Spring is here

I'm loving the fact that now I can open my car windows and smell the fresh air while I''m driving. As much as I love it I am reminded of how hot summer will be when we have afternoons of 80+ degrees. 

I'm looking forward to kayaking with my husband on the Rappahannock river here in Fredericksburg. On my last outing I had a dragonfly take a long ride with me on my little red Kayak. 

This particular cake was a first birthday cake for a little girl. The cupcakes were meant to match with lilac colors. I included some purple flowers to make the lilac pop more. The monogram was made out of royal icing in the font of the invitations. I sprinkled it with lilac disco dust. It was like adding glitter in kindergarten class, too much fun. The side designs were copied as best as I could from the intricate design on the invitations. 

The cake was a white cake with raspberry preserves and swiss merengue buttercream. The cupcakes were my popular chocolate chip chocolate cake. 

Silky Sweet Cupcakes

I think Swiss Merengue buttercream will be my standard frosting from now on. I rarely make the typical overly sweet buttercream these days. It is just too sugary and really doesn't taste good.
Swiss merengue is a silky, light buttercream. It is the perfect accompaniment to any cake flavor and as above pairs nicely with fruit fillings. I have both fresh raspberries and strawberries on white and yellow buttercake.

Typical buttecream as found in stores is made with confectioners sugar, butter, milk or water and some extract. Swiss merengue on the other hand is a bit more involved. First you heat up egg whites and sugar until very hot. Then it gets mixed for a time until it becomes a merengue. Then you incrementally add butter and whip it up until light and fluffy. Lastly vanilla extract is added. My Swiss Merengue always reminds me of vanilla ice cream.  

Spiderman Cupcakes, Cupcakes in action

Happy Birthday!!

Can you tell where the cupcakes are, this arrangement is so neat but purely accidental. As I was taking my regular photos of this order I realized that the cupcakes fit perfectly on the images, very cool. I had a small order for two dozen Spiderman cupcakes. I had full "artistic freedom" which was really a challenge with spider man because I ended up spending a lot of time trying to decide what to do. The birthday boy just like every small boy between the ages of 2 and 10 loves spider man. I did not want to frighten the kids with spiders and webs. But I did underestimate the kids and they weren't at all frightened by the weird eyes popping out of the cupcakes. At the request of a friend I was talking to about designing this I did not make pink spidys for the girls attending the party..I guess that's best since we don't want to confuse the kids :)

The cupcakes were a variety of white and yellow cakes filled with Italian merengue buttercream (It tasted almost like vanilla ice cream to me). I think all fondant topped cupcakes should be filled with something. Although the cakes I make are moist, cupcakes need some sort of cream. Overall I was very please with this and most importantly the kids :)

Luau Party...This was a fabulous order. It was for a young women's graduation party. After I completed the cupcakes with the flip flops and hibiscus flowers I just felt so relaxed and I had this desire to be somewhere on the beach. It's funny how food can evoke such feelings :) I think to date this is probably the most adorable topper I have made.

Currently I'm in the process of trying to perfect this Dulche de Leche buttercream so I can start offering it to my customers. It has taken me over three hours to caramelize the condensed milk...I think I need to find
a quicker way.