New Year, New Challenges

We haven't talked since last year, and already a lot has happened! I have some fun stuff in the works and have baked a bit in the meantime :)

My good friend, who happens to have a strange part-time obsession with Shakira, had a Shakira themed birthday party and I signed up for dessert. Initially I had imagined something latin-american and chocolatey. Like a chocolate chili spice cupcake, or chocolate cinnamon. But then I realized I have a sick obsession with chocolate cupcakes and really shouldn't put that on anybody, especially on their birthday. So I went for a dulce de leche inspired creation.

I made a vanilla-cinnamon cake with homemade toffee bits baked in. I frosted it with a creamy buttercream and garnished with finely chopped toffee and a fondant flower, because for some unknown reason, the birthday girl loves fondant. I didn't go for traditional dulce de leche because I didn't have the time.. boo hoo. But it came out really great! The toffee in the middle melted down and stayed melted even after it cooled, so it was more of a caramel in the end, and the toffee on top was crunchy good. You might also notice I busted out the illegal dragees. I just love them so much I want to use them all the time!

I had a long weekend and a fun opportunity to make a bunch of different cuppies. It was a lot of work but totally worth it. Below you'll find vanilla-vanilla, chocolate peanut butter, chocolate-chocolate, strawberry lemonade w/ cream cheese frosting, and meyer lemon with meyer lemon cream cheese, and my all time favorite, chocolate raspberry rapture. It was a good opportunity to take a photo of my work, but my stinkin camera is just junk. Brad's usually takes better ones, but his is out for repair. So enjoy the blurry loveliness!

Right now I have a chocolate cake cooling and it's probably about ready to be frosted. The birthday girl likes to put her chocolate cake in a bowl of milk and eat it that way. Pretty interesting! I cannot wait to see it in person.

I can't wait for a FUN year ahead!

xo

p.s. get used to bad grammar and spelling errors, I'm too lazy to check for those things. I'd rather be baking :)