Bridal shower favors and cupcakes

So, it was a very busy week for me with Valentine's Day and a bridal shower.  For the shower I made the favors, and the cupcakes. They were delicious if I do say so myself, and I do. I got a mild case of OCD when I was working on the cookies, but over all I was very happy with the results.

The favors were sugar cookie, with fuschia marshmallow fondant stamped with "All you need Is Love", decorated with almond royal icing.  I painted curlicues with silver luster dust, mixed with lemon juice.  I loved the results.

Gratuitous business card shot.  They are new!  I love them!

All the cupcakes- Chocolate cupcake, with caramel filling, piped with chocolate cream cheese frosting.  The other cupcake is lemon cake, with a lemon cream cheese frosting.  It was delicious with little bits of lemon zest in it.

Here is a close up of the lemon cupcake, with the pics I made for them- they are stamped with "And they lived happily ever after" on textured cardstock with some embellishment.

I feel some crabs coming on...

Creative funk....

Well, I am just about pooped out.  I baked and delivered a lot of orders these last 2 days.  Now I don't want to bake again for a while.  At least one day. *shifty eyes*  The next project is bridal shower cupcakes, and bridal shower cookies for favors.  The shower is Saturday.  I have already started the cute little picks that will go into the cupcakes, I only have 12 more to make, However being the procrastinator that I am, I have not bought all of the things for the cookie favors.  I just had an idea (like literally just this second) so I am going to hash that out and I will post the results with delightful pictures when I have some.

I am going to get crabs....

My mother, father, brother, sister in law and husband and I are going to a crab feed this weekend.  I am so looking forward to it.  I haven't stuffed myself full of mercury since I was pregnant with my daughter! Woo Hoo!  I love crab feeds.

I had a date....

With my son.  Jennah was off being a social butterfly last weekend, with a sleep over and a play date.  Ayman and I went and caught Phantom Menace on Saturday, and spend some quality time grocery shopping in Wal-Mart and then Best Buy.  I remember when it was just he and I, doing our stuff together.  It is so easy to forget about those times after you have a second one. It is important to get that alone time.  Jennah is usually stuck to me like glue.  Ayman, not so much.  It was good to just hang with him. He even held my hand a few times. *sigh*
Good times.

Chocolate Cherry Beauties

"This is the best cookie I have ever tasted"- My dad, this Christmas. That is saying a lot.  He likes cookies.

I call these "Chocolate Cherry Beauties" they are, in a word, awesome.  If you like to bake, I highly recommend this recipe.  Not only is it absolutely yummy, it is very pretty.  You will not fail to impress with these cookies.  My apologies for wonky background colors, I copied this from its page on Just A Pinch, because I was NOT going to type it again. (<---totally lazy)  recipe after the jump

Attempting pretty cookies part deux...and a recipe.

Tonight I decided to try some piping practice. I sat down for about an hour and a half, with a parchment paper bag (that I made myself, thank you very much) and piped the hell out of some pretty cookies.  First let me say that I threw out my first batch of royal icing, because after drying cookies for 48 hours I found that:  A.) I probably over beat the frosting, and 2.) I may have added too much water to the icing to thin it.  On the plus side of that other batch, I used rum flavoring on it, which I found to be delightful.  This new batch of icing I used coconut  extract, which is AWESOME. (Side note about royal icing, if you haven't done as much reading as I have, which is ok: Do not use oil based extracts, apparently oil is royal icing's kryptonite.)

Attempting pretty cookies.

This is my first attempt at using royal icing on cookies.  I whipped up some nice looking icing, however I am having two problems with it.  When the icing for piping dries, it can be smooshed easily, crumbly almost. When the icing is diluted, it takes FOREVER to dry.  This is problematic.  I fear I may have whipped too much air into it. The cookie is delicious.  It is my Aunt Cindys roll out cookie recipe.  Best. Cookie. Evah.

This is what happens when my husband says: "Is this dry?" and TOUCHES IT.  No bueno.
So, what have I learned?  I need to practice my piping skills. Srsly. Also, I need to master making royal icing.  I did find a great tutorial on easy clean up of piping bags etc. The video is here and if you are interested, It has great ideas.  I think I can use it for cake decorating too.

So I am going to keep on trying...My kids are super cool with eating my rejects.

Stockton Thunder

My friend Miki has a batch of tickets for Stockton Thunder hockey games.  She didnt want to go tonight so she gave me her tickets.  Amr had a study group so the kids and I took in the game.


We had a blast.

Valentines Day Delivery Specials!

Sweets for your sweetie on Valentines Day! For the low low price of $10, you can have 4 cupcakes packed in a cute box,delivered* to your sweetheart. Cupcake choices are: chocolate, yellow or red velvet. All decorated with adorable micro hearts, also included is a notecard for a personal message. Delivery area includes most of Stockton, and for an additional $2 dollars I can deliver to Manteca, and Lodi, or points in between. Please contact me for other delivery info.

Also available for delivery- Six hand dipped chocolate covered strawberries. These also come in an adorable box, with note card. $10 gets you the berries and delivery in Stockton.

Mickey Mouse Oreo Cupcakes

These delicious babies are made with Oreo cookies in regular and mini sizes.  the cupcakes themselves were Andes Creme de Menth flavor and Death by Oreo flavor.  Two of my favorites, I must say! These turned out just adorable and were very fun!

Cassie Cakes

So, I am doing a little side business here.  It's a little something I like to call Cassie Cakes.  If you use the tag Cassie Cakes in the search on this blog you will find some of the things I have done.  If you have any questions or inquiries, feed free to hit me up in the comments, or email me at Cassiecakesca@gmail.com
Thanks!

Monkey Cake, with Marshmallow fondant

I did this cake for my friends little boys first birthday (man, that sounds awkward.) Anyhoo, it was my first time making marshmallow fondant and chocolate marshmallow fondant.  I really liked using it, so I think I will try it some more.  My mom bought me some cool fondant tools, so I am super excited to come up with my daughters cake, which will be some sort of Hello Kitty extravaganza.

"Monster" Themed birthday party cake

"Monster" birthday cake with matching "monster eyes" cupcakes. I am not in any way shape or form saying that these are Yo Gabba Gabba themed treats for my beautiful nieces third birthday party. *shifty eyes*

Andes Creme de Menthe Cupcakes

 Andes Créme de Menthe Cupcake- Devils food cake flavored with mint, packed with chopped Andes Créme de Menthe patties. The cream cheese frosting is flavored with a hint of mint, and topped with Andes Créme de Menthe patties. $24/dozen