AAAAARGH - MY LIL'PIRATE TURNS 3

Another year has come and gone! This year has blessed our family with a beautiful little girl in February and my son couldn't be happier to be a BIG brother!

So I, like many other parents, blinked and a entire year flew by!!!! My lil'guy turned 3 years old!!!! Party planning was made extra easy this year with the help of Pinterest. I just can't get ENOUGH of this site - so many ideas - it is my newest obsession!!!

In August, I began to peruse many pins of boys birthday parties and wanted to make this birthday extra special! My top 3 picks were a Lego party, a Pirate Party and a Construction theme party. Wanna know what I picked???


Pirate Birthday Cake
 

This cake turned out even better than I could have ever imagined!
To see more pictures please visit my Facebook Page

Everyone at the party asked "how do you do this with 2 small kids?" my reply was "an entire afternoon of baking (2 failed vanilla cake recipes) and 9hours with an amazing co-decorator, my cousin Donna, who is an amazing talent and helped make this all possible! you can visit her facebook page here.

The bottom tier is a rich chocolate cake with a chocolate fudge buttercream. Both the middle and top tiers are Vanilla cake recipe with whipped vanilla bean frosting.

A HUGE thanks to all those cake decorators out there that gave me LOADS of inspiration for this cake!

Now the pressure and countdown is on for my lil' sweet girls 1st Birthday!!!!!
only 45 days to go!!!!!!

A

MY NEWEST LIL'CUPCAKE CREATION

WOW!!!!

I cannot BELIEVE that it has been almost 6 months since my last blog post - I am sooooo VERY sorry and miss you all!

The reasoning for my lack of blogging isn't because I am no longer baking cupcakes, it is because I have been busy baking the most delicious lil'cupcake in my belly!

Baby S was born on February 7th, 2012 and we couldn't be happier! Now that we are a family of 4, I will do my best to find my rhythm of balancing mommy duties and getting back to creating and baking some delicious cupcakes!

I do have a few blog posts partially completed - look out for them to be posted in the upcoming weeks!

T's MONSTER PARTY!!!!

My nephew turned 1 on Friday!!! His party plan came together when I came across a site for these adorable knit mini-monsters! T's aunt knitted these little critters for T to give out to all of his family as part of his party favor. The other part of the party favor, I thought, was a great idea! It was a photo album with a photo of the birthday boy, from each of the previous 12 months - it was ADORABLE!!!! 

Because this was a 1 year old's birthday party, we wanted the food and snacks to be enjoyed by every age! My absolute favorite thing at the party, other than the birthday boy, was this fruit monster! Sooo fun for the kids, and healthy too!

T's cake was a fairly simple decision, he is a banana monster, so it was a no brainer when we decided on a roasted banana cake with a vanilla buttercream. For the cupcakes, we opted for a delicious carrot cake base with traditional yummy cream cheese frosting!

Before the birthday boy attacked his green monster, I decided to take a last picture of the cake, cupcakes and cute little knit monsters - as one big happy family!

The party was a huge hit! as were the cupcakes and cake. I love it when there is next to nothing left by the time the presents are being opened!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY MONSTER T !!!!!

BLESSINGS ON YOUR CONFIRMATION J

It still amazes me how crazy social media is! I think of all the people and orders I have received solely due to people seeing my Facebook Fanpage and the numbers are unreal! I haven't yet put word out in my neighborhood because I am busy enough by word of mouth! So a BIG Thank You to all of those who have supported Cupcakes On The Side and let your family and friends know about me!



Chocolate cupcake topped with chocolate buttercream and Dulce de Leche drizzle

I received an email for J's mom requesting cupcakes for his confirmation. She already knew exactly what kind of cupcake J wanted, so we just played with the toppings and she included personalizes labels. I was really happy with the outcome! The Cupcakes were moist and fluffy, the buttercream was smooth and light, and, for me, the clencher was dulce de leche caramel drizzle.

Full cupcake with Label (available in pink, purple, beige & blue)

There is something about that caramel just about to drip off the cupcake that makes me want to scoop it up with my finger! This was a tough cupcake to box up and deliver, I just wanted to brew a fresh coffee and have a silent moment with just me and this cupcake!

Congratulations J on such a  blessful event!