"Ace Hardware" Cupcakes for Chris 2/2013

Chris...who is a friend of my family was going to be attending a managers meeting for Ace Hardware and asked me to create some cupcakes for him. He asked for red cupcakes with white frosting and the Ace Hardware logo. So I made red velvet cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and hand cut each letter to resemble to Ace logo. Unfortunately I don't have the letter fondant cutters yet so they weren't all exactly the same, but they were pretty darn close! Chris said that everyone loved them! Love getting positive feedback!! :)

Peanut Butter Explosion Cake for Liz 1/2013

My monthly cake customer Liz asked me to make the same cake I made my husband and brother for their birthday last year except in a sheet cake form. The only difference was that she wanted peanut butter cake (previous version was two tier with the top tier being chocolate cake and the bottom cake was vanilla). So this cake was a 1/4 sheet with peanut butter cake, peanut butter frosting, chocolate ganache and crumbled peanut butter cups on top. According to her son (friends with my little brother), everyone went crazy over the cake! :)

Bridal Shower "Derby" Cupcakes for Michelle

My cousins fiance was having a Kentucky Derby themed bridal shower and her made of honor asked me to make her cupcakes. She had sent me a recipe she found online when doing a search for Derby things. The only think I omitted was the pie crust, I had to travel from North Port to Orlando (about 3.5 hours) with these and that was hard enough. I didn't want to add in the standing up pie crust because I figured they wouldn't hold up for the ride! Below is the recipe I used to make these...they were really yummy, almost taked like cookie dough cupcakes. I made a combo of mini cupcakes and standard size cupcakes.

Cupcake:

3 cups all purpose flour

2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 1/4 C packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs
3/4 c buttermilk
1/2 c finely chopped pecans
1/2 c mini chocolate chips
1 t vanilla

Garnish:

1 refrigerated pie crust

mini chocolate chips
chopped pecans

Icing:

8 oz cream cheese at room temperature

1/2 c unsalted butter at room temperature
1 c brown sugar
1 pound powdered sugar
1 t vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners

Cupcakes: Cream butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time. Sift together flour, salt & baking powder in separate bowl. Add half of the buttermilk to the egg/sugar mixture. Add half of the dry ingredients. Add other half of buttermilk then other half of the dry ingredients. Mix well. Add vanilla.

Mix in chocolate chips and finely chopped pecans until just combined.

Scoop out into cupcake liners (about 3/4 full) and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Cool.

 

Lay out refrigerated pie crust on a cookie sheet and poke with a fork several times. Cook according to package directions until just golden brown. Break into large pieces.

 

Frosting: cream together cream cheese, butter and brown sugar. Beat until well combined. Add 1 lb of powdered sugar slowly until all is combined. Add vanilla.

After the cupcakes are cooled, frost (I used a star icing tip and a piping bag to frost them). Garnish with a chopped pecans, mini chocolate chips, 1 large piece of pie crust. Sprinkle more crumbled pie crust on top.

 

Baby Shower Mini Cupcakes 1/2013

My friend Emily asked me if I could maje 60 Mini cupcakes for a baby shower she was going to be attending. She wanted Vanilla and Chocolate cake with Vanilla and Chocolate Buttercream! She said they were a big hit! :)

Yardsale Marketing!! 1/2013

Why not take any opportunity I can to Market my Cakes!! We had a community yardsale and I decided to make some mini cupcakes to sell! I sold my Vanilla and Chocolate Mini's with Mocha and Peanut Butter Buttercream for $.25 each and also got to give out a bunch of my business cards! :)

 Vanilla and Chocolate Mini's with Mocha buttercream!

Vanilla and Chocolate Mini's with Peanut Butter Buttercream!

Meeting @ Veterans Home 12/2012

She asked for something festive...so I made Christmas Tree cupcakes out of vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream! :)

Christmas for the Sheriffs Office 12/2012

Every year for Christmas my brother asks me to make his squad some sweets to enjoy on Christmas...normally he asks for more but this year he scaled it down to these 3 different sweet treats! :)

 Peanut Butter Balls & Mini Oreo Cheesecakes!

Homemade Chocolate Chip & Oatmeal Chocolate chip Cookies!

Photo Card

Wrapped In Dots Christmas

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Maddie's Smurf Birthday Cake! 11/2012

My niece Maddie wanted me to make her a Smurf cake for her 9th Birthday! I was so excited because this was the first cake I had ever made for her so I wanted to make sure she loved it! Although I didn't have the time or talent to make the Smurfs by hand I did make the flowers and mushrooms out of fondant! The top cake was chocolate (per her request) and the bottom layer was vanilla to please everyone else! lol! The cake was a hit! Love nothing more then when I have people tell me they love it! :)

Makayla's 5th Birthday! 11/2012

Happy Birthday to my little Monkey of a niece Makayla! She wanted a Little Mermaid cake so I did my best in the time I had (which wasn't much!) She loved it so thats all I cared about!

Ashley & Jared's Wedding 11/17/12

My friend Ashley from work asked if I could make her wedding cake for her...I was so excited that she asked me! I made a combination of cupcakes and a mini wedding cake (85 Cupcakes to be exact). The cake was vanilla and chocolate marbled together with vanilla buttercream. Each cupcake had a handmade edible flower with the color of her bridesmaid dresses dotted in the center of each one. My mom also handmade bows for the front of each cupcake to dress them up! So thankful she was able to help me do that and come with me to help me set it all up on the day of the wedding! We went back and forth on how to display the cupcakes and cake without the worry of it toppling it over since it was an outdoor wedding. Since it was more of a rustic wedding we went with baskets to show them off. She loved it and that was all I cared about! So honored she asked me to do this for them! :)

Black & Pink Zebra Birthday Cake/Cupcakes!

One of my clients from work had asked me if I could create a black and pink zebra cake or cupcakes for her daughters birthday. I of course was up for the challenge...I love when I am approached to make something completely different from anything I have made before! The cake/cupcakes were chocolate with vanilla buttercream. I hope they like it! :)

 

 

Mocha Cake & Mocha Buttercream!

My family friend Liz wanted a chocolatey cake, so I made her a mocha cake with mocha buttercream. I was limited on time for the decoration so she had mentioned that it was Gold Star month at the Veterans Home so I added a Gold Star and mentioned the September birthdays! Per Liz, the cake was another big hit! :)

Mmmmm Peanut Butter Cup Cake!

I got this idea for this cake off Pinterest. I couldn't not try it especially when my brother said he wanted me to make it for his birthday. Since it was such a large cake I decided to do it for my husbands and my brothers birthdays....my brother likes vanilla cake, so the top layer cake was vanilla and the bottom layer was mocha. The interior layers had crushed up peanut butter cups as well as the outside layers. It was covered in peanut butter buttercream and chocolate ganache. It was a big hit amoung our family!!

 

 

Peanut Butter, Oh My! 8/30/12

I was asked by a friend of my family to create a cake for her "staff" at the VA Nursing home she runs. She said that they have a staff meeting once a month and if she likes my cake she will use me every month from here on out! Her request for this month was a peanut butter cake with peanut butter frosting. At first I was a little taken back because I was thinking it was going to be a lot of peanut butter!! I didn't want to overload them on the first cake I made for them but that was her request so I was going to try and make it taste great! I made my simple basic white cake and added peanut butter to it. The taste wasn't too strong and I was happy about that since my peanut butter frosting is very peanut buttery! So here it is...it wasn't my best looking cake because I was on a severe time crunch (she gave me the info about 24 hours in advance), so I made do with what she told me...it was Purple Heart month and a lady was retiring so I wrote "Happy Retirement."

**Received a voicemail from her today and she said for the first time ever there was no leftover cake! She said everyone went crazy over it! Her words were that everyone thought it wasn't too sweet and it was the perfect balance of flavors! She said she would be using me for sure every month! Woohoo!! I seriously think there is nothing better than positive feedback!!**

Minnie for Madeline! 8/26/12

Jeff (husband) came home last week with a picture of a cake one of his co-workers asked if I could attempt to make for her daughters 4th birthday! I was so excited because it was my first real challenge cake someone has asked me to do!! It was a lot of work but it was such a great experience for me to learn how to do certain things for the first time! The cake itself was vanilla, the bottom cake had vanilla buttercream and the top cake was peanut butter buttercream. All the decorations were handmade out of fondant! I went to drop off the cake this afternoon and the little girl loved it (which made all the work I put into it worth it!)