shop online for treats December 23, 2009

(i like how this whole post is a link……sorry!)

my sister has been helping me work on a little online store for ordering seasonal sweets. yes, i take paypal now. so if you are looking for cupcakes, mini cupcakes, cake truffles, cake lollis or anything “small”, you can order/inquire online.

here’s a little disclaimer: this is ONLY for treats made by Mary. We bake and blog as a group sometimes, but the money stuff has to stay separate, as you can imagine. SO for cakes by Andrea or pies by Emily, etc. you can contact those ladies through the blog or email. THANKS!

and feel free to share the link……..
www.smitten.yokaboo.com

mary

You’re Soaking in It September 21, 2009

alright, once again i’m going to say, it’s not like i’m up on every damn baking secret, i’ve just been a fan of cake for years. well. the aforementioned Jennifer Walton has clued me in to a mind-boggling “trick”. Soaking your cake. That’s right, you’re soaking in it. As in, soaking that sucker with any kind of flavor you can think of. UH. MUH. GUH. I could not believe my ears when she told me and I immediately tried it.
I whipped up a batch of from-scratch pound cake cupcakes and proceeded to soak those babies with orange simple syrup. OK. then i had to taste one. well, they were gross.  dry and flavorless, just like nothing had happened other than the tops were sticky and moist. i told my friend Jessica, and she said: don’t worry, icing fixes everything. she was right, but i was still bummed. I wanted this to be my new secret weapon!

but a day later, they were fantastic! a whole lot more moist and the flavor was still subtle but better than nothing at all. I obviously still need to practice, but i was thrilled that it did anything at all, as i would usually be the one who could screw up something so seemingly simple.

it’s a great way to get flavor into a cupcake or cake and help with the moistness. you can use just about any flavor you like and there are many recipes online and lots of people’s opinions on how much to use, etc.
it’s going to be my new favorite thing, i mean, you can even put alcohol in a cake? i want Kahlua-soaked vanilla bean cupcakes. or you could actually just soak your Red Velvet’s with the Bourbon. wonder if that would work? what other combo’s would be fun?

Last and Next September 21, 2009

well you can see the review under cake pops for a first-hand report on how awesome cake bombs are! i honestly couldnt stop eating them either, and usually after baking for hours, i am no longer interested in the finished product. i thought they were pretty delicious, i would like to perfect the “presentation” a bit. that is trickier than you would think.

in October, Emily and I are going to be making about 8 dozen cupcakes for a surprise party. we are lucky enough to have Jennifer Walton’s handmade cupcake tower which we will give a little makeover to fit our theme. We have a rainbow selection of foil cupcake liners as well as some handmade pinwheels for the very top row of cupcakes on the tower.

Our selection will be the worlds most ridiculous chocolate cake recipe for our cupcakes (um, it’s got mayonnaise in it, ok?) with chocolate frosting, lemonade angel food cupcakes, and from-scratch carrot cake cupcakes with traditional cream cheese frosting. should be something for everyone. pictures will be posted, in about a month, so hold on!

cupcake madness August 1, 2009

well, i am the cupcake fiend of this group so i am going to share some fun news and links with y’all.

basically, we have been in practice mode and have been keeping everything low key while we tried new recipes and got feedback.  as in: simple, silver cupcake liners, basic icing with sprinkles/sugars, etc.

now we are going to be stepping it up a notch. or at least giving the option of a more colorful and playful and cute cupcake! check out some of these options:

cupcake liners. you don’t bake in them but put them around the cupcake for a sweet presentation:

and here are some fun papers we are going to snap up. this is a great seller on etsy, check them out and let us know what’s your fancy! #cute cupcake liners#

more options to come, but you get the idea! cupcake toppers, mini flowers, fun plastic toppers too like pinwheels and little deer and retro clown heads and on and on…………….just ask, i bet we can find it and do it up for ya!

cupcake pops August 1, 2009

now, i’m not really on the ball, nor do i claim to be–these just flew across my radar recently. so i say,  when i find something fun and delicious and cute as hell, i’m on it! Ladies and Gentlemen, i give you the cupcake pop:

these babies are fun but very time consuming. my first run took from noon til about 7pm. so leave yourself plenty of time. i had some trouble with making the tops look bigger than the bottom for a cupcake shape. but that did not stop anyone from eating them. at. all.

i will be trying these again very soon, more in the form of a cake bomb (a larger truffle version). i have heard them referred to as “cake balls” but the word “balls” seems so unappetizing ok? it’s not happening ’round here! so i coined “cake bombs” instead.  seems to suit the dense, heavy richness of these babies just perfectly!

whats new? August 1, 2009

alright people, yes there have been some gaps in the reporting here at the blog. but we’ve all been testing and baking for our little loyal fan base.
first we had a request for a baby shower at the Akron Art Museum, where I might add, we are getting quite the reputation. A good one. We did 3 dozen: lemonade with cream cheese frosting and pink and yellow sugar sprinkles, strawberry with strawberry cream cheese frosting with fresh strawberry slices and cookies and cream. There was only one little far-off picture, I will try to post it.

Sweetness for the Beauty Lounge/Rubber City Tattoo Company Party June 22, 2009

emily and i (mary) made Red Velvet Jones mini cupcakes and a 10″ cake. the cake was dark chocolate and Red Velvet Jones cake with a white buttercream filling. emily whipped up some hot pink fondant for that sucker. we made 2 tattoo-inspired hearts with colorflow. em was left with the task of assembling all of this the day of the party since i was at work. the hearts both cracked, but not too bad for our first real try with the colorflow. she outlined everything with a thick black rosette border and even added a cute tattoo-like daisy to the side.  sooooo yummy!

i know these pictures are a little lack luster, but they were taken by Jessica’s phone, so thanks Jess, for at least some documentation of our hard work

Upcoming Treats June 12, 2009

it’s been a while since one of us has updated. i had a few delicious projects that need photos posted.

But our upcoming project is for the Beauty Lounge/ Rubber City Tattoo party on June 20.

Emily and I have started planning, hopefully Andrea can help with the cupcakes, but here’s the plan: A 10″ round 2 layer cake, one in chocolate and one in red velvet. A traditional tattoo heart with banner, with Akron on the banner! all made of color flow. then a mish mash of cupcakes to go with. Sound good? Then come to the party to taste the results!

Course III Final…DISASTER! May 1, 2009

This cake turned out kinda cute after it was all said and done.  9″ bottom tier filled with buttercream and cherries.  Plain top tier and all fondant & buttercream accents.  Thank heavens Emily took a photo of me posing by it, because less than 30 minutes later, it was no more.

I'm Still Standing

And…the finale of twelve weeks of hard work:

And I guess that’s why they call it the blues…

Chocolate Buttercream -by Emily May 1, 2009

Chocolate buttercream was hard to work with, so this one looks a tad rough.  But it sure was yummy.  Wish these pics were scratch n sniff!