Artwalk Interactive Rainbow Cake & Cupcakes

I have been wanting to make a rainbow cake for a while now, and this week I finally had the opportunity to play with red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple cake batter!

I made a 6" round 6-layer cake...

And 100 ROYGBP cupcakes. I LOVE these VIBRANT colors!

Each cupcake was topped with a white fondant circle to be decorated as part of an artwalk celebration. The idea for a "decorate your own" cake & cupcakes came from the talented Rosie of Sweetapolita.

Here is the final display I designed for the 6th annual LoDa Artwalk. The cake and cupcakes were displayed at wellbornIdeas as part of an "interactive" display.

People who visited the gallery were invited to grab an edible marker and decorate their "blank canvas" on top of their cupcake.

Here's a look at the final 3 tier cake prior to being decorated by local artists as well as members of the community. The bottom two tiers are dummy cakes and the top tier is the ROYGBP cake! To play off of the scalloped edge of the cake pedestal I thought it would be fun to create a scallop rim around each tier of cake in the rainbow colors to tie in with the theme.

Here's a look at 3 wellbornIdeas employees decorating their cupcakes.

The wellbornIdeas logo on a cupcake...

and on the cake

Here is Ashley, one of the featured gallery artists for the evening putting her artistic talents to work on the bottom tier of the cake...looking good!

I love how she used the scallops and turned them in to owl eyes, I would have never thought of that...so creative!

It was so cool to see a variety of creative minds coming together with their artistic contributions to the final cake!

Even the little ones got in on the fun!

Here's the final cake! What an amazing event to be a part of! Thanks wellbornIdeas for asking me to provide the cake and cupcakes for this special event!

To see more pictures you can head to my facebook page.

Bumble Bee Baby Shower

This past weekend I was buzzing around like a busy bee in my kitchen. My good friend Kelly who I have mentioned here on CIS before was hosting a baby shower, instead of being the guest of honor herself as you may remember here. The theme was bumble bees, adorable! I had never decorated anything with the bee theme before so immediately I started envisioning yellow & black, polka dots and of course little bees everywhere. Kelly requested cupcakes and cake balls/pops and then some sugar cookie onesies and baby bottles for the favors.

Drawing inspiration from polka dot ribbon and cupcake liners I added some dots to the yellow onesie cookies. My first instinct was to decorate the cookies with black stripes so they would more closely resemble a bee, but after trying this on one cookie it quickly reminded me too much of Charlie Brown...so I scratched that idea and proceeded with polka dots.

I hope you enjoy all the pictures of the bumble bee sweets...I got a little carried away BEE cause everything was so cute! I have some exciting news at the bottom of the post too that I can't wait to share with you!

The bee cupcake toppers were made from yellow fondant rolled into an oval with two slivered almonds poked into the sides. The stripes and eyes were piped on using black royal icing. I used a round tip 1A to pipe on 4 swirls of icing to resemble a bee hive.

Bumble bee cake pops inspired by Bakerella.

Now for the EXCITING NEWS!!!

I am going to be a monthly blog contributor to Half Baked. If you have never heard of Half Baked before and you are as big of a cake lover as me...well I don't know where you have been! Half Baked is seriously my go to blog for cake inspiration! It is filled with some of the most gorgeous and unique cakes I have ever seen. Carrie, the founder and editor of Half Baked is a cake designer herself and also features some of the most talented cake vendors in the industry. Whether a cake for a birthday, shower or wedding, no matter the occasion I am always blown away by the creative cakes and decorating techniques seen on Half Baked! This blog is truly one of my all time favorites, and one I have been following for almost two years now. I am so honored that Carrie has chosen me to be part of her blog. My new gig will involve creating monthly cupcake recipes and photos to share with all her readers, and I can't wait! I am looking forward to sharing my first cupcake flavor later this month, so stayed tuned!

Have a great week!

Black & Teal Wedding Cake & Cupcakes

Happy Friday! So glad the weekend is finally here! I'm going to keep this post short and sweet because 1) Its been a LONG week & I'm tired, 2) I've got more baking to do for a couples shower/crawfish boil tomorrow and 3) Randolph just put some ribs on the grill with his "special dry rub" seasoning so dinner will be ready shortly! So I will leave you with some photos of a wedding cake and cupcakes I made for a reception last weekend.

Tracy, the bride sent me some great photos for inspiration to work with when designing her cakes and cupcakes inspired by the napkins she was going to use at her recption. I just love the black and teal theme!

I used royal icing to pipe on the swirls and squiggles.

Tracy bought the cupcake tower online and then covered each individual tier with a black damask wrapping paper and covered the edges in teal ribbon. This is a super easy DIY project and very affordable and easy to assemble! I decorated each cupcake with 4 black fondant flowers and silver dragees. The flowers were made using this daisy flower plunger from Layer Cake Shop.

Congratulations Tracy! I had so much fun making your wedding cake and cupcakes! I wish you much happiness with your new groom!

In the works...

Here's a sneak peak at what's going on behind the scenes in my kitchen this week. Rainbow colored Candy Melts...can someone say Cake Pops!

Silver dragees and black fondant flowers to create a beautiful cupcake design for a wedding this weekend!

Let's just say there is lots of red velvet cake baking in the very near future to accompany all of these fun decorations!

Check back soon for pictures of the final sweets!

Cupcake a Week: Gingerbread & Candy Cane Fondant Toppers

TGIF! It has been a CRAZY week in my kitchen and I am wiped out! My kitchen aid mixer has been running non stop this week...whipping up cupcake batters, sugar cookie dough, buttercream and royal icing. My mixer is definitely the one kitchen appliance I can not live without and I was so grateful to have it after this week of baking! I cranked out 250 decorated sugar cookies, 100 cupcakes and 140 cake pops in just 2 days for a big event that was last night! The event was a lot of fun and a huge success and I'm looking forward to sharing with you all the photos soon!

Here's a sneak peak at the cupcakes I made for the event! If you are looking for a simple way to spruce up some cupcakes for your next holiday party all you need is some fondant and small cookie cutters! By using some red and brown fondant I created these adorable cupcake toppers in the shape of gingerbread men and candy canes! You could also do trees, ornaments, bells, holly leaves or snowmen and switch up the colors too. I love how clean and simple the decorations turned out.

I can't believe this is the last weekend before Christmas! Randolph and I are headed to a "tacky sweater" Christmas party tomorrow night! I've been looking forward to this all week, what a fun idea for a party! I found some hilarious sweater vests to wear all decked out in snowmen, mittens and sequins. I'll be sure to post some photos of us in our festive holiday attire! I've already been joking around that we might just wear these sweaters when we head up to KY next week to see my family for Christmas!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Cupcake a Week: Cute as a Button Cupcake Skewers

I have been dying to share my latest cupcake creation with you all! I actually submitted this into a "cupcake skewer" contest over at Pizzazzerie. It seems the latest trend to be popping up on dessert tables are the cupcake skewers. Take a mini cupcake, add it to a stick with a little decoration on top and you have yourself a pretty unique dessert display!

So here's where my "cute as a button" design inspiration came to be for my cupcakes skewers. You may remember The Big Reveal twin's gender party and the Cowboy Cake I recently made for my friend Kelly's baby shower. Well on September 1st the cutest pair of twin baby boys I have ever seen were born! So I thought it was only fitting to welcome these babies into the world with yet another sweet treat! I went to visit Kelly and the babies this week and took this cupcake skewer bouquet. So I bet you're wondering if I got some pics of the littles ones...of course I did. So let me introduce you to....

Mack & Miles Morgan

Aren't they absolutely precious! Kelly said she tries to keep them positioned alphabetically to make it easier, so Mack is on the left and Miles is on the right!

Mack's the tiny one! He was sleeping when I got there, but soon woke up so I could hold him.

And Miles was just hanging out, looking around, sweet as can be while his little brother napped. I can't wait to go back and spend more time with these little guys!

Since I had a blast creating the "cute as a button" cupcake skewers I've put together a step-by-step photo tutorial on how to make the fondant buttons in case you want to make one of your own. Its super easy!

Roll out fondant in your favorite colors

Using these 3 decorating tips you can make both a large & small size button:
Ateco 806 (or Wilton 1A...just a large round tip)
Wilton #3
Wilton #12

Use the bottom of tip 806 and cut out round circles for the large button

Take the bottom of tip 12 and gently press into the center of your larger circle to create a smaller circle in the center

This is the result

Use tip 3 and flip it upside down to create 2 tiny holes inside of the center circle
Button # 1 is complete...easy enough right?

To make a smaller button, cut circles using the bottom of tip 3

Flip tip 3 over again and make 4 tiny holes in the small button
And that's all there is to making small & large fondant buttons

Then just go to town making more buttons in multiple colors
and there you have your super "cute as a button" cupcake toppers

I created a super easy and simple DIY canister to place the skewers in. Using a recycled can I added 2 strips of construction paper around the center in different colors, one slightly wider than the other. I used a black marker to write "cute as a" and then glued on a fondant button. That's all there is too it. Throw a little shredded paper inside for some extra color and to help hold the skewers in place.

Be sure to stop back by next week when I'll show you "how to assemble a cupcake skewer".

Have a great weekend!