Weddings and Birthdays Galore

It's been a busy month in the kitchen. I was asked to make a cake for a wedding and of course I had to practice. And by practice, I mean practice eating it. The bride and groom requested a lemon cake with cream cheese icing. I was  worried at first because I had not frosted a cake with cream cheese icing and I had never made a lemon cake from scratch. Yum. I'm not a huge fan of lemon cakes but this was delish. I'll add that one to the recipe book. Next I was asked to make a small birthday cake to present to a guest of a friend's wedding as it was their birthday that night. I have become a big fan of mini cakes lately, so this was a treat. So...here they are!

I took this picture in my fridge, so not the best quality

Practice Cake--perfect for our little labor day celebration

Mini Birthday Cake. Yum. 

Piece of Cake

I have been a busy busy bee lately, but I have found a little time to bake...sometimes for no good reason other than to have something sweet in the house. Not that I ever really n.e.e.d. anything sweet, but there is something calming about spending the evening in the kitchen, so why not. I might have also been stalking a few pictures of some seriously adorable cakes and wanted to see if I could re-create them. OK so yeah...that's the real reason. A few months back I made a "ruffle cake" and have been seeing a modified version of this using buttercream instead of fondant, which is music to my ears because I have yet to find a fondant that I like. 
So here is my attempt: 

And with the leftover cake I decided on something a little more traditional: 

Before and After

A house always seems like a work in progress. It has been two years since I moved in and I finally have {almost} every room completed. And if I could start over, buy all new furniture, and do it again...I certainly would. Sometimes you just have to work with what you have, and with a limited budget...do what you can. I do have a slight obsession with a few places and as soon as it's in the budget there are a few key items which  will be on their way out the door. First would by my Ikea dining table. Great for the price when I got it a few years ago, but oh so boring. I am currently obsessed with these : I.O. Metro Dining Table and I.O. Metro Dining Table 2. There is just something about the rustic wood that makes me feel like I am eating a delicious dinner cooked by my grandma in an old farmhouse. {Even though my grandma never had an old farmhouse} When I walked into my new house, the first thing I thought was...well, this all has to go. The endless painting began and because I am slightly OCD, most of the rooms were painted within the first few months. So what have I done over the past two years...well....here is a little preview: 

Entrance

Living room 

"Office" 

Deck

Half Bath- yes it kind of feels like you are under water in there

Need a quick island for cheap? I made this one using an unfinished base cabinet (Thanks to the Habitat Re-Store). Slap on some plywood, Duraroc and some extra limestone tile (Thanks Mom) and you have an island for under $40. This has become the perfect gathering space. 

Dining Room

Basement

Ikea has some great inexpensive items...I took these mirrors I have had for years and painted on a stencil to bring new life to them. Easy Peasy. 

Basement Bathroom

Guest Bedroom

Guest Bathroom

Master Bathroom {As seen in a previous post}

Master Bedroom

Now that all my projects are almost complete...time for a new house?? 

Mommy to Bee

Babies...who doesn't love them? A great friend of mine is expecting and I wanted to throw her a little shower with a few close friends. I spent the week before gathering materials, researching {Pinterest} and crafting all my decorations. Her and the Mr. have decided to make the sex of the baby a surprise so of course the shower had to be fairly neutral. When I think neutral, yellow comes to mind of course, but I put a little twist and added in some grey, white and black. I found lots of "themes" I liked but I {sort of} went with the "Mommy to Bee" theme. I am all about decorating on a budget so I went around to all the local stores gathering different colors of tissue paper, fabric (on sale of course), pretty paper, etc. For those of you interested...I think my total decorating budget was about $35. Of course I had some things lying around the house that I used as well, but with a little imagination you can do a lot with a small budget. I arrived home from business travel on Friday evening and went straight to work baking, making food, cleaning my house and of course, finally putting all my decorations together that I had been working on. I was so excited to see it all come together. I had even been growing my own Dahlias all summer, in hopes that the white and yellow ones would be in bloom. Unfortunately, I was not so lucky and they are all on the brink of producing some magnificent blooms, but I did have some dark purple Dahlias that were just lovely so I went with it (in addition so some flowers from my local flower shop). 

There were two moments from this shower that delighted me.

 1. Megan's (the mommy-to-be) face when she walked in.

 2. A guest of the shower said she felt like she was walking into Pinterest.

 Success. 

{Mommy to Bee theme} 

{Thanks for coming...have some honey and chocolate}

{These straws sure made the drinks taste better. Thanks Etsy}

Handmade Paper Straws

{Salted Caramel cupcakes...of course}

{Yeah, that's real caramel on top...yes, it took me three tries and I burned the s*%# out of three pots}

{My attempt at making a bee out of tissue paper...not bad for my first try}

{Garden flowers}

{The beautiful mommy-to-bee}

Tina Tot

Many months ago I was given the opportunity (and of course I gladly accepted) to make a cake for a great friend's bridal shower, whose wedding I just happen to be in as well. I knew this shower would have a few more guests than I am used to so I would have to step up my game a little. I hit send on my email accepting the challenge and immediately opened up Pinterest, my go-to idea website. So. Many. Good. Ideas. But learning from my most recent mistake {see cherry blossom post} I decided to make things easy on myself as there would be a lot of cake and cupcakes to make. As it turns out my lovely and talented roommate Amy was asked to make her invitations. Some of the other bridesmaids gave her a few ideas and she ran with it. They were amazing, exactly what we wanted!  Mud Duck Paper See the "Summer Showers" post for the invitations. I had quite some time to come up with an idea for this shower. I had pictures saved, a list of things I would need written down months in advance. About 2 weeks before the shower, I changed my mind. My original "safe" idea was just too boring for the beautiful bride to be. Instead I decided to take my idea from the seriously cute invitations and run with it. Of course I also had to make my infamous Salted Caramel Cupcakes, since they are the bride's favorite. Little did I know that the day of the shower people would be calling dibs on the cupcakes. I literally thought a fight might break out if there weren't enough. I guess I should have made a salted caramel cake as well. {next time} But alas, these lovely ladies kept their cool and no one was hurt in the eating of the cupcakes. The bride even got to take one home. So in honor of the lovely and beautiful bride to be, I made what I consider to be one of my best cakes ever. {albeit the wrong choice of the actual cake flavor} 

Fantastic Cake. Beautiful shower. Happy Happy Bride to Be. 

{my lovely and talented helper, Vanessa}

{The cake and matching invitation}

{LOVE}

{BRIDE}

It's never too late for Cherry Blossoms

I am going to start by *apologizing to my few followers...I have been seriously slacking lately. On a happy note I am finished with school FOREVER and am so happy to be able to spend my evenings and weekends doing things I love....instead of studying, writing papers, etc. So to kick off my {almost} new found freedom I decided to make a very special friend cupcakes for her 30th birthday. So I dusted off the ole mixer and put my thinking cap on trying to think of something new and different. Being that this birthday fell exactly 6 days before my final exam and I was super busy at work, I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to come up with a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious idea. I decided on a cherry blossom theme and went from there. Following this decision I didn't realize how long it would take to make my own gum paste. I should have known that in my haste this would turn out to be a terrible idea. I have learned to "improvise" when I bake sometimes and I later learned that when making gum paste from scratch, you have to be exact. Like really exact. So my gum paste, which for those of you who aren't familiar, should roll out almost like a dough....ended up more like just plain old gum. I added powdered sugar and a few other things that google came up with to make it work, but in the end it was a lost cause. I am not really one to give up...especially when I have perfectly edible cupcakes sitting next to me so I woke up early, ran to the store and got the pre-made gum paste. So.much.easier.

Next time I get a little overzealous I think I'll just eat all the cupcakes. 

Cupcake Project

Cupcakes are popping up all over the place, taking over reality TV and replacing wedding cakes everywhere. The great thing is they are perfect for almost any occasion....and you can send some home with your guests! Perfect for those of us who can't resist the leftover little treats staring us in the face. My cupcake obsession began to grow a few years ago and now I look for almost any opportunity to make them. Bring on the birthdays and showers! Some people leave themselves maybe an hour or so to bake and decorate, not me. I clear my entire evening or Saturday...depending on the number of guests and how intricate I would like to get. A few things that are essential to making a great cupcake: Icing Bags, 

a variety of different icing tips,  Fondant or  Gum Paste and food coloring. A quick visit to your local Michael's or JoAnn Fabrics, where they have an entire aisle or two devoted to cake making and you'll have everything you need. I prefer to make my own batter, there is just something about biting into something you truly made from scratch that makes it feel special. My personal favorite, and often requested by friends is a recipe I got from a blog called Sprinkle Bakes. 

 {Salted Caramel Cupcake Recipe} These cupcakes are the perfect mix of salty and sweet....just like me :) It may look like I spend an awful lot of time in the kitchen, but I promise, I get out...sometimes.

{Salted Caramel Cupcakes with Caramel Candies on top}

{Double Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Icing}

{Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Swirl Cream Cheese Icing}

{Tutorial on how to make the swirl icing}

{Plain ole Vanilla on Vanilla....with a little winery theme}

{Chocolate with Cream Cheese Icing} 

{Vanilla and Salted Caramel for a friends Bridal Shower} 

YUM