Mini Fall Cupcakes

My mother-in-law gave me these super cute baking cups, and when I ended up with extra cake batter I couldn't wait to try them out! I also had leftover chocolate frosting, and since I'm excited about it being fall I decorated them with little pumpkin sprinkles. These made the perfect treats to take to a friend's house for a girls' night.

Gluten Free Cake

My mom has been telling me for months that I need to find a good gluten free cake recipe, and I knew she was right, but I just hadn't gotten around to looking for when. When I had someone ask me to make them a gluten free cake, I immediately called my mom and after telling her she was right and I should have listened to her, I asked her for help with a good recipe. I looked a few different ones and decided on one. Thankfully they just wanted a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, so I was able to start with something easy instead of making a gluten free Italian Cream cake or something along those lines.

Chevron Baby Shower Cake

This was a cake for a baby shower for a couple who isn't finding out if they are having a boy or girl. The hostesses showed me a picture of what they wanted and told me the colors and flavors they wanted, so this was a pretty easy cake for me to make! It was a vanilla pound cake with vanilla butter cream frosting, and the chevron stripes are marshmallow fondant.

Leaf Cookies

I love fall, and I love when I get orders for fall themed baked goods! I had a friend call and say she wanted cookies to share with her bible study group. She asked what kind of fall cookies I could make. The first thing that came to mind were leaf cookies in fall colors. She loved that idea. I loved making them! 

Candy Corn Cupcakes

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but I'm not a huge cupcake fan. I mean I like them just fine and of course I'm happy to eat them, but I just think cakes are so pretty. However, my whole opinion of cupcakes went out the window when I made these. These candy corn cupcakes I made for a tailgate were adorable! They didn't taste like candy corn, only looked like them. They were white cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. I'd be okay making these again soon!

Classic Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Right after making the two teddy bear cakes for the double shower, I got to completely switch gears and do a classic, simple cake. I enjoy working with fondant, but it's also nice to get to make a simple cake every now and then. I kind of had a lot going on when this cake was ordered, so I was excited when she said she just wanted yellow with chocolate frosting. I did get to add a little color with the boarder and the writing which I did in vanilla butter cream.

Double Shower Cakes

What's better than one baby? Two babies! What's better than one cake?? Two cakes! I had a friend call me and see if I could make two cakes for a double baby shower she was hosting for two sisters both having boys. That's something I hadn't done before, so of course I told her I would love to make them! They were vanilla pound cake with vanilla butter cream frosting and all of the decorations were made from marshmallow fondant.

Since I was so happy with how well these cakes turned out, I had my sister-in-law come over and take pictures for me. She takes great pictures and has an amazing blog you should check out at www.handmedownstyle.com. 

Chocolate Petite Fours

I love petite fours. I love eating them. I love admiring how pretty and dainty they are. So when I was asked to make some, I was elated. In the grand scheme of things they are more work than just making a full cake, but they are still fun to make and so cute once they are all finished. These were two layers of chocolate cake with whipped cream between the layers, frosted in chocolate ganache with a little white chocolate drizzled on top.

Tuxedo Cake

I've recently created a lot of themed cakes--trains, jungle, owls etc. When I volunteered to make the cake for my husband's grandparents' birthday party, I wanted to make a pretty cake. Of course I wanted it to taste good as well. I decided I wanted chocolate covered strawberries to be involved and when I googled cakes with chocolate covered strawberries, I found tons of pictures of "tuxedo cakes." I'm not sure I'd ever heard this term before, but from the little research I did, it looks like a "tuxedo cake" is chocolate cake, with whipped cream frosting, with chocolate ganache and strawberries on top. Who wouldn't want that?! I decided I'd make one of these Tuxedo Cakes! I did three layers of chocolate cake and I decided to kick it up a notch and I made a chocolate mousse filling to go between the layers along with fresh sliced strawberries, then I frosted the entire cake in whipped cream, poured gananche on the cake, and added the strawberries. There were several steps, but it really wasn't a hard cake to make and it was beautiful as well as delicious! Wouldn't mind taking orders to make it again!

Simple is Okay

I love coming up with different flavor combinations, making big cakes, stacking cakes, and always trying to come up with something that I haven't done before. The other day I wanted to make a cake for our neighbors whose son is dealing with some health problems. I would have been more than happy to make them a cake with multiple layers and a fancy filling, but I just wanted to make something simple, so they wouldn't feel like I'd spent two days working on this cake. So I made a simple chocolate pound cake and didn't even make a glaze for it, just dusted a little powdered sugar on it before wrapping it in plastic. You would have thought I'd made them a three-tiered, multi-flavored, fondant covered cake. I was reminded that sometimes simple is okay, and sometimes we like just plain chocolate pound cake.

Baby Dedication

I make cakes for birthdays and showers all the time, so I think it's fun when I get to make a cake for a different occasion. This cake was for a small family lunch after a baby dedication. I was asked to use soft colors and put a cross on it if possible. I wish I had taken a picture where you could see the side of the cake. I decorated the sides with pearl sprinkles which I didn't even know I had until I went looking through my sprinkles to see if I had anything in soft colors. I have so many sprinkles, but we'll save that for anther post. It was a lemon pound cake with vanilla butter cream frosting, and the customer must have been happy because she called a week later to order a birthday cake!