Aaahhhhh

That was the sound of my sigh of relief...the cupcakes made it all (mostly) in 1 piece. I drove so very very carefully I was so tense. I had my younger brother help carry everything in and he tipped a container and 1 tipped slightly and the lily dug into the icing of the cupcake next to it but I don't think anyone other than me could really tell.

They seemed to be a hit! Only about 14 or 15 were eaten but it was in an office setting and I know sometimes in those settings not everyone is comfortable eating cake/cupcakes or food in general..so not everyone had one but for those that did they loved them! Some asked for my card - which I obviously don't have LOL I'm glad they seemed to enjoy them. There was a lot left over but the mom-to-be really enjoyed them so I lent her the caddy containers to bring them home with her (they are her cupcakes!) I'm so glad she enjoyed them!

I didn't even realize how anxious I was - which is totally silly but I was so concerned if they would be liked or not! Driving home I felt so relaxed - it was over...sigh


And now onto the birthday cake/cupcakes for a family birthday this weekend! I'm baking the cake tomorrow and on Friday Ellie and I are headed over to Aunty Trista's to ice, fondant and decorate with flowers for the big day!

Anyways I'm so tired I feel like I'm rambling in circles - off to bed with this cake-a-teer!

Lily Catastrophe!

I've been having so much anxiety over these baby shower cupcakes today. Its so different making them for fun and just showing up to occasions with them compared to being asked for specific ones - they just never go the same. I worked so hard on them yesterday, exhausted dragged my butt into bed..where I lay WIDE AWAKE until 4 AM because I'm so nervous - will people like the way they look? taste? will they think they're totally lame?!

So this morning I just wanted to finish icing them and stick the rest of the lily's on and get it out of the way...oh boy what a catastrophe! I only made the lily's last night so they haven't had much time to set - I made 6 extra just in case. Well I broke 12...so I made an executive decision that the coconut ones would have a white rose with airbrush'ed orange tips instead of a lily. Finished that, put them in the carriers (I have 2 that are just baking pans with a plastic cover and handle on top and 1 Wilton one that is huge! The wilton one worked great, the others, well started crushing my lily's and smooshing my icing! AHHHH

So I made a quick trip out to Wal-Mart (I found the Wilton one on Monday on sale for $10!! there) looking for another 2...went to the aisle where there were lots before - GONE! luckily I remember they were also at the end of a completely seperate aisle and found a few left there. I was so relieved. I came home transferred the cupcakes to their new carriers, fixed up the broken ones and can now breathe a semi-sigh of relief.

Now I'm just worried about the delivery, I'll put them in the trunk (flattest surface and drive really, really carefully and pray really, really hard..

wish me luck today!

And of course some pictures of the finished product (before the new carriers of course LOL)

All together!

 

Chocolate/Devils Food (BTW we decided against the banana filling)

Vanilla (note the awesome carrier that they all now currently reside in!)

And the coconut (sorry for the fuzzy picture I was shaking with anxiety over these things!)

CUPCAKES!!!!

Wow today was a LONG day. I get to deliver my very first order of cupcakes tomorrow so I spent the day baking. I made the 3 dozen full sized cupcakes as ordered, and used the remainder of the batter to make mini cupcakes

Here is the results:

Then I had to finish making all of the lily's to top them all with. I'm really nervous - mostly about the coconut one...I'm really not a fan of coconut so I'm a terrible judge - I tried one and I thought it was pretty good considering it was a flavor I don't usually go with. Matt is due to get home any minute now and I have a plate of my mini cupcakes for him to taste and judge. 

I'm not overly pleased with my Devil's food cupcakes - I'm thinking of perhaps filling them with banana cream before I ice them (the only ones not done tonight). Again I made samples filled and not filled for Matt to taste and let me know what he thinks.

With all of my remaining batter I experimented a little, one of them adding some banana extract (who knew such a lovely thing existed?!) and it was absolutely delish! Best cupcake I've ever tasted. I let Ellie have one (they're so tiny!) and she devoured it! For a kid who hardly eats anything ever, I've never seen her so excited and eat every last crumb like that before! I guess I haven't really let her have sugar before so that probably had something to do with it LOL - but it was such a tiny little cupcake I figured one little treat wouldn't hurt!

Anyways here's a preview of one of the cupcakes for tomorrow

(please ignore the cupcake drizzled stove top in the backround! 

It didn't turn out exactly as I'd imagined in my head - the lily is quite huge so it does look a little silly, but I think its just the right amount of silly and am quite pleased - the coconut version I put shredded sweetened coconut on top of the blue icing so you can tell the difference between the two.

I'll post some pictures of them all set up tomorrow. Cross  your fingers Matt thinks they're a hit!

Have a delicious day!

Brrr...baby its cold outside

It is FREEZING out today -27 right now (but it is still early morning the sun isn't fully out yet) a high of -19!! Yikes!!

Ellie and I have a few errands we have to run today so please send us all your warm thoughts! At least Ellie will get some good use out of her snowsuit! We're going to meet up with our Aunty Kathy for lunch, and hit the grocery store for our next baking project - cupcakes!

I'm just missing the ingredients for the coconut cake/almond buttercream icing cupcake - that and I really need to find a nice stand to display them on that will cost less than $100!!

Wal-Mart is having a sale right now, their 3 in 1 cupcake/slab cake caddy is usually $30, on for $10!! So I went yesterday to my local wal-mart and they were sold out :( I may have to try a different one today because that is just too good to pass up!

I was supposed to go to a playdate today, but Ellie's friend is sick :( poor girl. So I disected my cake...I took all of the flowers off (they're hard - made of royal icing and gumpaste/fondant) and stuck them back into their storage container so I don't have to waste them...LOL is that terrible?! So now my cake is just a big blue blob with some green vines in my fridge...it is delicious though...

Thats all for now! Have a delicious day!

Flower Cake!

No time for a long post - but here is my final cake for class 2 - from many angles as all sides of the cake are different :P

I've come a long way from this eh? LOL

Practice!

Practice makes perfect right?

Well I've been working on my rose - they leave something to be desired so when my daughter went down for her second nap today I whipped up a batch of royal icing, turned on an episode of dog whisperer and practiced my rose

I made many, many roses...they're still not great but they're coming along! Practice makes perfect right? right?!

I didn't make any more lily's today like I said I would, but here are the ones from yesterday

I baked a cake aswell and was excited to use my new tilting turntable - only to find it doesnt really turn unless I use two hands, so kind of defeats the purpose - there is a bunch of the packaging stuck under it though so I think I'll return it tomorrow/exchange it for a new one

Final Cake - Course 2!

Tomorrow is my final lesson for course #2 so I'm baking my cake. The weather sucks (20cm of snow since yesterday :( ) so I decided to make it a colorful cake to brighten things up. I was going to do a rainbow cake but since Matt is in Vegas this weekend and its just Ellie and I - I decided to go with a girl power theme and made it pink and purple.


Now I have to think of a design for it - I need to put a bunch of flowers on it but I don't want it to look too crowded and forced..I was thinking of doing violets on the sides with long windy vines and some bigger flowers on top...oh who knows!

I think we're learning the basket weave tomorrow but I really don't like the look of those cakes so I'll learn it but I doubt I"ll use it on this cake.

The lily's for the baby shower are coming along - I've finished 17 and ran out of icing so I should probably get back on track with those today - at least I have until wednesday! Baking the cupcakes and icing them will be a breeze its just these damn lilys!

Anyways I'd better run and get something done while Ellie is still sleeping

Have a delicious day!