Taylor's Rainbow Doodle Cake

So my little girl turned 8 last week - really and truly where does the time go? In my mind, she should still be the little three-foot-tall terror chasing after her brother, trying to keep up! Now she's dangerously close to being as tall as he is (which he's not happy about at two years' her senior)! I first found the idea for this cake on Sweetapolita's blog (one of my absolute favorites!!) and Taylor just fell in love with it! Multi-colored vanilla cake layers with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream filling, covered in plain white fondant - then the fun begins! Taylor used food color markers to cover the outside of her cake however she pleased - a number "8" appeared, a sunshine, her favorite numbers, all our names - she even shared the fun with big brother :) And then when we cut the cake...wow! What a fun present was inside! Happy Birthday to my (big) little girl!

Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes (Take Two!)

I'd recently purchased some super cute cupcake liners from one of my favorite stores, Bake It Pretty, and thought making a batch of these cupcakes would be an excellent opportunity to put them to use! Mocha cupcakes with my white chocolate peppermint buttercream, topped off by peppermint candies. Loved the way they looked in these little baking cups!

Candy Land Princess Birthday

This was a pretty good sized order for me - cake plus four dozen cupcakes - but such a fun one to do! I have been dying to make a "candy" themed cake! So glad I finally got my chance :) The cake was vanilla buttermilk with vanilla buttercream filling, covered in fondant. With the exception of a few sour skittles, all the details on the cake were fondant. The crown was gum paste with the Birthday girls' name and age! There were two dozen vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting and coordinating gum paste toppers and also two dozen vanilla cupcakes with fresh strawberry buttercream frosting. Loved this party theme!

Duke Hospital Auxiliary Cupcakes

This was a super fun project! Not only did I have the task of creating tiny "Pink Smock" toppers for a Duke Hospital Auxiliary meeting, but I was also given a recipe to try for the cupcakes - one I'd never attempted before :) Fresh apple-pecan cupcakes with a swirl of cream cheese frosting, half topped with pearl sprinkles, half topped with hand cut gum paste/fondant toppers in the Auxiliary store's emblem, a Pink Smock!

Miss Matched Birthday Cake

Another re-do of a previously made birthday cake - but somehow, it doesn't get old! :) Birthday cake in my "Little Miss Matched" style but slightly different colors. Bottom tier was chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling, top tier was vanilla buttermilk cake with vanilla buttercream filling, both covered in fondant. The curli-ques on top were gum paste, all other details were fondant.

Car/Desert Roadway Birthday Cake

This was such a fun little cake to do! Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling, covered in fondant with all fondant details. The birthday boy was turning 2, hence the road signs reading, "Speed Limit 2"! (Thought that was such a fun little detail!) Mom was planning on adding toy cars to the road on top of the cake at the party.

Another Angry Birds Cake!

Wow, have these ever been popular this year! Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream crumb coat, covered in fondant with all fondant details. One thing about it, I'm getting plenty of practice with my modeling which is always a good thing :)

Daisy Topper Cupcakes

I have to admit, before receiving this request I'd never heard of PEO International, but after doing a little research - wow! It truly sounds like such a wonderful organization furthering the education of women! These cupcakes were for a local branch's meeting - fresh strawberry cupcakes with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and gum paste/fondant toppers with the PEO name and daisy emblem. Really enjoyed working on these cupcakes and learning more about this organization!

White Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream (Recipe)

Please don't get me wrong - I am NOT trying to rush the Holidays upon us at all with this post!! Just thinking in the essence of my love of planning ahead (and assuming that there are others out there who might like to do the same) I thought I'd share what was one of my favorite recipes from last Christmas! I paired this with one of my favorite chocolate cupcakes, but I just have to say - if you're a fan of the peppermint Hershey Kisses that come out right about this time of year (the red and white striped ones?) you MUST try this frosting recipe!!! You will be in love! I topped my cupcakes with peppermints, which turned out quite lovely - however, I will say that once they spent some time in the fridge the peppermints turned (for lack of a better word) "goopy" and the red coloring actually ran off the peppermint!! Thinking if I make more of these this year, I might just use some of the Peppermint Hershey Kisses instead :)

White Chocolate Peppermint Buttercream
12 ounces butter, softened
4 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled to lukewarm
3-4 tablespoons heavy cream
1-2 teaspoons peppermint extract
Red food coloring (optional)
Peppermint candies

Prepare the buttercream: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter with the confectioner's sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in the cooled white chocolate until well combined. Add enough of the heavy cream until the buttercream reaches your desired consistency for piping or spreading and beat on high speed for 1 minute more. Beat in 1-2 teaspoons peppermint extract (depending on how strong you want the peppermint flavor to be.) Color with red food coloring, if desired. (I used a small paint brush to stripe the inside of my decorating bag before placing the icing inside it to achieve the candy stripe look of my icing swirls on my cupcakes.)
Pipe or spread the buttercream decoratively onto the cupcakes and top with a peppermint candy or crushed peppermint candies.

NC State University Cupcakes

As a Tarheel fan I feel I have a confession to make. I was working on these cupcake toppers during the big football match-up between State and Carolina. And my beloved Tarheels lost said football game. Badly. Payback for me having worked on these toppers? I dearly hope not lol! Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and gum paste NC State toppers!

Hot Fudge Sundae Decorated Cupcakes

These were very similar to the "Cherry on Top" cupcakes I made before, but slightly modified to reflect more of a Hot Fudge Sundae look :) Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream filling covered with fondant and all fondant details.

Angry Birds Cupcakes

You know, I thought already having done my Son's Angry Birds cake I wouldn't have had so much fun on these cupcakes...couldn't have been more wrong! Loved working on these! Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting and hand formed gum paste toppers.

Small Zebra Print Birthday Cake

This was such a cute little cake! Marble cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream filling, covered in fondant with a zebra print pattern. All the details were fondant as well :)