Happy Halloween!

Hi Sweet Readers! I am so sorry to be so absent this week. I have had about 15 dozen cupcakes, cupcake truffles, and other sweet things go out and now I can share pictures! I am heading up to Tahoe for the weekend, though, so it may take a bit to get them posted. In the meantime, here are the cuppies I made for my younger son's class for their Halloween party Thursday. Those are gummy bones in case you were wondering....ick! The kids liked them, though :)

Have a safe Halloween and a great weekend!

A Sweet Single

I just had to show you this pretty little cupcake stand I purchased over the weekend. OK, it's not really a cupcake stand, but when I saw it, I knew that was what it had to be. So perfect to showcase one beautiful single cupcake! This is the one I made for my friend's daughter. I was playing with making fondant flowers for her and this is my first one! Yeah! The cupcake is filled with caramel and topped with rich chocolate buttercream and the oh, so pretty flower. I gave it to her in the box in the previous post. Didn't think a six year old would need the cupcake stand. Don't you just love the display (even though the photo is not the best)?

I have some really fun things planned for this week's treats and orders. I hope to share them with you soon!

Some Sweet Creations

Yes, I bake. I also craft about baking! :) Here are some of my cupcake creations I did this weekend in the form of paper crafting. The first are some cards I did with my new Stampin' Up! Crazy About Cupcakes stamp set (fitting name, huh?). I also did a little cupcake box for a friend's daughter's birthday and covered some nuggets with some stamped images from Papertrey Ink for a nifty little gift tin.

I hope you had a good weekend! I got to play with my sons at our church's "Treat Street" and it was a blast. They sure had an exciting time and took home some very yummy loot. They want to donate some, but are also looking forward to enjoying some themselves. Don't have a clue how they got their sweet tooth...:)

Have a great week, sweet readers!

Play Soccer!

I made these for both my son's soccer teams. I think the kids got a kick out of them. I did the frosting as green "grass" and the soccer balls I made by melting candy into molds. Very fun!

Happy Birthday Box of Cupcakes

I made these for a friend's birthday this Saturday. I like to package them in something they can actually use again if at all possible, so I found this pretty brown and pink photo box that fit the occasion perfectly. The cupcakes are varied as are the frostings. I have some chocolate, chocolate peanut butter cup, sprite cake, vanilla, browned butter brown sugar, caramel, candied flowers, valhrona chocolate pearls, coconut cake, and probably some more, but you get the gist. Just wanted her to have a variety along with the truffles I made her. I like the way the presentation worked out. I made the card with my favorite new stamp set, too! :)

Have a great Saturday!

Gigantic Cupcake Birthday Cake

Happy Friday, sweet readers!

I wanted to show you this, even though it's a couple months old and not my best work...I was in southern California and had the honor of helping to celebrate my brother's 35th birthday when I bought this cupcake cake pan back in September. I just couldn't resist!

Mind you, I had none of my decorations, tips, bags, gadgets, goodies, etc. I had to wing it on what I could get down there last minute (thanks for your help mom and Mikela!), but I really wanted to make this for him. I tried a recipe that was supposed to be for chocolate cake, but it was very heavy and was more like a really really dense pound cake. Anyhow, he enjoyed it and that is what counts. I love this cupcake pan, though. I'm dying to make another birthday cake with it here in the comfort of my home and all my goodies! If you have a special someone you would like to share a cupcake cake with for a special occasion, let me know! :) I'm game.

Have a great weekend and thanks for checking in :)

The Benefit of Cupcakes

I did these cupcakes for a benefit that a friend threw last night. They are all mini except a half dozen full size. She requested the apple candy toppers so I put those on some vanilla cakes with apple filling. I also made some peanut butter chocolate chunk cuppies with some fabulous delicious frosting.

She was gracious to allow me to put up my advertising tile at the event along with my cards. I made the tile with some of my uppercase living goodies and some pretty ribbon.

Thanks for checking in, sweet readers! :)

Cupcakes for Dinner!

Yes, it's a cupcake, yes, it's for dinner! Saturday was National Chocolate Cupcake Day and though I did make nearly 90 chocolate cupcakes, I also had to surprise my family with this savory little concoction on saw in Rachel Ray's magazine. It's sausage meatloaf topped with piped mashed potatoes! They were sooo yummy! My hubby and kids actually thought I WAS serving them cupcakes for dinner - up until they took a bite. Funny, no one objected! :) It really looked like frosting on the cake. I will definately do these again. I think it would be fun to bring to a potluck as a cute little surprise from the cupcake gal.

Thanks for checking in sweet (and savory :) readers!

A Harvest Cake

While visiting our family in Orange County a couple weeks ago, I was perusing through my mother-in-law's Bon Appetite "best of" anniversary issue. I came across a recipe for "the best ever party cake". It was a beautiful, three layer cake. I decided I had to try it and decided I could make it for a church meeting I had last night. It took many hours, but here it is! I am so happy with it. I don't usually do cakes - at least not fancy ones, but since I have improved a bit on my piping and baking skills lately, I wanted to give this a try.

I must note that I made several crucial changes to the recipe. My dear hubby wasn't thrilled about the orange/chocolate theme they had going, so I did some substituting. The ganache filling, which was my favorite part, incidentally, was changed to a kahlua, espresso flavor rather than the orange flavoring the recipe called for. I made a brown butter, dark brown sugar buttercream instead of the orange buttercream it called for. I still want to go back and make their version (I did stick with the chocolate cake recipe), but this was mighty good. Very rich and decadent. Maybe too sweet for some lighter sweet eaters, but die hards like myself can't get enough.

I also had some fun with the decorations. I made some cute acorns with caramels and chocolate leaves with various colored candy melts. I also had to throw in my valhrona chocolate crunchy balls I just found at Surfas in L.A. (thanks for the tip, My Sweet and Saucy!).

Not a perfect cake, but perfect for me right now! Just enjoyed another piece! :)

Thanks for stopping by sweet readers!

Harvest Treats and Goodies

I am having so much fun doing harvest and hallween treats! Here are some of my sugar cookies, mummy and monster pops and candy corn cuppies. Enjoy!

A Requested Favorite

Hi Sweet Readers~
I posted some of these delectables awhile back, but I keep getting requests for these guys and just had to share them again. They are sooooo tasty and rich. They are a dark chocolate cuppie filled with chunks of peanut butter cup and then topped with a peanut butter dark chocolate ganache and more peanut butter cup. I made these for an order on Friday and am bummed I didn't make one up for myself tonight! I wouldn't have taken a picture, but I like the way they looked in my cupcake courier. I just love the blue and brown together. Ah, the little things...

Thank You Cookies

I love packaging up sweets to say thank you. Here are some fall sugar cookies I gave to my cousin and her hubby for watching my kiddos.

Lots and Lots of Cupcakes for a Cause

I made these mini cupcakes last week for a wonderful charity called the Kylee Lillich Giving Tree. (http://www.kyleesgivingtree.org/) Their primary purpose is to help needy and hospitalized children and grieving children who have lost a sibling, parent, or primary caregiver. They also help children's programs such Hospice and "animals helping children". They had a winetasting and silent auction benefit last Saturday, but I was unable to attend due to our travel plans. I donated these little guys and a friend set them up at the auction (thanks, Rach). I will send along a picture of their presence there, but for now, I wanted to share with you what 200+ mini cuppies look like.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Hi! I was out of town for the weekend, so my blogging slowed a bit, but I am back! I have a new nephew now (welcome to the world, Anthony Joseph!) and I got to meet him just after his birth while we were in Southern California. Lucky me! So blessed. . .

Anyhow, I made these last week for an order. They are coconut cuppies with a cream cheese buttercream frosting topped with coconut. Very tasty and moist. I love the look, too.

Have a great day!

Candied Apples Cupcakes

Happy Sunday Sweet Readers! Here are some cuppies I made for our women's bible study a bit ago. I created the apples from candy and made a delicious homeade apple filling and reduced apple cider buttercream that sweet Carrie posted a few weeks back. (thanks, carrie - loved that buttercream!) Some of the cuppies also had some champagne buttercream mixed in. I love how they look so fallish and pretty.

Cookie of the Week - Sort Of

I didn't actually get to do an official cookie of the week this week because I was doing to many other cookies, pops, and cupcakes. So here is one that was a delicious hit awhile back. They were a moist chocolate cookies stuffed with dried cherries and huge chunks of dark chocolate. Delish! Thanks for checking in! Have a great weekend!

"Scary" Cupcake Pops! Monsters and Mummies

This is my first set of halloween pops. I plan on doing a little more finessing of these little guys because I am not completely pleased with how they came out. My chocolate seemed to want to firm up on me very quickly and the red velvet cake mixture inside was softer than usual. So, the combination was bit hard to work with. Oh well, they needed to be scary and I think they are in terms of what I like to see in my presentations! I'm not done yet! (oh, they tasted great, though:)

Boo Treats

I was so excited to start out the "booing " in our neighborhood. I just couldn't contain myself. I had some ideas of some halloween-themed fun cuppie and cupcake pop ideas and I had to get them out, so booing some friends was a perfect opportunity.(I have many more ideas that I hope I will have time to play with)

The boys loved the adventure and the spy game of it and I love creating and sharing the goodies with friends and neighbors. I know it's early, but is it really ever too early for sweets? Why not start now? Everyone gets so much around the 31st, so now is a great time. Right?!

Harvest Cupcakes

I love fall colors (just like you, Rick!), and I love decorating sweets with them. Here are some cuppies I made for a friend to give to her new neighbor. They are decadent rich dark chocolate with peanut butter cups within. They are covered in a dark chocolate peanut butter ganache and some fall colors! I also made some with some edible "jewels" on top (silver dragees, pearls, and golden sugar), but, believe it or not, I forgot to take a photo! She served them at a jewelry party!

Have a splendid day, sweet readers!

Champagne Cupcakes

My dear friend Rachel and her hubby brought us back some Almond Champagne from a recent wine tasting trip to the foothills. It was delicious and I usually don't care for champagne. (Thank you, Rach!) I had seen some recipes for some champagne cupcakes, so of course I had to try this yummy version in some cupcakes! Well, they came out pretty, but, to me, the champagne tasted much better than the cupcakes. Others seemed to like them, but I think I need to try another recipe for these bubbly cuppies. Live, bake, and learn, I guess!

Welcome Fall! Sugar Cookies

Ok, are you sick of sugar cookies yet? Well, here are some more, but they are different! They are my first fall batch and I'm liking the colors! It is feeling pretty fallish here these past couple days and so they are bit more appropriate (even though I actually baked these with the cupcake ones). I love doing the glazed swirling method. I'm not super fond of the way the colors turned out, but I recently got a couple new colors I think will help. Stay tuned!

Have a great week, sweet readers :)

A Little Cupcake Cookie Package or Two

I packaged up some of these sweeties for some friends. Just wanted to share the packaging. I think they appreciated the gift. It sure was fun to give ~!

Have a blessed Sunday, Sweet readers!

More Cupcake Sugar Cookies!

Just as I promised, here are some more cute little cupcake sugar cookies. I just love these! I can customize the colors if you have a special event or just want some in your favorite color! Very fun!

Happy Saturday! Have a great weekend!

Cupcake or Cookie? Both!

I started into my sugar cookie fix. I found this adorable little cupcake cookie cutter at Sur La Table in the Bay Area and just had to have it! (To her credit and goodness, my dear friend Debbie also found the same cookie cutter and bought it for me, isn't that sweet? Such thoughtfulness....) Anyhow, this is one of the first cookies I made with it. I am experimenting on some color options, so you will see more soon!

Have a great day, sweet readers and thanks for visiting! :)

Cookie Of The Week #28 - Gingersnap Raspberry Sandwiches

These were my younger son's choice. Even my hubby who isn't a big ginger fan really liked these. I like them, too. And it goes without saying that the boys liked them :) The cookies are not too soft, not too hard and are perfectly sweet. Delicious!

Happy Thursday!

Embellishments for Cupcakes

One of the things I like to do is experiment with various toppings and decorations on cupcakes. I try to cater to the needs and desires of my friends, family and clients, and also like my cupcakes and sweets to present well. Here I tried a technique I saw on a "my sweet and saucy" blog that uses clear acrylic stamps (of which I have quite of few :) with fondant to make a design decoration. I like it! I think I would have rolled the fondant out thicker (and invested in a small circle cookie cutter), but really, the possibilities are endless and only limited by the stamps I have. Now I can combine two of my favorite passions - stamping/scrapbooking with baking! Very fun! Thanks for visiting!