Happy Holidays!

Ok, I know I'm a couple days late!! Things were just so hectic. What would the holidays be without a Giant Cupcake??? Since it was Christmas I had to go with a giant cupcake ornament! The directions for the chocolate liner can be found here . I hope all of you had a very merry Christmas!!

Recent Cakes

First up we have a skateboard cake created for Dave who recently turned 10. The cake is half white , half chocolate and filled with fresh strawberries.



Next we have the Baby Gone Wild Cake and Cupcakes. This design was inspired by a baby shower featured on the stem party blog . I love Amy's ideas and I was actually featured on her blog earlier this year.

Last but not least I got to make this 3 tier cake for Princess Bryonna who was celebrating her 2nd Birthday. Her theme was Disney's The Princess and The Frog. The Princess Tiana topper was purchased.

1st Birthday Prince Cupcake Tower

Prince Kehinde celebrated his 1st birthday recently. In honor of his big day I created this giant cupcake with gumpaste topper and dozens of minis. The directions for the candy liner can be found here. I love my Wilton Giant Cupcake Pan!!

Boot Cookies

So I kinda have this shoe obsession :-) instead of running out and buying every single pair I want I've created them in cookie form. You can look forward to more of these. The cookies are NFSC covered in fondant.

My Latest Projects

This Giant Cupcake and Hula Dress Smash Cake was created for Elise's 1st Birthday.


Luau Cupcake Tower






1st Birthday Prince Cupcakes




Sophia's Giant Spongebob Cupcake

Onesie Favor Cookies

Leopard Print Shoe and Boot Cookies

Shoe Box Cake with Gumpaste Shoe

Naughty or Nice Cupcakes created to accompany the Naughty or Nice card collection by Kee2Creativity

This year I decided to join IronCupcake:Earth 2.0. The first challenge of the year is MUSIC . I'm so excited about being a part of IC:E that I just wanted to share the news with everyone.

What is IronCupcake:Earth you ask?

IRON CUPCAKE:Earth, yes a lofty name indeed. It should be, it is a way for bakers from anywhere, all over the world, to take place in the ultimate flavor challenge. Why? To promote world peace, one cupcake at a time. IronCupcake:Earth is in it's second year and is now over 425 bakers strong! To join the fun, visit the JOIN IRON CUPCAKE:EARTH .

This years prizes providers and sponsors are:

The Demy™ by Key Ingredient
Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson
Bella Cupcake Couture
Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac
The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! by Anne Byrne

Weekend Cakes

I love when cakes go according to plan. This weekend was free of any sugar battles. Let's hope the rest of the month goes as well.

I had the honor of making this really cute Mickey cake for DaMari who is the nephew of one of my best friends. This design was inspired by on of my flickr friends creativecupcakes.



Sunday October 4 was my oldest son's birthday. Darius has been a huge Toy Story fan since he was 1. He was Buzz Lightyear for Halloween 2 years in a row. He wore the costumes until they literally fell apart. So needless to say he was super excited when he found out the double feature was coming to theaters in 3D the just in time for his 9th birthday. Here is his birthday cake.

Now there was no way I was going to attempt sculpting these characters myself so I purchased a figurine set. The "wood" floor is made of fondant and is totally my favorite part of the cake. It looked totally real. I used the technique from Confetti Cakes For Kids which is one of my favorite design books (I love the work of Elisa Strauss).

Black and White Cupcake Tower

I created this for a black and white 50th birthday party. The flowers toppers were inspired by a fellow flickr friend o'holysweet. I must say hers are much more stunning than mine :)


I also created white flowers for the Triple Chocolate cupcakes.

And here is the assembled tower. Not the best pic but you get the idea.

I had a couple cupcakes left over and decided to try my hand at fondant cover cupcakes. I love the end result! The letters on these were created using Tappits. I have them in a few different fonts and they are a lifesaver for me because my own writing is terrible! The upper and lower case Script sets were used for these particular cupcakes. I also have the Funky Alphabet set and the Standard Alphabet set.

Fall Booties

Hello everyone!! I haven't abandoned my blog. I've just been super busy and extremely distracted.


Anywho...... I'm back!! Lately I've gotten tons of emails from sites like Bluefly.com and a catalog from one of my favorite stores Von Maur. They're filled with tons of the hottest items for fall. The one thing that stood out to me the most were booties a.k.a shooties. Since I can't afford to buy all the real ones I want I created some in cookie form.


They are NFSC covered in fondant.


Here is the black cookie packaged and tied with this great damask ribbon I found at Michaels.

And here is the silver ruffle one (my fave!)

More Pink and Purple Cuteness

So Tink wans't my only girlie creation of the day. I also did this Abby Cadabby cake for Keniya....

and this pink and purple cupcake tower for Ms. Maya who is one her way to WIU. Congrats Maya!!

Giant Tinkerbell Cupcake

I told you all this is my most popular cake. People are just fascinated by the Giant Cupcake. This one was created for Arielle who turned 9. The #9, leaves and flowers are fondant and gumpaste. The liner is chocolate and Tinkerbell is a toy topper.

Sesame Street Cupcake Tower

This weekend I created a mini cupcake tower for Xavier who was turning one. The tower featured 8 dozen mini cupcakes in chocolate and white with fondant circle cutouts. The topper was a Giant Cupcake with a chocolate liner which has quickly become my most popular cake. The Giant cupcake has a gumpaste #1 and an Elmo image. I also added #1 "confetti" (the leftover cutouts from the cupcake toppers).




I also made some simple cookies for favors.

Luau Cupcake Tower

My friend's daughter Shana had a luau to celebrate her 21st birthday and I was honored to make this cupcake tower for her. I created chocolate and white cupcakes with flip flop,flower and umbrella(non edible) toppers.

The giant cupcake topper was made using the Wilton Giant Cupcake Pan, which I totally love. I did my signature chocolate liner. Not a good swirl day for me but I think it came out pretty darn cute.

Sweet Treats Challenge

The Flickr group Sweet Treats held a challenge for cupcakes and cookies with the theme of toys and circus. Needless to say I was very excited about this. I decided to go with my favorite toy as a child .... My Easy Bake Oven!!! The funny thing is I got to bake a lot as as a child with my Gram but it was just something about having my own little oven. I remember how those little mixes were gone in the first day. I would go to the kitchen and sneak ingredients to make up my own recipes. After much trial and error I finally created some that were edible. Anywho is my EBO cupcake. (I also did and Etch A Sketch one as well).

For the cookie challenge the theme was Circus. I wanted to do something that might not be as common as i.e. a clown , so I went with the Human Cannonball. My 4 year old son Christian says it looks like a man in a fish shaped sleeping bag!! Well I guess the members of Sweet Treats thought otherwise because my cookie took 1st place in the intermediate division!!

Please check out all of the other amazing entries:

Cupcake (Intermediate)

Cupcake (Advanced)

Cookie (Intermediate)

Cookie (Advanced)

and the winners.

Happy Father's Day

I know by now you've seen this cake done a million times which is why I dreaded making it but you have to give the people what they ask for!

Ryan's BBQ Birthday Bash

My nephew Ryan turned 6 yesterday. After months of going back and forth over a theme with my sister, she finally decided on a simple family BBQ. I had to come up with something really special for him because he's such a sweetheart. Cupcakes were a given since we're all so infatuated with them. So I thought I'd use foods you eat at a BBQ as the toppers.





Since they would be displayed on a stand I had to come up with an awesome topper cake. A grill seemed like the likely choice. I had seen cakes before that were simply a round cake decorated as a grill but that just wouldn't do. I wanted something more 3D and a bit more realistic so I began my research. The inspiration from my grill came from a Wilton design. The design was very cute as is but I just made it more personal.

For every party I do favor cookies are a must! I saw these cookies done by my Flickr friend sweetTcakes . They went perfectly with my theme.

I love when my work turns out the way I imagined. I was so pleased with the finished product and Ryan loved it so that's what matters most!!

Bobby Jack Cake and Candy Cupcakes

This Bobby Jack cake and candy cupcakes was created for Daijah. Bobby Jack and the candy pieces are made of fondant.

Margarita Cupcakes

These cupcakes were created for Sweet Treats Cupcake of the Month Club .
This month's theme was Margarita. I had a blast doing these and can't wait for June which will be Banana Split Cupcakes.

Heel and Clutch Cookies

These were "just for fun" cookies. Since I can't afford the real thing I'll have to settle for the sugar versions. I had so much fun with these I can't wait to make more.

Pink Lemonade Baby Shower

Created for a"Pink Lemonade"baby shower but would also be adorable for a first birthday. These cupcakes and cookies feature a cute little cupcake and monogram.

Clara's Casino Cupcake Tower

I recently had the privilege of creating 13 dozen cupcakes and a 6 inch topper cake for Clara's 70th birthday party which was held at theMajestic Star Casino in Indiana. The flavors included white cupcakes with pineapple filling, yellow cake with strawberry filling, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate filling.

Because everyone deserves a piece of @$$ on their birthday....

This cake was created for my co-worker Jesse. It was ordered by some more of his fellow co-worker. They felt that even Jesse deserves a piece of @$$ on his birthday. Yellow butter cake with buttercream icing and covered in chocolate fondant.

Jamani's Madagascar Cupcakes and Cake

This set of cupcakes and cake was created for Jamani who recently turned 3. The flavors were chocolate with a chocolate frosting and fondant topper. He also had white cupcakes with butter cream frosting. These cupcake were adorned with an edible image topper. The topper cake was white cake with a fresh strawberry filling. His mom added a toy to the top of the cake at the party.

Mini Cupcakes for Kee 2 Creativity

These mini cupcakes were created for the amazing Kee Sherman of Kee 2 Creativity. She is vendor at a bridal show today and wanted cupcakes for her booth. I didn't get a chance to get a picture of them set up so I have yet another in the box shot. The flavors I used today were Banana cake with Cream Cheese frosting and Vanilla with Tahitian Vanilla buttercream.

Banana Nut Cake wih Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake
butter, for greasing pans
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup chopped pecans (I didn't use these)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Frosting
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature (1 stick)
1 lb confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Butter and flour 3 (9-inch) round cake pans; set aside. Preheat oven to 350°F.( I used mini cupcake pan and liners)
2. For Cake: In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add the eggs and oil and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened; do not beat. Stir in the banana, pecans, and vanilla.
3. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake for 23 to 28 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake layers in the pans for 10 minutes, and then turn them out onto a rack to cool completely. (I baked for 11-12 minutes)
4. While the cake cools, make the frosting: In a bowl, blend together the cream cheese and butter. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Stir in the pecans, or reserve them to sprinkle over the frosted cake.
5. Fill and frost the cake when it is completely cool.


This recipe was originally posted on Food Network



Yellow Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation
Heat oven to 350° F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of a mixer fit with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, stirring after each addition. Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating it with the milk and mixing just until incorporated. Add the vanilla and combine. Divide the batter among 12 cupcake tins with paper liners. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting or decorating.


Kaye's Buttercream

Kaye's buttercream can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3days and in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. To use the chilled buttercream, bring it to room temperature and beat at medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. To speed up this process you can lightly reheat the buttercream, in its mixing bowl, over a hot water bath, before beating.

In a small saucepan, bring to a boil:
1/2 cup water
2 1/4 cups sugar

Use a clean pastry brush and cold water to wash down any sugar crystals that form on the sides of the pan as the water heats. When the sugar comes to a boil set a timer for 7 minutes, and let boil.
After 5 minutes, in the bowl of an electric mixer, begin to whip at high speed:
1 cup egg whites (about 12 large egg whites)
Whip until stiff. They should be done when the timer goes off.
With the mixer on high speed, slowly beat the sugar syrup into the egg whites, pouring the syrup to the side of the bowl to avoid the whip.
Continue to beat until the bowl is cool to the touch, about 10 minutes.

Slowly add:
1 1/2 pounds (6 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into 1-inch pieces
When the buttercream begins to jump out of the bowl reduce the speed low.
Mix in at low speed:
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Beat until light and fluffy. At some points the mixture might look curdled. Just keep beating; it will become smooth again.


Yield: 8 cups

Recipe from The Whimsical Bakehouse

Happy Birthday Ashley and Tiffany

My twin cousins Ashley and Tiffany turned 11 this week. These are the mini cakes and cupcakes I made for them.

Ashley LOVES High School Musical and most importantly Zac Efron. So I had to find some way to feature him on her cake. The basketball and music note toppers were made of fondant.

















For Tiffany I created Pokemon cupcakes and a mini Pokeball cake. The toppers were supposed to be edible images but I can't get my crazy printer to work. That thing has been a thorn in my side since I purchased it. Anywho, I printed the toppers using regular paper. Not my exact vision but Tiff loved them.

Easter Basket Cake

Who knew a little cake could be so much trouble??

I baked and filled yesterday only to discover this morning the fresh strawberry filled layers slid apart. Couldn't find my leaf cutter to make the grass I really wanted.
I made the bow too large for the cake. So I had to make a last minute bow and it had no time to dry. When I put the handle on it cracked!!!

PB&J Cupcakes

I created these for the Flickr group Sweet Treats Cupcake of The Month Club. This month's flavor was peanut butter and jelly. The sandwich toppers are made of fondant.