(Almost) Anime Food Re-creation: K-On!!-inspired Fried Rice

Hey everyone! It's been awhile since I posted an Anime Food Re-creation so I thought I'd make another. On today's menu is fried rice inspired by the anime K-On!!

K-On!! - Yui's okayu (rice porridge) for Ui

Baking Adventure: Super Mario Mushroom Cupcakes

Happy Easter, everyone!

I have a super sweet treat for you today. Super Mario Mushroom Cupcakes!

To make these cupcakes, I just used boxed yellow cake mix and canned vanilla frosting that was tinted with different gel food coloring. Super easy! Be sure to overfill your cupcake cups a little (almost to the top) so you get a nice domed shape. One tub of frosting was more than enough for my cupcakes. I just spooned the frosting into separate bowls and added enough food coloring to get the right shade of color. You want to make more frosting than you think you'll need because it's really hard to make a new batch with the exact same color shade. For the spots, I just used different colored candy melts. It really can't get much simpler than this!

Super Mario - Super Mushroom

Super Mario - Super Mushroom Cupcake

To make the Super Mushroom and the Triple Mushrooms, I used frosting tinted with Wilton's gel food coloring in Red Red. The spots were made with Wilton's White Candy Melts.

Mario Kart - Triple Mushrooms

Mario Kart - Triple Mushrooms Cupcakes

April Fool's Day: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip/Raisin (or Craisin) Cookies

I don't know about you guys, but I hate biting into a chocolate chip cookie only to find it's made with raisins! It makes me angry. Like the cookie lied to me! Grrrr...

But then I thought to myself: You know... this would make a great April Fool's prank! Since I'm always baking, no one would think twice if I make cookies and if I don't like deceitful "chocolate chip" cookies, I'm sure others won't either

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip/Raisin (or Craisin) Cookies for April Fool's

To pull off this diabolical plan, I made a batch of Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from the recipe under the Quaker Oatmeal lid. I divided the batter in half and mixed in chocolate chips for one half and craisins for the other half. (I didn't have raisins on hand.) After the cookies were baked and cooled, I mixed them up in the cookie jar and waited for my first victim.

In short, my prank was a success! After his first oatmeal craisin cookie, my brother became really paranoid - examining each cookie carefully before deeming it safe to eat. Ironically, I found that I liked the oatmeal craisin cookies more than the chocolate chip version. What a surprise! I was trying to get the craisin ones! I really like craisins (but not so much raisins) so I guess that explains my enthusiasm for oatmeal craisin cookies but dislike of oatmeal raisin cookies.

All in all, this was a fun culinary adventure! A bit of baking with a pinch whimsy = innocent fun on April Fool's Day! What pranks will you be pulling on unsuspecting people? >:]