It’s Halloween time! My favorite holiday and even more my favorite party we host! This will be our ninth annual Halloween party and Andrew’s first. For this year party theme, I stuck with the classic Halloween colors:  orange, black, purple and bright green. I found super cute plates at Hobby Lobby with all of these colors. They even had matching cupcake liners. 
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To go with these fun colors I went with French vanilla cupcakes that I divided into orange, purple and green. Then using a small disher layered the three colored batters before using a toothpick to create a swirl. ​​

This cake is the perfect representation of what I wanted for my baby shower to be. It is beautiful, classy, elegant, and Americana. With the beautiful fresh strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries topping it, to it’s rich and delicious cream cheese frosting, even the simple French vanilla cake was absolutely perfect and everything I could have hoped for.

I did struggle a little the day of the baby shower with finishing the cake and the matching elegant cupcakes because my hands have started to go numb on Apparently baby boy is on a nerve in my spine and has been causing the numbness. This made it difficult to pip the cream cheese frosting and I had to take breaks to give my hurting hands a rest. Thankfully I was able to push through and was able to complete everything in time. I couldn’t be happier with how the cake and cupcakes turned out and how fabulous they looked displayed in the art gallery where the shower was held. I dare to say it all looked just like a work of art! ​

​There is nothing more magical than a fairy tale, or deliciously magical as a fairy tale cake. This has to be one of my top favorite little girl cakes ever! This beautiful and rather simple cake is filled with elegance and magic. The top layer was made with royal blue fondant that was quilted using a ruler and a pastry roller. I added little candy pearls at each point and placed larger pearls along the bottom of the cake. The bottom tier was made with yellow fondant and then place long strips of the same fondant to create the ruffle. I used premade small royal icing roses that I purchased from a local cake supply store, sorry I was short on time and energy still after my mom's birthday party to make my own. But these were perfect and looked great! I completed the cake with a large rose on the top and some more pearls around the bottom of the cake.

Some of the cupcakes were simple vanilla cake with yellow frosting with a few pearls and topped with a small red rose. The other half was chocolate cake with red frosting piped in the style of a rose.

​I couldn't have hoped for this cake to come out any better or any less magical!

These delicate little beauties went along with the big beautiful all white wedding cake I posted about the other day. The cupcakes were the wedding favors and made to look like roses. I used white cupcake liners and wrapped each one in a paper lace wrapper then placed in the blue individual boxes as soon as they were frosted.
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To create the rose, I piped beginning in the center and moved outward, the opposite way I normally frost cupcakes. This created the swirl that resembles a rose; I used mint leaves to complete the look. Between the buttercream frosting and the mint leaves, the cupcakes smelled divine! 

These vibrant cupcakes went along with the camouflage cake I posted about the other day.

To create the camouflage cupcakes I followed the same process I did with the wedding cake. I divided the batter into three bowls and colored them the three different colors; or six in this case. I then layered the colored batters with a small disher into the cupcake liners. 

​One of my regular bakery clients asked me to make cupcakes for her daughters up and coming birthday party. This year’s theme was Candyland, how fun is that! She didn’t have a specific request for the design of the cupcakes just as long as they fit in with the theme and wanted vanilla and chocolate flavor. After looking at the original game, I decided to go with a simple but fun design. I bought bright colored cupcake liners and whipped up some butter cream frosting. Once the cupcakes were cooled and piped with a swirl of delicious buttercream I added gum drops, peppermint candies, hard candies or colorful sprinkles to all of the cupcakes. I couldn’t help but snap a picture of how beautiful they all looked together in the box!

​These little cuties were for my mom’s coworker’s baby shower. I was asked to match the ombre turquoise and gold invitations and to make them lemon flavored. I decided to use gold foil wrappers to match the sparkle of the invitations. 

You're a Mean One Mister Grinch....tonight we hosted our annual Christmas party and this year we made it a Grinchmas Party. It was so much fun! We all dressed up with Whoville in mind and we even had a Grinch! Our entertainment was the original Grinch cartoon (sorry Jim Carrey just not a fan of your version) and a few other Christmas classics. I wanted to do something fun and simple for the menu so we had a red and green veggie and fruit trays, homemade salsa and chips, chicken white chili, country toffee, and the perfect cupcakes for dessert. Oh and don't forget about the Grinch Popcorn! There was even champagne, cider, and a hot chocolate bar too! 

Cupcakes:
Green colored vanilla cupcakes
A ring of white buttercream to create the base of the Santa Hat
Swirled red buttercream to create the Santa Hat
Topped with a white sixet for the puff ball
Santa suit cupcake wrappers

The first holiday party of the year is always my work's Winter Warmer. It is a meeting/luncheon that I help put together, after all, I am great at planning a fun party! The committee have been working on this month and today was the final pay off! It was so much fun, there was music, raffles, great food, and amazing cupcakes made by your's truly! That's 254 cupcakes in fact. Making that many cupcakes really isn't that big of a deal, I've done it several times in the past, so all I need to do is turn on a good movie or two and get to work. The color scheme this year was red and silver, so I went with a red grease proof cupcake liner, white buttercream frosting and silver dragees. I displaced them on my white cupcake stand and they were simple, classic, festive, and delicious! 

One of my all-time favorite movies is Jurassic Park. I watch that movie at least once a month, especially when I am baking. I know if I have a huge order of cupcakes to do all I have to do is turn on the Jurassic Park trilogy and I am good to go. When I first learned about the Jurassic World movie they were making I was really worried they were going to ruin the trilogy I so loved; however, that went away after watching the trailer. I was totally hooked and was really excited to see that it was going to be coming our around my birthday. I made these cupcakes in honor of my favorite move. I baked chocolate cupcakes and topped them off with red rock colored frosting, added some edible rocks and plastic dinosaurs and plants. I even made my own dirt by putting different color cookies in the food processer and sprinkled on top. They were super cute and super tasty at my movie night birthday!

Coming off of one wedding and our own blessing, I just finished making cupcakes and a cake for another wedding. The bride to be has order several large order of cupcakes from me several time and was not surprised that she needed 14 dozen cupcakes plus one small cake to cut into. She choice chocolate, French vanilla, strawberry, and lemon cupcakes topped with coral buttercream and white pearls. The cake was a chocolate with chocolate buttercream covered in ivory fondant. I added a little ivory lace on the bottom of the cake to balance the coral hydrangeas that were placed on top. I wasn't able to find coral hydrangeas so I bought peach and colored them with coral food coloring and vodka, just like I did for the roses on our blessing cake. She borrowed the cupcake stand that was used at the pervious wedding and it helped make her beach wedding perfect!

We wanted our Blessing Cake and Cupcakes to match the overall look and feel we were going with. With a Vintage Country flare I thought a light aqua cake decorated with lace and cream and pink roses on top would be perfect. The cake was my yummy triple chocolate cake with rich chocolate buttercream filling. I made French Vanilla Cupcakes and topped with Vanilla Buttercream frosting top with a small matching rose bud. I baked the cupcakes in blue aqua cups and wrapped a lace paper cut out.  I couldn't find the color of roses that I wanted to so I bought cream roses and colored them with water down rose food colorings. By just placing the paint brush on the edges of the peddles the water soaked in giving it a natural look. I have done this process on difference types of flower and it always gives a look of realism. The cake and cupcakes perfectly matched my table decor and dessert plates!

Today was the wedding day of a special little girl I have known her whole life. Her mother has been my mother's best friend since high school. My mother's wedding gift to her and her mother was to pay for the wedding cake, which of course was already going to be done by yours truly! Last month I met with the bride to be and groom and decided on making 15 dozen cupcakes with an eight inch cake on top for them to cut into. The color scheme was yellow, white, and grey. The decided on four cupcake flavors, lemon, chocolate, French vanilla, and orange with two types of frosting, buttercream and cream cheese. I baked the lemon and French vanilla in yellow and white cupcake liners, and the other two flavors in grey and white liners. I colored the buttercream frosting yellow and left the cream cheese white. I rotated the frostings on all of the cupcakes and alternated between silver, white, or yellow sprinkles and silver, white, and yellow pearls. The small cake was French vanilla with cream cheese frosting, covered in yellow fondant and decorated with sugar daisies. I added a band of white lace and a gray ribbon to tie in the theme and place a Mr.  & Mrs. topper on top. The bride’s father made an incredible white cupcake and cake stand to display all of the lovely cupcakes with the beautiful cake on top. Everyone loved how they tasted and I was honored to participate in such a big way on her special day!

​These are a quick and easy dessert that is perfect for an Easter Luncheon. Bake your favorite cupcakes and color your buttercream a nice grass green. Once cooled used a grass tip and starting from the center and moving your way out squeeze the piping bag full of frosting and pull up to create the grass look. Place candy eggs in the center. For the perfect display, place in an Easter basket. Hopefully the Easter Bunny doesn't hide these 

​I just finished delivering these little beauties! There was a total of 17 dozen cupcakes...that is 204 cupcakes total! This is the second order that I have gotten from this particular customer for a HUGE amount of cupcakes. She requested four different flavors with four different white and gold decorations: Strawberry with gold pearls, Lemon with crystal sprinkles, French Vanilla with white pearls, and Chocolate with gold sprinkles. All had delicious buttercream frosting in either gold or white. I know 204 cupcakes seems like a lot, but once you get into a routine it goes by really fast. I turned on the Jurassic Park Trilogy and got to work. My first step was to mix a double batch of the first batter, I make sure to have all of my ingredients out and measured before I start putting them in the mixing bowl. It is very easy to get distracted and forget what has already been added and what hasn't. If you leave something out your cupcakes will not come out correctly. After placing the cupcake liners in the pan, I used my favorite large scoop (pampered chef) to quickly dish out the batter into the liners, filling about half way. I put four pans into my oven at a time, but half way through the baking I would rotate the pans from top to bottom and front to back. This helps the cupcakes bake evenly. After rotating I start making the second double  batch of batter. I repeat this process until all of the cupcakes have been baked, usually about the beginning of the second movie. As the cupcakes are cooling I begin to make the buttercream, with this amount of cupcakes I need to make around eight batches worth. Half of the buttercream is colored gold to go with the white cupcake liners. Lastly as I turn on the third movie in the trilogy I prepping to pipe  the 204 cupcakes. I place them all on my large kitchen table by flavor and begin piping. After I pipe a few cupcakes I sprinkle each cupcake over a bowl to to capture the falling sprinkles. As soon I am finished decorating I place the cupcakes in the boxes and place in the refrigerator until it is time to deliver; all in time to watch the last bit of the movie. It seems like a lot work but setting up a good routine will make it easier. So plan ahead, prep, turn on your favorite movies or music and get busy!

​My aunt asked me to make these adorable cupcakes for my cousin's girlfriend’s son. These were so easy to make and turned out so cute! After baking, cooling and frosting the cupcakes using the cupcake swirl tip I added the fondant/gum paste Mickey. To create Mickey I did a 50/50 mixture of black fondant and black gum paste. Gum paste dries very hard and very fast, by mixing with fondant you will have more time to roll out, cut out, and "glue". After making your 50/50 mixture and rolling it to a nice thin layer, use two different size of round cookie (fondant) cutter. Make sure to double the amount of the small circles since there will need to be two for every one larger circle. Also make more than needed just in case one messes up. Use sugar glue (water and fondant), water, or vodka to "glue" the ears (smaller circle) to the head (larger circle) in the appropriate space and let try on a cooling rack that is covered with a paper towel. The paper towel is thin enough to let air through, but thick enough to prevent creases from the rack. The little boy ended up LOVING his Mickey Mouse cupcakes. M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!

Time for the big game and what goes better with football and BBQ? Cupcakes of course! These amazing little cupcakes were made by piping green buttercream using the grass tip and rolling a small ball of fondant into a shape football. I used a small piping tip to add the lace detail. Last year I did something a little different by cutting out an oval shape and piping SF onto each. I have also done a few football cakes using a helmet shaped baking pan. This makes it really easy and all you have to do is cover it with buttercream or fondant and add the team logo! Time to get this barbecue and game started!

One of the major perks for living in sunny California is all of the great vineyards! Paso Robles is only a few short hours away so at least once a year we try to do a get together and tour some of the wineries. Last year we went for one of my longest friend's birthday so I decided to make some mini tasting cupcakes that were paired with certain styles of wine. Needless to say it was a big hit and this year they begged me to do it again. Due to time restraints and cake orders I wasn't able to make as many flavors as I did for the previous year. I decided on a simple strawberry cupcake with fresh strawberries baked in. I topped half with a rich chocolate buttercream and shaved dark chocolate, the other half was a lemon frosting with orange zest sprinkles. The strawberry cupcake works perfectly with both flavors of frosting. Chocolate flavors works best with a deep red wines and the tart flavors works amazing with the fruitier white wines. Wineries can be found in most states so search one out and visit with a group of friends and don't forget the cupcakes!

Halloween time is a time for spooky snacks and sweet treats. I love to decorate cakes and cupcakes as you may have noticed so of course I have to make something extra fun for my favorite holiday. Every year at work we have a Halloween Costume Potluck and every year I try to make something different. After playing around online I came up with a super easy idea I wanted to share, Halloween Witch Hat Cupcakes.

Make and frost the cupcakes as normal, but top with this super cute witch’s hat. You’ll need a package of round chocolate covered cookies, a bag of Kisses and extra orange frosting.  Lay the chocolate cookies flat on wax papered, squeeze a dollop of frosting on each cookie and top with the Kisses. Place a hat on each cupcake and you are ready to party!

This is a fun twist on a cocktail classic! Instead of drinking a margarita you can eat one! This a basic white cake recipe with a hint of lime. I used a white box cake mix and lime Jell-O mix. 

Ingredients
     1 Box of White Cake Mix
     3 Eggs
     1 1/4 Cup of Water
     1/3 Vegetable Oil
     1 Small Package of Lime Jell-O

Directions
     Mix the cake as instructed on the box. Add desired amount of Lime Jell-O and mix. Pour the batter into cupcake wrappers 2/3 full. Back for 16 to 18 minutes, or until the cupcakes springs back when touched. Cool on a baking rack.

To make the frosting mix 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup of crisco, one pound of powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 3 tablespoons of quality tequila. You may choose to use both water and tequila so it's not so strong. I piped the frosting using an 1M tip. For the "salt on the rim" look I poured clear sprinkles in a bowl and rolled each cupcake's edge into the sprinkles. Lastly I topped each cupcake with a thin sliced lime, a candied gummy lime slice would be a great alternative for a little more sweetness!

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!" Sorry I just love Discovery Channel's Shark Week, plus it's awesome they got Rob Lowe to be in the commercials this year. I record all of the new shows and rewatch all of the old ones. For some reason it always reminds of what the channel used to be...documentaries on discoveries! So in honor of Shark Week I made a special shark themed snack! I found the gummy sharks at the grocery store and to get the two toned frosting I just put white frosting on one side of a piping bag and blue frosting on the other. As I squeeze the two colors blend into a perfect wave of frosting. Take a bite before it bites you!

Fourth of July is tomorrow and we are busy here preparing for our festivities. I recently shared my Patriotic Trifle, and today I wanted to share some cupcakes I made for work.

To recreate these designs follow these steps:

Divide a batch of frosting into threes and color one red and another blue. The third needs to remain white.

Firework Cupcakes – Using a piping bag with a “grass” tip (#233), pipe a ring of blue frosting on the outer side of the cupcake. Repeat with white frosting just inside of the blue frosting. Lastly, pipe the red frosting into the center of the white ring.

Red, White and Blue Cupcakes – In a piping bag place a 1M tip, fill one side of the bag with white frosting, then on another side fill with red frosting and on the last side fill with blue frosting. Start on the outer side of the cupcake and move towards the center, stop squeezing the back and twist up. Sprinkle with Patriotic sprinkles if desired.

Flag Cupcakes – Using a piping bag with a #3 tip, make a triangle on ¼ of the cupcake with the blue frosting and fill in. Next rotate the red and white frosting using the same #3 tip. Add white star sprinkles or pipe white stars using a #1 tip on the blue area.

Patriotic and Delicious!!!

Yesterday I posted a baby shower cake I did, today I'm posting a picture of 204 cupcakes that I just finished and boxed up. They were for Anna's baby shower this afternoon. I baked all afternoon after finishing Liz's baby shower cake. This morning I got up really early to frost and sprinkle ALL of them so they would be ready by 8 am. I don't mind waking up early to work on decorating, the house is always quiet besides some movie I've seen a hundred times on in the background. Jack is still sound asleep and I'm allowed to just get in the zone, sip my coffee and decorate. Now that the cupcakes have been picked up I think it's time to put another movie on, cuddle on the couch with Duffey and relax. I hope everyone has a blessed and relax Sunday!