Cupcake Special!

Back to school special!  $15/dozen for rainbow surprise cupcakes!  Ready on Friday for a nice end of 1st week of school special.  Or a nice end of summer treat if you start next week!  Email me   darlingdesserts@yahoo.com   I’m going to make a limited number so get your order in now to reserve a dozen (or more!).

Cupcakes for Teachers

 

 

1st grade is right around the corner.  On Friday Weston and I went back to school to meet his teacher.  I’m ready to get back to the school routine but am also a bit sad to see my baby boy grow up a little bit more.  I also have been worried about our decision to send him to this magnet school that is 30 minutes from home.  Is this school really any better?  According to the state grades, it’s not.  What about neighborhood friends?  He’s the only kid at his bus stop.   It was wonderful on Friday to get back in the school and FEEL the reason why I want to continue there.  We got to see friends we have missed this summer and I think we both left feeling reconnected.  I’m excited to see what the year holds for us.   No need for me to think about it for one more second.  Fast forward to today on our way home from Target which takes us by our zoned school.  “Mom when will I be allowed to go to that school?  I really want to go there.  Last year some kids left in the middle of the year to go to another school so I could do that.”   Too late kiddo.  Might have had a chance last week but now you’re stuck!  Oh, and I made these cupcakes for the back to school PTA lunch for the teachers.  I’m loving the fondant toppers and I hope they did too! 

Rainbow cupcakes

These might be my favorite cupcakes yet. Everyone seems to love seeing a rainbow in the cupcake. I had a helper for these.

You can make these yourself. I use super power color from the cake shop to get the vibrant colors. Just mix up, divide into cups to color, and layer spoonfuls into the cupcake pan. Doesn't sound like fun to you? I'll do it for you.

New Cake Pop

My testers say this is the best yet. I should say the testers that like coconut say it's the best. If you don't like coconut your out on this one. I did have one tester say he would like all the little pieces of paper taken off before testing. But he's 4.

These are coconut cake from scratch, vanilla buttercream from scratch dipped in chocolate from the store and sprinkled with toasted coconut (little pieces of paper). I love this cake. Next time I'm doing these dipped in white chocolate.

I've also been working on football yummies for football season. I know I won't have much time once August hits and school starts. Fall is always so busy around here. I haven't had many orders and I'm really enjoying just playing in the kitchen. It's a nice refresher. Nice, but I'm going to need some orders soon to pay for these experiments.

July = Cupcakes

We have been eating lots o' cupcakes around here in the past few weeks. I'm searching for the *perfect* cupcakes recipes. No mixes for my cake and Crisco in my frosting are my general guidelines. So far I've got my regular and chocolate buttercream down. Notice I concentrate on the frostings first. Found my regular, old fashioned vanilla cupcake recipe today. Chocolate is a bit harder. I've got one that is pretty good. But the batter is too thin. I must have a chocolate batter that I can add goodies to including, but not limited to, chocolate chips, heath bar chips, coconut. I've got a good Heath Bar cupcake. Take a look:

Yes that is a little Heath bar and Heath bits (don't ask what happened to the rest of that big bag of Heath bars). And it's loaded with bits in the cake. Good stuff.

Other than that it's been business as usual for summer in Florida. We've been to lots of beaches, done some gold mining, swimming, tennis camp. I don't even want to think about school starting. Of course I can say that right now because both my kids are in bed and I have a glass of wine in hand!

Logo Cookies

I've been practicing my piping skills with these!

Guess who is 3...

I'm still waiting for the terrible twos to leave. It was a fun birthday other than the stupid Barbie/Princess cake she picked out for me to make for. That and the cake pops and the cookies and the cupcakes. Guess what she ate. Store bought ice cream and the package of Peeps her Uncle Andrew gave her. Stinker.

Cake Pop Experiment

I've been busy experimenting with chocolate, cake and frosting. This is dangerous work. I rarely am tempted to eat a cookie but chocolate gets me. I've even started eating the cookies again after I dip them in chocolate. Ack! The real purpose of the chocolate is to make the perfect cake pop. What is a cake pop? It is cake and frosting mixed together, formed into a ball, stuck on a stick and dipped in chocolate. Take a look at the 1st run:

All kinds of problems: chocolate cracking, pops jumping off sticks, ugly drizzle. But still yummy. Very yummy. So I kept trying and eating. How about the cake and frosting in a chocolate mold instead of a stick? The first of those. See those sad cake pops in the background?

These are fun to make and fun to eat and really fun to decorate. In case you are wondering they are white cake and strawberry frosting dipped in chocolate. Kind of like a chocolate dipped strawberry but with absolutely no nutritional value at all. That's why they taste so good. Here are some all dressed up and ready to go:

And now back to cake pops. I think I've got the cracking problem figured out. The last batch were good enough to send to work with Danny.

Cake pops have not taken over the kitchen. I'm trying to figure out ways to package cookies that allows people to give them as a gift. I am not entertaining cookies on sticks. Cake on sticks, yes. Cookies on sticks, no. These cookies found a home in a 1lb. candy box with a clear lid. So instead of boring candy for Valentine's Day you could give them a box of delicious cookies.

Can you tell I got a new camera? I love it! It's not super fancy, just has a big zoom. Check it out:

Big, old Mr. Alligator at Blue Springs.

Cute mommy and baby manatee. The animal that evolution totally missed.

These 2 wild monkeys were running all over the place disturbing the peace.

Late Xmas Cookies

Happy New Year! I love the idea of fresh starts even if it comes from just the turning of a calendar page. My fitness resolution is to run a 5k each month. And by run I mean cross the finish line on my feet. I've picked my 1st race for the last Saturday of January and they allow for a 20 minute mile which means I am almost guaranteed to finish. That's mall wander walk speed.

I have some xmas cookies to share but most are stuck on my camera. My computer is so full that it can't accept one more picture. My new computer is on it's way from China as I type (I love online tracking tools). I also have a new fancy camera headed my way from Georgia. Fancy for me means a 26x zoom. Both due to arrive tomorrow so by tomorrow night I'll be super mad that I've spent all day with electronics and still don't have them figured out.

For our dog groomer:

For a client who had these delivered to the hospital for the nurses:


Christmas morning before they were allowed to touch anything. Mom and Dad need coffee before chaos.

Hope you all had a great Christmas. Stay tuned. I'm working with chocolate and cake for my next new products. Which leads right back to the top and my fitness resolution.