Happy Birthday Don!

Last week one of the partners at work had a birthday.  My co-workers had a munchie day to celebrate his birthday (along with my return to work and another co-worker's return).  It was a great way to start my new job!

Oh, and I should also mention that I saw one of my favorite kids, IAN! on the weekend before I started work.  We went to the Philadelphia Zoo, it was great!

More Baseball Cupcakes

After dropping off some cupcakes to the event planner over at duPont Country Club, she decided to get some for her boyfriend's birthday.  They rented a box at the baseball game and she wanted baseball themed cupcakes.  I made these using white jimmies and red buttercream.  Since it was a birthday I made a "happy birthday" sign to accompany the cupcakes!  She said they were a big hit!

Pretty Cupcakes!

I tried a different piping technique that I saw on the Food Network.  I think they turned out pretty nice!

I'm BAAAACK!

Well, here I am - on the other side of the bar exam.  It was a horrible 10 weeks and I am very happy that it's over.  I've spent the last 10 days lounging around.  We went to Wildwood, NJ to hang with my very good friend Matt.  We had an amazing time and I actually conjured up enough energy to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  Now, I'm getting back to my normal self.  Today, Greg's friend Matt came over for dinner along with my friend Binder (who, by the way, NEVER eats my baked goods).  When I asked Matt what he wanted for dinner he responded, "I am indifferent to dinner.  The way I see it, dinner is just an obstacle between me and dessert."

I saw this statement as a challenge to make something awesome.  I decided to bring out this insanely decadent swiss meringue caramel buttercream.  I made a white cake, put homemade caramel and the caramel buttercream between the layers and then topped the whole thing with the homemade caramel.  I am in a sugar coma.  I think next time I'll do cupcakes and inject them with the caramel.

Oh yeah, I should also tell you about a little something I whipped up during bar study - berry cobbler.  Just take a bag of frozen berries and top with a mixture of 1 stick of butter, some flour, oats, salt, and vanilla.  Bake until bubbly and top with vanilla ice cream.  It's my new summertime fave - delish!

Pre-Bar Treats

Ok...quick post.  I just have to share.  My college roommate, Ashley (Mo), is more than just a biotech engineer (or whatever she does, lol), she's also super thoughtful.  This seems to be a theme with my college roommates...super smart and super thoughtful...right girls?  Anyway, for my graduation she sent me wine and chocolate of the month club for the bar exam.  Last month I got Chilean and Spanish wine.  Yesterday, some fabulous chocolates came in the mail...5 days before the bar exam.  PERFECT timing.  So, I open up the newsletter that accompanied the chocolate and it turns out that the chocolatier is a lawyer.  About 10 years ago, he left the legal profession to do what he loved - make chocolates.  This is yet another lawyer gone creative foodie genius.  How appropriate for The Law of Cupcakes and the week before the bar exam.  Not that I needed an excuse to devour the entire box, but now I feel like it's going to give me good mojo.

Oh, and I should also mention that they not only look pretty but there are some AWESOME flavors in there.  Cinnamon honey, cayenne, passion fruit, mojito, and lavender lime, just to name a few.  I just had the coconut pineapple and it was seriously DREAMY!  Here's his website if you're interested:  http://www.royalpalmchocolates.com/chocolate-assortment.html

One more thing: the newsletter also said this, "we'll wager Gourmet Chocolate of the Month Club members will agree we need more chocolatiers in the world a heck of a lot more than we need more lawyers!"  Just a little food for thought.  Although, I think you can be both.  :)

Can't wait to get back to baking!  Next post will involve something homemade, I promise.  Wish me luck!

Please Welcome...

...my very very good friend, Kelly, to the blogging world!  I know you'll remember her, from her birthday cake or from my post, Lawyer By Day....  She's a great baker and a seriously awesome person so, please, check out her blog, admire her stuff, order a cake, get to know her, or all of the above!  Enjoy, and welcome Kelly!

Her blog is Cake+Love.

Graduation Day and a Baking Hiatus

I graduated from law school today!!!!  I did do a little baking for the event...just some lemon butter cookies, half dipped in chocolate and half with raspberry jam centers.  As you probably know, the bar exam is coming soon.  So, for that reason, I don't plan to do a whole lot of baking this summer.  I should be back in action sometime during the month of August.  Oh, and for all those who have emailed me and have gotten no response, I will try to respond before bar prep starts.  It's been a crazy semester!  Wish me luck!

Cars Cake!

I made the car out of gum paste and I covered it with edible glitter.


Then, I made the Cars logo out of fondant and covered it in edible glitter

Bluebook Cake -- This is The Law of Cupcakes, after all

Last night was the Law Review banquet.  The Bluebook is something we, as law review members, carry around and refer to constantly.  It's the book that tells lawyers how to cite things.  There is one person on our editorial board who is a complete Bluebook goddess.  I wanted to make this cake for her as a thank you for keeping us all in line this year.  She loved the cake, and so did the rest of the staff.  When people said they wanted to eat it, she responded, "read it!!"  HAHA.  :)

A Big Day of Baking!

Yesterday was a very big baking day.  I had 10 dozen cupcakes to make and 2 half sheet cakes.

My first task was to make cupcakes for the March of Dimes walk.  My co-worker walks to raise money for the March of Dimes, and she wanted some cupcakes to feed her team after the walk.

Next, I made cupcakes to fulfill my donation to the Public Interest Law Alliance.

...and this was just the beginning.

Baby Shower for my Nephew!

My sister-in-law is pregnant with my very first nephew!!!  Yesterday, we had a baby shower for her at her sister's house.  I made the cupcakes.

My sister-in-law's friend Adrienne brought her adorable little girl, Zoe, who loved the cupcakes....

Happy Birthday Horgan - 3L Edition - Part II

Since we spent Horgo's actual birthday at the luau, we wanted to do another party for him with just our friends.  Yesterday, everyone went to a baseball game and then we went back to Binder's apartment for a bbq and some fun.  I made these simple, but beautiful, cupcakes for the party.

This Should Be Illegal....Dessert

I should have named my blog "I love making my friends fat" instead of Law of Cupcakes.

What do you do when you have a dinner guest who loves mint chocolate chip ice cream and anything involving very rich chocolate?  You make the dessert I am about to describe.  I was inspired to make this dessert after serving this incredibly decadent cake for Easter.  The problem with the cake was that it was very difficult to cut and no one finished their slice because it was "too rich" (which, by the way, I don't believe in).  So, I decided to make the cake into a trifle and add mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Here's what I did:  I made homemade premium mint chocolate chip ice cream.  In addition to the 8 egg yolks Alton Brown's ice cream calls for, I subbed out some of the half and half for extra heavy cream.  After the vanilla custard was good and cold, I added 2 teaspoons of peppermint extract (and it must be peppermint, not mint).  While the ice cream was churning, I added frozen mini chocolate chips.

Next, I made Julia Child's chocolate mousse, which, is hugely time consuming and difficult but equally worth it.  Then I made some homemade chocolate cake.

I took my cupcake wine glasses that my mom gave me for Christmas and created individual trifles.  I layered mousse, cake, ice cream, cake, mousse...and then popped them in the freezer.  Just before I served them, I whipped up some fresh vanilla whipped cream and piped a generous amount up on top.

In the end, no one...not even Greg...could finish this dessert (and you know I was pushing it).  I ate half of mine and stuck it back in the freezer for later.  :)

Happy Birthday Horgan - 3L Edition - Part I

Horgan.  He's our favorite law school friend.  Sorry to everyone else...there's no disputing it.  He's the best.  You might remember Horgan from my posts about his 1L birthday cake and his 2L birthday cake.  This time, his birthday fell on the day of the Luau party at school.  That party marks 50 days til graduation (although this time it was 38 days...details).  At the party, we had the DJ announce Horgo's birthday and we presented him with this cake.  He loves skull and crossbones and his favorite color is purple (the icing is purple...looks gray in these pics).  Marie cut out the bone letters and I piped words around the cake.  The first row is all of his names, the second row is all of the places he's lived, the third row is all of his favorite things, and the 4th row had a special birthday message.  Happy Birthday Horgan!

Cupcakes for Haiti - Part 3

Professor Johnson recently redeemed her second set of cupcakes that she bought to support Doctors without Borders.  She loves white cake, and thanks to my incredible friend Kelly, I now know how to make an amazing white cake.  So, I made PJ's favorite combo--white cake with buttercream, topped with coconut.  She's soooo super awesome in that she was afraid coconut would turn off some folks, that she asked me to do half with chocolate icing.  Here they are!

Happy Easter!

A few weeks ago, my mom and I met in Cherry Hill for a little retail therapy.  Part of our adventure was a stop for lunch at Maggianos.  If you're ever wondering why I'm so pleasantly plump...just ask my mother.  The woman MUST have chocolate after every meal and, obviously, her daughter is no different.

So, we went to lunch and my mom ordered a GIANT piece of chocolate cake.  It was so awesome that my mom and I decided that we needed to recreate it for Easter dinner.  Here's what I did.

First, I made a chocolate cake.  I cut the cake into 4 layers.  Then, I made homemade chocolate mousse (what a pain!).  I took one layer of cake and placed it in the bottom of a bowl.  I filled the layer with chocolate mousse and repeated 4 times.  I put the cake in the freezer overnight.  In the morning, I covered the entire cake in ganache and decorated it with buttercream to look like an Easter egg.  This cake was seriously decadent!

Happy Birthday Ross!

My friend Ross wasn't always my friend.  Really, when we first met, I just didn't get his humor....even though everyone else thought he was funny.  Well, since then, we have grown to understand one another and now I think he's hilarious.

You see, Ross loves puns.  No, not like my friend Kelly love puns (since her love for words makes puns interesting)...Ross loves puns because he truly appreciates making a stupid joke out of them...really.

Ross also loves the Red Sox (he can't help it--he's from MA).  So, logically, for his birthday we made him a cake that said "Boston Ross Sox".  Marie, my creative director, came up with the amazing idea.  She came over with Lauren to make the cake.  THEN Matt Perry made a guest appearance and while Marie and I slaved away at the cake, Lauren, MP, and Greg played Rock Band.  Marie cut out ALL of the letters...how cool?!?!

A good time was had by all!!  Enjoy!

Biggest Cupcake Project, EVER!

Today was my cousin Laura's bridal shower.  My aunt asked me to do cupcakes for the event, and of course I said yes!  After hours of searching for ideas online, I found something that inspired me and I ran with the idea.  Since this was such a huge project, I'm going to chronicle it for you here.  I started by buying the hot pink foil wrappers from Etsy.  Then, I searched far and wide for edible glitter and could not find any in the United States...so I ordered it from England.  I spent all day Friday shopping for the perfect display.  I was looking for white boxes or some boxes that I could paint white.  I couldn't find ANY boxes I liked.  I went to Joann's to get the perfect fabric and ended up walking around aimlessly for an hour, filling my basket with ribbon and sequins and other inspiration.  Then I headed to Michaels.  I spent 2 hours walking around Michaels making myself crazy over these boxes.  Finally, I realized that I could use baskets to get the same look.  So, after heading to several more stores, I went home to discover how to make sugar flowers.

So, on Friday night I made some gum paste and created the flowers.  In total, I made 150 flowers.  On Saturday morning, my mom came around 9:30 and we got started baking.  I made 2 batches of chocolate and 2 batches of vanilla cake.  I also made a small cake for my mom's friend who was having a birthday.  Then, I made homemade fondant (thanks to a recipe from Alison over at Alicakes) and 2 huge batches of buttercream.

While I was baking, my mom spray painted the baskets.  Then, she glued the 3 types of ribbon on the baskets and made the bows.  She also wrapped my gifts to Laura for the shower.

I rolled out the fondant and cut 100 large circles and 40 small circles.  Then I stamped "L" into the small circles and a scroll pattern into some of the big circles.  My mom then took food coloring mixed with water and painted the color into the impressions.  She painted edible glitter on each large circle and petal dust over each of the Ls.

While my mom was painting, I dusted the sugar flowers with petal dust and placed edible pearls in the centers of the small flowers.  Then, my mom cut the tops of gumdrops to make the centers of the large sugar flowers.

I piped on buttercream to assemble the cupcakes and as I did that, my mom placed 15 edible pearls on each L cupcake with TWEEZERS!  It was an incredible task.  Each cupcake had so many steps.  

When my cousin saw the cupcakes, she said: "Am I going to be on the blog?"  Yes, Laura, you are on the blog!  I hope you enjoyed your shower!!!  I can't wait for the wedding!  :)

These cookies were the favors...made by Laura's very talented bridesmaid, Caitlin.