Engagement Party Cupcake Truffles

Hello Sweet Readers!

Here are some sweet cupcake truffles I made for my friend's son's engagement party. She wanted the tops all white, so I topped them with white non pareils, edible pearls, and sweet white stars.

Congrats and Blessings to Matt and Chrissy!

Cupcake Gingerbread

I hope you had a very Merry and wonderful Christmas!!

I wanted to share this cookie with you... just couldn't make cut out cookies without making a sweet cuppie!

All Packaged Up and Ready to Give!

Just wanted to show you all some samples of my Christmas Goodies. These were some gifts I made for friends and neighbors. Some were completely devoured the same day given...how sweet is that?!

Star Cupcake

All ready for Christmas...hope your time with family and friends is blessed and sweet!

Colorful 1st Birthday Cupcakes

Good Morning, Sweet Readers!

Here are some fun colorful first bday cupcakes I did for an order. It was for a first bday, so my friend wanted them colorful. Half the order was vanilla and the other half was dark chocolate chip Guinness cupcakes. I think the one year old is going to get the vanilla! :)

Have a sweet day!

WooHoo!

Just had to say that I'm so excited! I just made it onto the "Cupcakes take the Cake" blog (http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/)! So fun! I have been hoping to have a call out on their blog since I started this whole shindig and it has finally happened! They posted my Santa Hat Cupcake Truffles. Too bad for me it wasn't the greatest photo, but yeah! I am very excited to be recognized.

Gingerbread Cookies

Hi Sweet Readers! As promised, here are some photos of my baking these past couple weeks. I did a whole bunch of gingerbread cookies and had so much fun doing the decorating. I finished a couple batches and took a peek over at "My Sweet and Saucy". She had some of hers posted and I just had to try some of the techniques. The third and fourth pictures are inspired by her! I love finding fantastic ideas...there is so much talent out there.

Just a note, I made a double batch of the Martha Stewart GB cookies from her "Cookies" cookbook. Not good. They were way too soft and mushy to roll, even after refrigerating and freezing. It's such a bummer, because they smelled great and the batter was yummy, but it's not a good thing when you are trying to cut the shapes and they won't come off the Silpat or parchment paper. I tried another recipe from "Cookie Craft" (Love that book!) and it was much better. Still, the edges weren't as crisp and straight as I like to have them with my sugar cookies. I guess gingerbread just doesn't hold it's shape as well. In any case, they tasted great and I really like how they look - like little works of yummy art!

Enjoy!

Santa Hat Cupcake Truffles

Hi there! Sorry about the poor picture quality...these are some fun cupcake truffles I made for my son's Christmas party today. For the first time I tried vanilla cake rather than chocolate or red velvet. They were delish! I think I like them better. The kids actually got a kick out of them, which was fun. I have never shaped the truffles into anything,but was inspired by Bakerella and was pleased with the result.

Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic weekend!

Birthday Tart for My Sweet Husband

Hi Sweet Readers! I have been quite the busy baker these past two weeks. I have taken lots of photos to show you and hope to post them soon, but until then, here is one of the Lemon Tart I made for my sweet hubby's birthday. His birthday was just four days before mine and I told him he could choose any dessert he wanted. He went browsing through "Baking" by Dorie Greenspan, and this beauty caught his eye. It was actually pretty time consuming and interesting to make, but it was well worth it. The curd was a dream. Like she says in the book, it's really the creme de la creme of all lemon tarts because the lemon and the butter are emulsified. This gives it an amazing texture and taste. He was quite happy with it and only wish I had made two!

Have a great Friday!

Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes!

Aren't these pretty? I had planned on making some peppermint chocolate cuppies for the Christmas season, but when I saw how Carrie swirled her buttercream, I was inspired!

The cake is a chocolate velvet and is divine. It is less dense than many chocolate cupcake recipes, but it has a brownie like top that I just love. The blending of flavors goes together really very nicely.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend.

Minis and Cookies For a Birthday Tea Party

Hi Sweet Readers! Here are some special little mini cuppies I made for Abigail's 3rd birthday (this is a different Abigail than my flower cupcake order). Her mom is throwing her a special tea party and wanted little minis in a strawberry and vanilla Christmas theme to help them celebrate. They also ordered some delicious coconut cream cookies. I love the little gold and silver gingerbread candy cane. I made some gingerbread cookies this week and wanted to give Abigail her own special cuppie with a cookie on top. Happy Birthday, Abigail!

Cupcake Gift Box

Hi Sweet Readers! I wanted to share with you this sweet box of cuppies I made for a hostess gift. It consisted of strawberry cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and topped with a fondant flower and edible pearls, eggnog cupcakes with eggnog buttercream, and orange cranberry white chocolate topped with orange curd buttercream. Yummy!

Cake

Inspired by the beautiful cake artistry of "My Sweet and Saucy", "Bakerella" and "Fields of Cake" (they are so incredibly talented!), I decided to try my hand at decorating a cake with fondant embellishments for a dinner party we went to Saturday night. As far as cakes go, I know I have a long way to go, but they are looking better! There is a lot more to it that a sweet little cuppie! I was mildly pleased with it, and my friends enjoyed it, so that is what counts anyway.

The cake itself was very yummy. It was a very rich, moist three full layer dark chocolate cake filled with orange chocolate whipped ganache. The buttercream was infused with a homemade orange curd. It was an Italian meringue buttercream that was super silky smooth. It was a very tasty cake that went beautifully with the vintage ruby port my hubby picked out to pair it with.

Thanks for checking in! Have a great week, sweet readers!

Eggnog Cupcakes - Oh Joy!

Hello Sweet Readers! Here are the rest of my eggnog cupcakes garnished with a bit of nutmeg, festive sprinkles and eggnog buttercream frosting. I have been so busy baking and planning for baking that I haven't had a moment to decorate for Christmas, so it's fun to see the Christmas colors so festively presented. I altered this corkboard to display Christmas cards, and it also comes in handy for cupcake photography! :)

These cuppies are very delicious, even for someone like me who isn't the biggest fan of eggnog. They taste strongly of eggnog, but in a wonderful cupcake way. The frosting is not as strongly "eggnoggy" as the cuppie, so it works really well together. I think someone who adores eggnog might just fall in love. :)

Have a great weekend!

Christmas Bulb Cupcakes!

Merry Christmas, Sweet readers! Here is my first set of Christmas themed cupcakes. Just had to try these fun Christmas bulb cupcakes from the "Hello, Cupcake" cookbook. Very cute - just could not find the green candy string for the cords to hook them all together! That stuff is nowhere to be found and it would have added so much. If anyone has a clue as to where to find it, please let me know.

Inside the sugary lightbulb is a delicious eggnog cupcake topped with vanilla buttercream frosting. I will post the rest of this order soon. I made some eggnog buttercream for the more "adult" side of the order :)

Season's Greetings!

"Fall" Flavored Cupcakes

Hello! Here are some cupcakes I made these past couple weeks that tasted of fall. I couldn't resist all the wonderful flavors and just had to share them with you before I started to post the new set of Christmas time flavors I have been dying to make. So, here they are: sweet potato pumpkin pecan pie cupcake (this was filled with pecan pie filling that I baked separately and then stuffed in the cuppie) topped with pumpkin buttercream, cranberry white chocolate cupcake with orange white chocolate cream cheese frosting, orange spice cupcake filled with cranberry orange filling and topped with orange spice buttercream, chocolate spice cupcake topped with ganache and valhrona chocolate. People seemed to really enjoy these flavors together and they were all so beautifully fallish!

Well, stay tuned for some Christmas flavors...I will be doing some special Christmas cookies, too, so hopefully I will get them posted to share with you!

Have a great day, sweet readers!

Blue Flower Mini Cupcakes

Hello Sweet Readers~ I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Are you ready for December? I cannot believe it is already here. It's such a special time of year, isn't it?

I wanted to share these mini chocolate cuppies I made for an order. They were for a birthday lunch for sweet little girl. Her grandma told me that she liked blue and chocolate, so I came up with these pretty little bites. They are dark chocolate mini cupcakes topped with chocolate ganache and a creamy buttercream frosting. The flowers are fondant with edible pearls and blue nonpareils.

Thanks for stopping by - have a wonderful week!

Bare Cupcake Cake

Hi Sweet Readers! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are enjoying the time with your family and friends!

These are some photos I took of the cupcake cake for Abby and Sam before I embellished it. Just wanted to share these photos with you, too. It looks pretty "bare", too, doesn't it? I love the speckles of vanilla bean in the frosting. Ooh, what goodness (even after a day of eating, this has to look good to you :)

Breakfast Buffet

I wanted to share with you the breakfast buffet that I did for our church's marriage sunday school class. I had fun making some yummy harvest goodies for everyone.
Here are some vanilla bean cuppies filled with yummy apple filling and topped with apple cider buttercream and caramel drizzle (as well as some candied apples, chocolate cookie leaves and candy acorns).
Some maple iced pumpkin cookies...
Some little baby lemon cakes with lemon glaze...
and a sweetened condensed milk cake. I also served some fresh fruit and my coconut cream filled macaroons. Yum!

Birthday Surprise for Me!

Me, Surprised!


This is my sweet hubby walking me into my surprise 40th birthday party (a whole month before my actual birthday!) that he planned with the wonderful gals below: Nancy, Rachel and Debbie! Thank you all so , so much!
Here's me enjoying some more sweet friends-Karen and Nan. I love you , ladies!Kami, Rachel, Kelly and Michelle! Thank you so , so much for making my birthday so special!My sweetest friend and cousin, Krista. She has been with me these whole 40 years (yes, that would mean that she is younger!) She came from the Bay area and totally surprised me, too!Here's my sister-in-law, Ellen. She traveled the longest distance..from SoCal. Thanks so much! Krista and my neighbor Mary Lou are in the photo, too! Below is Michelle and the birthday girl!
My oh-so-delicious chocolate fudge birthday cake!!! Yummmm! And part of a gorgeous favor my friends hand made for me! (The cake is one of my favorites from Freeport Bakery in Sacramento)

I had such a fabulous time and it was so neat have such special friends there. I will remember this as long as I can :)