Cake-stacle course.

Anybody who knows who I am, knows that two of my major loves in this life are baking and babies. Seriously. I am the perfect candidate to be a grandmother (when I'm not instead acting as a 'dirty old man.') To get my baby fix, I babysit on the weekends for a good friend. This is Dash, and he is my favorite:

Once in a while, I'm given last minute notice about cupcakes we "just have to have!" for an event of some sort, and guidelines like "I said they'd be vegan!" And also sometimes (this time), I'm babysitting while the cupcakes need to be made. 

It was getting near the end of the day and I had tuckered the little man out, so he was reasonably fussy. My lady friend had come by and my roommate had come home, and Dash was feeling a little shy. Every time I put him down, the Hoover Dam began to swell from his eyes. So what did I do? I made vegan chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with one arm, baby in the other. (With some counter sitting during the necessary two handed maneuvers.)

Here is what the finished product looked like:

Needless to say, (if you can't feel the pride exuding from this message already) I was pretty satisfied with the outcome and felt something like a super grandma.

Hidden Treasures.

While wandering the internet, it is almost impossible to avoid inspiration, even when you're not trying to seek it out. One afternoon, stumbling through the inter web, I found a recipe for cupcakes filled with Raffaelo candy. The blog that it comes from is one that I've been taken by multiple times, and I had to try this one. As always, I tweaked it a bit. Here are the results:

These cupcakes were incredible and I received nothing less than rave reviews. A perfect combination of butter, almond, and coconut. Rich but not to sweet, decadent for certain.

Merrrrrrry Holidaze.

For Christmas this year (as well as every year for the last 6 or so,) I made sweets boxes for family and friends. This year I made peanut butter truffles, saltine toffee bark, Chex muddy buddies (an important classic,) and these beauties:

Peppermint truffles with dark chocolate and crushed soft peppermint on top. This recipe was the one that I decided to wing, and created on my own--recieving rave reviews and further boosting my confidence.

Birthday's, cubed.

A lot of what I've been doing in my attempt to try new recipes and work out kinks is landing on friends' birthday's and just going for the gold. Here are a few examples of the such:

Vegan chocolate cupcakes, Kahlua 'butter'cream, cocoa dust.

Mini browniecakes, mint chocolate chip buttercream.

(handpainted cupcake box for Ms. Emily Young)

And! The return of the carrot wedding cupcakes, for one of the brides 30th birthday.

Wedding 2.

At the end of the summer 2011, my step-sister Ally got married to her mister, Kevin. They live in Utah and had two separate ceremonies, one in Maine and the other in California, with his family. For the reception in Maine, I made the cake. It was chocolate and vanilla cake layers, with raspberry filling and vanilla bean buttercream.

The bottom layer was 10"-two layers, followed by an 8" and then a 6" to top it off.

Simple pink and green ribbons wrapped around the cakes.

It was finished with pink gerbera daisies.

Voila!

Whilst placing the cake out, a friend of the family insisted on taking a photo of me with the cake. So, here's that:

Also, here's the whole famdamn:

Sweet n' Citrus.

There's a website:

now, I'm not sure who Ming is, but this is a perfect site.
Once a friend of mine recommended it, I knew I was going to gather some inspiration here. I created a cupcake adapted from "Cupcake 32". I tweaked a few elements, as par the course.

honey graham cake

lime cream cheese buttercream/zest reduction

so good.

BirthdayCakes!

I have this really lovely lady in my life. Her birthday came a'rollin around a couple of months into my realization of how lovely she actually is, and thus, I had to make some extra special cupcakes. These here are mini (bite size) vanilla bean cakes filled with strawberry jam--then, a ring of chocolate ganache, and topped with strawberry cream. They were really excellent chilled and warm. We brought them to the beach with us and some of them melted in the sun and, well, mm.

and the birthday girl:

Fundraiser Cupcakes.

I have a neighbor who works for Chellie Pingree. They were having a fundraiser for her campaign and my neighbor asked me if I would like to make cupcakes for the event for pay. I (of course) said yes. I had just done the wedding a month prior, and decided to make the same carrot cupcakes. The theme was 'local and organic' (as Chellie is quite an advocate for such.)They were a big hit and I was once again given more confidence to keep going, by a room full of strangers. Here are some photos of the spread:

Wedding #1

Wedding Cupcakes. Devin and Sarah/May '11.
Practice--

Carrot cake. Cream cheese frosting. Crystallised ginger. Cinnamon.

PLUS A CUTTING CAKE:

(best friends wedding= personalized cake topper.)

Final Presentation:

And then, happy wives:

This 'job' has been thus far my favorite. The wedding was at a camp in Vermont and I used the kitchen there. 120 cupcakes were made plus the cutting cake. After the cake was served, I was given countless compliments and my ego/confidence was given quite a boost. There was no greater joy than being able to be a part of such a beautiful occasion, and then to be given such positive feedback. This is the day when I decided this is something I need to do. For myself. For others.