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!!!!

Zebra Print Cake

I had a 13 year old girl (the sister of a friend of mine) request a zebra print cake with pink ribbon around the top! This was half vanilla and half chocolate.


I thought the cake looked pretty cool before and after the pink stripe!

Congrats Grad!

I made this cake for a very good friend's son! Lory was the wife of the Commander of the battalion Eric deployed with. She was very instrumental in me getting through the deployment with 2 infants, getting involved in the Officers' Spouses' Club, and seeing what a devoted supportive Army wife is! She asked me to make a cake for her son's high school graduation. I took the mascot from Fayetteville Christian School and turned him into something yummy to eat! I hope she likes it!!!

Bowling for CAKE!

One of the NICU nurses contacted me to make her son an 8th birthday cake with a bowling ball theme. Here's what I ended up with...



Then, I threw in some cupcakes because I've been wanting to try these bowling pin cupcakes. They were VERY easy and delicious

A Sweet Tooth

I was hired to make a "Dental Assistant Appreciation Week" cake for the clinic where Eric works. Actually, he has to travel between 2 of the 5 clinics on Ft. Bragg. He was at a different clinic and started talking about my cakes to some of the assistants and hygienists. Next thing you know, he was showing off this website! After he told me this, I decided to make them a cake too...just because!

Here's the extra cake I made for Rhode Dental Clinic

Here's the one I made for Davis Dental Clinic.
Eric told me they all LOVED the cake and that one of the Colonels actually took a picture of it. Now THAT made me feel good!

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!!!!

FBAOSC Fundraiser

I was approached by one of the members of the Ft Bragg Area Officers, Spouses' Club, and asked to donate something for their March Fundraiser called Denim and Diamonds. I knew I didn't have time to do another cake since I already had 2 cake orders for the weekend and an order of custom cupcakes. However, I knew I could eek out a nifty looking cookie bouquet.

I drew out a template for theses cookies, cut them all out by hand, decorated them, and added about 125 pearl candies to each cookie...INDIVIDUALLY with some tweezers. I then wrapped each one and placed them in a cute pink and brown gift box and shrink wrapped it! I hope it brought a bidding war like the shoe box cake did at the Cakes for a Cure fundraiser back in November! I delivered them to our monthly luncheon on Thursday and they got a really good reaction. I love what I do!

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.

Harvest Krispie Treats

The boys are having a Thanksgiving Party at Mother's Day Out on Tuesday. I signed up to make rice krispie treats since they are allergy friendly to the boys as well as a few other kiddos in their class that have allergies. However, I can't make them plain! I had all of these ingredients in my cabinet!!

I made some pumpkins. Just rolled the cereal treats into a ball, rolled them in orange sprinkles and topped it off with a green fondant stem. I attached a little note saying HAPPY THANKSGIVING with a leaf sticker.

After I ran out of orange sprinkles, I found some yellow ones. I immediately thought of corn. So, I rolled the cereal treats into a thick log, covered them with yellow sprinkles, cut fondant in the shape of leaves, and attached them to look like the husk of corn. I attached a little note saying "Have an A-maize-ing Thanksgiving" with a leaf sticker.

It only took about 30 minutes to make the treats, decorate them, and put them in clear treat bags. I managed to get that done while the boys were playing nicely in their room! I made the little notes and attached them while the boys were napping. I hope the kiddos like them at their church party tomorrow.

Shoe Box Cake - CAKES FOR A CURE

I was asked to donate a cake for the OSC (Officers' Spouses' Club) on Ft Bragg for their "Cakes for a Cure" Fundraiser. The theme was Girls Night Out, and the colors were pink, of course, and brown. I knew immediately I wanted to make a shoe box and a gum paste shoe. Neither of which, I had done before. Here's the end result...

My friend, Brandy made the gum paste flowers! It was the first ones she's ever done, and I think they turned out FABULOUS! The cake was 100% edible...from the shoe to the tissue paper.
Notice the shoe has the name "Jami" on it. A high school classmate of mine lost her battle with cancer on October 18th. I wasn't able to make it back to Kentucky for her services, so this was my tribute to her. The girl who won the cake read Jami's story that I put with the cake, and was so touched by it that she HAD to have the cake!!

It was the highest grossing cake at the auction, going for $70. That's probably about what I would charge for it anyway...minus the cake board detail and gum paste flowers.

I left the auction with 1 cake order and found another one in my email box the next day. It was a great night.

Tanya Biank, the author of Army Wives, was there to sign her book and be the guest speaker. She was full of grace, intelligence, and poise. It was an honor to meet her, since I'm a huge fan of the show.

Cake Class Update

I've really been enjoying my cake classes. Course II is finishing up on Halloween, and I can't wait to make the final cake to showcase these flowers.

I made the following flowers in the last few classes. Some are made of buttercream, royal icing, or color flow. Royal icing is powdered sugar, egg whites, and water. It dries hard, and is used mostly for decoration and intricate details. Color flow is made of roughly the same ingredients as Royal icing, but it dries with a more "pillowy" effect.



First is the mum...buttercream


Next is the American Beauty Rose using the brush striping technique to tint the edges...buttercream. I'm nowhere near perfecting the rose...I struggle with it a little, but I'm practicing!

Now on to Royal Icing. Apple Blossom and the Daisy


The Primrose and Violet and leaf


Finally, the Color Flow butterflies and birds. Once again, not as perfect as I would like, but I'm learning. Not bad for my first time.


I LOVED LOVED LOVED class last weekend when I learned how to do this. My teacher is awesome, very patient, and knowledgeable. Our final class will teach us the basket weave, daffodil, and how to arrange them on a cake!

My First 1/2 Sheet Cake

This was my first attempt at a sheet cake. 1/2 sheet cake to be exact. It's half chocolate half vanilla with buttercream filling. I made the logo with royal icing on waxed paper. Once it dried, I peeled it off the paper and placed it on the cake. This cake is for monthly birthday party at Eric's clinic.

Dinosaur Dig Site

I made this cake for the 5th birthday of a friend's little boy. He made the choices from the flavor and color of the cake to the color "dirt" he wanted. This is homemade strawberry cake with buttercream filling with fresh strawberries, iced with BLUE buttercream icing and topped with sugar cookie dinosaur fossils. Graham crackers and blue sprinkles make up the "dirt" and "rocks" on the cake. Enjoy!

Right now, I can make yellow, chocolate, applesauce spice, red velvet, and now strawberry.

Makers Mark Cake

I made the above cake for my brother in law's 30th birthday.

I can recreate just about any shape of bottle of anything! I'm up for the challenge!