Jason Anderson Cupcakes Part 2

Jason Anderson (http://jasonandersonswebsite.com/) is one sweet musician throwing some of the most energetic, intimate acoustic shows right at you-- aiming for the heart -- and the dude never misses.

I had the fine opportunity to experiment with recipes and bring them to his shows!

He recently had his LAST one-month long residency at Pete's Candy Store (http://www.petescandystore.com/home2.html), a wonderful venue in Brooklyn, where he would play a set every Tuesday at 9pm. Unfortunate for his fans, but fortunately for him- he is moving to Massachussetts to start Grad School. He will be sorely missed at Pete's!

All treats for every show were 100% vegan, organic and this time... whole wheat!

Show #1: Vegan Chocolate Fruit Tartlets

Semi-sweet chocolate shell, orange honey tofutti cream inside covered with various fruit and apricot jam.

The fruit involved: Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, kiwi & mandarin oranges.

Show #2: Vegan Pistachio Rose Water Cupcakes

Cake: Whole wheat pistachio cake made with crushed pistachio nuts, coconut milk, honey, cinnamon, ginger & cardamom!

Icing: Rosewater buttercream with a a whole pistachio on top!

FINAL SHOW #3: Pomegranate Pink Velvet Cupcakes

**Those are Jason Anderson lyrics above**

I wanted to make all natural organic red velvet cupcakes without using food coloring, so this is what I came up with...

Cake: Whole wheat pomegranate and fresh cherry cake made with coconut milk.

Icing: Tofutti cream cheese frosting.

These were supposed to look like fireworks, but ended up being pretty anyway, so whatever deal with it!

The inside! I did it! Kind of!

Nike Dunk Cake

For Paul Falletta

via Laurie Pipitone-Falletta

Cake: Vanilla Cake with Reese's mini peanut butter cups. Chocolate buttercream icing with Reese's peanut butter chips mixed inside. Vanilla buttercream outside.

Details: Chocolate fondant, green & yellow fondant, orange, pink, blue black piping icing.

My cousin Laurie's brand new hubbie Paul loves his sneakers, especially his Nike Dunks and ESPECIALLY his De La Soul Nike Dunks. These shoes are insane looking and very fun to make out of cake and fondant. The humidity was at 95% the day I made it and this cake had the audacity to think it was going to melt on me! But thankfully to my other cousin, Stephanie let me high-tail it to her air conditioned house at midnight so it could stay there overnight and cool off. No more cakes in high humidity please!!!!

Boo Boo Cake

For Annie Larson

Cake: Chocolate raspberry with chocolate frosting and raspberry filling!
Details: Fondant, green sour belt candy, one yellow starburst, two Toffifay candies for the eyes and a sugar cone for ears!

According to Momma Larson's son, Arthur, the thing this woman loves most in the world is her dog Boo Boo!

So I made this cake for her birthday, granted -- it kinda looks like Scooby Doo*. But that's what the dog looked like, promise!

* Kids, I do Scooby Doo cakes now!

VEGAN German Chocolate Cupcakes

For Jason Anderson -- random show @ Pete's Candy Store

Cake: Whole wheat, raw German chocolate cupcakes.

Frosting: Beautifully sticky coconut brown sugar icing.

Jason's a local musician who is also pretty amazing. He asked me if I could make these for one of his shows at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn, NY. I was super pumped for this challenge! And I succeeded! Hell yes.

Easter Basket Cake

For HOT TODDY Cake: Easter colored "danafetti" cake. Vanilla frosting. One layer of fluff! Buttercream icing on outside. Details: Candy grass, white chocolate bunny, dinosaur egg candy and jelly beans! My boss, TODD, has been asking me to make him a cake for months! I finally caved and made him and his family an adorable Easter cake.  Fun for the whole family!

Deer Head Cake

for Steven Casparie Cake: Vanilla! Chocolate icing! Details: The head, ears and antlers are made of rice krispy treats covered in milk chocolate. The chest hari is shredded coconut. The eyes are gumballs. Black & white piping icing for small details. Ashley's dad loves to hunt defenseless animals and keep their parts in the basement fridge so he can enjoy the fruits off his occasional murder spree all year long. I made him this cake for his birthday!

He normally has absolutely no whimsy (especially for Sam Branman) but I forced it upon him with this little guy.

Camera & Iced Coffee Cake

Cake: Banana nut bread cake with cheesecake filling...so good.

Details: White fondant, black piping icing, gold airbrush paint. The film strips are made of black fondant and edible gold spray.

Camera: (with very special help from Anastasia Tortora!) chocolate cake, one chocolate cupcake, chocolate icing, black fondant, edible gold spray, various licorice candies, Smarties candies, black piping icing.

Iced Coffee: Jungle Nut coffee flavored gelatin molded with coconut milk gelatin "ice cubes" inside. Chocolate hazelnut cookie "straw"

Pokki used to work at the cafe that I am not employed by wayyyy before I ever worked there. I know her because she comes in said cafe almost every day to get her iced coffee fix before high-tailing it to work, internship, a museum, school, etc. etc. busy busy busy girl!

And now she has graduated from The College of Staten Island with a degree in photography. She asked me to make a cake that included her two favorite things in the world: her camera and an iced coffee!

Good luck with everything Pokki! We all expect great things from you!

Gay Pride Cake

Cake: Rainbow (duh) Vanilla buttercream frosting

Details: Skittles, Candy paper (letters) & rainbow sour belts

Staten Island was having it's 7th Annual Gay Pride Parade & Festival right down the street from my house in downtown Staten Island. A good friend of mine, Arthur Larsen was helping produce this lovely event and asked me to donate a cake! Of course!

The event was sponsored by the Staten Island LGBT Community Center, they had all sorts of entertainment! Including food vendors, games, crafts and numerous musical acts (including Mal Blum, a very adorable Purchase College alumni [represent!] http://www.malblum.com/)

Check out their website to become more involved or find out information for future fun events!

http://manhattan.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=manhattan&cdn=citiestowns&tm=199&f=10&su=p284.9.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.silgbtcenter.org/

Spumoni Cake

For Dan Regelski

Cake: Hershey's chocolate cake. One layer of pistachio icing with crushed pistachios. One layer of Cremolata buttercream with almonds. And iced with a chocolate buttercream frosting.

Details: Pink piping icing, crushed pistachio, whole pistachios.

In Staten Island, there's a pretty famous location for purchasing ices in the summertime called "Ralphs Ices." People go nuts for these ices in the summertime. The line goes on and on. And the Italian people wait and wait.

The most Italian of those ices would be the Spumoni: a blend of chocolate ice, cremolata ice and pistachio ice.

And the biggest Italian supporter of this flavor? My best friend Dan. He was turned on to ices by me years ago and to this day, now living together in Staten Island, we enjoy spumoni on the regular.

So for his birthday I decided experimenting with making a Spumoni flavored cake!

Glass Bandits Cake

Cake: Rainbow (multi-colored white cake) Buttercream frosting.

Details: White fondant, black fondant, black piping icing.

I attended Purchase College and as a Dramatic Writing major (I know) I shared pleasantries with many members of the acting conservatory. Now we're all grown up! And many of them have gotten together a created a theater company! Check them out sometime, they put on some pretty amazing shows. And they're all very attractive.

This cake was for the opening of one of their productions: Wolves in Abasement -Adapted from August Strindberg's Playing with Fire, Written and Directed by Carl Holder.

Here's a little about them:

Glass Bandits Theater Company is a Brooklyn based collaborative gang of lovable misfits interested in making thrilling, accessible, unmannered theatrical events that bridge the gap between audience and performers. Our goal? To get young and non-traditional patrons excited about going to the theater! Can’t seeing a play be as exciting as watching a band play at the neighborhood dive? Everyone’s a Bandit! See a show, get some free glasses and let’s definitely grab a drink after.

Here's their website:

http://www.gbtheater.com/gbtc/Glass_Bandits_Theater_Company.html