Blue and Orange

My friend Ashley ordered some cupcakes for her friend's birthday. She was having a bowling party and her bowling ball is orange and blue. I didn't go all out with the bowling theme but stuck more with the colors instead. I topped the cupcakes off with the letters to spell out "Happy Birthday Amanda" and cut out some fondant bowling balls and pins. I also had an extra 6 inch cake left over that I decorated to match the cupcakes. I topped it off with fun swirl roses.

The Cupcakes:

~Red Velvet w/ cream cheese frosting

~Vanilla Bean

~Mango Citrus (a citrus zest cake with mango curd filling and mango butter cream frosting)

The Cake: Almond cake w/ a vanilla raspberry mouse. Covered with traditional buttercream and topped with homemade rolled fondant. The flowers and leaves are also fondant.

Wilton Finale Cake (course 4)

So my friend's mom and I took the Wilton Fondant and Gum Paste course at our local craft store this month. I have not taken any of the other courses yet - I guess I'm doing them backwards lol. Since I like to be different I decided on my own design that's not in the book. I decided on a zebra cake with the fantasy flowers. Also, I made my own fondant for this cake and it came out soooo much better than last time :) Homemade fondant just tastes better than the store bought stuff. As for the flowers - they are all gum paste. Hope you enjoy!

My sketch

I don't always sketch my ideas because 1) I cant draw very well and 2) I never have time lol

THE CAKE

(In the class you learn the carnation and the daisy. I modified the daisy to make a lotus/water lily)

Update 1/29/09
Here is the aftermath of the cake when we sacrificed it at work tonight LOL

Italian Cake and Cupcakes

Celebrated our friend Vinny's birthday this past weekend. He's Italian and we decided to have and Italian themed party, complete with Italian plates, napkins, and coasters. I made him a cake (Guinness chocolate stout cake - I know its not Italian, but he likes Guinness) and topped it off with a fondant cut out of Italy I painted the colors of the flag. I also made some cupcakes to go along with it too- spaghetti and meat ball cupcakes along with chocolate stout cupcakes and my new mango cupcakes. Here are some temporary pics for now... unfortunately had to take them with my cell phone since I forgot my camera and was rushing around baking that day (I had to drop off cupcakes at the restaurant as well).

Cupcakes for Haiti

As you all know the earthquake disaster in Haiti has just been unbelievable! It's been hard to hear the news each day. You can't just sit around and do nothing. It defiantly brings to memory the tsunami disaster a few years back - I can remember where I was when I heard about it. Well at work, a co-worker and I were talking about Haiti. She has family there and we wanted to do something to help. We decided to sell cupcakes - all 100% of the proceeds we make are going to relief in Haiti. The restaurant we work at is letting us sell them on the menu, and we sold out last night! Hoping to do the same tonight and all day tomorrow :) We are donating all proceeds to YELE Haiti - it's an organization started by Wyclef Jean in 2005.

I'm featuring flavors all weekend that include: peanut butter cup, chocolate strawberry, toasted coconut, vanilla mango, and chocolate stout! All topped off with a Haitian Flag topper (all hand made by me too lol) I will update this post with pictures of the cupcakes ASAP.

What people are saying about my cupcakes:

Haha... I was so flattered when I got this comment last night!! Georgetown is my favorite cupcakery here in the DC area :) So THANK YOU!! And thanks everyone who has donated their support for Haiti.

Seasame Street Cupcakes & Cake

Celebrated my boyfriend's niece's 2nd birthday this weekend. It was a sesame street theme - she LOVES Elmo! I decided to do 4 of the Sesame Street characters and a cake. I chose Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Oscar. For the cake I made a buttercream that can be smoothed out to almost look like a white fondant covering (aka "faux fondant"), then decorated with fondant decor - I made the happy birthday to look like the sesame street sign :) I also made DIY cupcake stand to display some of the cupcakes. Lots of fun not only making the cupcakes but celebrating her birthday too!!

[Click on images to see larger]

New year, New Cupcakes

First I just want to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Had a few birthdays so I had an excuse to bake :) I decided to try to the giant cupcake silicone pan my mom got me for Christmas. Man, was THAT hard to use! I did some research about how to use it - mine did not come with instructions :( I wanted to make the cake part rainbow color and decided on this vanilla cupcake recipe I got in one of my new cookbooks for Christmas. As for the baking, since the pan was silicone I cut it in two parts - many people online said the bottom cooks longer and the top takes less time. After awhile it still did not cook the center, so I covered it with foil and turned down the temperature a bit. The cake became a lot denser - could have been a new recipe I was trying or the way I cooked it. It's gonna take some practice that's for sure. The rainbow colors looked great though! And I decorated it more for show - I loved the way I decorated the top with swirls and mini fondant roses :) The bday girl was happy so I was happy.

I made some "smaller cupcakes" compared to the giant cupcake (the jumbo size). I made chocolate and topped some with a peanut butter cream cheese frosting (my new fave!) and topped the others w/ "spaghetti and meatballs" lol. Its just vanilla butter cream for the noodles, Ferraro chocolate for the meatball, strawberry coulis for the sauce and white chocolate shavings for the Parmesan. They're SO cute!! I can't wait for all the new cupcake recipes I'm going to try in 2010!!

Jumbo cupcakes surrounding the giant cupcake

Spaghetti and Meatballs


The birthday girl vs. the giant cupcake