Cupcake Wrappers

Laser-cut cupcake wrapper. Easily assembles to slip your favorite cupcake or candy-filled cup into for a marvelous display. Create a beautiful cupcake tree, set at each place setting as a party favor, the possibilities are endless.

Paper Orchid

Mashed Boo-tatoes

Use a pastry bag to pipe mashed potatoes into ghosts and sweet potatoes into pumpkins. The ghosts' eyes are black sesame seeds. For the pumpkins, pecan halves make the steams and bits of cilantro become leaves.

From Martha Stewart

Beachy Cupcakes

Look out for blue paper fins slicing through icing waves. Some might prefer a sandy beach, so stand a drink parasol in a dune of icing dipped in finely ground graham-cracker crumbs.

From Martha Stewart, First Published Fall 2003

Molasses Sandwich Cookies

Prep: 50 minutes - Total: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

Makes 30.

• 1 1/2 cups (spooned and leveled) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup light unsulfured molasses
• Creamy molasses filling, (below)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter until combined. Beat in egg, then molasses, until smooth. On low speed, gradually add flour mixture until a dough forms.
3. Drop rounded measuring teaspoonfuls of dough onto two ungreased (or parchment-lined) baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart.
4. Bake until centers are dry to the touch, 12 to 15 minutes; rotate pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Cool 1 minute on baking sheets; then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
5. Make Creamy Molasses Filling: Whisk 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) softened unsalted butter with 3 tablespoons light unsulfured molasses until smooth. Gradually whisk in 2 cups confectioners' sugar; whisk until smooth and spreadable. Makes 1 1/2 cups.
6. Spread a rounded measuring teaspoonful of Creamy Molasses Filling on the flat side of a cookie; place another cookie on top, and gently press. Repeat until all cookies are filled. Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 day, or refrigerate up to 3 days (cookies may soften during refrigeration).

From Martha Stewart

Caramel Cake

This recipe for delicious caramel cake is courtesy of Dr. Maya Angelou and can be found in her cookbook, "Hallelujah."

Ingredients

Serves 8.

• Nonstick cooking spray with flour
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup Caramel Syrup, plus more for serving (see recipe following frosting recipe)
  
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• Caramel Frosting (see recipe following cake recipe)
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray two 8-inch round cake pans with cooking spray, line each with a parchment paper round, and spray again. Set pans aside.
2. Beat butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Gradually add 1 cup sugar and continue to beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in syrup.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix flour mixture into butter mixture, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
4. Beat eggs until foamy in another bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and continue beating until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir into cake batter until well combined.
5. Divide cake batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake until cakes spring back when gently touched in the center, about 25 minutes. If cakes do not spring back, return to oven and continue cooking about 10 minutes more.
6. Cool cake in pans for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto a wire rack and remove parchment paper round. Let cakes cool to room temperature before frosting.
7. Place four strips of parchment paper around perimeter of a serving plate or lazy susan. Place the first layer on the cake plate. Spread the top of the first layer with frosting. Top with the remaining layer, bottom-side up. Spread entire cake with frosting; remove parchment paper strips. Serve cake drizzled with any remaining caramel syrup.

This recipe for caramel frosting, which goes with Dr. Maya Angelou's caramel cake, can be found in her new cookbook, "Hallelujah."

Ingredients

Makes enough for one 8-inch cake.

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 package (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, plus more if needed
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
  
  

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat until nut-brown in color, about 8 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour butter into a bowl, leaving any burned sediment behind; let cool.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add confectioners' sugar, vanilla, salt, and butter. With the mixer on low, slowly add cream; beat until smooth. If frosting seems too thick, stir another tablespoon cream into the mixture.

The recipe for this delicious caramel syrup, which is a great addition to caramel cake, is courtesy of Dr. Maya Angelou and can be found in her new cookbook, "Hallelujah."

Ingredients

Makes enough for one 8-inch cake.

• 1 cup sugar

Directions

1. Heat sugar and 1 cup water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and comes to a boil. Continue cooking, brushing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush but without stirring, until mixture becomes golden amber in color.
2. Immediately remove from heat and add 1 cup water. Return to heat and continue stirring until mixture becomes liquid. Transfer to a heatproof container and let cool completely before using.

From Martha Stewart, First Published: November 2007