Red, Red, they call me Red.

I had an order for Red Velvet cupcakes & cream cheese frosting for a baby shower. She wanted hot pink icing and I was a little concerned when I used my food coloring because I had neon pink rather than hot pink, but I guess it turned out fine. I didn't want to spend $8 on Duff's Ace of Cake color gels just for an "electric pink"... Also, on DC Cupcakes (TLC) if you've ever taken a look at their cute, simple decorations, you will find a flower or heart, etc. They make them out of fondant! So I finally found a cutter to make my own! I can't wait to try it out and make my cupcakes look adorable ::big eyes::

Here are the beauties... They were tasty, but I screwed up ever-so-slightly by not adding more powdered sugar (I think..?) to the pink. Cream cheese frosting is a wet frosting so maybe-maybe not. The frosting ended up losing some of it's puff height. You live & your learn. But how cute are these????

Cookies & Thinking. . .

I totally cheated & made some box Funfetti cookies tonight. It was a mix between a bribe to get my kids to eat their chicken pot pie (EWWWW, YUCK...It has VEGETABLES in it!. . . Kids are WACK.) and also a way to meet my need for something sweet for a quick minute.

Anyway, while I was making them I was thinking about the season and about how there are so many upcoming birthdays. Danny's is Nov 1st (and then we've got some family all up in that in between) and then Jadon (Dec 10th) & Micah (Jan 19). . .

Originally, I thought about combining their birthdays & doing just one big party. I thought about Green Meadows Petting Farm, which is over an hour away but is really great. You go on like a 2 hour tour through this farm with friendly animals. You get to chase & hold chickens & dugs, milk a cow, and go on a hayride, horse ride, and a train ride. We've been there once. But then as I was looking at the colors in the cookies, I was thinking about how much Jadon loves comics. Not really like Super Hero per se, but he loves Captain Underpants & he loves to read the comics in the Sunday paper. He would freak out if I could throw him a Comic themed party. He spends most of his time making comics, at school & home. We've even had a few notes from his teacher because he would turn letters into comics... like one time he was practicing the letter "f" and he made it into an evolving flower, which we thought was very creative despite the comment in bold red letters saying "NO DRAWING-PLEASE PRACTICE LETTERS!"

Anyway, there's not much out there for themes like this. If you go with something like this you pretty much have to come up with everything and it's totally unique... it isn't matchy-matchy like most party themes. I thought about blue & white polka dot tablecloth with Sunday comic papers down the middle of the table, and on top of that I have no idea... just making our own decorations as cool as possible. And maybe since it's comic themed, every kid comes as their own comic character. (They can make up their name & be whatever they want). That's a pretty cheap alternative since they can add on all the dollar store crap they want to be a unique character. Jadon would probably want to be Captain Underpants. And of course, we would play some games (something we've never done at any of our other bday parties).

Sometimes it sucks a little that both of their bdays are in the winter though. In Florida, we get alot of warm days in December, but sometimes they're windy and all the stuff wants to blow off of the tables if it's outdoors. I don't have a big enough space in the house to pull it off. Welps, I'm just rambling but I wanted to get my thoughts out there, floating around. . . :)

Mm-hmm.

My Carrot Cake is mo' betta.

Dry Like Toast

I am in search of an excellent white cake & yellow cake recipe. I've been doing alot of internet searches and saw that most people said the same thing about white cake from scratch- that it comes out like cornbread most of the time! I totally agree because last Thanksgiving I made Ina Garten's (The Barefoot Contessa) Coconut Cake from scratch. The picture looked amazing and it was a cream cheese coconut frosting... I mean, totally YUM. But I was TOTALLY disappointed after I made it; it was totally dry- I mean, seriously, I was like choking through each bite. The frosting became my saving grace to help me get it down the ol' hatch! -_- I was bummed because it wasn't a cheap cake to make, having done it from scratch. So, yeah, never again. So after reading all of these thoughts on it, I see it wasn't just me who's had issues with homemade white cake. I really hope I find something though!!! I need a good basic recipe for cake & cupcakes. I got one recipe from Martha Stewart...it's called Everyday Birthday Cake. It's a yellow cake & I'm definately going to try it. It's a recipe they use in a popular bakery out there somewhere (can't remember if it's in NY or what). We shall see.

Stuff.

The Candy Land Birthday Cake for Ava was a hit; the kids loved it. Just as I suspected though, the peppermints actually started melting in the humidity & falling off of the cake. We cut into it fast enough though, and after the kids starting picking all the candies off it really didn't matter. Here's a picture of the birthday girl admiring her cake. . . :)

Today I made a lemon yogurt cake, which is soooo delicious! It's covered in a lemon glaze at the end... it's magnificant. I'm going to take some tomorrow when the kids and I go meet my dad at a park for lunch. They don't have school so I thought it would be nice to try to visit with him. He rarely calls & never comes over so I just have to make the best of it all. It will be a sweet visit with the lemon cake & probably the rest of the german cupcakes that were leftover!

Taste-testers always welcome :Behold, Lemon Yogurt Cake. . .

^ Before Glaze/ After Glaze

Candy Land

Yesterday night I started working on a Candy Land themed cake for this little girl turning 4. Her mom is a friend of mine & they're moving to Chicago this weekend... they're having a mini party for her today at a park. Anyway, I did the cake. It (again) stressed me out, but not as bad as the normal stuff because I didn't charge her for it. I did it as a gift so I guess I figured if it was shyte it was on me anyway... HAH. The only thing that REALLY sucks is that the cake is going out in the Florida heat & humidity and I have a feeling that the peppermints are going to start falling off. . . they started doing that at the end of the cake before I popped it into the fridge. Again, it's a gift, so I won't feel so bad. . . I wish I wasn't so critical of myself!!!!

My kids (who weren't listening to me all night long) kept coming out of their rooms to see the cake & they were freaking out. So, hopefully I will get lotsa smiles & it will be a hit. Huggles.

Germans.

So, today I had to fill an order for a woman who works at the insurance company we used to work for. She wanted german chocolate cupcakes with a caramel coconut filling and topped with chocolate frosting. I've never made german chocolate cake before, but I found a reliable recipe and started on it this morning. (I always do the cakes in the morning that way if they dont turn out right I have some time to try to fix it or re-d0.) I was really nervous while they baked because I had this fear of them sinking in the middle. That happened to me once before when I was making an order...they totally sunk in like a serious sink hole. I had to re-make another batch and use a new recipe!

Anyway, this recipe was crazy busy... it called for like egg yolks, egg whites (that I had to beat to form stiff peaks and then gently fold in at the end)... and the instructions were shady about the German chocolate at the beginning... it said to heat 1/2 cup of water & the german chocolate together until it melts & then let cool. Well, I've always heard you can't add water to chocolate because it jacks the chocolate ALL up. So, to be safe, I did a double boiler and just melted the chocolate alone and added it to the batter. In the end, I did end up adding the 1/2 cup of water, so I guess next time I will melt the water & chocolate together... they will be in a big, hot pot of love together. Opposites attract? I guess so in this instance.

I was praying through the whole baking process that they wouldn't sink because the ingredients were NOT cheap. Here they are coming out of the oven. . . .

<- no sinking! Yay!

Then I started to make the filling. I had to let it cool before I could fill these bad boys, but I realized really quickly that my fill tip wouldn't work; the coconut would totally clog the tip. I thought I was outsmarting it when I decided to use a regular frosting tip that was really big & round (the biggest I had), but alas, epic fail. I was starting to get kinda panicky about the whole thing, but I ended up using a cannoli tube to hollow out the centers of the cupcakes & then filled them with the stuff using a spoon. It took me a while since I was doing it manually but <- Caramelish Coconut Filling

whatever... it worked!

Afterward, I piped on some chocolate buttercream that I made for it the day before & topped them with some toasted coconut. She didn't ask for the topping but since it's a German chocolate cupcake (coconutty!) I thought it was appropriate. ;P I taste tested one (or two...don't judge me) and I thought they were quite yum.

Ze end product. . . . (drum roll)

^ Mini Butterfinger Trifle's for a birthday gathering


^ Cake Truffles I made as a birthday treat for Micah's preschool teacher



^ Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream

^ Apple cupcakes with Vanilla Caramel Buttercream

^ Key Lime Trifle

< These are the chocolate pb cakes

^ Black Bottom Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream

^ Micah with Grandnana's birthday cake

Seriously!!!

So, I haven't been on here for months! I've just been really busy. We did a lot of traveling this summer... well, 2 different states... ALOT of driving since we drove to both of them. When I got back, the boys started school.

Jadon's in 1st grade & he has a great teacher that I really like. She's younger than I am but she's really fantastic. Micah has the same preschool teacher that Jadon had; she's great, too. I'm happy that the kids are opposites because Micah has had a great first month or so. He keeps his nose clean (a.k.a. doesn't get in trouble) and it's just been really easy.

Also, I started up a little home-based business making cakes & cupcakes for people. I make them fresh to order, from scratch. I'll post some pictures. It's exciting but every time I get an order I will admit that I get anxious. It's like, you're making this for someone who's paying you- you WANT it to be perfect and you want the customer to be happy with what they get. The first week & a half I started, I got 3 orders. Two of them were chocolate peanut butter cakes & the other was a key lime trifle for a birthday. I was really nervous making it all came out really well. I've been watching alot of Georgetown Cupcakes & things like that to get some free education, too. And I had someone come over and kind of teach me how to make buttercream roses. It's harder than it looks. I started a FB page for what I do called "The Sugar Mama".... yes, that's what I'm calling my biz.

So, I am still alive but just SO freaking busy! Also, today is our 8th wedding anniversary! We got married 8 years ago today, Oct 10th... since we've been so busy we haven't planned anything to do yet... it's just been chaotic. But hopefully we will do something fun.

XX :)