Christmas ParTAY!

Sweet tooF and I had an early Christmas Party (in fact it was an ugly sweater christmas party haha) and it was a blast!

We had yummy food and for dessert, I made Red Velvet Cuppies with Cream Cheese frosting. Check out the toppers I made too! So cute :)  I called them "Red Stocking Cupcakes"

I also made strawberry jello shots! Tis the season to be merry, VERY merry haha!

Gobble! Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you had a fabulous turkey day and you stuffed your bellies to no end (I know I did). What am I thankful for? Stretchy pants!!  This year my brother hosted Thanksgiving so yay! no cooking for me! (but boooo no turkey samiches leftover style). 

Tons of food was cooked, it was all so yummy!! Of course I baked some goodies and brought them along to the par-tay.

I made Pumpkin Spice cupcakes with a NEW Cream Cheese frosting recipe (it turned out GREAT)
and also made Pumpkin Mini Loafs.  Check it out!

Sister in law made homemade pumpkin pie! What's Turkey day without it :)

Cupcake Camp Inland Empire!

This weekend was the big cupcake event Cupcake Camp IE held at the GORGEOUS Mission Inn Hotel and it was a great success! Bakers from all around brought their delicious treats for a great cause, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.  Each baker had their own cupcake "booth" and patrons paid a donation of $10 which included 4 cupcakes of their choice.  Let me first start off by saying I couldn't have done this without the help of my awesome sister!!! She was a great assistant (and may I add a great baker too!)
The minimum for "amateur" bakers was 60 cupcakes (professional bakers had to provide at least 300 yikes!). Initially I thought that would be way too many for me to make, but I started baking on Tuesday and by Friday I have over 80 cupcakes! The flavors I went with were:

Red Velvet w/Cream Cheese
Snickerdoodle w/Cinnamon Buttercream
Cookies n' Cream w/ Cream Cheese topped with a mini Oreo cookie!

The morning of the event was a bit hectic in the Sweet B household. I left the frosting for the very last minute (working with cream cheese I've learned it's VERY temperamental and could melt at any time and just look like a big white blob).  Ok, so cupcakes were frosted and ready to go. As we arrived, people everywhere with boxes of yummy treats! As we unloaded I realized some of my red velvets had tipped over and frosting was ruined :(  I lost a good 10-12 cuppies. DAMN! ( I used two different red velvet recipes and of course the ones that came out better were the ones that were ruined effffffff) So set up was fun, there was pink everywhere!! It was so cute! Some people had awesome stands, colorful, creative, it was great.  This being my first "real" event I had no idea what to expect (but I picked up some awesome tips for next time that's for sure).

Doors opened and in came the herd of people. It was PACKED! The most popular flavor was Cookies n' Cream, they went like hotcakes! In fact I ran out of those.  Then the red velvet (that seemed to be a pretty popular flavor with all the bakers) those were gone too.

It was a great event, I LOVED being a part of it and am so glad I participated.  During the event I was asked several times for my business card and was also asked if I wanted to participate in other events! (woohoo!!)

AnyHOO,  here the pics from the event. Enjoy!!! ( I know I did!!)

My table sign 

My red velvets and topper

My Snickerdoodle

My Cookies n' Cream and toppers

My Cupcake Tree with all of my goodies! 

My Table

Here are some pics of the other booths:

It's Peanut Butter...Jelly...Time!

The other day sweet tooF had a request.."how about a peanut butter filled cupcake?".  Now, I'm not a fan of peanut butter unless it's in a PB&J sammich.  I will have the occasional Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, but considering I don't have the sweet tooF in the family, this didn't sound appealing to me.  Well I tried it (why the heck not right?) and they actually came out pretty yummy!

I made Triple Chocolate Fudge cupcakes filled them with peanut butter buttercream and topped it with Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting.

Mmmm, creamy center!!!

Here is the recipe for the Peanut Butter Buttercream Filling:

1/2 cup unsalted butter room temp
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/4 cup sifted powdered sugar

NY Yankees Say Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Mr. sweet tooF!!  He's a hardcore Yankee fan so what better way to say I Love You than to make him a Yankees birthday cake!
After much research, I decided to make him a baseball hat cake.  I used a glass Pyrex bowl (thus the dome shape) and a second 6" tier and covered in marshmallow fondant.  I used fondant for the brim too.  My goal was to make the color of the hat darker (true Yankee midnight blue), but sheesh, it takes forever - and lots of icing coloring, to make it that dark (and my hands were getting tired of kneading).

He loved it! I'm pretty pleased considering it's my first "odd" shaped cake :)
The cake is a Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese frosting!