Apple Basket Cupcakes

I made a cake that looked a little like these last fall. I wanted to turn the cake into little cupcakes that looked like Apple Baskets. I think I was successful!



They are Applesauce Spice flavor with buttercream icing and royal icing apples. I cooked them in parchment paper cups to give it more of a "basket" feel. All you have to do is cut parchment paper into squares and press them down into your cupcake pan. Easy and beautiful! Plus, I ALWAYS have parchment paper on hand, but not always cupcake liners!!!





I decided to box them up and donate these to the Officers' Spouses' Club for the November luncheon as an "opportunity" which is just the Army's way of saying "raffle prize" I hope someone finds them delicious!!!!

Avery...take TWO!

This is probably one of my favorite buttercream cakes yet!

Sherry, one of the boys' NICU nurses asked me to make her little princess a cake to tear into for her first birthday pictures. I made it, hot pink and lime green to match Miss Avery's tutu, but poor little princess came down with a tummy bug the day before her photos. So, Sherry popped over late at night to pick up the cake, and we talked about how she could freeze it for 2 weeks until her rescheduled photo session. However, due to cake suicide (because the cake did this to itself) it never did make it to the freezer, and had to either be buried or eaten. Thankfully, it was eaten!

Tomorrow morning, Avery has her THIRD attempt at her first birthday photo shoot. (The first was rescheduled due to road rash up her face from a fall on the concrete!!!!) I packed this cake SO tight in the box that Sherry will have to pull the box apart at its seam to get the cake out. I felt bad that the cake committed suicide that I included 5 little cupcakes that also spell her name. Steven Ashmore is one of THE BEST photographers in town...so I wanted to give him plenty of ways to capture Avery, her hot pink tutu, and her name!

Here's to a FABULOUS photo shoot with a beautiful princess in her tutu and a delicious cake for her to TEAR into!

UPDATE - Would you believe that poor Avery is sick AGAIN? Sherry picked up the cake with the intention to freeze it until her 4TH attempt at having her first birthday pictures taken. I had it all wrapped in a box and ready to freeze. I hope this baby girl can get her pictures done before she either outgrows her picture outfit OR turns 2. HA

PAWS...and eat some cake!

Carolina Pet Care Services, the company we use to baby sit our dogs when traveling, contacted me a few months ago and asked me to make some custom puppy cupcakes for them as well as a birthday sheet cake. I attempted the pupcakes back in January and they turned out great! This weekend was the big fundraiser for FAPS (Fayetteville Animal Protection Society) as well as Shannon's (one of the owners of the company) 40th birthday. I lieu of presents for Shannon, they asked for donations or gifts for FAPS.

I put a lot of time and effort into their pupcakes and sheet cake this week....and it paid off. THEY LOVED IT!!!! I spent a few hours at the fundraiser and enjoyed meeting some of their other dog sitters and even a free lance photographer from the paper who was there to cover the story.

Shannon chose a chocolate cake with mocha mousse filling

Chihuahua, sheep dog, beagle, collie, terrier, bulldog,
chocolate lab, schnauzer, pug, and dalmatian!

The dachshunds didn't fit in the box..they had to ride without the rest of the pack!!!!

Pupcakes!

Whenever we go out of town, we have a specific dog sitting company we use to care for Jade and Rena. They are AWESOME and the pups love the 2 ladies that run the business. Shout out to Theresa and Shannon! They contacted me a few weeks ago to enlist my help in making some cupcakes shaped like PUPS...that's why I called them Pupcakes. Theresa dropped off the book Hello, Cupcakes and wanted me to give it a go. I decided to do a trial run before I fully committed to them. These are for a very special occasion, and if I wasn't going to be able to reproduce them to their satisfaction, I wanted them to have time to locate someone else. Never fear though...I made them all the last 2 days. The book is VERY descriptive on how to make these edible K-9s. I'm glad I tried these because I will need to make a few variations in regards to the size of the marshmallows used to make most of the snouts. Also, I need to find chocolate covered sunflower seeds for the eyes, and Famous Chocolate Waffers for the snouts and ears! If anyone sees them in either Fayetteville or Raleigh/Durham, please let me know! This order isn't due until the first week of March, so I have some time to locate these last few things.

What do you think????????

Old English Sheep Dog

Yo Quiero PUPCAKES? Chihuahua
Schnauzer
Beagle
Can you eat 101 PUPCAKES??? Dalmation
Chocolate Lab...literally..CHOCOLATE!
Pug...not my favorite, but will look better once I find all the necessary candies
Dachshund
Collie
Yorkshire Terrier
Bulldog
The whole PUPCAKE KENNEL!

Now, what the heck am I supposed to do with these Pupcakes??? Give them to the clients of course! Theresa is going to stop by and pick them up today to enjoy over the weekend.