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!!

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!

Dinosaur Train!

I can't believe my little girl is 5 years old. Where has the time gone? She is such a sweet little girl, full of surprises and this cake was no exception. When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted a month ago, I expected her to respond with something like princesses, or butterflies, or fairies, but nope, she said loud and clear in her perfect little voice, "Dinosaurs!"
I suppose I should have expected as much - when we went to the zoo earlier this year, I bought her a green stuffed animal pteranodon, and it is now one of her favorites. And she loves to watch the show Dinosaur Train. And her favorite color is green, which many dinosaurs are.
Cecilia helped me design the cake - her input involved the colors of the flowers, and the grass border on the bottom. She must know that the grass tip is my favorite. I bought two little figurines to put on top, made one of my pretzel palm trees, and I was all set!
The cake itself is one of her favorites - chocolate with raspberry filling. She initially wanted strawberry, but when I caught a bad cold just a few days before her birthday, she was happy to compromise since I had raspberry filling on hand and making strawberry would mean a boring trip to the grocery store.

 

I also made cake pops for her to take to school before her birthday, on the last day of school before winter break since her birthday was on December 29th. I made them with strawberry cake, green chocolate coating and green sugar that I made myself with plain coarse sugar dyed green with food coloring. 

Happy Birthday Cecilia!