Knitted cuddlies

This past weekend I decided I needed to use some of my left over yarn, so I headed over to Ravelry and search for some patterns that wouldn't require a lot of yarn.

This is what I found:

How cute are these things?!

The pig is maybe the size of my big toe, it's just a little guy (who is named Franklin, in case you were wondering)! The monsters vary in sizes depending on the yarn/needle size you use!

You can find the pattern for the pig HERE,

and the pattern for the monsters HERE.

Here are some more pictures:

Here's another picture of the pig on my hand:

Such a fun weekend project!

....now I need to go actually finish a pair of socks for once!

PS

Here is something to make you drool:

Pancakes and bacon cupcakes

(basically a white cake with maple syrup and bacon, with maple buttercream and topped with bacon!)

Cars and tractors - oh my!

Right before Thanksgiving I got a call asking if I could make birthday cupcakes for a little boy who was turning one!  The family was celebrating twice, once with each side of the family so they needed two different orders: first one with cars and happy birthday picks, and the second with tractors!

 

Cars made out of gum paste and fondant:

 

 

 The tractors were also made out of gum paste and fondant.

First Wedding!

  Two weeks ago I had my first order for wedding cupcakes - talk about exciting!  The bride and groom selected six different flavors: white with chocolate frosting, chocolate with chocolate as well as vanilla frosting, red velvet with cream cheese, strawberry with cotton candy and finally black bottom with caramel.

My red velvet batter was a little thicker then I had first thought...it broke my spatula!

Switched to a heavy-duty spatula and then everything was alright!

  

The display:

  I ran into the newly weds this past weekend and was told they were a huge hit! All in all, I'd say that everything turned out well!

The long lost blogger!

Here is a recap of the past few months.

October:

This past weekend I was part of a bridal expo - I also finally got the chance to put my Kitchen-Aid to the test by making a quadruple batch of frosting (16 cups of powdered sugar were added to it) and I'm thankful to report that it passed the test with flying colors! Unfortunately, my estimate of how much frosting I would need was off and I ended up making another double batch - thankfully that was enough because I was completely out of powdered sugar and butter!  I went with strawberry, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, each was adorned with either a blue gum paste flower or edible pearls.

I'm not a huge fan of how a cupcake tier looks with just cupcakes on the top, so I made a 6" rice krispie cake (since no one would be eating it, why make a whole cake?) and covered it with fondant, flowers, a black ribbon  and a flower bouquet clip - to be fair, my mom did the flowers and the ribbon, I did the cake and fondant.

I think the display turned out beautifully!  We put Christmas lights in the middle and underneath to add some extra light and sparkle.

  

Within an hour and fifteen minutes of the expo opening I was completely out of cupcakes - I guess 96 was not enough!  It turned out to be okay, we just took the tier down and put the left over cupcake on the table with some flavor/pricing lists and business cards

Now to recoup for a few days, this upcoming weekend I've got an order for a wedding!

September:
I was shooting weddings every weekend (with LDG Photos), and I was also the maid of honor for my dearest friend's wedding.  I did find some time between weddings however to experiment/perfect a few new(ish) recipes and also experimented with gum paste flowers for the first time.

The beautiful bride

Strawberry cupcakes

Chocolate cupcake w/peanut buttercream

August:

The busy season started!  I was working with LDG Photos as a second shooter and we had weddings almost every weekend.  The weekends we weren't shooting weddings, there was still something related to them going on, such as my best friends bridal shower that I had the privilege of providing cupcakes for.  The bridal shower's theme was an old English tea party, and as I was looking through a recipe book I had there was an idea to use styrofoam and moss to create a cupcake stand - it turned out great!

The cupcake display

A close up

This was such a beautiful cake stand that matched the theme!

It's Gardening Time!

  I recently got a phone call from someone asking for birthday cupcakes with a garden theme.  Yes!  Hello imagination, it's time to get to work!  I made some fondant carrots, peas and corn in advance so that they would dry out and be easier to work with.

I made vegan chocolate cupcakes, loaded them with vanilla buttercream frosting, and then rolled them in crushed oreo's to give the cupcakes the look of dirt (because obviously veggies don't grow out of white frosting).

I used graham crackers cut into fourths for the little "seed packet" signs, and covered them each with white almond bark and allowed that to set in the freezer for a few minutes.  Next I flipped the little signs over and placed a small dot of almond bark on the backs and stuck pretzels on as a type of post - the almond bark worked excellent as a "glue".  They also make edible markers (Betty Crocker and Wilton both make them) that you can use to write on frostings, which worked much better then trying to pipe out the letters in frosting.

  I was pretty happy with the way that they turned out - you didn't look at them and have to try and figure out what the vegetables were supposed to be, and that is always a good thing.

Something Magical.

Something magical happened this weekend (and I'm not just talking about the opening of Harry Potter), but I'm going to try and contain my excitement until the end of this post, because there were a few other things I wanted to talk about!

Last Sunday I decided it was time.  It was time to venture to the farmer's market and try and sell some cupcakes! I had everything needed: little cellophane bags, some cute ribbon, my ingredient labels were made up and all I needed to do was bake and get them all packaged up! Simple, right? Not so much.

 Party Time & Cafe Mocha

So Monday I woke up and decided to go with Cafe Mocha and a Party Time cupcakes, baked them, frosted them and I enjoyed it, just like normal. Then I looked at the clock and realized that they needed to be put in the cellophane - which took way longer then expected (go figure, hey?).  I decided to get these packages because they were fairly inexpensive and I didn't want to buy individual cupcake boxes in bulk quite yet, but now I know exactly why you spend a little bit more and get them.  It was a mess. Seriously. You had to carefully put these cupcakes with still-soft frosting into these bags without touch the sides, and then put a label on the ribbon and tie the tops of the bags closed.  Disastrous. You live and learn though, and on that day I definitely learned something.

I finally made it down to the market and got everything set up - it was the first time I had attempted something like this, so my display wasn't super fancy or anything, but it worked for me!

 I know it took a lot of work, but I still thought that the cellophane bags looked cute and my labels turned out just perfect!  Overall, the turnout at the farmer's market wasn't quite what I was hoping it would be. To be fair though, hardly any vendors have vegetables to bring yet, so it was a little slow. That isn't something you can get discouraged about though, you just have to keep your chin up and try again, and that's exactly what I plan to do!

Alright, now that I have kept you in suspense for way too long let me tell you my oh-so-exciting news...................

 I GOT A KITCHEN AID STAND MIXER! 

Ahh!  

I have only wanted one of these for...well...forever basically.  I did some research, figured out which model would be the best one for me and my cupcake needs and I had some discounts along with a $50 rebate and got a spectacular deal on it!  It's still so new that this morning when I walked into the kitchen I was a little surprised to see this bright, red, shiny thing of beauty sitting on my counter.  Of course when I got it home last night I ripped it open, read through the manual super fast, washed the bowl out in record speed and set to making some frosting. Wow. I was amazed.  Now that I have been raving about it and it's wonderful-ness I feel the need to go publish this immediately so I can go bake something else!