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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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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Wedding fever!

It's the week before my little (well, younger) brother's wedding, and everyone has caught wedding fever! I still can't believe he's getting married...but he couldn't have chosen a better bride-to-be than Krissy. She is one of the sweetest, most genuine people I've met, and she's fit into our family so easily. It's going to be so hard to say goodbye next week to not just a brother, but also a new sister as they head to their new life on the Marine base in Hawaii. We know God will watch over them and keep them as they start life together.

The beautiful couple! Photo courtesy of Alyssa Brown Photography.

A couple weeks ago, we had a wedding shower for the bride-to-be. I offered to make a cake, since any opportunity to make a girly, pretty cake is too good to be passed up :) I went with a 3 layered cake--white, vanilla and chocolate flavors--decorated with vanilla buttercream swirl roses and simple pearl accents. Pretty and elegant, just like Krissy! :)

The inside of the cake is one of my favorite parts! Inspired by Annie of Annie's Eats, I wanted to do neopolitan layers, so I went with chocolate for brown, vanilla for white, and then colored the white cake pink. I love how it turned out...such a fun surprise when you cut the cake. And yummy strawberry preserves as a filling finished off the cake.

This week, it's on to wedding baking! Cupcakes, cake pops and a fun cake topper are in the works...fun times!

Have a sweet week! I know mine will be! :)

Rianne

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