Curious Bryson!

A few weeks ago, I received a message from my friend Nicci, asking if I could make a cake for her son Bryson's birthday. I made his cake last year - my first vegan cake, decorated with the face of Mickey Mouse. She wanted another cake, same dietary needs (except this time there was no soy allergy like last year), and this time she wanted Curious George and balloons, since we all know how much Curious George loves balloons. I love that cute little monkey! And I had so much fun decorating this cake. My daughter watched me make the decorations and at one point she said, "mommy, is that playdoh?" She was referring to the fondant that I use, and I said, "yes, it's like playdoh you can eat. And that's what makes decorating cakes so much fun!"

The cake is a delicious chocolate (you'd never know it was vegan!), and it is frosted and filled with a dairy-free vanilla buttercream, decorated with fondant and gum paste accents.

Hope you enjoyed your cake, Curious Bryson, and I hope you had a wonderful birthday!

A birthday and a graduation!

I love girly cakes, and this one is no exception. I was asked a month ago by a friend of a friend, if I could make two cakes - one for a high school graduation party, and another for the 18th birthday for her daughter Alexis. Well, the week that she wanted to have the graduation party was when I was planning to go on a vacation with my husband to celebrate our 10th anniversary. After some more thought, she decided to combine the two celebrations!

Alexis drew a picture for me, and I just fell in love with it. I mean, what's not to love about flowers, butterflies, and bright pink bows? The butterflies were to be in her high school and college colors (yellow and purple are the colors of Cudahy High School and orange and blue are the colors of Carroll University, where she starts in September.)

The cake is my yummy strawberry cake, filled with chocolate buttercream and iced with pink vanilla buttercream. I just love the way it turned out!

Congrats Alexis, and Happy Birthday!!

Here comes the bride... and groom!

I love my husband's family - since the day I first met all of them at a family party 12 years ago, they have welcomed me with open arms, even before Brian and I got engaged and then married. Last year I made cupcakes for a family reunion and Brian's cousin Lori was so impressed that she called on me to make cupcakes for her daughter's bridal shower. It was a couples shower, and she showed me a couple pictures she found on Pinterest, of cupcakes arranged to look like a wedding dress and tuxedo jacket. Super-cute! And it became my biggest cupcake order to date - 7 dozen cupcakes! 3 1/2 dozen each of two kinds - confetti cake with vanilla frosting, and yellow cake with dark chocolate buttercream. It was a busy day for me too - the day of the bridal shower was not only the birthday of the mother of the bride, but also my birthday! I had to work, but after work I met my husband at his cousin's house who had brought the cupcakes with him. I then assembled them in the right shapes, put in some finishing touches with frosting and accessories, and voila!

Best wishes to the bride and groom!

My future pilot turns 9!

What a year it has been for my son Lucas! His fascination for all things airplane has grown by leaps and bounds (much to the chagrin of his teacher, who had to remind him more than a few times not to draw airplane pictures on his homework - silly boy). It is wonderful to see him so passionate about something - and I can definitely see him going far. He even did a research project in school earlier this year about Neil Armstrong and discovered that the famous astronaut loved airplanes when he was a boy. So much so that he got his pilots license before he learned how to drive. So of course Lucas is determined to follow in Neil Armstrong's footsteps - and become the first man on Mars!

Earlier this summer, Lucas got to take his first ever flight in an airplane. (actually, he was in an airplane at the tender age of 8 months, but that doesn't count because he can't remember it and mom and dad would rather forget!) The EAA has a program called Young Eagles, and chapters all over the country offer free flights to kids aged 8-17, to expose them to the wonderful world of flight. Here he is, waiting for his turn - pretty excited, don't you think?

When his name was called, he started jumping up and down - I swear I thought he was going to float away all on his own! Here he is in the plane with pilot Ken, and again after their 15 minute flight. Lucas actually got to take the controls for a little bit, too - what an amazing experience!

When his birthday came around, I knew I just had to make a cake with airplanes on it. I thought of drawing pictures of the Blue Angels (which we were going to see perform, but the show was cancelled both days due to fog), but the day before his birthday we were at our parish festival, and while playing the kids' games, he won an airplane toy. I thought it would be perfect for a cake topper. The hard part was getting him to part with it, since he wanted to play with it right away.

The cake itself is lemon cake with lime curd filling. Very summery and perfect for a warm July day!

Happy Birthday Lucas!

Patriotic cake pops!

I had to work on the 4th of July this year, so I missed the parade and the fireworks, but I wasn't about to let it go by uncelebrated! A few of my co-workers decided to bring food in to work to share, so we could have our own little celebration. I had a layer of blue velvet cake left over from a cake tasting a couple of months ago, I decided to whip up some cake pops for my friends at work!

Happy 4th of July!

Graduation times two!

My neighbor Karen is not only neighbor, but one of my closest friends. My biggest regret is that I didn't get to know her sooner - it took a few years of being neighbors before I said hello, and we've been friends ever since. Earlier this year we were out for a walk, she told me that she wanted me to make a graduation cake for her twin grandsons. I was honored to be chosen for this task, and when the date got closer, I asked what she wanted. She told me that her grandsons, Peter and Jacob, are both going to college at the Art Institute. Jacob will be studying film, and Peter will be studying graphic design. She wanted a small cake that would be big enough just for immediate family, so I decided to decorate half of the cake for each graduate. I know they'll be wonderfully successful in their endeavors, and wanted to make a cake that showcased just how proud their grandparents are of both of them.

The cake itself is yellow cake with chocolate buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream frosting. All of the decorations are made out of fondant and food-safe marker. I had so much fun making this cake and from what I heard, the boys were impressed.

 

Best Wishes Peter and Jacob - you both have a bright future ahead of you!

Daisy Scout Garden Party

This year my daughter became a daisy scout. I was a brownie scout myself as a little girl (they didn't have daisies back then) and it's been so much fun to watch her grow and learn. I've been to a few girl scout outings with her this year too and they were all so much fun. It brought back a lot of memories from when I was a little girl.

Last Friday was the last meeting of this school year and to celebrate everything they have done and learned, they had a garden party. They played games, did a few crafts, went outside to blow bubbles and had some snacks. When the troop leader asked the other moms to bring treats, I volunteered to make some mini cupcakes for the event. I had made some earlier this year that looked like mums, and the troop leader was so impressed that she wanted me to make them again. This time I made roses (which ended up looking more like carnations), violets, sunflowers and daisies, all made with buttercream. And for each cupcake, except the ones with the violets on them, I put a little bee. I found them when I was shopping with my mom and thought they would look perfect. When I dropped the cupcakes off at school for the meeting, one of the co-leaders told me that the bee actually has a significance for Daisy scouting. In the first meeting of the year the girls were told a story of two little girls who were led to a garden by a bee, and that is where they began their journey as girl scouts! I loved all of them but my favorite was, of course, the sunflower! And the daisy. Oh heck... I love all of them. Especially those cute little bees!

 Congrats to all of the girls of Daisy Troop 8647 on a great year!

A special cake for an amazing lady

Several months ago, while talking to my friend Jennie, she told me that she might be seeing more of me in May and June. Her mother has been affected by tremors for years and they had been getting to the point where she needed help to be able to function. She could barely hold a glass of water without her hands shaking. She soon discovered that Froedert hospital here in Milwaukee had one of the best neurosurgery teams in the state and went through an initial consultation. She was accepted as a candidate and the appointments were set for her pre-op appointment and the two surgeries required for her procedure. Both surgeries were scary for Jennie and her parents. After all - it's brain surgery. But she made it through both with flying colors. What an amazing woman. And my friend, being the awesome person she is, shaved her own head when her mother had to have hers shaved for the surgery.

Anyhow, the day of Jennie's mom's second surgery happened to be the same day as her birthday. When Jennie told me that after the first surgery, I said right away that I was going to make a cake for her mom. She may have been in the hospital, but dang it she was going to have her cake and eat it too! I asked Jennie what her mom's favorite color and cake flavor were, and she said yellow to both, and that yellow roses were her favorite. I didn't have any royal icing roses left and didn't have time to make more, so I did the next best thing - I made yellow roses with buttercream! The cake itself didn't even require any baking on my part. I used three cake layers that I had wrapped up and tossed in the freezer a couple of months ago. They were still just as moist as the day I had made them. The outside of the cake is vanilla buttercream and the layers are filled with the same.

Jennie's mom didn't know that a cake was on its way, so when I walked through the door to their hotel room, said, "I hear it's someone's birthday today" and presented the cake, she was so happy I almost started crying. I honestly have so much appreciation for everything she has gone through and her strength through all of it!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Silver. And many, many more!

A Mother's Day tea party!

A few weeks ago I got a request for a special cake for mother's day. It was from my friend Ratna's sister Sandhya. She was planning a tea party for her sister and wanted a cake for the event. At first she wanted a cake shaped like a teapot, but when she realized that a cake like that would be out of her budget, we agreed on a two layer cake with a picture of a teapot on top and some teacups on the sides. The cake itself is chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling. Perfect for Mother's Day!
All of the decorations are made with fondant.

Happy Mother's Day!

Lab Week - We ROCK!

For those of you who are new to my blog and don't know, my cake decorating business is really a side business. My day job is as a Medical Technologist. Every year, at the end of April, those of us who work in the medical laboratory field get to celebrate the small yet important role we play in the overall patient experience. Each year has its own theme with a poster designed by someone in the medical laboratory field. I loved the poster for this year!

And with this being my first year as a permanent part time employee since Lucas was born (I've been picking up hours on an as needed basis since then and was finally hired to a part time position earlier this year), I wanted to take part in the festivities. And what better way than by making cupcakes?

Yet, these are no ordinary cupcakes. These are special cupcakes. Lab cupcakes! And I got to use a new toy - food markers! The cupcakes themselves are red velvet with vanilla frosting. I usually do cream cheese frosting with red velvet cake, but since I knew that the cupcakes would be sitting out for a while and I know what happens to cream cheese when it sits... I made something that is much less likely to become a breeding ground for bacteria.

So now for some explanation of the decorations... These are dedicated to the techs who work in Blood Bank, readying units of plasma and blood for transfusion to save the lives of patients every day

And here are the lab coats that we wear to keep ourselves safe from spills so we can go home with our clothes as clean as when we left. (and they look pretty sharp too!)

 And last but not least - my personal favorite. White Blood Cells! These are the cells in your blood that help to fight infection. The pink one is a Neutrophil - they fight bacterial infections. The blue one with the round purple circle on the left is a Lymph - they fight viral infections. The blue and purple one on the right is a Monocyte - it's not what you have a lot of when you get mono, but those cells gobble up the viruses and bacteria that make us sick. Kind of like little vacuum cleaners.

Happy Lab Week!!

Happy Easter!

Every year I make a cake for Easter, and this year was no exception. I went a bit simpler this time around, just because I was also hosting dinner. But I wanted the cake to be special, so I made a new kind of filling to go inside - lime curd! Last year my dad had bought a ton of limes at the grocery store and my mom had already had a ton of lime juice in the freezer so she gave them to me. Note to my readers - you can buy limes and lemons, juice them and put the juice in ice cube trays, then freezer bags when the juice is frozen. That way whenever you need a little bit of lime or lemon juice for a recipe, it's right there!

This lime curd was so easy to make. Lots of stirring but I didn't mind because the lime curd smelled wonderful. So fresh and summery - a real breath of fresh air after a long winter! Added to the yellow cake and it was delicious.

Here is my finished cake - complete with the last of my royal icing flowers. Which means that the next chance I get, I'll need to make a batch of royal icing to make more flowers for next time! And to add a little bit of fun, I piped some grass on top and put some jelly beans in there too - courtesy of my wonderful husband. He's a truck driver and one of his stops the week before Easter was at the Jelly Belly factory about 45 minutes south of where we live. One of the perks of being a truck driver - free jelly beans!

Happy Easter!

God Bless Casey

I love happy endings. And happy beginnings. Heck, I love anything happy! A little over a year ago, I made an awesome Incredible Hulk cake for my friend Leanne's son Luke. A few months later, she and her husband announced that after a long time of trying, they were expecting a little girl! I was so happy for her - especially since I would now be able to give her my daughter's baby clothes that I no longer needed. Cecilia was born at the end of December, and Leanne was due at the beginning of January. Perfect! After Casey was born, I brought the clothes over and she told me that she would be in touch for cakes for her baptism and Luke's first communion. Fast forward a couple months and I got an e-mail from Leanne saying that Casey's baptism was a little over a week away and she wanted a cake, but it didn't need to be fancy. Nice and simple, with lots of lavender. I found a design, she approved and I set to work. The cake itself is yellow cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. No filling on this one. I could have filled it but then the layers would have been really thin and there would have been more frosting than cake. I then added some fondant accents and letters, and dusted the cross with some purple luster dust.

A pretty cake for a pretty little girl!

When I dropped off the cake, Leanne was just finishing up giving Casey a bath. I waited patiently for her to dry Casey off and get her dressed, and then offered to hold her while Leanne wrote out the check for me. Casey is such an adorable baby - she took a few moments to warm up to me, but once I started talking to her and telling her that I'm the cake lady, and how I make lots of yummy cakes, her eyes just lit up! Looks like I have another fan!

Happy Baptism Casey and God Bless you and your family!

Cupcakes fit for a princess!

I know I've said it before, but I just love repeat customers. They remind me, in the midst of my doubts, that I must be doing something right because they keep coming back! In this case, it's my friend Rachel. Last year she ordered a La La Loopsy cake for her daughter Luci's birthday. I made a strawberry cake and although she only asked for enough cake to feed the children at her party, she said that the adults ended up wanting some too. She even said that they were happy to have the tiniest sliver, just so they could have some of that cake!

This year, she asked for the same cake, but in cupcake form. Decorations were up to me, but she wanted the colors pink and purple. I had some princess cupcake liners and picks that I had purchased a few years ago, so I used those. I whipped it up, put them in the oven, but when I took them out, something happened that reminded me of a previous experience. The cupcakes... sank. They were completely cooked, but it was because of the moistness of the cake that they did this. Didn't change the taste of the cake, but being a perfectionist, I wanted to make this right. I gave Rachel two options - I could put more frosting on top, or fill the cupcakes in addition to frosting them. I suggested lemon buttercream, which would make the cupcakes taste like strawberry lemonade. She was sold! (I even tasted the combo with an extra small layer I made with extra batter from the cake recipe and it was delicious!

Here they are!

There were only 23 picks in the package, but I figured, this way the 24th cupcake would be perfect to put a candle in for the birthday girl!

Happy Birthday Luci!

A Frozen Cake (that's not really frozen)

I can't believe my daughter Cecilia is 6 years old. Seems like just yesterday I was celebrating her 1st birthday. When I started planning the design for her cake at the beginning of December, she initially wanted a Sophia the First cake. I even drew the basic shape of a round cake and she drew what she wanted the decorations to look like, complete with a Sophia doll on top. I even bought purple candy melts for the cake pops she'd be bringing to school. And then we saw the movie Frozen. She loved it. So after more thought, she decided she wanted a Frozen cake instead. She helped draw the picture for that one as well (but she spilled hot chocolate on it so I couldn't take a picture to post here). It was kind of funny - when I told people that we were having a Frozen cake, they immediately thought ice cream. But it's not. It's a regular, baked cake. In fact, the flavor of the cake and filling is a stark contrast to the wintery design on the outside. Lemon cake with strawberry buttercream filling. Which is fitting considering that in the movie Frozen, Elsa the snow queen puts the kingdom in a deep freeze in the middle of summer.

Here's the cake - the Anna doll (the one with red hair) she got for her birthday from my sister, and the Elsa doll I bought her. I wanted to get an Olaf figure as well (he's the snowman in the movie - and in my opinion the best character, hands down), but every store was out of them. I added a little sprinkling of silver luster dust to the top of the cake to give it that more magical look.

For her birthday treat at school (which she handed out before winter break), I made cake pops with white cake, a bit of vanilla frosting tinted blue, covered them with white chocolate and decorated with special snowflake sprinkles.

Happy Birthday Cecilia!

Merry Christmas!

What a busy December is has been! And I'm not talking about cake either. I actually didn't have any cake orders until after Christmas, which was just fine considering how busy things were in my house in the weeks leading up to it. Between snowstorms, sickness and working extra days at my new job, I hardly had time for making cookies this year! But when my friend and long time customer Ratna sent me a message requesting a Christmas cake for a holiday party she was having on the 28th, I was happy to make one for her.

The cake itself is red velvet (one of the cakes that I prefer to make from a mix, because the last time I made it from scratch my white spatulas and fingertips were pink for days from all of the red food coloring), and per my suggestion, the filling and frosting are peppermint buttercream. I made a cake with this combination a few years ago and Ratna liked the idea. For the decoration, I piped some poinsettias on top and then made some holly leaves with fondant. Very festive, don't you think?

Merry Christmas!

C is for Cookie, and Z is for Zarek!

It's so much fun getting cake orders for birthdays. This time last year I was making my first topsy-turvy cake for a little guy named Zarek, and this year I was asked to make a cake for his 2nd birthday. I can't believe he is 2 already. Where has the time gone?

This cake was considerably smaller and less complicated than the cake I made a year ago, but just as fun. It stars one of Zarek's favorite characters - Cookie Monster! I have to admit, I'm a fan of that silly blue cookie lover myself.

When Ratna, Zarek's mother, asked me to make the cake, I immediately thought of making a cake recipe that my friend Ann uses - chocolate flecked cake. It looks like a chocolate chip cookie when you cut into it and I thought that would be perfect for a cake featuring cookie monster. Then I looked up the recipe and calculated the cost - as wonderful as the cake sounds, it is a lot more expensive than most of the cakes I have made. Probably because it's a Martha Stewart recipe. Dang that Martha Stewart and her expensive tastes! Well, since Ratna had just ordered Bollywood cupcakes from me and wasn't ready to spend the amount of money that the chocolate flecked cake would cost, we went with a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling. And then, an added twist - in the past year Zarek has developed an egg allergy, so Ratna was requesting a small egg-free smash cake just for the birthday boy. Having just made a vegan cake two weeks ago, I was all ready to take on this extra request.

Here are the cakes - I had so much fun decorating them, because they use my favorite tip.The smash cake was especially fun. If I'd had enough icing, I would have done the same with the big cake, but my 5 year old daughter insisted that the cake would look much better with smooth sides. So I added some "fur" at the base and stuck some cookie crumbs in the front. Very cute!

Happy Birthday Zarek!

Hooray for Bollywood!

I think I have to say that this cake order is one of the most interesting ones I've had in a long time. A couple of weeks ago, I got a message from a long time client, Ratna asking if I could make either cupcakes or a cake for a party she was throwing for her sister. Her sister was moving to Wisconsin from California (I hope she's ready for Wisconsin winters!) and the theme of the party is Bollywood Bash.

The picture Ratna sent me was of some very intricately decorated cupcakes with flowers and paisley designs painted on the frosting. I immediately began to feel overwhelmed - I've never even done that kind of painting before. But did I give up? Nope! Instead I did a search and found a reasonable alternative that was much more in the realm of my skill set. After some back and forth, we agreed on cake flavor and frosting color. Then it was just up to me to get the needed materials. It took me a while to find the gold beads, but I found them at Cook's, a baking supply store right here in Milwaukee. The paisley design was made with a leaf cutter, and I attached the beads with gum glue, which is a mixture of water and gum paste. I had initially thought of making royal icing, but decided to give gum glue a try and it worked!

Here are the final cupcakes. And there is much more to the color scheme than meets the eye - these cupcakes are color-coded! To add variety to the chocolate cake, Ratna asked me to add filling to the cupcakes. And then I devised a color scheme to help the party guests know which cupcakes had which filling. Orange - peanut butter buttercream. Pink - peppermint buttercream. Purple - coffee buttercream.

A big welcome to Ratna's sister - I hope you love Wisconsin and had fun at your Bollywood welcoming party!

Carnations for Stephanie's mom

The beginning of this story goes back... way back. Earlier this year, I joined a book club. The books we have read have been very interesting, many of which are ones I never would have chosen myself but ended up loving. One of our most recent meetings was for the book "The Jefferson Key", and a big part of that book is pirates. Being the cake decorator I am, I made cupcakes - I used a box mix to which I added rum extract and then, I made this amazing spiced rum frosting. No recipe. I just made my usual buttercream and added rum extract, orange zest, baking spice and a touch of allspice. I baked the cupcakes in special pirate liners and put little flags on them.

Stephanie, one of the members of the book club, just fell in love with my spiced rum frosting. In fact, as we were leaving the meeting, she asked me if I could make a birthday cake for her mom at the end of September. She wasn't sure of the decorations yet, but all she knew was that she had to have more of that wonderful spiced rum frosting.

A few weeks later, we touched base again and she told me that she really liked the cake I made with the pink carnations and ribbon curls on it and wanted something similar, but without fondant - just lots of frosting.

I was beyond excited. The last time I made gum paste carnations was two years ago when I made them for my final cake decorating class. They were so much fun to make, but in the past two years, I haven't had any requests for that specific kind of flower. Until now. With this being a 6 inch cake, I made only three flowers, and dusted them with purple luster dust since purple is Stephanie's mom's favorite color. I even brushed the ribbon curls with it too, to give them a bit more sparkle.

And since Stephanie loves the frosting so much, I decided to cut each of my two layers in half to give her four layers of yellow cake and three layers of the yummy spiced rum frosting that she loves so much.

Happy Birthday Stephanie's mom! I hope you loved the frosting as much as your daughter does!

It's Mickey! (and he's vegan!)

Actually, Mickey Mouse probably isn't vegan. After all, he is a mouse. Mice eat cheese. But that's beside the point. My point is... that this was my very first vegan cake!

It all started a few weeks ago when I was visiting with some friends from out of town and got a message on my phone from my facebook page from a lady named Nicci. I was very excited - I hadn't had a cake order in two months and was itching to get back to decorating cakes again. And then came the actual message. The person who wanted to order a cake from me had several requests - the cake had to be egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free, soy-free and corn-free. Yikes! I almost sent this potential client to a gluten-free bakery (and I later discovered that among all of the birthday boy's allergies, gluten was not one of them), but I decided to give it a try. I asked my friend Ann if she knew of any good recipes that would work and she sent me one for Wacky Cake. I discovered that not only has this recipe been around for decades, but it is completely vegan. No eggs. No dairy. I did a test run and my kids and husband loved it. I even gave a piece to my mom when she came over one day and she didn't believe that it was vegan. I was set with the cake then, but still unsure of the frosting. After all - powdered sugar has cornstarch in it. Kind of hard to make frosting without it. I sent a message to Nicci telling her about my dilemna. She then informed me that her son's corn allergy was very mild so he should be okay to eat the frosting. Yay!

So, I made the two cake layers, got ready to make the frosting and something made me look at the  ingredients on the container of shortening. I almost fainted. Right there, ingredient number one - soybean oil. I went to the store to see if they had a soy-free shortening alternative (aside from lard - and really, who wants frosting made with lard? yuck!) and there was none. It was the day that Nicci's husband was supposed to pick up the cake and I just about had a nervous breakdown. I sent a message with many apologies, asking if perhaps her son's soy allergy was mild like the corn one. I then started looking for soy-free shortening online and found one - but just as I was about to call Whole Foods to see if they sold it, I got a message back from Nicci - the shortening would be fine, they could just scrape it off their son's piece of cake. Double yay!!

I got to work decorating the cake, and in the end was very pleased. The design is modeled after the party decorations with everything in fondant except for mickey's face, which is a fondant-gum paste mix. The cake itself is vegan chocolate, with vanilla buttercream filling and frosting.

I felt bad that the birthday boy couldn't have any of that yummy frosting, but I figure, with all of his food allergies, at least he gets cake!

Happy Birthday Bryson and I hope you had a wonderful day. (and next year, I'll make a cake with frosting you can eat - I promise! :) )

R is for Rebro!

I have a BIG family. Well, actually, it's my husband's family, but they are my family too. To give you an idea of just how big, I could rattle off a bunch of numbers, but I'll start with a picture taken by Becky Kasun, the daughter of my husband's cousin Lori. Because, as we all know, a picture speaks a thousand words!

Yep - these are all Rebros. Minus the 25 that weren't there. And half of that group is my husband's immediate family. He is one of 10 children, and altogether we have... 40 nieces and nephews. My mother-in-law (who was not present since she is still recovering from having back surgery two weeks ago) has 13 great-grandchildren, and counting!

My brother-in-law Ed and his cousin Dave started planning this a year ago. Lori added another bit of fun by having each family wear a different color shirt. There was some contention among my husband's brothers and sisters about being chosen to wear yellow, so some of them wore white instead, but it was amazing to see it all. A big part of making this a success was that everyone brought a dish to pass. I, of course, made cupcakes. I thought of making a sheet cake, but when 5 other people signed up for desserts as well, I figured cupcakes would be better. I made 3 dozen and in the end, with all of the other desserts there, 3 cupcakes were left for my husband and kids to have the next day.

They are funfetti cupcakes - made with a box mix that I added some ingredients to, to stretch it out to make 36 instead of 24. And then I added more sprinkles too, to make them even more colorful. I topped each one with a vanilla buttercream swirl and a fondant letter R in the various colors that everyone was wearing. Here are some of them -

Just want to add one more thing - when I was carrying the cupcakes in to the picnic site, I started to get this weird deja-vu feeling. Turns out, this picnic site was the exact location of the Rebro Family Reunion in 2002. The family reunion that my husband, who was at that time my boyfriend of only one month, had taken me to on our fourth date. To meet his entire extended family. I didn't realize how big the family was at that time. I could have easily been overwhelmed and ran for the hills, but they were all so kind and welcoming. I got so many hugs that day from people who barely knew me, I just knew myself that this was a family I wanted to be part of. And the rest is history.