Bones & Blossoms & Boxes

I must have not been thinking straight last week because I took on a double order for Saturday.  During one of the most insane work weeks ever. While practically OD'ing on precautionary vitamins and supplements and even when I had the slightest tickle in my throat because I was surrounded by sniffling and sneezing and coughing people.  I had absolutely nooooo time to be sick!  Four dozen cupcakes had to be baked and decorated by noon on Saturday. And I had to be able to focus on work!  And I had to clean the house!  Over ambitious, much?  haha

I was planning to deliver these in my cupcake carriers and be a pain and make people take their naked cupcakes (I didn't have wrappers that fit mini cupcakes!) out of the carrier case so I could bring it back home with me right then and there.  On Thursday I was thinking to myself, "thank goodness I have TWO of these carriers!" but I got lucky.  REAL lucky.  Like Clint Eastwood asking if I felt lucky except I'm not a homicidal maniac thief with a death wish. Anyway, the cake boxes and cupcake clamshells and wrappers and bags I ordered were delivered!  Therefore, I could be somewhat professional and package these babies proper for my orders! I put "The Cake Dealer" stickers on the cupcake boxes for the perfect finishing touch! Yay for basement storage!

I made white and pink vanilla frosting on Thursday night and baked super light and moist chocolate cupcakes on Friday night.  60 regular cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes, to be exact.  I actually had half a bite of a mini cupcake and made Vin eat the other half since my tastebuds were off from snorting ingesting all the confectioner's sugar and flour that flew out of the mixer.  He said it tasted awesome; since the man doesn't love chocolate (let alone most desserts), I figured they really did come out well!

Two dozen regular cupcakes were for a family friend's niece's party.  The birthday girl sounded like a wicked cool kid because she wanted skulls and punk designs. Hello? Just what I like, too!  So I did some freehand piping of skulls on 1 dozen and some girly/punkish designs on the other dozen.  I was told that the girls loved the cupcakes and I now am booked through November 13 because of this order.  haha

The other order was for a dozen regular cupcakes and a dozen mini cupcakes with roses for another girl's birthday party.  I finally got the frosting consistency to be perfect and not melty @ all, but I should have started making the roses a day in advance because my wrist and forearm got really fricking tired churning out 24 frosting flowers all @ once.  I mean, it was so stiff it was hard to squeeze!  (Yes, I did purposely set myself up there  haha)  But, I gotta say, they came out looking pretty good! And I was so glad the girl's mom said the girls went crazy over them and thought they were so beautiful and delicious.  Awww... my temporary wrist pain was totally worth it.  =)

My final frosting-related feat of the day was making one last rose for a birthday cupcake for a friend.  I received the rest of my packaging order after dropping off the other 2 orders so the signature hot pink/black/white ribbon was missing (dang!).  But not for Jaime's birthday cupcake!  I carefully placed it in one of the 200 Chinese food takeout containers I just received and finished it with a bow.  Voila! C'est parfait!

Happy birthday to all you October babies!

Packages

My beginnings are so humble (and cheap) that I've been getting by transporting my baked goods in Tupperware, old (but clean!) plastic takeout containers, heavy duty cake carriers (and being paranoid about having people break or lose them and the awkwardness that comes along with "Hey, umm... I need that carrier back, so... either eat your damn cupcakes right now so I'll take it with me or please lug it back to me when you're done"), and the best one so far: shoe boxes... which I completely cover with wax paper before a dab of icing or the smallest crumb even touches the box. (The shoe box used for today's cupcakes was appropriately hot pink, black and white... to match my business card! How convenient!)

But I'm running low on takeout containers since I keep giving them away with the cakes, and I can only buy so many shoes. (I don't think I can really use that excuse on my husband. "But baby, I needed to buy these boots because the box is the PERFECT size for my upcoming cake order!") I realize I had to let go of the ghetto fabulousness at some point and get some legit bakery boxes, so after weeks of price shopping and meticulous, borderline-OCD measuring of all my mini cupcake/regular cupcake/mini cake/regular cake pans, I finally ordered some cupcake clamshell containers and cake boxes. And some hot pink, black and white ribbon. And some heavy duty bags in which to carry the cakes. And cupcake boxes that hold TWO cupcakes instead of half a dozen. And a couple other neat cake packaging things I couldn't resist but hope to use in the foreseeable future. Yes, I searched for the best prices and set my budget and I'm hoping the reason I can't sleep isn't because I have anxiety due to buyer's remorse. All I have to say is: let's hope I actually get steady orders to make use all of this stuff and thank goodness for pantry storage space!

Velvet cupcakes

After a two week hiatus, I agreed to take on an order for red velvet cupcakes with chocolate frosting. These look more like muffins or almost chocolate cupcakes because I didn't use red food coloring. (I admit, they look a little odd with the cake and icing being almost the same color.) Why is it that everyone loves red velvet? I ran out of red food coloring a while ago, and with work being as insane as it has been lately, I haven't had time to get the special "no taste red" food coloring. I only have the cheap, watery, gag-inducing, super bitter red food coloring, and considering that red velvet cake batter requires a ton of it, I refuse to use it. So I made plain velvet cupcakes with chocolate frosting. I had a lot of extra batter so I made little mini cupcakes and cream cheese frosting to go with it. I don't know what to do with all these extra ones since I don't eat them and Vin can only bring so many for lunch, so maybe my co-workers might get a freebie tomorrow...

Roses

I started making roses for the hell of it this past spring, and the cake decorating just took off. These cupcakes (and mini cupcakes!) were a result of a frosted flower-making binge. The pink ones were almond-flavored, the purple ones were raspberry flavored and the white frosting was coconut.

Angel food cupcakes

Upon seeing a photo of the Pinkalicious cupcakes on facebook, a friend made a comment and said "I'd like to place an order for my birthday... about 2 dozen cupcakes sound good." I thought she was joking, so I went along with it and said "Sure! What kind would you like and when?" A couple minutes later, I get a legit email request for 24 angel food cake cupcakes with chocolate frosting. My reaction: "OH!"

I've never made angel food cake before and always thought that it HAD to be made in those Bundt pans. One of the reasons I've never made angel food cake is that I was always worried about f*cking it up since the process is completely different than mixing regular cake batter. Plus, I didn't own a Bundt pan, let alone mini Bundt molds for cupcake-sized cakes. So I told my friend that I'd experiment and cross my fingers that I could make a good angel food cake batter and that cupcakes would work. Lo and behold... the cupcakes were light and fluffy and not dried out and delicious! After icing them with the chocolate frosting (and making one special one with a rose on it), I packed them up in Tupperware containers and brought them into the city for my friend's party. She didn't try one right away so it made me antsy... what if she didn't like it? What if they turned bad within the 2 days since I made them? This could ruin me before I even got my business cards printed! Luckily, my friend texted that everyone loved them AND her boss wanted to place an order. Phew! I think I may make this again and make a berry-lemon glaze next time... hopefully I'll be just as successful!

My sister's birthday

My sister turned 24 this year. She is my confidante, my partner in crime, and yet she somehow keeps my head from floating off into the clouds. Sometimes she acts like the responsible, levelheaded big sister... and then she'll suddenly say some ridiculously airheaded comment that makes me crack up with an uncontrollable "BWAHAHAHAHAAAAaaaaa" laugh. haha

Her dinner party was on a Friday night, so during the week, I spent a couple hours each night on her little cake. First, I baked the cake and cupcakes. The following night, I made frosting and the roses. On Thursday night, I was sooooo freaking frustrated because it was so hot and the icing was just melting... even with the A/C blasting. I had 15 seconds from the time I took a chilled rose out of the fridge to the time I could place it on the cake before it would turn to complete mush. This was a painstaking, surgeon-like process, but c'mon... it's for my sister.

After using the best flowers for her cascading cake motif, I still had quite a few decent roses left over. Popping these babies on cupcakes was muuuuuch easier than being McGuyver and strategically (and quickly!) placing cascading roses on the cake before the frosting blew up. I mean... melted.

Pinkalicious

My first official order: 2 dozen custom Pinkalicious cupcakes for a coworker's daughter's class birthday. I didn't even know what Pinkalicious was, but said yes I'd make them anyway. Upon googling, Pinkalicious is a series of kids books about a little girl that eats so many pink cupcakes that she turns pink. On the cover of the book was this pink and red cupcake. I stared @ this thing for a good 20 minutes to make sure I made the cupcakes as close to the image as possible. The end result... a very happy little girl, a dad who didn't get conned by Crumbs, a successful first order for me, and people telling me I need to get business cards made... ASAP!

Chocolate almond cake

Obviously this cake was for someone named Frank. It was my brother-in-law's birthday and since he looooves almonds, I made a chocolate cake with chopped chocolate almonds, nutella and almond filling, almond-hazelnut frosting, and decorated with cocoa powder and cocoa-covered almonds. There was leftover batter so I made a dozen cupcakes.

Butterfly cupcakes

I made vanilla cupcakes with white and lavender vanilla frosting for my soon-to-be-sister-in-law's bridal shower. The little butterflies are made of edible rice paper. Not my fanciest work, but the little cupcakes still looked cute.

Penny's birthday

Little Penelope turned one in September and the theme of her party was ladybugs! I made a strawberry cake with pinkish-red raspberry frosting and black chocolate frosting. Her cake turned out super cute!

Blue doughnut?

The CEO was retiring and going back to Japan, and of course I HAD to make something special for his departure. I brought in a 2 layer vanilla cake with sprinkles baked inside, and made blue soy-vanilla frosting with rainbow sprinkles. I didn't have "The Simpsons" in mind, but it ended up looking like a big blue doughnut. It was a bittersweet moment... I was really glad everyone liked the cake, but I was very sad to see one of my biggest baked goods fans go.

Little Pat's birthday

Vin's nephew Patrick was born shortly after our wedding last year, and for his first birthday I wanted to bake something. Ice cream cone cupcakes seemed like a brilliant idea for a little boy's birthday! Vanilla cake was baked inside and then I filled them with vanilla frosting. I made blue frosting and tried to make Mr. Softy-like swirls, but I still need to work on the technique. Even so, it was a huge hit with all the little kids!

Pineapple upside down cakes

Another one of my coworkers was leaving the company and so I asked "What kind of going away cake would YOU like?" The response: pineapple cake. So I looked up about five different recipes for pineapple upside down cake and read people's comments and suggestions and ended up drafting my own recipe. My version had coconut flakes AND coconut milk, and the sugary crust at the bottom (err... top) was superb. I made 2 cakes, but there was still extra batter so I grabbed the cupcake pans and made.... *drumroll please* coconut-pineapple upside down CUPCAKES! These were a bigger hit than the cake, and the cake turned out tasty, moist and damn good. It's not much to look at, but tastewise.... definitely one of my best.

Summer family parties

This past June was big. We finally had our housewarming party, and just for sh*ts and giggles we threw in my brother's high school graduation, my cousin's birthday and my parents' 30th anniversary. I wasn't able to take a photo of the strawberry cakes for my cousin's birthday, but here's the freehand Pikachu cake (my brother loooooved Pokemon when he was little... I guess he still does hahaha), and I attempted to recreate a tier from my parents' wedding cake, but I was rushing and the frosting was not cooperating and it didn't come out so well. A baby made a swipe @ the cake before I got a cell phone shot of it. At least it tasted good. =)

My parents' cake was a 2 layer vanilla cake with white vanilla frosting and pink raspberry flowers. The Pikachu cake was one layer of coconut cake with all coconut frosting.

Red velvet mania

One of my coworkers was leaving the company and I asked what kind of cake she'd like (I missed baking for her birthday so I felt extra bad), and she requested red velvet. I didn't realize how much red food coloring was required, and the batter didn't quite taste right so I kept adding some of this... a little of that... and by the time I was done baking, I ended up with several small cakes, a dozen cupcakes, and a crapload of mini cupcakes. Crapload. And the homemade cream cheese frosting came out great! (Thank you, Alton Brown.)

I filled my coworker's cake with cream cheese frosting and a layer of pecans. Not much to look at, but it tasted delicious!