Cupcakes...they grow on ya

I've never been much of a cupcake fan. I don't know why, but they just don't taste as good as a whole cake. Plus, it's just not as fun to take a fork to a cupcake.

Anyway, I've been teaching a cake decorating class in our homeschool co-op and we've been practicing on cupcakes. Cuz really, what parent wants to send a whole cake with their kid to co-op every other week? So, I've been working with the little mini cakes since September, and they're starting to grow on me. It must be because they're so darn cute, cuz I don't actually eat any of them.

My girlfriend and I decided to do cupcakes for her sister's baby shower. She decorated very simply but pretty, with flowers. These are some of the sweet little things we whipped up. Aren't they just so soft and delicate and pretty?

We made vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing. Chocolate cake with buttercream icing is one of my favs!

Candy cake

Because 13 year old girls need more sugar than the meager amounts to be found in plain ole cake.

This was so much fun to do. All three of my kiddos now think they need a candy cake for their birthday.

The cake was vanilla with chocolate mousse filling and buttercream icing. All the candy accents were in fondant.

What every girl wants for her 30th birthday...

A My Little Pony castle cake. Duh!

A friend ordered this for his wife...like...8 months ago. We decided to add the black scrollwork to make it a little edgy. Cuz she's an edgy kind of gal. And check out the big MLP. She's got safety pins all through her hair. Um, yeah. Cuz the birthday girl is kinda like that.

The cakes were chocolate with ganache filling and buttercream icing. The top layer was all gluten free for the birthday girl.

Favorite things

For my daughter's 11th birthday this year she wanted to go with a "favorite things" theme. When she asked if she could help, I actually said yes. She was in shock. And then she got right to work with the fondant. She was thrilled that I let her be involved in making her cake. So, I'll explain some of her favorite things that were added to the cake.

Right on top was Scarlet's head. She's our bulldog. My daughter loves bulldogs.

Ahhh, here's Scarlet.

Next we added puppy prints around the side. Not only does she love bulldogs, but pretty much any dogs...including our other bulldog puppy.

Here are some piano keys, a baby's head (she loves babies), and an ice cream cone.

Here's a kiwi and a book (because she loves to read, not because she's a librarian).

She put on the blue marbled cross, because the blue marble looked cool, but mostly because she loves God. And she had to throw on a horse head.

The cake was red velvet with cream cheese icing. It was my first time making red velvet. Unfortunately I wasn't able to give an accurate assessment of the taste because when I sampled a tiny bit my throat felt like it was lined with razor blades. So, um, apparently I'm allergic to red dye. It almost killed me not being able to taste that luscious looking cake. Seriously, I know, right? A tragedy for sure.

Now that I think about it, it might have killed me if I did eat that luscious looking cake. But what a way to go, right?

Black Forest

I decided to try a new recipe for a black forest cake. It involves chocolate (good), cherries (good), and cherry liqueur (not so good). It sounds good...in theory. Not so good in reality. At least I didn't think so. Sure looks great though.

Next time I'll try replacing the liqueur with a cherry sauce. Or maybe I'll mix in some cherry liqueur with the cherry sauce and see if that goes over a little better.