Baseball Baby Shower Cupcakes

 Baseball themed baby shower for a baby boy!

 

 Half Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting

Half Chocolate with Peanut Butter Frosting

Made with Marshmallow Fondant handmade baseball accents

 

Owl Gender Reveal Cupcakes

Owl Themed Gender Reveal Cupcakes

 

Guess WHOO

 

Pink OR Blue

 

Step-by-step of how I made my Buttercream Owls

 

 

MJ turns ONE

For my son's first birthday I choose a Sock Monkey theme. I designed his smash cake to match the invitation we sent out, a sock monkey on the top and argyle on the side in red, blue and brown.

 

 

Love this color scheme!

 

 

Not so sure about frosting....or cake.

 

For the cupcakes:

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Regular size Banana Cupcakes with Vanilla and Nutella Swirl Buttercream

Topped with handmade marshmallow fondant Sock Monkey's

 

The Aftermath



 

Gluten- Free Lemon Cupcakes

Recently I threw a big beautiful baby for a friend and co-worker of mine recently. The theme was Children's Books with a gray and yellow color scheme. Since the mommy-to-be's MIL has a gluten intolerance, I did my best to accommodate and provide some food and dessert options for her.  

 

I made a regular Strawberry cupcake with Strawberry buttercream frosting and then make a semi-homemade Gluten-Free Lemon Cupcake with Lemon Buttercream.

 

 

Semi-Homemade Lemon Cupcakes

 

1 box (15 oz) Betty Crocker® Gluten Free yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup water
3 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons grated lemon peel

Heat oven to 350°F. Place paper baking cup in each of 12 regular-size muffin cups. In large bowl, stir cake mix, water, 1/2 cup melted butter, the eggs and lemon peel just until dry ingredients are moistened. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake 18 to 23 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool.

Gluten Free Lemon Frosting 

• ½ cup butter at room temperature
• ¼ cup cream cheese at room temperature
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar (make sure it’s made with corn starch)
• 2-3 tablespoons half & half
• a drizzling of more freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:

• Whip butter and cream cheese together using a standing mixer with the paddle attachment: whip together at medium speed for 2 minutes.
• Slowly add sifted sugar to icing on slow speed, gently increasing to medium speed for 5 minutes.
• Mix in other ingredients and continue mixing until smooth, fluffy, and creamy.

Pig Cupcakes

Birthday Pig Cupcakes

These are Fresh Strawberry cupcake with a Strawberry Buttercream frosting adorned with marshmallow fondant for the snouts and ears.

So cute! 

Under the Sea

"The seaweed is always greener

In somebody else's lake

You dream about going up there

But that is a big mistake

Just look at the world around you

Right here on the ocean floor

Such wonderful things surround you

What more is you lookin' for?

Under the sea

Under the sea

Darling it's better

Down where it's wetter

Take it from me

Up on the shore they work all day

Out in the sun they slave away

While we devotin'

Full time to floatin'

Under the sea"

I just love "The Little Mermaid". When I think of an Under the Sea party this song pops in my head and plays over and over.

I had the pleasure of making little Miss Gracyn's birthday cake again this year. Her favorite Disney princess is Ariel! So for her birthday this year she had an Under the Sea birthday party theme and her mother requested the most perfect cake for her...

An aqua blue ombre ruffle cake!

It was my first time making BOTH fondant ruffles and using the ombre effect. I watched a couple tutorials on YouTube for tips then tried it out on my own. I love how it turned out.

 Up close ruffles, my favorite picture :)

The cake is made from a 4-inch round top tier and a 6-inch round bottom tier. Both tiers are chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream covered in marshmallow fondant. In order to get the ruffles to stick up and not break, I mixed equal parts fondant with pre-made white gumpaste purchased from my local craft store.

Better Than Sex Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting and Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream.

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

I love looking at this cake!

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Gingerbread cupcake with a Spiced Gingerbread Buttercream

Adorned with edible pearls

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

These have been on my Baking Bucket list and on my mind for a long time. Apparently I'm not the only one! My friend Tera had Caramel Apple cupcakes as one of her flavors at her wedding a year and a half ago, ever since her mother has been thinking about them and wanting them again. So I got a special request for them, along with 3 other flavors for Tera's sister's graduation celebration.  

Caramel Apple and Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I, of course made extra to test out for my husband and I. Dave gets to be my guinea pig a lot, lucky him! He got to be the first to try the Caramel Apple Cupcakes out. He was such a fan that after his first bite he actually cussed! I won't repeat what he said but it was his way of saying "These are awesome!" ;)

They are made with a fresh apple cake that is so moist and flavorful then topped with a caramel buttercream (made with homemade caramel sauce) and garnished with an apple slice dipped in caramel sauce.

I think these are one of my new favorites!!

Colorful 3rd birthday

With vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, and peanut butter cupcakes!

Assortment Birthday Cupcakes

Better Than Sex and Cookies 'n Cream

Chocolate with Peanut Butter Frosting

Orange Dreamsicle

Hawkeye Graduates

Another school year has come to an end....congrats to all the new graduates of 2012!!

This weekend the University of Iowa is holding their commencements and we know two wonderful students who will be receiving their diplomas.

  These two special students requested chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

I adorned these yummy graduations cupcakes with tiny little graduation caps, cute little diplomas, the U of I Tigerhawk, and a “2012” pennant. I think they turned out adorable!!

Congrats Matt and Casey on your huge accomplishment!

DIY Cupcake Stand

Cupcake Stand Instructions (holds 48-120 cupcakes)

Source: http://www.sweetcreationsbystephanie.com/2010/03/cupcake-stand-tutorial.html

Supplies:  

3 foam core boards, ¼” thick Dimensions: 20” x 30” (available at Staples or Michael's)

Exacto knife

Ruler

Hot glue gun

Modge Podge adhesive

Paper (wrapping paper or ten pieces of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper)

Ribbon (5 yards)

Directions:

1. Make your cuts…

    a.) Foam board piece 1
         cut a square 20” x 20” = Tier 1
         cut a square 8” x 8” = Tier 4
    b.) Foam board piece 2
         cut a square 16” x 16” = Tier 2
         cut a square 12” x 12” = Tier 3

2. Cut your tier supports…using Foam board piece 3
    a.) for tier 1…cut 4 strips 2” high x 10” long
    b.) for tier 2…cut 4 strips 4” high x 8” long
    c.) for tier 3…cut 4 strips 4” high x 6” long
    d.) for tier 4…cut 4 strips 4” high x 4” long

3. If you plan on covering your stand with scrapbook paper now is the time. Cover all of your Tiers with paper using Modge Podge adhesive. If you are using 12 x 12 scrapbook paper, tiers 1 & 2 can be tricky. Cut 2 pieces of 12” x 12” scrapbook paper in half diagonal (see source link). Then use the  4 pieces and glue it on the board. Trim edges with an exacto knife.

4. While your tiers dry make your tier supports. Starting with the “foot” of the stand, glue the corners of the

2” x 10” together. Continue by gluing the rest of the tier supports together so they are all square.

5. Cover the tier supports with paper.

6. If you want you can hot glue ribbon to the edges of each tier. It’s easier to do this prior to gluing the tiers to the tier supports.

 7. The hardest part here is making sure the tiers & supports are centered.
    Hot glue the 2” x 10” tier support to the bottom side of the 20” x 20” tier.
    Hot glue the 4” x 8” tier support to the bottom side of the 16” x 16” tier.
    Hot glue the 4” x 6” tier support to the bottom side of the 12” x 12” tier.
    Hot glue the 4” x 4” tier support to the bottom side of the 8” x 8” tier.

8. Glue the 8” x 8” to the top of the 12” x 12”.  Glue the the 16” x 16” to the top of the 20” x 20”.
    Glue the two pieces together & you have your cupcake stand.

I wanted to keep my cupcake stand white so I would be able to easily reuse my stand for any occasion. In order for me to be able to change the ribbon colors out for each use I did not hot glue my ribbon, instead I used corsage pins round each layer to hold the ribbon in place. It also added a nice detail with the pearl pin top. Since I didn’t use scrapbook paper to cover any of the tiers, I wrapped additional ribbon on coordinating colors around each tier support to add a pop a color behind the cupcakes.  

This cupcake/cake stand was made for my first wedding! It is definitely light weight and easy to move/transport yet still sturdy enough to hold 100 cupcakes or a small cake topper.

Peacock Wedding

It's official, my first wedding is now in the books!

Congratulations again to our good friends Sean and Annette!

Saturday April 14th they tied the knot.

I was a bit nervous and intimidated, not only by the fact it was my largest order to date and not only because it was a wedding (more pressure!), but because it was our friends' wedding! I wanted to make sure I did a good job and everything was perfect for the bride.

 Saturday morning I packed up the car and woke my husband up to help me deliver the goods. He even helped unload and set everything up.  

Annette wanted to keep it simple with white and chocolate cupcakes. I made half white vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream tinted peacock blue/green and half chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream.

They requested a small cake topper to cut into for the cake cutting. It was white vanilla round cake with vanilla buttercream covered in marshmallow fondant with hand painted peacock feathers, adorned with matching ribbon and charm.

This was my first time ever doing any hand painting!! Annette actually gave me the option to just use real peacock feathers or to leave it without. I was going to use the feathers but decided the week of the wedding to give painting a try....so I Googled ideas. It was pretty simple, use the colored gels from any craft/baking store in the color(s) of your choice with a bit of vodka (it dries faster than water and doesn't leave your fondant wet), along with a good paint brush or a few depending on how many colors you use.  So I went for! And I must say, I'm pretty pleased with they way it turned out ;)

 I even made the cupcake stand, which I will post directions on a how-to soon.

It was a lot of fun but a lot of work. I'm just glad the bride and groom were pleased!

Our Reveal!

We recently had our 20 week doctors appointment and ultrasound, in which we were luckily enough to be able to find out little Dex's gender! We decided to have our families over for dinner to reveal baby's gender to everyone at once and in person! Since I'm a little bit of a baker I wanted to try making a new type of cupcake but that could still be used for that very purpose. So I went with was is called a Hi Hat Cupcake.

This is what they are suppose to look like...

but mine were a complete FAIL!

The marshmallow frosting turned out a disaster, I don't think I got it hot enough or maybe the gel tint ruined it, I don't know. But I wanted to show I still make mistakes and things don't always go as planned in the baking world. I usually don't share many of my failed attempts at dinners or baked goods but this one was a complete and utter flop!

I, of course did not fully prepare these cupcakes a head time, I decided to wait to put them together after our appointment with only an hour and a half in between till our families were to arrive.  Poor planning on my part!

Fortunately for me, even though the frosting never got to the consistency I needed it still tasted wonderful so I tinted it and made it the filling inside the cupcake.

It's all about improvising! 

 Plus, I always keep left over frosting in the freezer and was so thankful I do so, I already had extra chocolate cream cheese frosting in there so I quickly defrosted and whipped up to top off my cupcakes. They turned out awesome!

The blue cupcakes are my failed attempt at the frosting not going my way. The chocolate are my improvised version.

We waited until after we ate dinner for the reveal....to help build the anticipation of course ;)

We gave Carter the first cupcake to bite into so he could reveal if his new cousin would be a girl or boy.

 Cupcakes reveal BOY!!

The large majority thought for sure it was a girl, but everyone is thrilled to have another little boy in the family.

We are so excited to meet our little man in August!