Birthday Blessing {Lanina}

Do you remember my last post? Well, at that birthday party, I got to meet a wonderful lady named Patricia. She approached me to complement me about the cake design and to talk about her wonderful organization called Birthday Blessing. In Patricia words, this wonderful ministry sponsors birthday parties for deserving children in need to show them that God loves them in their special day. I was excited! This, to me, was an answered prayer. You see, I love my children's response when they see their special birthday cake for the first time and how much fun they have at their parties. So I've been wanting to utilize this gift that God has giving me and share it with others but I didn't know how until I met Patricia and she talked to me about her organization. And to my surprise, not only the ministry does a wonderful job with the local underprivileged kids, Patricia and I had shared SO many things in common! So without further due allow me to share the cake I made this past weekend for a very special girl called Lanina:

Chocolate and Yellow cake with strawberry icing filling covered with buttercream icing

Lanina loves horses so I used it as the theme for the cake

The cake all put together at the birthday party

  Happy Birthday Lanina! And thank you Patricia and Birthday Blessing for this wonderful and humbling experience :).
Much love and blessings to all of you!
XOXOXO

Happy Birthday Devynn {Butterfly Cake}

So January was a slow month as far as baking we are concerned. Really, I baked zero! My new job is keeping me so crazy busy and on top of that my commute is much longer so my baking time is so limited right now. But back in December a little girl called Devynn asked me to make her a butterfly cake and I just couldn't say no to her :).

My favorite thing was the wall and table's colors, which were existing, coincidentally matched the cake's colors! Made for a great photography back drop :)

Interesting story about this cake. I was so happy as to how easy this cake turned out to be. I'm literally about to pick the cake up so we can all get in the car when I spotted a bubble on the cake! Not just a little one, oh no, it was huge. so I had to remove letters 'evy', fix/patch and put them back together. On our way to the party I noticed ANOTHER bubble. Can you say major GRRRR? Luckily I had brought with me in a bag some buttercream icing, my knife and palette and was able to fix it at the location while we waited for the birthday girl.
In the end, the cake was a success with everyone especially with little Miss Devynn. Her mama sent me a note a few days later telling me about how much Devynn kept talking about her butterfly cake! :)... Happy Birthday Devynn!!! And thanks for checking!

November & December {And a Recap}

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to ALL of you!!! LOL! WOW, I've been MIA for a while... Sorry guys! The last quarter of 2011 was such a roller coaster. I experienced my first career layoff, visited my best friend, had my first black Friday experience, got a NEW job and had a WONDERFUL Christmas/NYE celebration!!! So first off, I'm so thankful and grateful with God for this new job opportunity. It came unexpectedly and so far is going great. I'm so glad I enjoyed my time off with the kids and was able to recharge and relax. So here is a recap of what went on as far as cakes go in November and December:

I made this cake for my friend Jonna's youngest son who turned 1 in November :). It was also my first time trying some ruffles!

I didn't make this cake. Our sister-in-law LOVES peonies and she requested one for her birthday. The best part is that this cutie pie made it all the way to Seattle and not a single piece was broken. YAY!! Oh, yeah her name is Angela too!

Happy Birthday Ang!!!

So then I went up to Michigan to visit one of my best friends and help her celebrate her son's first birthday. She ordered an iced cake and we worked on the decorations. She made the 3 fondant animals. Aren't they cute?? I helped her with the rest and the cupcake toppers below.

Oh, this was SO much fun to do because we were working together. We stayed up until 4 am and then started again at 9 am just to be done 15 min before the party was supposed to start. That was close! But we created an amazing memory that we will forever cherish :)

And here I'm with the birthday boy!

My new job had a Christmas potluck lunch so off course I had to make them a cake. I actually made some variations to the traditional vanilla cake I normally make and ended up with a light but delicious Almond spice cake! Yummy!!

 I hope everyone had a wonderful time with their families and loved ones. 2011 was an AMAZING year full of great experiences and miracles. I felt SO blessed beyond my imagination... So May the Lord bless you and your love ones in this new 2012 abundantly. I wish you from the bottom of my heart lots of happiness and love!!!
XOXOXO
Angie

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