Yummy Yarn, Pasta Cupcakes and a Twinkie of a Different Sort

For those of you who don't know, Twinkie Chan is a Crocheter of food related goodness! She is best known for crocheting scarves:

 

 

She does manage to crochet lots of other cute things for sale at her Etsy Shop and you can find her patterns in her latest book.

My Pasta Mania! Cupcakes

Get a Thumbs Up From Twinkie Chan!

A fan since 2009, with no idea how to crochet, her designs inspired me to pick up a hook and take a stab at needle crafting. So you can imagine my excitement when I entered a local baking contest and not only was she a prize sponsor, but she also liked my entry. *AWESOME* Well, I did not get very far with my crochet endeavour, or my recipe for Pastamania! Cupcakes (Boo Hoo!) so I decidedly took up knitting instead (Yay!). I didn't win the contest, but having her comment on my cupcakes made entering worth it! I haven't given up on crochet either; every now and then I'll sit down with my how to book and practice. One day I'll crochet like the wind ;)

This past weekend I took a peek inside the studio of Twinkie Chan! She gave RobbieLee, author of Chickadee, the inside scoop. It was just how I imagined it would be; a candy land of yarn! Go Check it out and get inspired!

The Hulkster's Pastamania! CupCakes ala Yarn-Zombie

My submission for Sugar Slam III:

A Wrestling Themed Bake Off

 

Aside from knitting, I also dabble in baking. I'm no Martha Stewart but I can make a pretty mean cupcake! For the past two years I have entered Bake and Destroy's wrestling themed bake off, Sugar Slam III.

 

Last year's submission was dubbed Candy Land Cage Match, paying homage to Beth Phoenix, who happened to be judging last year's contest. This year, although he's not a judge, I decided to reincarnate Hulk Hogan's Pastamania! in cupcake form.

For those of you not familiar with Hulk Hogan's Pastamania!, it was a restaurant which opened at the Mall of America, in the mid 90's, that didn't get very far. I thought I would pay homage to Hulk Hogan's penchant for pasta, while meshing it with my love of pastry.

 

Pastamaniacs look no further, for I have just the cupcake for you!

 

THE HULKSTER'S PASTAMANIA! CUPCAKES:

 

INGREDIENTS:

Yellow cake mix

Vanilla frosting

Cocoa Powder

Ferrero Rochers

White Chocolate Bar

Strawberry Perseves

(Low Sugar) *the color is the best*

Yellow food coloring

*not shown

Cupcake Liners

Ziplock bag

-Go ahead and bake your cupcakes as specified on the box.

-Tint the frosting with 1/2 tsp of the cocoa powder and three drops of yellow food coloring.

-Frost cupcakes.

-Put remaining frosting in the Ziplock bag with a small corner snipped off.

-Arrange cupcakes and pipe liberally with frosting.

-Toss the Ferrero Rochers in the strawberry preserves

-Spoon some preserves onto cupcakes and place the "meatballs" onto each cupcake.

-Grate some white chocolate over the top and you're done :)

 

Happy Baking!

 

(Stop by Sugar Slam's Flickr and let me know what you think!)