It's My Birthday!

This past weekend was my birthday weekend and a good one!

My birthday fell on Thursday. My co-workers brought in an assortment of Hello There Cupcake! cupcakes. I had the gingerbread cupcake, one of their holiday flavors. It was yum-o.

Another very nice surprise was that Josh was able to take couple days off from work at the station to drive down Friday. He took me to dinner at my favorite, Carrabba's. I love their white sangria, and as an added bonus they had e-mailed a birthday certificate for a complimentary dessert of my choice. They were out of almost every dessert on the menu, but on the waiter's recommendation we tried their winter special: a homemade brioche chocolate bread pudding. It was different and tasty - though not something I would likely order again.

Afterwards we drove through the "Light More Homes" Chick-fil-A Christmas lights- 45,000 lights. We attempted to snap a quick pic with my cell phone which turned out rather goofy!

He had asked what I wanted to do Saturday, and I told him I wanted a relaxing day for my first weekend without HW and other assignments. I had said it would be fun to watch some of the classic holiday specials I enjoyed as a kid. He came prepared with the best ones: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Mickey's Christmas Carol, etc. In addition to Christmas classics Saturday, we made gourmet monterey jack cheese hotdogs, cheese fries and s'mores. I really wanted that crunchy, toasted marshmallow texture in the s'mores, which meant I had to use a pillar candle to roast the marshmallows on my patio which he found terribly amusing!

Simply Cupcakes Soothes My Sweet Tooth

(Photo: Simply Cupcakes' Facebook Fanpage, Key Lime.)

I recently discovered a little slice of heaven for my (sickeningly-sweet) sweet tooth in Warner Robins. My friend Tyler mentioned that there's a new cupcakery in town, and later I read an article in the Houston County edition of the 11th Hour featuring this new haven for cupcake enthusiasts in middle Georgia, Simply Cupcakes.

Despite having baked a poundcake over the weekend that I have been hacking slices off of for the past few days, I was not tired of cake in the least bit and simply had to have a Simply Cupcake...or three.

One of my favorite people where I work had a birthday this week so I had a very valid excuse to indulge. Simply Cupcakes makes each of the day's cupcakes that morning. Once they have sold all of a particular flavor of cupcakes for the day, there are no more. Unfortunately, I made a mid-afternoon trip and every variety of chocolate or caramel was sold. These were the two main flavors my co-workers had picked out.

Fortunately, they still had their fruity flavored cupcakes on display which made me happy, as I tend to prefer fruit flavored desserts anyway. Though there were no peach cobbler cupcakes which I had read are a top seller, the key lime cupcake was still available and was absolutely delicious. It was extremely moist and had a small dollop of key lime pie baked into the center of the cupcake...mmm, mmm, mmm.

I also tried the Raspberry Waltz and the Simply Lemon. My co-workers beat me to the Red Velvet and Pink Caddy and everyone raved about how fresh, moist and tasty their cupcake sampling was. The website (linked above in kelly green font) promotes 50 flavors and provides descriptions of their most popular varieties.

I see another cupcake stop in the near future.

It's a Cake Fest

Following an extremely hectic week of baking and decorating cupcakes, Libby Lane Cakes held our first booth at The Festival of Trees at GSU, a good way to get our feet wet at a smaller venue. We were both running on fumes by Saturday morning but were troopers.

We want to start out slowly and keep everything manageable for now. I am still not 100% sure how I will be able to juggle all of this with working full-time and the two grad classes in January either. Never a dull moment that's for sure!

Last week, I literally walked through my front door every evening (except the one night I had to work late) and engaged in fest preparations, using every medium from sugar and the Kitchenaid to paintbrush and canvas.

My friend and first co-worker in my old office Marie is finishing up a business logo for us. Since we're just starting out at this and are having to rely on funds from our own limited pockets, I made the two signs for us to display so that we'd have some some signage at the table. I used a large piece of foamboard for the one that set outside our table and a smaller paint canvas for the one that set on our tabletop. I used paint, scraps of scrapbooking paper and a few little embellishments for the smaller one. For the larger one, I dug out the Mr. Sketch markers and found some cute cupcake stickers at the store. (Mr. Sketch is the best quality, longest-lasting markers for posters and other projects -- plus smell good so no marker stench headache.)

I also stole a cute idea from this blog: http://www.howdoesshe.com/cupcake-liner-pom-poms. I made this same cupcake pom pom using cupcake liners that have a cupcake pattern all over the sleeves.

And I totally forgot to take any good photos of our signage or of the table put together with my actual camera, and all I have to rely on are a few camera phone shots that are not the best quality.

This is our little table top sign.
It's dark, because it's a phone pic.

At the table -- again, a phone pic.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Owl Cupcakes

Snowflake Cupcakes

Football Cupcakes

Summer Updates, finally

What a busy, action-packed summer it's been for me. It is so hard to believe that summer is now winding down and will slowly (hopefully...this heat has to dissipate soon) morph into fall. And fall also means lots of holidays and birthdays and events (Sarah's wedding!) to decorate more fab cakes.

Keep in mind, I am not a trained baker and have so much to learn. I pick up on new things every week from trial and error, other blogs, Libby (who set me straight on butter, for instance) and even tweeters. It's amazing how much the online community has educated me. I am into coming up with ideas and then trying to figure out how to make them into a reality. The science of baking sometimes alludes me, but I just keep practicing.

I think I'll use this next-to-the-last-day of August entry to showcase a few summer goodies decorated and eaten this summer of 2010. . . .

Monogram Birthday Cake
Poundcake with butter cream icing & fondant accents.
Decorative gold medallion topper.

Welcome to the 'A' List
Fall 2010 Bid Day Cake for AOII
Poundcake with butter cream icing & fondant accents.
Licorice rope for the trim.
(Photo by Kathryn Lanier)

Let's Go Cubs' Ball Cap
Poundcake with butter cream icing & fondant accents.
Note the faux stitching & trim work.

La Tour Eiffel -- Bastille Day Goodness
Poundcake with butter cream icing & fondant accents.
Fondant Eiffel Tower with chocolate icing trim.

A Turner Field Birthday
Atlanta Braves' "The Ted" Cake
A joint collaboration with Libby

Junk Food Lives On

My favorite lunchbox treat as a kid.
Chocolate Devils Food cake with cream centers.


Mermaid Emily
Actually a pre-summer 5th Birthday Cake but very summer-y, no matter the season.
Lots of buttercream waves & a pool of aquamarine gel icing.

Cupcakes for a Cure!

Cupcakes for a Cure...

In an effort to raise more funds for my Relay for Life Team, I made some relay-themed cupcakes to take to work and solicit donations today.

Thanks!