Spring cupcakes :)

I took some cupcakes around Birmingham to some friends and businesses in the area. I decided to do my new favorite dark chocolate cupcake with a lighter cream cheese icing. Since I was going for the spring theme, I did magenta icing with these amazing little wrappers that scallop the edges of the cake.

As always, they were a hit with all-just need a really cold glass of milk with them!

Vanilla buttercream

By far, this is one of my favorite cupcakes ever. Simple vanilla cupcake made with vanilla bean, and buttercream icing that is highly tinted :)

Aiden's Batman cake

Aiden wanted a Batman themed cake for his 4th birthday that we had at the McWane science center in Birmingham. I decided to do a red velvet cake with a bright yellow buttercream, with a Batman symbol made out of chocolate. Turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.

The picture of Aiden blowing out his candles was taken with an old Canon AE-1. Not only do I make cupcakes, but I am beginning to dabble in photography. I love this picture so much!

Sugar free for Valentine's Day

So my wonderful friend, Chatham, ordered 2 dozen sugar free cupcakes to give as a gift for Valentine's day to a close friend with type II diabetes. We decided to work with Splenda to ease the GI effect, and after some work, I got 2 recipes down.

I made peanut butter cupcakes, and chocolate cupcakes. I tried using Splenda specific recipes, which weren't as good as the ones I made just subing out sugar with Splenda. I learned that the regular granulated Splenda has an odd aftertaste, so I made both the icings and cakes with Splenda brown sugar...and they tasted great. I even brought some extras to work, and no one could tell the difference!

The icings were a peanut butter cream cheese and a rich chocolate. They were not only tasty, but beautiful!

Hello again...

Ok, so its been a little while. I got thru the holidays, and went right into inventory at the store. Right after inventory, we took a 10 day vacation, and it was SO needed!

So now I am back and getting back into work mode, but I made some cupcakes last night for a friend that house sat for us. She loves raspberries and dark chocolate, so that was my inspiration. The end result is a dark chocolate truffle cupcake with a raspberry coulis and cream cheese icing.

Here are some pictures for you:

Baby shower part 2

Here are more pictures from the baby shower:

Andrea's baby shower...

was awesome! We had such a good time, and ate lots of good food. I made a huge spread of food, as well as pumpkin pie cupcakes, which are Andrea's favorite. I had found these amazing sugar paste daisies in San Fransisco back in September, so it was SO much fun to finally use them on the cupcakes!

I also spent an entire day sewing a diaper bag for Andrea to carry all of Daisy's stuff in it. It is a canvas exterior with 3 large pockets on the outside, and a vintage owl fabric for the lining. It wasn't perfect, but it was a huge labor of love.

I made a diaper "cake" which is always fun for a shower....you wrap diapers in rubber bands, then band the banded diapers together, and the decorate with ribbon. Takes very little time, and is cute as a centerpiece.

New Year's Eve Stout cupcakes

We were invited to go to a friend's house for NYE, and I wanted to bring a cool cupcake for the event- after some searching of the web, I decided to make a chocolate stout cupcake (made with Guinness.) It turned out AWESOME!!!!

I topped it with a thinner cream cheese icing, and they were a hit among all that tasted it.

Here is the source of the recipe I used...there a few versions out there, but I liked the levels of ingredients in this one :
http://pinchmysalt.com/2008/11/05/chocolate-stout-cupcakes-with-vanilla-cream-cheese-frosting/

Andrea's baby shower

Well, hello!

I have been pretty busy the last few days, finishing up working at the store during that last push for the holidays...and then right into a baby shower I am throwing for a gal, Andrea. Andrea works with me at Urban, and is a really laid back kind of girl.

I am in the process of making a ton of food, cupcakes, and cleaning for everyone to come over. I will be posting some pictures of the food and other things I made for this soon.....

Oh, and I made Guiness chocolate cupcakes....they were amazing! Pics will be up soon....