It's a first birthday!

A few weeks ago, I was asked to make cupcakes for a friend's baby's first birthday. I can't believe she's already 1 - time has certainly flown by!

This little girl has a very special blanket/stuffed animal, affectionately called her "lovie". It's a soft pink blanket, with a stuffed animal black dog head in the middle, and a cute doggie tail sticking out from the back of the blanket. Naturally, it made sense to include the lovie on her very special first birthday.

We decided on vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, topped with chocolate and vanilla buttercream, and lovie cupcake toppers. Here are a few pictures from the party:





Happy birthday!!!

Welcome Back!

It has been a long (long, long, long) time since I last posted! The holiday season seemed to go by incredibly fast this year, and my poor blog has been ignored :( But - I'm back - and I promise to start posting more often! Several people have asked for the template I use for my cupcake wrappers - so stay tuned for a tutorial coming soon!

So now for the sugar! Starting with my annual holiday party. We had tons of desserts - pumpkin and red velvet whoopie pies, chocolate peppermint cupcakes, sugar cookies, and more.







And onto my family's Christmas dessert:


Recently, it's been all about wedding cake tastings. Here are a few pictures from a tasting I hosted yesterday:







Now for a little technology! For my birthday this year - I was the lucky recipient of a machine called the Craft Robo. It's an absolutely fantastic precision cutting plotter - here's an example of what it can do in no time flat:



I'm planning to use it to create some custom stencil sets, and it will definitely make the cupcake wrapper making process a lot easier!

The second device I recently purchased was an edible icing printer system. Stay tuned for a post coming soon to hear all about it, and see what it can do!

Happy Halloween!

Readers! Many apologies for the lack of posts lately. I hand surgery a few weeks ago, and am finally able to bake again!

This week, I created some super cute Halloween cupcake toppers, including ghosts, witch hats, and pumpkins. The toppers are made from fondant, and dusted with pearl dust. The ghosts are definitely my favorite :)

A post dedicated to my love :)

Many great things have happened in my life over the past year of cake decorating - I've made some great baking friends (like Jenni!), and I've gone from making cakes for small family events to making wedding cakes (and cupcakes!) for over 250 people. And I really couldn't have done it without the support from my wonderful boyfriend Devin. Even when I'm losing faith in myself at 1am, still far from being done with a cake - you never do. You are my trusted QA tester. You run out for me to get ingredients that I forgot, and you never fail to keep me as calm as possible while delivering 4-tiered wedding cakes. I can't thank you enough for all of your support - I couldn't be doing this without you!

I woke up this morning all excited to make a special breakfast for Devin. I decided on Joy the Baker's chocolate chip pancakes - and they did not disappoint. The whole recipe makes enough to serve 4 hungry people; thankfully our neighbor's daughter still had a little bit of room after eating her own breakfast to help us a put a dent in the mound of pancakes I made. These pancakes are SO good - I highly encourage you to try them out!



Adapted from Joy the Baker:

2 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2- 3/4 cup milk chocolate chips (I used 3/4 cup, half semi sweet, half white chocolate chips)

Butter or cooking spray (for cooking)

Step 1: In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add buttermilk, butter and vanilla and mix well. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well until mostly smooth. Fold in chocolate chips and let batter set for a few minutes.

Step 2: Heat griddle or pan over medium heat. Add a teaspoon of oil to the pan or spray with cooking spray. You can test to see if the pan is hot enough by adding a few drops of water, if or when the drops start to dance its hot enough.

Step 3: Pour batter onto the griddle (I used 1/3 cup batter per pancake). Cook on the first side until bubbles that form start to pop. You can also gently lift up the pancake to make sure the bottom is not overcooking, if it is the pan may be too hot and you will need to adjust the heat. Flip the pancake over with a spatula and cook until golden brown. Repeat until all the batter is gone. Let cooked pancakes rest on a heat proof plate in a 200 degree F oven until ready to serve.

LIfe is a Beach

My apologies for the lack of posts lately! Now that my life has calmed down a bit, I hope to be posting much more frequently :)

I made this cake a few weeks ago for a bridal shower. This Tiffany blue beach themed cake was decorated with pearl dusted gum paste shells and a fondant bead border. The bottom tier was yellow cake with chocolate ganache filling, and the top tier was chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling. Everyone at the bridal shower absolutely loved the cake, and the bride-t0-be said it was one of her favorite things of the day!