Feeding My Coffee Addiction for A Cause!

As you all may know by now...I'm addicted to coffee - anytime, any flavor, any size, and I'm in love (just don't tell my boyfriend!).  As part of my cupcake experiments, I knew I had to test out some coffee flavored ones - I found these in a cupcake book my mom bought for me and they sounded delish!  Mocha cupcakes with whipped cream icing - and as part of my fundraising for my friend's mom - I thought it would be fun to make 'em MINI!

Mini Mocha Cupcakes (doesn't it just roll off of your tongue!).  Well - I made my first mini batch, and ESPRESSO explosion, oh yeah... super strong espresso flavor.  So, I emailed all of my customers (3 dozen - 3 customers!) and warned them of the strong coffee flavor.  But - I also added a whipped cream icing, some cocoa powder and a tiny piece of dark chocolate and since they are all bite-sized, I figured it would combine really well into a yummy mocha (mini) cupcake!  I think they came out cute, what about you?  BAKE ON!

Cupcakes for a Cause!

With all of my different experiments going on to try out new flavors for cupcakes, I decided that I might as well put my experimentation to good use!  A family friend's mother is battling cancer, and it's been a pretty uphill battle thus far - her son reached out to family and friends to come up with some ideas on how to raise some money to help her out.

Who doesn't love cupcakes?  So, why not take the cupcakes I was experimenting with and sell them?  I figured I would only sell 2 dozen each week and do it for a couple of weeks.  After posting my Caramel Apple cupcakes on Facebook - I received FIVE orders for 12 cupcakes!  Can you believe it?  So, I made a whole bunch of cupcakes (new apple spice recipe that I tested out..YUMMY).  Then I made a caramel buttercream from scratch, for the first time.  It wasn't so much of a piping buttercream, but more of a glaze!  The only thing is...the caramel overpowered some of the apple flavor, but combined it was one pretty sweet snack!

Next up - I am thinking some sort of java/chocolate/coffee flavored cupcake.  I will post on Facebook the flavor and when they will be available.  I think I may limit these to just 24 cupcakes because I don't have a lot of time in the upcoming weeks - but every little bit helps!  Take a look at the cupcakes below, what do you think?  Festive, right?  Bake ON!

Are You A Belieber?

This was a fun cake!  It was for my boss' daughter - she was turning 11 years old, and what else would an 11 year old girl want for her birthday cake?  JUSTIN BEIBER!  (When I was 11...I got *NSYNC).  I sent her some options from ideas I found on the internet - and she chose a rectangle, zebra printed cake with a giant photo of Justin Beiber at the top.

With multiple layers of chocolate and vanilla cake, and chocolate and vanilla buttercream, this was a MASSIVE cake!  But it was fun and easy - as the cakes were in the oven, I prepped the purple fondant starts and balls for the exterior. And covering the cake was surprisingly easy, it definitely is true, practice makes perfect.  I added some purple sparkles, some metal swirls, and then Justin!  I ordered an edible photo and made a stand out of graham crackers, and mounted that on cardboard to be sturdy.

The hardest part was delivery - the cake was beyond heavy!  But I made it up the elevator and to the bowling alley and Sami loved the cake!  It is by far my favorite cake of the year, what do you think?  Bake on!

Gum Paste Flowers!

Today was an adventure!  I bought a living social deal to try a cake decorating class on how to make sugar flowers from The Sugar Flower Cake Shop in NYC!  I signed up and showed up to this awesome studio bakery in the fashion district!

Once the class got started, after thoroughly washing our hands (sing Happy Birthday 2x) we stood at our tables and started to learn how to make orchid petals out of gum paste.  We learned the difference between gum paste and fondant (which I never knew before!) and got started.  It was definitely something different, and you had to be very delicate.  The gum paste takes about 24 hours to dry, so we used some pre-prepared petals to assemble, and our samples will be used for future classes.

We had to carefully assemble the flowers, piece by piece and then we assembled a butterfly.  I learned some tips on how to better use a piping bag to pipe a cake with buttercream - we made 4in. cakes to bring home.  After everything was assembled separately (and our cakes but in the refrigerator to harden),we used edible colored dust to make our flowers even more colorful and then placed together for our basket of flowers.  Take a look at my cake basket and let me know your thoughts...I'm looking forward to making some more flowers, so stay tuned and BAKE ON!

A Quarter of A Century Weekend!

This cake was for an amazing celebration, a 25th wedding anniversary for the parents of one of my friends!  Wow, 25 years - isn't that amazing?!  My friend planned a fabulous outdoor surprise party for her parents, including a custom cake by me!  Using silver and white, I created this red velvet (ooooh yeah, from scratch!) tiered cake with hand-piped designs and silver and white pearls!

To make sure her parents would like red velvet, I sneakily gave them my cupcakes to "taste-test" after a failed attempt at red velvet, I finally nailed the recipe, and the cake was a huge success!  The party was a complete surprise and they loved the cake!  Check out pics below! (This weekend was also my cousin's 25th birthday, he loves oreos - so I made him my cookies 'n' cream cupcakes from a few weeks ago, yummy!)

Now I'm off to taste test some new cupcakes...stay tuned and remember to bake on!!! 

Beauty & Andi Part II

It was one of my first blog posts last year - Beauty & Andi!  My cousin Andi turned 4 this year- and as usual I made her cake.  I was hoping to make her something different this year, maybe a castle or a different Disney Princess.  BUT - what did she want?  Belle, from Beauty and the Beast.  The exact same cake I made her last year!

I made a few modifications this year - I used a different doll (barely!) and I also used a different icing tip to give her dress a different finish.  Last year her dress had this rippling effect and this year, I did little stars.  The one element that stayed the same - were the sparkles! I love making my princesses sparkle, it adds such a magical touch to the cake.  The only downfall...is I end up with sparkles all over me and my kitchen!  Oh well..sparkles never hurt anyone.  Which one do you prefer?  This years or last years cake?!  BAKE ON :)

Taste Test!

This week I experimented with yet another flavor of cupcake! (by the way - the bride and groom LOVED the cookies n cream cupcakes!) But this week - I went with my mom's favorite- lemon and raspberry.  She loves lemon cake  - and she also loves raspberry martinis!  I found this great recipe online that used Chambord in the cupcake and the icing - and knowing that we had some left over Chambord, I figured why not!

The cupcakes came out nice and light - and had a great lemon taste thanks to fresh lemon juice and lemon zest.  The icing was super sweet but it balanced out the cupcake perfectly.  My mom loved them and I brought some over to a friends house for a party and they were a huge hit!  I think next time I would change up the icing to make it a little less sweet!  But check out the recipe I followed here, from Bakedbree.com.  Soo yummy!  Bake on!