Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

This cupcake is refreshing even in the heat of summer, and it is the perfect way to toast the end of it. The cake is raspberry-lemon, dense and slightly sweet with a tart punch. The frosting is sweet and fluffy in contrast, cream cheese infused with citrus. Topped with fresh lemon slices, yellow dusting sugar and punched with a striped straw, these cupcakes look and taste like summer party show stoppers.

This cake is also a post to introduce my new seasonal menu. Click on the Menu tab above to check it out! The seasonal menu was created to highlight local, seasonal produce and to incorporate flavors and spices that change with the weather. Most of my cake flavors will be available year round, but these three or four extra will be available in their seasons only to deliver the freshest product possible. 

Jimmy Buffet Birthday Cake

A cupcake tower that gives a nod to the kitschy, tropical, parrot-head culture. What's special about this cake are the unique flavors and handmade sugar decorations. There are three varieties of cupcake: the plain jane (vanilla with vanilla buttercream), classic red velvet (with cream cheese frosting) and dark chocolate chambord (a tipsy, chocolatey cake filled with raspberry preserves, fresh raspberries and iced with chocolate ganache). The 6" cake topper is also chocolate chambord.

All the flowers, leaves, bamboo and flip flops are handmade out of fondant and gumpaste.

The parrot was an online find, and he is the only non-edible decoration on the cake.

It was a cupcake tower in paradise.

Bali Rehearsal Dinner Cake

These lucky newlyweds, Alia and John, are headed to Bali this week for their honeymoon, which provided the inspiration for their completely custom and completely edible rehearsal dinner cake. This cake showcases what I can do with sugar work and decorations while not sacrificing the taste and quality of product. Alia is actually not a big fan of cake (Usually, I just stare blankly at people when they say things like that), so I consider her stamp of approval on my frosting a major success! Their cake was rich dark chocolate chiffon with creamy peanut butter filling.

We started the cake planning process with their honeymoon location. A sheet cake suited their event the best, which naturally led us to use the shape of the island to set our scene:

I shaped two layers of chocolate cake by making a poster board cut out in the shape of Bali to "trace".

After filling, icing and decorations:

Handmade out of gumpaste and fondant figures for the bride and groom- sugar surfer girl and scuba dude.

Alia and John at their Rehearsal dinner with the cake

And then he bit off her head...

Congrats Alia and John! 

Country Wedding Cake

A few months ago one of my oldest friends (we're talking 9 or 10 years old here) contacted me about making a cake for her wedding reception in June. Erin and her husband, Jon, have one of the greatest stories I've ever been a part of and I am so excited to share it. Erin and I grew up swimming together along with two of our other friends and we were quite the fearsome foursome. In fact, I found out at her wedding that ten years later we still own relay records in our summer swim team league (how's that for longevity?). Although we don't always keep in touch regularly, these three girls have carried me through some of my fondest childhood memories, and now we have one more to add to the books.

At a swim meet a long time ago, being the 14 and 15 year old girls we were, we dared Erin to get the phone number of the cute lifeguard. Erin was the fearless one in the bunch so of course she followed through. Immediately, nothing really came of it except a little teenage flirtation. But fast forward five years later and Erin was sending us all a message telling us that she was dating a guy named Jon, and didn't we remember that time we dared her to get his number at a summer league swim meet? They had re-met randomly and now, they're married! You can imagine how excited I was to reconnect with old friends over wedding cake of all things.

Erin and Jon's reception was a laid back, mountain lodge affair outside of Charlottesville, VA where we grew up. She came to me knowing that she wanted a cake that was chocolate and reflected the same relaxed vibe of their venue. We created a pinterest board to bounce a few ideas back and forth before creating a cake that was unique to Erin and Jon. This was the final product that I delivered to Charlottesville for them:

The cake was layers of dark chocolate cake with alternating tiers of whipped chocolate and chocolate-almond mousse. 

The flowers on the sides and the topper were provided by Erin's Grandmother.

The top and bottom tier were decorated with a 'stucco' buttercream finish and the middle is smooth finish with a brown fondant band detail. 

Having some fun with the cake :-)

Vineyard Vines Birthday Cake

A friend of mine recently asked me to re-create a birthday cake that she saw online in the shape of the Vineyard Vines whale. The result was a deliciously simple, vanilla-on-vanilla version of the company's logo paired with prep-tastic cupcakes to match. If you're not familiar with the clothing brand's miniature marine icon, click here to see how I did!

 The cupcakes were also vanilla bean pound cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. I dipped the sides in sugar and garnished with handmade fondant bow ties and pink whales. 

Thanks to Michael's for selling the perfect pink and green plaid cupcake liners to go with this theme.

 The water spouts are made from sandwich toothpicks and are not edible.

This cake will certainly satisfy even the preppiest of taste buds.

Tuxedo 21st Birthday Cake

This cake is the ultimate 21st birthday cake. You might have a little more than just a sugar buzz after polishing off a slice - if you can stop yourself there. I've made this cake for several different occasions over the past six months and have finally gotten the recipe perfected. It has four layers of intense chocolate cake made with Guinness Stout beer. In between each is a mousse-y, whiskey caramel filling (that is also AWESOME as a sauce over ice cream...) and the whole thing is topped off with espresso buttercream. The cake is super moist with a spongy texture and a not-too-sweet flavor. The Guinness really comes through and gives it an after taste that makes you go, "hmm...," in the best way. The rich filling compliments it perfectly and the buttercream ties all the flavors together. This particular cake has an extra drizzle of dark chocolate ganache over the top, just in case you weren't already sold. It's chocolate, it's Irish, it's alcoholic. What more can you ask for as a new member of the 21 and over crowd?

**All alcohol evaporates in the baking process and only remains in the cake and filling as flavoring**

I recently entered this cake in the Today Show's Quest for the Best Birthday Cake challenge. Here's to hoping that something comes out of it, but either way this cake is just plain wicked. 

Lemon Lime Wedding Cake: Mark + Cassie

Remember these guys from their tasting in February? Well, they got married last weekend! Mark was my swim coach in college for two years, and he met Cassie at McDaniel college where they both were on the swim team as well. In addition to a beautiful day and beautiful venue for their wedding, they also had this beautiful cake as a centerpiece on the dessert table:

The theme of their wedding, if you remember, was lemon and lime- perfect theme to tie in with the cake. Each tier is four layers of vanilla poundcake sandwiched together by a tart lemon/lime curd and covered with Italian buttercream. The topper idea was a find on pinterest that I recreated with a real lemon and lime and a little help from Michael's. 

Wedding cake #2 for June was a success! I loved the clean design and simple topper. This cake very much reflects my own taste in wedding cake style as well as Mark and Cassie's. 

They told me it tasted as good as it looked! Congrats Mark and Cassie, I was so honored to be a part of the big day.