Hiatus

I just finished 3 dozen cupcakes yesterday (with the wonderful help of my sis!) for a 10-year-old's birthday party with his class. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures! Each cupcake had the first letter of each student's initial (pink with a flower for the girls, blue with a star for the boys).

Since I forgot to take pictures, forgot to put my logo stickers on the boxes, feel pretty drained from cupcake creating, miss spending quality time with my husband, etc. etc. etc...I have decided to take a hiatus from cupcake orders for the month of June. I desperately need a recharge so I can actually relax on my days off from working at the hospital. Forgive me Sue and David for not being able to make your cupcakes for the first week of June. Hope you can understand :)

See you all in a month!

Mermaid Birthday Cupcakes

These cupcakes were made for a mermaid/turquoise and lavendar-themed birthday party for twin girls turning 6 years old! I was moderately frightened about doing these because it was a 3 dozen order for Zena (owner of Zena's Day Spa) and I have never made that many before. But she was super sweet and appreciative so I must have done something right! I had to shove toothpicks into the backs of the two mermaids because they were not cooperating with me and kept falling over. Other than that, there were no other major issues. I'm beat...another 3 dozen order coming up next Thursday!

Birthday Pandas

My sister just had her 19th birthday yesterday (WOOHOO!) and I offered to make her cupcakes for the momentous occasion. Without hesitation, she asked me to make panda cupcakes. Something about how her best friend thinks she looks like a panda? Or just started calling her a panda? Maybe it's the half Chinese thing we both got going on? I know it has nothing to do with size (pandas are pretty hefty-looking; my sister is not, by any means). But regardless, she got her panda cupcakes the other night when we went out to dinner. Here they are! Happy Birthday Summer!

Baby Austin's Shower Cupcakes

Tomorrow, my co-worker Anna will be celebrating the upcoming birth of her first son, Austin! To help her celebrate with her friends and family, she asked me to make 18 chocolate cupcakes.

This was really fun for me because I got to use (for the first time) my "frosting gun" to make the pretty swirled icing. It was totally rad. Plus, this was my first time making a human figurine out of fondant (see Baby Austin with the beanie and long-sleeve onesie on?). I really liked the simplicity of the design, which I took from the bedding that Anna registered for on a website called Posh Tots. I liked its subtlety and the softness of the colors. The icing color didn't quite turn out the way that I wanted but it's still cute, I think!

How to Ship Cupcakes

My cousin Peter (really he's my mom's cousin) and his wife Karen have been crazy supportive of my cupcake venture, even to the point of offering to invest in me opening a cupcakery nearby their home in Sammamish, Washington (outside of Seattle)! While that is a little farfetched for this point in time, Karen asked me if I could make cupcakes to be shipped for their son, Noah, whose birthday is in June. So how do you ship cupcakes? No clue. I did get some help from Clara, a fellow cupcaker who writes a blog called i heart cuppycakes. So here, let me break it down for you...

DISCLAIMER: These cupcakes are by NO means one of my better looking batches!!! Looks are really irrelevant during this shipping experiment. I'm capable of so much better than this...really...truly...




I baked my oh-so-yummyful cookies and cream cupcakes, complete with a generous blob of cookies and cream buttercream on top. Then I used leftover fondant to top each cupcake. I figured that if I could cover the buttercream with fondant, maybe that would help preserve the cupcake better during transit. I put each cupcake in a party & nut cup to give it a little more stability.
Into the cupcake box they go! If they do okay being shipped overnight, then the real deal batch in June will (unfortunately) turn out a big...purple...dinosaur (yup, Noah loves Barney). I had no clue that guy still existed.


I took a tip from i heart cuppycakes by using these plastic cups. I had to trim the tops because they were too tall for the box. I put each plastic cup over each cupcake. The cupcakes still had a little room to move around since the mouth of the cup is a bit wider than the width of the cupcake, but at least they won't topple over.
Then I put the cupcake insert on top of the cups to stabilize them and keep them from shifting around in the box. I put a piece of Scotch tape over each cup to tape them to the insert. I closed up this cupcake box and put it into a cardboard box, which I stuffed with leftover (smushed) Christmas wrapping paper. And of course, the top of the cardboard has "THIS SIDE UP", "PERISHABLE", and "FRAGILE" written on it in huge, black, bold letters. Think the post office will get my drift? :)

Peter and Karen should be getting tomorrow night's dessert some time before 3 pm. Can't wait to hear if how they turn out. Hopefully they won't taste like cardboard...or Christmas paper!

{UPDATE}
Peter and Karen said the cupcakes arrived slightly smooshed but still tasty...
I guess we'll have to try something different when it comes to shipping next time! Any thoughts?

Erik & Halie's Wedding

This past Saturday, our dearest friend Erik got married (finally!). Erik has been friends with Justin for a long time and at one point they were both co-workers and roommates. Justin and I are so glad they finally were able to get married since they had initially planned on getting married before us (we got married 9/6/08). As a cupcake affecionado (am I using that word right?), I just had to get some pics with these giNORmous cupcakes (no, I didn't make these). These are pics of my friends and me enjoying these tasty monsters. The cupcakes were rainbow chip with whipped cream and yellow granulated sugar sprinkles. Erik mentioned the significance of the rainbow chips in the cupcakes and the Skittles wedding favors as representing how big and true God's promises are to us, particularly from the story of the Great Flood.


Halie and Erik with adopted daughter, Casi

Kristy, David, Brandon squeezing by Justin's butt, Justin, and Derek

Melissa
Justin and me getting a little taste
Derek and me
Kristy, her big ol eye ball, and me

Baseball Field Cupcakes

I made these baseball field cupcakes last week for my co-worker, Sue! Her son was having a little league baseball game and it was her turn for the week to bring treats and snacks for the boys to have after the game. Unfortunately, she couldn't tell me if they were good or not (she has to eat gluten-free foods), but she said all the boys loved them! I promised I would make her gluten-free cupcakes someday.

These were cookies and cream cupcakes with cookies and cream buttercream and fondant. C'est magnifique!!!

See all the fans in the stands! The numbers are like the ones on the outfield walls in baseball stadiums, which represent the number of feet it would take a player to hit a home run! The yellow is the foul post.




I put a baseball glove, ball, and chalk bag (with "chalk" of course :) it's powdered sugar) on the pitcher's mound. The home plate has a baseball bat on it.

Swing, battah, battah, battah...

On short notice (less than 5 days!), my co-worker Sue has asked me to make cupcakes for her son's baseball team this coming Wednesday. I had already planned out making a sweet looking baseball field and diamond with 2 dozen cup a la cakes. Stay tuned....I'm gonna knock this batch right out of the park!