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!

From Scratch...

Knowing that today was going to be a gross day out (and it was...pouring rain all day!) I knew it was a perfect day to check out some new recipes.  And I had the perfect excuse to practice - one of my brother's friends is getting married next weekend - so I am making cupcakes for their rehearsal dinner!

I wanted to make something new and from scratch - just to test out some new recipes.  I was debating between vanilla bean and lemon, but nothing seemed to catch my eye.  UNTIL - I saw this amazing cookies and cream recipe (check out the recipe here from Annie's Eats blog!)  They came out delicious - I had my family taste test them for my trial run.  I will definitely try and tweak the recipe in the future to put my own little spin on it, but it is an amazing recipe!  The cupcakes look super cute, and are moist and yummy!  I can't wait to try batch number 2 and make them even prettier for the rehearsal!

Congrats!  And I am looking forward to more experiments - so stay tuned and BAKE ON!

Hook 'em!

This past weekend I travelled up to a small town on the border of New York and Vermont to visit one of my best friends from college. She is moving to Texas to go to grad school, and she was throwing a good-bye celebration. She asked me if I could help her with a cake - and of course I said yes.  How could I not make her a going away cake? 

At first, she wanted the state flag of Texas on a sheet cake - but once I was up there, we decided to do the Texas logo, the Longhorns.  It was a basic sheet cake, that I iced and then piped the Longhorn logo (free hand) and then piped along the edges of the cake to polish it off.  Everyone enjoyed the cake, and Marie was quite impressed!  So best of luck best friend, and hook 'em!

Bake on!

Under the Sea!

It's been a while since I've made a Disney Princess cake - but when I got the opportunity to make a new Princess - of course, I hopped on it!  One of my best friends from school, wanted to surprise his girlfriend with a birthday party (and of course, cake!).  She has amazing beautiful red hair, and she loves The Little Mermaid, and after some thinking - I figured it would be awesome to do a doll cake!

But, how did I do a dress, if Ariel really never wears a signature dress? Well, I used the dress to be the water, and her fin/tail was outlined in the water!  With the base of the cake as the sand/bottom of the ocean.  Everything on the cake was edible, the sand, the flowers, the fishies (yup - those are colored gold fish!), and even Flounder!  The cake was a huge hit, and of course, she was surprised!  Her birthday is this week (and so is my mom's!) so Happy Birthday to the both of them :)  May there be many more!  Check out the pics below, and let me know what you think.

Bake on!

A Typical 4th Of July!

Well...I now understand how easily it is to let hobbies and crafts that you passionately care about fade away.  Work!  Work just gets in the way.  But, it's okay - I am trying to find a way to incorporate my love of baking (and giving back) and business all into one!  Oh yes...I have a plan, but hush hush - it's just in the "idea" stage!

In the meantime, I am still baking here and there.  I just haven't gone over the top with cakes because I'm thoroughly enjoying my summer - lots of sun, pools, friends and family!  And what perfect way to celebrate all of that than on the 4th of July!  And it wouldn't be a 4th if I didn't make a cake.  This cake has been made numerous times, multiple different ways and I kind of just made it quickly to have something patriotic and  yummy!  I did a vanilla whipped icing (so yummy and light for summer!) with fresh strawberries and blueberries.  I was going more for taste and a light summer dessert considering the amount of food we had at our family BBQ!  Check out the cake below :)

Look forward to more cakes...I have a few more coming up this summer and remember to BAKE ON!