Sweet Twitard Bliss

Do you consider yourself a twitard? I know I sure do! As 99.9% of American teenage females, moms, grandmas and even a few select men waited in line this past Wednesday for the opening night (morning) of Twilight's Eclipse, I sat in line upset that I did not bake any cupcakes for the premiere. I had made Twilight cupcakes for my best friends sister, Kris, a while back, but it wasn't the same. What kind of die hard fan am I? Well, the day had passed and this momma had nothing, until my Aunt contacted me about baking her best friends daughter, Marie, Twilight themed birthday cupcakes. I only had a few hours to bake these and I am so pleased with the way they came out. I wish they could be framed and never eaten! Have you seen Eclipse yet? 

Red, White and Buffini Blue

I was contacted by Buffini & Company last week to bake 100 cupcakes for their fourth of July company barbeque they held yesterday at their office in Carlsbad. The only request they had was that they scream Patriotic. I had a lot of fun baking these cupcakes, there is just something about decorating with red, white and blue that makes me one happy baker! Have a happy and safe fourth of July! 

 

 

Tropical Love at the Kona Kai

 Today I had the pleasure of being the wedding baker for newlyweds, Matt and Courtney. They tied the knot at a local Point Loma church and had their reception at the Kona Kai Resort and Hotel on Shelter Island. I had so much fun preparing for this event and enjoyed the process all day today. I kept thanking the cake Gods for blessing me for making today a breeze. When I got to the resort I quickly found the Point Loma room and got started setting up. I met the florist, who by the way was fabulous as you can tell just by what she did on my tower and the surrounding area. I love a great florist! Once we had everything setup I was in awe of my presentation and quickly realized that I want to start advertising a little more to keep the orders coming on in! To Matt and Courtney, I know you weren't in love with the idea of even having cake at your wedding, I just hope you and your guests enjoyed your cupcakes as much as I did baking them. Thank you for choosing me! Have fun on your honeymoon lovebirds!

 

I set out six frames to identify each of the six flavors: Vanilla Bean Cake w/ Vanilla Bean Buttercream, Fresh Strawberry Cake w/ Almond Buttercream, Devils Food w/ Dark Chocolate Buttercream, Red Velvet w/ Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese, Vanilla Bean Cake w/ Dark Chocolate Buttercream and Devils Food w/ Bailey's Buttercream. Is your mouth watering? 

I made these cupcake picks, it's my new obsession. 

Floral Pieces done by : Botanic Allure

Bad, Bad Cupcake Blogger

I have been extremely bad about updating this blog, and I apologize to my two readers! ha ha. I have been very busy baking, almost everyday I have off at the restaurant I am fulfilling cupcake orders. This is great for me, those receiving the yummy cakes and for my kitchen! I have perfected my vanilla cupcake recipe which excites me considering it is the hardest cupcake flavor for me to bake. I have a lot of orders coming up this summer and new and exciting things will be coming from my kitchen! Keep reading, I promise I will try and update again before another two months roll-on by.

Luscious Lemon for a housewarming party

Green Velvet for Poway High School Graduate and future UCLA freshman, Amanda

Strawberry Cupcakes and Devils Food with Oreo buttercream for Maggie's Baby Shower

Vanilla on Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate fondant bronzed horseshoe's for Anna's Sweet 16. 

The Beauty Quotient Cupcakes

Yesterday I had the pleasure of baking cupcakes for the book release and signing party of Dr. Robert Tornambe's book, The Beauty Quotient Formula. The New York based plastic surgeon has written a brilliant book about how to increase your beauty quotient. Dr. Tornambe formula is "a much more useful way to look at beauty. While physical traits do play a role in beauty, what makes any woman truly attractive is based largely on confidence, charisma, personality, and a solid beauty routine—and that more often than not, going under the knife isn’t necessary". The doctor's book is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million.

Visit the doctor's website to take your BQ Quiz!

www.thebeautyquotient.com

My Blog is Carbon Neutral

Make your blog carbon neutral. . . for free!

Visit: The Carbon Neutral Website to register your blog and to read more on their project!

“My blog is carbon neutral” is an initiative, originally started in Germany by the “Make it Green” programme, that has the goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We plant a tree for your blog and thereby neutralise your blog’s carbon footprint for the next 50 years! Everyone can make a small contribution to the environment. Every tree counts!

Dianne Gruenberg's "OSM" Workshop

This week I was lucky enough to have attended Dianne Gruenberg's original soft method of “botanically correct” gumpaste flowers. For those of you who don't know who Dianne is, you should! Dianne has been a cake decorator for 45 years and has 21 years of experience as a Sugar art instructor, demonstrator and show judge. She was recently on TLC's "Ultimate Cake Off: Wedding Celebrations" in October where she made over 200 flowers for Mike Terry's winning cake. Dianne is also the sole American distributor for Lin and Dave Cook’s creative molds, veiners and original platinum flower paste from Sugar City, UK. The catalog for their amazing products can be found here. Dianne’s site is currently being re-vamped so once that is up and running I will post her information here so you can check out her fabulous goods!

Okay, about the class! It was held in San Marcos at RoZ's Sweet Art Studio, so for all of you cake decorators or inspiring cake decorators you should really checkout her site. She offers a variety of classes six days a week and she has a retail store. After I took my basics to fondant class a few weeks back I knew I had to head back to the studio for more.

The class consisted of roughly 23 students that are the who’s who in San Diego baking, well, at least to me they are! I wasn’t initially sure if I was going to be nervous considering this was my first time ever making realistic looking anything but everyone was really warm and friendly. Sometimes when you go to events like this people can be snobby about their tricks of the trade but the lovely gal’s I sat near were fantastic about sharing their work and gave me some inspirational ideas!

For the class we made four flowers on our own after Dianne gave us the how-tos. This was done over the course of two days but she also gave demonstrations on products, techniques on quilling, feathers and several other flowers. Dianne was very patient with everyone and never really seemed bothered by the cry of the student’s help when we seemed lost, had broken a piece of a leaf or had torn a petal. We all kept chalking our “mistakes” into the beauty of nature and how imperfect some perfect flowers might be with a slight bite from a hungry insect.

I wish I had pictures of step-by-step techniques but my camera battery died, this would have come in handy for me to recreate at home but the overall impression and day’s work will be with me forever!

Thanks Mom and Dad for sending this broke maternity-leave mama to the workshop!

Below are a few pictures of my completed flowers!

alstroemeria - this one was my favorite! I love the stamen, the added bud, the color and the leaves. It truly looks real!

Pansy - I enjoyed making this one as well. I really like the way my leaves turned out.

Clematis - This was the first one I made and you an really tell! I was so ready to throw the towel in while making this, but I am glad I kept on going.

Orchid - This was the last one we made, I was so tired, but I am still pleased the way it turned out despite me mixing up the petal sizes, this is why it isn't as full, but you get the idea.