skip the milk and add a wash with water or egg.

3. Regarding the cinnamon/sugar. Personally, I don’t like overly sweet things, so I just add a few teaspoons of sugar and a few shakes of the cinnamon jar. If you add raisins, keep in mind that this gives its own sweetness as well.

4. Left over cinnamon apples are perfect over ice cream, in yogurt etc. 5. The longer the apple mixture sits in the bowl a syrup will form. I usually add a tablespoon of cornstarch flour to the mix to absorb a bit of syrup. But you can't prevent it from happening, so make sure to leave this out of the pastry as much as you can. No soggy pastries please!

5. Vanilla sugar can be easily made by adding vanilla pods (without the seeds) in a jar with granulated sugar. Set it on the shelf for 2 weeks and voila! Vanilla sugar has been made. I think I saw this in one of Nigella's cooking episodes.

That's it! You can experiment with other fruit or flavors or maybe mix the sugar for the topping with almond slivers. But this is a classic, just like apple pie ^_^. It's perfect with a cup of tea, coffee...basically with everything haha. If you make this recipe, do let me know!

Have a lovely weekend! Oh! Don't forget to check out my Zazzle *points to the sidebar* ^_^

Storytelling Time: Theft in the Cake shop.

Heey everyone!!

Okay, first of all you can still join the Giveaway and in order to do so please click this Magical Button and comment on the that post. If you comment here, you won't be added in the giveaway. The winner shall be announced on June 21th, 2011!

Next! I proudly announce that I'm an official columnist for the site Broowaha! Edit: I have my own column now, which you can find here, TJ on Illustrations. I will post something regarding the illustration business every Friday, starting next week. I will post some of the articles here as well as you need an account to leave comments there. So for the ones who only read my blog, this is the place to be. For the ones who are interesting in writing and connecting with other writers, do check out Broowaha. It's such a fun & friendly community. You won't be disappointed.

So now it's time for the flash story! A while ago, I was participating in another writers community and before it vanished into thin air ( I have nothing to do with it...) I spent a few fun weeks with other writers. Every week there were 5 prompts to choose from and you got critique and feedback on it. This story won :D. So exciting!

Theft in the Cake shop

As soon as Tess opened the door, Sandy burst in.
“Oh my god! Tess!”
“What? What is it?
“Oh my god! Really, you never gonna believe what happened”
“What! What has happened” Tess had all sorts of drama visualized in her head as they walked to the kitchen.
“Really I was shocked…”
“Come on! Just tell me!”
“There was a theft in the CupCakery Bakery!”
“There was a theft in CupCakery Bakery…oohkay this is shocking because…”
“He only stole the tops!”
“The tops? What tops?”
“The tops of the cupcakes!”
“Really? Only that?”
“Yeah! Apparently he said, ‘why steal it all, if you only like the tops’, marvelously said I think”
“Dude’s got a point there. Want to have some tea?”
Sandy just kept nodding with a big smile.
“But how did he do this? How was he able to only steal the tops?”
“Well, he had a special spatula and with one swift movement…” Sandy made a demonstration, “…he could place it under the frosting and scoop it right up. Oh yeah! The other end of the spatula made it possible to slice of muffin tops. He liked those too. They are crunchy.”
Tess tried not to laugh, this was the strangest story she ever heard. “Okay the muffin tops I can understand, but why the frosting?”
“He liked the swirly patterns.”
“I see. Well I guess that makes sense.”
“I guess that makes sense indeed too.”

So. Who wants a cupcake now :D?

Hope you liked it as well & Till next time everyone.

Ciao! *waves*