Cars Cake

This is post is long overdue in that I made this cake during the summer... A coworker of mine was throwing a birthday party for her son, who was about to turn 2. She mentioned that her little man loved the Disney movie, Cars, and wanted a cake that would feature the main characters of the movie. I covered the cake in blue buttercream and added fondant decorations. Everything from the road signs, cacti, and even the road itself is made of fondant! My coworker had the Lightning McQueen figurines which she was going to add to the cake right before the party. I, being a lover of all things Disney, had a great time making this cake. 

- a closeup of some of the fondant work -

for the cacti, I pricked it with a toothpick to give it the look

for the road signs, I used edible black marker

- the finished product minus the characters -

Happy Birthday, M!

Lingerie Cookies

The past two posts were sugar, now it's time for some spice! My friend from high school, Katie, hit me up and asked me to bake some naughty lingerie cookies for her friend's bachelorette party. Some of you may remember the panty cookies I made for my cousin, Jayne's bachelorette party. To see that post you can click here!

I took it a step further this time and created some matching bras for the undies. 'For the underwear cookies, I took my big heart-shaped cookie cutter and cut off the tip (not too much this time). I used the same heart-shaped cookie cutter for the bras, but left them as hearts. The upside-down hearts were the perfect shape for creating busty bosoms. The cookies were decorated with tinted royal icing.

- my personal favorite -

- all packaged up and ready to go -

I hope the bride-to-be loved them!

Haewon's Bridal Shower

Haewon's Bridal Shower was next on the list! I met Haewon when we were at college together, also. The funny thing about these two bridal showers was that the same group of girls were the bridesmaids for both weddings (brides-to-be included!)!... and with their weddings and showers only a month apart! Let's all give a round of applause to these ladies for all of their hard work! *clap clap clap*

This shower was just as beautiful, with a shabby chic-themed tea party. I just love the color scheme for this shower; mint and pink! I swear, these two colors pop out at me every where I look! 

- beautiful table arrangements-

- dessert table covered in lace -

I went with a decorating inspiration I saw on Pinterest. It consists of piping buttercream dots all around the cake (BEWARE dot-phobia people). My hand started to cramp about halfway up the cake, but I think it was worth it. The cake has a cool textured look to it that is still clean and simple. Hope you like the results! (Photo credit: craftysong)

- dot cake -

- top view -

Congratulations, H & K!

Esther's Bridal Shower

This was THE busiest wedding season ever!!! I attended 3 weddings, 3 bridal showers, and baked for 2 showers. Yes, I am wedding-ed out and broke... but I am incredibly happy for every single one of those couples!!!

Kicking off the wedding season was Esther's bridal shower. Esther is a friend I met in college. All of her bridesmaids are friends from school as well, so I was more than willing when they asked me to bake for her shower! This was to be a surprise shower at the bride-to-be's aunt's house. The bridesmaids did such a wonderful job putting this shower together. The attention to small details was not overlooked, ladies! Here are some pictures from the special day (photo credits: craftysong)

- chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and sparkling sugar -

The bridesmaids wanted a small cake that would be the main focus of their dessert table. I always loved the look of big piped rosettes all over a cake. I also liked the idea of an ombre cake, so I decided to put these two ideas together an make an ombre rosette cake. Lavender was the color palette, so I went with 3 shades of purple. One of the bridesmaids made an adorable bunting banner cake topper. I'm really happy with how the cake came out!

- purple ombre rosette cake -

- beautiful dessert table -

Congratulations, Esther & Marcus!

Fluffernutter

There's one cupcake that appears in my dreams now and again; more like again and again... It's this tiny golden cupcake with a semi-sweet peanut butter frosting swirl, all topped with a dollop of marshmallow fluff. The awesome thing about this cupcake is that it's not too sweet. The cake is right between fluffy and dense, and is on the greasy side; the peanut butter frosting has a great peanut butter flavor and is not slightly sweet; the fluff is thick and just marshmallow goodness. These 3 components just work so well together to create an awesome little cupcake (they have standard sized cupcakes available, but I always get the mini ones)!

Here it is... the Fluffernutter Mini Cupcake from Sweet in Hoboken, NJ

- fluffernutter mini cupcake -

Their red velvet mini cupcake is not bad, but Two Little Red Hens is still #1 in my book!

- red velvet mini cupcake -

Baby Boom

Before the school year was over, we celebrated two soon-to-be mommies! Well, these soon-to-be mommies are ACTUAL mommies now! This is how long overdue this post is.... I was asked by our awesome Sunshine Committee to bake some baby cupcakes for their baby showers.

Mama Debbie had her beautiful baby boy, Dominic, first. He is as cute as a button (you see what I did there? I totally predicted his cuteness)!

- vanilla cupcake with buttercream and fondant button -

- vanilla cupcake with buttercream and blue pearls -

everything is cuter in miniature!

Mama Diana had her beautiful baby boy, Nicolas, next. He is a super cutie!!! I only got to snap these 2 pictures of her cupcakes (and with my iPhone) so please excuse the quality! It was incredibly humid that day, so the cupcake wrappers started peeling away from the cake. I ended up having to switch the wrappers out for new ones. I made the cupcake toppers myself using my Martha Stewart Elephant punch and a Fiskars Scallop punch. 

- chocolate cupcakes with buttercream -

- chocolate cupcakes with buttercream and green pearls -

I'm so happy for you two mamas! You guys did a great job cooking those buns in your ovens! They are the cutest little baby boys. I can't wait to see them!

Summer Shenanigans

Dear Friends,

I am incredibly sorry for having neglected you and my blog this summer! It has just been CRAY CRAY with the end of the school year and the beginning of summer school. I promise to make it up to you with a post of what shenanigans I've been up to!

As the school year came to a close, our district's summer enrichment program was just getting started. I signed up to teach 4 periods this summer: arts & crafts, 2 origami classes, and my personal favorite, a cake pops class. My class was such a hit, that it was completely filled up! I had my reservations at first with this one... I wasn't sure if the youngsters could handle it; I wasn't sure if I could handle it! Crumbling cake, melting chocolate, mixing frosting, shaping cake, dipping, decorating, sheesh it sounded like a nightmare! I was pleasantly surprised by my students and their abilities. They did such a fantastic job this summer, I thought I'd share their amazing creations!

- Watermelon Cake Pop -

- Chick Cake Pop -

- Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" Truffula Tree Cake Pop -

- Monster's U Mike Wazowski Cake Pop -

 and... my personal favorite from this summer~

- Despicable Me 2 Minion Cake Pop -

Needless to say, I was SUPER proud of my students! Didn't they come out awesome?!?

Superheroes!

Everyone knows that superheroes are an all-time favorite for little boys (and big boys alike). Lately, they seem to be more popular than ever! As a big movie buff, myself, I've gone to see every single superhero movie that has come out recently. From Batman to Spiderman to the Avengers, they're all the latest craze. So when my coworker came up to me and asked me to bake some superhero-themed cupcakes for her adorable nephew, it did not come as any surprise.

After doing some research, I decided to make some fun fondant cupcake toppers to go on simple frosted vanilla cupcakes. Using my gum paste tools, I cut, molded, and sculpted the toppers. The webbing on the Spiderman topper is with edible black marker. I let these dry out for a couple of days and topped the cupcakes the day of the party. The pop of colors from the baking liners and the colors of the superheroes themselves resulted in some cool looking cupcakes (if I may say so myself)! 

- J's gang is all here! -

Hope your birthday was action-packed, J!

Decorating Cookies

I've been following Bridget's blog for a while now. She just inspires me with all of those amazing cookie decorating ideas!! So for Christmas, my friend Haej got me THE coolest gift ever! She got me Bridget's Decorating Cookies book, but what REALLY makes it special is.....

it's SIGNED!

I love leafing through this book, looking at all the possibilities of colorful royal icing and cookie cutter shapes. She's also got some great cut-out cookie recipes in here, which I would share with you, but you really should just go out and get her book... I particularly like her Chocolate-Hazelnut Cookie recipe, which is oh-so-chocolatey and not too sweet!

As I drooled over page after page of beautiful cookies, I realized I needed to get my hands on every single cookie cutter imaginable! OK... maybe I don't need EVERY cookie cutter, but I did hop online to order the ones I thought I would use the most. My search took me to Etsy, where I bought one elephant, one onesie, one teacup, one teapot, one candy, one diamond ring, and one balloon cutter, adding to my collection of holiday and shape cutters.

My friend, Joyce, also got me the hippest cookie cutter set for Christmas! I think I may have enough cookie cutters...

- Band of Outsiders Cookie Cutters-

Neiman Marcus for Target

Here's my haul and the book of inspiration for my shopping spree~

So what did I do with my new cookie cutters and book of recipes/ideas? I baked cookies of course! I really wanted to use my new elephant cookie cutter, so I went with a baby shower theme. Now what to do with 3 dozen baby-themed cookies...

Peanut Butter & Pinterest

My baby bro, Andy, had finals last week so I wanted to make him a little somethin' somethin' to help ease the pain of all-night studying. I put together a big bag load of Korean snacks and Red Bull, along with a little homemade treat! This is a recipe that I found on Pinterest that just seemed way too yummy and easy to not try.

Andy loves Oreos, and brownies, and err peanut butter. Let's just say he's a fan of sweets (which is great for me because I can always count on him to eat my baked goods). I saw these brownie-covered Oreo peanut butter stacks and thought they'd be THE perfect indulgent snack!

You take 2 Oreos, spread some peanut butter on top of both, and stack. Place them in a paper-lined muffin pan and cover with brownie batter. Bake for about 15 minutes and voila you have the perfect little dessert! 

Here's another recipe I tried and loved on Pinterest! These require just 6 ingredients and make the most gooey, chocolatey, peanut buttery cookies. They are no-flour, no-butter, and no-white sugar!

These recipes are definite must-tries for the peanut butter enthusiast who wants an easy snack!

*** These pictures are clearly not taken with my new baby....

Bridal Cupcakes

Spring is finally here, bringing beautiful budding flowers, warmer temperatures, and the start of wedding season! I do love weddings! Sure, I'm left broke by the end of the summer and I really don't enjoy the rallying up of single ladies for the bouquet toss, but in the end it's a beautiful celebration of love. It's also a day filled with an open bar, a mini reunion of friends, and tears of joy (not listed in any particular order *wink*wink*). A coworker of mine is getting married this summer, and to celebrate it our school's awesome "Sunshine Committee" threw her a lovely shower. I had the honor of baking cupcakes for the occasion.

I decided to make 2 different designs: 

1. I made vanilla cupcakes for the base and piped on some vanilla buttercream with a round tip. I used a food-safe silicone mold to make my adorable little bows. The coral color really pops against the clean look of the cupcake.

2. I made chocolate cupcakes for the base and swirled on a light pink rose using a 1M tip. These roses are so easy to make and have the most beautiful result.

- chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream rose -

 - vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream-

topped with coral fondant bow & sparkles

- the 2 bridal cupcake designs -