blue bird bake shop

remember these pom-pom letters I made for baby nola? well she has finally arrived & I had the pleasure of meeting her a few weeks ago. her mama & I go way back to 9th grade. I've seen heather get voted class president, go off to college, walk down the aisle, give birth to a handsome baby boy & now a beautiful little girl. 

I had the pleasure of accompanying the whole gang on their first outing as a family of four. we headed over to the super-delicious blue bird bake shop for some sweets (their cupcakes are incredible!). hartz & nola had a blast (ok, so nola slept the whole time) & we had the whole place to ourselves. it was such a fun morning with such a sweet family! 

vanilla bean dulce de leche cupcakes

my family is sweet & always very complimentary of my baking attempts, even if they aren't the tastiest ("but it's so pretty," mom will say). however, I really think they meant it this time when they said these were the best cupcakes I've ever made. and the fact that there were only two left on the plate by the end of the night said a lot. I took the recipe exactly from the culinary chronicles. bonus - they're filled!

sprinkles cupcakes: san diego

gosh, I like love cupcakes. and one of my favorite things to do in a new city is to explore the cupcake shops & taste test until I find my favorite. so far, I keep going back to sprinkles. I've visited the beverly hills location (here) & the dallas location (here). so when we were in san diego this past week, it was only appropriate that I cross one more location off the list. their vanilla milk chocolate cupcake is seriously the best ever. ever. good thing we don't have one in florida or I'd be broke. and fat. "not that there's anything wrong with that."

happy good friday + easter

happy good friday & happy easter! here are some easter cupcakes that I made last year. enjoy the long weekend!

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”  - John 3:16-17

black & white irish cream cupcakes

a little belated, but I thought I'd share with you these black & white irish cream cupcakes that I made yesterday for st. patty's day. I used this recipe for the cupcake & the cream icing & magnolia's recipe for chocolate buttercream icing. they turned out really delicious, with just a hint of the liqueur. have a great weekend!

red velvet

I took a trip to DC this past week & after a day of sightseeing, my friend kristin & I needed a cupcake (yes, needed!). we had heard good things about red velvet cupcakery, so we tried a vanilla cupcake with chocolate buttercream, an expresso cupcake & their featured flavor, an olive oil cupcake with a fig frosting. so delicious. the fig cupcake won. 

breakfast cupcakes

remember breakfast club friday? well for my day, I decided to try something a little different. as you might know, I eat cupcakes for breakfast... quite often. so why not make a breakfast cupcake? after a google search, I decided to try these maple bacon cupcakes. robert and I both thought they were delicious (the cane sugar + sea salt mixture sprinkled on top really tied it all together!).  however, they weren't quite a hit with the group. oh well- more for us!

confetti cupcakes

sometimes I like to celebrate... for no reason at all. confetti cupcakes always seem to do the trick. try my new favorite chocolate buttercream recipe here.

cupcake-theme baby gift

so, I mentioned babies are "the thing" to have right now. here's another baby gift that I put together for a friend's shower last weekend. she registered for two pairs of baby pants with ruffles on the bottom, so I rolled them up around a pair of baby socks to make fabric "cupcakes" & then wrapped with ribbon. the box in the back is a wooden play pastry set.

sprinkles cupcakes: the original

as you probably know, I am a bit obsessed with cupcakes. I've tried all the best & sprinkles is still my fave. I've made three trips out to the dallas location but have always wanted to visit the original sprinkles in beverly hills. I finally got my chance a few weekends ago on an impromptu visit to los angeles. we limited ourselves to one each: the peanut butter chip & the vanilla milk chocolate. they make a great breakfast at 10am.

tweet treats

I am definitely going to have to pick up this "tweet treats" cupcake set from urban outfitters. so cute!

XV in savannah

our good friends celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary in savannah this weekend. we had a wonderful time celebrating with them & their friends & family.  the theme was XV, the roman numeral for fifteen (and their last name also happens to start with "x"). I made some desserts for the party on friday- vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting & "anniversary" sugar cookies (that I didn't have enough time to decorate how I had planned). cupcake flag template from martha found here, & then I just customized them in photoshop.

goodbye cupcakes

my good friend mandy has always been a big supporter of my cupcakes, so when it came time to make a dessert for her going away surprise party (insert sad face), there was no question what I was making- her favorite- vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream icing.

I wanted to decorate them with a little something, but didn't have time for fondant (I'm teaching myself how to make fondant flowers), so I made these little cupcake flags. you can get the template from good-ole martha right here (I altered mine in photoshop to say "good bye" instead of "good luck"), printed them onto cardstock & then attached with glue to party picks. a cute & easy way to personalize cupcakes.

{we miss you, mandy!}

happy easter!

happy easter! here are some easter carrot cake cupcakes that I made for my family. I'll post the recipe later. for now we are all off to the lake. my sissy drove 11 hours round-trip just so that we could find our easter baskets together (um, yea, we're pretty big on tradition... maybe we'll grow up... someday)!

update: recipe is here.

"In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' Then they remembered His words." ~ Luke 24:5-8

chocolate pink

as you may know, I'm on a quest to find the best cupcakes around. so after several recommendations, kara & I really wanted to check out chocolate pink in atlanta. it's a really cute cafe that serves all kinds of pastries & coffee. both of our cupcakes were delicious! kara got the coconut (coconut milk pound cake with coconut sour cream filling & white chocolate buttercream icing) & I tried the mochaccino (vanilla chiffon cake with coffee cream filling, topped with chocolate ganache & coffee buttercream). I had to stop myself for ordering another one...

macarons the new cupcakes?

adorable pictures of macrons have been popping up all over the blogosphere. I heard this story on npr a few weeks ago about how popular these dainty treats are becoming, and it made me think… will the macron craze replace the cupcake craze?  regardless, cupcakes will always have my heart.

{thanks to my sweet sissy giving me this book!}

top-hat cupcakes

I made these delicious top-hat cupcakes last week for valentine's day. they remind me of the chocolate-dipped cone at dairy queen. the directions are on my cupcake blog if you're interested in making your own.

cupcake toppers

I made these cupcake toppers for my friend's wedding last month. I hate not knowing the flavors of things... I mean, why choose the vanilla when you can have the crème brulée?

{photo by katelyn vonfeldt}