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!