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!

Read more...

Rainbow 'round me

As my sweet niece Lucy's 2nd birthday approached, my sister and I started talking cake ideas.  When she mentioned 'maybe something with rainbows?', I jumped on it.  I've been wanting to do a rainbow cake for a while now, and was excited to have the chance to finally do it!  Since the birthday girl had 2 birthday parties, we went for some fun rainbow cupcakes for the family party.  I just loved how it all turned out--I think it was one of my favorite cakes to date.  Bright, cheerful and happy... just like the birthday girl!  

All photos courtesy of my sister of Alyssa Brown Photography

Vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream, topped with a rainbow of Starburst jellybeans 

with marshmallow clouds!

Love this picture...rainbow themes are the best--so many options for bright, colorful candy and decorations! We found some cute colorful napkins, plates, and striped straws at Target that were perfect.

And my favorite part...the rainbow reveal inside!  Love the bright rainbow layers. 

Rainbow cupcakes...vanilla buttercream with candy tape rainbows and marshmallow clouds.

The sweet birthday girl!

Tie-dye rainbow colors inside the cupcakes!

Thanks for reading!  Have a sweet week,
Rianne

Read more...

Jace is 1!

Seriously, how can you resist that little grin?!
Picture courtesy of talented Auntie Julia :)

My sweet little dude is 1.  How one year has passed already is beyond me...there should definitely be a pause button in life.  Jace has brought such joy into our lives...he has us all wrapped around his little finger with his giggles, easy-going personality and love for life.  He loves to play crazy with his daddy, be carted around by his big sister, and enjoy the (occasional) cuddle with Mommy.

Party table! 

His first birthday was a perfect excuse to bake and play in the kitchen :)    I went off some guitar fabric he has in his room and decorated with teal and black with guitars and music notes made with royal icing.

The cake, topped with a chocolate cupcake for the birthday boy! 

I've been wanting to do an ombre cake for a while, so I made a layered cake--one blue ombre, vanilla cake, and the bottom my favorite chocolate cake.

Since it's been forever that I decorated sugar cookies, I made some for everyone to take home as party favors.  

Party favors

I'd say he loved his first taste of cake...just maybe? ;)

Read more...

Hoo's turning one?

I couldn't resist the pun. So bad, I know. I almost forgot to blog these owl cupcakes--I saw a picture of some owl cake pops the other day and was reminded of the cupcakes I made for my sweet little niece for her first birthday!

The 'Hello, Cupcake' cookbooks are always full of fun, creative inspiration...and since they use a lot of supplies you probably have in your house (rather than professional decorating supplies), they're written for the home cook. You should definitely pick up a book or two of theirs and check it out for inspiration! These owl cupcakes were from one of these cupcakes and have always been on my 'want-to-bake' list, so I was ecstatic when we decided on these for L's 1st birthday! I love how each one has its own character.

 Photos courtesy of the talented Alyssa Brown Photography.

Chocolate cupcakes with Oreo and Junior Mint eyes, Reese's Pieces noses, and chocolate cream cheese fur.  Yum! 

Happy birthday sweet L! (PS--isn't the banner my sister made adorable? Love banners!)

'

Thanks for reading!

Rianne

Read more...

Spiderman!

My sister and I have this great trade...she takes family pictures for us a couple times a year, and I make her kids' birthday cakes. It's a win-win...I'm the worst photographer and making cakes is not her favorite thing :) I'm pretty sure I get the better end of the deal, though!

Mr. Joey turned 6 this year! He's such a fun, all-boy kid! He went between a couple different ideas, but settled on a Spiderman cake. Such a fun, simple cake to make but has a big impact.


Photo courtesy of Alyssa Brown Photography

Thanks for reading!
Rianne

Read more...

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

Read more...

Flowers and frogs

These cupcakes were made for 2 different birthday girls. I love how cupcakes can say something about the person.

The flower cupcakes were for the daughter of a friend--a sweet, happy young lady. They left the design up to me--they just wanted something fun and girly. I'd been wanting to make fondant cutouts for a while, so here was my chance! I decided to go with pink and purple icing, topped with white fondant flowers...feminine, fun, and sweet! To balance those out, I also did some purple swirl cupcakes with white pearl sprinkles.

I offered to make frog cupcakes for my little niece. She is a fun, spunky, energetic girl with a big love for frogs. I found an idea online and tweaked it to make it my own...big eyes, and a cute red tongue. Doesn't get cuter than that! :)

Thanks for reading!

Rianne

Read more...

Oh Deere!

I think this may be the most challenging, and one of my favorite, cakes I've done so far. When a dear friend asked me to decorate a cake for her brother's 40th birthday, I was all for it. He's a potato farmer who loves John Deere, so they wanted a farm/tractor theme for the cake. All the little details posed a challenge, but I went for it and loved how it turned out! And when I was asked to make 2 cakes--one for a business party, one for a family party--I didn't hesitate...after all, if you're going to make one, you might as well make 2! :)

One of the best things about this cake is that my friend baked the cakes and made the icing for me-so all I had to do was decorate. I think I could get used to that. Maybe I need to hire an assistant. ;)

The wagon full of vegetables was one of my favorite things about this cake...just looks like something out of a real farm!

These pumpkins were my favorite vegetable to make...so cute and round. The veggies were all fun to make though; I haven't done much fondant work, but I made all the veggies out of fondant--it was just like playing with PlayDoh!

These potatoes were definitely fun to make, too. I colored some fondant brown, then used a toothpick to give them some creases and holes, then rolled in cocoa to give them a dirty, earthy look.

Aerial view.

Thanks for looking!

Sweetly,

Rianne

Read more...

A cake 'fore' my love

This man is so many things to me. He is my best friend; God knew exactly who I needed in my life when I prayed for a husband....a wonderful leader, a great provider, the best place for good advice, a shoulder to cry on, a source of laughter and joy. He calms me, strengthens me, encourages me, helps me.

The man of the hour with his golf course cake and 'golf ball' cake pops (and with my assistant bakerella)!

Cakes signify a lot for me...they're a way I can express my love and affection for someone in a tangible way. So when Jon's birthday came up, I knew I wanted to make something special for him. This cake might look familiar...I did a golf course 'cake' made up of cupcakes for our brother-in-law's birthday a while back, and Jon was going on about how cool the cake would be in a cake form as well...so I tucked that thought away and knew exactly what cake I needed to make for his birthday!

The whole cake! I baked an 11x17 devil's food cake and then carved it in the shape of a golf course.

The golf balls were peppermints covered in white sprinkles, and the golf tee was shaped out of softened Mambas.

The sand pit is actually graham cracker crumbs!

The 'green' is my favorite part of the cake...pretty realistic looking! My mini bakerella loved helping with spreading the sprinkles for the green.

Happy birthday, Jon...I love you!

Sweetly,

Rianne

Read more...