An Assortment...

Just wanted to share an assortment of cuppies I made for a friend's birthday. You know, I would love to get an assortment of cuppies for my birthday. Actually, any day :)...don't think anyone will go there given what I do, but it's a happy thought :) tee hee :)

You Guessed it! Dalmatian and Firefighter Cupcakes!

Hello Sweet Readers!

Thank you to those of you who stopped by to comment on the last post! Most of you were right :) They were sweet little dalmatian doggie cupcakes! I made these for an order this weekend. They were quite fun and a bit time consuming to make, and the result made me smile! They were for a birthday party for a sweet 5 year old little boy. He wanted a firefighter theme, so I did the dalmatians and these:
I love how the fire hats and hoses came out! I made them with melted candy in a fire hat mold and I used some yellow candy strings for the hoses that I found in a multicolored pack at Marshall's. I just used some black frosting for the ends. They were all very fun when displayed together, too:
It was kind of tricky because I really wanted the dalmatian's faces to be white white. I didn't think the yellow tint of buttercream would look so hot and I really didn't want to use canned frosting (which I used to be able to eat, but cannot stomach anymore), so I went on a search for some white frosting recipes. I tried a couple with butter and they just weren't white enough so I ended up with a cooked frosting that was light, white and kind of marshmallowy. It set up quite differently than buttercream, and was very sleek and shiny. For these cupcakes, I think it went perfectly, but I must admit, buttercream is my favorite!

Thanks again for playing and have a great week!

Can You Guess What These Are?

Hi Sweet Readers!
Are you curious? Disturbed? Trust me, it's all edible, but in the beginning stages, my latest order looked a little strange...
Can you guess what I made from looking at these photos? I bet you can tell it's something that in real life eats..let me know your guesses!

Healthy Blackberry Whole Wheat Muffins- Can You Believe It?

Hi Sweet Readers!

I had to post these muffins I made. They are actually fairly healthy :) Not that I don't enjoy healthy foods...I do...but you do know my preference for cupcakes for breakfast. Or you do now! So these were in one of my favorite cookbooks, "Little Cakes" which is like "Whimsical Bakehouse" (same authors), but just smaller cakes. They were absolutely delicious! I loved the crumb topping and the whole wheat flour blended very well with the muffin flavors. I made some full size and some minis so I could just pop them in my mouth on the way to the gym. LOL.

I hope you are having a fantastic week. I love hearing from you all. Thanks for all your comments and emails. They really make a girl smile! :)

Oh, Chocolate Bliss...

Hi Sweet Readers! Here are some of my Easter cupcakes from a couple weeks ago..I was out of town and haven't gotten around to posting them all. This just might be it..well, maybe. Anyhow, these were just some yummy chocolate cuppies dipped in ganache. Some had a little peep chick on them :) Others had Hershey's coated chocolate eggs. I dipped the cuppie in the ganache, attached the peep, popped it in the freezer for a few minutes and redipped it. Pretty cute, huh? I think this may be the only way I can eat a peep. I can eat pretty much anything dipped in chocolate :) Well, within reason...

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Happy Monday, Sweet Readers :)

I hope you had a fabulous weekend! We were blessed with an incredible weekend here in California. The weather was just stunning.

Here are some carrot cake cuppies I made and topped with some little handmade marzipan carrots. I frosted them with vanilla cream cheese buttercream. Sooo moist and yummy! I know many people love carrot cake and this is one of the best recipes I have found. I loved the texture and moistness and the flavor just popped.

I hope you have a wonderful beginning to your week! Enjoy!

Begonia Cupcakes

Oh, Happy Springtime!

I made these for an order a couple weeks ago and am just now getting around to sharing them with you. They are dark chocolate cupcakes filled with caramel and ganache and frosted with a "begonia" flower pattern.

Have a great weekend!

Tie Dye Cupcakes

Hello Sweet Readers!
I wanted to show you some fun cuppies my boys and I made last week. We called them Tie Dye cupcakes and we actually colored the cupcake batter with five different colors for these. Not every cupcake ended up getting every color (planning error on my part), but they came out really fun and the boys had a blast. These particular ones were the two the boys got to eat that night, topped with simple marshmallow cream and sprinkles.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

At the end of March, my sweet hubby and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. Here is the little cake I made him. It was filled with vanilla buttercream and caramel. I drenched it in ganache and did the accents in irish cream buttercream. Tiny little cake, but I think it gave him much joy!

Chick Peeps Cupcakes!

Happy Easter, Sweet Readers~

I hope you have a very blessed and joyous day with your family and friends. May this day bring you much love and hope.

Here are some sweet little chick peeps to brighten the web...I had lots of fun matching them with their respective cupcake liners. Gotta love Fancy Flours for providing just the right shades!!

My Kind of Easter "Basket"

Hello Sweet Readers!

Here is an Easter "basket" I made for a dear friend and her hubby to share. A little different take than the traditional Easter basket, but definitely more like me! I hope they enjoyed it!

Have a very GOOD Friday!

Easter Gifts

Good Morning, Sweet Readers!

Here are some Easter gifts ordered for a little boy and girl. Their mom ordered these as an Easter gift and this is what I came up with. Both are vanilla almond cupcakes filled with caramel and a chocolate truffle. They are topped with vanilla buttercream and some Hershey's chocolate eggs. I then packaged them in their own sweet little boxes.

Published on "All Things Cupcake"! Woot!

Just wanted to call your attention to a great site, called "All Things Cupcake". It's a great site about, well, all things cupcake related! :) I was excited to see one of my Easter cupcakes published on their site! Go check it out if you get a chance! Thanks for your support, sweet readers! Here's the link: http://www.allthingscupcake.com/2009/04/07/jumbo-filled-easter-cupcake/

A Whole Lotta Monkey Business!

Hi Sweet Readers!
I made these darling little monkeys for my dear friend's little boy. He is into monkeys right now and she wanted to celebrate his third birthday with these sweet little guys.
Don't they just make you smile? They made me happy all day long :) They are banana cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting and fun little candies making up the face.
The finished product all packaged up and ready to go..times two!

Pretty Celebration Cupcakes

These beauties tasted as good as they look! I actually got to have one. My friend requested these for her birthday. They are a dark chocolate Guiness cuppie filled with a homemade chocolate truffle and topped with dark chocolate ganache. The frosting is Irish Cream buttercream and I topped them with Valhrona chocolate balls.

Butterfly Birthday

I love giving cupcakes! Here's one that I gave to a friend last week for her birthday. I love how the little homemade candy butterfly happened to match the butterfly on the ribbon! So fun.

Have a great week, sweet readers!

Little Lamb Cuppie

Hi! I made this single little lamb for my dear friend's birthday. I just had to make it for her because her family has a sheep farm and she loves little lambs. Not the best looking little guy, but it's the thought that counts :)

Chocolate Easter Bunny Experiment

Ok, Sweet Readers..so this is a bit strange...this bunny DID NOT look this scary and weird in real life. I promise. Believe me. In the photo, I think it truly looks rather evil. Scary. It was actually a lovely chocolate cake very heavily coated in ganache. There were three egg cakes and chocolate truffles with candy coating as embellishments...made for my women's bible study Friday morning.

Problem was, the cute bunny had so many niches and nooks and crannies that my method of pouring the ganache over the top of it just didn't work. So I had to keep pouring..and pouring..and pouring. It's three dimensional for goodness sake - cut me some slack! So it got a little out of hand. But heck, out of hand and into the mouth tasted pretty darn good! Kinda like when my high hat cupcakes became low hats--tada! Extra Chocolate is always good :) Anyhow, in real life, it wasn't this scary and even though the base was only about 2 1/2 inches wide, I actually made it to church without it falling over. I'm an amazing driver :O

So there ya go. I love the pan (thanks Mikela, for the gift!), and I will try again soon. If you have any hot tips on getting the coating down both sides of the bunny at the same time without getting fingerprints on it or messing up one side or the other, do tell. I would love your advice :)

Have a sweet weekend!

Birthday Cupcake Tower

Hi Sweet Readers! Here are the cupcakes I made for Sage's 1st birthday celebration. The theme was flowers and butterflies!
I did dark chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. I did homemade candy and frosting toppers...
and a few different colors of frosting to match the invitations and serving-ware. I love my new cake plates! I saw them over on Flickr..Glorious Treats has them and they were calling out my name! Thanks for the enabling, Glory :)

I hope you enjoy!

Sage's Birthday Cupcake Cake

Hi Sweet Readers! Well, did you guess what the last post was? I know Kristin did :) It was the bottom of a giant cupcake birthday cake covered in creamy wonderful dark chocolate ganache! I cannot bear to leave the bottom of that cupcake cake bare without frosting, so I found that this is a great and very tasty way to cover it.
I made this cake for a 1st birthday celebration for a beautiful, beautiful little girl named Sage. She also got some cupcakes to match that I will share in a later post...
I did her name, the butterflies, flower and leaves using the melted chocolate method. I love the way it is beautiful and yet a little bit youthful at the same time. Perfect for sweet Sage!
I hope she and her family enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed making and decorating it!
Have a sweet day!