2010 Seattle Cupcake Camp!

So Back on April 10th I went to the 2010 Seattle Cupcake Camp with one of my good friends and my sister-in-law Renee.  Let me set the scene for the day.  I was up early and at the baseball fields for league pictures to help out with the raffle tickets.  6:45am to be exact! I didn't have a chance to eat breakfast.  I left the field at 9:45am to pick up my tag along buddies and ran into a snag with someone who needed contact info for the league....didn't get to eat before we left.  Oh! the excitement to get down town to eat cupcakes!!!  I pulled up the address on Mapquest and plugged it into my GPS.  We got down town and parked...paid $15 (highway robbery!).  We walked around...didn't see any cupcakes or people with cupcakes!  We finally went into the Mayflower Hotel and asked the concierge to get good directions.  We were off our mark...Who knew there was an exact address with "north" in it too!  Note to cupcake committee...put full address on website.  I would have donated the extra money that went to parking.  Hopped in the car...drove a few miles north and parked again...paid $12 this time! I practically ran to the front door!  Still no food in my tummy!  We paid to get in (bad charma for me...I was cranky with the (volunteer) ladies at the door.)  Then we had to wait in line!  The next 5 pics are of cupcakes that were submitted for judging....still hungry!  After 10-15 in line we finally made it to the large cupcake room.  I am being generous when I say large though...2nd note to cupcake committee...BIGGER Venue next year!

 Pretty!!!

This one had Pop Rocks on it! Yummers!

Maple cupcake with maple icing and bacon on top!  Sounds heavenly!

I liked the wrappers on the Bella sign!

So we made it in there but the tables were empty...Looking to the right I see a lady in a big platformed dress with cupcakes all the way down on the ledges.  2 samples down...and now we have a box (pilfered from Cupcake Royale, but she was done with it and gave it up with a smile.)  So this is the way it goes...Everyone hovers around the center tables and every so often cupcakes big ans small are placed on the tables...MAD RUSH!  Danielle sat at the table with the box and Renee stood at one table I stood at the other....grab!  We got our samples and brought them back to Danielle...back for more!

See our samples?  Some were fabulous and some...not so much. 

Jackie!  Yes, I bugged her for a picture...right in the middle of her judging but she was very gracious!


All in all...I had a great time! Had about 1/2 dozen cupcakes(some mini ones)...not good on an empty stomach...Had to leave to get some really food.  Good timing!  They were running out of cupcakes and still had over an hour left.  Uhhh... guess where we landed for lunch?  Dick's Drive-in!

My Due Date is April 26th!

Oh yeah! I am the proud owner of the new Cricut Cake Machine. I should have mine by April 26th! It is a much anticipated find. I can’t wait to play with it. If you don’t know what it is…let’s just say it is fabulous!



The Cricut Cakme Machine is a diecut machine that can be used in decorating cakes and desserts. Once you have a rolled out sheet of fondant, gumpaste or an icing sheet, you can put it in the machine, program the die you want cut (tons of cartridges out there!) and voila! As soon as I get it, I will post a picture of the cake. Excited!

I think she will be called Little Red! With the exclamation point!

And so the countdown begins! 12 days!

Buzzin' Busy Bees

I went to the Busy Bee Extravaganza in February.  Since it's my group of stampin' gals I thought I would bring them a little treat.  I made lemon cupcakes with a buttercream frosting.  I also made a bunch of gumpaste bumble bees for the tops.  They turned out super cute and the lemon cupcakes will definitely be part of my recipe book from now on. 
So Yummy!

Hockey Puck

Happy Birthday Anthony!
I was privileged to be able to make my nephews 14th birthday cake!  He is a hockey player in the Seattle Junior Hockey Association.  So I made a giant hockey puck with a jersey.  I put his number and name on the jersey.  He chose to have a chocolate layer and a vanilla layer with strawberry filling covered in chocolate buttercream and chocolate fondant.  I copied the league onto edible frosting and placed it on the top like a real puck.  Turned out super cool and everyone loved it!

Fondant Class

I took a Fondant class at a local cake/candy store.  I learned so many neat tips when using Fondant on a cake.  Mine turned out simple in class. But I loved it.  No one ever ate it...but that is okay.  It looks pretty.  Brian was supposed to bring it to work and forgot.  The little shiney dots and smears are from the rain...lesson learned...make sure your cake is covered when you go outside and try not to wipe them off.  I could have had polka dots on the cake to match the truffles and fondant balls I used for a border. I didn't have a container for my cake.  I actually had to run across the parking lot to Safeway and buy a couple of 8" rounds.  Silly me...didn't think to bring a cake to cake class and the instructor forgot to tell us to bring one. 

Here are the Pictures

Class 1 - Finale cake

Class 1 - Rainbow cake

Class 2 - Finale cake

 The "Golf Bag" cake for the GSB cake Auction = $250

Class 3 - Fondant cake

Class 3 - Finale cake

GSB Cake Auction - Cake #2 = $150

Red Velvet Cupcake - practicing a new recipe

Practicing when Melissa was over.

Mini 'practice' wedding cake.  I wanted to practice with a stacked cake and someone happened to get married at work the weekend before.

Red velvet cake w/ cream cheese frosting

White cake with banana cream filling and buttercream icing

Large Red velvet sheet cake

Store bought cupcakes that I decorated.  We bought the cupcakes without frosting and I made them into a little vegetable garden for the 2009 MTYAA Baseball Auction.

Coconut cupcakes

More Red Velvet with Cream cheese frosting and red sugar sprinkles

I made 12 dozen mini cupcakes this particular weekend....LOVED IT!

Vanilla buttermilk with Raspberry Buttercream and a little sugar pearl.

Snickerdoodle cupcake with snickerdoodle frosting and a dusting of cinnamon and sugar.

White cupcakes with a buttercream frosting and edible glitter.

Cakes and more...

Haven't blogged in weeks and it feels like I haven't baked for just as long.  Other commitments have taken priority but no more!  I have even been to 2 birthday parties and wasn't even approached about helping out with a cake or cupcakes. What the heck!  Let's get baking!  I have offered to bring dessert to a party this weekend. I am thinking a variety of mini cupcakes.  I did this recently for a family anniversary party.  That night we had Vanilla Buttermilk with a Raspberry Buttercream frosting, Red Velvet with a Cream Cheese frosting (cuz they go so well together) and a Snickerdoodle cupcake (thanks to Mindy J.'s suggestion).  I think I will try a lemon cupcake this weekend and need to think of 2 more flavors.  So the search begins.

I need to upload my photos....STILL...so I have record of actually baking and what not.  Hopefully my son can help me with that tonight.

I took a class this week on Sugarveil. It was a neat technique.  It's kind of like making window clings from a sugar mixture with a consistency of thinner marshmallow fluff.  Pretty fun. Check out the cool website at www.sugarveil.com   Might need to use that on my cake in the WASSA contest.  Did I mention I am entering a contest?  The Washington State Sugar Artist Cake show is in April and I will be entering a cake into the Beginner category.  There are many subcategories in each category so I could enter a cake into a couple of them.  That's me...over ambitious but I will probably go for just one.  I'll keep you posted on that big endeavor.

I had a cool treat today!  I received an email from a couple of gals down at the bank (Golf Savings Bank) and apparently my cake was pictured in the Edmonds Beacon.  The bank had a bake sale and cake auction last December and I donated 2 cakes for it.  One of them was a golf bag (get it?) and a picture made it into the small neighborhood paper along with a short story about the bake sale and the proceeds going to a local charity right before Christmas.I went to 3 different places after work looking for the newspaper and could not find it!  I had a sense of one of those times when you know you have seen it around but can't remember where.  Oh well...someone at work said they would bring me a copy, or I can settle for the online version.

Alright!  Lets go get some pics!

Ohhh.....Red Velvet!

It's baking day!  I need to make a Red Velvet cake tonight for a gal at work.  She wants a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.  I made a test cake this past weekend from scratch, Sandra Lee style, and it was so yummy!  It wasn't her recipe but I used a box mix kicked up a notch...wait thats Emerill!  Either way, it was fabulous!

Time to go make a mes in the kitchen.

Starting again

My very first experience I remember with cake decorating was over 24 yrs ago wen I had my first job at Baskin and Robbin.  I loved that job! The owner taught me how to decorate their ice cream cakes and clown cones.  I took a cake decorating class at Cake's Etc.  I remember being 14 yrs. old in that class and the "wiser" (30-40 yr old) ladies not really liking the fact that some yong teenager was in their class.  (I say wiser because if I say older that would make me old now and I feel far from old these days.)  Oh well for them...  I eventually went onto Olson's Grocery store and went from being a courtesy clerk to a cake decorator.  Once again...the "wiser" lady did not like a teenager in her mist.  Being young and not so outspoken ...yet, I let her intimidate me and left there after a few months. 

I got out of decorating cakes until recently.  I had been looking at a frineds pictures in Facebook(Love that site!) and started to get the itch to decorate again.  I looked in my area and found the Wilton classes at a local craft store. I signed up for class 1 and 2 at the same time.  I was so excited to get going again!  On the morning of the first class, I got a call from the instructor that class 2 had been cancelled.  Bummer!  I went ahead to class 1 but looked at other locations in the area to take class 2.  Lucky for me, I found one at another nearby craft store (different company) and the instructor let me into the class a week late. As it turned out, it was a better deal too!  So in November I took Class 1 and 2.  I fell in love again and took Class 3 in December at the 2nd craft store. 

ork loves me...as they are my guinea pigs to cake, filling and icing flavors.  I have had interest in cakes for small occasions but for now I have to keep it that way.   UNfortunately for me, the county I live in requires that I rent a commercial kitchen to run a cakery from.  I had donated 2 cakes to a work auction and they brought in $400! I was so excited to share what I could do. 

I have been very fortunate to have Brian's support throught out my new venture.  I am sure he thinks I will grow tired of it...we'll see.  I really love baking and decorating.  Friends are getting cool birthday cakes and I have even taken on a wedding cake (as a wedding gift)  I am extremely excited about that!  It's not until April/May so I have some time to practice.

I will post some pics soon!