A Milestone...

It had finally happened to one of us. One of us had done the unthinkable. One of us had dared to turn 26. The wrong side of 25. The mere thought of this was enough to send me down a Peter Pan induced rabbit hole, but thankfully the victim wasn't me... Since J's birthday is first, she was the trailblazer into "wrongsidedom" as I will henceforth call it. Unfortunate for her, but fortunate for me. (I jest, I jest--Kinda. I'm serious about this whole Peter Pan thing...) Her birthday celebration was to be at a favorite Mexican restaurant and I, of course, was going to make the treats that we would feast on. It had been a bit more than a year since my initial foray into cupcakery, and since then (as you can tell by the blogging) nary a celebration is had without me, cupcakes in tow. J requested chocolate cupcakes, chocolate buttercream and cherry filling. As I've mentioned before, my "base" recipes have long since been perfected, and for the most part it's all about the toppers. So I began brainstorming exactly what could adorn the cupcakes for wrongsidedom. The martini glasses I had made a few months earlier were such a hit, I decided to include those, as well as some brightly colored flowers. I also wanted to have something uniquely J on those cupcakes. I spread out my arsenal of tools, and thought, and thought, and thought, until divine inspiration hit me. Peacock feathers! These are very J. So to work I went, mixing what I thought were the perfect color combinations and crafting tiny peacock feathers. I frayed the edges with my trusty exacto knife (it never lets me down!) and voila! Peacock feathers! I sat looking at my tools again, and decided to also make little Js. Hot pink, a favorite color, Js and as it just so happened, I had some sprinkles the EXACT same color pink. Thus came into fruition one of my new favorite decorating techniques. I covered my parchment paper with a thin layer of hot pink sprinkles. Then, I pressed the fondant down into the sprinkles, gave it a few quick rolls with my fondant roller and cut out the Js. The result was sparkly Js. Perfect! On top of the cupcakes they went, and off we went to celebrate wrongsidedom. A wonderful time was had by all (despite the occasion... ha!). Cupcakes go great with birthdays, and Mexican food!

Fancy Flowers.

A few sideways, sparkly Js

Martini glasses... always a hit.

Fashionable peacock feathers for a fashionable friend.

Until next time, sweet dreams!

-J

A BFF's Birthday and a Tribute...

A and I have been friends for a looong time. She is my oldest, most consistent friend. Our acquaintance began in 6th grade during lunch with some mutual friends. There we all sat at the table, bantering back and forth about goodness knows what, when the conversations took a sarcastic turn. As I'm sure you all (painfully) remember about middle school, looking cool was the end all to be all. Duh. Who knows what prompted it, but at one point I threw at A "Oooo, where did you get your T-Shirt? Target?" Everyone knows you had to buy your clothes at Abercrombie(Kids). Burn. I was really at my comeback peek in 6th grade... To which A (and I remember this clearly) looked down and her shirt, and back at me and said, "Um. Yeah, actually." Whoopsie. And from that ill-fated moment on, we were fast friends. Well, that's a lie. While we hung around in the same circles (look at me, sounding all Housewives), it wasn't until our Junior year of high school that our friendship really took hold. We spent lunches speculating about Harry Potter, and a glorious summer running around town causing mischief (Mischief Managed, anyone?). Our friendship only grew and strengthened as we entered college and began to celebrate so many of life's important milestones-- marriage, college graduations, acceptance into grad school--together. In fact, this is the same A that I accredit in my first post to introducing me fondant. When in high school, one of our favorite things to do was to play old school NES. Coming from a technological strict family, I had never experience the glory that was Super Mario Bros. 3. A was quick to introduce me to it. Many an evening/afternoon/sleepover was spent studying (usually for Econ) and playing Super Mario Bros. doubles. I would study, while A played. When A died (infrequent... while my play time made it look like Mario had a death wish) we would switch. We really knew how to use our time wisely... In fact, this is a past time we enjoy even today. So when A was slated to turn 25, I knew what I was going to do. A had a love for Dr. Pepper cake ever since I brought her one from West (the best) on a back home from college trip. One fond memory has A and I eating some in the car with doors locked taunting her (now) husband and brother. It was also the flavor of her husband's groom cake. Knowing this, and wanting to conjure up images of our youth (25 is ooollllldddddd) I decided to make a Dr. Pepper, cream cheese, Super Mario Bros. extravaganza of cupcakes. I set to mixing and handcrafting fondant wonderies in preparation for A's big birthday celebration. The night before I was set to go to Austin, I baked up some Dr. Pepper cupcakes, and whipped up some cream cheese frosting to pair with it. These cupcakes were to have no filling, as they are super moist. The filling would turn them into puddles! On the day of A's birth, the cupcakes and I made the long trek from Dallas to Austin. The cupcakes (and I) survived... if just barely. A wonderful celebration was had by all!

A festival of Mario!

Side view of the cakes.

Until next time, sweet dreams!

-J

A Very Rushed Birthday...

I had made a fatal cupcakery flaw... I had allowed the sweet, sugary, deliciousness of my new-found obsession to be released into the wild... and now EVERYONE wanted in on that (Duh. Wouldn't you?). One of these people was my sister, who, after her delightful experience with her graduation cupcakes, decided she wanted to gift the cakes to her friend, B. B's birthday was the weekend after school let out, and K used her powers of persuasion to convince me to make the cupcakes for their party boat weekend. In hindsight, agreeing to make a ton of cupcakes for the weekend directly after school let out wasn't one of my wisest ideas to date, but I am always bending over backwards for the ones I care about. So, bend over backwards I did. Amidst the classroom rearranging, the end of the year planning, and the comment card writing, I went home every day to craft some fondant creations. K and I both wanted something fun and pretty to commemorate B's birthday with. Additionally, B had some insight of her own. She had told K that she loved the chocolate monograms from K's graduation cakes, and that the chocolate-raspberry and strawberry-cream flavors were her favorite. With flavor profiles set and at least one topper decided on, I went right to work. In the end, I chose to make some pretty flowers in bright summery colors, and some fun martini glasses. As a piece d'resistance, I made some catchy sombreros and mustaches-part inside joke, and part pure fun. Though I wasn't there to see the looks of overwhelming joy on the faces of those who indulged in my creations (kind of kidding... kind of not), I did hear there wasn't a crumb left over. I aim to please people.

Flowers and martinis galore!

More flowers and martinis!

Monograms and Ole!

Until next time, sweet dreams!

-J

A BFF's Birthday (Part 2)...

November brought C's birthday. C followed J into the world of 25dom, and as usual, we girls immediately got busy planning the party. This was a college tradition. Each birthday brought theme apartment decorations (my favorite being "Pin the Tail on the C"), new outfits for one and all, and shoe polishing of cars. We did birthdays up right in D-Town, and we carried these traditions over into our post-college years. A little scaled down, yes, but still just as festive. As we got down to planning, C decided to have a hometown, country celebration at her mom's house. We were going to have a bonfire, home-smoked barbeque and a field. To me, a big city girl, this concept was completely foreign. Bonfire? Barbeque from home? A FIELD? Ah, so little I knew about the country that my dear friends tried to educate me on. After getting over my initial shock (haha), I was excited for the celebration full of C's closest family and friends. C requested cupcakes, and I as always, was happy to oblige. I began throwing out ideas to C: pumpkin cupcakes (seriously, these things are addicting... a definite seasonal hit!), strawberry shortcake, chocolate hazelnut. We decided that those three options would be more than divine, and I got to work planning. C graciously let me slide on toppers, as there were to be many cupcakes to bake. The pumpkin cupcakes were a no brainer. The strawberry shortcake and chocolate hazelnut required a little more thought. Eventually I landed on a shortcake cupcake with mascarpone filling and strawberry icing and a hazelnut cupcake with chocolate filling and chocolate hazelnut icing. I quickly put together J's littlest bakeshop and enlisted the help of both C and J to help me bake away. After the cupcakes were crafted, they made the trip to the country where the littlest bakeshop was once again started and C and J helped me fill and ice dozens of cupcakes. The end results were quite yummy, and the party was a blast!

Yummy country cupcakes!

Until next time, sweet dreams!

-J

A BFF's Birthday...

I measure my years from August to August. This idiosyncrasy is definitely a byproduct of being an educator. From the minute I done my new "first day of school outfit" and gather my arsenal of green, purple and orange grading pens I start fresh, turning over a new leaf. And with this new school year came a new milestone. My best gals and I turned 25. J, as always, was the first to lead us into what I consider "real adulthood." I decided this occasion warranted fancy cupcakes, not the Betty Crocker boxed concoctions of old. Besides, let's face it, pondering what sweet treat to present my lovely friend J on her big 25th blowout definitely helped me to combat my urge to cry and enter a pre midlife crisis. The cupcakes had to be outstanding, and I knew they had to be filled. Enter the mental planning stage. I languished about thinking of what the perfect cupcake-filling-decoration match would be, and suddenly it hit me. Once on a shopping excursion, I had ridiculed dearest J about a cream-filled dessert option. To this day was still laugh about it, and so I thought a play on the famous "Hostess" cakes would be best. A chocolatey, chocolate cupcake was baked and injected with a thick vanilla cream filling. They were topped with a rich chocolate buttercream. All I had left was the piece de resistance: Tootsie Roll dinosaurs to perch on top of the cupcakes. Little T was in town, and so I quickly roped her into helping me. After purchasing the only GIGANTIC bag (seriously, I am still eating these things... and the celebration was in SEPTEMBER) of Tootsie Rolls  I could find, we set to work. We carefully rolled and cut the candies to make Brontosaurus necks with sprinkle eyes, tails and spikes. Once assembled they were an amazing birthday treat!

Please excuse the somewhat melted state of the precious dino! It had traveled in a makeshift carrier to downtown Dallas, and I did not have the foresight to take a photo before. Downtown Dallas is rough on everyone, including delicious dino cupcakes!

A whole tray of dinos, including a few that didn't get covered along the way!

Until next time, sweet dreams!

-J