In the Kitchen with Tamra!

Editor’s Note: This is Tamra’s first post with Grace & Spunk, so she is showing us some of her best baking/cooking highlights. Her upcoming posts will be how-tos so you can recreate some of her baking goodness at home! Enjoy!

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I wanted to use my first post as an introduction. They say most people are either good at baking or cooking, luckily I think I am good at both, and my friends and family seem to agree. I usually bake more because being a single gal in the city cooking a meal every night isn’t always practical, especially when I am usually at a show or dance class. I do every so often make a meal and then use it for leftovers the next couple of days. I love to take pictures, randomly burst out in song, go to dance class, and don’t always believe in wearing matching colors.

I bake when I am bored, or when I am sad, or if I need a special gift for someone. Nothing picks spirits up like giving someone something you made and seeing their face light up. In my bio on the site I mentioned that I also love theater. Sometimes I am inspired to create things for shows or the people in them. The following are pictures of some of my favorite baked goodies!

Bailey’s Irish Cream Cupcakes, with chocolate shavings:

Irish Cream Cupcakes
© Tamra Sheehan

I made a cake for Landon Beard the day he left Altar Boyz, one of my favorite shows. Yes I even cut a small picture of him out, laminated it, and put it in the window.

The Altar Boyz Van Cake
© Tamra Sheehan

I cannot take credit for this idea which came from Broadway’s Hunter Bell. He suggested that people should make a Tony Award cake, so I did.

Tony Award Cake
© Tamra Sheehan

I even had to go to Home Depot to get supplies! The base is made out of cake, and then the medallion was a large rice krispy treat. I used edible glitter to make it god, and used gold glitter gel to draw the detail on the medallion. I used a marshmallow covered in the same manner and a wooden dowel ran through the whole thing to support it. I was convinced the cake would fall apart but amazingly it lasted an hour or so before we cut into it.

Assembling the Tony Award Cake
© Tamra Sheehan

One of my favorite bands, Van Tramp, had this as their log so one day I made a cupcake inspired by it. Sadly the band is no longer a group but at least I still have their music!

Van Tramp Star Cupcake
© Tamra Sheehan

This was a shot made for New Year’s Eve. It tasted like a chocolate covered pineapple and I put vodka infused whip cream on top. I mean really who would have thought, and it turned out to look super cute!

Fun NYE Shot
© Tamra Sheehan

I love a good Piña Colada and after the making the Irish cream cupcakes I thought to myself that I should try this next. I spent a lot of time searching on the net for a good pineapple coconut type cake and frosting recipe, but they all seemed to be far too complicated for a quick cupcake or I didn’t like the balance of ingredients. Then I got a brilliant idea! I decided I would use white cake mix, and instead of water I made it with a Piña Colada drink mixer! I also had a can of pineapple chunks so I pureed them in my blender and made frosting out of cream cheese, butter, Piña Colada mix, and the pureed pineapple… it was almost sinful! I made them right before Easter so I put these little bunny toothpicks I got from Michael’s in.

Piña Colada Cupcake
© Tamra Sheehan

It was national margarita day so naturally my roomie and I decided what better thing than to have a margarita! We found your typical frozen margarita recipe online, but instead of using ice, I decided to use frozen pineapple. It was pretty much the best idea ever!

I love rainbows and I love cupcakes so made rainbow cupcakes!

So I love Godspell, currently playing at The Circle in the Square theater on Broadway. There is a scene where Jesus is separating the goats from the sheep. I wanted to make cake pops and give them to the cast. I thought about what I could do for a really long time and then this idea popped into my head. I envisioned making goats and sheep, but didn’t actually that I would be able to pull it off… sure enough I did! I made 5 goats, 4 sheep, and a Jesus. I used fondant for their heads, and the horns, and goat eyes and ears. They came out so well I almost didn’t want to give them away!

I really love onion soup, I really really do! I found this recipe online and it sounded delicious! It called for a Dutch over and said it would take 4 hours… crazy right? It was so worth it! You can see the onions caramelizing in various stages and then the final result, it was yummy! I will change a few things the next time I make it through!

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Tamra Sheehan, contributor, is a spunky girl originally from Dracut, MA but now considers NYC to be her home. She is a lover of all things theatre, and never goes anywhere without a sharpie or camera! She loves the number 4 and most importantly gets insane joy from baking and cooking, just not the dishes that goes along with it!!!!

Grace & Spunk

Reclaim. Create. Thrive.

In the Kitchen with Tamra!

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