Birthday Cupcakes for Ben & Ruby

Sorry about the little facebook-induced hiatus from baking & blogging everyone: facebook is a dangerous tool...highly addictive. For those of you on the network....you know what i mean. And who isn't on facebook nowadays? It's...ok i'll stop...moving on...because I am actually back in the kitchen this morning!!!

I am currently making the decor for two dozen cupcakes that my friend Molly asked me to make for her boyfriend and dog's birthdays, which happen to be a day apart. Ben is into photography and Ruby is into, well rawhide i suppose and doggy bones...so I am making little cameras and dog bones out of fondant for a couple of the cupcakes...the rest have giant stars with slightly smaller sized stars on top with letters spelling out "happy birthday..." I had planned on making a large cake and sculpting a mini Ben & Ruby out of gumpaste, but I found out that actually Ben prefers cupcakes...and they really are more practical anyway...everyone can just take one and no worrying about messy cake cutting (although i really don't mind doing the cutting bit...)

The cupcakes themselves are going to be basic vanilla bean butter cake, rich and moist and simple...topped with vanilla italian meringue buttercream. Molly asked for simple and basic...and I think there is really no beating classic and elegant flavor of vanilla bean...so what the cupcakes "lack" in flavor originality will be made up for in appearance! After work today i will be painting the stars and letters...it's pretty far from my original concept of having miniBen & miniRuby playing on top of a cake but honestly it was much harder to sculpt them than i anticipated...I really need to work on the ratio of good ideas & conceptions vs. the actual physical manifestation of conception...after all, that's what really makes a successful artist (in my opinion)...the ability to conceive an idea and represent it in the physical realm with accuracy and precision....

I will return with more later as the cupcake making continues...the cupcakes won't be baked until late tonight...i want them to be as fresh as possible but there isn't time before work tomorrow when I have to bring them in for Molly to pick up...I will definately get a photo...unfortunately no digital camera yet...will have to make due with cell phone photos...:(