California Cottage Food Bill / Homemade Food Act

I'm a little late to this party- but I was pretty much at the tail end of my pregnancy and baby-busy when things heated up, so I have an excuse.

The Governor has a bill on his desk, AB 1616, that if passed, would basically allow home bakers, etc., to sell their food legally. Long story short for bakers if this passes: presumably after taking a class and paying minimal fees, you can sell pretty much all baked goods except those containing cream or meat (sorry bacon hipsters). Essentially, cream includes cream cheese frostings and fillings, meringue pies, etc.; basically anything requiring refrigeration.

This is a huge thing for home food makers, and for me. I could finally kick things off with my cakes and the like without having to bake in a commercial kitchen and pay huge fees. It means I'll have to find a way around traditional cream cheese frosting, but that shouldn't be a big problem. You can read a bit more about the bill here:
http://www.theselc.org/cottagefood/cottage-food-lawscottage-food-law-bill-language/

Some folks are weary because, understandably, you don't "know" where your food is coming from, and home kitchens aren't subject to the same kind of strict regulations and inspections as commercial kitchens. First of all.. the majority of the time, you don't know where your food is coming from unless you  make it yourself. Second, from what I've read about AB 1616 and other cottage food laws, your food has to be clearly labeled with something like "made in a home kitchen not inspected by the ca dept of health" blah blah- so people who are scared of home kitchens can steer clear. You also have to list ingredients and allergens. It's not 100% fool proof, and there are always going to be slackers.  I don't plan on being a slacker, and I am willing to bet the majority of people excited to see this pass aren't slackers either.

Anyhoo, I really hope this thing passes! It would mean great things... for you and me!

This is what happens...

When you put 70 candles on a 6" cake. Happy Birthday, Joe! 

ps- I think this is the first cake I've made since the 6" wedding cake "topper" I made exactly one year ago!

absent but not forgotten

Brief update: We had the baby! And life is forever not the same!

Ha. It took a while to get little Gavin on a schedule (well, it's more of a routine at this point because he still likes to change things up every now and then). But finally he is in bed by about 8pm every night and I find myself mosying around the house trying to be productive but not really doing anything interesting. Tonight as I sat here with the monitor, watching baby Gav slumber away to the sound of ocean waves, I found myself wondering what I used to do in the evenings before bedtime routines and cleaning up the debris after a day with a baby. So much debris...
And it hit me. I used to BAKE! Pretty much every night I was baking something different, going to bed "exhausted" after doing "too much" yet again. Last night I slept from midnight to 4am, then from 5am to 8am, braved a lunchtime date with some friends and Gavin, and I feel more alive than I ever did after baking, frosting, and decorating 4 dozen cupcakes after a full night of uninterrupted sleep and day at work sitting in a chair at a desk.
I'm hoping this means I'll be ready to bake sometime soon. However, a few weeks after Gav was born, I made Brad some banana bread. He said it was gross and we threw it away. It took 10x more effort to make that banana bread than any previous banana bread endeavor.. and I was such a sad face girl. I go back to work in a week and a half, which means I'll have human garbage disposals to bake for. They truly eat anything and never tell you when it is "gross." HAHA! Lots of mized emotions about returning to work, but I'm excited that I'll have an audience to bake for again :)

Until then! Wish me luck...

Baby Shower Cake: Cute as a Button!

Yep, still pregnant...

Mom kindly offered to throw me a baby shower, and I only asked that we do it well in advance of my due date so I wasn't too uncomfortable or crabby, but mostly so I didn't look like a total cow. Well, my plan worked, except for the cow part.

Unfortunately, I'm not the type to just sit back while other people work really hard to throw me a party. Mom says it is because I'm controlling- and has even coined a new name for me: Colleen Control, or CC. Okay, that's part of it. But mostly, I find it insanely awkward to sit around the week before a big event/party my friends or family are throwing, and not be able to offer a helping hand. It makes me incredibly uneasy. And if it's a party for me? Forget about it! I think I blow dried, curled, straightened and re-curled my hair the morning of my bridal shower because I was so antsy not having a thing to do. So I forced the madre to let me bake my own baby shower cake.

The theme from the beginning was "Cute as a Button," which CC picked out. I think she was going for something just plain cute and baby-ish, not wanting something that screamed "COLLEEN IS HAVING A BOY!" Yes, I'm having a boy, but he's a baby and I can definitely wait on all the fun boyish themes for when he is here. Right now it's pastels and baby time!!

Satisfied that I had a cake to worry about, CC went away and I focused on finding inspiration. There are a lot of button cakes and cupcakes out there, but this was by far the cutest:


I quickly learned how easy it is to make a fondant button.. punch out a circle, use the bottom of an icing tip to make the inner circle, and then use the tip of a small round tip to punch the holes in the button. Breeze! Since we were having the party at an Italian restaurant, I knew I wanted a lighter cake, so I went with a white cake with alternating filling layers of raspberry and lemon curd, topped with a light swiss meringue buttercream. I actually really don't like fondant, so I opted against covering the whole cake in it.

I wanted the cake to look as fabulous as the one above, but also stand out on its own. So I decided to pipe teal/turquoise ombre ruffles as a border. I love ombre cakes right now, and it seems a lot of other people do as well (pinterest). That wasn't enough though.. it needed something more. I went to a wholesale cake supply website and found "designer sheets" which are basically edible sheets of paper/stickers that you can put on to fondant and buttercream etc to give it that fresh-off-the-press look. I found it made the buttons pop, and the texture also made them look like fabric buttons (close up).

There are no epic tales to tell about the process of making this cake, unless you count swollen ankles every night for the three nights I spent making it. I think it came out great!



The banner at the top says "Baby Langan" and I made that as well.. I didn't like the idea of a giant fondant button on top. Brad said the color wasn't a real blue, which made me kinda sad until I realized the is the last cake I get to make before our baby arrives and tells us he likes Thomas the Train or the Ninja Turtles (let's hope it's Ninja Turtles!!). Okay so maybe the hot pink was a little too much.. but I had to throw a little me in there :)

This one didn't come out as great, but you get the idear:


Oh, and the shower was a lot of fun. I don't like being the "center" of attention but still had a good time seeing a lot of my friends and family. The majority of them not only drove or flew very far, they also brought along some of the most generous and adorable Little Langan gifties.

Getting married and then becoming pregnant a week later really makes me feel like I'm gouging people :/ But everyone's sincerety really made me feel better! It didn't hurt that pretty much everyone told me how awesome I look. I know it's a sweet little lie but it truly helped me get through the painful process of looking at all the gift opening pictures:


And on that note! you won't see my face again until I've lost at least 30lbs. :) p.s. that was the most EPIC diaper cake ever, made by my Fairy Godmother Geri. Batman themed with handmade burpie cloths, a quilt, and pretty much everything else our little man will need!

Obsessed

I'm still pregnant. It feels like this will never end. I'm not uncomfortable or experiencing any noteworthy symptoms.. mostly I'm just lazy and feeling overweight. I've been avoiding baking anything because I know I won't be able to stop myself from eating at least half of whatever I make. For example, last month, I was craving a funfetti cupcake, the delicious kind made from store bought mix and topped with rainbow chip frosting. Some bakers would be ashamed to admit it, but to this day, funfetti is still my favorite cupcake ever. So anyway, I make the cupcakes, and over the next three days, eat an entire dozen. Then I had the nerve to complain about gaining 8lbs that month. It's a sick cycle.

Then I got a Pinterest account. Worst plan ever. I am used to scouring the web looking for recipes that appear to be delicious, based on reviews or an amazing ingredient list. Rarely do those recipes come with beautiful shiny photos of baking perfection. Needless to say, choosing a good recipe this way takes thoughtfulness and serious inspection- two things I've been living without for 7 months. But apparently, I'm just like the 2 million other "pinners" on Pinterest- visual. I log in and see cakes, cupcakes, brownies, mud pies, and combinations of things I never thought of, all photographed to absolute perfection. Suddenly, it doesn't matter if the link to the recipe lurking behind the photo is good. I need it. Now.

Instantly I became obsessed with making the best red velvet cupcake ever. I have been working on this for a couple of years but never quite got there. There were a few hits, and a lot of misses. The hits turned into misses because the color just wasn't right. I'd find Brad asking, "what is that?" or if they were light chocolate cupcakes.. fail. The misses were just wrong all and together bad. I once made a huge cake out of red velvet and the layers from different batches of batter were all different colors and flavors. I liken it to my mashed potatoes.. I never quite remember how I made it the last time so I get something different every time. I've even tried writing the recipe down afterward, only to have it fail me in the future.

When I saw people on pinterest pinning bright red red velvet cupcakes, etc., right around Valentine's day, I knew something had to be done. I couldn't sit back and let those monstrosities win. I can't tell you how many absolutely beautiful, "professional," striking, and nearly bleeding-red red velvet cupcakes I've experienced crumble, turn to goo, choke me, or taste like wet chalk. And it's usually the really red ones that suck. Red velvet is the most ambiguous flavor that it seems people think anything goes as long as its red. To me though, it is supposed to resemble moist chocolate cake and be able carry a fluffy cream cheese frosting, but not taste like chocolate or vanilla- it's supposed to be a glorious combination of both. Kind of like a marble cake after you've chewed it all up, but less dense. That kind of sounds gross! Ha. Well, it's not for everybody.

But, people, I did it. Taste, color, texture, everything.. I made the best red velvet cake ever. And I know exactly how I did it because I wrote down every stinkin step as I did it. I can't give all my secrets away, but I will tell you a lot had to do with finding the right red food coloring (hint: gel, not wilton's), and not skipping out on the vinegar. I only made 12 and had just one (yay!!)! Then I brought the other 11 to work and they were gone within an hour- fyi only 5 people from my office were in that day. One very picky cupcaker told me it was the best cupcake he ever had. A few other people said the same, but it meant the most coming from picky eater man. It was also fun to watch people come back for seconds and not be ashamed at all.

I'm a loser and only got one picture of them cooling on their rack. I wanted to take another photo of cutting into one, but I ate it right before I weighed in at the doc's (sigh) and then it was off to work.


My camera phone is awful and turned these purple, so I will not be pinning this on to pinterest but I don't care. I'll continue to use the site for visual inspiration but stick to my own recipes.

I hope I can make one for YOU soon!!

Baby Cakes!

This past September I had the honor of making birthday cakes for the world famous Salvateenies Triplets first birthday. This was just one and half weeks after returning from my honeymoon and of having thought of nothing but weddings and honeymoons for the past three months straight. But I was up for the challenge! I couldn't think of a better way to get back into the swing of "normal" life.
Mom and Dad requested a zoo animal theme.. which means Mom told me exactly which animal to make for each kid since I was lacking any creative brain power. Caroline was to be "Caro-lion," Max was to be "Monkey Max" and Daniel would be "Croco-Daniel. " I got to pick the flavors, with approval of course. Caro-lion: white cake with fresh strawberries and vanilla frosting. Monkey Max: white cake with banana pudding filling and vanilla frosting. Croco-Daniel: chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. YUM.
I started preparing for the cake making a couple of days in advance so it wouldn't be a mad rush to finish (as if preparation ever prevents that). Unfortunately, I was feeling a little crampy and tired the night before so I had a hard time getting stuff done, but I powered through expecting that it would only get worse the following morning.
As I mentioned, I had just gotten back from my honeymoon, which was actually the official "start trying" time for Brad and I. In the morning, I could feel my monthly visitor coming on strong but took a test anyway just to be sure.... and... not so much. I thought I was hallucinating when I saw the faintest, lighter than pink pink line appear, so I threw it out and told Brad it we weren't pregnant, then got back to work. A few minutes later, he said, "Babe, we do pee tests all the time at work for the kids. The results don't show up right away. It's right about now that the line will start to change if the kid is positive for drugs. I'm going to go check it." So the incredible man that I married went through the bathroom garbage can (gross!) and found the stick with a slightly more pink line indicating that we might just really be pregnant, but it was extremely faint and I decided it was possible we were now both hallucinating. We were cautiously excited. I still had so much work to do, and Brad had to get to bed in time to wake up for his next graveyard shift. I baked, frosted, fondanted, and packaged the cakes then drove them up to SF to celebrate with the precious 1 year old triplets. In the chaos, I only got a couple of pictures (thanks Brad!)

Monkey Max

Caro-lion

Poor Daniel was the last cake to be finished and I wasn't able to get a picture. More pictures of the entire event, including a few of the cakes being destroyed and me being exhausted on a glider chair, can be found here, on the Salvateenie's official blog. Lessons learned: fondant is not my forte, one year olds could care less about filling and frosting and perfection, and if I ever do cakes for a living, I have to research the best way to transport them. Max's monkey lost an ear and Daniel's crocodile sank slightly into his chocolate lagoon.

The party was fun but I was ready for bed by 3pm. Being the psychotic I am, however, I stopped at Walgreen's on the way home and picked up three more tests to use in the morning... they were all different brands, of course. The next morning, I took all three tests a just before Brad got home, and hid them from myself so I wouldn't freak out. 5 minutes later I looked at them, and 5 minutes after that, Brad got home saying, "WELL?!?!?!" I directed him to the kitchen where he found all three tests showing absolutely, no doubt about it POSITIVE results for pregnancy! We were both in shock, excited, then in shock, then excited.. and so forth, for the rest of the morning until poor Brad had to go to bed again for work. We're now about 5 months and 3 weeks along and still going between shock and excitement, though excitement is now winning because my motherly intuition was right, and we're having a baby boy. Brad thinks it will all be cars, trucks, gadgets and flashlights, but I'm going to sneak in some baking time with mommy when he isn't looking :)

Married Woman!

My last post was not baking related at all.. Oops. Brad just really wanted me to post a blog from our honeymoon and I didn't feel like creating a whole new blog for one post. It got me thinking though.. I never posted anything about how the wedding cake/cupcake baking went!

I had originally planned to make a traditional wedding cake. Lauryn came out and we practiced it, and everything went well, except it wasn't perfect. I then did another run of the largest tier on my own and felt better.. But something wasn't quite right and I couldn't figure out what it was. My frosting technique isn't great and I can't get really smooth edges.. At that point I was close, but not where I wanted to be. The height was also an issue on such a huge cake, so I guess my measurements were off ( I'm not trained in traditional baking so I don't have the whole baking ratio thing down). I knew I could do it, but I wasn't feeling like it was the right time to experiment or stress myself out being a perfectionist. And all spring and summer long I was baking cupcakes for people and coming up with some very pretty and tasty stuff. I then realized it was time to rethink my strategy. The cake was doable, but transporting and stacking on the wedding day was no doubt going to be an issue. I love my cupcakes and they're much easier to move around and put out on a tiered display, so I thought I'd attempt a cupcake wedding cake. I mentioned my idea to Brad and he was very hesitant.. He turned into a groom stuck on what's traditional and told me I had to clear it with both our moms before doing it. They were both on my team so the plan was set in motion!

As the wedding got even closer and my plate was getting fuller, I decided I needed to make this whole bake-my-own-cake plan even simpler. So with my business tax id I signed up for an account with a wholesale cake decorations company and ordered flowers for my cupcakes, cake, and display. I also ordered a really nice cupcake tower to set all my beauties upon. Everything was going so well!

I was nervous, but it seemed like everyone else was more nervous than me about my plan. Except Lauryn. She was my rock and not only that, very excited to come out and bake. I had everything planned out beautifully so when she arrived, we would bake and be happy. And that's exactly what happened! Lauryn arrived and almost immediately put an apron on and got started with the lemons (poor Lala, always stuck with the lemons, even Brad said, "wow, Lauryn, it seems like every time you are here, you are zesting lemons!"). So we all jokingly named her the Lemon Curdmudgeon. We made about 80 chocolate cupcakes with raspberry filling and swiss meringue raspberry buttercream, and about 80 lemon cupcakes with lemon curd filling and vanilla frosting. Somehow everything got done in a timely fashion and we were happy with the results. I was in charge of the 6" cake which was just my chocolate cake with Brad's favorite canned frosting, which we would cut into at the wedding and serve to each other. I used a vanilla homemade frosting on the outside to match the cupcakes and spent a little bit of freak out time trying to make it look smooth, but eventually gave up and decided I was happy with the work Lauryn and I did and realized it really couldn't have gone any better. I had the perfect partner and perfect outcome for my "crazy" make-my-own-wedding-'cake' plan.

The Aftermath (please note, Fiona was not in the mix until the very end when we were wrapping things up/cleaning up- I really need to find a commercial kitchen to bake in though!!).


Of course the day came and went with a total blur, but I had a couple of favorite parts which include the cupcakes/cake:

1) Brad was very sad to learn in the beginning that I wanted to put two pretty glass birds on top of the cake instead of people/figures. As I mentioned, he was suddenly a traditionalist and couldn't deal with anything "outside" the box. I felt he deserved his wish after he gave in on the cupcakes, so I snuck around and found a little figurine that I could settle on. Only his mom was in on the secret. The morning of the wedding when Lauryn and I set up the cupcakes, we covered up the whole display with a box and sheet contraption to protect it from the fog (don't get me started) and so that when Brad arrived, he could uncover everything for the big reveal. We instructed the coordinator to allow Brad to uncover the display and stressed the importance, but apparently when Brad's mom told him to do so, the coordinator became a psycho and said Brad was too busy (this woman was great in the beginning but really got on my nerves the day of- Joanne from Chateau La Joye). So Joanne uncovered it, apparently adjusted the display to her liking (HOW COULD SHE, ugh) and eventually Brad went down to see it. I'm told he was impressed but suddenly became irate when he saw figurines on top of the cake instead of birds, "where are the birds!!! she wanted birds, who did this?!" And his mom had to explain that it was my surprise to him. During the ceremony, he whispered to me that he loved the people on the cake and that I was really sweet to do that for him. It was a perfect moment.





2) The cake cutting was a lot of fun. Brad almost didn't believe I put canned frosting in the middle but when he tasted it, he was overjoyed. Right after cake cutting we had to do the bouquet and garter toss, and Brad still had his plate with him. Joanne took his plate while he took off my garter, and when he started to bend down, all I hear is, "You're eating my cake!!!" And then Joanne says, "it's really good!" She was seriously eating the cake she was supposed to be holding for him. He laughed, but I know Brad. 1) he was upset that someone was eating HIS cake that was made special for him, 2) he does not share food with anyone but me (germaphobe). Did I mention Joanne is crazy??? Fortunately the rest of the cake was salvaged and while he didn't get anymore at the wedding, he did have some after the honeymoon.



I have baked a ton since the wedding and honeymoon but I can't remember all of it. While I wrote this post I made an apple pie and plan to eat it soon. Tis the season!!

Until next time!!

**All Photos courtesy of Ken Buck Photography**

Aloha! By Popular Demand...

So I didn't plan on doing this but we had quite a few people ask.. and then Brad insisted... that I do a blog from Kauai while we're on our honeymoon.



First of all.. I'm still having a hard time realizing that the wedding actually happened! It wasn't actually that the whole thing breezed by.. though most of it did, the chaos came in waves. I definitely had a few opportunities to sit back and take it all in, but there were moments that I wouldn't be able to retell accurately if my life depended on it. Brad says he felt like the most popular kid in school and his arms literally hurt from hugging/greeting/taking photos with so many folks. He cracks me up!!!! All in all we had a wonderful time and we're so pleased with how it all came together. Our photographer already put up a sneak peek slideshow if you're interested in seeing a lot of photos of me and Brad.. ha. All photos will be available soon.



http://www.kenbuckphotography.com/data/slideshow/83/Colleen.Brad/index.html




And now we're in BEAUTIFUL Kauai!!!! It is amazing here. We stepped off the plane and the first thing I noticed was the incredibly sweet smell in the air. I wish I could bottle it up and sell it. The first thing we did upon arriving was get lost on our way to our "treehouse"- which is basically a condo in the middle of nowhere.. or the hills of Kalaheo if you happen to know where that is. We were given the address but no hint that the mailbox we were looking for didn't exist. It was pitch black, the locusts were screaming, and Brad and I were imagining what life would be like without our kidneys as we went down the wrong driveway and found what we imagined were slaughterhouses, but were probably just sheds. We called our host Neil and he met up with us after he let loose a few frustrated fucks! and other four letter words. It was funny because he is Australian.. it would have been scary if he was from anywhere else, we're sure.

Neil is a character and can't stop talking and cursing. He brought us to our honeymoon abode and we were so thrilled at how awesome it was. Neil thought it would be a good time to talk about how bad the economy is and then told Brad about cockroaches and killer centipedes. Oh Neil, why!! Surely he didn't know about Brad's insane cockroachophobia. Ha! Brad put on a brave face and mentioned how neat it would be to have a couple of beers. Suddenly Neil pulled three Coronas out of god knows where and we were sipping on beer and talking about even more ridiculous topics such as how he isn't making any money yet on his investment aka the very treehouse we were staying in. I don't know how we escaped his grasp but eventually he was gone and Brad and I were almost in tears laughing about how funny the whole thing was.

The next morning we took an amazing doors-off helicopter tour of Kauai. It was absolutely breathtaking and the perfect first thing for us to do because it gave me ideas for what we would do for the rest of our trip. There were so many good shots but I'm only going to leave you with a few due to the time it takes to upload them!

The following day, we did the most intense and crazy thing either of us has ever done.. and brace yourself for this because you will probably laugh at first: a raft ride along the Na Pali coast. Yes. Now you must know that it was more like a raft/speed boat combo and all passengers sat along the edge of the boat while it sped for an hour and a half up the coast to get us to the beautiful views and photo ops. It was really fun in the beginning- we stopped and photographed spinner dolphins and sea turtles, learned about some history, took a walk through an ancient-ish village (not a lot of ruins as it's on the coast, so they re-created a lot). Super fun! The highlight was speeding through an arch along the coast and doing an ocean donut (if that exists) within an open ceiling cave. It's the stuff I always dreamed of when thinking about my honeymoon as a little girl- yes, I thought about my honeymoon more so than the wedding, even at a young age ;)

The "Screen Saver" Shot:

Open Ceiling Cave:

After that, we went snorkeling.. which is what I was looking forward to the most. Unfortunately, after I jumped into the water, I remembered my fear of the ocean and nearly panicked completely. I only stopped when I realized that Brad was struggling with his snorkel. He kept trying to scuba dive with his snorkel and of course breathed in air. Then he had to pee and refused to do it until he could "stand on something." In Brad talk, that meant he needed his feet to touch the sand in order to pee.. so he began to swim to shore, which looked deceivingly close because we had a 2,000 foot cliff towering over the beach. I forced him to stop when we swam for 10 minutes and were still nowhere near the beach. He finally did his business and then we swam like Phelps back to the boat so we didn't end up being stranded. We had a long haul back to the harbor so we braced ourselves on the boat and held on for dear life as we sped at what felt like lightening speed over the ocean waves, dodging sea turtles and huge swells. Brad's knuckles and hands were bleeding from holding on so tight and I had to stop looking forward because our final destination was never anywhere in sight. It was like being on the Grizzly or Giant Dipper for 90 minutes straight... with no seat belt. OUCH!!!!! Still, we both agree it was the most amazing thing we've done on this trip so far and the beauty of it all made it worth it.

We weren't too tired for a trip up to the North Coast where we stopped for dinner and shopping then a photo op at Hanalei Bay during sunset. Brad was really eager to get this photo and scouted out a couple to perform the task. I almost had an anxiety attack watching him approach a young couple strolling along the beach, because I thought for sure he was interrupting a potential proposal. Fortunately for us.. that wasn't happening. But it reminded me to watch for proposals!! Good grief I wouldn't want to be responsible for ruining that moment for anybody!!

We woke up in MAJOR pain this morning but fought through it for our ATV tour through Kipu Ranch. Brad was excited to drive an ATV and I was excited to do a rope swing and swim under a real waterfall, so we booked the waterfall tour! We started out clean:

And ended up looking like this:

Fortunately, there was a waterfall to clean off under at the end. Brad and I held hands and jumped in... from a rock on the surface of the pond :)





So it has been an amazing time so far.. and we're just getting started. I had to give up on the whole "relaxing in Kauai" idea I had when booking this trip.. there are a lot of opportunities but we've been running around like Kauai chickens doing everything dangerous that we possibly can. I even had tried to remedy this with a Mai Tai and instead of feeling amazing, I passed out. Ha! We love it though and are so excited for more. What a wonderful way to start married life!!


That's it for now!

extreme cancellations

two of my four orders this week had to cancel. one is rescheduled for next week, but the other is cancelled due to.. flooding of the missouri river! crazy! my client's parents live near the missouri river and are being evacuated so she's flying out to help. the poor midwest is just taking a beating lately! if cupcakes could save homes i'd have sent her off with her order. :(

Gradumication

My last two orders have been for graduations. It's been fun making tiny diplomas for the tops of my cupcakes! Here are a few photos from the 120+ cupcakes I've made:

It's My Party Cupcake: confetti cake with vanilla buttercream and my favorite sprinkles:

My "signature cupcake": Chocolate cake, raspberry filling, chocolate dipped raspberry on top. Chech out those cutey diplomas!

The are my Lemon Blast cupcakes: lemon cake with lemon curd filling and these have lemon cream cheese frosting w/ a lemon jelly belly on top

I made this for Cinco de Mayo and they were a huge hit, so now they're on the menu and being ordered, I call them the Chocolate Doodle: chocolate cake w/vanilla swiss meringue buttercream sprinkled with cinnamon and cocoa and a milk chocolate chip

Here is the Lemon Blast with diplomas and instead of lemon cream cheese frosting, they have a vanilla swiss meringue buttercream

This coming week I have four orders.. a graduation cake, minis for a tech event, minis for a bridal shower, and regulars for a summer bbq. I don't know how I'm going to do it but it will happen! I'm pretty sure this weekend will be dedicated to figuring out what the problem is with my vanilla cake, it peels from the wrapper. I've tried a few tricks and they seem to work, but the problem inevitably comes back. I'm also freaking out just a bit because I can no longer taste my own cupcakes.. I mean, I can taste them, but I'm starting to lose my grip on whether or not they're good, if the lemony ones are lemony enough, etc. I hope I don't lose it entirely! That would be awful.

Happy Memorial Day weekend everybody!

Fondant Covered Cake List

I had an order for a 3 tiered fondant covered red velvet cake that feeds 60 this weekend... decorated in the theme of Dr. Seuss. There were a lot of firsts for me:

-First time a friend of a sister's friend reached out to me for a cake (this was basically a stranger)
-First time I made a cake this big and covered it entirely in fondant
-First time I almost had a full blown panic attach in the middle of a cakespedition
-First time I forgot to eat dinner during a cakespedition

This could potentially be the longest blog ever, so I am just doing another list to explain how it all went down:

-12" square cakes came out BROWN. Not red. Curse you wilton no taste red food color
-Second batch of buttercream came out salty. Curse you trader joe's for having oddly colored butter packaging, I wanted unsalted, not salted butter!
-Started in on the round cakes at 5pm, wondered why I suddenly felt faint and starved, and it happened to be 9:30pm... ALREADY
-Brad came home while I was up to my ears in fondant.. which was stretching, cracking.. basically doing all the things nobody wants it to do (rebel) and I felt the beginnings of a panic attack but I stuffed them down (conveniently as Brad brought out the video camera)
-Design was ill fated, switched things up at the last minute and ended up with two cakes instead of one
-This was to everybody's benefit, as Green Eggs and Ham made an appearance, and it was amazing!
-Got lost looking for San Bruno park, despite it being two blocks from where my Grandma used to live
-Forgot my camera at home, so Molly kindly came with hers to take pictures of the assembled cake
-Everybody loved it!

I am not doing another one of these before the wedding.. it literally took over an entire week and I just have too much to do (like working out so I don't feel like a slob in my dress, and finding shoes that don't make me taller than Brad).

Iron Cupcake.. passing the torch

Ha just reading the blog title makes me laugh. It is mostly a joke. Mostly. ;)

I went to Iron Cupcake this past week after failing to place the month before. Last month, the theme was breakfast, and I did a coffee and donuts cupcake. It was a vanilla cake dipped in butter, then cinnamon sugar, topped with a coffee buttercream and an all cake "donut" dipped in chocolate glaze with pretty colored sprinkles on top (not a real donut.. this is a cupcake competition, after all). I was one of 5 people with the EXACT SAME IDEA. Hahaha. I had no chance, though I firmly believe mine tasted the best out of the five (it certainly didn't look the best though). I was kind of sad but surprised at how much I didn't care and how fun it was to just hang out and try cupcakes. A lot of them were god awful, and I'm not naming any names.. except to say a couple of those awfuls won. I think they had fan clubs in tow.

My Grapefruit Lemon Cupcakes

So this month was the citrus challenge and I was just excited to go and kick back again. I made a grapefruit cupcake with lemon curd filling, grapefruit frosting, rimmed with coconut and topped with alternating pink and yellow giant sprinkles. The cake wasn't very grapefruity but it did taste citrusy. The rest was bomb, but I had a feeling it wasn't quite stand-out enough for Iron Cupcake. Those hipsters want off the wall flavors (think vanilla-bacon cake with tangerine frosting and jalapeno jelly filling). I can't go for that. No can do.

I really like this new top, and I look skinny with all those cupcakes, bonus.

At the competition, there was one clear winner in my mind, and she happened to be sitting at our table. She made a key lime pie cupcake that was just fantastic, complete with a graham cracker crust. And it was actually a cupcake version of key lime pie, no cheating at all. It was her first time baking in the competition and she did an amazing job. I liked it so much I voted for her, which I never do. Ha! Mom even voted for her and kept saying she was going to win 1st (gee, thanks mom! ;) )Winner announcement time came around and I fully expected not to place, but I did! 2nd! And Ms. Key Lime Pie took first, which was so well deserved and adorable. She wasn't a smug brat like I was when I won! :D tee hee.

Mine is top left. #1 Key Lime Pie is center row far right.. you can NEVER guess the winners just by looking at them:

Next month the theme is movies, and so far my favorite Willful suggestion is: Sucker Punch cupcake: a hawaiian punch cupcake with a dum dum sticking out. HILARIOUS!

More Practice with Real People!

Today I completed an order for my first repeat customer. She contacted me for another bridal shower and ordered 120 mini cupcakes... I was so excited! Repeat business AND a lot of cupcakes to play with. This lady is very laid back and only gave me her color scheme to go by: lavender, lilac, and lime. AWESOME colors, but I didn't know what to do about decorations. I looked up the color scheme online and most people who throw parties in that scheme use a lot of floral decor, so I decided on piped flowers.
Lilac was not an easy color to achieve.. it is bright and dark at the same time. I panic when I see a ton of food color going into my buttercream and I'm not getting the color I'm going for. This happened with my lilac color, which I added to my already naturally pink raspberry buttercream. I stopped adding color when I felt I was not getting a lot of bang for the amount of food color I put in; taste over appearance, I always say. And they looked cute enough not to worry to much.

My lime was also not very punchy.. which is what you need when using it with lilac and lavender. But again, I couldn't justify adding a half a bottle of food color so I kept it simple. It did pop nicely on the purples, though.

(the camera didn't capture the green very well above) I try to decorate each flavor in one consistent design. Two cupcake flavors were filled, so I couldn't get too fancy on them. With minis, I do not carve out the center of the cupcake to make room for filling- it just takes too much cake out of an already tiny cupcake. So I dam up some filling on top and then pipe over it. On those flavors, I had to keep the decor simple. But on the plain vanilla, I had a little fun with my lavender color and piped pretty flowers:

It's hard to maintain a color scheme that doesn't include brown when you have a chocolate frosting. But I did my best to make it work.

And I'm SO EXCITED to finally have packaging and labels! It's neat to pretend I am official and use professional packaging and cute labels. Initially I was worried about these because it seemed hard to get the cupcakes out once they were in. I was actually almost in a complete panic about it, but then Brad came home from work. I explained my distress and he immediately turned into a salesman and explained how neat the package is because if you push the bottom up, the cupcake pops up for easy access. I almost cried with relief. He is such a good man! Especially during a freak out!! <3

So, there you have it. 120 cupcakes. It doesn't look like it though, right? Amazing how they all fit into those neat little packages!

Happy Easter!!

Wow

It's been another month and I have been so busy! Between the wedding, work, and baking, there's not a whole lot of time for writing. Plus, the sun is playing hide and seek and when it comes out on the weekend, I use the opportunity to sit and read in the sunshine. I just got through reading one of my new favorites, The Shadow of the Wind and am in the middle of the first Sookie Stackhouse novel Dead Until Dark and a completely different selection, The Forgotten Garden- both very good in their own ways. I never knew Sookie was such a trashy read! Love it.

As far as baking.. it's been off the hook. So far in this past month I have completed three orders- a baby shower, cupcakes for teacher appreciation week, and a kids birthday party- all with custom decorations. All together that was 12 dozen cupcakes. I have a 120 mini cupcake order coming up this weekend for a bridal shower, and a multi-tiered fondant covered cake order the weekend after that for another baby shower. There are two other orders in May in addition to a bridal show where I'll be passing out freebies alongside a Stella & Dot stylist as a ploy to get people to her booth.

All this baking has been a lot of fun and a great learning experience. I'm looking forward to my "launch" in the fall and becoming official. So far I'm having a lot of fun working through all the little things that need to be in order before my little side business is legit- what kind of containers to use for the cupcakes, what my business cards and labels should look like, how I will market myself, how much I need to produce in order to make a profit, where I will set up shop, etc. I've already run through a lot of this and have learned tons about what works and what doesn't. One of the more exciting things has been using my winnings from the Iron Cupcake championship in December to fund my new business account. It's all the money I have and I'm not touching it! Ha. Silly the things we hold on to.

So, I am just super grateful for all the practice business I've been getting from friends and friends of friends. Things are really looking good for a fall launch. Yay for side businesses!
Here are some photos to enjoy (or not):

Wedding Cake Testing (sprinkles will not be included):

Birthday Party Cupcakes:

Dr Seuss cake test (cat in the hat hat):

Children's Literature Themed Baby Shower:

Oh.. So Long 2.0

Okay that email you got.. well, it was the result of a fat finger. I hit what I thought was shift, and it turned out to be enter, and those of you on my email list got a blog that was started a month ago and being edited tonight. Hope you enjoyed!

I have been super preoccupied over the last month with some exciting things, such as the prospect of being on television(fail), working with a caterer and event planner(tbd), and booking new client(s). I have also been planning our wedding, which is one of the most insane jobs I have ever undertaken. I never wanted a big wedding and all the exciting things that come with it, but that's what I'm planning because I am thoroughly wrapped up in the "once in a lifetime" mindset. Things I never thought I'd care about: flowers, colors, chair placement... yeah, they are important now. I have a lot going on this year and sadly, the blog took a back burner for a minute. But I'm baaack. For now!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I made up my own recipe for red velvet cupcakes and they came out delarcious. I was very impressed with myself and cannot wait to make them again. Lots of people loved them and I got one piece of feedback suggesting they were chewy, and I'm excited to investigate this. I still think they were major winners.

The biggest undertaking of the month was when Willful visited and we did a test run of my wedding cake. 12", 10". 8". 6" alternating tiers of chocolate raspberry and lemon poppy seed... ohhh my (or as Edith would say, "such a white person's cake"). We ran out of buddacream and my decorating skillz we lacking, but the lemon curd Willful made for the lemon poppy seed tiers was to die for. She was elbow deep in lemons all day and it paid off.

To be completely honest, my lack of ability to smooth buttercream had me in a fit of rage, and I can remember clearly when Willful said, "I don't know what to say when you get like this." It remains one of Brad's favorite quotes of all time. Obviously, I "get like this" a lot.. I will admit it and it's not something I am proud of. So the fact that I had sane Willful and months of practice ahead of me made me feel so much better. I immediately did research on smoothing swiss meringue buttercream and tested out my skills the following weekend on a 12" round. The result: near perfection. I even took the opportunity to bake a less dense version of the lemon poppy seed cake and it came out great- and there weren't as many lemons involved! Score. The coworkers devoured both versions.. but again, they'll eat anything.

This past weekend I worked on a new strawberry cupcake recipe and it came out yumz. Fresh strawberries in the batter=longer baking time, but they come out moist and delicious. I had some swiss buddacream so I topped it with that, but I definitely believe cream cheese frosting is the way to go. Cream cheese frosting is the way to go on anything, though!

Next up: epic cupcake order and my baby chister's butterscotch birthday cake (in the same day!!)
Help.

Oh.. So Long

No time. Teasers only.

Last week I made up my own recipe for red velvet cupcakes and they came out great... delarcious. Seriously, I might be half genius :P

Last weekend Willful was in town and we did a test run of my wedding cake. 12", 10". 8". 6" alternating tiers of chocolate raspberry and lemon poppyseed... ohhh my (or as Edith would say, "such a white person's cake"). We ran out of buddacream and my decorating skillz we lacking, but the lemon curd Willful made for the lemon poppyseed tiers was to die for. She was elbow deep in lemons all day and it paid off.

Piped

This past week I have not gotten to bed before midnight. Which is not normal for me, at all. Since I was a child and my mother sent me to bed at 7 (up until I was 12), I have always craved being in bed by 10, or earlier if possible. Fall is my favorite season because when the clocks change, it gets darker earlier, and I feel better about slipping into bed at 9.. sometimes 8:45.

But no, this week I was up late every single night, and I still feel drained. Some of it may have been my obsession with finding the perfect vanilla cupcake. I really am obsessed! A couple of weeks ago, I stacked my vanilla and chocolate cupcakes up next to those from Sprinkles and Kara's, and had Brad do a taste test. He preferred my chocolate (as did I), but he liked Kara's vanilla the best, and mine came in 2nd. It was nice to know I wasn't last, but I still wanted to be the best. So I tried out another recipe that seemed promising and substituted a couple of things to make it my own. The result was a TURRABLE crumbly mess, which reminded me of a Vanilla Moon disaster sawdust cupcake I tasted last year. I knew my substitutions didn't have much to do with it, the recipe was a mess from the start. I'm learning more about the science of baking and the importance of ratios, and lets just say this recipe was very unscientific.

I wasn't too upset with the taste of the cupcake because I'm trying not to eat so much anyway, so I set about to decorating. I've been having fun piping and tried out a flowery design, similar to the one on the chocolate cake. They came out pretty cute, WAY cuter in person. I still need a new camera.

Tonight I modified a bit of the vanilla recipe I had used during the taste test, and they came out pretty good. Though, I've learned I usually can't tell how they taste until the following day. I think hanging out in the kitchen with the smells does something to my taste buds. I had a lot of fun piping these ones.. and again they look super cute in person.



I should probably teach myself to pipe something other than flowers! Oh, leaves. I have those down :)

In other no sleep/non related news, our kitty Fiona had a terrible week. It began Wednesday night when she skipped dinner and cuddled with me and Brad on the couch after we had dinner- normally she is getting into trouble, rummaging in the sink, or tormenting a bug at that time in the evening. As she curled up next to us, she was breathing heavy and sniffing the air, but nothing was there. She seemed a little tired but fine the following morning, however, according to Brad, she threw up. By the evening we got more worried as we realized she still hadn't eaten and was acting lethargic. We took her temperature and it was on the high side of normal. I called the emergency vet and they recommended we run blood tests. $400 later, we learned she had an extremely high white blood cell count, about 3x the 'high normal', and was very dehydrated. All signs pointed to infection, so they pumped her with liquids under her skin to hydrate her and bring down her rising fever, and sent me home with antibiotics (clavamox). By the next day, she didn't seem to be improving. I googled her symptoms and read very similar stories that pointed toward FIP, a fatal disease, and I cried for our baby girl (at work, no less). I came home to our anorexic kitty and force fed her gerber baby food (chicken). She was not happy. She kept hiding in dark corners or falling asleep in random places, like the laundry basket, which was filled with books and toiletries, not nice warm fluffy clothes. I ran out and bought every kind of wet food I could find, even kitten formula, to see if she would eat any. I got home and Brad and I laid out a huge kitty buffet for her, and the only thing she would eat out of the intial 6 options was Friskies Chicken in Gravy Fine Cuts, but she mostly just licked the gravy. We feed her expensive cat food normally, and after all that, of course she takes after her father and prefers the cheap stuff. We were so happy to see her eat, even a little. I set her up with food in our room and showed her where it was, and at 1:30am when I heard the sounds of licking, I couldn't have been happier when I saw her at her food plate munching on some Friskies. I messaged Brad and he rejoiced, I might have heard his excitement all the way from La Honda! She is doing much better today, eating real chicken breast along with her Friskies, and back to a few of her old tricks, like licking jeepers, chasing the laser, and talking to us. We are so relieved she is on the mend! She is actually on my lap right now demanding pets (by gently biting my finger and swinging it over her head with her paw). And now she is on my shoulder like a parrot kneading and biting my pony tail.

Anyway, I know it isn't baking related but I wanted to post this for any hypochondriacs like me, who might someday in the future google their kitty's symptoms and come across this blog. I wish your kitty well!!!!!!!!!

Okay I'm officially a dweeb. Good night!

Oh Yeah!

I am pretty forgetful.. and I get lazy from time to time. It's a bad combo.

This Christmas and for my birthday, I received so many baking gifts and I totally forgot to blog about them. I might have even forgotten to thank people! Shame, shame.

Brad bought me two vintage kitchen aid stand mixers, cupcake earrings, and had a stamp customer made for my "bakery". Edith bought me an awesome baking/recipe book, and I have read the entire cake section a couple of times now.. lots of good ideas! Molly and Ivan gave me a cute decorating book and lots of baking accessories, as did a number of other friends. Willful located a cupcake shaped soap and shipped it all the way to Cali in a box full of other fun stuff. Yesterday somebody even gave me cupcake key covers.. I am decked out! Thank you EVERYBODY for the fantastic and fun gifties!!

In other news, I have been trying to think of a name for my "bakery" which I would prefer to call a cakery because let's get real, I cannot make a croissant or eclair to save my life. I really love "Collie Flour" for the sentimental and personal touch, but people have been telling me it sounds too much like a vegetable and is confusing. I love the simplicity of the name "Sprinkles", but everything like that is taken. I thought I was a genius when I thought up "In the Mix" but there is a cupcakery in Connecticut with that name. I tried to think back to my first baking curiosity, that armadillo red velvet cake... then I realized "Magnolia" is VERY much taken. Hahaha. What I'm saying is.. think of some ideas for me! I am in the process of getting ready to start selling my stuff legally- meaning I will be baking in a licensed kitchen, but I need a business name first. I would loooove your help :D

Here is a cake I mentioned in a previous post. It's just chocolate chocolate with more chocolate. I ran out of... chocolate frosting (the lighter one), so it looks a little thin in the photo, and oddly shiny. I felt inspired and piped some flowers and they came out pretty nice. I think I really like piping and would love to learn more and incorporate it into more of my cakes/cupcakes. It's a lot of work but with the effort in the end.

I actually did get to witness the slice of cake in a bowl of milk.. it was amazing. And it was a good thing I ran out of the frosting.. the cake was so rich, the thin layer really did work perfectly with it. I am on my wedding diet but ate a huge piece! Another coworker, who doesn't usually eat anything during the day, took two pieces. That's the best.. when people enjoy something I made. Fortunately, it happens more often than not.

For next time, I will try to remember to tell you about a taste test I recently did with Brad- my cupcakes against Kara's and Sprinkles.. oh my! Good thing Sibby's weren't there.. they would have beaten all of us :/

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 :)