Cupcakes... and more Cupcakes!

This weekend was nothing but CUPCAKES! 300 of them to be exact... The first were for my good friend Gina. It was her super cute sister-in-law, Stephanie's baby shower and she wanted some cute cupcakes to go along with the decor. Earlier in the week Gina and I had put together some tags and chinese take-out boxes for the candy buffet they were doing. I will have to get some pictures of those later... I have to say, these are my favorite cupcakes I have ever done. So simple, but cute! Gina said all the decor looked really cute- I only wish I was there to see it all! Anyways, I had fun helping Gina, and can't wait to see the pictures. I will definitely post some!!

Next came my first non-family related wedding! It was for Courtney, who contacted me a few weeks back in need for a cake quick! We came up with cupcakes, and I think they came out really nice. Half of the 215 cupcakes were chocolate and the other half were rainbow chip flavors. They had handmade fondant flowers and round fondant "T" chips for decoration, as well as clear sprinkles. The top cake was chocolate with vanilla buttercream, covered in fondant. The flowers on the top were fresh tulips. They were all placed on my custom black stand. I hope they were everything you wanted, Courtney! :)

And last, but not least, were the fun cupcakes I made for a long lost friend of mine, Sarah. We had just recently come in contact again (thanks Facebook!) and she asked if I could make these for her baby girl's Baptism. I gladly said yes, of course!! They were chocolate and white cake with fondant and cream cheese frostings. I need to use cream cheese frosting more often, btw... they were so yummy!! (Of course I tried one ;) It was so great to see her and her mom, Linda. It brought back so many sweet memories... :) Thanks, Sarah, for letting me create these for you and Ava!

Here is the gorgeous set-up, thanks to Sarah's creativity...

I also have to say a serious "Thank You" to my "assistant" and friend, Nicole. She helped me with most of the cupcakes this weekend, and more importantly, went with me to deliver and set up the wedding cupcakes. I was more nervous than I thought I would be, and thank God she was there to chill me out! So THANKS, Dude- I couldn't have done it without you!!! :)

Happy Grads

A few weeks ago (sorry for the lack of posts..) I had the pleasure of making desserts for my brother-in-law Vince's graduation party. He graduated with his Master's degree, YAY!! My sister had asked me to do a really cool cake a while back, so I was excited to try it.

We started with cupcakes, chocolate and vanilla with BC icing, because I knew the cake wouldn't feed the 150 people they were expecting.

The cake came out just as I (and my sister) wanted! The top layer was white chocolate cake with strawberry preserves filling, and the bottom layer was Oreo cake with fudge filling. Both were covered in fondant, as well as the cap and diploma.

Here's the whole table set-up, cute!!

Earlier in the week, my sister decided they wanted cookie favors also... 150 of them!!
Thank God for her help, and my friend Nicole, or I would have lost it... It definitely was tedious!! They were well worth it though, they looked really cute on the tables. :)

I had also done a small order of cookies for a friend of a friend for some baby shower cookies. She gave me the design, and I think they came out cute! I will definitely use this idea again!

Birthdays, Baseball and Babies

I had a busy week (as usual) last week, it being my son Tyler's 5th birthday and all! The first project I had was for his preschool class. They celebrate in class with all his friends, so of course I had to do special cupcakes! We decided on chocolate cupcakes with oreo cream frosting (YUM!). I found these little Star Wars rings that went perfect (or at least I thought they would until the fighting started....). They went over very well with the kiddos.:)


Next up was for Ty's season-ending T-Ball pizza & trophy party for the 'Yankees'. I made these super cute baseball cupcakes (with help and inspiration from a couple of friends) for the party and the kids loved them! The mitts & balls are made of fondant, as well as the 'Yankee' balls. The cupcakes were chocolate chip flavor (one of my favs).
For Ty's birthday party I did a Star Wars themed cake with a few cupcakes. I did a swirling/marbling technique with the fondant to make it look space-y and was really happy with it. The light sabers are made of fondant, and I found the Darth Vader and Luke fugurines at a cake supply store. The cake and cc were oreo flavor with fudge and crushed oreo filling. It was a first for this flavor, and it was a thimbs up for sure!

My big 5 year old!!!

Lastly was a cake I did for my friend Stacey's baby shower. I created a fondant baby on top and used the colors mainly from the invitation for inspiration. I was really happy with it, and she said she loved it. The flavors were white chocolate with raspberry filling, and again, oreo with fudge and crushed oreo filling. Double YUM!!!
My great friend Jill (to some) Nicole (to others) came over and helped me out A LOT this week!! Thank God for her and her creativity, too!!! Here's us after a long day of partyin' and workin'...

Sweetness

This weekend was relaxing... just some cookies and one cake. The cookies were for a friend of mine, Charity, who wanted just a little something to take with her to a girl's bachelorette night at the Gondolas in Long Beach. A sweet treat to go along with some wine! They came out really cute, just like I had envisioned (that's always a plus!). I had seen some cookie cutters that I think were meant for a bathing suit, so I had the idea of doing lingerie, instead. Nothing too crazy, just girlie and cute. :)

The cake was for a friend Lisa's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. She planned a big surprise party, with family from out of town and everything! She told me she wanted a big, wedding-type cake. After all, 60 years is BIG! We had talked about a few designs, and this is what the final product looked like:

We were going for a vintage, antique look, and I think it turned out pretty well. She was extemely excited when she saw it, so that's all that mattered. She told me later that her Grandmother cried when she saw it, and said she didn't get to have a cake at her wedding 60 years ago. How special is that?!? Thanks, Lis, for giving me creative reign and the pleasure of designing and creating my first wedding-type cake. It was definitely made with love... :)

Congrats Gena & Kyle!!

So my first wedding went without a hitch! And I even managed to be IN the wedding, along with my kids and hubby, too! Gena decided on cupcakes (easier for me!) so I was definitely relieved. I wanted it to look super nice for my new sis, so after some quick brainstorming (after getting a rickety cardboard poor-excuse for a stand in the mail), Matt and my MIL built a custom cupcake stand! Thank God for her awesome tools and their great teamwork! It all looked beautiful (not as beautiful as Gena, of course) and I was very happy with it. I did chocolate and "funfetti" flavors (as per the bride's request:) both with vanilla buttercream. I was so glad I could do this for them, I had so much fun and can't wait for the next wedding....

The beautiful cupcake display...

My bro & new sis-in-law!
Aren't they beauties??

CONGRATULATIONS GENA & KYLE!!!
LOVE YOU GUYS!

Lots of birthdays....

Sorry it's been so long... as you will see it's been very busy around my house! Last week was my hubby's birthday and,well I couldn't skimp on his cake! I decided to go with a Ford Mustang theme (since he LOVES his '65). I kept it simple and just did the Mustang logo on top of a marble/fudge-filled cake. He loved it, and the kids couldn't wait to dig in (as you can see on the cake board...).

Then were some Mickey Mouse cupcakes and smash cakes for a friend's twin nieces. I decided to do coordinating (not matching exactly:) girly smash cakes for the birthday girls and she wanted some 'girl' and 'boy' cupcakes. These were definitely fun to do and hope the birthday was great, Stephanie!!















My friend, Stacey asked me to do a 'PlayStation' themed cake for her husband David this past weekend too. I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to accomplish it, but after some research I decided to go with a controller made out of rice krispie treats. I definitely had to play around with it to get it how I wanted, but it came out pretty well. And I even heard it was a hit at the Hard Rock Cafe!! Stacey said all the waiters were stopping by to see the cake. Glad he liked it Stacey! :)

Happy Mom's Day!

This Mother's Day was full of fun cakes and parties! My
first cake was for a friend of my bro-in-law. Pretty simple birthday cake, with a specific color palette.. so cute! The cake was chocolate with bavarian cream and fresh banana. I had actually never tried fresh fruit before, and unfortunately, this cake ended up having a mishap on it's 1 hour drive home in the heat and traffic!! So sorry Lisa... :( But hope it still tasted good...















The next was an itty bitty one I threw together for the impromptu Mother's Day tea I decided to throw on Saturday. It was a white cake with raspberry filling, covered in vanilla buttercream- very light and perfect with our tea menu! I topped it of with some fresh flowers, and sat it on my twisted pedestal.

Last, but not least was this Mother's Day cake for our lovely realtor, Marti. She is so sweet and has helped us out so much, so I was excited to put together this cake for her. It was also white cake with raspberry filling. After seeing my blog, she liked Bekah's birthday cake design, so I changed the colors up a little and it came out super cute!