Storks Bring Babies and Buttercream

Ali's baby shower was a fabulous success and the cake turned out almost better than I had imagined!  How did I imagine it you ask?

Well here you go!  I love drawing almost as much as I love baking and decorating cakes and cupcakes, so naturally they go hand in hand for me.  I had a vision for a tall round cake covered in bright sky blue fondant and decorated with puffs of frosting clouds.  It seemed the perfect way to deliver a cake to Ali at her shower.  

I especially liked the stork arriving with a postcard addressed to the parents-to-be.  It all seemed to be perfect for a chocolate cake with peanut butter filling.

But then I looked at the Evite...there were going to be 25-30 people at the shower!  I had planned on a smaller cake than that, so to plan B I went.

Plan B:

• I didn't have enough Devils Food cake to make a third layer...so into the oven went a peanut butter cake!
• Another batch of filling into the KitchenAid mixer!
• A bigger cake plate had to be found!
• Oh crap...not enough fondant?  Get the filling into the fridge and ingredients for a million cups of buttercream into the mixer instead!

Now that is some delicious problem solving ;)

The stork and baby ended up landing on top of a 9 inch, 3 tier stack of yumminess.  

Had to give the baby some curly red hair in honor of the mom-to-be!

Ali and her cake!

No one wanted to cut the cake so Annie went for it...

Yum!! Devils Food, Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Filling, Peanut Butter cake, more filling and one final layer of Devil's Food topped with a light vanilla buttercream.

After planning the cake, drawing it, re-planning it, decorating it...I was ready to enjoy the shower!  Andrew made Bellini's (well for everyone but the mom-to-be), Cindy made quite the antipasti spread, Jennifer broke a few glasses and Ali made off with quite an adorable pile of clothes and books for baby.  The best present?  Well I might be biased (and no, I'm not going to say my cake!) but it was definitely my and Andrew's.  With the mom and pops living in New York, Seattle had to represent.  

Seattle Sounders and Mariners onesies, bibs, booties and pacifiers!  As a self-respecting baseball fan, I can't let the kid be dominated by the Yankees from birth (sorry Kev!).  Perhaps it's a sign of what the cake will look like for baby's 1st birthday? :)

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

Yesterday marked the 41st annual Earth Day.  What did you do to celebrate?  

I went to work and then drove up north to visit the boyfriend's family, which unfortunately didn't involve a lot of "green" activity.  But we did carpool with another friend so maybe that counts a little bit?  I know, I know, I can practically hear Al Gore hovering over my shoulder in dismay.  But the occasion did spur me to do a little research on the matter.  Did you know that the very first Earth Day in 1970 was the catalyst that brought us the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts?  By 1990, Earth Day had gone global and paved the way for the United Nations Earth Summit in 1992.  Last year there were over 225,000 people gathered on the National Mall in DC for an Earth Day rally focused on climate change.
 

Those are some pretty awesome facts to have in your back pocket.  Check out the official Earth Day website for more awesome factoids and volunteer opportunities!

 

So you may be asking yourself what is so environmentally friendly about cupcakes and why are you blabbing on about Earth Day?  Well the answer is a lot and because I can :)  There are plenty of ways to go green in baking...

• Use local, fresh ingredients in your baking by hitting up the farmers market down the street.
• Can't get it fresh? Buy organic! Trader Joe's, PCC, Whole Foods, you name it have organic sugar, flour and everything else you'll need.
• Cupcake wrappers come in recycled paper or you can use individual silicone baking cups (yes I know the silicone itself isn't sustainable since it does not decompose, but they are items that you can use over and over again and never throw away).
• And of course you can transport your cake or cupcakes in a reusable container, perhaps even in a reusable grocery bag with handles.

So clearly not as difficult as it sounds!  And using organic sugar, etc doesn't affect the flavor so your taste buds will be happier than ever.
   

When I finally have a house instead of an apartment, I'd like to make sure I have enough room for a vegetable garden in the back.  Talk about sustainable!  Walk out the back door and make a salad in ten minutes - no shopping required!  For the meantime however I'll have to be satisfied with these...

 For Jessica's birthday on April 23rd, her garden grew straight out of devils food cake, peanut butter buttercream frosting and crumbled/crushed Oreo cookie "dirt"

 

 I'm now open for suggestions for next years sustainable Earth Day cupcakes and/or cake.  :)

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Water or Crackers for Elephants?

I apparently missed the boat, but Monday was National Animal Cracker Day.  I'm assuming EVERYONE else missed the boat on this one -- I mean really, since when do we have a NATIONAL Animal Cracker Day?!

Regardless of my shock, any national holiday is well worth celebrating in my opinion. 

I remember being so excited when my mom would get me animal crackers.  I loved them.  Not only did I love them, but I also loved the box.  That handy little string, which was surely intended to make it easier for small hands to carry, was amazing.  As soon as I finished the box, I used it as my purse.  Now, being six years old and not having a wallet or lipstick to carry, I would fill it with whatever treasures I could find on a particular day.  Over the years it was home to rocks, small toys, spare change I found around the house, pencils and my imagination.  

Well after the cardboard was worn and the string barely hanging on, the happiness that box brought to me was still tangible.  I may have outgrown the animal-cracker-box-as-purse phase, but shoot those crackers (well, let's be honest, cookies) are good!

My best friend Megan has what I consider a love-hate relationship with clowns.  So naturally for her birthday I made her a circus!  And yes, there are animal crackers in my circus :)

Megan's circus was chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream frosting, topped with flashy clown suits, peanuts and animals galore.

On a totally unrelated (but sort of in my wandering way) note, the next time I create a cupcake circus I think I'll need to craft Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon out of buttercream to go with it :)  I absolutely cannot wait to see this movie!

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It's Our Destiny

Have you ever had those weeks where you wish you could disappear to a desert island and wile away your cares in the sun and surf?  I do.  Living in Seattle, those weeks come often unfortunately.  I mean it's mid-April and I still have my heat turned on!  Don't get me wrong, I love my city and it will always be home, but these dreary days wear on the soul.  I'm longing for that weekend where I spend my Sunday packing away my wool sweaters and unearthing my shorts.  I crave my sandals and sundresses and swimsuits.  I can't wait for popsicles and watermelon and cool iced teas.

Do you remember those opening clips from 'LOST'?  Where Jack wakes up on the floor of the forest and bursts out onto a spectacular beach?  That's where I wish I was.  On that beautiful beach, on a remote island, with Jack of course.  I could do without the polar bears, the smoke monster and the "others," but that beach would definitely be a more uplifting thing to look out at than some more rain drops and puddles.

 Oceanic flight 815 may have suffered a plane crash, but what better place to land?  On top of vanilla cupcakes and sand dunes of buttercream.

What would be your favorite place to get lost and escape reality?  Personally, I'd set up a cupcake shack on the beach :)

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Renaissance Man

April 15, 1452 an extraordinary man was born.  Leonardo da Vinci had oodles of doodles of inventions but what we all remember him for is his painting.  The Last Supper fresco that sparked intrigue in The Da Vinci Code and of course who could forget Mona Lisa's irresistibly irritating smirk.

Word on the street is that Leonardo spent 12 years painting Mona Lisa's lips...now I'm not sure if that is true or not and since most of his closest friends are long gone we'll probably never know.  12 years is a kind of patience that I don't have and especially since my art is edible, I'm not so sure we'd want me taking 12 years on a single cupcake!

For Mom's birthday last year I tapped into my "inventive" side but only took several hours instead of 12 years to create my work of art.

Devil's Food cake sandwiched peppermint filling.

Coated with a dark chocolate mint ganache as my primer.

A base coat of fondant created a blank canvas worthy of da Vinci himself!

Da Vinci probably used more than one brush, but that's all we had room for...

No artist would be complete without a bottle of their favorite paint!

My finished product didn't last quite as long as the Mona Lisa or the Last Supper, but it certainly tasted infinitely better!

We had quite the celebration at the now defunct Beacon Hill Pub.  Songs were sung, candles were lit, dessert was eaten and fun was definitely had.  And it's always good to know that despite another year in the books, you're still younger than the original Renaissance Man!

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Nostalgia in Technicolor

Close your eyes for a moment and think back to your childhood.  Remember the laughter, the songs, the games. Remember the sunny days, chasing the clouds away?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Sesame Street was as big a part of your childhood as it was mine.  I loved that show.  I can remember waking up in the mornings and leaping out of bed to go watch Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Snuffy.  The muppets and other friends in the neighborhood taught me valuable lessons about friendship, ethics and of course my ABC's.  Even today at 26 years old, I can't help but laugh when I think about Bert and Ernie and their shenanigans as roommates.  

I might be a touch nostalgic, but it seems to me that Congressional Republicans could use a dose of my nostalgia the next time they threaten to cut funding to public broadcasting.  For 40 years we've enjoyed and immensely benefited from Elmo's laughter and Oscar's grousing -- why cut off a lifeline that binds us all in such a big world?  Sesame Street gives me at 26 a wonderful thing in common with my 3 year old cousin and I wouldn't give that up for the world.  Luckily for us, Sesame Street and PBS live to fight another day and William celebrated his third birthday with his muppet friends.

William couldn't help but try to sneak a taste early!

 Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?  Elmo, Big Bird, Snuffy, Grover, Oscar, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie can!

 "Cookie Monster, can I eat your cookie?"  So polite for a birthday boy :)

No asking this time!

Elmo and his friends were vanilla and chocolate swirl cupcakes with some yummy vanilla buttercream frosting.  

These cupcakes were so much fun to make, but eating them was unexpectedly hard to do!  Next time Congress tries to defund Sesame Street, I'm shipping these off to DC.  Perhaps we all just need a reminder of childhood.

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It's a Girl!

Andrew's mom is planning a baby shower for his sister and that has me thinking a lot about different themes for baby cakes.  Pastels always seem so overdone and cutesy for my taste -- why not hot pink, electric yellow, turquoise and lime green?  Top with some baby animals, pacifiers, bottles, booties, what have you and you are all set for a fun party!

The last baby shower I created cupcakes for was for a smaller group of women who were going out to brunch at a nice restaurant.  They didn't want over the top cheesy baby fare that has become so commonplace, but the mom-to-be still wanted to have pink for her baby girl.  The woman planning the get together asked if the nickname for the baby (since they hadn't yet picked out a name) could be incorporated into the cupcakes.  What is that nickname?  Peanut.

Peanut was wrapped in a hot pink fondant receiving blanket and fast asleep on a cloud of peppermint pink buttercream.  Some delicious vanilla cupcakes made it all picture perfect.

Stay tuned for my next baby shower endeavour!

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What's for Dinner Cupcake?

Perhaps a trip to the chicken nugget store?

April Fools!

These weren't made for April 1st this year (although would have been appropriate!) but rather a 4 year old's birthday who is a self-proclaimed chicken nugget lover.  When asked what theme he wanted for his party Lil' Buddy didn't pick Toy Story or dinosaurs or Thomas the Train, he just wanted chicken nuggets!

In fact these cupcakes fooled him so much, I think he regretted me coming to his party to feed him chicken on his cake.

The nuggets were simply store bought donut holes "salted" with sprinkles, then plated with sliced and toasted pound cake.  Throw in some red buttercream "ketchup" cups and you've got a meal better than you'll find at the golden arches!

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