April Shower Party Ideas
Gummi Bears 1LB (White Strawberry-Banana)
3 DIY APRIL SHOWER DESSERTS
Cloud Cupcakes
Cloud Smash Cake
You can use mini cake pans or Corningware dishes about the same size, then just prepare the cake according to box directions and bake.Since it seems like most smash cakes end up more smashed and smeared than eaten, a simple box cake is perfect. I used one box of cake mix, and one tub of white icing that I tinted blue with food coloring.
To garnish for a sky cake, I used sugar paper and cut out clouds… so easy!
Rain Cloud Cupcake Toppers
Modeling Chocolate (you can use fondant, but I like modeling chocolate for this purpose because it doesn’t get as hard as fondant and kids like the taste.) If you need a good recipe for modeling chocolate go here. This is the recipe I use.
Black, Yellow and Blue Gel Color
Blue Edible Sparkle Dust (make sure all the dusts you use say edible…some are not and will just say nontoxic on them)
Dark Edible Silver Dust
Super Pearl Edible Dust
Black Sparkle Edible Dust
Lemon Extract
Cornstarch/Powdered Sugar (just to keep the modeling chocolate from sticking to the board)
Blossom Cutters (two sizes) (similar: here)
Small Petal Cutters (two smallest sizes) I used two, but if I made these again, I’d just use the bigger of the two sizes. I also squeezed mine closed a little to give it more of that rain drop look.
Small Fondant Roller
Popsicle sticks (get the longer ones so there’s enough room for them to go all the way to the bottom of the cupcake.)
Brushes (of course, brushes you only use for cake decorating.)
You want to have two colors of modeling chocolate, one blue and one a light gray. For gray I just mixed in a tiny bit of black.
Tip: Wilton’s black gel color seems to have a purple tint and you might not always see it until the next day, so I add a TINY bit of yellow and it cancels it out.
Use your bigger blossom cutter and cut out as many as you have cupcakes for. Then do the same for the small ones. You want a big blossom and a small one for each cupcake.
Turn your bigger blossoms face side down. Paint some water on the back where the popsicle stick will go and a little around it. Place a popsicle stick there. Push it down just a little. Place a little folded up paper towel under the sticks so they’re level. Place one of the mini clouds you cut from the smaller blossom cutter, over the back of the popsicle stick…it acts like a bandage to keep the stick stuck onto the modeling chocolate.
Now, leave them face down and set them aside to adhere fully. I let them sit over night because it was late and I was tired, but you don’t have to let them sit that long. An hour is plenty of time.
It’s not gonna look pretty at this point…just wait for it.
Let the extract evaporate a little. Then take your DRY blue sparkle dust and ‘pounce’ it onto the front of each raindrop. I used quite a bit because I love me some sparkly. They should look like the bottom left picture at this point.
Next, take a small brush and use a little dry super pearl dust and dust a little in a crescent shape to add a little highlighting to your raindrop…bottom right picture. Oooo pretty.
Note to self, don’t let my fingernails grow this long, or I’ll end up stabbing the modeling chocolate as you can see in the left cloud.
You can dust the backs too, if you want.
Let it sit for a bit to attach very well…maybe 30 minutes. When you pick it up and turn it over to the front side, it’ll look like the bottom right.
MERINGUE CLOUD COOKIES
By http://www.sweetexplorations.com
makes 18 cookies
Ingredients
3 egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees F. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip together 3 egg whites on medium speed until frothy. Add cream of tartar and mix until soft peaks form.
With the mixer of high speed, gradually add the sugar, one tbsp at a time, making up the sugar is completely dissolved before each consecutive spoonful. The egg whites will slowly turn glossy and bright white.
Add vanilla extract and mix to incorporate. To test your meringue, rub some batter between your thumb and index finger. You want the sugar to be completely dissolved. If you can still feel the grains of sugar, continue mixing for another minute.
Spoon batter into a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe cloud shapes onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake for 1½ hours. At that point you should be able to lift the cookies off the parchment paper easily. At that point, turn off the oven and leave your cookies in overnight to dry out.
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees F.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip together 3 egg whites on medium speed until frothy:
Spoon batter into a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe cloud shapes onto a parchment-lined baking sheet:
Bake for 1 1/2 hours. At that point you should be able to lift the cookies off the parchment paper easily. At that point, turn off the oven and leave your cookies in overnight to dry out.
5 CREATIVE APRIL SHOWER CAKES
