Cupcake a Week: Cupcakes for a Cure, Part 2

7 hours of baking...
3 hrs of making frosting and piping...
and 1000 mini cupcakes later
the Cupcakes for a Cure fundraiser was a success raising $1360 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society this past weekend!

And I am officially still trying to recover in time for my next baking adventure tomorrow...a cowboy themed baby shower cake, so be sure and check back next week for this cute cake

But for now I'm going to show you some more photos from the cupcake tasting!

42 boxes packed full of cupcakes...with the heat and humidity here in Mobile I only baked the cupcakes ahead of time and decided it was best to frost them once I was onsite where the event was going to take place

cake pedestals, vases and cupcake flavor tags to be used for the dessert table display

staging the cupcake display table with the cake pedestals to make sure there was room for all 5 flavors

Jennifer at the door taking the tickets when the guests arrive

some super cute cupcake themed door prizes

here's a reprint of our article that was in the newspaper promoting the event

the room is ready for cupcake tasters to come on in...let the tasting begin

the first round of cupcakes are displayed...don't worry there are hundreds more still hiding out in the kitchen to refill the plates

Chocolate Cupcakes with a Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Chocolate Chip Buttercream

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Jam and Cream Cheese Center and Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

The very first cupcake taster of the day! She is dressed for the occasion for sure...how cute is her little pink cupcake dress, adorable!

The Cupcake Crew: Me, Jennifer, Wendy & Katie

We thought it we be cute to all wear matching purple aprons so we could easily be identified as the hosts of the event.

Cupcakes & Milk...life doesn't get much better than that!

This is David...he can't ever get enough of the chocolate & strawberry cupcakes, those are his faves!

So there you have it, my weekend full of cupcakes!

Cupcake a Week: Cupcakes for a Cure, Part 1

The big weekend is here! The Cupcakes for a Cure tasting that I've been advertising on my blog sidebar is this Sunday! This event really has potential to be a huge success as we were featured in the newspaper this week...YEAH! Those are pictures of my cupcakes on the front page of the living section, how cool is that!

As you all know I love to bake & decorate cupcakes and I have been dreaming up a way to be able to do just that and raise money for a great cause all at the same time. Well this weekend it is going to happen! I have teamed up with three other ladies and together the 4 of us are going to hopefully raise a lot of money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I'm the "coach" and "baker" of our 4 person team. I coach for Team in Training and as a way to help out 3 of the participants who are currently training and fundraising for the Nike Women's Marathon in October I have offered to turn my kitchen into a cupcake bakery for a day and crank out 1000 cupcakes!

There has been a lot going on this week in preparation for the big event so instead of sharing with you a new recipe I'm going to give you a behind the scenes sneak peak at how the event is coming together.

This is the venue where the cupcake tasting will take place. One of the girls that is fundraising teaches at a catholic school in Mobile and had a connection to one of the buildings on the campus for us to use. How cute are those chairs...they remind me of a little cafe bistro.

This is the front of the room that we are going to use to set up our cupcake dessert table featuring 5 varieties. Featured flavors are: Vanilla with Vanilla Buttercream, Chocolate with Peanut Butter Frosting, Chocolate Chip, Jammin' Strawberry Cream & Chocolate and Lemon Blueberry.

There will be door prizes given away every 10 minutes of this 2 hour event...here are a few, a cupcake book and some baking mats for kids.

Lots of cupcake liners. We have chosen to bake minis for the tasting and each flavor will be baked in a specific color wrapper.

Here's only a glimpse of some of our cupcake ingredients. Thanks to a lot of the local grocery stores in Mobile we were able to get all of our ingredients donated, so that means all money raised at the door is 100% profit and goes directly to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!

I've done the math and I figure I can fit 48 minis in my oven at a time. So to get 1000 mini cupcakes that means about 21 batches of baking and between 4-5 hours of oven time!

We are going to add some color to the cupcake display table using these cloth paisley print napkins. We plan to display the cupcakes on a variety of white and glass cake pedestals to create a shabby chic look for the day.

So tomorrow starts the big bake-a-thon and will definitely be a test of endurance in the kitchen! Luckily Katie, Wendy and Jennifer have volunteered to come over and help me out, so together the 4 of us should be able to conquer the cupcakes!

Be sure and check back next week when I post all the details and photos of the actual event!

Bunny Chase Fundraiser

Last Saturday, April 3rd was a a huge day! It was the culmination of 3 months of planning for a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and I couldn't be more pleased with how everything turned out! I was the race coordinator for the 2nd Annual Bunny Chase 5K and Family Fun Festival. For those of you that have been following my blog for awhile now, you know that not only do I love all things sweet but I love running and that is why I am involved in an organization called Team in Training (TNT) which raises money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) while training for a marathon or triathlon.

The idea for the Bunny Chase was created last spring with a few running friends. At the time I was a mentor for TNT and needed to come up with a fundraising idea to help the current marathon participants raise money for the events they were training for. We decided that since running is becoming so popular these days it would be fun to host a running event for the community to raise awareness about LLS and help raise money for the society. Not only did we want to make this an event for runners but we wanted it to be an event for the entire family. The Bunny chase consisted of a 5K run, a 1 mile Fun Run, and all sorts of Easter activities since it was held on Easter weekend. We had pictures with the Easter Bunny, an Easter Egg Hunt and face painting for the kids! With such a great turnout last year and so much positive feedback from the community we came to realize that the Bunny Chase was going to be an event for many years to come!

So for the last 3 months I have been coordinating every detail of this event with a race committee of about 15 people so we could be sure our event was even better this year than last year! At the end of the event we were all exhausted but super excited with the outcome! This year we had 308 participants and raised over $4,300 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! This was $1,200 more dollars than we raised last year!

Some people think I'm crazy, but really I love obsessing about all the details that go into planning an event like this. So here's a behind the scenes look at the preparations that took place to make this event a success...

Race Packets: this is the "perk" that runners get when they go to most road races. I must admit we had some pretty nice freebies in our packet this year...beverage huggies, chip clips, key chains, ink pens, hand sanitizer and free Goldfish coupons!

Race Bib Numbers: this is what each runner wears during the race so you can record their race statistics such as place and time when they cross the finish line.

T-shirts: Some runner's sole reason for doing a race is to get the t-shirt that goes with it. I just love our shirt logo this year with the Bunny breaking through the Easter egg (see top picture from this post).

Marshmallow Bunnies: We passed these out to all the kids that participated in the 1 Mile Fun Run so that everyone could go home with a prize!

Cupcakes: I made some Peep cupcakes for the food table. (Did you really think I would host an event and not bake some type of sweet treat to go along with it?)

and more cupcakes minus the Peeps!

Food: Here's a look at our food table...we had such generous vendors in the community that volunteered to donate goodies for our event. Starbucks donated coffee, Atlanta Bread company donated cookies, McAlister's Deli donated sweet tea and lemonade, Krispy Kreme donated donuts and the Fresh Market donated strawberries and apples! THANK YOU!



Registration Table: This is where I stood for a good part of race morning. Although the majority of the runners signed up prior to the race, there were about 80 people that signed up race morning...so things were a little hectic getting everyone a bib#, t-shirt and packet before the race started.

Race Course: Our event took place at Medal of Honor Park in Mobile. This was a 5K race (3.1 miles) course that took place on all types of terrain. It started off on a grass football field and then snaked through some trails in the park and finished back on the field where you see the time clock.

Race Times: As the runners crossed the finish line they wrote down their name, gender, age and race time on a note card. These cards were filed in boxes by gender and age and then sorted so we could give out awards for the different age groups. This was our way of organization since we are a "low budget" race. Typically at larger races there would be a computer generated time system keeping track of this data...but we are all about raising money for LLS so we decided we could handle this aspect ourselves rather than hiring someone to do this for us.


Awards: For the top 3 winners overall and the top 3 male and female runners in different age groups we gave out Easter egg shaped awards. The awards are one of my favorite features of this entire event. The eggs are wooden and are hand painted by local students and then strung with ribbon. This is such a great way to teach kids at a young age the importance of volunteering and how much they can do to help in the community no matter their age.

Honored Teammate: This is Isaac, and he is our honored teammate. Just a few years ago he was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of 5. He is one of the sweetest boys you will ever meet and always has a smile on his face. He is now 10 years old and in remission. Isaac got the privilege of passing out all of the egg awards.


Face Painting: A local girl scout troop volunteered their time to come and face paint for all of the little kids.


Pictures with the Easter Bunny: All the kids had a blast posing with the bunny! These are my friend Susan's twins Anna and Marie. So cute in their matching pink Nike running skirts!


Candy Filled Eggs: A local elementary school donated almost 700 candy filled eggs for the egg hunt. Thank You Whitley Elementary!


Easter Egg Hunt: We hid the eggs throughout the playground at the park in all the nooks and crannies of the wood jungle gym.

Ready set Go: The playground was pure chaos with the kids in search of all the bright colored eggs!

GO TEAM! All of the current TNT members who helped put on this event are standing at the finish line cheering in all the runners!

Here's a picture of my sister Emily, my mom and me at the event! They came 725 miles from KY to help with this event and to spend Easter weekend with us! Thanks for your help...love you!

If you live in Mobile and have a a family member or friend that has been affected by a blood cancer or simply just want to train to run/walk a marathon, half marathon or triathlon then I encourage you to check out the Team in Training website. Being part of this team will be a life changing experience...you will gain so may new friends, challenge your body to train for and complete an endurance event, fundraise for a wonderful cause and raise awareness about blood cancers! Even if you don't live in Mobile, you can still check out the TNT website and join the cause in your own city as this is a nationwide organization!