Bubblegum Cupcakes (inspired by the Seattle Gum Wall)

Have you ever traveled anywhere alone?  Just packed your bags and braved it, to see what adventures you encountered? I did. Last May. In full on grunge flannel. To Seattle.  Right before my busy busy wedding season.  If it wasn't for Seattle, I am not sure I would have ever thought to make these cupcakes...

Gumball Cupcakes  (I'll explain later).  I packed my glitter in my bags . (I was pretty sure Seattle needed some glitter sprinkled on it). 

Why Seattle?

There are many creative legends here. Many start ups, many firsts.

Starbucks (I visited their original location and it reminds me a lot of the Cupcake Mansion-small, simple but charming).  Nordstrom.  Hard Rock Cafe.  The birth of Grunge Rock.  All of these innovators had to start somewhere with an idea. Like I am right now with my quest to change the world with cupcakes.  I wanted a vacation, but I also wanted inspiration. 

I was long overdue for a week of Napping, Donut Eating, Calamari Trying, Coffee Drinking, Clinking Full Wine Glasses with friends, Flower Shopping, Rockin' out to 90s Grunge tunes, Romantic Walks in the Rain, and Exploring.


When I was exploring....I discovered something pretty, fascinating and amazingly gross ♥

A wall full of thousands of stringy pieces of chewed gum.
The Seattle Gum Wall.

I have a horrible habit.  I chew my gum, and I stick it in random places (TMI)?!  It is both charming and annoying to those around me.  (charming because people are reminded of me when they find my gum and then they miss me).  So this gum wall...touched my childish gum chewing heart.

A Gum Proposal!!!! That took a lot of love and work..and risky exposure to bacteria :).  Now that is TRUE LOVE.  For every piece of gum..is a person. And a story ♥ Apparently a love story too. I even checked in on Facebook.  This gum wall created community in Seattle!

So when I returned to Wisconsin..you know what I did?

With my pastor Bob Adams right outside of my church Radiant Fellowship in Waupaca..  We created our own Gum Wall.   Our Wisconsin Gum Wall was featured in the newspaper ♥

When the gum wall officially launched, I made all of these "chewed" bubble gum cupcakes (that actually tasted like gum) to celebrate, as a reward to to those who dared to join me in sticking pieces of gum on the Waupaca Gum Wall ♥.  I even mushed up pieces of gum (with my fingers..not my mouth) to look like they were chewed and stuck them on top of the cupcakes.  Gross but fascinating.  Just like a gum wall should be.  My pastor named our church service that day "Hubba Bubba." Appropriate.

Whether you think it is gross or not, the day was filled with laughter and creativity.

...and the gum wall continues to bring people together in Wisconsin.

The glittery gum heart I left on the gum wall in Seattle.

..this never would have happened if I didn't travel solo to Seattle. ♥
Where to next?

Simple Recipe for your very own  Gumball Gum Wall Cupcakes:

**Your whole kitchen will smell like bubblegum!

Ingredients for the cupcakes: (makes 18 cupcakes)

1 box of white cake mix

1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil

1 Packet of Bubblegum Flavor Frosting Creations from Duncan Hines

4 Eggs

1 3.9 oz box of instant White Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients for the frosting:

13 oz Marshmallow Cream

1 lb Unsalted Butter (softened)

1 Packet of Bubblegum Flavor Frosting Creations from Duncan Hines

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Appx 8 Cups Powdered Sugar

For Decoration:

You will need gumballs, assorted pieces of gum.

Method:

For Cupcakes:

1.  Preheat oven to 325 and line cupcake pans with cupcake wrappers.

2.  Mix All Cupcake Ingredients together in Stand Mixer. Be sure to remember to add the Bubblegum Flavor Frosting Creations-this is what makes your cupcakes taste just like bubblegum!

3. Scrape batter down as you mix to incorporate all of the chewy goodness.

4. Whip for appx 2 minutes.

5. Fill each cupcake liner about 1/2 - 3/4 full. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

For Frosting:

1. Whip Butter & Marshmallow Cream together in stand mixer until they start to look fluffy.

2. Add 1 Packet of Bubblegum Flavor Frosting Creations to the mixture.

3. Add Vanilla Extract.

4. Gradually Whip In Powdered Sugar, continue to mix the powdered sugar in until frosting is stiff enough to pipe.  You can color your frosting in several different colors. I like Americolor Gel Paste in Electric Pink, Sky Blue, Electric Yellow, Electric Orange, and Electric Purple.

For Decorating:

♥Cut a hole at the end of a disposable piping bag.  If you want to have a really fat fun fluffy dreamy swirl, use a 1A Round Tip at the end of your piping bag.

♥Fill the piping bag half full with frosting. Pipe a swirl of frosting on top of your cupcake.

♥Top each cupcake swirl with a gumball.  To make your gum look like it is "chewed" like a Gum Wall Cupcake, use chewy soft gum and mash up with your fingers.  (I guess you could chew it if you are sharing your cupcakes with someone very close to you. ☺)

For the love of Cupcakes. 700 of them!

This is my dad's minivan, full of 700 happy cupcakes.

This will be one of those photos in my memory where I can say, I remember when....I delivered 700 cupcakes out of a minivan.

or when..hundreds of childrens at Pathways Church in Wisconsin ate cupcakes that looked like puzzles. Made by Amanda Cupcake and friends.

The theme: Believing there's a bigger picture.

So we made edible rubix cubes out of colorful m&ms.

and if you lived in a mini cupcake world, you could play Twister on these cupcakes. 

The colors of a rubix cube swirled on top of every cupcake. ♥

I love that my mom was my assistant.

She made these glitterized rubix cube cupcake toppers!

700 Orange Dreamsicle and Chocolate Cupcakes, before we decorated them.  Since this was a charity event, Waupaca High School let us use their kitchen.  (Right now the kitchen I bake out of every night only has one single rack oven.  7 ovens sounded better than one)!  We literally ran from oven to oven making sure the cupcakes didn't burn!  Another one of those "I remember when" moments...

Cupcakes on a cart. We rolled them over to the table to start decorating ♥

The decorating station, before we made the real mess.

Cupcakes on a cart!

Can you find the one random Pac-Man we made? I bet the one child who ate the Pac-Man cupcake felt lucky ♥

Sharing the cupcake love♥

700 cupcakes at a time! (instead of just one this time..yay!)

♥

It wasn't just me who was a part of this cupcake mission!

A cupcake holla! to:

God ♥ Who oversees all my cupcake superhero rescues!

Angela Jean of Angel Cakes

Megan Darvin of Majik Cupcakes

My Mom & Dad

Cupcake Mixmasters (they helped with the batter!):  Michelle Rashke & Heather Knapp ♥

Love-Cakes ♥ 2011

It's 2012, and I was going to write a traditional "reflection" blog dedicated to New Years.

I've been so busy.

I've mainly been superhero-cupcake-ing it up as Amanda Cupcake.

But..I've also been working a second job as a cook at an assisted living home to save money to finance a possible bakery..or a really fun recipe book? or who knows what's next? for my cupcake business.  The job at the assisted living home is more than just a job to me though. I've always loved working with the elderly, and I was even considering volunteering just to visit with them, and get out of my own little bubble.  When I saw that the nearby assisted living home was hiring a cook, I applied.   It must have been destiny because I got the job. I go in wearing scrubs, a hairnet, and purple eyeshadow (sometimes glitter too), and try to make somebody smile.  Plus-I've been learning mad cooking skillz.

♥

On top of that I've been teaching cupcake classes at Fox Valley Technical College. I even taught four hours of cupcake classes recently at Waupaca High School.  Here are the cupcakes I taught the high school students to make:

When I talked about adding glitter to my cherries to turn them into "disco" cherries, one of the students exclaimed, "That is the best thing I have heard all day!"  I was beaming with joy all day after that, really.



My point is, I wanted to make all these ahhmazing New Years cupcakes. You know, like champagne cupcakes or cocktail celebration cupcakes with pearls and sparkles on them.

♥

But what I came up with the other day for a really special order pretty much defines the past year of who Amanda Cupcake is, and who everyone that I've come in touch with in the past year is as well. They are the absolute perfect Amanda Cupcake New Years cupcakes, and I wouldn't change a thing.

Let's call them Lovecakes.

 Meet the lovely recipient.

 Her name is Teal.  She found love, and is getting married!  So I made her cupcakes filled with LOVE for her New Year's Eve Wedding Shower. ♥

This is a photo of her cupcake buffet fit for a queen that was sent to my Iphone.  It made her so happy, she cried.  This text message made me so happy, I cried!

I handcrafted banners of love and color and bows that connected cupcake swirls.

Vibrant colors for a beautiful & vivacious person!

You know, there are miniature pies hidden inside each of these cupcakes too.  This one has an apple crisp pie on the inside.

(I found this adorable polka dot cupcake platter at Lucky Tree Home Decor in Waupaca)

And I baked a mini raspberry pie inside of this lemon cupcake.  The little "jewel" is an edible M&M that I blinged out.  I made a cupcake topper by hot glue-ing a feather onto a wooden stick! (this way the feather pieces don't get stuck on the cupcake frosting).

Bows and Pearls and Frosting Ruffles inspired by bridesmaid dresses.



A touch of white for the bride-to-be.

Don't we all wish for this? A best friend to grow old with? Bliss.

A dream of mine is to marry my best friend and eat glittery delicious cupcakes on our porch together while watching the sunset.

Now you know why these are the ultimate Amanda Cupcake New Years Cupcakes.

They are like fireworks exploding glitter and color and love..

Baked with so much hope and promise. To enjoy right now, but also to toast to a bright future.

Love-Cakes Forever.