Confirmation cake

I really enjoyed working on this cake. It had been a couple years since I last made a cake with butter cream roses. I forgot how much I enjoyed them! There are 3 sizes of roses in 4 different colors for a total of 75
 roses :)

First Communion pool party cake

Buttermilk cake with vanilla/almond butter cream with fondant details for a first communion pool party. I have known Sebastian since he was 3, so it was a pleasure to make him this cake :)

Graduation cake

                  Graduation cake for a special lady who graduated from Cardinal Gibbons and is headed to Georgia Tech this fall. Buttercream icing with fondant details.

Teacher appriciation cookie arrangements

I LOVE making cookie pops! I had a request to make some as an end of year gift. I had so much fun making them I want to make some more! They could also be flowers or any other shapes. 

 Large cookie pop arrangement $30 (dozen cookie pops)

 

Small cookie arrangement $20 (7cookie pops)

UNC Graduation cake, take 2

I had someone email me this week asking if I could replicate my last UNC graduation cake. It's not exactly the same, but pretty similar. It reads: "Congratulations G-6" as it was for a group of roommates from one of their dads. Chocolate cake, buttercream icing, covered in fondant with fondant details.

Jack's First Birthday!!

This post is much more personal than most. My little guy turned one this past weekend! I still can't believe it! At first I was thinking about making a big elaborate cake, but decided cupcakes would be best. As we were having 50+ people coming, I decided cupcakes would be easier. That way people could eat sweets whenever they wanted, instead of having to wait for us to cut a cake. Plus, we weren't sure how Jack would react if everyone was staring at him and singing at the same time.

After breakfast on Friday, his birthday, Jack got his first real taste of sugar.
 A mini banana cupcake with chocolate icing. He LOVED it :) 

I may have gone a little over board with the dessert table.
 Counting different icing combinations, and the chocolate covered strawberries which weren't pictured,
 there were 17 desserts

 I decided to label the treats so people could decide what they wanted easier: 

 At his party Jack got to have a mini funfetti cupcake with vanilla icing. He enjoyed it, but not as much as he enjoyed the chocolate :)

Strawberry ruffle cake

Strawberry mousse cake apadted from this month's Southern Living. this cake is 6 inches tall and round! I picked the strawberries yesterday @ Oakley Farm :)This was my first time playing with ruffles, I am usually not a fan of pink or girly things, like ruffles. But the strawberries made for too pretty of an icing color. Next time I won't go with an all butter icing recipe as it got too warm, too quickly, but was still fun to do.

Easter petal cake

I was really happy with the last petal cake I did, so I decided to make another one for Easter. This time I decided to use multiple colors of icing, I didn't think about how much more time it would take, but I am really happy with how it turned out. The flower is gumpaste, brushed with bronze pearl dust, and orange color dust.
The cake it self was made with a Wilton fill pan, so there is basically just as much filling as their is cake! Buttermilk cake, with dolce de leite creme filling, caramel/vanilla butter cream icing.
Happy Easter Everyone!

Matthew 28:5-6 ESV

But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said"

Candyland!

This is the third year I have gotten to make Elsa's cake. This year she requested a tall, Candyland themed cake. We have gotten a ton of rain lately, and I had forgotten how annoying fondant can be when it's so humid! But, I had a TON of fun with this cake! I really enjoyed getting to work with all the little pieces and details. It's a pretty simple design but I really love how it all turned out. Her other request was a to have a little yellow game piece. The bottom tier is funfetti (yellow cake with sprinkles) and the top tier is chocolate with mini chocolate chips, both with buttercream then covered with fondant. Elsa was SUPER excited to see her cake, which made all the frustration of working with fondant in humid weather worth it :)

Ninjagos

My little brother usually doesn't request anything specific for his cakes. He typically just wants cupcakes. This year he had a specific request. He wanted me a handful of little figures and said he wanted those specific ones in cupcakes. I offer to make one big guy as I have the lego character pan I have used in the past for Starwars Lego cakes, but no he insisted on cupcakes.

I had no idea what Ninjagos were, but quickly learned kids are obsessed with them.

Butter milk cupcakes, half with vanilla and half with chocolate icing.

Coconut caramel cupcakes :)

These were a lot of fun to make! I love girls scout's cookies, especially caramel delights! So I decided to make some cupcakes that highlight the most important parts of the cookie.
For me these cookies are all about the coconut, caramel and crunch. I LOVE chocolate, but it's not the main thing that I think about when it comes to these cookies. So, while chocolate was a part of these cookies, they weren't the may part. I have also discovered the Keebler makes an awesome cookie that is very similar, if not identical to the girl scout version, they are called Coconut Dreams. I used them for this recipe as I can get a box of 18 for $2.38 at Target! (and that's without coupons)

cupcakes :
1 1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup salted butter (room temp)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup toasted coconut (plus extra for sprinkling over the cupcakes)
18 caramel delight cookies (or Kebblers Coconut Dream)


1. Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 cupcake cups, place one cookie in each cup.
2. Cream sugar and butter, add vanilla and egg.
3. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and buttermilk
4. mix in toasted coconut
5. I use a cookie scoop to get even cupcakes
6. Bake for 15-17 minutes

Icing: I have no idea where the original recipe came from, I adapted it from a hand written recipe that was in my recipe notebook

1 1/4 cup brown sugar
6 Tlbs salted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp baking soda
8 oz powder sugar

In a sauce pan mix brown sugar and cream, bring to a rapid boil. Boil for one minute, mix in baking soda, boil 1 minute. Take away from heat, put in butter, DO NOT MIX.
Let it cool in fridge for 2 hours. Put in mixing bowl, beat until creamy, the color will get pretty light. Mix in the sugar. If icing is too runny you can add a little more sugar, if too stiff you can add more cream or water.

Topping:

toasted coconut

1/2 cookie (not really necessary)

chocolate drizzle- I used ghirardelli milk chocolate

Cate's cupcakes

Cate requested pink flowers with pink centers and Carolina blue icing. I love when little kids know exactly what they want and being about to produce it :)
Half vanilla, half chocolate all with blue vanilla butter cream and gumpaste flowers.

Polka dots babyshower

Half chocolate, half vanilla, with almond/vanilla buttercream. The toppers were made to match the dolkadot invitations. Simple but cute :)

Turtle cupcakes

These were another one of the just for fun cupcakes. These are soooo yummy! I am not a big icing fan, and even with just a little icing these are awesome! Super yummy chocolate cupcakes, with a hint of coffee, with a turtle inside, toped with super chocolate icing (almost a pound of chocolate in enough icing for 12 cupcakes!), caramel and pecans!

Percy Jackson cupcakes

When Mac requested Percy Jackson cupcakes, I had no idea who or what Percy Jackson was. I learned that Percy Jackson is a series of books. Mac requested Pegasus, Poseidon's trident and empire state building cupcakes. I really enjoy detailed work, which is why I LOVE doing things with flowers, so I was excited about these. I am really happy with how they turned out!
Half the cupcakes were vanilla, other half chocolate, all with butte cream and topped with fondant toppers.

Banana cupcakes

These were the second cupcakes I tried this week. I am a big fan of chocolate and bananas. I also know a lot of people who like peanut butter and banana sandwiches. So, I decided to top half of the cupcakes with peanut butter and half with chocolate icing. I also like a little crunch, so I sprinkled them with chopped pecans :) These were also tasty and I will be making them again. I am thinking it may be a good choice for Jack's first cupcake on his birthday!

peanut butter, chocolate cupcakes

I am really enjoying trying out new recipes every week. It had been a while since I was inspired to try new things out. I tried out two new recipes this week. This was the first one. The cupcakes ended up being a little dry, so I made them again, which a different chocolate cupcake, yesterday. I am not a big peanut butter fan, but these were yummy! There's just something magical about chocolate and peanut butter. Each cupcake also got a little reese's cup in the center. On my second trial with these, I pushed the reese's in more so you didn't get to it right away :) I will definitely be making these again!

Cookie cupcakes with mini candy bars

This was another, just for fun, recipe. This one comes from the same blog, Amanda & Kevin, the valentine's day, brownie/cookie bar came from. I topped them with buttercream and peanut M&ms. I am not a huge icing fan, so I left half of them without the icing. Justin said he preferred them without the icing, so I may find a different way to finish them off on the next time. The recipe is really simple, and I was amazed on how easily it came off the mini cupcake pan, as there are no liners. They are pretty yummy, next time I will add nuts to the batter and use the caramel kisses. The different filling/topping combinations for this one are endless!!

Sweet Tea, lemon cupcakes

Becky, from Cakes by Becky, and I are taking turns trying out recipes from this list of the 28 best cupcakes. This is the first one I have tried out. It's supposed to be vegan, but I used regular milk as I already had it instead of buying soymilk. The cupcake was super moist and yummy, but it didn't have much of a tea taste to it. I am not a big lemon flavor girl, but I really enjoyed this icing. I will be trying these again, but it more tea and see how it turns out. The current plan is to try a new recipe a week, so we'll see how it goes :)

Gael's baby celebration cupcakes

Gael was born 8 weeks premature, back in December. We weren't able to have a shower before he was born, so, yesterday we were finally about to celebrate him. Buttermilk cupcakes, filled and iced with dolce de leite icing, fondant details.

Petal cake

I saw this technique and had to try it out! So, this cake was done just for fun. I had some chocolate fondant left over so I decided to make a brown fantasy flower to go with it.

Buttermilk cake (my current favorite), dolce de elite filling and buttercream icing.

I LOVE how it turned out and have tons of ideas on how to use this in the future :)