God Bless Jake

My friend Eddie had a new nephew come into their family and today is his christening. Eddie asked me to bake up 120 cake pops to celebrate the occasion. I made 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 yellow cake pops ... dipped in white candy coating and the chocolate were decorated with blue coarse sugar and the yellow cake were done in crystal coarse sugar. We packaged them in individual clear bags tied with blue and white ribbon. To make them really special, I printed out 2" circle tags in blue and white that said "God Bless Jake". I just heard from Eddie and he said "The cake pops were a HUGE hit!"

So glad I could be a part of their special day with some beautiful sweet treats!!

An Anniversary and a Birthday

We celebrated the 23rd Anniversary of good friends Rob & Lee last Saturday along with another friend, Scotty's birthday. I made a double layer devil's food chocolate cake with buttercream frosting ... I decorated it with some chocolate hearts that I made and they were all yummy!
Scott like to drink Southern Comfort and Diet Coke ... so of course, I made him some Southern Comfort Cupcakes that were just a yellow cake recipe with a bit of So Co added to the batter along with some added into the cream cheese frosting to top them off. I'm loving "Cocktail Cupcakes" ... think there may be more to come in the near future! Since it was the Saturday before St. Pat's Day, Chicago celebrates and we were all "wearin' o' the green"! FUN TIMES!!

3 Birthday's in 3 Days ...

Well, it's been a busy weekend ... 3 Birthday's in 3 Days with 3 different Cupcakes!!  What a FUN weekend it's been ... starting with Jack ... then onto Peter and finally Don's Birthday. Don challenged me for his birthday cupcakes ... he liked my oreo cupcakes and also my raspberry cupcakes ... so he asked if I can combine them? I stepped up to the challenge and did a devil's food cupcake and baked a whole Oreo cookie in the center ... coated the top with a light layer of buttercream frosting ... then dipped that into Oreo cookie crushed up in the food processor (without the cream centers). Then I added some mashed up raspberries (frozen and thawed that I added 1/2 cup of sugar) that I added into the rest of the buttercream and pipped that on top. WOW! This combination was soooooo good! This one's a keeper!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETER!!

Our good friend Peter had a birthday yesterday and Erik hosted the wonderful party at his place. The food and cocktails were AMAZING!  Since Peter gave us some delicious Vermont Maple Syrup for Christmas, I thought "how perfect" ... I'd make some Maple Cupcakes for him and his guests. They were yummy! When they came out of the oven, I tasted one and it actually tasted like pancakes with maple syrup ... but I wanted a bit more maple flavor to come through ... I gave them a coating of syrup to keep them moist and crank up the flavor. I decided to top them with a cream cheese frosting that I added a couple tablespoons of the maple syrup to. They were a hit ... here's what they looked like!

Jack's Birthday - Lemon Drop Cupcakes

I wanted to do something different for Jack's Birthday on Friday ... I came up with Lemon Drop Cupcakes!! I used a basic lemon cupcake recipe then zipped it up by adding some Lemoncello in the batter and then topped them off with cream cheese frosting with MORE Lemoncello in that! THEY WERE TASTY!! I did add some grated lemon zest on top and a little lemon twist covered in fine sugar on top! This is a KEEPER!

This is how they looked along the way!

I did LOVE the intense lemon flavor!  YUMMMMMM!