Vanilla cupcakes with traditional buttercream icing topped with handmade fondant sports balls for a third birthday party!

These flowers never fail to make me smile. There happy little faces always brighten my day ! Hopefully the birthday girl enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Time off and coffee buttecream!

After taking a few months off this summer it was time to get back into the swing of things! What better way then by combining 2 of my favorite things: baking and coffee. Yes, I am usually chugging while baking but this took it to a different place. Bean Traders coffee on Highway 54 is having their 10 year anniversary and asked me to bake. This place is great! So, I thought that I would create a new (to me) icing flavor: Coffee Buttercream. After the first batch I was HOOKED. It is so yummy, and it didn't matter if I put it atop Buttermilk Chocolate cupcakes or Vanilla Buttercream...either way was great! The cake is in the background and was buttermilk chocolate filled and iced with traditional buttercream and rolled fondant. Thanks Bean Traders for letting me be part of your special day!

Pretty in pink (and purple and green)

This cake was for a sweet little girl who wanted pink, purple and green with dots. The cake was alternating vanilla and chocolate filled with chocolate ganache and swiss buttercream meringue. It was iced with swiss buttercream meringue and fondant accents.

First Commuinion

This cake was for a First Communion. Vanilla cake was filled with traditional vanilla buttercream and topped with rolled fondant. Accents were made using gum paste and fondant and a little edible pearl dust. This was for the same family who ordered the boy scout "arrow of light" cake. I love that I have returning families already!

Busy!

This cake was for a christening brunch. It was light and sweet. Vanilla cake was filled and covered with Swiss Buttercream meringue and the cross was made with fondant and gum paste. The pearl accents are sprinkles and the monogram was highlighted with edible pearl dust.

Georgia on my mind

This cake was for an avid Georgia Bulldogs fan. Made with vanilla cake and traditional buttercream icing, it was topped with rolled fondant. The accents were all done in fondant and the hedges were created using buttercream. After some reading, I discovered just HOW important the hedges are to the team and fans, and I was pleased with the outcome.

Cupcakes galore!

I have been making LOTS of cupcakes today. Since variety is the spice of life, I decided to follow it here too! These yummy guys are a mix of vanilla buttermilk or chocolate buttermilk cupcakes, iced with traditional, double chocolate or raspberry buttercream.

A very BIG birthday

Last week was my husband's grandfathers 85th birthday. A pretty big deal around here! His cake was vanilla buttercream filled with whipped chocolate ganache and iced in swiss buttercream meringue. It was pretty tasty, and I rarely get to eat my own creations!

Arrow of Light

This was a cake for a very special occasion. I didn't know much about scouting at first (my boys haven't gotten there yet) but I learned that the "Arrow of Light" is a pretty big deal that required not only a ceremony but a special cake! This was vanilla cake with traditional buttercream topped in rolled fondant.

Twice as nice

These adorable cakes were made for boy/girl twins for their first birthday. The boys cake was traditional yellow filled with traditional buttercream. The girls cake was double chocolate filled with chocolate buttercream. And both were topped with rolled fondant with fondant accents. Both had matching smash cakes, made with traditional yellow and topped with traditional buttercream which they will hopefully put to good use!

Ladybugs!

With all the cold, rainy, snowy weather we have had recently, creating a cake that made me think of warmer weather was just what I needed. The ladybug cake was made with traditional yellow cake, filled with chocolate and topped with rolled fondant.

His favorite things

This cake was a a lot of fun to create. It was for a fun little guy who has LOTS of favorite things, and I tried to include as many as I could on the cake. The cake itself was traditional yellow filled with chocolate buttercream and topped with rolled fondant. The cake was asymmetrical as well, to add a little extra flair. It was wonderful to see the look on his face when he saw all his favorite things on his cake!

Frog Prince

The inspiration for this cake came from a couple of different areas. When my oldest was born a dear friend of mine created his announcements and used a little frog prince. Once I settled on that theme I scoured the internet for different styles and meshed several together to come up with this. The cake is vanilla filled with raspberry and topped with vanilla swiss buttercream meringue, and the accents are all fondant. He was so much fun to make!

Cheating a little

For the school birthday celebration, we had to have (what else?) Transformers cupcakes. On a recent store trip, he saw these and after finding out what they were, decided this was what he wanted. The cupcakes were vanilla buttermilk and classic vanilla buttercream icing. So instead of making the toppers myself, I cheated just a little.....

Chocolate covered in chocolate!

What's the best way to top off buttermilk chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache? Cover it with Chocolate cream cheese buttercream icing! This is a BIG chocolate taste. The icing recipe was given to me by a friend and after tweaking it a bit decided to try it for smoothing instead of just a crumb coat.

NC State- Wolfpack fan.

This cake was for a great friend who is an even greater NC State fan. The cake was Vanilla Buttermilk filled with ganache iced in buttercream and covered in rolled fondant.

Pink is for GIRLS!

So when I have nothing pressing to do, I tinker with recipes. Today was an icing day. Raspberry buttercream, to be precise. So, after the icing was prepared the youngest of my taste testers was ready to put his delicate palette to good use. "But Mom", he says "PINK is for GIRLS!!" After a short discussion and some persuasion on my part, he tries it and declares it the best pink icing ever. Slam-dunk? We'll see what the other tasters vote in on, but at least it made a 4 year old happy.

More than meets the eye....

We always have the boys' birthday parties together. The main reason being that their birthdays are only 5 days apart. This year, they each wanted a Transformers cake, but there were guidelines I had to adhere to. The main one being there had to be a TOY on top. No way did they want me slaving for hours to make an edible transformer. Not my boys! They also aren't crazy about fondant. So, I made to cakes,filled them with whipped ganache, iced them with vanilla swiss buttercream meringue and fondant accents, then added the TOY. The result was two happy birthday boys, so I considered it a success!

Dinner party

This was made for a dinner party. The cake was vanilla buttermilk filled with raspberry and iced in vanilla swiss buttercream meringue.

Star Wars

This cake was for a Star Wars Lego fan. The cake was filled with ganache and topped with rolled handmade marshmallow fondant with silver pearl dust. The accents were made with gumpaste and fondant.

Funky

This was just for fun! I as in the process of perfecting my ganache and decided it would go better with a cake then just on a spoon!

Finding Nemo

This cake was special to me, because it was for my nephews first birthday. The cake filled with ganache and iced with swiss buttercream meringue and the Nemo and other accents were made with gumpaste and fondant. The birthday boy had his own smash cake and was covered in blue when he was finished !

Jungle cake

This cake was for a true fan of the wild. It was vanilla cake filled with ganache and iced with vanilla swiss buttercream meringue. The animals and accents were made with gumpaste.

Circles

This cake was for a family birthday party. It was vanilla buttermilk cake filled with strawberries and topped with Vanilla Swiss Buttercream meringue.

Testing Blog Colors Again

This is what it will look like when there are many posts. This post can be deleted.

Testing Blog Colors

Testing the layout of the blog...these colors and fonts can be changed. And this post can be deleted!