Cupcakes Make Me Happy

I love making cupcakes - baking those perfectly domed little beauties with perfectly swirled buttercream on top - there's something so satisfying about achieving those uniform swirls :) These were some recent cupcakes of mine:

Chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes (chocolate cupcake with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream, topped with a chocolate dipped strawberry).

Cookies & Cream cupcakes (Chocolate cupcakes with Oreo buttercream, topped with half an Oreo cookie).

Duck Blind Birthday Cake

Fun little cake for a guy who loves to hunt :) Vanilla cake, vanilla buttercream filling, covered in fondant with fondant details.

Trolls!

This was a fun little Trolls themed birthday cake - the cake flavors were vanilla and chocolate with vanilla buttercream and fondant details with the exception of the two trolls - they were toys :) I really enjoyed making the fun little rainbow and thought it was a great backdrop to the rest of the elements on the cake!

Tarheel Birthday

Fun and simple Birthday cake for a Carolina fan :)

Star Vs the Forces of Evil (cake!)

In honor of my little girl's upcoming birthday...here's her cake from last year! She LOVES watching Star Vs. the Forces of Evil - totally her favorite cartoon, so I knew I wanted to do this cake theme for her! But how?! Really didn't want to do an edible image, or attempt what would surely be a sadly modeled  version of Star Butterfly out of fondant or gum paste! When searching for inspiration, I came across a screen shot taken from the episode where this particular cake was made for Star - now THAT I could do! :)

I baked the cake (funfetti of course), covered it in white fondant, then hand modeled the fondant "icing" around the sides and top edge of the cake. Then, I used a combination of edible food color markers and thinned gel coloring to paint & draw the image on top of the cake! Not too shabby and the Birthday girl was thrilled with the end result :)

Under the Sea Birthday

Fun little "under the sea" themed cake for a little one's 2nd Birthday! Loved the colors & detail on this cake.

Black & White 40th Birthday

Just a simple little quick cake for a 40th Birthday - vanilla cake, vanilla swiss meringue buttercream filling, covered in fondant with fondant details.

Snow White First Birthday

I loved the theme for this sweet little one's 1st Birthday party - Snow White! Hand cut and etched fondant Snow White cake topper along with an apple smash cake :)

Elephant Baby Shower Cake

Fun little elephant themed baby shower cake! Flavors were red velvet with cream cheese filling and pumpkin spice with cinnamon cream cheese filling, covered in fondant with fondant details.

Catching Up!

Last weekend was a busy one! 

Lovely Fall Birthday cake frosted in chocolate buttercream with fondant leaves - 

Then there was a Fireman's Helmet Birthday cake - 

And finally a lovely golden dripped, pink peony Birthday cake - 

Avengers Birthday Cake

Fun little Avengers themed cake for twin brothers turning 5! Cake was strawberry with vanilla buttercream filling and chocolate with toasted marshmallow buttercream filling, covered in fondant with fondant details.

2015 North Carolina State Fair Cake

Well, here I am again after a long hiatus! (Sorry about that!) I just realized that I never posted my entry for the 2015 NC State Fair, so thought I'd remedy that. As I think I've mentioned before, I always enjoy using my state fair entry as a way to try something new and really have fun! When I decided to focus on orchids, I didn't want to just have the orchids displayed on a normal shaped multi-tiered cake - I wanted something different, a little more realistic. So, I decided to attempt a potted orchid plant! Overall, I'm still very happy with the outcome even if it didn't result in a blue ribbon. And I discovered that I enjoyed making sugar orchids, even with all their minuscule parts!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Fun and simple little buttercream pumpkin cupcakes for a Fall get-together! Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream piped pumpkins.

Pumpkin/Fall 1st Birthday Cake

My latest cake for Icing Smiles, Inc. - a sweet little Fall/Pumpkin themed cake for Delaney's 1st Birthday! Vanilla cake, vanilla buttercream filling, covered with fondant and fondant details. So blessed to be able to provide a cake for a sweet little patient!

Owl Baby Shower Cake

Fun little owl themed baby shower cake! Vanilla cake, covered with vanilla buttercream with fondant details/accents.

Prince 1st Birthday Cake

Fun little 1st birthday cake fit for a Prince! Vanilla and chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream filling, covered in fondant, with fondant details.

Woodland 1st Birthday

This was a fun double-barrel 8" round woodland 1st Birthday cake! The cake was chocolate, covered in chocolate ganache with fondant animals.

Sea Turtle Cake

I truly love working on cakes for Icing Smiles more than any others - nothing beats the smile you help put on that child's face - at a time when they truly need it most! This cake was for sweet little Collier, celebrating his 1st Birthday. He loves watching the videos of the brightly colored tropical fish and sea turtles in his room, so that's the inspiration for his party decor and cake! Two tiers of fresh orange cake with whipped orange buttercream filling and one of chocolate cake with mocha filling - Collier got his own little smash cake made of vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream :)

Sports Themed Birthday Cake

Fun little 3-tiered sports themed Birthday cake! Chocolate and vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream filling, covered in fondant.

Super Mario Brothers Cupcakes

Fun Super Mario Bros themed cupcakes for a little guy's birthday! Flavors were chocolate with whipped chocolate buttercream and strawberry with whipped vanilla buttercream. All fondant toppers.

Duke Basketball Cupcakes

Fun Duke University/Duke Basketball themed cupcakes for a dinner party! Flavors were vanilla bean with whipped vanilla buttercream, chocolate with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and chocolate with whipped chocolate buttercream. Hand crafted fondant cupcake toppers.

Duke Divinity School Graduate Cake

Loved crafting this all-ivory fondant graduation cake for a Duke Divinity School graduate! I re-created the Divinity School logo using ivory fondant and tried to mimic the look of the gorgeous windows that can be found at the school on the sides of the cake.

Paisley Birthday Cake

Fun, cheery and bright little paisley birthday cake! Vanilla buttermilk cake, vanilla swiss meringue buttercream filling, covered in fondant with fondant details.

Frozen Birthday Cake

(Another) Frozen themed birthday cake! Styled a little differently than others I've done, so that keeps them fun! Covered with fondant, toy Anna, Elsa and Olaf toys, all other details were fondant.

Gold Wedding Cupcakes

So here I am, yet again - posting work I did long ago (back in December to be exact!) This was a lovely, lovely wedding I provided cupcakes and a cutting cake for, held at The King's Daughters Inn in Durham, NC. Everything was decorated so beautifully and they were truly a joy to work with. The cupcake flavors were red velvet with vanilla swiss meringue and vanilla bean with vanilla swiss meringue. We accented some of the cupcakes with glittering gold heart picks and others simply with gold sprinkles. I hand made a golden gum paste topper for the couples' small cutting cake at the top of the stand.

Batman & Superman Cupcakes

Fun cupcakes to celebrate two little guys' birthdays! One loves Batman, the other Superman, so we made a mixture of fondant toppers for them. These were chocolate cupcakes with toasted marshmallow filling and fluffy chocolate buttercream, with fondant toppers.

Lacrosse Player Graduation Cake

I actually did this cake a little while back, but it had slipped my mind to post it! A cake to celebrate a high school grad lacrosse player heading to Methodist University! (We decided to decorate the cake using his High School colors).

Basketball Shoe Cake

I had the pleasure of making this young man's Birthday cake a couple years' back through Icing Smiles and was so very excited to make his Birthday cake this year! His fellow team mates went together to buy him a new pair of basketball shoes, so we decided to model his cake after his new shoes! It was exciting to see this cake go from sketch, to crumb-coated shape, to final product! Not too bad for my first shoe cake!

Lego Wolverine Cupcakes

Fun little Lego Wolverine cupcakes for a special little guy turning 5! A mixture of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with hand made fondant toppers. Felt kind of bad making Wolfy so cute ;)

Superhero Comic Birthday

Super cute and fun, classic comic book superhero themed cake and cupcakes! Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream filling, covered with fondant and fondant details. Cupcakes were a mix of chocolate and vanilla with vanilla buttercream and fondant toppers.

Dora & Diego Birthday Cake

Fun little Dora & Diego cake for a special little girl's birthday! Chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream filling and frosting, all fondant details (with the exception of Dora and Diego - those were toy figures). I loved making the rainbow - as fun as I thought it'd be!

Valentine's Day Wedding

Can't say enough how much I enjoyed working on this lovely Valentine's Day wedding cake - my first ever! I'll admit to being nervous when working on square cakes (hello, edges!!) but was quite pleased with how this one turned out. Vanilla cake, strawberry swiss meingue buttercream filling, covered with fondant and hand painted zebra stripes. Silk roses and black grosgrain ribbon put the finishing touches on this beauty!

Rustic Buttercream Wedding Cake

Loved, loved, loved working on this sweet couple's wedding cake & cupcakes! Wedding cake flavors were: chocolate with oreo buttercream, red velvet with vanilla cream cheese, pumpkin spice with cinnamon cream cheese and vanilla with vanilla bean buttercream. Cupcakes were mocha with caramel buttercream and vanilla bean caramel drizzle, sprinkled with sea salt.

Frozen Birthday Cakes

So it finally happened - I just now had my first request for a "Frozen" themed birthday cake! These fun trio of cakes were for a special little girl who even had princesses coming to her party! Chocolate and vanilla buttermilk cakes, with buttercream frosting and fondant details.

Hello Kitty Cupcakes

Fun little cupcakes to celebrate a Hello Kitty fan's birthday! Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream swirls and fondant Hello Kitty toppers.

Football First Birthday

Super fun theme for a little guy turning 1! All vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and some fondant details.