M.I.A.

I have been a bit M.I.A. lately, but have a TON to share with all of you!  I had an unexpected visit from my hubby for two weeks!!!  He got to come home from Afghanistan for a conference that we weren't sure he would be able to attend or not.  It was wonderful to see him and break up the long 7 1/2 month deployment.  I have been a busy bee the past month and am changing my focus a little bit.  I love baking, but the thing I have realized I love even more is the decorating.  Since CA has yet to pass a Cottage Food Law that would legalize home baking, I have decided that until then, or until I can rent a commercial kitchen, I will use this time to develop my flavor list and do some experimenting and focus more on my fondant cupcake toppers.  With the exception of St. Patrick's Day, where I used my go to Irish Car Bomb cupcake recipe, most of my cupcakes that I have been making for family and friends have included custom cupcake toppers.  These tiny things are super time consuming and include quite a bit of detail, but that is what I love about making them.  I could spend hours coming up with unique ideas to make a cupcake topper out of :)

I have been developing ideas for my daughters 3rd birthday party, coming up in June and did a set of Tangled inspired toppers that I will tweak a bit when the day comes a little closer.  She took one look at the braid topper and said, "its Tangled".  I guess that's how I knew I got it right :)

I also got the opportunity to work on a custom set of toppers, developed around the birthday boys favorite things.  The turned out so cute and got rave reviews!

My next undertaking included toppers for Easter, which were of precious little bunny behinds and chicks.  They turned out cute and were even better on top of a yummy carrot cake cupcake.

I was then asked by my lovely mom to make some cupcakes for her co-workers birthday....the night before she needed them :)  I came up with these super cute "glam" toppers that turned out cute, especially considering the time I had to work on them!


Most recently, I am working on more Angry Bird toppers for my friend Trish and even better, I have an excuse to take a trip to LA to deliver them.  I think a trip to the Sprinkles ATM is in store! I am also working on custom graduation toppers for my cousin Blaire (more like a sister, being that I am an only child) who graduates in June.  I will test my packing skills as they will make the flight up to Washington state as my carry on :)

Lastly, I got a text last night from my cousin Kilee who compared my Red Velvet cupcake to the Cheesecake Factory's Red Velvet Cheesecake!  What a compliment...come on CA pass the Cottage Food Law!!!

Until next time,

Lacey Cakes

Angry Birds

This weekend was my nephew's 9th birthday party and he wanted an Angry Bird theme.  I shared last week the toppers I was working on for his party and thought I would share the final product with those toppers.  We had such a fun time and I had a BLAST making the cupcakes and cupcake cake for the party.  They were such a hit that the kids were lined up to pick their cupcake out several minutes prior to us singing Happy Birthday.  Most of all, Kaden loved them and was all about telling his friends that I made them for him.  Such a sweet boy and a very happy birthday to him!!
(if you are interested in these toppers or any other toppers for your own cupcakes, please email me at laceycalkins@gmail.com)

Until next time,

Lacey Cakes

Fabulous Toppers

This week I took on something that I have been wanting to do for a long time, more detailed cupcake toppers!  I knew I had it in me, but time wasn't on my side when it came to getting super creative on my cupcake toppers.  Sure I have had some super cute cupcakes, but I have been wanting to kick it up a notch.  With my nephews birthday this upcoming Sunday, of course I volunteered to make the cupcakes and his request was Angry Birds!  After doing some research on the birds and putting my own twist on them, I came up with some 3D and flat options that I can't wait to decorate the cupcakes with.  I hope he loves them as much as I do!!

Being in the cupcake topper mood, I decided to try making mini teapots and tea cups for my mothers/ladies day tea party.  I was a little scared to try these because they seem so intricate and detailed, but to my surprise, I think they turned out super cute and come May, I am excited to make more.

Lastly, my birthday is coming up next week as well and of course I will be making my own cupcakes (someones gotta do it!).  I decided what better toppers than some of my favorite things, Coach, True Religion, Tiffany's and Victoria's Secret!!!  I love them in mini version and can't wait to see what they look like on my cakes.

Just a few things I thought I would share with you all!

Until next time,

Lacey Cakes ;)

Better Late Than Never

Well I have fallen off of my news years resolution to blog at least once a week.  I have over scheduled myself to make sure I stayed busy and that the time flew by (which it has)!!  It is hard to believe that my hubby has been gone a month already and I can only hope that the rest of his time gone goes by just as quick.

Valentine's Day came and went fairly quickly and instead of basking in self pity of not having my Valentine here to celebrate with me, I chose to turn Valentines Day into a celebration of my other Valentine, my daughter, Emma.  We spent a fairly quiet evening at Chuck e Cheese with Grammie and our good friend Lenzi.  Of course cupcakes had to be involved and I chose to make a raspberry and white chocolate cupcake (recipe from the book The Cupcake Diaries which I review a few weeks back) with a dark chocolate dipped raspberry on top.  They were pretty good, but I am glad I made mini size because boy were they sweet!

I also dabbled in making some chocolate covered Oreo's for my hubby's valentines day care package.  I don't know why, but they seemed intimidating, maybe because in the past I haven't had much luck with melting chocolate.  Much to my surprise, they were the easiest thing to make, looked amazing and tasted even better.  Todd shared them with his buddies over there and they got rave reviews!!

The best part of this post is a recent project I took up after seeing it on Pinterest (of course).  I have decided that I wanted to put together a ladies tea party the day before mother's day to celebrate good friends, great mothers and awesome ladies and of course there will be cupcakes as well as other sweets involved.  I knew I wasn't going to find a store bought cupcake stand that would serve this event any purpose so of course I decided to make one myself.  After spending this past Saturday going from estate sale to estate sale and rummaging through what seemed like a dozen different thrift stores (I think it really may have been a dozen) I found WONDERFUL vintage plates in different sizes as well as two pale pink candle sticks and a tea cup and saucer that were already glued together and perfect for the top of the cupcake stand.  After doing some research, I found that using an adhesive called E6000 would work perfect for this project.

I made sure I cleaned and dried the plates, candle sticks and cup/saucer thoroughly (per adhesive instructions).  First I glued one candle stick to the largest, bottom plate and the other candle stick to the medium, middle plate. I used a measuring tape to measure around each plate to make sure the candle sticks were centered and I let those dry over night to assure the best bonding.  In the morning, I glued the middle plate to the candle stick of the bottom plate and then topped it off by gluing the cup/saucer to the candle stick on the middle plate. Again, I used a measuring tap and measured all around the plates to make sure they were centered and let the glue bond for a couple days.

I am so thrilled at how GORGEOUS the cupcake stand turned out and not only will it be perfect for the tea party, it is one of a kind and only cost about $6.50 to make.  Doesn't get much better than that!!  I am in the market to make another 2-tiered stand to accompany the 3-tier!

Next undertaking is going to be an Angry Bird's cupcake cake & cupcakes for my nephews birthday in a couple weeks! 

Until then, my cupcake friends!

Lacey Cakes

A Week in Review

This past week has been a busy one for me.  As promised I have come up with every avenue possible to have an excuse to bake and decorate cupcakes.  Any birthday, holiday, tv event, get together, etc, I am now known to bring cupcakes.  People expect nothing less :)

Last Wednesday, I went out on a much needed girls night at Sublime Ale House to celebrate a friends belated birthday, of course cupcakes were a must.  For the first time, I tried a batch of mini cupcakes using the Guinness recipe I posted last week, but instead of Irish Cream ganache, I used Malibu rum for a slight coconut flavor and regular vanilla buttercream for the frosting.  I finally decided to try out my buttons and ribbons mold by Wilton that I got a while back at Michaels.  The cupcakes turned out great and tasted fantastic...so much so that we had the waiters coming back for seconds.

On Sunday, of course the Super Bowl wouldn't be complete without some cupcakes.  Since I didn't really have a preference for either team, I decided to go with a neutral football themed cupcakes.  I tried a new white cupcake recipe with vanilla bean buttercream...AMAZING (recipe to follow).

Lastly, today marked my very first PAID cupcake order out the door.  I was proud, nervous and excited and very happy when the customer loved the cupcakes.  I cannot wait to see how this venture of mine pans out.  At least I know it is something I love and I hope my passion is shown through on the cupcakes!

Until next time, I will leave you with this great white cupcake recipe that i found from Good Life Eats:

Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes

Makes approximately 18-20 cupcakes (about 48 minis)

 

Ingredients:

For the Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes:
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
4 large egg whites, room temperature
seeds scraped from one vanilla bean
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the Vanilla Bean Buttercream:
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
seeds scraped from one vanilla bean
2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract (to maintain the bright white color)
1 ½ pounds (24 ounces) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream or milk

Directions:

For the Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the racks in the center position. Line cupcake tins with cupcake liners. Set aside. *see below for mini directions

In a large bowl combine both flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.

In a medium bowl whisk together the milk, sour cream, and egg whites. Set aside.

Fit a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or use a hand mixer (I got a better dome with the hand mixer). Add the butter, sugar and vanilla to the bowl and beat at medium speed for 3 minutes, or until light. Scrape the sides as necessary.

Add the vanilla extract and one third of the flour mixture while beating on medium speed, again scraping the sides as needed. Beat in half of the sour cream mixture. Alternately add the remaining flour mixture and sour cream until all the wet and dry ingredients have added, beating until the batter fully incorporated and smooth.
Use a large scoop (about 3 tablespoons), evenly divide the batter between 18 lined muffin tins filling each about 2/3 of the way full.

Bake for 15-24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centers come out clean. Cool on wire rack.

For the Vanilla Bean Buttercream:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the butter and vanilla bean seeds. Beat until fluffy. Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly add the confectioners' sugar while continuing to beat.

Once well blended, add in the vanilla and 4 tablespoons heavy cream or milk. Mix on low speed until well combined and moist. If desired, an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk until your desired consistency is reached. Beat at high speed until frosting is smooth and fluffy.

*for mini cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees for about 13 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Cheers,

Lacey Cakes

See You Later, Cupcake Eater

Well the day finally came where I had to say good-bye (see you later) to my best friend, my hubby Todd.  I haven't been the type of gal that likes to make a big deal out of good-byes so late Saturday night, we dropped Todd off on the curb as if he was going to school.  I didn't want to be a part of the teary, drawn out moment where you watch them get in the big white buses and drive away. 

Emma, my daughter, is lucky to be young enough to not realize all of what is going on and has no real concept of time.  I wish that was the case for me.  I have found myself caught up in tears many time, like when I came home and the bathroom still smelled like he had just gotten out of the shower, or the empty space next to me in bed, that I try to ignore by sleeping in the middle. 

Sure it has only been a couple days, and as people keep telling me, it will get better, it still sucks.  No better word than that to describe it.  My daughter has kept me strong for the most part and has made my heart melt when she caught me tearing up by saying "Mommy it's ok, wipe your tears" or "why are you crying mommy?".  I have gotten through this before, but for some reason, it seems tougher this time, like this is our first deployment together.

I have been planing my attack to keep busy ever since I found out he would be deploying and one major part of that is expanding my expertise on cupcake decorating and most importantly cupcake baking.  I have mostly used boxed mixes and doctored them up to taste better and that has been successful for me but something has been missing.  I wanted to take this time to perfect my baking technique so that my scratch cakes are just as good as my boxed cakes.

Last Thursday, we shared one more night with our awesome family and friends and there was no better time to try my first recipe that I found on Annie's Eats.  I found this Guinness and Bailey's Irish Cream Cupcake recipe after thinking of ideas for St. Patties Day cupcakes and thought it would be a good time to try it out.  If you are a fan of dark chocolate and Bailey's Irish Cream, this recipe is for you!  It was moist, tasty and probably the best cupcake I have made, and it was from SCRATCH!!!  It was a win for me and will definitely be added to my recipe book! 

I had a little disaster in my kitchen when I was pipping the Bailey's frosting onto my cupcakes and they didn't turn out looking exactly as I had planned, but being a good improviser, I made them turn out pretty cute and more importantly, they tasted even better than they looked.

I have included the recipe below and you can also click on "Annie's Eats" above to get it directly from her site.  A couple things I would suggest if making this recipe is: First, if you plan on pipping the frosting on, double the frosting recipe (the one below only makes enough if you want to spatula the frosting on), secondly, don't be afraid of the ganache, it really does make the cupcake, and lastly, you may want to add a bit more Bailey's to the frosting, 4 Tbsp. just wasn't enough for me ;)

Guinness and Bailey’s Irish Cream Cupcakes
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the Guinness chocolate cupcakes:
1 cup stout (Guinness)
16 tbsp. unsalted butter
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1½ tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

For the Bailey’s ganache filling:
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. Bailey’s Irish cream

For the Bailey’s buttercream frosting:
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
3-4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
4-8 tbsp. Bailey’s Irish cream

Directions:

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners.  Combine the stout and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the eggs and sour cream to blend.  Add the stout-butter mixture and beat just to combine.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed just until incorporated.  Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3 to ¾ full.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes.  Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the ganache filling, place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl.  Heat the cream in a small saucepan until simmering, then pour it over the chocolate.  Let sit for one minute and then whisk until smooth.  If the chocolate is not completely melted, place the bowl over a double boiler or give it a very short burst in the microwave (15-20 seconds).  Add the butter and Bailey’s and stir until combined.

Set aside to let the ganache cool until it is thick enough to be piped.  (You can use the refrigerator to speed the cooling process, but be sure to stir every 10 minutes or so to ensure even cooling.)  Meanwhile, cut out a portion from the center of the cupcake using the cone method (a small paring knife works best for this).

 Once the ganache has reached the correct consistency, transfer it to a piping bag fitted with a wide tip and pipe it into the cupcakes.

To make the frosting, place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Gradually add the powdered sugar until it is all incorporated.  Mix in the Bailey’s until smooth.  Add more if necessary until the frosting has reached a good consistency for piping or spreading.  Frost the cupcakes as desired.

I would love to hear your feedback on this recipe if you happen to make it.  Next up, White Chocolate and Raspberry cupcakes (for Valentine's Day of course).

Until then,

Lacey Cakes

Marine Wife....Hardest Job in the Corps

Well this past weekend was it, the pre-deployment party for my hubby.  Everything went great and we had a wonderful turnout of family and friends that shared some fun times with us before Todd leaves in a couple weeks.  The food was great and the cupcakes turned out fabulous!  After a couple of weeks of work on the chocolate buttons for the top of the cupcakes, they were finally done and everyone loved them.

 I did find out that I like the plastic pastry bags much, much more than the paper pastry bags and its safe to say that I went through a half dozen of the paper bags and many trips to the sink to wash the blue frosting off of my hands before I finally finished frosting the 64 cupcakes. 

Everyone raved about the yummy red velvet cakes, but being so critical of myself, I always find something wrong.  I need to perfect my baking skills and have found a class I will take at a local cake decorating shop while Todd is gone.  I have spent what seems like the last 3 or 4 years trying to find a recipe similar to those you taste in the professional bakeries without any luck.  I have perfected my skill of doctoring up a box mix, but still have a lot to learn about scratch baking.

Needless to say, the cupcakes were a hit regardless of my personal critiques and the party was super fun and a great way to say good bye to Todd.  Thank you everyone for the support during this time, I couldn't do it without you all.

Lot's of love, until next time,
Lacey Cakes :)