This is French Vanilla cake with Vanilla Buttercream filling and frosting. And it's loaded with lots of edible jewelry- candy necklaces, bracelets, rings, and a few loose stones! Maura and her friends should be on a sugar high for weeks!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Happy Birthday Maura!
Maura is turning 6, and she'll be having this awesome jewelry box cake!
This is French Vanilla cake with Vanilla Buttercream filling and frosting. And it's loaded with lots of edible jewelry- candy necklaces, bracelets, rings, and a few loose stones! Maura and her friends should be on a sugar high for weeks!
This is French Vanilla cake with Vanilla Buttercream filling and frosting. And it's loaded with lots of edible jewelry- candy necklaces, bracelets, rings, and a few loose stones! Maura and her friends should be on a sugar high for weeks!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Happy Birthday Shaan!
The most precious baby boy I have ever seen (other than my own, of course) just turned one! Turning one is pretty much the biggest of the birthdays- unless you manage to make it to 100.
Shaan's mom asked for cupcakes in a Winnie the Pooh theme and left the rest up to me.
This is a mixture of chocolate and white cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream.
A couple of close ups:
Marzipan bees with almond wings to represent the silly ol' bear's love of hunny.
A fondant sign bearing the name of Winnie's neighborhood.
Shaan's mom asked for cupcakes in a Winnie the Pooh theme and left the rest up to me.
This is a mixture of chocolate and white cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream.
A couple of close ups:
Marzipan bees with almond wings to represent the silly ol' bear's love of hunny.
A fondant sign bearing the name of Winnie's neighborhood.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Bug Bash
If you were to ask me what JBB does for a living, I'd say he's a Software Engineer. If you were to ask A-Train, he'd say that his father pushes buttons at work. And though my answer may sound slightly more sophisticated, the fact is that A-Train and I have the same level of understanding about what JBB does.
Both A-Train and I can tell you that part of JBB's job is fixing bugs. If JBB has to work late, A-Train will assure me that he probably had a really tough bug and will be home soon. And I'm pretty sure that we both know we're not talking about creepy crawlies.
The only thing I may have a firmer understanding of is how the bugs are found. Apparently some of them are glaringly obvious and have to be fixed immediately. Then there are the others- the termites of the software world- which are well-hidden and waiting to crash everything when you least expect it. Those are the ones that you (OK, JBB and his cronies) have to search and destroy.
So, every so often there is a Bug Bash. All the guys, like Dave and Than (and Mary, the one girl in the office) get together and abuse the software in an attempt to unearth the bugs. And then, of course, they have to fix them.
And now that I've oh-so-elegantly explained the world of software construction, let me get to the part where I actually know what I'm talking about...
To represent bugs everywhere, both crawly and electronic, I made these chocolate cupcakes with green vanilla buttercream and marzipan lady bugs.
Both A-Train and I can tell you that part of JBB's job is fixing bugs. If JBB has to work late, A-Train will assure me that he probably had a really tough bug and will be home soon. And I'm pretty sure that we both know we're not talking about creepy crawlies.
The only thing I may have a firmer understanding of is how the bugs are found. Apparently some of them are glaringly obvious and have to be fixed immediately. Then there are the others- the termites of the software world- which are well-hidden and waiting to crash everything when you least expect it. Those are the ones that you (OK, JBB and his cronies) have to search and destroy.
So, every so often there is a Bug Bash. All the guys, like Dave and Than (and Mary, the one girl in the office) get together and abuse the software in an attempt to unearth the bugs. And then, of course, they have to fix them.
And now that I've oh-so-elegantly explained the world of software construction, let me get to the part where I actually know what I'm talking about...
To represent bugs everywhere, both crawly and electronic, I made these chocolate cupcakes with green vanilla buttercream and marzipan lady bugs.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Merry (Belated) Christmas!
The Sweetshop is officially closed for the holidays, but there's one customer who shows up anyway! He travels all night in the cold, touches down on the lawn, and shimmies down the chimney. Then he starts looking for cookies, and you'd better not disappoint!
And because we didn't want the big guy to forget just how good we were this year, we left him these:
And because we didn't want the big guy to forget just how good we were this year, we left him these:
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Happy Birthday Natalie!
Natalie is turning 2! Her birthday party had a Moon and Stars theme, and I got to make the cake and cupcakes.
The cupcakes are Yummiest Yellow Cake Ever with Vanilla Buttercream frosting and fondant embellishments.
The cake is also Yummiest Yellow Cake Ever, filled with Chocolatey Chocolate Buttercream and covered in Vanilla Buttercream with fondant embellishments.
The cupcakes are Yummiest Yellow Cake Ever with Vanilla Buttercream frosting and fondant embellishments.
The cake is also Yummiest Yellow Cake Ever, filled with Chocolatey Chocolate Buttercream and covered in Vanilla Buttercream with fondant embellishments.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Happy Birthday Dhillon and Alex!
Dhillon and Alex are friends who just turned 7! For their joint birthday party, they wanted a Star Wars themed cake.
This was the Sweetshop's Yummiest Yellow Cake Ever filled with Chocolatey Chocolate Buttercream (a very popular choice lately!) and covered with black fondant. The stars and words were made with white fondant.
** Once again, I have to apologize for the quality of my pictures. I swear to you that this cake was not lopsided though it appears to be so in the picture. I think I need to get another lesson from my sister Laura who is an actual photographer!**
This was the Sweetshop's Yummiest Yellow Cake Ever filled with Chocolatey Chocolate Buttercream (a very popular choice lately!) and covered with black fondant. The stars and words were made with white fondant.
** Once again, I have to apologize for the quality of my pictures. I swear to you that this cake was not lopsided though it appears to be so in the picture. I think I need to get another lesson from my sister Laura who is an actual photographer!**
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Happy Birthday Mason!
Mason just turned 4! Mason's mom and I have been friends since our boys were really little, and his birthday is always kind of bittersweet for me. He's growing up, and he's only two months older than A-Train, so that means that my little guy is growing up, too.
(You might remember Mason's little sister Makenna from her first birthday party. She's one month older than Big D.)
For his fourth Mason had a bug-themed party at the local museum where they brought the creepy crawlies in for the kids to touch! I'm not talking cute bugs like butterflies and lady bugs. I mean the ugly ones, tarantulas, flying cockroaches, and some totally disgusting wormy thing that I didn't catch the name of.
Such a yucky party theme created a bit of a dilemma for me. I spend a lot of time trying to make pretty sweet things, not creepy sweet things. But after much research (i.e. Googling) I settled on a few designs from the the book Hello Cupcake!
First up, the cupcakes in spider, centipede, ant, and beetle:
These are Yellow Buttermilk Cake with Almond Buttercream frosting. The bugs are made of chocolate and various types of M&Ms and chocolate covered sunflower seeds.
Then the tick cake pops. Seriously, ticks!
And here's the birthday boy digging in to (or maybe around?) his cupcake.
You might have noticed that Mason and Makenna look an awful lot alike. If you're wondering who they look like, it's this guy!
And, as a shameless plug, John and his wife, along with their partners Chris and Lisa, own two restaurants here in Durham- Pop's and Rue Cler. Both are fantastic, so check them out!
(You might remember Mason's little sister Makenna from her first birthday party. She's one month older than Big D.)
For his fourth Mason had a bug-themed party at the local museum where they brought the creepy crawlies in for the kids to touch! I'm not talking cute bugs like butterflies and lady bugs. I mean the ugly ones, tarantulas, flying cockroaches, and some totally disgusting wormy thing that I didn't catch the name of.
Such a yucky party theme created a bit of a dilemma for me. I spend a lot of time trying to make pretty sweet things, not creepy sweet things. But after much research (i.e. Googling) I settled on a few designs from the the book Hello Cupcake!
First up, the cupcakes in spider, centipede, ant, and beetle:
These are Yellow Buttermilk Cake with Almond Buttercream frosting. The bugs are made of chocolate and various types of M&Ms and chocolate covered sunflower seeds.
Then the tick cake pops. Seriously, ticks!
And here's the birthday boy digging in to (or maybe around?) his cupcake.
You might have noticed that Mason and Makenna look an awful lot alike. If you're wondering who they look like, it's this guy!
And, as a shameless plug, John and his wife, along with their partners Chris and Lisa, own two restaurants here in Durham- Pop's and Rue Cler. Both are fantastic, so check them out!
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