something borrowed...something BLUE

These high heeled cakes were for a bridal shower that I actually just delivered today!  The shower theme was "something blue" and the evite had this pretty blue shoe which I borrowed for the inspiration for my blue velvet cupcakes.  

Here's what I did!  I made the blue velvet cake replacing some odwalla blueberry smoothie for some of the liquid and then amped the blue value up with a little sky blue wilton food gel (this way I didn't add a whole gallon of just food coloring - yuck).  As blue velvet calls for, I added a couple tbsp of cocoa and voila!  A beautiful blue batter which baked into yummy cakes.  

For the blue shoes, this got a little tricky as I had to make my own cookie cutter.  I cut up the sides of a sturdy foil lasagna pan and then shaped a shoe out of a strip of foil.  Because the foil was a little creased, I did need to smooth the edges once they were cut out so it was a time consuming project - thank goodness I only had to make 36!  Once the the shoes were cut out, I pressed edible pearls and silver balls in to make the flower.  I made these a few days in advance so that the fondant could harden.

Cream cheese frosting topped these blue cakes off along with some edible pearls - so pretty!  

cupcake couture's 5th wedding!

A beautiful Sonoma wedding took place just last week and I was privileged enough to be able to create this cake for the occasion!  And OH MY! what a fun time as it was, ahem, my second..? attempt at fondant...but I think it turned out pretty nicely!  Thankfully, the fondant rolled onto the cake the first time without a hitch, but man, can I just say that if you want to get an arm workout, take up cake decorating - with a heavy emphasis on rolling out fondant!  

I made a marshmallow fondant, which in my opinion, has a wonderful taste, mind you, I am a self proclaimed marshmallow addict.  But really, compared to the other stuff, this fondant has a nice light and sweet taste and looks great on cake.  I made a chocolate cake with a chocolate raspberry ganache and I could have just had a bowl of that ganache; it was like super rich, thick, velvety mousse and it was compliments of Bobby Flay - here's the link to the recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/raspberry-ganache-fudge-cake-recipe/index.html

just a note; I didn't use 1.5 lbs of chocolate, I probably used less than half that amount and it turned out great.

As I added the ganache between the cake layers I topped each layer with fresh raspberries for some added berry goodness :) 

I love the challenge of wedding cakes and I'm learning each time from the experiences I have, so Congratulations Alison and Alex and here's to many anniversaries that your cake will survive in the freezer and STILL taste good!

*photos courtesy of Alison and her wedding guests*

bunnies n' chicks!

Happy Easter!

For this occasion, I made carrot cake pops with a white chocolate shell.  I was super excited to find edible markers to decorate the faces of these cute critters :)  And I never knew you could buy pastel candy corn either!  Heart sprinkles did for bunny noses, and orange stars made cute chicky feet.  

yum bunny.

pinch me! it's a pot 'o gold!

A pot of gold or a glob of gold either way these cake balls were YUMMY!  The execution of the cake ball I will have to improve on for next March 17 so thankfully I have a full year to do so ;)  What I intended to do was mold an oval shape for the cake pop and then create a crevice in the center to make a 'pot.'  This worked well until I had to dip the ball in chocolate which was rather tricky if you can imagine. The gold sprinkles kind of made up for the globular-like ball and so I think the finished product semi-resembled what I set out to create: a chocolate covered pistachio pot of gold!  

Just add a pistachio pudding mix to your cake batter and there you have the perfect green treat for your St. Patty's Day :)

yum :)

February is a month full of Love bugs

These little guys were so fun to make!  I decided not to use lollipop sticks and keep them as cake 'balls' rather than cake 'pops.'  I made a yummy black forest cake (soaked the maraschinos in some Bermudian rum...yum) added some creamy frosting to the crumbled cake and molded egg shapes for my bugs.  After letting them sit in the freezer for a bit, I took them out and dipped them in Wilton red melting chocolate and then used a toothpick to swirl in the hearts and faces with dark chocolate.  Some sprinkle hearts and dots made for the lips and eyes :)  

I hope you all shared the love this Valentine's day with your own love bug *wink.

minty tummy penguin pops!

OK, I'm broadening my cupcake horizons and entering the exciting world of CAKE POPS!  These cute little guys are the debut of my newest adventure; anyone who knows me should not be surprised that they are penguins ;)  Although I've done a little cake poppin' research, (Jeremy got me Bakerella's cake pop book for Christmas!) I came up with my minty tummy penguin pops all by myself *grin*

Here's what I did!  1. baked a chocolate cake  2. crumbled baked cake into teeny tiny crumbs  3. added some icing just until nice and moist and moldable  4. shaped into pear "penguin" shapes  5. froze for about 30 min  6. stuck lollipop sticks in frozen penguins and dipped in melted chocolate and let dry  7.  piped tummys and faces on with melted white chocolate mint melting chocolate  8.  added orange beaks, eyes and candy fish  9. minty tummy penguin pop goodness!

Here's to many more pops coming your way! :)

show time cupcakes!

The inspiration for these film-reel cupcakes came this past weekend when my husband was off editing a movie for a 48hr film competition!  I made a cinnamon swirl cake with cream cheese frosting and made the reels with mini oreos and black licorice laces.  They made for a 'reel' good dessert :)  

Grab a cupcake and watch Jeremy's movie here:

http://vimeo.com/29633658

password is: 2littlesl33p