Graduations:

Baby Showers:

Birthdays:

 Bridal Showers:

Engagement Parties:

She’s so cute!

So, I started getting everything ready for our fun afternoon of decorating cupcakes!

First step is to make the batter and pour it in the cupcake wrappers!

Then I had to gather all my sprinkles and put them in a cute little tote that I bought at Target.

And then put the icing in fun containers with different piping tips to make decorating even more fun!

I love these things! I have a ton of them!!

Normally, I never use icing from a can, because I consider it blaspamous, but in this case, it seemed like the best option for cupcake decorating. I was able to warm it and easily pour it into the decorating containers. Plus, these containers came with festive sprinkles so I considered it ok to let it slide this time.

Once the cupcakes were done baking and cooled, I packed up all my supplies because it was time to meet the girls!

We had such a great time decorating the cupcakes although I didn’t do much decorating. It was mostly the girls using their creativity which was so awesome to see! They’re so adorable and I love hanging out with them. Hopefully, next time I go to Homegoods there will be a Thomas the Train cupcake mix so my adorable nephew can join us!

Check out the finished products! Aren’t they the best?!

]]> http://www.thesweetestbaker.com/?feed=rss2&p=1671 0 http://www.thesweetestbaker.com/?p=1574 http://www.thesweetestbaker.com/?p=1574#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:31:06 +0000 Kelly http://www.thesweetestbaker.com/?p=1574 [Continue Reading]]]>

It’s almost Valentine’s Day! YAY! Valentine’ Day is so much fun because it’s all about love, chocolate and flowers! And usually everything is PINK!

To get in the spirit of the next upcoming holiday I made these festive pretzel M&M bites with Valentine colored M&M’s.  They are so delicious!! I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com. Check out the recipe here!

One thing I changed was adding Butter Pretzels instead of the plain variety. Believe me-it makes all the difference!!

First thing is first-you have to unwrap all the Hershey Kisses. This took me a while because the wrappers kept tarring and getting all over the place. So, if you are going to make these, be sure to set some time aside for this step!

The next step is to place the amount of butter pretzels on the baking sheet. It doesn’t matter if they are close together. In fact, the more you can fit on the baking sheet-the better! Place a hershey kiss on top of each pretzel and bake in the oven at 275° for 2-3 minutes, according to the recipe.

After they are placed in the oven for a few minutes, you will see the hershey kisses start to melt. Take out the tray and top with the M&M’s!

After this the pretzel bites will need to sit for a bit. The recipe said you can pop them in the freezer to firm up but I just let mine sit out at room temperature until they hardened.

I added a really cute ribbon and tag to these fun boxes. I always love things that come in pretty packages.

Another fun variation is to add personalized M&M’s! I had these made before my husband and I were married. We thought about using them for favors but in the end went in a different direction. So we had a few bags sitting around and I decided to add them to a few pretzels.

These are so easy and fun to make and can be adapted to any holiday or party. These pretzel M&M bites are sure to be a hit at your next gathering. I promise!!

I love summer and everything that goes along with it, except for extreme humidity!! But I love cupcakes and I love ice cream cones so what better combo than this?! It truly is the best of both worlds.

I think these cupcakes would be so fun for a summer BBQ or a birthday party. Interested in making them? Follow my set by step directions and they’ll be the hit of your next party!

1) Place cones into a mini cupcake pan, leaving enough space in between each cone so they don’t touch. Fill each cone with your favorite cake mix or cake batter 3/4 full.  Bake the cupcakes for about 15-20 mins, maybe longer, depending on your oven. Make sure you rotate your pan halfway through the baking process!!

2) Remove the cupcakes from the pan and let cool and come to room temperature.

3) Place a pastry tip into a pastry bag and fill it with your favorite icing. Pipe the icing onto the cupcake in a swirling motion. As you reach the top, gently release pressure and press down. If you don’t have a tip or a pastry bag, just use a Ziploc bag, snip the corner, and pipe away!

3) Top with your favorite sprinkles and a cherry!

And you are ready to serve!

Here are some more images of the cupcakes:

Inside...I used confetti cake for these! But any cake recipe will work.

Definitely try these for your next event or place an order with me and it’ll be a total hit!

So to celebrate my upcoming day and my bridesmaids, I made festive cookies for each of them when we went dress shopping together.

I gave each girl a vanilla-almond sugar cookie with hot pink royal icing in the shape of a dress with a little bouquet! Although our wedding colors are black and pink, I thought the pink dress looked and probably tasted a lot better!

Plain Pink Dress

Dress with the bouquet

Basically all I did to make these cookies is trim down a wedding dress cookie cutter so it had a straighter look and appeared less bridal. I then used flood icing for the base and then piped over that as soon as it dried.

I also used a gum paste cutter to make the mini bouquets. I thought they added a fun little touch and since my girls are carrying hot pink flowers-it was perfect.

After everything dried I packaged the cookies in cello bags and added a pink and white tag that read “Bridesmaid” and wrapped 3 ribbons around the top.

I also made a flower girl cookie out of a wedding bell cookie cutter. I just trimmed the bottom part off to level out the skirt!

Here are some more images of the cookies with a few other wedding inspired creations!

All my girls loved them and I loved making them!!

So, when I started thinking about design elements, I knew I wanted to incorporate all or most of these interests onto the cake.

Her mom also told me that she is a “girly, girl” and that she loves pink. I mean, what girly girl doesn’t?!  So, I started brainstorming…and I came up with a hot pink cake with large and small polka dots and  stars. I also wanted to have icons inside some of the polka dots depicting all her interests and things that portrayed her.

Here are some close up images of the things that characterize Lindsay!

Nursing stuff...

She loves basketball

She is a student at Drexel

She loves penguins and is a member of the Philadelphia Zoo

She is a nursing student

She attended Sacred Heart

Cocktails...it is her 21st afterall!!

She attended the University of Kentucky

She loves Flip Flops

She loves the Philadelphia Phillies

I had a great time making this cake and I hope Lindsay really enjoyed it and had a wonderful birthday!

Her mom emailed me after the party and said that everyone enjoyed looking at all the different elements and that it tasted delicious! Which I was SO excited to hear!! I love when people not only enjoy looking at my cakes and cookies but love the taste!! It’s the icing on the cake!

My aunt Cate…well, she’s not technically my aunt, but I call her that affectionately because she is like a sister to my mother.  They have been friends for…a really long time.  I would give out the specific number of years, but that would date everyone – including myself!  So let’s just say they have been friends forever!  Anyway, Aunt Cate asked me to make a cake for her daughter, Alexis, since she was graduating high school.

Honestly, I know I have said this before for a few other orders, but I knew Alexis when she was teeny tiny!  I remember when she was a little girl and now she is a beautiful young lady!  It’s so great to see how fabulous she turned out.  Her parents and family are so wonderful and they had a great influence on her.  She is beautiful, caring, fun, funny, smart and overall wonderful!

Well, her parents wanted to have a big party for her to celebrate this big milestone in her life and I was excited when I found out I was making the cake!!  When I spoke to Cate about the design, I knew I wanted to do something really special for Alexis because she deserves it!  It’s always nice to go the extra mile for people that truly deserve it and she’s one gal that does!

Her mom and I discussed Alexis’ many interests and hobbies and immediately I thought of a three tiered cake with each tier describing her three most favorite things.  Not to mention that three is symbolic in so many other ways, but it always represents the past, present and future – perfect for a young lady moving into a new phase of life.

Cate informed me that Alexis enjoys music: playing the bongos, singing, playing the piano/keyboard, the beach, stars, and she loves working with kids and teaching them.  So I ran with those ideas.

The first thing I did for this cake was sketch out my ideas and keep the design cohesive. Alexis’ favorite color is blue so I definitely wanted to make that a major component.  She also loves rice krispie treats, Tastycake Butterscotch krimpets and vanilla pound cake.  For those of you who aren’t from Philly, a butterscotch krimpet is a vanilla sponge cake with a thin layer of butterscotch frosting.  Honestly, it is one of the best things EVER!!  In order to satisfy all of her favorite flavors in one cake, I decided to do a different flavor for each layer.  This way Alexis could have her cake and eat it, too!!

The top tier was rice krispie treats, the middle was my version of the krimpet cake and the bottom layer was vanilla pound with vanilla buttercream.

Here is the top:

2011 with stars in her school colors and the bongos!

keyboard

The middle tier described her interest in teaching and things school/classroom related.

The graduate!

School book, pencil and paw print from her school mascot-the cougar!

Her school mascot

Chalkboard, apple, ruler and bell with another paw print

The bottom tier were things related with going to the beach…another favorite pasttime of hers.

Beach umbrella and flip flops

Beach balls with pail and shovel

Some beaches have palm trees...

Beach lounge chair

Each design was hand piped with royal icing and the topper was made from fondant.

I hand painted the ocean with gel paste and piped waves on top.  For the sand, I used a mixture of graham crackers and brown sugar.

When I arrived at Alexis’ party, she was so excited when she saw the cake.  Cate said she came rushing in from outside as soon as she saw I was in the house.  When I saw her face light up with such excitement I was so happy because that is the best part about making these cakes – seeing people’s reactions.  She examined all the details and loved everything about it.

The party was so much fun, too.  Everyone had a great time celebrating Alexis.  She looked so cute and it was a blast to be around such amazing people.  Alexis’ dad and her uncle played live music for everyone and people were dancing, talking and laughing.  And honestly, if I hadn’t already booked a band for my wedding – I would’ve hired them because they’re so awesome!

I loved looking at the poster-board Cate made displaying all the memorable moments of Alexis’ life with her family.  They had pictures of their vacations, school photos, holy communion pictures, and some really funny candid shots – her mom saved everything!

I am so happy that I was able to make this cake for Alexis because she is such a fantastic young lady and she only deserves wonderful things in life and I hope the future brings them to her!!

I asked her mom – who is adorable – about Kelly’s favorite things and color preferences.  Maureen informed me that Kelly wanted to incorporate yellow to represent “new beginnings” and purple because that was her aunt’s favorite color.  She wanted to include her aunt Eleanor into her celebration since she passed away a little over a year ago.  Eleanor was such a wonderful, special and incredibly fun lady and I know she is missed each and every day.  I think that it was very touching of Kelly to incorporate her aunt into her celebration.

When Kelly’s mom and I were trying to design the cupcakes, I knew I wanted them to be modern, yet classic. So I brainstormed on how to incorporate all these different ideas into one design and decided to make a monogrammed topper with a flower accent.  I thought that not only does yellow symbolize new beginnings, but so do flowers in the springtime.

I used yellow for the buttercream frosting, made monogrammed toppers out of purple fondant and used yellow fondant for the small flowers.

Here’s how I made them:

I rolled out the yellow fondant, cut the flowers with a small fondant cutter and pressed the center of each flower into the sponge to give the flower dimension and movement.

After I made an indentation in each flower, I attached sugar pearls and let the flowers dry.

After the flowers hardened a little, I started rolling out the purple fondant for the toppers.  I monogrammed the toppers after cutting them out with a round cookie cutter. After they dried, I then attached the yellow flowers and let them dry overnight.

After the toppers dried overnight, I made the buttercream, tinted it yellow and piped it on top of the cupcakes.  I then placed the fondant toppers on the icing and packaged them up for delivery!!

Check out the finished product…

I saw Kelly and her mom last week and they were really happy with the cupcakes.  They both said they were pretty and delicious – which is very important to me!!

I am so happy I was able to participate in such a special time with such a wonderful family and I wish Kelly lots of luck in her new beginnings!

I made this princess cake for four year Reagan’s Birthday party.  When I asked her mom about Reagan’s interests, there were so many to choose from.  Her mom told me she liked Paris, Despicable Me, Megamind, Backyardigans, Heffalump from Winnie the Pooh, and of course, princesses!  Well, I have to admit that I was very excited to make a princess cake for Reagan.  I mean, I am a very girly girl and my favorite color is pink, as is Reagan’s.  So, when the possibility arose to make a whimsical cake with a princess theme, I jumped on it!!

When I planned out the design for this cake, I knew I wanted to have a crown cake topper and wanted to put her age on it as well.  I knew that the crown would be perfect in pink and I accented it with an edible heart sprinkle.  This was made out of fondant.

As I started to make the cake, I realized that I wanted to keep the princess topper, but I wanted to incorporate flowers, stripes and polka dots as well.  Polka dots are so fun!!

Fondant Flower on the side of the cake

Close-up of the flower on the front of the cake

Another flower on the side of the cake

Flower behind the crown topper

Back View

Side View

Side View

And what princess cake is complete without a magic wand?!

Princess Wand

I also made coordinating cupcakes for Reagan to take into school and share with her friends and classmates.  I decorated the vanilla cupcakes with molded white chocolate flowers in pink and purple.

Cupcake with topper

Cupcakes

Cake and Cupcakes

When I delivered the cake and saw Reagan’s face light up it was so exciting.  She is such a cute little girl and she loved the cake topper.  She pointed to it and told her mom that she wanted eat that piece.  I love to see happy faces when I deliver my cakes because it makes me happy, too!!!