Saturday, April 23, 2011

Happy Easter!

Hope your Easter is filled with lots of eggs...either dyed, candy filled or cookie shaped of course! Here's my latest batch of cookies in the shape of Easter eggs for my friend Traci. She wanted pastels in pink, green, blue and purple. To customize each egg I painted on some zig zags, stripes and dot patterns. I think they turned out pretty darn cute!

Wrap them individually and tie with a matching bow and you have the perfect treat for your Easter baskets!

Happy Easter!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Spring Cake Pops

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Mine sure was jam packed will all sorts of fun stuff...starting with a 12 mile run at 5AM Saturday, followed by some cake baking (it was my attempt at this insanely rich and calorie packed cake), and then a crawfish boil couple's shower! Sunday we got on the road bright and early and headed to New Orleans for the day to see our nephew play soccer. While we were there we checked out a local sweet boutique, Sucre that was recommended by a friend. Can't wait to share some pics of those amazing desserts as well! So basically I've been on the go go go and this week only gets crazier!

I have meetings, last minute planning for the Bunny Chase 5K event I coordinate every year, a final consultation with the bride for this wedding cake, my family is coming in town on Thursday for Easter weekend and there is lots of cleaning to do before my mom comes to give my house the white glove test! So to hold you over for a little while, I'll leave you with a few photos of the Spring themed cake pops I made last week for some Bunco parties!

Go grab some yellow candy melts or any color for that matter, a jar of sprinkles and start dipping those cake balls!

Wouldn't these make the cutest addition to your Easter baskets this year!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Black & Teal Wedding Cake & Cupcakes

Happy Friday! So glad the weekend is finally here! I'm going to keep this post short and sweet because 1) Its been a LONG week & I'm tired, 2) I've got more baking to do for a couples shower/crawfish boil tomorrow and 3) Randolph just put some ribs on the grill with his "special dry rub" seasoning so dinner will be ready shortly! So I will leave you with some photos of a wedding cake and cupcakes I made for a reception last weekend.

Tracy, the bride sent me some great photos for inspiration to work with when designing her cakes and cupcakes inspired by the napkins she was going to use at her recption. I just love the black and teal theme!

I used royal icing to pipe on the swirls and squiggles.

Tracy bought the cupcake tower online and then covered each individual tier with a black damask wrapping paper and covered the edges in teal ribbon. This is a super easy DIY project and very affordable and easy to assemble! I decorated each cupcake with 4 black fondant flowers and silver dragees. The flowers were made using this daisy flower plunger from Layer Cake Shop.

Congratulations Tracy! I had so much fun making your wedding cake and cupcakes! I wish you much happiness with your new groom!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Nike Shorts Inspired Cake Pops

I love finding inspiration for my baking endeavors in things around me everyday. Let's just say this wall of Nike shorts featured at our local Mobile outdoor store, McCoy Outdoor Co. is a runner's dream! One of my favorite pieces of clothing is Nike Shorts...I think I own the entire rainbow of colors as part of my running ensemble and tend to wear a pair almost daily. This store is always stocked full with a wide variety of shorts in the latest seasonal colors. And if you've been a long time follower of my blog then you know running marathons and the non-profit organization Team in Training are two of my greatest passions. Well last week McCoy Outdoor and Team in Training paired up to host a Ladies Night featuring local vendors! Since McCoy's is well known for their wall of Nike shorts, I thought it would be a fun treat to make some "Nike shorts" inspired cake pops courtesy of Crave. Indulge. Satisfy.

Oh the color combination of candy melts and sprinkles you can use to create this array of colors! So if you saw last week's post about candy melts, well here the secret has been revealed!

I think my favorite turned out to be the blue with the pink sprinkles! Hmmm now that I think about it I don't think I own this color combo of shorts either!

In case you are wondering, the cake inside was red velvet with cream cheese frosting. They were good, ok AMAZING...I may have sampled 1 or 2 or 3 before I took them to Ladies Night!

In addition to providing cake pops for the event, I was also promoting my new product, a runner's memorabilia book, RACEDAY. This is the perfect solution for all you runner's out there that like to keep your race bib#s, course maps, photos and statistics for all your 5K, 10K, half marathons and marathons. Much to my surprise, this morning I woke up to find that RACEDAY had been featured on Hadley Designs. Hadley is the amazing artist and graphic designer who designed the RACEDAY logo and helped bring my vision for this product to life. So rather than me go on and on about the product, go check out the details on Hadley's site and be sure to stay there a while and look at all of her amazing design work and design inspiration. I came across Hadley's website over 2 years ago when I was searching online for a local freelance designer. I was immediately drawn in by the design of her website and her portfolio and knew that her style was exactly what I was envisioning for my product. Hadley and I instantly meshed well together and had a blast designing the book. I am so pleased with how the final piece turned out and look forward to working with Hadley on more design projects in the future! Not only does Hadley do logo designs, she creates custom invitations and stationery, websites and even illustrates. She truly is the entire package when it comes to creativity! So go check out Hadley's blog and website and be sure to enter her giveaway for some Free Personalized Stationery while you're there! You better hurry because the deadline to enter is tomorrow!

Now back to the Nike shorts...I am loving some of these new colors and think I need to go grab a few more pairs to add to my wardrobe! I'll take a pair in orange and a pair in purple please!

So that's my story on Nike Shorts, cake pops and RACEDAY. I'd love for you to go check out RACEDAY on Facebook and become a fan!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Welcome Cookies

I just had two of the cutest kids in the whole entire world come visit me this week so of course I had to welcome them with cookies! One of my best childhood friends Katie (also a lover of SUGAR cookies), and her family drove through Mobile for a night on their way home from spring break in Florida. Since we moved away from KY over 4 years ago to Mobile I only get to see Katie a few times a year. So it was a nice surprise when she asked if they could stop by for a day. Although it was a quick visit, it was great to hang out and see how much the kids are growing!

Meet Kaylee...the big sister who just turned 3 years old and recently got her ears pierced!

She loved her ice cream cone sugar cookies. Love that smile!

Adorable...love her strawberry blond hair.

Here's Little Collier...he just turned 1 a few months ago! He is definitely one of the happiest babies I have ever seen, always has a smile on his face and loved our dog Tillman.


Thanks for stopping in for a visit Mills family! Glad we got to enjoy some cookies together! Come back anytime!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

In the works...

Here's a sneak peak at what's going on behind the scenes in my kitchen this week. Rainbow colored Candy Melts...can someone say Cake Pops!


Silver dragees and black fondant flowers to create a beautiful cupcake design for a wedding this weekend!

Let's just say there is lots of red velvet cake baking in the very near future to accompany all of these fun decorations!

Check back soon for pictures of the final sweets!

Monday, April 4, 2011

Prop Shopping

I have a slight addiction, ok major addiction to serving pieces. Cake pedestals, cupcake towers, tiered platters, patterned plates and bowls are truly my weakness when it comes to shopping. So when I stumbled across these lovely ice cream glasses this weekend at one of our amazing antique shops in Mobile, Charles Phillips Antiques I had to buy them. After all the summer months are just ahead and nothing says summer better than some homemade ice cream! The tall glasses are ideal for parfaits, milkshakes and fruit smoothies, while the smaller glasses would be perfect to serve cobblers/brownies a la mode, ice cream sundaes or granitas. Really the possibilities are endless and I can't wait to start using my new glasses!

I also discovered this beautiful fabric at the same antique store. It is straight from Europe and I absolutely love the simple pink stripes and the hemp/linen texture. There were rolls and rolls of this fabric in different colors and stripe patterns, but I finally settled on the pink. I may have to make another visit soon and pick up some other varieties though!

What are your favorite finds at antique stores?
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