Aunt Jeanne's Birthday Cupcakes! 4/2012

My Aunt Jeanne turned 60 this week and the family thru her a whole weekend of festivities! I made her two different cakes...the cupcakes shown here were her "candles" birthday cake (Vanilla Funfetti cake with Pink Vanilla Buttercream) and I also made her a Trifle with fat free, sugar fee vanilla pudding layered with cool whip, angel food cake, strawberries and blueberries. (I forgot to take a picture of that one!!).

40 Cupcake- Birthday Party! 4/2012

 Chocolate Mocha Cupcake with Chocolate Buttercream.

 Chocolate Mocha Cupcake with Peanut Butter Buttercream!

I was asked by a new customer if I could make 40 cupcakes for a Birthday party she was having. She wanted a chocolate cupcake with Peanut butter buttercream and chocolate buttercream. I put peanut butter cups on the peanut butter ones and a strawberry on the chocolate ones. I thought it dressed it up a little and it was easier to tell which cupcakes were which! I hope everyone enjoyed them! :)

Dave's 47th 4/2012

It was my step-dad's 47th Birthday and he's a huge fan of chocolate!! So I made him a chocolate mocha cake with vanilla buttercream filling and chocolate mocha buttercream on the outside! The cake was super moist and rich and the buttercream balanced it all out! Definitely keeping this recipe for my go to chocolate cake recipe!! :)

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Easter Bunny Cake 04/08/12

This Easter I took on the project of making a cake covered with Fondant for the first time. Probably wasn't the best time to try seeing how I was also having brunch for the entire family and I was working late during the week at my job...it didn't leave me a lot of extra time to take my time on it. But I figured practice makes perfect and I would make this a learning experience!! I think (my opinion) it came out pretty good. The Fondant I used was Satin Ice-Vanilla flavored...it's so yummy, a little pricey but so much better than the crappy ready-made stuff you can buy in the stores. I made a Carrot Cake for the ears and just boxed Funfetti cake mix for the middle since the kids and some of the adults coming to brunch love it. The fondant dries out really quick especially when you mix in powdered sugar to keep it from sticking when rolling it out. After many trial and errors of covering the cake with it I finally was able to get it....it was very hard to smooth out the ears seeing how they were weird shaped but I did my best! :)

Ovarian Cancer Benefit for Joanna Baffuto

On March 17th, 2012 the clubhouse in my community got together and had a benefit for my next door neighbor Joanne Baffuto. This poor lady had been thru so much! Please visit her website to read her story and help! www.joannebaffuto.com

I made a Marble cake and put buttercream on it and sliced it into bite size servings and then drew on the Ovarian Cancer Ribbon. Each person that came to the benefit could drop their $5 tickets in the cup if they liked my item and then we drew the winner at the end of the day! I donated a $40 gift certificate towards any cake or sweet of their choice! I was so happy to help support Joanne!

A Little Bit about ME

Hello...my name is Jillian. I am currently living in North Port, FL but am originally from Nashua, NH. I discovered a couple years ago that I just loved to bake...very relaxing and therapeutic for me! I started off small, cakes for birthdays and cookies/sweets for special holidays or occasion's, but I found I just loved doing it so much! I wanted to venture out and see if I could bring possibly start my own business someday!

Right now I am just relying on word of mouth, Facebook and this blog to get my name out there...I would really love and appreciate the chance to make something for you! I can make all different flavor cakes and frosting's and I can do my best to match up to any theme, color scheme or style you envision. I just ordered really good quality Fondant (the same TLC's Cake Boss uses). I am hoping to perfect using the fondant so I can one day make wedding cakes as well. I also make all kinds of cookies, cupcakes and other sweets.

My price right now covers my cost of ingredients and little labor since I am just starting out...you can email me any questions you may have on prices, flavors or styles at jillycakesandsweets@hotmail.com

I appreciate any and all business you give me!

Thanks!
Jillian

Baby Shower Cake for "Millie"

YEAH!! This was my first client cake that wasn't family! A girl that works with my husband contacted me last minute to make a cake for her sisters baby shower. This was a orange marble cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. Personally I thought this was my best cake recipe...the cake itself was really tasty and moist! She picked out the colors and wanted the cake to be similar to the baby shower cake I made for my babyshower. She said her sister was being mum on the name so they have been calling the baby "Mildred/Millie" for short! I was so happy that she thought of me to make this for her!!! Thanks Ashley! :)

Reindeer Cupcakes 12/2011

I made these cupcakes for my son Jake's birthday. His birthday is in December and he wanted these! They were so easy to make! All it was to decorate the cupcakes were Nilla Wafers, M&M's, Pretzels and vanilla frosting (for the eyes). I used Vanilla frosting and chocolate frosting to frost the cupcakes...not everyone likes chocolate, so I just used brown food coloring on the vanilla ones.

Lila's Monkey Cake 2/2012

This cake I made for my daughter Lila's first birthday. It was monkey themed if you can't tell! :)
It was homemade vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. The polka dots were made out of rolled fondant that I colored myself with gel food coloring. I made the monkey from fondant as well. I tried to match her decorations as best as I could!I also made her a smoosh cake since this was her first birthday!! :)

Here are a few of her monkey decorations! :)

And...here's my little monkey girl! :)

Mohawk Baseball Cake 2/2012 (2)

Close up picture of the Mohawk Baseball Cake.

Mohawk Baseball Cake 2/2012

I made this cake for my nephew Tylers 7th Birthday. He had a new mohawk and had just stated his baseball season. So I made him a baseball mohawk cake. The ball part was the hardest part to make. I made 3 6" cakes and stacked them on top of each other and carved out the ball. The buttercream was not cooperating with me that day and I had to keep adding water to make it easier to spread over the ball. I had to stick it into the freezer for it to get hard so it was easier to frost the final layer.

Crime Scene Cake 2/2012

I made this cake for my mom's last day at work. (She worked with me at Tax Savers). She got a job opportunity at the Sheriffs office in the major crime unit and I thought this cake was appropriate! This cake was the homemade vanilla cake recipe I had made before and the homemade buttercream. I joked that I should have brought toothbrushes for everyone because of the black frosting, but fortunately no one really had black teeth! :)

Hello Kitty Cake 11/2011

I made this cake for my niece Makayla's 4th Birthday. This was the first time I made a cake and frosting from complete scratch. I got the vanilla cake recipe from "The Cake Boss". I also made the buttercream from the basics...I took what I knew was in buttercream and made it to my liking. I can honestly say that I think the cake and frosting went so well together. The cake was just the right amount of sweet and the frosting was sweet but not too sweet. The cake was a hit with my niece and my twin sister's who were here visiting from Boston.

GMC Jimmy Cake 9/2011

This cake was for my brothers 17th birthday. He got a GMC Jimmy for his birthday so I did my best to mimik it with cake. This cake definitely would have been a lot easier to do with buttercream but he's very picky about his cake and frosting! I think it came out pretty good if I do say so myself!

Makayla's 3rd Birthday Cake 11/2010

I made this cake for my niece Makayla's 3rd Birthday. She found a cake similar to this online and wanted me to make it for her. It didn't come out as I suspected. It was very hard to get the layers straight, and again those darn dowels were hard to cut (I guess I need to invest in a saw). I made the ribbon with fondant. I had a really hard time getting the fondant to firm up so the bow ended up wilting. But again this was a learning experience for me! :)

My Baby Shower Cake 11/2010

This was a cake I made for my babyshower. Haha...yes I made my own cake. I love to try new designs and get the practice. My mom and sister in-law Kristen were not happy with me that I made my own but I insisted! This was the first time I used dowels to hold up the top layer! Ugh...I think the hardest part of this cake was cutting the dowels since we didn't have a saw! We used like a swiss army knife!

Pumpkin Cake 10/2010

This cake I made in a bunt pan with the infamous boxed funfetti cake mix and canned vanilla frosting. (Can you tell everyone in my family loves funfetti?!). The vines and leaves I made with fondant that I colored myself with green gel cake coloring. This was my first attempt at using fondant. It was very hard to use! I wrapped the fondant around pencils and put them in the fridge. This cake was for my sister in-law and brother in-laws Halloween party.

"Plain" Cheeseburger Cake 9/2010

This cake was for my brothers 16th birthday. He loves "plain" cheeseburgers, this is why I only had made the cheese! I really wish I would've made buttercream for this, it would've made it a lot easier to manuver and to get straighter lines, but I think it turned out decent and so did he and thats all that mattered! :)

Homer Simpson Cake 9/2010

My husband loves The Simpsons, so I decided to make him a Homer cake for his birthday. Haha! It was pretty funny. Again boxed funfetti cake mix and canned vanilla frosting, which made it very hard to keep straight lines! Everyone thought it was pretty funny! It's why I love making cakes and all different sweets, I just love to see peoples reaction when either they see it or eat it! :)

4th of July Cupcakes 7/2010

I made these cupcakes for the kids for a cookout at my moms. Nothing fancy, just boxed cake mix and canned frosting again. The kids devoured them! :)

Spongebob & Patrick Cakes 2/2010

These cakes were for my nephew Tylers 5th birthday. These were the first cakes that I actually made my own buttercream frosting for. Much to my surprise it was sooo much easier to work with. I was able to get cleaner lines (compared to the previous Spongebob cake) and it set up in the fridge so must faster which meant then I was able to finish the cakes much quicker. They were a big hit with the kids! :)

Spongebob Cake 12/2009

I made this cake for my son Jakes 6th Birthday. Spongebob was very popular with him then! Yes I know, he has no arms or legs! haha! I didn't really know what to use for them then so I just did his body! Again this was boxed funfetti cake mix and vanilla canned frosting.

Princess Cake-11/2009

One of the first cakes I made that wasn't just a basic sheet cake. This was for my niece Makaylas 2nd birthday in 2009! :) It was very difficult to do! I used boxed funfetti cake mix and put a vanilla pudding filling in between the layers which ended up being too slippery for the frosting to stick to so on the way over to the party one side of the cake slipped off! Oh well! It was a learning experience! She loved it though and that was all that mattered to me! :)