Afro-licious

July 2011, while my husband was taking a nap, I decided I was fed up with my hair and chopped it all off. About an hour or so later he woke up to what is know as a TWA (tiny weeny afro).

Not too shabby, if I say so myself!!! :)

 

So what does that have to do with cakes, you ask?!

Well, because of my natural hair journey, I had a special bond with my Afro girl cake pops.

 

 

(Forgive the photo quality, I had to take these pictures with my phone), but, behind the blurriness of it all, are the sweetest pops. These girls were made as a normal, with marshmallows dipped in candy coating for the hair as well as candy eyes and lips.

 

...still don't see the resemblance?

 

TWINSIES!!!!

Tee Hee!

 

 

In the begining... there were Cake Pops

April 2010, a cake popper was born!

 

It was my birthday and I decided, if I'm going to make my own cake, why not change it up a bit. I had heard a lot about these "cake pop" things, so ...why not give it a shot?!

 

I mixed up a batch of "purple velvet cake" (my first cake from scratch) and baked it as normal.

 

 

Cool

Crumble

Frost

 Roll

and Refrigerate

 

(...for more instructions on making cake balls and pops, keep an eye out for that post in the future!)

 

Now that the easy part was over it was time to move on to the candy coating.

*Sigh, the candy coating...

At the time I didn't know about the bags of candy that come in all different colors so I went to the store and bought chocolate and white chocolate bark, melted it in the microwave and proceeded to dip.

 

My first pop, well, lets say it didn't turn out so well.

Ok, ok, neither did my second, third or fourth.

Lucky for me, my mom taught me to NEVER GIVE UP. Eventually I was coating my cake pops and cake balls like a pro ...semi pro ...minor leaguer.

 

Here, see for yourself!  

 

Not too bad, right?!

 

 

Eventually, I ran out of candy coating so I added a swirl of frosting on top, edible glitter and sprinkles.

 

 

After all the baking, decorating and pictures I was finally able to enjoy my birthday. One cake pop at a time!

It was love at first PoP!!!

 

 

Kupcakes in Korea

I found the sweetest little cupcake store in the Shinsegae mall, here in Uijeongbu South Korea.

Cupcake aren't as common here as they are in America, though.

 (...boy they have no idea what they are missing!)

So when I came across this one I was, "ubber" excited!!

 

 

 

 

 Unfortunately for me, I am on a low carb diet,

eh, lifestyle change,

 so all I could do was snap pictures and imagine how delightful they must taste.

*Sigh, oh well!!

 

 

...Oh, I almost forgot, if you'd life to follow my journey in South Korea, stop by my other blog, Chocolate Noodles!

 



Kiddos and Cupcakes

Whenever I work on a cupcake order I tend to kick my family out of the kitchen while I'm baking.

So to keep my kids from having a love/hate relationship with cupcakes, I try to give them those sweet moments every once in a while.

This time I decided to assist them with their own batch.

 

As much as it goes against what I do, I bought a simple boxed cake and canned frosting, I premeasured all the ingredients and let my kids do all the "work" from there.

 

 

Next to add a little pizzazz to our cakes we added sprinkles. A whole bunch of sprinkles!!! 

 

 

Next was my time to shine. I filled the cupcake liners then off into the oven they went!!!

(...but not before they stole some batter from the bowl!)

 

 After what seemed like a million "Are they done yet???" and "Mommy go check the cupcakes!!!!", we were able to take them out to let them cool.

Before long we were moving on to the best part, DECORATING!!!!!

I gave both of my little ones a Dixie cup full of frosting and a small spoon to do as they pleased.

To no surprise most of the frosting ended up in their tummies instead of on the cupcakes. No worries, MOMMY TO THE RESCUE!!!!!!!

With piping bag and tip in hand, I finished frosting the cakes and decorated them with sprinkles and chocolate chips.

 

 

Sweet!!!

What a great day!

Geek is Chic ♥

I have to confess, not so deep down inside, lives a geek who loves Cosplay, Battle Star Galactica and has always held a special place, for all things Nintendo.

(Shout out to Mario and friends!!!)

 

 So when I heard about Geekfest 2011 I was excited!!

When I heard about the cake contests, I was crazy excited!!!

...and when I heard there was a cupcake contest?!

Well, there are just no words that could explain that excitement!

 

Wow, geeky cupcake cakes. The possibilities were endless.

Should I do:

Lord of the Rings?✖

Star Wars?            ✖

Harry Potter?        ✖

 

These were awesome ideas, but just not for me. Not this time, at least. I wanted to do something a bit less "mainstream". Then it hit me! 

EUREKA!!!!

Miyazaki!!!

I mean, who doesn't love Totoro?!?

 

With that being said I present to you:

 my Miyazaki cartoon cupcakes!

 

 

Mint chocolate chip cupcakes with fresh mint frosting and decorated with all edible toppings!

 I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into these. Ok ok, more like  a lot of food coloring, sugar and candy!!!

 

...BUT WAIT THERES MORE!!!

In my house cupcakes and geekiness are a way of life. Baking by my side, was my 8 year old daughter working on her cupcake entry.

Pokémon!!

 

 

Vanilla cupcakes and vanilla frosting. (We decided to keep it simple.)

Needless to say I was proud mama that day!!!

 

After a long day of decorating, judging and waiting the results were finally in.

...I got second place...

...to Harry Potter...

 

No worries, though. I had a wonderful experience and look forward to entering the contest in 2014, and dressing up again. 

Tee Hee!!

 

 

 

Not so Despicable!!

Meet ...my minons!!!!!

 

Cute on the outside and tasty on the inside. What's not to love about a cupcake with a Twinkie on top!!!

Plus, they were pretty simple to make.

 

I started off by making my simple vanilla cupcakes, let them cool and frosted them as normal. Then it was time to work on the stars of these cupcakes, my minions!!

I started off by cutting 12 Twinkies in half. Next I made their eyes with those little Smarties candy, (you know the ones you used to eat as a kid), a little black frosting, tip #1 to make the pupils,

 

as well as the glasses and their smiles, plus chocolate jimmies for the hair.  

 

Put everything together and what do you get?

Some ROCKIN' awesome Minion cupcakes!

 

Chew On This!!!

Since moving to South Korea, I've had to turn off my oven and hang up my apron, temporarily.
 With that being said, I have decided to blog about some of my past work and practice new treats until we go back home to Texas. 

These are my gumball machine cake pops. My first attempt at decorating cake pops, and well, I have to say they turned out pretty cute! :) Not only do I think they are adorable, but they hold a special place in my heart. I was blessed to have my mom by my side, making these. As cake pops fell off the sicks and sprinkles didn't want to stick on, my mom never let me throw in the towel. She encouraged me the whole way through!

 Special thanks to my mommy!

 Nothing is sweeter than baking with the ones you love. 

Sweet dreams are made of these

Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes!!

I was oh so excited when I saw this recipe on the

Love and Olive Oil blog.

The perfect way to launch summer!

Everything about this cupcake was made from scratch. From the cake to the frosting!!

...Fresh strawberries, real lemon juice and zest made this cupcake light and refreshing.

To top it all off I added a straw in each of the cupcakes to give it that true "lemonade" feel.

♥ This cupcake is really something to pucker up to!!! ♥

Ship Wrecked!!!

Have you ever had one of those days where ..."If it Can go wrong it WILL go wrong"? Unfortunately I had that kind of day when I was working on an order of cruise ship cake balls.

• My candy coating went rouge
• They started cracking in different spots
• My smoke stacks decided they preferred to lay down rather than stand upright
• All my windows started smearing

**Geez, what a day!!!

(Lucky for me, my customer is really awesome and wasn't upset.)

...So, whats a girl to do when things just aren't going her way??? I just dust myself off and try again. I can't let one slip up stop me from pursuing my passion!!! :o)

A sweet salute to our troops!

Honestly, who doesn't love a man in uniform?!

 These are my Soldier cake pops that I have been dancing in place to make. I made them for the First Annual Fort Hood Wives With Events - EXPO (not only were most of the women there married to a soldier, but it was also Armed Forces Day. What better way to honor our troops!!!)

 This bad boy was inspired by my husband (without glasses). *Well hello handsome!!!* XOXO

Alright boys, FALL IN!!!

Operation: Sweet as chocolate, sugar coated Candy Man, is a GO!!!!

(These can also be made as FEMALE soldiers, too!!!!)

These balls take the cake!!!

OK, can you say, "Yummy"?!

 Meet my latest creation, my Strawberry Cream Cheese cake balls!!!

 Isn't she lovely?

Cake balls are the most fun, fast and clean way to have your cake and eat it too. Its small enough to take on the go, yet packs the same punch as a regular piece of cake!

How could you not love these little beauties!!!

Un-Bieber-lievable!!!!

Over the weekend I had my very first cupcake order... how exciting!! 3 dozen Justin Bieber inspired treats! 18 chocolate cakes / 18 classic yellow, both with oh so yummy vanilla icing.

I had a ton of fun with these!!! :o)

C is for cookie

OK, so this is my first time ever, doing this blog thing ...but, here we go.

I just had my very first "cake party" and it was awesome. The star of the show was my cookie jar cake pops. They were toooo cute and oh so yummy!!!

Oreo cookie center, vanilla candy coating, and cookie cereal on top!!! *Who could ask for more?!?!?

~Calling all cookie monsters ...this pops for you!!!