Sweet Potato Cupcakes

Continuing my mini-blog series on fall flavors, this week I'm introducing you to the sweet potato cake. Sweet potato is one of my all-time favorite fall ingredients. This cake reminds me of Thanksgivings with my Great Grandmother, and her sweet potato casserole. It was like having dessert for dinner, which of course I am all for! Only slightly sweet and spiced up with cinnamon, cloves, ginger and all-spice, this cake pairs perfectly with the brown butter frosting on top which has a deeply sweet caramel flavor and super smooth texture. Topped with freshly topped walnuts,  this cake is perfect for a Fall bridal shower, birthday or Halloween party!

Fall Flavors

Back from my hiatus! College was taking up too much of my time due to my annoying habit of over-loading myself, but I finally found some time in the kitchen. Thank God for fall break! The thing I look forward to most about fall (besides boots and scarves) are the flavors that come with it. It's like one morning you wake up with frost outside the window, and immediately start craving cinnamon, pumpkin, apple cider, caramel, and cranberry...okay, well I do. I've been working on a few new cake flavors to share this weekend, and this is the start of a series of tantalizing fall cake flavors starting with (drum roll, please):

Caramel Apple Cider: [insert yummy noise]

These are a crisp apple cider pound cake topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Hiding in the center of each one and drizzled over the top is homemade caramel. Hope that gets you excited for Fall this Monday morning!

Piping Designs

I had a bunch of leftover frosting from the wine cake so I used it to practice some new designs:

[Filigree-y]

[Paisley, a flower and some random circles]

[Lettering]

Then and Now

The first post of this blog is of the first wedding cake I ever made for my grandparents' 50th anniversary in 2007. The cake had the topper from their original wedding cake on it, thus I thought it'd be cool to share a picture of their original cake. Here's one of the best couples around on their wedding day, 50 years ago:

This, again, was my humble version :-)

More Dessert Bar Ideas:

Alternatives (or in addition!) to having just a traditional wedding cake.
Pistachio Macaroons with dark chocolate ganache:

Rice Krispy Bars (dipped in dark chocolate, sprinkles, coconut and chopped nuts):

75th Wine Barrel Birthday Cake

My Grandma turned 75 this week and I made her a wine-inspired cake for the party we had for her this weekend. The bottom layer is meant to look like a wine barrel, and is all handmade from gum paste. The top layer is covered and decorated with Italian butter cream.

Blue Bow Dummy Cake

No, the inside is not edible, but yes, the outside is all handmade! I'm especially proud of how well the bows turned out. Bows made with gum paste, bands and cake are covered with fondant.