Cupcakes!

As I mentioned in my last post, things around here have been busy!  Busy, busy, busy.  Amongst the regular day-to-day tasks, I have still been baking, so I wanted to post some pictures of my latest cupcake orders.  Enjoy!

 

I ordered zebra print cupcake liners recently and couldn't wait to use them.  I got them in black and pink!  I die!

 

I hope that everyone is enjoying their holiday season.  Thank you for stopping by!

Sheet Cakes!

My little business has been picking up speed lately!  I am so happy, and extremely grateful!  That is part of the reason that I have been slacking on my blog though.  Well, that, and being a wife, mother to three energetic little girls, room parent, sort of an assistant Girl Scout troop leader, etc., etc.  So, I at least wanted to post a few pictures of projects that I have completed over the last couple of months. 

 

I have had several people order sheet cakes from me lately, so here are a few of them.  I am becoming more comfortable with making them as I get more practice in.  They can be tricky since there is SO MUCH space to decorate on top.

 

I was having a hard time coming up with what to put on top of this LDS baptism sheet cake that I made.  The woman who ordered it wanted it to be white on white, and it was for her son, Li'amanaia.  I obviously couldn't cover the thing in flowers for her handsome little man, so I decided to go with subway art themed decorations.  I was happy with how it turned out and they loved the cake!  I couldn't ask for more.

 

 

I had another woman order an orange sheet cake with white polka dots for a baby shower that she was hosting.  The theme was safari animals and they were decorating in orange and white. 

 

 

She also ordered cupcakes to go along with the sheet cake and I loved how Fall-ish they came out. Even though they worked for her orange and white polka dot themed party, I took pictures of them with some of my Fall decor, because I LOVED THE colors.

 

Last but not least, I made a 50th birthday cake for another order last week.  They really wanted me to write on the top, and even though I am still a little insecure about my writing skills I agreed to do it.  The writing came out better than I thought it would and I was so glad! 

 

I think I am finally becoming more comfortable with writing on cakes. Maybe one day I will be super good at it and super speedy like the ladies who write on cakes at the grocery store. That would be awesome. 

 

Thank you for stopping by! 

Obsess much???

I dove into my cupboard this morning looking for a particular set of cupcake liners that I needed, but just couldn't seem to find.  My current method of storing them just didn't seem to be working out! I decided it was time to pull all of them out of that cupboard and see just what I have on hand.

 

Turns out that I have more cupcake liners than I thought.  The pretty glass jar that I was storing them in was overflowing and there were a couple of packs of liners that had even fallen behind it.  Ugh! I needed to remedy this situation. 

 

I've been cleaning things out lately and I finally threw out all of the old bibs that lived in a small drawer in the hutch by our dining room table.  After all, my youngest hasn't worn a bib in at least a year.  I think it was time.  Lucky me, all of my cupcake liners fit in there perfectly!  Is it strange that something so simple makes me so happy?  Wait, don't answer that.  I just love seeing all of my pretty little cupcake liners all nestled in there.  All of the holiday liners are on the left, fun designs are next to them and solid colors are on the right.  Hmmm.  At what point does buying cute cupcake liners become an obsession?  Never mind, don't answer that one either.  In this case, my ignorance is bliss.

Favorite Things: Craftsy Web Site

I stumbled upon a great site a few weeks ago and I thought that I should definitely share this with all of my fellow baking and craft loving friends. It is Craftsy.  This site offers online classes, workshops with great designers, sewing/crocheting,etc. patterns, and even a shop with beautiful fabrics and yarn. 

 

The best part?  They also offer several free mini-courses, such as: Sewing Machine 911, Creative Quilt Backs, and the class that led me to them - Modern Buttercream!  They have a whole section of online classes dedicated to cake decorating.  I die! 

 

Cake decorating classes that I can take in the comfort of my own home and fit into my busy schedule whenever I want to?  Sign me up!  I'm excited to check out a couple of their other freebies that interest me too.  I really love this idea!  I also love that you can access any class that you have already signed up for or paid for anytime in the future by logging into your account.  I typically like to reference things over and over again.  You can also post questions in the class forum and other students, or the instructor, will answer them for you.

 

This is just a screen shot of a couple of their cake decorating classes, they offer others too.  So far, I have only watched the free Modern Buttercream class, but I was really impressed with how well done it was.  It is taught by Joshua John Russel who has been featured on several of Food Network's challenges and who makes really exquisite cakes.  Here is another screen shot that shows what you will learn in this class:

I have not tried his buttercream recipe that he uses in the class because I like my simple buttercream that doesn't require me to boil anything on the stove during this HOT summer we're having.  I am hoping to try it out in the near future though! 

The class is a really great beginning class that covers a lot of the basics in cake decorating.  If you have ever wanted to try cake decorating at all, I would highly recommend this course.  I would love to check out his Modern Piping class too, along with pretty much all of their cake decorating classes.  Who says you can have too much of a good thing?

I hope you have fun checking out Craftsy and that it inspires you to make something amazing.

Thanks for stopping by!

Halloween Wolf Cake

I love a fun challenge!  A friend of mine asked me to bake a wolf cake for her daughter's 10th birthday last week.  Her sweet girl, Annika, LOVES wolves!  In fact I baked werewolf cupcakes for her birthday two years ago too.  Annika and her mom had looked online for some ideas and they sent me a link to this cake.  I liked the idea of it and immediately had ideas of how I wanted to make it my own. 

 

First of all, the lady who posted the other wolf cake used the Wilton "Animal Crackers" pan to get the basic shape,  and I don't have one.  I wanted the face to be a little more narrow than that anyway, so I decided to make one with the pans I have on hand and carve it into the shape I wanted it to be. 

 

The majority of the wolf's face is actually a 2 layer 8" round cake!  I set a cupcake on it's side and attached it with frosting to the bottom of the cake to make the shape of Mr. Wolf's snout and I cut another cupcake in half and laid them on their sides to make his pointy little ears.  {Is it strange that I named him?  I became quite fond of Mr. Wolf in our short time together.  He was very easy to work with - a quality that I always appreciate in cakes to be decorated - oh, and in people too.}

 

I carved a little bit of cake away from his ear to his cheek and then from the bottom of his cheek to his snout to give him a more narrow, wolf-like, shape.  Once I liked his shape I completed my crumb coat and let it set before I busted out my grass tips and frosting bags and then I gave Mr. Wolf a whole lotta fur!

 

Believe it or not, it didn't take me as long as you'd it might to cover him in fur.  I also wanted to make Mr. Wolf more realistic so I made the frosting at the top of his snout and around his eyes a little lighter to give him some dimension.  I used green skittles for his eyes to really make them pop and add a little drama to it.  I know that Annika loves Halloween, and the wolf cupcakes I made for her all had bright, candy eyes too.  I just knew that she would like him better this way.  I liked him better with bright green eyes too!

 

Mr. Wolf is one of my favorite cakes that I have ever baked.  I had so much fun making him!  I also love how easy he was to make and how many different party themes this wolf cake could be used for.  This cake could easily be used as a Halloween werewolf cake, a Little Red Riding Hood "Big Bad Wolf" cake, a Twilight "Team Jacob" cake, Wolf Cub Scouts cake {as the woman who made the inspiration used it}, and I'm sure lots more!

 

My girls were sad that they couldn't eat such a neat cake, so if anyone out there would like to see a tutorial on how to make Mr. Wolf yourself, leave me a comment and I'll make another whilst taking pictures and then post a tutorial later on.

 

Thanks for stopping by!