Cowboys! They are on the way....

I can't believe it was back in April when I did the Twins' Reveal Cakes for my friend Kelly and her babies. I had so much fun making the cakes for Baby A and Baby B to celebrate the gender reveal. In just about a month her twin baby boys will be born but we are betting it is going to be sooner than that...Kelly's hoping for Fri Aug 13! So to celebrate their arrival we celebrated last weekend with a Cowboy themed baby shower to match her cowboy nursery! My job was to provide the cake!

A family friend of Kelly's hand painted a dresser for the nursery with each drawer being a different cowboy theme. The bottom drawer is cow print, the middle drawer a red bandanna and the top drawer denim.

So in keeping with the theme of the dresser & nursery, I thought it would be fun to make a cake to match. The top tier was denim with a little pocket and stitched border. This layer was a strawberry cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting.

The cow print was really easy to make, using black fondant and cutting out black spots to place on randomly. This tier was a yellow cake with vanilla buttercream.

The middle tier was bandanna with a piped on paisley pattern. This tier was a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream.

I found the cutest cowboy clothes at Gymboree for the little boys.

And the cake is assembled. This was my first 3-tier cake and I was praying it didn't collapse before the party started. Luckily it held strong until it was time to slice it and enjoy.

I found some wooden letters and thought it would be cute to add the babies' names to the cake.

Baby A is MACK

Baby B is MILES

How cute are those baby names!

Here is the adorable table scape that Kelly's mom put together for the party.

So now that you've seen the cake, I can't wait to show you the sweetest nursery I have ever seen! These babies are going to be in cowboy heaven. Every detail has been precisely thought out to decorate from wall to wall in brown, red and denim...the perfect color combo for any cowboy.

Here's the inspiration for the cake...how stinkin cute is this dresser? This is one unique piece of furniture that is the focal piece in the nursery and brings their room to life.

Twin wooden cribs...

with cow print sheets and Woody from Toy Story.

And you can't have a cowboy nursery without a rocking horse of course, bandanna and all.

Every cowboy needs a cowboy hat. I can just picture Mack and Miles wearing these for their 1 year old pictures...they are going to be the cutest cowboys in town!

And the most comfortable double rocking love seat I have ever seen, newly covered in denim fabric.

Cowboy boot bookends...precious!

The proud mama to be!

Kelly's getting some practice rocking the Woody dolls!

Belly + Twins = perfect plate holder!

Here's a pic of Katie, the shower coordinator, Kelly the proud mama and me the cake lady!

What a fantastic day to celebrate this exciting occasion with Kelly, Mack & Miles! I can't wait to do another post once the babies arrive and I get to make something sweet to celebrate their birth!

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!

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Well summer seems to be flying right on by and this is the first time I have made homemade ice cream! What have I been waiting for! I decided it was finally time to break out the old ice cream maker and whip up a nice cool treat for after dinner dessert since July is National Ice Cream Month. I am a huge ice cream fan, I love all flavors, especially the ones with chocolate and chunks of stuff whether it be nuts, chocolate chips, cookie dough, or candy bars.

Recently I discovered a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Ice Cream from Heather at Multiply Delicious. I first found Heather's blog when I entered the Real Women of Philadelphia Competition and submitted my recipe for Jammin' Strawberry Cream & Chocolate Cupcakes. During the competition I discovered so many amazing blogs by women who love to bake and cook all over the country and I have been following several of them ever since. I just love getting recipe ideas and inspiration from other blogs.

I am so excited about my latest find at TJMaxx...this set of 4 ice cream bowls & spoons in fun vibrant summery colors for only $4.99. What a steal! I love shopping around for fun props to display my food in and TJMaxx is a great go to place for unique and cheap items. These bowls were absolutely perfect for serving up this batch of ice cream!

So if you are looking for a fun summer ice cream recipe that doesn't take much prep time this is a delicious recipe and sure to be a crowd favorite!

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (adapted from Multiply Delicious)

-1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 cup light brown sugar
-2 cups heavy cream
-1 1/2 cups milk
-1 1/2 tsp vanilla
-3/4 cup chocolate chips

• With an electric mixer beat peanut butter and sugars until creamy.
• Add milk and mix for 1-2 minutes.
• Mix in heavy cream and vanilla extract.
• Pour mixture into the bowl of an electric ice cream maker. (I have this Cuisinart ice cream maker)
• Follow the directions on the ice cream maker and cream mixture for about 25-30 minutes.
• In the last 5 minutes of mixing, stop the ice cream maker, stir in the chocolate chips.
• Turn ice cream maker back on and continue mixing for 5 minutes.
• Ice cream will be the consistency of soft serve and will be ready to eat right away.
• For a more firm consistency ice cream transfer the batch to a plastic container and place in the freezer for a few hours or overnight.

Are you planning on making some homemade ice cream this summer? I'd love to hear what your favorite flavor is!