What I've been up to...

It seems like every week 'blog' is on my to-do list, and it never seems to get done!  So I thought I'd just picture dump in one blog post and be done with it :)  Here we go:

Pretty springtime cupcakes for a wedding shower.  Double chocolate cupcakes with a raspberry filling...one of my favorite combos!  Topped with a dainty chocolate flower.  

Canucks hockey puck cake...fairly simple, but so fun and vibrant!

I love getting orders for boy cakes...seems like I do a lot of girly cakes, so it's fun to go out of the box sometimes :)  

Vanilla latte cupcakes for my little sis' birthday...um, yum. Recipe here. I used my regular vanilla buttercream and added some super strong coffee to it.

Mother's Day 'high heeled shoe' cupcakes to honor my wonderful mothers.  So blessed to have them in my life.  Lovely Pinterest inspiration for this idea...a cupcake with a Milano cookie inserted in as the 'sole' of the shoe and a Pirouette cookie as the 'heel'.  Not only are they cute, but the cookies are delicious too :)  Cupcakes and cookies...doesn't get much better than that.

Beesting cake.  Recipe from our church cookbook from one talented lady :)  I didn't use to be a huge coconut fan, but this cake has converted me.  It's my best.

Monster cake pops for 2 cute little boys' birthdays!  Love their little characters.  The eyes were ones you can get in a little package at Michaels or Safeway and made my life so much easier...no fiddling with chocolate or edible pens needed! 

And a cake for a mother-in-law's 60th? birthday!  2 tiered and decorated with royal icing flowers in blue and purple.  Vanilla cake with strawberry preserves and devil's food cake with a pastry cream filling, topped with a vanilla buttercream.  

Thanks for looking!  Have you been creating anything fun in the kitchen lately?
Rianne
PS...check back soon for a post with my girl's birthday party--lots of girly fun!

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Sugar, spice, and everything nice

Baby girl cake pops!  

Pink, pink, and more pink!  Last week we attended a baby shower for my beautiful sister-in-law and her little baby girl, who is due in April.  Needless to say, let's hope that baby girl likes pink and playing dress-up :)  It was so great to have Krissy home from Hawaii for a quick visit-it was a perfect chance to catch up over coffee, see that cute pregnant belly, and spoil her at the shower :)   

I of course had the perfect opportunity to try some new cake pops...pink, girly, what more can you ask for? :)  So, baby girl cake pops complete with soothers, bibs and hair bows...and pink baby rattles to round it out.  

The gorgeous mommy-to-be!
Photos courtesy of the talented Alyssa Brown Photography

Loving the little soothers, bibs, and hair bows.

and fun baby rattles!

We loved having you here, Krissy, and pray that the rest of your pregnancy goes smoothly....and quickly!! :)  

Thanks for reading!

Rianne

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Monster mania!

Whew...back to the blogging world! I can't believe my little man is 7 weeks old already--life is slowly settling into a new 'normal' and we're loving it. I'm enjoying every minute of snuggles, grunts, and sweet smiles. I'm looking forward to getting back into making cakes, and with a couple in the works over the next couple months, I'm excited!

I have to share this cake from December...it was a perfect fit--a monster cake for one of our favorite little monsters! It was so fun to make, and pretty easy to do--give it a try if you have your own little monster! :)


The monster cake! All you need for this cake is a 'grass' decorating tip, green icing, cake pops dipped in green and some white icing and chocolate chips for the eyes...fairly simple, but super fun.


Happy 2nd birthday, little T! (thankfully we got some pictures before 2 cute little monsters swiped the side, sunk some eyeballs and tried to take off with the other eyeballs!)

Hope you're enjoying the week!
Sweetly,
Rianne

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Honoring the red, white and blue

With the new year here and the Christmas season behind us, I thought it was a good time to remember those who are sacrificing their lives for our country's freedom. It's easy to get caught up in the busyness of the holidays and not have time to think about those who are serving in the armed forces, both here and abroad. My younger brother, Reece, is a couple months into his deployment now, and we are thankful for God's protection over him so far. Please keep him and his fellow servicemen in your prayers, as well as his wife, Krissy.

Before Reece headed off to Afghanistan, we had a deployment party/send-off. We went with a patriotic theme, and decided to have a dessert bar...cake, cake pops, cookies, and all sorts of candy in red, white and blue!


I made a red velvet cake with a blueberry filling to fit with the color scheme. The bunting on the cake was an idea I had seen online...so fun!


Reece and Krissy


Cake pops were decorated in red, white and blue with ribbons to coordinate.




Candy buffet!

Thanks for reading!
Rianne

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It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It's true...Christmas is almost here--and it's wonderful! I can't believe the year is coming to a close already, but I'm so loving this time of year--the time spent together with family and friends, good food, teaching the girls about the true meaning of Christmas and creating family traditions and memories. Plus, the busy-ness of the season means the time till we meet our little man is going quickly!

Every year I do Christmas baking. This year, with limited energy and time, I scaled back a bit. But I did manage to make a huge batch of Christmas cake pops with a good friend...so fun!



Some cake pops packaged up for a little Christmas neighbor gift!

Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone! Hope it's sweet!
Rianne

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Tea party time...and a prayer request.

MIA...that's been me for the last 3 months. It's passed in a blur over here! Between being pregnant with baby #3 (and feeling tired/sick), getting an offer on our house, having a family reunion, packing, moving, and everything else in between, blogging has taken a backseat. But now that we're settled into our temporary home, I have a little more energy and I'm feeling a little more like myself. So I'm excited to share some of the things I've been up to in the last 3 months (although cake making has taken a bit of a back seat, too!).

First off I wanted to share Ally's 4th birthday party which was in June. Being the girly girl that she is, we went with a vintage tea party theme. I chose pink and green for the colors, and went from there. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea ;), but I love planning the girls' parties and spoiling them for a day! :)

Tea party invite

I made up custom printables for her party...just designed them in PSE and printed them onto cardstock--super easy!

Cake pops are always a hit at parties...so much easier to eat than a big piece of cake (especially when there's lot of other candies too! :) )

Tea cup sugar cookies!

I saw an idea for ice cream sandwich labels on Pinterest, and used the idea for juice boxes. So unnecessary, but so fun :)

And the whole table!

She requested a princess cake for her birthday again, so I couldn't refuse. She wanted the princess to have a pink dress with ruffles...I love how specific she was!

Princess cake...pink with ruffles as instructed ;)

I loved setting up this little table. I started off with a cute vintage table runner that I was lucky enough to get from my sister-in-laws wedding tables...then added some fresh cut flowers from our garden and a little place setting for each girl--cutest tea cups (thanks Karen!), a necklace and a vintage headband/flower I made up.

The girls' tea party table!

Individual place setting

It was a very fun, girly party with lots of giggling, tea sipping, crafts, games, dresses and laughs...perfect way to spend her special day.

All the girls...all of them are so special to Ally in their own way. So pretty in their favorite party dress!

And now for a prayer request:

My sweet three-year-old niece, Hadley, begins chemo (the first of 28 weeks) on Thursday for treatment of cancer in her kidneys. Please pray for a miracle...that she will be healed completely and quickly. Please pray for patience for her and her family, and the strength, trust, and perseverance her family will need to make it through this long journey. You can read her story and leave encouragement for the family at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hadleylodder

Rianne

(PS...big thanks to my sis, Julia, for taking these beautiful pictures and helping out with the party...she's the best!)

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Wedding bells!

As I blog this, I can hardly believe it's been almost a month since my "little" brother got married...it was such a happy, elegant, fun-filled day that I'm sure everyone will remember for a long time. Since Jon, Ally, Mya and I were all in the wedding, along with my cupcake/treat making, it was a busy day, but worth every minute of busyness! And now the happy couple is enjoying life in Hawaii, making us all jealous with pictures of gorgeous beaches, summery clothes and tans ;)

The week of the wedding was busy preparing the treats for the wedding. There was making fondant flowers, baking cakes for the cake pops, making and decorating the pops, baking cakes, making icing, baking cupcakes, decorating cake and cupcakes...I was so in my element :)

Reece and Krissy asked for vanilla cupcakes in lieu of a cake...but every wedding has to have a cake, right?! So I make a small cake topper for the top of the cake stand (which Krissy and I made together--fun, hey?!) which was chocolate with peanut butter buttercream and a filling of Reece's Pieces...covered in fondant. I loved how it turned out...simple and elegant--just like the rest of the wedding! The cupcakes were iced with a vanilla buttercream and topped with pearl sprinkles and little black fondant flowers...so pretty and simple.

The cupcake tier with the cake topper!

Photo courtesy of my talented sister of Masters Touch Photography.

Close up of the cake topper...simple and elegant. And my first time covering a cake in fondant...mostly a success! :)

Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream; topped with pearl sprinkles and fondant flowers.

Photo courtesy of my talented sister of Masters Touch Photography.

Krissy decided to do a dessert table, which was such a fun idea. People could fill up little paper bags--personalized for the wedding--with all kinds of treats. She collected all kinds of candy in her wedding colors--white, green and black--and then we added to that with cupcakes and cake pops. She asked for 100 cake pops--chocolate and white--decorated very simply. I decided to make them all white and decorate with elegant swirls and lines in black and green, and just loved the finished product....let me tell you, that was a LOT of cake pops! But I'm almost positive there were none left over! :)

Cake pops! I loved the spanish moss as a filler in the cake pop pots.

Photo courtesy of my talented sister of Masters Touch Photography.

In case you wanted to know what 100 cake pops looks like ;)

As much as I love making cakes, it's so much more fun when it's for people you love, and especially for an event like this! Congrats again, Reece and Krissy!!

My gorgeous new sister (seriously, isn't she beautiful?) and I!

Photo courtesy of my talented sister of Masters Touch Photography.

Have a great week everyone...can you believe it's almost June?!!

Thanks for reading!

Rianne

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Love-ly treats

I love Valentine's Day. I know it's over-hyped and over-marketed and over-everything, but for me it's a day to say 'I love you and I appreciate you' to the people that I care about!

So with Valentine's Day in mind, I planned a few things I thought I'd share!

1. Cute little Valentines for Ally to hand out to her friends. They were super fun, easy, and cheap to make--and were a hit for all her little friends! She loved giving them out--and I always want to encourage her to love giving. Some we put suckers in, others cake pops...but yummy either way! :)

2. Heart shaped cake pops. My younger sis shares a love for baking and decorating, so we often try do some baking together around the different holidays...so for Valentine's Day, we decided to make heart-shaped cake pops!

We pushed chilled cake balls into a heart shaped cookie cutter, then put in the sticks, chilled again in the freezer, and finally coated them! We decided to put a little conversation heart on them for some extra cuteness.

3. A Valentine's Day party for some girly-girls! I have some amazing friends--godly, helpful, kind women--and they have girls that are all around the same age as Ally...it's so fun to see them all grow up together and become good friends. We planned a little party for them--a scavenger hunt, cupcake decorating, and lots of treats...what could be better?!

Scavenger hunt...on the lookout for the next heart-shaped clue...and goody bags at the end!

Ally's hairstyle was her pick from online for 'heart hairstyles'...not super obvious, but cute anyways.

All the girlies with their decorated cupcakes!

Photos courtesy of Laura, of Menu In Season

4. Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry buttercream....um, YUM!

This has been in my 'to try' recipe pile for a while, so Valentine's Day was the perfect opportunity! I thought I'd share the recipe since it was such a hit!

Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry buttercream

Photo courtesy of Laura, of Menu In Season

Strawberry Cupcakes

Yield: 34 cupcakes
Ingredients:
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup cake flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2¼ cups sugar
1½ tsp. vanilla extract
3 large eggs plus 1 large egg white
1 cup milk
2½ cups finely chopped fresh strawberries*

For garnish:
Additional fresh strawberries

Directions:
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder and salt; whisk to blend.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, sugar and vanilla. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs and egg white one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in two additions alternating with the milk, mixing each addition just until incorporated. Gently fold in the chopped strawberries with a spatula.

Divide the batter between the paper liners, filling each about ¾-full. Bake until light golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-28 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking. Allow to cool in the pans a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frost cooled cupcakes as desired*, and garnish with fresh berries or berry slices.

For frosting, I simply added strawberry puree to my favorite buttercream recipe. I whipped up the buttercream, then placed about 3/4 c. of hulled, sliced strawberries into the blender and pureed until smooth. I then slowly added the puree to my buttercream, and voila--strawberry buttercream!

Recipe from Annie's Eats, originally from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

How was your Valentine's Day? Did you do anything special?

I couldn't resist putting this picture in...but she fits the theme since she's sweet and lovely! :)

Photos courtesy of Laura, of Menu In Season

Sweetly,

Rianne

P.S...be on the lookout for a 'deere' cake post coming soon!

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