Super Bowl and Valentine's Day

...two of my favorite holidays! The Super Bowl doesn't technically count as a holiday, but when food and friends are involved, (and the Patriots!) it's as good as any. This year I took a particular liking to Super Bowl Sunday since I'm a Pats fan. I was tempted to make the Giants cookies uglier so nobody would eat them, but that wouldn't have been fair. It also would have made me look bad.

Although the Patriots didn't take home the trophy, the old fashioned sugar cookies did ok.





And then there's Valentine's Day. I've always enjoyed the decorations, and colors of Valentine's Day, although I'll agree that it can be a bit over the top. Now with the help of my first graders, and all of the fun weddings in my life, I've had many excuses to create heart shaped treats! These were for Kristina's birthday weekend in Harrisonburg. We ambushed her on the 12th and drove her to one of the happiest places.

I'm the luckiest!

A quick blog post to show off some of my new baking stuff!

I'm so lucky to have friends and cake eaters that think of me when they see fun cake and kitchen things!

This apron came from the fabulous bride, Bonnie from before the New Year. She was so sweet to include it in a thank you card. The pictures of them eating my cupcakes at their wedding would have been thanks enough!




And these earrings, perfect for a first grade teacher and baker deluxe :)
They were dropped off by my dear friend Zoe's mom as a Christmas gift. (They're 100% inedible.) Thanks McDowell family!

Back, and ready for 2012!

After a holiday hiatus, filled with tons of baking, and not enough pictures (I never remember my camera,) I'm ready to kick off 2012 with a bang!

The exciting news of my own engagement has gotten me thinking about cakes in a new way. Now it's not just, "what can I do?" but rather, "What do I want??" There are so many possibilities. I'm excited for the perspective that the other side will offer to my business smarts. Tastings, here we come!!

I ended 2011 with the beautiful wedding of Bonnie and Shane. They did a lot of planning for their wedding from out of town, so I feel honored to have sat down with them for the planning and tasting. Their venue was beautiful and for a Dec. 30th wedding, they were pretty darn lucky to have 50 degree weather. Who could ask for a better wedding day?





I was able to create a cupcake display using some of my pedestal collection. Although the provided table was round and didn't fit their vision exactly, we made do, and the result was festive and abundant! Happy wedding to Bonnie and Shane, and Happy New Year to everyone else!





Featured Flavors:
Chocolate Chunk with Peanut Butter Frosting
Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Buttercream
The growing classic, Coconut with Lime Cream Cheese Buttercream

Pumpkins!

Fall is the best. The weather is great, the flavors are fragrant, and I find myself in the kitchen again.




A friend from school had a few of us over for a pumpkinpalooza where we tasted everything pumpkin! I tried a recipe from my new favorite website, pinterest. It seemed too easy to be true but the results weren't terrible. 1 can of pumpkin and 1 box of yellow cake mix. That's it! It was more like a bread than a cupcake, but with some cinnamon cream cheese frosting it was edible.





Later this month, Jared had a function for work that required him to bring "something." (Thanks for the details, Jared!) We decided to test out the cookie cutters. Can't go wrong with a pumpkin cookie.






Finally, after failing to resist a sale at Target, I came home with a giant cookie pan to try... candy corn! It's my favorite Halloween symbol so I couldn't wait to bake it up. Tough to tell in the pictures, but it's bigger than most of my pedestals.





Happy Halloween!

A very Irish Wedding

After a long year of planning, BJ and Angel's wedding finally took place over Labor Day Weekend. Luckily, the MOB is a coworker from school so they were all very understanding of the busy timing... it was the weekend before the first day of school.

Being of Irish heritage myself, I really enjoyed the ideas they both brought to this cake. They showed me a picture for guidance, but added lots of their own decorative touches, all Irish!

The picture displayed were taken before the florist arrived to place the final flowers. I am excitedly awaiting pictures of the finished product, so this will have to serve as evidence until then.

The cake was a white brides cake with a cherry, white chocolate mousse filling. The topper was a Claddagh symbol, the border was a Celtic Knot, and the fondant drape color was appropriately named "clover." After a rainy day delivery, the cake was displayed and eaten up at a very beautiful ceremony.

60th Bday at the Beach

When I was babysitting for two sweet boys this summer their mom, Trish asked if I could make something for her Mother-in-Law's 60th birthday. They traveled to the beach with the family to celebrate, so I knew it needed to be something classy and beachy. Thanks Trish for giving me the freedom on this one! I had a great time using my new starfish cookie cutter.







Pictured: Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream, Vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream

(Doesn't get much more pure than that!)

Mini Cupcakes

Just for fun!




And of course the stand I found antiquing.

A Circus for Baby Hammarback

When I was home for the weekend I had the chance to bake and deliver these cupcakes for a baby shower. I can't thank Julie enough for calling me to help out. Her ideas and decor (not to mention an adorable invitation!) made the Circus theme over the top, in the best way. She had a favorite recipe, so we stuck with it for all 40 cupcakes. 15 were decorated like popcorn tubs, made out of mini marshmallows. The rest of the cupcakes were topped with my very first purchase from etsy.com, a vendor called Tickled Plum.

Enjoy!

Showcasing a New Cake Stand

If I'm out and about I can't help myself when I see a cake pedestal for sale. Sometimes they're discounted at Sur La Table, or hidden in a thrift or antique shop. I've managed to gather quite a collection in varying colors, shapes, and sizes that are proudly displayed in my kitchen. I was in Homegoods the other evening, and this one caught my eye. It goes well with my cream colors as well as the metallics/silvers.

I had my eye on a cake from one of my favorite blogs that I was excited to recreate. As soon as I saw this pedestal, I thought of my cake.

Despite the homemade look (brought to you by the red plate) I was very pleased with the pairing of the two.





Pictured: Vanilla wedding cake recipe with vanilla buttercream.
Tip Used: Large Star Tip

Just another "business expense..."

Going into Williams-Sonoma with no specific need is never a good idea for me. Need I remind you of the last time that happened? Fortunately, my very first class of first graders surprised me with a gift card at the end of the year to WS itself. How did I get so lucky to have a class full of kiddos that knew my interests that well??

On this particular day I was on the hunt for gold sanding sugar. I had told myself, "I'll either save this gift card for small items only, or if I REALLY like something, I'll let myself spend the whole card on my trip today." Of course, the sugar was front row center and on sale for $1.99. That can't possibly count as my purchase! As I made my way around the store I searched high and low for any other gadgets I couldn't live without. Finally, I found the one item I knew I had to own... a heavy duty, silicone rolling pin. It was as if it jumped out into my sore hands. Sore from rolling pounds of fondant with my French, tapered, wooden pin. I refused to use anything else up until this point since it was a family pin, passed down at least from my mom, (that makes it special, right?)



At least for heavy duty rolling, I decided I could make an exception.

It's not in my nature to waste a pound of fondant just for rolling, but it won't be long until I can't wait to use my pin any longer! Be on the lookout for that experiment, pictures to follow.