A Must Have Apron.

Okay so not everything is going to be about cupcakes. I found these adorable aprons at Anthropoloy and I had to share. I've never seen aprons so stylish with such flare. These three are my favorite but their selection is so big that it will please anyones style. I can definitely see my little sis, Brianna, wearing the black and white one while she's baking for her new hubby.

anthropology.com

Gabriella's Ducks

My adorable niece had her first birthday party over the weekend. The theme for her party was Duckies. She had a beautiful duck dress and party favors galore. So I obviously wanted to make her something "duckie" and fun. I came across these on the cover of "What's New? Cupcake." I pre-ordered the book hoping it would be here in time for her party.

The base is a simple yellow cake in yellow cupcake wrappers.

First I frosted the top of the cupcake with a plain white vanilla frosting. Then I added a doughnut hole for the head. I needed to add a little more frosting to secure it.
The tail end is a big marshmellow cut diagonal and places pointed side up. After the base for the tail and head were done I popped them in the freezer for about 20 minutes to make them firm enough to withstand the "dipping" process.
One by one each duck was taken out of the freezer and dipped into melted frosting that I colored yellow with a little food coloring. The dipping technique is pretty cool. Guests actually thought that I use a fondant.

My husband did a great job helping me with the final touches of the beaks and feet. It's amazing what you can turn a starburst into. Last I added a dot of the white frosting from a piping bag to the head and places mini m&m's for eyes.
I was so happy the way they turned out. They were a big hit and the kids couldn't wait to take a bite.

Happy 1st Birthday Gabriella!
xoxoxox

"Fries" for Beef

These are my favorite so far. I found them in an AMAZING book called "What's New, Cupcake?" It is the sequel to "Hello, Cupcakes" by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.

Our family friend "Beefy" had a birthday celebration over the weekend. We love to eat, drink and have fun so I wanted to make him something he'd really enjoy.

These are super simple. I deviated from the original recipe just a bit. I used chocolate cupcakes instead of vanilla since I like a little contrast between the frosting and the cake. I used a blend of fresh strawberries with added strawberry syrup for "Ketchup" to replace the mini-cupcakes with red frosting. This way you actually got to dip the "fries." To create the "fries" just use a crinkle cutter on pound cake and toast. Usually the cutter is used for veggies and can be found at Bed Bath & Beyond for around 3 bucks.


They were a HUGE hit at the party. This is why I've created this blog. It would be fun to see how many recipes I can pull off.

Thanks Heather for the awesome suggestion. And tell Joe I won't tell anyone about the Julie & Julia idea.
xoxoxo

Easter Baskets

These were fun for the whole family.

After frosting these cupcakes in a tinted light green frosting I added tinted green coconut for the grass effect. I put a few drops of green foodcoloring in a ziplock bag with the coconut and let my daughter shake it up.

My husband help asemble these cute little baskets that I picket up at Michaels for about $2.99 per dozen. Then I decorated with whatever candy the Easter Bunny had left behind.

I'm also excited about the shots that I took. I take photos of everything and I love it! As you can see in the first photo I just learned how to blurr the surroundings of my image. I'm pretty proud since I'm self-taught = )

Baseballs

My sons second birthday was all about Spring training.

Licorice was an easy fix for plain cupcakes. Baseballs was what was requested and baseballs he got.

Easy Lilo & Stitch Cupcakes

My daughter requested a "Lilo & Stitch" birthday. Her birthday is December 22nd so it's a very intense month since everyone is getting ready for the holiday. We promised ourselves that we would never combine the two.

We celebrated with "Winter Luau" theme. We all dressed in Hawaiian outfits and decorated with palmtrees , flowers and coconuts. My husband even made a delicious Hawaiian feast

Anyways, with all of the stress of the holidays I simply ordered some "Lilo & Stitch" rings from ebay and added them to a frosted cupcake. It was nice that the guests had a little momento after eating the cupcake.

Happy Halloween!

These scary skeletons were easy and fun.

I used the same ingredients that I used for "Slimey" cupcakes but substitutes the worm for skeleton body parts.

It's Slimey

My sons first birthday was Oscar the grouch. I made these adorable worm cupcake by using chocolate frosting and crushed Oreo cookies for the top. I created a little divet in the cupcake and added a gummy worm.