Happy Memorial Day!

Today we went to Kelly's house for a Memorial Day BBQ! She made a chocolate cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting and I made chocolate cupcakes with patriotic decorations. We had an amazing time hanging out with Kelly and her whole crew! Of course, the food was awesome and I'm still full...even though I left there 5 hours ago!! Below, check out my cupcakes and Kelly's cake.

Thanks Kelly!

Kelly's cake!!!

A Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Cake

This cake was made for Becca's mom's birthday. Becca told me that her mom LOVES chocolate, so I did a cake that would satisfy her chocolate needs. This was a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and chocolate chips inside. I covered the whole thing with a generous amount of chocolate ganache and covered the sides with mini chocolate chips. Then, I piped chocolate truffle frosting on top and around the bottom. Now that's A LOT of chocolate. For those of you who like action shots, I took a bunch while making this cake.

Becca emailed me after her mom's birthday party...here's what she said:

"I just wanted to thank you for the absolutely gorgeous and scrumptious cake!!! It was a masterpiece! We all stared at it for a while last night before cutting it because it was so beautiful and then when we finally ate it....heaven! It was the most decadent and delicious chocolate cake we have ever had!!! Thank you so much for making my mom's birthday so truly special."



Making the ganache



Center of the cake


Buttercream on the sides of the cake to make it smooth


Putting on the ganache

Piping the truffle frosting

I bought a stand mixer!

Ok people...I know I said I wouldn't do it...but I finally bought a stand mixer. The amount of baking I've been doing has made it nearly impossible to do everything with my new hand mixer. I was worried about the size of the bowl because the Artisan mixer with the 5-qt mixing bowl just wasn't big enough for big batches of buttercream. I went for the 6-qt mixer. The reviews online convinced me that it was the right choice. The night I got it I made 2 batches of cupcakes and buttercream. This thing is fabulous! Check out the pictures from its first use.

Class of 2009 Cupcakes

The cupcakes were a total hit last night at the party. By the end of the night, everyone was calling me "cupcake"--how appropriate!

Today was graduation day at the law school. Luckily, we had a day off from trial advocacy class, so I worked graduation and made cupcakes. I had to wake up very early to make graduation cupcakes for Denise from my health law class. She is a nurse who received her masters degree today--but in LAW rather than in nursing. Oh, and I forgot to mention...she graduated WITH HONORS!

I made the cupcakes blue and gold for our school colors. Of course, I used blue and white wrappers too. I made flags out of toothpicks and cardstock to finish them off.

CONGRATULATIONS Denise!!!

We're 3Ls!!!!

Finals are OVER!!! We had our last final yesterday and now we're officially 3Ls!!! Two guys in our class are throwing a huge party to celebrate the end of second year. I made 5 dozen cupcakes for the event. I mixed 3 colors for the vanilla buttercream just for fun. Happy beginning of summer.

ps-tomorrow is also ONE YEAR until our graduation! WAHOOOOO!

New Mixer Cupcakes!

Ok...so most of you know...I love a hand mixer. Although I've recently been thinking about buying a stand mixer, I haven't caved quite yet--despite some intense encouragement from the guy who owns our favorite sandwich shop. I have, however, been eying a KitchenAid hand mixer for some time. My $10 mixers aren't cutting it with all the baking I've been doing! So, SURPRISE...Greg got it for me! It's amazing...works like a DREAM! It makes baking even more enjoyable than ever before! A lot of people have been asking for action shots...these might not be quite enough action for you, but it's a start. Check out the new mixer and the first cupcakes coming from it! These were for Denise from my Health Law class!

ps--finals aren't over...so I broke my promise of no baking until after finals :)