For my birthday, Suzi decided to make these deliciously adorable mini cupcakes, petits fours, from the Hello Cupcake book. These pastel and bright colors are perfect for spring, but with food coloring you can create all kinds of colors to be used for any occasion. These would be really cute for Independence Day, too, maybe red, white and blue cupcakes?

Tip: I didn’t get a photo of this, but to achieve the super-smooth frosting look all you have to do is microwave the frosting for about 10 seconds, stir it thoroughly because sometimes the food coloring separates, then dip the top of the cupcake slowly into the frosting. If you twist the cupcake in the frosting a little bit, then gently swirl it up and out of the frosting, it will settle smoothly across the cupcake. Next time, I’ll try to get pictures of this step!

Happy Memorial Day! :)

Saturday was my birthday party at La Boca!  It was so so so much fun!  We got there at around 8 o’ clock, and since I didn’t make reservations, we ended up waiting a little while to eat.  But when we finally did it was awesome.  Sami and I split chicken fajitas and shortly after that followed my Hello Kitty birthday cake and mini cupcakes!!!  Courtesy of Sami and Suzi.  (These girls are freakin’ talented!)

After dinner we had some drinks with a bunch of close friends and a few surprise guests too.  A lot of people showed up!!!  I wasn’t expecting that.  Is it customary to send thank you notes for birthday gifts?  Because I want to thank everyone!  My gifts were adorned with Hello Kitties, cupcakes and vampires and judging  from the gifts I received, my friends know me pretty well.  I loved them all!  So by the end of the night I  made it home in my pumps and party dress and realized what a bunch of great people I have in my life.  Thanks to everyone who came and/ or left me birthday wishes.  It really meant a lot to me.

mish<3

Have you been wondering why we haven’t done a cupcake post this month yet? It’s because we’ve been saving it for after Mish’s birthday, which is today! Happy 23^rd, Mish!

I can’t tell you anything more about the cupcakes yet {because they’re a surprise for Mish!}, but you’ll get to see them on Sunday ;)

Love you, Mish! xoxo!!

As we mentioned yesterday, last night was our first cupcake party and it went swimmingly {pun intended… okay, you’ll get it in a second}. Sami’s older sister Suzi used her Hello Cupcake book to make these adorable penguin cupcakes complete with icebergs and gummy fish counterparts! {get the swimming reference now?} The best part is, she did it all for under $20!

Suzi, who has been making kickass cakes for quite some time now, has begun to consider starting her own side-business making cakes and cupcakes for weddings, birthdays, and other sorts of parties. She jokes about the idea, but she already has a name picked out: Suzicakes! Aww :)

“I think I really got into making extravagant cakes when I had Scarlett,” Suzi says. Scarlett is the cutest, silliest, smartest kid we know and has been deliciously spoiled with wicked cool cakes for almost all of her seven birthdays. For her 6th birthday, Scarlett had a Shark Attack! cake {above} because she loves sharks {and yes, that shark really is eating Barbie!}. Last year, she had a haunted birthday theme with a haunted house cake {right}.

Aaanyway, back to the penguins! We can’t divulge the secret recipe, as it is copyrighted to the authors of Hello Cupcake, but here are some process shots:

A tip that wasn’t in the book: Suzi recommends cutting the tops off of the cupcakes that you make the penguins on so that you have a flat surface to work with.

Okay, we admit it, Suzi did most of the work, but only because she has much more experience making desserts that are both aesthetically and tastefully pleasing!

One thing we did do ourselves was shape the penguin feet. We are super proud of them. :)

Our icebergs are suffering from the effects of global warming, so they’re a bit droopy, but otherwise everything came out wonderful! We love love love Suzi and her goddess-like baking skills. If you ever want a really rad cake made, we know who to contact, but if you feel like trying out some of these cool cupcakes yourself, we highly highly suggest Hello Cupcake, which you can find in every major bookstore and online. Happy baking! <3