Christmas parties

Earlier this week I had two parties to make cupcakes for. I needed 40 cupcakes for a children's school Christmas party and 48 cupcakes for a work Christmas party. They were both a mix of devil's food, strawberry & vanilla. They were my neapolitan cupcakes :)

The cupcakes for the school party were requested to be fun and festive. That I could handle.

What's more fun and festive than snowmen and Rudolf?

The adult Christmas party cupcakes were festive, also, but definitely more adult.

These ones are just green sprinkles and then crushed peppermint candies.

These were definitely some fun cupcakes to make!

Strawberry

I tried a new strawberry cupcake recipe a few days ago and can we just say delish! There may be a foot of snow on the ground outside, but the smell of those beautiful strawberries being pureed was pure delight and made me think of summer...*sigh*.

They all had a beautiful pink color to them , but as me & my husband quickly realized, the first batch definitely needed more strawberry! The second batch were much more strawberry-ish. We are definitely loving these cupcakes!

Monsters!

No internet

I need to apologize for the lack of posts/updates lately! I have no internet at my house and life with 2 young boys gets hectic at times; so getting in front of a computer with internet is not always the easiest thing.

I've done 2 sets of birthday cupcakes since my last post. Nothing exciting, but I've been getting lots of good feedback. I have a strawberry cupcake recipe I want to try (yummmmm), but when I went to buy strawberries at the store they were all out (boooooo). My sister likes to frequently brainstorm with me and contribute ideas and this one I think is rather fabulous. I'm going to make mini-cupcakes to give out as samples...give 'em just enough to make 'em want more :) No, that's not the idea. The mini-cupcakes are just enough to give people an idea of the cupcakes and the possibilities PLUS they are easier to make and transport and can be made easily made in mass.

Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes!

Halloween

Well, after a short hiatus, I'm back in the swing of things! On the agenda for today is cupcake's for the Harvest Party at our church tonight and for dinner at my sister's house this evening. A dozen cupcakes for each event, all devil's food....should be quick and simple!

I got the updated business cards and magnets from www.vistaprint.com and after a short mishap with them and a rush reorder, I've got some pretty amazing cards in my hands. I caught a cold after my first set of cupcake orders, so I haven't been making any and I'm so anxious and ready to get my hands back on some cupcakes! Bring it on! :o)

KitchenAid

So with the death of my hand mixer, I had to find something to make my cupcakes with. I mean, my arms are great and all, but mixing 100 cupcakes worth of batter and frosting?! I think not. So my mom let me borrow her electric hand mixer and her stand mixer. I'm pretty sure the hand mixer is older than I am, but it held its own and worked great. The point of this post, however, is to gush about the stand mixer. That amazing KitchenAid stand mixer. Can we just take a moment here to appreciate this thing?

It even looks good! This thing was amazing!! Can we say "Christmas present" (hint*hint)? Needless to say, I don't think my mom is going to be getting this back anytime soon.

Why?!

I have a 3 year old son who, as you can imagine, is very curious and wants to know everything right now. He also loves sweets (what 3 year old doesn't?) so everytime he sees me making cupcakes, he is elated. He wants to be right there watching the entire time and if I send him to watch cartoons or play, rest assured it is not very long before he returns to find out if the cupcakes are done yet. So imagine his dismay this past weekend while I was making at least 100 cupcakes and every time he asked if he could have one, I had to tell him no. Trauma! And drama, too if we are being honest here. "Why, Mom?! Pretty, pretty please?" I must have heard these words at least 10 times. Don't worry, though, he eventually got his cupcake (I'm sure he snuck more than one - we were surrounded by cupcakes!) and all was well with the world again.

Nerves

I did it! I filled my first cupcake order! I made 40 cupcakes (chocolate, devil's food and vanilla) for a friend of my sister's who was having a jewelry party. I can't even explain how nervous I was. It's one thing to make a bazillion cupcakes at home when it's just me and my husband, but to actually make them for actual people?! It was frightening. My head was a mess of thoughts. Would they like them? What if they tasted bad? What if people thought they were goofy looking? What if, what if, what if? But you know what? Everyone loved them! I got awesome reviews and I was so relieved!

I also finished my second cupcake order this weekend. This one was 60 cupcakes for the baptism of one of my niece's. Lots of cupcakes for lots of people! This time was a little bit more exciting because I actually got to hear from the people themselves about how good the cupcakes were, how cute they are, etc. Looks like I'm on my way! I will post new pictures soon.

Death of a hand mixer

It finally happened. I killed my faithful, dedicated hand mixer. It was always there for me and never complained when I made it work for hours on end. It took the workload I threw at it and attacked it with a vengeance. But apparently, I took advantage of it one too many times. It just couldn't hold up to the pressure anymore (literally, lots of pressure. It died when I was trying to make a double batch of frosting, which I was warned against doing.) *sigh* Just when I was starting to appreciate that thing, too!

Basics

We have completed 2 of our 4 decorating basics classes. "We" being myself, my mother, my sister and my niece. Let's just say that with short attention spans, all 4 of us together in a confined place, and 3 of the 4 of us having type A personalities that we aren't exactly star students. It definitely makes for an interesting 2 hours, though!

Just in case your having trouble envisioning how comical my family is in this class, here's a picture of my mom's "cake". The best part about it is that she was so intent that she was going to torte, fill and frost that cake just like everybody else was doing. I don't think Decorating Basics has ever heard so much laughter!

We're all a bit concerned though because in the first class, it was full. There were 11 people there, including us. The second class there were only 6 people, including us. Hmmmm...
All in all, the classes are fun and if nothing else, I'm learning different techniques.



Take 2

I received my business cards & magnets in the mail the other day. They were not ideal but hey...they were free! The problem now? Thanks to a stroke of genius in the form of my mother, everything has changed. The domain name I wanted wasn't available so instead of picking a different one we threw in a "the" & I changed my blog name to http://www.theheycupcake.blogspot.com/ & my e-mail theheycupcake@aol.com . So now my domain name,e-mail and blog names are all the same.
Still not seeing the problem? The business cards & magnets have the wrong information on them now.
Thankfully, http://www.vistaprint.com/ had this fabulous sale where they not only had free products, but free shipping as well. FREE! So new business cards, magnets and stickers (remember the free part?) have been ordered. Now hopefully they get here in time for my first client.

Clients!

I am so excited for October! I have 2 clients lined up, which I will be posting more about later, but yes! Yay for me and cupcakes!

On another note, the business side of this venture of mine is moving right along. Today I set up an e-mail (heycupcakeIN@aol.com ) , bought a domain for my eventual website (http://www.theheycupcake.com/) and ordered business cards and magnets courtesy of http://www.vistaprint.com/ . Needless to say, it was an incredibly productive day and it absolutely flew by. One minute it's 10:30 am and the next thing I know it's 2 pm...what on earth?! At least I wasn't sitting on my bum all day! I also put up a few pictures of some of my cupcakes for people to look at. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks, I will have a link for more pictures.

The wall

It was inevitable. It was going to happen eventually and I fully accepted that. With all the cupcakes I've been making and all the different recipes and techniques, it was bound to happen. I hit the infamous wall. I had tried 3 recipes one night and the very next day went right back at it and tried 2 more recipes. I was tired of making cupcakes, tired of not having any success with my recipes and tired of my ideas not working out. So the logical thing would be to throw in the towel and ignore the cupcakes, but is that what I do? Nope.

The same day that I decided I hated cupcakes (strong words, I know) my little family and I went out to dinner with some good friends of ours. Well, while we were waiting for our pizza, Danielle just happened to have mentioned  that cupcakes sounded good and that we should make some cupcakes. I jumped on that idea like white on rice. Shortly after that we found ourselves picking up supplies at the grocery store and in my kitchen literally covered in flour.

It was therapeutic, it was fun, and it was exactly what I needed. I don't think I've ever laughed so much while making cupcakes. Plus, we even found a fantastic vanilla cupcake recipe.

Oh the wonders of a good friend and a cupcake.

Cupcakes

Another day, more recipes to try. Are you starting to feel the monotony here?? The good news is that I'm starting to get really good at decorating them! My husband insisted that with each set of cupcakes I make, that I have to decorate them like I would if I was giving them to a client - no throwing some frosting on them real quick. I have to say, I think he might be on to something :)

Anyways, 3 dozen cupcakes later I'm starting to perfect my techniques. I've got some great basic flavors and some pretty darn cute cupcakes.

I'm also excited because a friend of mine is going to be taking some pictures for me! I will finally have some quality, gorgeous pictures of my cupcakes to show people! I've already got 2 clients lined up for October and am feeling a little bit of pressure because there's so much to do. I've got to get these pictures done; get cards and magnets printed; really, really perfect the flavors and techniques; make sure the decorating is fabulous. I mean, if you look at it compared to everyday life it's just cupcakes....what's the big deal, right? But it is a big deal! I don't want to just have cupcakes. I want to have a quality cupcake that people enjoy and want more of. I want to have a business here! Phew! Now I'm off to visit the craft store...

Chocolate

It's freezing out today. Well, it is now at least. And it's raining. Perfect day to sleep.....OR bake some cupcakes! Today was chocolate cupcake day. I bundled up my baby and ventured out to Walmart & Hobby Lobby for ingredients/supplies this morning. It was a quick, relatively uneventful trip (always the best kind!) and when I got home I layed him down for a nap and it was just me, my 3 year old and a counter full of ingredients & endless possibilities! We limited those possibilities to just two, but nonetheless it was a successful afternoon!

I made 2 types of chocolate cupcakes today. Cupcake A and Cupcake B. I had 3 taste testers besides myself (well, 4 if you include my 3 year old). The results:

Husband: Cupcake A
Myself: Cupcake B
Mom: Cupcake A

Hmmmmm....despite popular opinion, I'm still leaning towards Cupcake A ;)

I need more taste testers!

Corn muffins

So yesterday was quite a day. I didn't have to work, which praise the Lord! was a good thing because my 7 month old was awake crying every hour until 3 a.m. That alone made for an interesting day! We made it through the morning until naptime and I don't think I have ever been so happy to lay my children down for nap in my entire life! I was asleep, understandably, not long after them.

Then came the banging. An hour after we had fallen asleep, there was someone banging on my door. "Oh my" I thought "this better not be someone trying to sell me something!". It wasn't. It was my sister needing some place to feed her baby. So I'm half asleep trying to talk to her and as I'm dreaming about sleep, I hear "Blah blah blah. Blah blah. Blah. Cupcakes. Blah blah blah". Rewind! She wanted me to make cupcakes and bring them over later, simply because cupcakes sounded good.

Hmmmmm. So off my brain went a-whirling and my hands (well, electric mixer) went a-mixing. We tasted the cupcakes at her house a few hours later and the frosting was excellent. Even my husband (picky as he is) loved the frosting, but there was something off with the cupcake itself. As my sister was tasting the cupcake she says "Where have I tasted this before? It seems so familiar". Lightbulb - it tasted like a corn muffin! As soon as I said it both my husband and sister were in complete agreement. This cupcake most definitely tastes like a corn muffin with some frosting on top.

Needless to say, I won't be using that recipe again and the rest of the cupcakes/corn muffins went to the kids.

Decorating basics?

Yes, please!

I have decided to build up my foundation of decorating knowledge. I know how to make frostings, I know how to decorate but I think it could use some tweaking. I would really like my cupcakes to look professional and like I know what I'm doing. That's the kicker right there....I want them to look like I know what I'm doing! So much of what I'm doing right now is trial and error. Wouldn't life be so much easier if I already knew what was and was not going to work or how to execute certain techniques? Thus drum roll please Decorating Basics. I'm going to take a class at Hobby Lobby to learn the basics. I may learn a lot of things that I already know, but I also think I will learn a lot of things that I don't know. But more than that, I think it will help give me the confidence I need when decorating. Personally, I'm pretty stoked because I think it's going to be a fun time and my mom is taking the class with me (Yay for mom's!).

I am consumed by thoughts of cupcakes!

Reality check

Typically, I tend to take the easier way. Store-bought frosting, box cake mixes & brownies, etc. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind hard work at all and with 2 kids, I'm no stranger to it. But seriously, who has time between dinner and bath time to just whip up a batch of homemade brownies? Not me. So my husband found it amusing today when I told him what I had learned the most while frosting-experimenting.

Ready for today's revelation?

OK, here goes. Just because you have an electric hand mixer, doesn't mean you can just plop it in the bowl and let it do all the work. You still have to move the mixer and the bowl around if you want to get all the ingredients mixed up. Lesson learned!

Sugar highs

Today I embarked on a frosting venture & now I am presented with a sugar-high & the sweet taste of success. I laid my children down for a nap & began mixing. 2 hours, a mess in my kitchen & a lot of different frosting variations later I have found a winner. My oldest son felt he needed to contribute after his nap...let's just say I know a 3 year old who will very quickly be taking a bath.

The Beginning

Today is the beginning! The beginning of this dream of mine. I suppose I should start with buying supplies, seeing as I have virtually nothing needed to make this dream a reality! Hmmmm, I definitely see a trip to the party supply store in my very distant future. 

So my adventure begins.