Tuesday, February 19, 2013

No new cupcakes...but a sweet pr :)


Sooo...first let me say, I have not made any cupcakes lately. NONE. In fact, I actually cheated for Valentine's Day and grabbed a half dozen at Harris Teeter. I know, I know. I couldn't believe it either. I think it's the first time I've bought cupcakes in like 5+ years, maybe. I take that back - I did buy Kellan's "actual birthday" cupcake this year after making the ones for his party - as I only wanted one for him and I was VERY pregnant with Addie (ie she came like 6 hours later). In any case, the Valentine's cupcakes were SUPER cute, had both chocolate for Jer and vanilla for me and actually pretty good. Plus they had fun re-usable valentine's day rings that the kids loved and I can use if I am so motivated to make Valentine's Day cupcakes next and I do love the little 6-pack containers they come in - I will also re-use that filled with my own cupcakes - it's all about being resourceful, right?

That said - there was actually a good reason I did not bake Valentine's week this year - I was trying to be good and get some rest (between haircuts, and well-check doctors appts, car appointments, valentine's day parties, and other last minute stuff before going on a trip :) before my half marathon in Myrtle. Thus, the last thing I wanted to do was to stay up late baking or cleaning up from baking - so I resisted the temptation and stuck to my light running and baking taper :) and I have to say it paid off, as for the first time in four years, I finally pr'd again in the half marathon! If you can't tell, I was(am) pretty excited! I was honestly starting to wonder if I had completely forgotten how to race and push myself. So pulling off a PR of about a minute was pretty big in my world right now. I know life has been busy and trust me my kids mean way more than any PR to me, so I am A-OK with the four year cycle it has taken, but I have to admit it was really nice to finally see the early long runs and track workouts finally pay off :) And as a bonus all the super-duper fast girls (ie 1:25 and faster half marathoners!) who showed up last year did not all come again this year, so I snuck in third place in my age group, too. Woohoo - thank you fast girls!

The race was definitely more of a mental battle for me than a physical one. My legs actually felt pretty good - despite driving down the day before and being up late with a pre-sick Addie. (she is home now with an ear-infection, but we just thought she was out of sorts not sleeping at home). My cadre of "coaches" :) have given me some great advice over the past few weeks such as: 1)only thinking positive thoughts the whole second half, 2) making sure to take gatorade at the last few water stops for the extra fuel, 3) keep your arms down and shake them out as needed among others and these little tid-bits made all the difference. The gatorade sip - and seriously only a sip as I am TERRIBLE at drinking during races, some day I will figure it out - was huge, as I definitely got a second wind that carried me through the end of the race. The positive thinking was big, too as I definitely usually start to doubt myself around miles 8-9 which seems to make/break my race. This time though, anytime I wanted to slow down I made myself go faster - even if only for a few steps and thought about how I can do this. It was also around mile 9/10 where I realized this might actually finally be my year to do this and I thought about how much I wanted to get to the finish line fast so I could send a text with a new PR time to my running buddies (especially Coach Kathy ;) SO SILLY I know, but whatever works and they are such amazing friends and running partners, I knew they would all be excited to get such a message as well! Thankfully everything fell into place, it was a perfect day for racing and I felt good, and although I definitely did still slow-up my last few miles as is typical for my racing, I had a solid enough first ten and was able to hang on to the PR and immediately grabbed my phone from my husband after a quick hug and sent my long awaited messages :) before enjoying the post-race party with my family!

Krispy Kreme with Sprinkles - one of the highlights of the MB Marathon Post-Race Party!

A 9AM Beer with G&G :)

3rd Place Age Group Award - with one of my number one fans!

The whole gang!

The rest of the weekend was a blast - as much as I love the Myrtle half - it really is a perfect, flat fast, and fun course - the real reason we go is to visit my Grandparents who spend the winter there every year. It kind of became a tradition my first year out of college when I got hooked on half marathons and I have run everyone since (except for 2009 after my son was born - being my first baby I was not sure if I would be ready 4 months out - the race was snowed out anyways - it was like they knew I wasn't coming :) In any case, our crew has grown with Kellan and Addie now in the mix and my cousin Kara joined us last year - she is awesome with the kids and super fun so it's such a treat to have her. And now there are a few from Jer's family who live near Myrtle so they have joined my cheering squad so it's become a bit of a party! We all went to Margaritaville in the afternoon to have our annual margarita with G&G - CHEERS :) and let the kids run around on the beach finding sea-shells and chasing Sea Gulls for a while - but besides that we really did not do much but hang out and relax - which was exactly what we all needed and simply AWESOME!

Okay - well since I have no new cupcakes to report, here are a few more from the 2012 wrap-up :) Also here is a link I just found today that has me itching to definitely make some new ones soon! How can you beat Disney cupcakes...and fairly easy ones at that! http://spoonful.com/disney/top-disney-cupcake-recipes-gallery?cmp=NLC-NL|spoon|SpoonfulRecipes|Hero|Best-EverDisneyCupcakes||021913|||famM|#carousel-id=photo-carousel&carousel-item=46

First these are a set of hockey themed cupcakes for my Capital Crazy office mate for her 40th birthday last winter. Tough to see in the picture - but they say Happy Puck-ing Birthday :) I have to admit I was pretty proud of myself on this as she may use the F-word a little more than most - so thought it was fitting :) The Hockey Pucks are chocolate covered mini-oreos with icing 40s or NHL on them and the Jerseys I made from red-candy melts in the shape of shirts.

Next up are Pirate themed cupcakes for Mr. Ethan's 6th birthday last year. I followed a Pirate face patern I found online using fruit rollups for the headbands and then icing with candy eyes for the faces. For the sand I used brown sugar (YUM!) and then I made the little treasure chests out of mini-twix bars that I cut opened and filled with icing and rock candy for jewels.

In addition to the Pirate faces, I made a Pirate Island scene using a set of legos as in addition to loving Pirates, Mr. E is all about Legos, so this doubled as part of his present then. It was actually pretty easy and really fun to make the scene just using colored icing, the sugar rocks and sand and then pretzel sticks topped with icing for the trees.  

And last but not least, a Cupcake-cake, which I don't ususally do, but was requested for a rock-themed 60th birthday party. Turned out to be a lot of fun! Think the biggest challenge was on my friend Christy for getting it to the party! :) This was pretty much all icing work, with sanding sugar for the color (red is still such a tough color for me to get right with icing) and think they taste great that way! Just used a few chocolate chips for the bottom of the strings and used icing and silver colored sugar covered baby cookies/crackers (all about being resourceful :) for the part of the guitar holding the strings and wa-la..a Cupcake Guitar!

Well that's all I have for today, and my little ear-infected Addie (the reason I am home today) has decided that she is not in the mood to nap, so need to go get her. Happy February! :)


Continue reading...

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Back to blogging? Maybe :)


I'm guessing most have given up on me blogging - I honestly had as well :) but scrolling through my blog this weekend, I have been inspired to try again. I know I won't blog often - especially since I'm not actually baking a whole lot these days (15 months in and I'm still figuring out the two kids balancing act :) but think I will still give it a try!


A year and a half later...a world of difference in my life!
(Outerspace cupcakes for a co-worker. Satellites made of laffy taffy!)
 So to catch on life since my last post in August of 2011 - YIKES! We have had another baby- a little girl, who is now not really a baby anymore. She is an all out toddler these days. Cute as a cupcake for sure, but she is definitely giving me a run for my money (think she is TOO much like me :) she does not sit still, she is into everything, she can't talk but knows how to tell you exactly what she wants! Luckily she does have a ridiculously adorable smile and knows how to light up any room. My son who was a toddler last time I wrote is now a pretty well spoken 3 year old! Everyday I am amazed at how grown up he is - and how he knows all these big words all of a sudden. When I picked him up from school on Friday - he goes "Seriously, Mommy?" Ha. That one might be my fault - but surprised me none-the-less. He keeps us laughing - and the two of them together are definitely double trouble! And they are absolutely my excuse as to why I have not been baking or writing or doing much besides keeping them happy and out of trouble, working, and running - BUT I wouldn't have it any other way :)

My All to grown up Three-Year Old! Kellan Wazowski :)


My Princess...at 15 months - definitely not a baby anymore
(wearing her Penguins Cheerleading Outfit as what else is a good Pittsburgh fan to do on a Baltimore-San Fran Super Bowl Day but cheer for our Hockey team :)
 
Speaking of running - while I have trained a lot over the past year since having my little princess, I have not raced much and the races I have run have not been anything to write-ome about. Life has just been busy and despite what I thought has been solid training, I have not been able to sleep much over the past year and honestly other things such as the kids birthday parties and Halloween Parades(which fell on the same day as my fall marathon) have been more important. And I'm okay with that - as while I am confident I will have many more marathons and races, I am pretty sure I only have a few Halloweens when the kids let me get to pick, design, and create their costumes. For the record we did win the local Halloween Costume Contest - so that was pretty cool and definitely made up for a not so great marathon. Now that it is a new year and the kids are a little older though, I do plan to try again to tackle my PRS (all from pre-kids 2008/09 timeframe still) - so we'll see what the year brings, starting with the Myrtle Beach half marathon in a few weeks!
 
Kellan McQueen

Addie Shiftwell
 
 
This Whole Cars Gang (including me as FLO still in my MCM Finisher Jacket!)
Okay and now to the real meat of the blog - a year and a half worth of cupcakes to catch up on- aghh! Although, like I said I have not baked all that much due to the juggling of kids, running, working, and trying to have some fun :) so not as many as could have been...but still a few fun ones. As a warning these are not going to be in any logical order as much of the past year and a half really is a blur :) at least time-wise! Lots of great memories - just not sure of the order!

Since I started by talking about the Cars Halloween costumes I made this year - we'll start with the Cars cakes and cupcakes for Addie's first birthday and Kellan's 3rd birthday celebration. The first of hopefully many joint birthday parties (until they are old enough to want their own :) 
Holley and Lightning Cakes

Cars Cupcakes to complete our Cars Fall!
I did a smash cake Holley for Addie and since I was in mini-cake mode, I also made one for Kellan. I ran out of time on the cupcakes so they are not my favorites - but I used grahm crakers for the wind-shields and if you have ever had grahm cracker and icing - you may know it's a pretty awesome combination - so despite not my best decorating, all of the kids and parents still seemed to enjoy the cupcakes!

Lightning and Mater Costumes Doubling as Decorations welcoming guests!

To combat all the sugar, the practical mother of two I now am gave out tootbrushes as favors
(which were actually a big hit with all the kids and parents, too!)

As you can see from the cars costumes and cars cupcakes for Kellan and Addie's birthday - we continued our Pixar theme from last year. Oh guess I did not write about last years yet - hmmm. Okay quick review. Last fall we did Toy Story for Halloween and Kellan's 2nd Birthday...

Kellan Lightyear and Daddy as Woody! People did stop them and ask for autographs!

The whole Toy Story Gang (Baby Addie is hiding under my Mrs. Potato head costume as she was born about 2 weeks later!)
My mother-in-law actually made all of the costumes but Kellan's Buzz - which I did make. She did a pretty amazing job - clearly :) and we did win the Halloween Parade Costume for the first time after taking second place the two years before. This Halloween thing has become a pretty big deal with us if you can't tell :) And like this year, we carried the Toy Story theme right into Kellan's birthday party - since Buzz light year has been one of his all-time favorites for quite a while now! 
The craft table set-up for Kellan's Toy Story Birthday - complete with real "The Claw" machine
 
Another excuse to make Toy Story Cupcakes!
 
 
The Birthday boy enjoying his last birthday without a little sister to share it with (and yes I do mean share it with as Addie decided it was time to join the party hours after Kellan's real birthday - we had the party early just in case :)
Okay - so now we are caught up on the past two birthdays and Halloweens (sorry lil more than just cupcakes), as you can see Oct-Nov are super busy times at our house. I have always loved fall though - so it's absolutely perfect in my mind that both of the kids birthdays fall at such a fun time of year!
 
Well since my favorite 15 month old just woke up and is now demanding my attention...going to do a quick dump of a few of my other favorites from the year quickly before she tears up every tissue in the house or climbs completely on the desk as she is now trying to do...
 
My favorite easy cupcakes - for teacher appreciation week at the kids school
 The chalk board cupcakes are one of my favorite go-to easy and ALWAYS cute cupcakes. They are really quick to make - as you just need to swirl on icing and then add chocolate covered grahmcrakers with icing letters/numbers on them. The final touch is the runt apples and the good and plety pieces of chalk- and done!

Nationals Cupcakes for a 30th birthday

Thought these were fun as have not really ever done baseball cupcakes. I made bats out of caramel and then used the white chocolate melts as the little balls. Then to make the hats and bigger baseballs I used the pull and peel licorice. The ball cap brims are just melted red/white chocolate. 



And last but not least (for this post at least) these were probably the highlight of my "cupcaking" last year. High-heeled cupcakes for my Aunt's 50th birthday party last spring. I had SO much fun making these FAB @ 50 cupcakes. I kept them pretty simple as I made them in my mom's kitchen in Pittsburgh (so I only had what I brought with me - not my full baking cupboard). I used the pirouette cookie sticks for the heals and then grahmcracker soul of the shoe (again remember the graham/icing combination - yum!) I did a mix of bows and other decoration out of Extra pink gum and the jumbo sized sprinkles. Also used lots of sanding sugar to make the color pop - and to save me from having to dye different colors of icing - making them easier.
 
Well that will have to wrap it up for now - hopefully more to come if I can keep on top of things, but for now Princess Adelyn has had enough of me ignoring her for the computer and keeps stealing my mouse to get my attention. So so long for now. Happy Super Bowl Sunday!


Continue reading...

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

No new cupcakes...but a sweet pr :)

Sooo...first let me say, I have not made any cupcakes lately. NONE. In fact, I actually cheated for Valentine's Day and grabbed a half dozen at Harris Teeter. I know, I know. I couldn't believe it either. I think it's the first time I've bought cupcakes in like 5+ years, maybe. I take that back - I did buy Kellan's "actual birthday" cupcake this year after making the ones for his party - as I only wanted one for him and I was VERY pregnant with Addie (ie she came like 6 hours later). In any case, the Valentine's cupcakes were SUPER cute, had both chocolate for Jer and vanilla for me and actually pretty good. Plus they had fun re-usable valentine's day rings that the kids loved and I can use if I am so motivated to make Valentine's Day cupcakes next and I do love the little 6-pack containers they come in - I will also re-use that filled with my own cupcakes - it's all about being resourceful, right?

That said - there was actually a good reason I did not bake Valentine's week this year - I was trying to be good and get some rest (between haircuts, and well-check doctors appts, car appointments, valentine's day parties, and other last minute stuff before going on a trip :) before my half marathon in Myrtle. Thus, the last thing I wanted to do was to stay up late baking or cleaning up from baking - so I resisted the temptation and stuck to my light running and baking taper :) and I have to say it paid off, as for the first time in four years, I finally pr'd again in the half marathon! If you can't tell, I was(am) pretty excited! I was honestly starting to wonder if I had completely forgotten how to race and push myself. So pulling off a PR of about a minute was pretty big in my world right now. I know life has been busy and trust me my kids mean way more than any PR to me, so I am A-OK with the four year cycle it has taken, but I have to admit it was really nice to finally see the early long runs and track workouts finally pay off :) And as a bonus all the super-duper fast girls (ie 1:25 and faster half marathoners!) who showed up last year did not all come again this year, so I snuck in third place in my age group, too. Woohoo - thank you fast girls!

The race was definitely more of a mental battle for me than a physical one. My legs actually felt pretty good - despite driving down the day before and being up late with a pre-sick Addie. (she is home now with an ear-infection, but we just thought she was out of sorts not sleeping at home). My cadre of "coaches" :) have given me some great advice over the past few weeks such as: 1)only thinking positive thoughts the whole second half, 2) making sure to take gatorade at the last few water stops for the extra fuel, 3) keep your arms down and shake them out as needed among others and these little tid-bits made all the difference. The gatorade sip - and seriously only a sip as I am TERRIBLE at drinking during races, some day I will figure it out - was huge, as I definitely got a second wind that carried me through the end of the race. The positive thinking was big, too as I definitely usually start to doubt myself around miles 8-9 which seems to make/break my race. This time though, anytime I wanted to slow down I made myself go faster - even if only for a few steps and thought about how I can do this. It was also around mile 9/10 where I realized this might actually finally be my year to do this and I thought about how much I wanted to get to the finish line fast so I could send a text with a new PR time to my running buddies (especially Coach Kathy ;) SO SILLY I know, but whatever works and they are such amazing friends and running partners, I knew they would all be excited to get such a message as well! Thankfully everything fell into place, it was a perfect day for racing and I felt good, and although I definitely did still slow-up my last few miles as is typical for my racing, I had a solid enough first ten and was able to hang on to the PR and immediately grabbed my phone from my husband after a quick hug and sent my long awaited messages :) before enjoying the post-race party with my family!

Krispy Kreme with Sprinkles - one of the highlights of the MB Marathon Post-Race Party!

A 9AM Beer with G&G :)

3rd Place Age Group Award - with one of my number one fans!

The whole gang!

The rest of the weekend was a blast - as much as I love the Myrtle half - it really is a perfect, flat fast, and fun course - the real reason we go is to visit my Grandparents who spend the winter there every year. It kind of became a tradition my first year out of college when I got hooked on half marathons and I have run everyone since (except for 2009 after my son was born - being my first baby I was not sure if I would be ready 4 months out - the race was snowed out anyways - it was like they knew I wasn't coming :) In any case, our crew has grown with Kellan and Addie now in the mix and my cousin Kara joined us last year - she is awesome with the kids and super fun so it's such a treat to have her. And now there are a few from Jer's family who live near Myrtle so they have joined my cheering squad so it's become a bit of a party! We all went to Margaritaville in the afternoon to have our annual margarita with G&G - CHEERS :) and let the kids run around on the beach finding sea-shells and chasing Sea Gulls for a while - but besides that we really did not do much but hang out and relax - which was exactly what we all needed and simply AWESOME!

Okay - well since I have no new cupcakes to report, here are a few more from the 2012 wrap-up :) Also here is a link I just found today that has me itching to definitely make some new ones soon! How can you beat Disney cupcakes...and fairly easy ones at that! http://spoonful.com/disney/top-disney-cupcake-recipes-gallery?cmp=NLC-NL|spoon|SpoonfulRecipes|Hero|Best-EverDisneyCupcakes||021913|||famM|#carousel-id=photo-carousel&carousel-item=46

First these are a set of hockey themed cupcakes for my Capital Crazy office mate for her 40th birthday last winter. Tough to see in the picture - but they say Happy Puck-ing Birthday :) I have to admit I was pretty proud of myself on this as she may use the F-word a little more than most - so thought it was fitting :) The Hockey Pucks are chocolate covered mini-oreos with icing 40s or NHL on them and the Jerseys I made from red-candy melts in the shape of shirts.

Next up are Pirate themed cupcakes for Mr. Ethan's 6th birthday last year. I followed a Pirate face patern I found online using fruit rollups for the headbands and then icing with candy eyes for the faces. For the sand I used brown sugar (YUM!) and then I made the little treasure chests out of mini-twix bars that I cut opened and filled with icing and rock candy for jewels.

In addition to the Pirate faces, I made a Pirate Island scene using a set of legos as in addition to loving Pirates, Mr. E is all about Legos, so this doubled as part of his present then. It was actually pretty easy and really fun to make the scene just using colored icing, the sugar rocks and sand and then pretzel sticks topped with icing for the trees.  

And last but not least, a Cupcake-cake, which I don't ususally do, but was requested for a rock-themed 60th birthday party. Turned out to be a lot of fun! Think the biggest challenge was on my friend Christy for getting it to the party! :) This was pretty much all icing work, with sanding sugar for the color (red is still such a tough color for me to get right with icing) and think they taste great that way! Just used a few chocolate chips for the bottom of the strings and used icing and silver colored sugar covered baby cookies/crackers (all about being resourceful :) for the part of the guitar holding the strings and wa-la..a Cupcake Guitar!

Well that's all I have for today, and my little ear-infected Addie (the reason I am home today) has decided that she is not in the mood to nap, so need to go get her. Happy February! :)


Sunday, February 3, 2013

Back to blogging? Maybe :)

I'm guessing most have given up on me blogging - I honestly had as well :) but scrolling through my blog this weekend, I have been inspired to try again. I know I won't blog often - especially since I'm not actually baking a whole lot these days (15 months in and I'm still figuring out the two kids balancing act :) but think I will still give it a try!


A year and a half later...a world of difference in my life!
(Outerspace cupcakes for a co-worker. Satellites made of laffy taffy!)
 So to catch on life since my last post in August of 2011 - YIKES! We have had another baby- a little girl, who is now not really a baby anymore. She is an all out toddler these days. Cute as a cupcake for sure, but she is definitely giving me a run for my money (think she is TOO much like me :) she does not sit still, she is into everything, she can't talk but knows how to tell you exactly what she wants! Luckily she does have a ridiculously adorable smile and knows how to light up any room. My son who was a toddler last time I wrote is now a pretty well spoken 3 year old! Everyday I am amazed at how grown up he is - and how he knows all these big words all of a sudden. When I picked him up from school on Friday - he goes "Seriously, Mommy?" Ha. That one might be my fault - but surprised me none-the-less. He keeps us laughing - and the two of them together are definitely double trouble! And they are absolutely my excuse as to why I have not been baking or writing or doing much besides keeping them happy and out of trouble, working, and running - BUT I wouldn't have it any other way :)

My All to grown up Three-Year Old! Kellan Wazowski :)


My Princess...at 15 months - definitely not a baby anymore
(wearing her Penguins Cheerleading Outfit as what else is a good Pittsburgh fan to do on a Baltimore-San Fran Super Bowl Day but cheer for our Hockey team :)
 
Speaking of running - while I have trained a lot over the past year since having my little princess, I have not raced much and the races I have run have not been anything to write-ome about. Life has just been busy and despite what I thought has been solid training, I have not been able to sleep much over the past year and honestly other things such as the kids birthday parties and Halloween Parades(which fell on the same day as my fall marathon) have been more important. And I'm okay with that - as while I am confident I will have many more marathons and races, I am pretty sure I only have a few Halloweens when the kids let me get to pick, design, and create their costumes. For the record we did win the local Halloween Costume Contest - so that was pretty cool and definitely made up for a not so great marathon. Now that it is a new year and the kids are a little older though, I do plan to try again to tackle my PRS (all from pre-kids 2008/09 timeframe still) - so we'll see what the year brings, starting with the Myrtle Beach half marathon in a few weeks!
 
Kellan McQueen

Addie Shiftwell
 
 
This Whole Cars Gang (including me as FLO still in my MCM Finisher Jacket!)
Okay and now to the real meat of the blog - a year and a half worth of cupcakes to catch up on- aghh! Although, like I said I have not baked all that much due to the juggling of kids, running, working, and trying to have some fun :) so not as many as could have been...but still a few fun ones. As a warning these are not going to be in any logical order as much of the past year and a half really is a blur :) at least time-wise! Lots of great memories - just not sure of the order!

Since I started by talking about the Cars Halloween costumes I made this year - we'll start with the Cars cakes and cupcakes for Addie's first birthday and Kellan's 3rd birthday celebration. The first of hopefully many joint birthday parties (until they are old enough to want their own :) 
Holley and Lightning Cakes

Cars Cupcakes to complete our Cars Fall!
I did a smash cake Holley for Addie and since I was in mini-cake mode, I also made one for Kellan. I ran out of time on the cupcakes so they are not my favorites - but I used grahm crakers for the wind-shields and if you have ever had grahm cracker and icing - you may know it's a pretty awesome combination - so despite not my best decorating, all of the kids and parents still seemed to enjoy the cupcakes!

Lightning and Mater Costumes Doubling as Decorations welcoming guests!

To combat all the sugar, the practical mother of two I now am gave out tootbrushes as favors
(which were actually a big hit with all the kids and parents, too!)

As you can see from the cars costumes and cars cupcakes for Kellan and Addie's birthday - we continued our Pixar theme from last year. Oh guess I did not write about last years yet - hmmm. Okay quick review. Last fall we did Toy Story for Halloween and Kellan's 2nd Birthday...

Kellan Lightyear and Daddy as Woody! People did stop them and ask for autographs!

The whole Toy Story Gang (Baby Addie is hiding under my Mrs. Potato head costume as she was born about 2 weeks later!)
My mother-in-law actually made all of the costumes but Kellan's Buzz - which I did make. She did a pretty amazing job - clearly :) and we did win the Halloween Parade Costume for the first time after taking second place the two years before. This Halloween thing has become a pretty big deal with us if you can't tell :) And like this year, we carried the Toy Story theme right into Kellan's birthday party - since Buzz light year has been one of his all-time favorites for quite a while now! 
The craft table set-up for Kellan's Toy Story Birthday - complete with real "The Claw" machine
 
Another excuse to make Toy Story Cupcakes!
 
 
The Birthday boy enjoying his last birthday without a little sister to share it with (and yes I do mean share it with as Addie decided it was time to join the party hours after Kellan's real birthday - we had the party early just in case :)
Okay - so now we are caught up on the past two birthdays and Halloweens (sorry lil more than just cupcakes), as you can see Oct-Nov are super busy times at our house. I have always loved fall though - so it's absolutely perfect in my mind that both of the kids birthdays fall at such a fun time of year!
 
Well since my favorite 15 month old just woke up and is now demanding my attention...going to do a quick dump of a few of my other favorites from the year quickly before she tears up every tissue in the house or climbs completely on the desk as she is now trying to do...
 
My favorite easy cupcakes - for teacher appreciation week at the kids school
 The chalk board cupcakes are one of my favorite go-to easy and ALWAYS cute cupcakes. They are really quick to make - as you just need to swirl on icing and then add chocolate covered grahmcrakers with icing letters/numbers on them. The final touch is the runt apples and the good and plety pieces of chalk- and done!

Nationals Cupcakes for a 30th birthday

Thought these were fun as have not really ever done baseball cupcakes. I made bats out of caramel and then used the white chocolate melts as the little balls. Then to make the hats and bigger baseballs I used the pull and peel licorice. The ball cap brims are just melted red/white chocolate. 



And last but not least (for this post at least) these were probably the highlight of my "cupcaking" last year. High-heeled cupcakes for my Aunt's 50th birthday party last spring. I had SO much fun making these FAB @ 50 cupcakes. I kept them pretty simple as I made them in my mom's kitchen in Pittsburgh (so I only had what I brought with me - not my full baking cupboard). I used the pirouette cookie sticks for the heals and then grahmcracker soul of the shoe (again remember the graham/icing combination - yum!) I did a mix of bows and other decoration out of Extra pink gum and the jumbo sized sprinkles. Also used lots of sanding sugar to make the color pop - and to save me from having to dye different colors of icing - making them easier.
 
Well that will have to wrap it up for now - hopefully more to come if I can keep on top of things, but for now Princess Adelyn has had enough of me ignoring her for the computer and keeps stealing my mouse to get my attention. So so long for now. Happy Super Bowl Sunday!


 

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