Happy Memorial Day/Jack's birthday!

A weekend at the beach...

I've been lucky enough to have a wonderful aunt and uncle who allowed me to freeload off of them for many summers when I was younger.  They have a beautiful beach house on Long Beach Island, and I spent many teenage summers working, sun bathing, and swimming in the ocean.  Now, as an adult, they are still as generous and invited us to spend Memorial Day weekend with them.  I offered to bring desserts, and they asked that I make some cupcakes to celebrate their grandson's (our godson's) third birthday, which is Tuesday.  I decided to attempt to combine the celebrations and made red, white and blue star cupcakes.  I made a chocolate fudge cake recipe and Martha Stewart's Dark Chocolate icing.  The icing is certainly rich and smooth but a little difficult to work with since its a little runny.  I think the butter may have been too soft, and I didn't allow the chocolate to cool enough before combining it into the icing.  I'm hoping it will set up a little better as the day goes on, but we'll see. 

 I used a basic fondant recipe for the stars and numbers and some left over star sprinkles.

I found the cupcake liners at HomeGoods a few months ago.  Aren't they adorable?  This particular brand (which I am failing to remember the name of and have already thrown out the wrapper) is quickly becoming my favorite cupcake liners.  They are thick enough that you don't need to use cupcake tins, and the colors stay bright and visible, even after baking. 

I hope Jackie likes them!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

An American Classic...

Who doesn't love a chocolate chip cookie?  Simple.  Delicious.  Enough said.  I, like most people, was using the recipe off of the back of the Nestle Tollhouse bag of chocolate chips.  Although they made for decent cookies, I was getting frustrated by the inconsistency of the batter.  Sometimes they were soft and chewy, but most of the time, they were crisp and spread out too much on the cookie sheet.  I decided to go for a new recipe.  Martha Stewart's Chewy Chocolate Chip  cookie recipe.  I compared the two recipes, and Martha's called for the same total amount of sugars, but decreased the white sugar and increased the brown sugar.  After some reseach, it completely makes sense.  Brown sugar contains molasses, which is what gives a cookie its chewy texture.  They turned out FANTASTIC.  Perfectly chewy and delicious.  Martha's recipe also calls for course salt, which I thought was strange at first, but after tasting the cookies, I realized that it reallly cuts the sweetness and adds a nice taste.  This will now become my "go-to" chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Christening Cupcakes

God Bless Everly Grace...

Remeber Miss Everly? Well, she was baptised today in a gorgeous heirloom gown that her mother, uncle, and grandfather all wore. Everly's grandmother called me a few weeks ago and asked if I could make cupcakes for the occasion. Well, she left a voicemail at home, which Matt on purpose accidentally deleted. After some research, I found her number and was able to call her back. She asked for some pretty chocolate cupcakes as the cake she was ordering was vanilla; however, she gave me free reign as to how to decorate them. Seeing as Miss Everly is so pretty, I knew they had to be pink! I used a chocolate fudge cake recipe and Martha Stewart's Swiss Meringue Butter Cream. I topped them with pink chocolate crosses and light pink sugar pearls. So sweet and dainty...just like Everly. The cake, in my opinion, was just ok, but the frosting was delicious! If I didn't know how many sticks of butter went into one batch, I'd probably eat it out of a bowl with a spoon!

I found the mold for the chocolates in the stack of ones my mother gave to me a few years ago. 

Here they are displayed next to the beautiful cake at Everly's Grandmother's house...

They seemed to be a hit as there were very few left at the end of the afternoon...

Mother's Day Brunch

Happy Mother's Day

Matt and decided to host a brunch for our mothers and brothers for Mother's Day.  Despite the brunch being easy to prepare and set up, it was delicious.  I honestly think I could have gone into a food coma.

Here is the table and the counter set for breakfast.  I don't have a dining room; therefore, sometimes, we need to make people sit at the counter. 

Here are the desserts.  I made Citrus Orange Pound Cake Cupcakes with Citrus Orange Buttercream Icing.  I'd like to say that I made the cookies, but I didn't.  I was going to make something similar to these, but after walking around Chestnut Hill with my mom, aunt, and cousin on Saturday, we stopped at The Night Kitchen Bakery.  They had these cookies there, and  I thought, well...that'll do.

Strawberry scones...my first attempt at scones. 

More pictures of the set up.  Here is the buffet of food and the main table.

Paula Deen's Praline French Toast Bake.  So easy and so unbelievably delicious.  The only problem with this was when the pan overflowed in the oven....smoke city.

Bacon Cheddar Quiche.  I wish I had more of this because it was the only thing we had run out of...

Oh, and the strawberry almond salad.  Very summery and yummy. 

Mom and my brother, Johnny, were the first to the buffet. 

Ben was a good sport, and sat at the counter...

We definitely had plenty of leftover cupcakes as most people were too full to partake.  (Well, except for Jimmy and I.  We took an eating break, then soldiered on).   Everyone, therefore, got to take some home in these cute boxes. 

My 30th Birthday.

No longer in my 20's...

I'm not going to write a ton because I'm sure my sister-in-law will write in detail about this cake on her blog, but I wanted to show you the AMAZING cake she made me for my birthday this year.  I wish I had a more adequate word, but amazing is the only thing coming to mind.  So delicious and rich, I loved it.  Oh, and she added pink...what more could a girl ask for?

Another (semi) cake fail...

Book club oops!

I borrowed an Ice Cream Cone cake pan from my sister-in-law a few weeks ago.  (Have you checked out her blog?  You should.  She rocks.) It looked so cute, and I couldn't resist.  I figured I'd make them for book club tonight.  Well, in theory...they are cute.  The problem?  They cannot stand on their own!  Right now they look okay, but I guarantee that they will not survive the drive over to Jen & Mandy's house.  The good thing is, they taste amazing!  It is yellow cake recipe with Martha Stewart's Swiss Meringue Butter Cream frosting.  Delish!  

Looks cute, right?  Not so much when I couldn't figure out how to transport them...

See?  Awful.  Hopefully the girls won't mind.

Holly's Party.

Here's a video of Holly enjoying her cake...isn't she hilarious?  Jack didn't want any...

(Thanks, Karen, for sending the video...so sad I couldn't be there.)

This was Holly's cake before...

This was it during...

And this was it after...

I think she liked it...

Happy 2nd Birthday, Holly!

Holly and her ducks...

Two years ago today, my cousins, Karl and Claudine, gave birth to the adorable Holly.  Five weeks early, she was a little bit of a surprise, but she was strong and alert since day one.  She has grown into a curious and lovable toddler.  I enjoy my Holly-days and am hoping to have more of them this summer.  Even though I'm going to have to miss her birthday party, I wanted to make sure I made her cupcakes for the party tomorrow.  Holly loves her ducks; therefore, it is the theme of the party. 

I made basic yellow cake and fudge chocolate cake recipes, and Martha Stewart's fluffy vanilla icing. 

I used blue spray food coloring to lightly tint the icing then topped the icing with white sugar pearls to look like water and bubbles.  Then I made chocolate ducks out of a mold I found at a local candy and bake shop. 

I had some left over chocolate batter, so I decided to make a small cake for Holly to blow out her 2 candles and devour.  I used a 6 inch square cake pan then carved a duck shape out of it.  It sort of looks more like a chick, but it'll have to do.  I hope she likes it! 

Tiffany's Shower

A Tiffany's Shower for Tiffany

A few months ago, my friend, Maureen, asked me if I could make a few cakes and cupcakes for her friend Tiffany's wedding shower.  Seeing as though her name is Tiffany, the shower is Tiffany & Co. themed.  The idea was that the cakes would be the center pieces of the tables and would look like Tiffany & Co. gift boxes.  The cupcakes were to add some extra decorations to the table, and I had a little fun with those.  I used the Magnolia's Bakery Vanilla cupcake recipe for all of the cakes.  It is simply the best vanilla recipe I've ever used.  This time, I added vanilla bean to the batter to give it an extra touch.  Delicious!  I made so many batches of this batter yesterday, that I now have it memorized!  I made a vanilla buttercream icing and tinted it Tiffany Blue.  The bows are made from my homemade fondant recipe and dusted with some luster dust to give it some sheen.  Maureen, her friend Michelle, and Maureen's adorable daughter, Everly, came for the afternoon to help.  Everly was an angel and slept through most of the afternoon.  It was a nice afternoon of gabbing and baking!

First up...the cupcakes

Even Everly drooled over the cupcakes when she finally awoke!

And now for the cakes...

Maureen and Michelle promised to take pictures when the cakes are at the tables and set up for the shower, so I'll add those pictures when they send them!

Hoppy Easter!

Homemade Easter Candy

Growing up, my mom was amazing at making holidays extra special.  Her handmade treats, beautiful decorations and holiday traditions always made me feel festive and loved.  Easter always included dying Easter eggs, making homemade Easter candy, and a competitive Easter morning egg hunt that sometimes resulted in injuries.  Now that we are all adults (the youngest in the family is about to turn 30...EEK!), my mom continues the traditions on Easter.  We still dye eggs, and we still have a hunt.  However, the prizes now include alcohol intead of candy....who doesn't want to search for eggs in the hope of winning a bottle of wine?  This year, I have been pretty bummed because we are not going to be able to make the treck to see my parents in Raleigh with everyone for Easter.  So... I decided to cheer myself up by making the Easter Candy my mom made every year.  I emailed her for the recipe, and as it turns out, it is simply a variation on the Irish Potato Candies I made a month ago.  The flavors include buttercream, coconut cream, and peanut butter (the peanut butter always went VERY fast in our house).

Peanut Butter with Milk Chocolate

Coconut Cream with Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Isn't the dish adorable?  It was in our Easter "Basket"  from my mom and dad.