Birthday Sprinkle Cupcakes

I have been meaning to blog for quite some time and have a lot of catching up to do! I made these chocolate, sprinkle cupcakes recently and added these cute cupcake wrappers. I always dislike the "oily" spots that show up on the liners when making cupcakes. These handy dandy wrappers cover them up. All I did was cut out some scrapbooking paper using a free pattern I found online. I put them on after the cupcakes were baked :)

80th Birthday Cake

And yet another quilted cake...these are getting popular! I made this one for an 80th birthday. Both tiers were pound cake.

Emily and Josh's Wedding Cake

Emily and Josh's wedding cake was quite a treat for me to make! I love adding color to wedding cakes and lately I have had a lot of all white or ivory cakes. The paisley details was a big challenge for me though. I actually did not pipe it directly on the cake, but piped it on wax paper and let it dry over night before putting it on the cake.

Haha, I couldn't resist posting this pic! Dave always helps me deliver cakes and is a BIG help.



And here is the process I wrote about earlier. I enlarged and printed out the paisley pattern from Josh and Emily's invitation and used that as a template to pipe the pattern with royal icing. It hardended and I was able to used a little water to stick it on the cake. Unfortionately, it kept breaking so I made sure I piped a buch of extra pieces. This was not an easy process but I am happy how it turned out!



Quilted Wedding Cake

I made this wedding cake a few weeks ago and loved making the roses out of fondant! This was my first time making flowers for a wedding cake. Usually, brides ask their florists to make cake toppers and I put them on the cake when I deliver. The flowers turned out so pretty I wanted to keep them for a centerpiece on our dining room table. The little silver balls were also made out of fondant and painted with metallic dust. I hope everyone enjoyed it :)

Happy Birthday Emma!

My little niece turned the big 1 on January 23! I can't believe it has been a whole year since she was born. Each time I see her I fall more in love with her. She is such a sweet baby and has the cutest personality. Every time she opens a present she says "ooooo"...it's the cutest thing ever! Brittany, her mom and my soon to be sister-in-law, loves Tinkerbell! Little Emma loves her too so I made two Tinkerbell cakes for her! The little pink one was a "smash" cake and the bigger one was for her party.

Before the cake -- gotta eat her greens!

I think she likes it!

She's in awe of all the cake.

Yep, she approves :) I think she should be my taster from now on!

                                                          Happy 1st Birthday Emma Grace!!

Lingerie Shower cupcakes

I'm so excited for one of my good friends, Taylor! She is getting married in May and I had the honor of making cupcakes for her lingerie shower. Taylor and I were roomates in the "Pink Palace" before Dave and I got married. Karoline, Taylor and I called it the Pink Palace because EVERYTHING was pink. What a perfect apartment for three single girls :) When I say everything, I mean everything - even a pink leather couch that Karoline and I found on Craigslist...awww memories. Anywho, lets get to the cupcakes! Karoline picked out the recipe for me to use - it is called "Hummingbird Cake" with cream cheese frosting. I really loved this recipe because it was so different from a basic chocolate or vanilla cake and it had a little fruity taste to it. Here is a description of the recipe "Hummingbird cake is a banana, pecan, and pineapple cake that is generously filled and topped with cream cheese frosting. This cupcake version adds the fruit and nuts to a yellow cupcake batter and covers the top of the cupcakes with thick swirls of cream cheese frosting. Piping the frosting through a star-shaped pastry tube is a fast way to add a fancy party finish." Doesn't it sound delectable?! For Christmas, my Secret Santa got me a fun cupcake kit complete with a recipe book and decorating tools and this is one of the recipes it included. Thanks Secret Santa!

Reed's MONSTER Truck

This was the groom's cake that Leslie surprised Reed with at their Rehearsal dinner. She sent me a few pics of his truck and I made a replica of it. Getting the truck to stay on the big logo was quite a task and I was so happy to hear that it didn't fall off on the way to the rehearsal. Oh, and the big "Appalachian A" is also cake....triple chocolate, mmmm. Leslie sent me the recipe and it turned out really yummy. I am going to add it as one of my favorite recipes to use. I really like how the A turned out and I had so many pictures of it before I added the truck (my memory card crashed and I lost them all!). I know there are lots of App graduates out there who would love this cake for graduations, groom's cakes, the list could go on and on :)

Reed and Leslie's Wedding Cake

It's about time that I post again! I made this cake back in November for our friends Reed and Leslie. They had a BEAUTIFUL Fall wedding and wanted a wedding cake to fit the theme. I actually made cookie cutters for the maple shaped leaves and fit the cut outs into the fondant. The first leayer was white almond, second layer lemon and I think the top was chocolate. I actually was at this wedding and took so many pics of the reception that I wan't to share but my memory card crashed and I lost them all...ughhh!

Cutie Patootie Baby Shower cake

This is a baby shower cake made for my friend Emily....well not for her but she was throwing the shower for one of her friends. She sent me some pics from the new baby's bedding and I designed the cake from that. The little monkey's curly tail is my fave! I actually tried something new for this cake. It was vanilla with chocolate buttercream icing and covered in fondant. I have made chocolate buttercream before but never covered it with fondant. I hope it turned out yummy!  

 

Last Saturday Dave and I also had 2 little visitors for the morning. Kinsey and her little brother came over to our house and we had so much fun decorating and baking cookies. Kinsey helped me make my favorite cookies - peanut butter kiss cookies.

Here we are getting them ready to pop in the oven. Oh yeah check out my super stylish Darlin' Designs apron! It was a birthday present from my good friend Cathy...thanks Cathy, I love it!

And here we are with the finished product! She is a great assistant. Maybe I'll hire her one day to be one of my decoraters.

Shutterfly Christmas Cards <<-

Merry Christmas! I can't believe it's here once again and I am loving it. I love getting creative each year and it is even more fun now that we have a house! Dave and I got a GIANT tree this year. It is the biggest I have ever had and we can barely see our TV. After we got everything decorated on Saturday, our friend Heather came over to take some Christmas pics for us. I am super excited cause we plan to use them in our Christmas card. Karoline told me about these awesome cards from Shutterfly. They are so cute and there are a TON to choose from. I think this one is my fave:


 As most of you know, I love monograms! They are so classic and fun to include in Christmas decorating.
Here is a link to their photo Christmas cards

Another project that I have wanted to do for quite a while is to use all of our wedding pics in a picture calendar. Yeah, we have been married for almost 2 years and I have yet to use our beautiful wedding pics! I have a picture collage on our living room wall but that is about it. Shutterfly makes it pretty easy to use those pics you have been wanting to use for quite some time.

Here is a link for their photo calendars

And once the Christmas season is over I always have a need for Thank you cards! As a full time art teacher I get a TON of gifts from my little kiddos. I must admit, it makes Christmas so much fun. They love making me little fun gifts since I am their Art teacher :) Anywho, they deserve thank yous so I might have to order a few of these:

I like these cause they look "Christmasy" but I could use them throughout the winter season as well.

Here is a link to thank you cards

I'll be back soon with some new cake pics! Hope you are having a Very Merry Christmas season!

Love,

Tricia