October Birthdays {Cakes}

well, October came by and fast. It was a busy month with an expected surprised -I was laid off from work as an engineer. Although my first reaction was to be upset, I quickly realized that God has a better plan for us. Like Ashley, from Lil Blue Boo says, today I choose Joy :). Anyway, I do want to say Thank You from the bottom of my heart to some of my friends who have done some amazing things not only for my but my family during this time of transition. It means a lot to us!!
So, on to cakes... I had the pleasure of making two special birthday cakes. The first one was for baby Coco (my friend Eli's youngest daughter) who just turned 1.

The next cake was made for my friend Beth's best friend Erin. I recently met Erin and she is one of the sweetest ladies to talk to and she also makes some super cute cakes.

Also, what do you think of the rose? This was my first rose made out of gum paste and I loved how it turned out :)

Up next, I'll upload pictures of the Peony I made for our sister-in-law! As always, thanks for looking!

It's a Girl {Baby Shower}

Our family photographer Alyssa Maisano is expecting, any day now, her first daughter. I was extremely happy and excited for her so I knew I had to make her a cake :)!

I also wanted to share this cute picture of my daughter. My mother-in-law recently gave her a little camera for her birthday and she has enjoyed taking pictures of all of us at home. When she saw this cake, she immediately decided she needed to take a picture of it. Luckily, I had my camera handy to capture her in action -I thought it was so adorable!

Cookies {Help Charlie Heal}

I while back a couple of ladies, Chrystyna and Wendy, organized a fundraising event to help Charlie's parents with the medical expenses. You can read about Charlie's story on his blog and follow him on FB as well. Crumbs & Yums participated in this event with donating cookies and cupcakes. Barbara was the lovely winner of the cookies so below are pictures of them.

And again, thanks Barbara for your generous donation!
XOXO,
Angie

Cupcake Spy {Two Sugar Babies}

Recently, I saw a post from Two Sugar Babies about looking for volunteers for a cupcake spy dossier so I immediately jumped into the challenge. I mean, what a better excuse to go try cupcakes... Right???
We have lots of bakeries in the Dallas area but I wanted to try one that had less of the traditional flavors and more of some creative ones -no bacon on this one, sorry guys! So for my cupcake challenge I did some searching and I came across The Cupcakery. They have two locations in the Dallas area so I went to the one located in Frisco. Since t-ball practice got canceled last week, I took the whole family and made them participate in this little challenge with me -they didn't require a lot of persuasion either ;)! So let me share with you some lovely pictures and our whole experience...

The Cupcakery is a family owned store with 6 locations in total -2 in the Dallas area. They specialize in gourmet cupcakes made with the finest ingredients. Some cupcake flavors are available only on a seasonal basis while others are brought back depending on popular demand.

Their cute little store!

I'm sure their cake stands look fuller than what I'm showing but we went there right before they close at night... Something called "work" got on my way HA!

Doesn't it look delicious?? I'm already drooling while I type this post LOL!

This is the flavor my kids picked... Honestly, can't go wrong with strawberries but that's just me.

So here are our final 4 choices... Strawberry shortcake, orange with chocolate icing and way in the back are coconut with chocolate icing and coconut flakes, and cinnamon.

Doesn't it look yummy? I barely had time to pay before I was able to snap a picture and taste the strawberry one. Let me tell you these flavors were FANTASTIC! And honestly I've to go back for more of the orange one -it remains me of my wedding cake which was orange marmalade and I can buy it in small portions ;)

So my hubby and I kept the last two flavors for us, you know, for once the kids went to bed. This cinnamon one was my hubby's favorite out of the 4 cupcakes we ordered. The icing was delicious (almond), soft and creamy.

I love coconut! So as soon as I saw this cupcake I knew I had to try it and it did not disappoint at all my friends. It was wonderful and the chocolate was a great compliment.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience experience. The cupcakes are bit more than Sprinkles (we have one here too) but I personally feel they are worth the money. All the cupcakes were delicious and I'm telling you that orange one was just phenomenal -can you tell it was my favorite one? :)
Thank you Two Sugar Babies for allowing me to participate in your Cupcake Spy. We had a great time participating... And if you are near to one of the 6 Cupcakery locations, please go and check it out. I think you are going to love it as much as I did!
XOXO

Sofia's Birthday {Tangled}

Fall is finally upon us which means this mama is constantly BUSY! Both kids started sports for the first time so we are still adjusting to the new schedules... Anyway, my sweet daughter turned 5 and the day couldn't come soon enough for her. She was so excited to finally celebrate her birthday along with her friends. We so wish to be able to invite everyone but this year she picked her friends and we ended up with about 23 kids total! So blessed!
Our friend Mistie, one of Sofia's friend's mom, took some great pictures for me. I came across a site called Paint the Moon. Annie, the photographer, sells some awesome photoshop and elements Actions which I used to edit Mistie's pictures. Miss Sofia wanted a Rapunzel (Tangled) party so this was my first attempt at 1. Making a tower and 2. Making, said tower, with rice krispie treats. Ok, enough talking... Here are the pictures (lots of them!):

And here is a list of the different vendors I used:
Dress ~ Little Blue Boo
Hair Bow ~ Petal Patch Baby
Paper Straws/Balloons/Tissue Daisy ~ Polka Dot Market
Bottles ~ Specialty Bottle
Candy Rock/Gumball ~ Party City
Fabric Flowers ~ Leila's Flower Garden
Letter S ~ Decorated by me but purchased from Say it with letters
Cookies ~ Made by me but printed in edible paper with a design I bought on Etsy
Paper ~ Basic Grey 
Cake/Birthday Banner ~ Me :)... The Cake was a three layer cake (vanilla and chocolate mud cakes). I used my Silhouette machine to cut out the banner (by the way, there is a new machine available now! Just an FYI for all my crafty friends) and bought a 36"x48" canvas that I painted to use as a background to hang it from.
That's it my friends! It was fun working on this project for my sweet girl... Looking forward to the next year :)
XOXO!

Super Fast Tutorial

Well, it's been a busy and HOT summer in Texas. I'm from the equator (Colombia) but this is a little overboard! Anyway, as my title says I wanted to post a very quick "tutorial"... I don't think falls under the tutorial category but here we go. In Colombia we have a very traditional cake called Torta Negra (black cake) and it's primarily used for special occasions like weddings, first communions, etc. The best way to describe it is like a spice cake with alcohol (usually wine, rum or brandy or all the above LOL!). I'm still trying to find the perfect recipe because to be honest I still have not been able to make it just the right way -or perhaps I'm being too hard on myself. So I decided to make my quick version of Torta Negra. All you need is:

Any chocolate cake box will work

And some red wine. Basically instead of using water, use red wine -any brand works. I also grab some raisins and let them soak on wine at least 24 hours prior to making the cake, strain them and add them to the batter. And there you have it. This version is obviously more on the chocolate side but will not disappoint you :).

Give it a try and let me know how it goes! Hope you enjoy it ... And as September get closer, it only means I'm a month away from daughter's birthday. She has requested a Rapunzel cake! Oh, boy... I'm starting to work on the little bitty flowers I will be needing for the cake

And last... I got to play with my new bootie cutter from JEM

So cute!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Purple Cake!

I made these cupcakes and cake for my friend's daughter who loves the color purple! I used this opportunity as an excuse to make my first gumpaste peony... And I think I'm in love with this flower :). I hope to make more of them in the future.

Toy Story 3 {Birthday Party}

My son recently turned 3, so along with one of his little friends, we had a toy story 3 birthday party. The boys went swimming and everyone had a great time. I had so much fun getting ready for it and I hope you like it as much as I did!

I made a 3 layer cake (yellow, chocolate and strawberry) filled with Duncan Hines strawberry icing... It's SO delicious!

Except for the figurines all the decorations were made out of fondant. I made the "Toy Story 3" sign by cutting it first on card board with the help of my Silhouette Machine

I was trying to recreate "Sunnyside"

The table set up!

I made the sign as well with my cutting machine!

Yummy chocolate covered cookie Oreos. I wish I had taken a better picture of the cupcakes and the toppers :(

And some sugar cookies and gumballs :)

I can't believe my baby is 3!!!