baby cakes take 2

congrats nicole and baby emma!!

cupcakes for a cause!

my amazing little sister is once AGAIN running the nyc marathon... she's an animal... this year she is running for lance armstrong's team "LIVESTRONG"... so to help raise some money for an amazing cause, she got together with a friend of the family, an amazing woman named patti who is running for "TEAM IN TRAINING"... and they put on a mini golf outing, the "PUTT FOR A CURE" and let me tell you, it was super awesome... and amazing turnout of supporters, and everyone had a great time... my sister had asked me to bake some cupcakes and here is what i did... not bad huh??


i want to thank everyone who came out and donated to both causes... you rock!!

my sister boyfriend kyle and my sister meghan, the hubs, me and benjamin, my sister in law lia and my brother brendan
the little man getting his golf on
me, the little man and meggie
even chuck norris wants to kick cancers ass!
my boys sponsered hole #1... good luck aunt meggie

a few of my favorite things...

chocolate... coffee... caramel... cupcakes...

can you resist...

so here is my ode to my favorite starbucks drink... the caramel macchiato...

delicious and decadent and deeply rich espresso chocolate cupcakes, covered with a buttery caramel coffee buttercream, drizzled with homemade salt caramel, and topped with a dark chocolate covered espresso bean...

yummy yummy yummy!!

more yummies...

no real post here, just thought i would share with you some of the goodies i made last night... my lovely neighbor laura invited us over to her house for some homemade sushi (which was stellar!), some drinks and some good ol' relaxing fun... so i decided to bring over some yummies... i made a few pretty ones for the little girls who were going to be there, and then i satisfied my oreo craving with some cookies n' cream ones (i can never go wrong with those!)... so here you . go... enjoy!

babycakes

a couple of weeks ago i had the pleasure of making cupcakes for my cousin brooke's baby shower... and i was so excited to make something cute, elegant and girly adorable since i am surrounded by boy toys all day long...

for the cupcakes i decided to go with a light and ever-so mouth watering angel food cake, topped with a light vanilla buttercream, and also strawberry mousse... and each cupcake had a hadmade sugar flower, some even handpainted with edible glitter...

here are some pictures, i apologize for the blurriness... i'm waiting on some better pictures, and once i get them i will post them...

and here's the lovely mommy to be...

jack jacks birthday cake...

so... jack recently turned 4 on july 9th (HURRAY!!), and for months he had been going back and forth about what kind of cake he wanted... from dump truck, to pirate ship, to castle... the list goes on and on... finally he settled on a sand castle cake... now... here's the thing... i've never done anything of this capacity before... i was debating wether or not to use fondant, or go the more traditional route... i'm not a huge fan of fondant, but i found a recipe for marshmellow fondant, so i figured if i was going to use fondant that would be the way to go... anyways... i opted to go traditional... 2 reasons... # 1: i need to practice with fondant, and #2: i just didnt have the time...

anyways... i had all these ideas swimming around in my brain... and i just couldn't decide on the overall look... i knew right away what flavors and textures i would be using... but as for shape and design i was at a loss... then i happened across a picture from last summer... jack and a sand castle he had made down here at the beach in cape may... and it dawned on me... i'm making a cake, a childs' cake and i want it to look like something you would see at the beach... very simple design, like straight out of a regular old beach pail... so that's what i did... do i wish i could have dome more... of course... to me this cake screamed ameteur and was in need of a makeover... but you know what... my comfort zone is cupcakes, and if i'm going to make in this buisness i have to start branching out... get more creative and start to test puch myself...

so heres what i decided on for flavors... i went with a simple yet overly yummy vanilla cake... the filling was a smooth and creamy chocolate truffle mousse, and was covered with a french vanillabean buttercream... the sand texture was a combination of crushed animal crackers, golden vanilla oreos and graham crackers... i chose to use three different kinds because it really gave a contrast of sandy colors, like actual sand... plus... i just couldn't decide which would be tastier :-)

i decided to top the castle with cupcakes baked into icecream cones, which by the way, i noticed became quite popular again recently... so anyways, each cupcake was topped with a heaping swirl of colored vanilla buttercream, giving the top of the castle cute and colorful spires...

here's the work in progress...

the dirty icing layer....

sanding the castle...

and as jack would say... "TA- DAHHH!"

sweet wishes there birthday boy...