I’m in Salt Lake City today spending my FAVORITE HOLIDAY with my boyfriend.  Because he knows that I love baked goods, he woke me up today with a cup of coffee and a cupcake from my favorite SLC bakery, The Sweet Tooth Fairy.  I had a strawberry cupcake that was swirled with cheesecake cupcake (I think) and some type of yummy buttercream on top. I was in love.  Check out all of the goods from the Sweet Tooth Fairy at http://www.thesweettoothfairy.com/ 

chocolate cake pops with love

Unfortunately, my boyfriend does not share my love of sugar or my passion for baked goods. I did not bake anything today for him because he wouldn’t eat it (sad). How could anyone pass up baked goods?   I did, however, bake a ton of Valentine’s Day treats throughout the month of February for friends and family. I am dedicating this post to all of the treats o’ love I made this month.

cake pops with love

 I made  an assortment of cupcakes this month: fresh strawberry cupcakes with pink, strawberry buttercream, chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing (see photo above).   I also baked, dipped and decorated lots of Valentine’s Day cake pops. Cake pops are so trendy right now!

In addition to these individual treats, I also threw  together a small,  chocolate cake for my dad to bring to his coworkers. I wasn’t in the mood to decorate a cake, so I iced the cake in buttercream and stuck little hearts and pearls all over it.  It was simple, but looked super-cute! Plus, the ladies at his work loved it!

I hope everyone enjoys their Valentine’s Day!

Don’t forget to eat something sweet!  xoxo

I received a request from a coworker to make a cake that “looks like a jewelry box threw up on it.”  She wanted a cake that was filled with animal prints, pearls, beads, diamonds, bows and “anything tacky.” This was my interpretation of her tacky birthday cake.

Several day in advance, I cut out hearts in various sizes and formed small flowers. I also made several bows in a variety of sizes. As they dried,  I added shading and details with luster dust and disco dust.  Once all of the pieces were made, it was time to start baking.

I made a two-layer, pink velvet cake that was filled with cream cheese filling. The cake was iced in hot pink buttercream before the decorating fun began.

I created hand-painted, leopard print draping on the sides on the cake and added a leopard print bow. I also hand-rolled black fondant balls for the border around the bottom.

Next, I positioned all of the little “tacky” fondant pieces on the top of the cake.  I used lots of white pearls and blacks pearls in different sizes to fill in spaces between the fondant pieces.   I sprinkled glitter all over the cake once everything was in place.  I love the end result!

Cheers to 2012 and a new year of baked goods!

  Happy New Year, everyone!

I think these cupcakes are perfect for ringing in the New Year! They’re so sparkly, chic and festive. I made these vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream for fun, but if I would’ve had a NYE party, they would’ve been served! Another idea would’ve been to substitute my champagne cupcakes with champagne buttercream icing.  I think this would make them all the more festive!

I have been wanting to make this cake for a long time, but haven’t had an occassion to decorate it for! 

This three-tier cake alternated in flavor. The top and bottom tiers were pink velvet cake filled with almond-vanilla buttercream and were covered in vanilla fondant. The middle tier was a chocolate cake, filled with chocolate buttercream and was covered in chocolate fondant. 

Once the cakes were iced and covered, I painted the top and bottom tiers’ leopard spots with gel food coloring mixed with vodka. 

Then, I stacked the cakes and added the details.   I made the pink ball borders and pink bow out of pink fondant. I flecked the entire cake with edible glitter. As a finishing touch, I added the wires and hung “diamonds” for bling.  It was quite the center piece of table at the wine bar where we celebrated!

This is one of my favorite cake recipes to make.  It is a chocolate cake iced in peanut butter chocolate ganache and covered with chopped peanut butter cups.   It has been a hit every time I’ve made it! The original recipe can be found at www.bakerella.com.   My sister’s friend requested this cake for her sister’s 18th birthday. I added an edible glitter covered,  purple fondant bow with a handmade fondant tag. I’m sure the cake tasted as good as it looked!

I made some yummy Christmas treats for our office holiday party tonight.  I didn’t know what to bring and the hostess wasn’t specific so I had the liberty to experiment. I knew I wanted to bring cupcakes and cake pops so there would be a variety of finger treats.

holiday cake pops

Because I’m always baking, I have extra cake in the freezer at all times. After allowing them to thaw, I crumbled a chocolate cake and a red velvet cake and mixed them each individually with icing before rolling them into balls. I dipped them in melting chocolate and sprinkled them with sprinkles. I added bows to the sticks as a finishing touch.

holiday wreaths

I also made a plate of chocolate cupcakes. I iced them in white, almond-vanilla buttercream and then piped small leaves with green icing to create a wreath shape. I added red icing holly berries and sprinkled the cupcakes with edible glitter.

These chocolate devil’s food cupcakes were my first baked good for the holiday season. My coworker asked me to bake cupcakes for the annual Christmas tea at her church.   The colors were gold and purple so I accented the chocolate buttercream with vintage-colored gold and brass candy pearls. The tea was fun and the cupcakes were yummy.

Raise your hand if you are tired of having pies on Thanksgiving (*note: my hand is raised).  I traveled to Tucson, Arizona this year and I wanted to share my baking and cake decorating talents with my family in Arizona. I couldn’t bring my entire kitchen of supplies with me, so I knew my cake could not be too complicated.

I baked my favorite chocolate buttermilk brownie cake and filled it with a chocoalte ganache cream cheese filling. I iced the cake with chocolate buttercream.

 Using my limited supplies, I rolled out and cut some fondant leaves. Once they were dry, I brushed them with copper luster dust. I also made some adorable acorns chocolate and fondant acorns. I scattered them around the the top of the cake like a wreath. I finished by piping chocolate all around the side of the cake.  This year, I was thankful for cake on Thanksgiving.

 Once again, I found myself with extra buttercream and nothing to do with it. I pieced together an 8-inch round, two-layer chocolate (buttermilk brownie) cake from ingredients I had on hand at home. I also changed up some of the almond-vanilla buttercream by adding cocoa powder to make chocolate-almond-vanilla buttercream filling (yum!). I used this to fill between the layers. Next, I tinted the buttercream hot pink. I crumb-coated the cake and then iced it. After that, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. My mom suggested that I add zebra stripes; however, I wanted to do something different. After all, I have made a lot of zebra cakes lately (*see past posts). I had a lot of brightly-colored buttercream and I had really wanted to use this to pipe designs on the cake.  I had a creative mental block and couldn’t think of anything to do! I settled on zebra stripes and I made them out of chocolate fondant that I tinted black. I also hand-rolled black beads for the border around the base.

When the cake was done, I wasn’t happy with it. I felt like it needed more. Edible glitter was the solution! I sprinkled the cake with lots of glitter. It looked fantastic when it was done. I brought the cake to my salon the next day when I got my hair done. I think everyone really liked it!