Freshly Faked...Now Available!

Here are some of my freshly bakes...errr... fakes!

Now available on my Etsy shop.

Please feel free to visit my shop.

Etsy Buy Handmade CreativeAbubot

Freshly Faked!

Here's a peek at my freshly faked cupcakes. These are just pics of my new faux cupcake bases, no frostings and decorations yet.

They look more realistic now, and comes in three flavors...errr...colors! LOL!

Butter, Red Velvet, and Dark Chocolate.

My New Faux Cupcakes, Coming Soon on my Etsy shop!

For Crafters: Tools To Help You Price Your Handmade Products

I'm not a business person and I've always hated dealing with numbers...perhaps that's one reason why I took Arts! :p I love crafting and last year I've decided to sell some of my handmade faux cupcakes online. It was hard for me, as I don't know how to price my items. I asked around my friends on how should I price my work, and they would just reply "just double the material cost!" I would cringed by thought of it, I worked hard for one faux cupcake and then..."just double the material cost!?" :p What about my labor of love? I worked hard for it didn't I? :p

So, yeah, I still sold each for just twice the cost of all my material costings and totally forgetting the labor cost, indirect/overhead cost, the Etsy listing fee, transaction fee, PayPal fees, handling fee, etc. I know I'm such a terrible business person. I barely made profit from my first few sales. But I'm very much thankful for them because they gave me my first positive feedbacks, which gave me some more sales! ;)

It took me a while to fix my pricing. I had to calculate everything right (materials, labor, tranction fees, etc.) Once I got my price, I compared it to others who sell the same items. I pretty much have the same price (some even have higher). So, I guess I calculated right. :)

For other crafters out there who don't want to get all crazy getting you pricing right, here are some free tools to help you get them right:

Free Spreadsheets for Pricing your Work by a great jewelry designer/maker Chris Parry

Etsy Seller Inventory Worksheet - this is and Excel Spreadsheet which helps Etsy sellers track down their inventory and profit.

Make sure that the price is right! ;)

Coming Soon!

I'm pretty happy with my faux cupcakes. I guess I can say that I'm 99% satisfied with the way they look....but there's still this 1% to fill. So, I made some changes!

I change the way I make my fake cupcake bases. A lot more work, but they are now more realistic...and yummier!

I also experimented in using other different materials to embellish my faux cupcakes.

There's also a change in my packaging!

I'll be posting them on my Etsy shop really soon! ...so watch out!!!

P.S. ...yeah, that's a new faux cupcake I made on the photo above.

Girl Goumet Cupcake Maker

I brought my son to Toy Kingdom last weekend. As usual, upon stepping inside the store, he ran to the boys' section...and I, to the girls' side of the store. Yes, I still love toys.

While checking out the MyScene dolls, I glanced upon this shelf with boxes of pinks, browns (which are my favorite colors by the way). I walk towards the shelf to check out these products....and oh my, I was surprised to see boxes of cupcake makers. (They also have Ice Cream Sandwhich Makers!)


The packaging and colors alone are irrisistable. And to know that it'll help you make and decorate cupcakes, it makes me want to take out my credit card and ran to the nearest cashier. But I had to contain myself. I need to check out the internet first if this thing actually works. (I bought a few stuff already that didn't do what the packaging says it can/will do! hehe!)


The Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker includes: Cupcake Maker, Microwave container, Mixing Bowl, Cupcake Holder, 4 Cupcake mixes, 4 Frostings, 1 Pack of Sprinkles, 1 Spoon/Spreader, 4 Cupcake Cups, 4 Recipe Cards. All food made in the USA


Here's the link to the Girl Gourmet website: http://www.mygirlgourmet.com/


There's a video there that shows you how to use the Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker and Girl Gourmet Ice Cream Sandwhich Maker as well. It sure looks so much fun to use these cool toys. But I doubt that the cupcakes and cookies (...and even the frosting) that come in with the package will taste good. Their cupcake and cookie batter looks nasty to me. :p The lady in video doesn't look quite convincing that those cupcakes and ice cream sandwiches actually taste any good.

Well, I don't think all this will matter to little girls who will have fun playing with their Girl Gourmet toys. And as for me, I can just bake real cupcakes, make real frosting and use the Girl Gourmet as a fun tool to decorate my cuppies....if i ever get one! :)


And yes, I still want one! :p

Faux Cupcake Tutorials

Ok, I've been getting a lot of emails about my faux cupcakes...like how do I make them. I've been always asked what is my secret recipe....and the secret recipe to my secret recipe is... a secret recipe! LOL!

Actually, it's no secret at all. My recipe is just "almost" the same as with the other faux cupcake makers out there (refer to the link list below). Although, I figured out mine by myself because during the time I fell in love with this craft, tutorials about making them were scarce. I guess we just vary with our process in making them, and how we wanted the output to be.

I like to work in "stages" and I don't try to finish a faux cupcake in a day. I spent a lot of time making just the base of the cupcake. And it can take me two days or so just making the base...I make sure that they're completely dried. My "process" kind of evolve during this whole time until it got this tedious! I always get ideas in my head and I always try them out. Although I'm trying to come up with a simpler method with the same output...because I get tired too sometimes, and I sleep with a wrist splint! hehe!

Anyways, here are somes links of tutorials I found online that uses "almost" the same materials as I use. Try the tutorials in these links and just add a little of your own creativity! :)

1. this is the first one that I tried - http://gardengoose.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-make-faux-cupcakes.html

2. Here's another great idea to on faking cupcakes:
http://lisatutmanoglesby.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/08/almost-good-enough-to-eat.html

3. I've been searching for the simplest (and quick) method that is closest to mine and these are what I found so far ...it's from Crafty Avenue and another one from Zizooyou:

http://www.craftyavenue.com/school/articles/entry/9/94/

http://zizooyou.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-faux-cupcakes-tutorial.html

ENJOY!

(image: custom made faux cupcakes for Marie Christine Estepa of France)

Mango Crepe on a Hot Day!

Ok, this has nothing to do with faux cupcakes!

It's just soooo hot today (summer here already!) that I thought I'd make myself a mango crepe to cool me down. This is a super simple and yummy dessert...perfect for hot sunny days! :)




Super Easy Mango Crepe

you will need:

-hotcake mix, your preferred brand (I use Pillsbury)
-water or fresh milk
-sweet ripe mango slices
-vanilla ice cream
-chocolate syrup
-optional: whipped cream, chopped nuts, strawberry syrup (too bad I don't have any of these at this time)


Direction:

1. Mix the hotcake mix according to it's package. Thin the hotcake batter with water or milk (I use milk), until it is not thick anymore.



2. Cook your hotcake/crepe on a pan or skillet on a low heat. I use the smoother side of a stove top grill to cook my crepes. You may use the back of a spoon to spread the batter thinly, and a long spatula to flip it over and cook the other side. Do not over cook!



3. Let your crepes cool.


4. Once cooled lay it on a plate. Then you may add scoops of vanilla ice cream and slices of mangoes. If you have whipped cream (which I don't have at this time), you may add some as well!



5. Drizzle chocolate syrup.



6. Fold your crepe. Drizzle with more chocolate syrup. Add more slices of mangoes....then voila! You've got a yummy dessert which will be gone in 60 seconds! LOL!

Oh, yeah, you may also drizzle some strawberry syrup and sprinkle some chopped nuts if you have any available. But it's still fine without them! YUM!




And yes, you may substitute other fruits if mangoes are hard to acquire in your part of the world. Strawberries and peaches are great alternatives, too...of course it won't be called mango crepes anymore! LOL!

Etsy Front Pagers on Flickr!

One of my faux cupcakes was on Etsy front page last 12-10-08. Someone actually convo me about it but I didn't get to see it. Good thing there's Etsy Front Pagers on Flickr. They always upload the screenshots of Etsy front page.