Puppies, Balloons, Buzz, Triathlon, Bieber... Oh My!

I've been remiss in posting my recent cupcake creations to the blog!

Early October I made a rather large puppy cake for 6 year old Brian's birthday... Because they were having about 8o at the party, I augmented the design with balloons, which were also featured on his invitation.

I left the balloon cupcakes separate (from each other, and not frosted as one mass) because I wanted to use sugars for some of the colors.... there were red balloons in the picture, and I avoid red frosting at all costs! It just tastes terrible (even with "tasteless"
color gels) and it stains mouths and most anything it touches!

About 2 weeks after the puppy, Michele had me make cakes for her niece and nephew again (last year they had the Nemo/Arial cake). I was most concerned about Buzz Lightyear, but amazingly, it wasn't as much of a challenge as I expected (once I got the skin color set... for a while it looked like Buzz had visited a spray tanning booth!). I used jelly for his head cap (which is purple.. .another tough color to make without terrible taste and staining)... but the jelly worked great! I'm guessing it tasted pretty good too. The puppy was similar to the one I made for Bryan, so I was able to relax about execution, and enjoy the process a little more.

At the end of October, Rowan turned 3! (Rowan was the recipient of the Frankenstein cake last year).

This year he had a Justin Bieber theme, so his mom requested a microphone. How cool is this? Oh, and if you don't know, Bieber is really into purple, so she also requested a purple base for the cake . I had a lot of fun with this cake and was very happy with the result. For the microphone "head" I pressed the cupcakes into pulverized chocolate wafers to give it that spongey microphone feel. As usual, Helpful Husband provided his consultation to make the cake a greater success.

This month I was asked to make a cake for the surprise party of a woman who spends the majority of her waking moments challenging the limits of her physical being. If cupcake cakes were 3D I so would have done 2 halves of a mountain ... one representing ski season, the other hiking. But I settled for a triathlon theme, as Audra is a triathlete as well! I used brown sugar to represent dirt for the running portion of the cake and pulverized chocolate wafers for the tire/spokes/cycle portion. For the swim/water portion, again wanting to avoid BAD frosting, I used blue dusting sugar ... in a moment of brilliance, Husband thought to use his creme brulee blow torch to melt the sugar into a blue sea!

Next up - Pikachu! (Coming next week.)

{In other news, plans to update the kitchen are firming up, so you won't have to see my cakes against the current finishes for much longer! I CAN'T WAIT!}

Rock Star 2 Year Old!

Precious Marco had his second birthday this weekend and his parents chose the coolest theme - Rock Star! So I created my first guitar cake. I fashioned it after the pinata (see below) that Mom chose and had a great time making stars out of the fondant-like sheets and chew candies. The black frosting was chocolate made super dark with lots of cocoa and a fair amount of black dye... Aside...Frosting colors that require a ton of dye - think red and blue - often have a chemical after-taste AND they leave mouths stained... I try to avoid them at all costs, using sprinkles and other decorative items that taste GOOD... I'm happy to report that this frosting was effectively dark AND it tasted good! "Thanks for the best cake ever, Linda... Today we put a candle in a single cupcake of yours... Thanks for bringing extras!!" - Marco's Mom, September 4, 2011 I think baby Sarah liked the cake too!

M&M/Bruins Hockey Cupcake Cake!

What great taste this kid has, eh? A Bruins Hockey Cupcake Cake! I only wish I could have gotten players with the RIGHT color jerseys ... (if anyone knows a good paint for plastic figurines, let me know!)

The birthday boy happens to also love M&Ms, so I managed to get the right M&M colors in there for the rink ... as usual, I had a total blast making a cupcake cake! Husband contends that my placement of characters could have been better ... but he was still on his way home from Korea! And is my consultant on such things...

Stay tuned for Marco's guitar cake... coming next weekend!

Wedding Cupcake Tree!

I was so thrilled last October when a friend at Beantown Bootcamp, who had heard about my cupcake cakes, asked me about the potential of doing a wedding cake! Well, 10 months later, the wedding cupcake tree came to life!

Wedding couple, Andy and Adrienne came out to Ipswich one cold February night to taste cupcakes. It was so fun! I presented my wares and we talked about tastes (aesthetic and confectionery), and I sent them away asking them to talk between themselves, and to certainly not feel pressured to hire me (or not) right then and there.

August 19, 2011 was the big day. Andy and Adrienne got married at York Beach, ME at the (beautiful) Union Bluff Hotel's Meeting House. In the hours preceding the reception, while the room was being made ready, I excitedly built the cake ... I was visited by the groom's mother, and even the groom himself!

The couple's main color was clover and theirs was a beach theme; so Andy and Adrienne decided on cupcake wrappers with a "wave" pattern in the shade of clover green. I accented the tiered structure with calla lilies (their flower of choice) and lily grass. Adrienne chose the "H" cake topper and the wonderful star fish and sea glass details lining the table.

"I just wanted to thank you again for your amazing cupcakes!!! They were a HUGE success. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! -Andy and Adrienne Haglin, August 21, 2011

This project was so incredibly fun! My mind is streaming will the many many other ways these trees will manifest themselves in the future! Please be in touch with questions about this cake, or a cake for your special event! ~Linda

Cowboy Hat & Polka Dot Elephant Ear Baby Cake!

It feels like it's been a while since I posted! We were away in UTAH for a week, (awesome vaca) but the weeks prior to and post vacation held cake making opportunities for me... Omri is the brother of the little boy who got the Frankenstein cake last October. Omri's theme choice was "Cowboy Hat" (how is it so easy for kids to know EXACTLY what theme they want?! Adults are far less certain of themselves!). Anyhoo - I think it came out pretty cool. I hope it enhanced his Chuckie Cheese party! And can you believe more baby cakes?! Congratulations to Ellen! For her cake, instead of recreating the party invitation, we looked to her bedding. It was so fun to copy!!! Elephants are the BEST and this one has the coolest polka-dotted ear. Trunks and funky ears allow me to break out the sugar cookies. Once the main cake is set (cupcakes laid out in basic shape) and after I have given it initial layer of frosting, I use foil to fashion shapes like the ear, trunk, and the band for the cowboy hat... Once the foil shape is ready, I gently set it on the rolled cookie dough, and cut around it with a pizza cutter or knife. Moving the large shapes can be precarious, but Tom's restaurant style super spatulas do the trick! Word from one of the shower hosts who commissioned the cake: "Ellen's cake was a big hit!!!! The only recommendation was to give me some business cards to pass out with serving... people loved it ... and it was the perfect size." {Business cards are on the way!} And there WILL be a wedding cupcake creation! Wedding date is August 19th. Can't wait to make the perfect creation for this awesome couple!

BABY Cakes are the Coolest!

After a rocking day at Attitash, which had just gotten a foot and a half of snow, we drove home so that I could make a cake and attend R's baby shower... and Tom was able to spend a fair amount of time on the bathroom reno...

Check out the fun of R's cake - like many of the others, this was based on her invitation (and eVite, in fact) and it was so fun! Check out the custom chocolate spokes...!.. and hubs made of minis!

Cowboy Hat Birthday Cake and another baby shower in the hopper... AND a potential wedding cupcake creation come August!

Stay tuned!

Double Hearts Valentine & STRONG Woman Birthday...

Another double wammy cupcake cake week! Caren wanted to do something special for her husband AND her son... her Two True Loves...

I took this opportunity to use my new mini cupcake cake pan... the larger heart is made up of the mini cupcakes... and the smaller heart is inset, as a group of three regular-sized cupcakes ...

It was fun to do two levels and I am sure there will be many more ways I can incorporate the minis...

...like in the STRONG Woman dumbell birthday cupcake cake.... the minis worked great to make the "bar" of this dumbell! This cake was for an awesome STRONG friend who hit a milestone birthday this week...

Who knows what shape the next cake will take?!

Elephant/Monkey Baby Shower & a Birthday Nana who enjoys her wine!

It was a busy week for cupcake cakes!

S (customer) initially asked for a monkey (similar to the one I did for Marco's birthday)... and I encouraged her to send me the invitation - I am SO glad I did! Isn't it SO cute and great for inspiration?!

I couldn't resist creating the elephant head... I did the monkey too, only a little smaller, and it worked out great! S wanted a "few" chocolate cupcakes, so all of the monkey was chocolate and the elephant was all funfetti!

The ears on both animals, along with the elephant's trunk and leaves were all sugar cookies. I know from customer feedback that there is always someone vying for the sugar cookies! I am SUPER happy with how this one came out. Thanks again, S, for the business!

White Wine Birthday Cupcake Cake
M wanted a cupcake cake for a double party for her mom and brother-in-law. So the wine glass cake was in addition to another dessert they had on hand for brother-in-law... I think this is a GREAT idea...

I know M was thinking the cupcake cake would be great for the kids especially! I remember being a kid and always being drawn in by the more creative dessert creations... I hope they enjoyed it!

How it all got started...

August of last year I got word that my sister (MJ), brother-in-law, and nephew (Joey) would be visiting from LA for the weekend of Joey's 6th birthday. This was WAY exciting for me, and of course I wanted to throw a decent 6-year-old party! I emailed my sister and asked her what theme Joey might be into this year, and she turned and asked him...

Several days later I got a call from my sister and Joey... She had just asked him how he wanted his cake, and because he was getting so detailed/complicated, she decided he should tell me himself! So Joey got on the phone and proceeded to tell me he'd like a baseball field, with "the kids" on it, that the catchers arm should move, and "cupcakes underneath." All I could envision was a layer cake set atop cupcakes, (which made little sense to me). So after MJ mitigated that the moving arm was probably not possible, she got on the phone and described the "cupcake cake" phenomena that had apparently struck Southern California...

Also known as "pull apart" cakes, a cupcake cake is constructed of cupcakes shoved together and then is frosted as one...

So I got on the phone calling every bakery and grocery store on the No Shore of MA... most had never heard of these, one wasn't doing them "anymore" and one actually said yes, they make cupcake cakes! Tom and I headed to said store and got the specs on what a baseball cupcake cake would entail and cost...

In his usual way, Tom asked a lot of questions... (Tom likes to maximize what he can get from any service provider...) He wanted to know if she could make a batting cage (of all things!)... he wanted to know what shape it would be ... she said a rectangle (picture 1/2 sheet cake)... When we got in the car Tom was like, what's the point of using cupcakes if it's going to look like any grocery store cake?

So I started looking around online and found a rendition of a baseball cupcake cake and got inspired. I was able to order some supplies for the same amount on money I would have spent on Joey's cake. The result was something very special... something Joey really adored... and something I wanted to make AGAIN!