Birthdays!!

Girly birthday cupcakes
Chocolate fudge cake, chocolate cream filling, mint buttercream

My take on bananas foster

Banana split in cupcake form

The Elvis

Well, the banana blitz is over. I posted some pictures of the flavors I did. I have to say that I was not completely pleased with how the fillings came out. It was the first time I had filled this particular type of cake and it was challenging. The cake was good but it was pretty dense so the filling did not "fill"quite as well as I had hoped. Either way, I do think they turned out pretty well and I am working on ideas for fixing the filling issue for the next time I make them.

Right now, I am working on a couple of birthday orders. I really like doing birthday orders the most. It's fun to be able to personalize things. Today, it was cupcakes for a little girl who LOVES pink and purple. I had a lot of fun making them very girly. Tomorrow, I am doing a cinnamon crumb cake for my sister-in-law's birthday. It is one of my favorite cakes to make and a fan favorite. Later this week, I have a layered birthday cake and some cupcakes for a 10 year old girl's birthday. I am hoping to make a trip to a bakery supply store this week that I hear carries Disco Dust. I have been coveting the disco dust for awhile now and I think it's time I get some for myself. I have been dying to try it out! Disco dust is super fine edible, sparkly glitter. What could be better than glitter for a girly birthday cake? Nothing, I say. Nothing.

I have a new flavor I want to try very soon. I am going to call it Strawberry Pucker. It will be lemon cake, strawberry filling and lemon buttercream. Of course, I will have to finish it off with Disco Dust :) I probably won't be able to try it this week though. We are headed to Disneyland on Friday. I know, poor me :) I am also wanting to get to work on some new Fall flavor combinations and bake up some cookies. Just your classics...chocolate chip, whoopie pies, sugar cookies. Simple is good when it comes to cookies, I think. Nothing says Fall like a batch of cookies in the oven. I just wish it wasn't 106 degrees outside. It might help me to be in the right mindset. Oh well, I guess I can just crank down the AC, close the blinds and pretend it's cold and rainy outside. A girl can dream, can't she?

Well, I had better be going. I have cupcakes to frost tonight. My family is from Ohio and most of us are Ohio State fans (except those backsliding Michigan fans). I thought I should do a cupcake to support our team and a delicious candy we make in Ohio, the Buckeye. I will post pictures when I finish them. For now, I will leave you all to your weekend plans. Feel free to comment or leave feedback...I would love it!

Diaper cakes

We are halfway through the week and the madness begins tomorrow. Tomorrow, the banana blitz cupcake making begins and I start my orders for the weekend as well. There are still a few more hours to get in orders if anyone reading is interested.

My post today is more for my own amusement than anything else. First off, the grilled cheese debate has been decided by a combination of Rachael Ray and DirectTV. I would just like to say...I win!! My girls were upstairs and I was cleaning up in the kitchen and it was quiet. I thought it would be a good time to turn on the TV and see what Rachael Ray was cooking up. This is super rare. There is very rarely a non-kids show on our television. Anyway, I digress...it had to be fate because she was cooking up, what else? Grilled cheese! She was cooking up 6 different sandwiches and throwing all kinds of things into those sammies. She still called them grilled cheese! Imagine that...I dare you to call Rachael Ray a liar! (P.S. The description on DirectTV called them grilled cheese also)

My second topic for today is the diaper cake. No, I am not going to try my hand at making them for 2 reasons. 1) I think they are a little silly and 2) I just don't think I could even do it. Anyway, my brother comes over to workout yesterday and walks right to my computer and says in a panicked tone, "I have to look up this website I saw on the back of this lady's car. I am so confused!" I asked him what it said and it said "Diaper Cakes by Stephanie". He was so baffled and disgusted and I started laughing because, of course, I knew what he was talking about right away. Any girl who has been to a baby shower recently knows what they are. This conversation led to a lengthy one at dinner between Kyle, Casey and me. I had to spend some time explaining the diaper cake idea to them and they had to spend a LONG time telling my why that was the dumbest thing they had ever heard. So...what's your take on the diaper cake?

Time for me to go. Bella has her first night of Club L3 at church tonight. She is pretty excited to hang out with the big kids in the gym. Have a good night, everyone!

Going bananas!!

Chocolate fudge cake with champagne buttercream

Lemon cake topped with raspberry and buttercream

More lemon raspberry

The Mocha

Red Velvet topped with champagne buttercream

Well, no fondant this weekend. I didn't end up having enough time for it to set to allow me to work with it so I opted for royal icing instead. I think I really like working with royal icing. I had a baby shower for a new customer this weekend and she wanted baseball, basketball and football cupcake toppers which you can see pictured on this post. The colors were navy blue and red and I think they came out pretty darn cute! Bella watched me pipe all of the balls and kept saying, "Mom, I think your customer is going to love these!" (Heavy emphasis on the "love" part) I think it always helps to have a really cute cheer section in your corner when you are dealing with cupcakes, don't you?

This week I am all about bananas...hence, the title. I am doing my usual 6 pack offer with all banana based flavors this week. The first flavor is the Elvis: banana cake, peanut butter cream filling and chocolate frosting. I don't recall Elvis' creation including chocolate but a cupcake has to have frosting, right? I think the King would approve. The next flavor is Bananas Foster: banana cake, caramel filling and rum frosting. The final flavor, and my husband's personal favorite, is the Banana Split: banana cake, strawberry filling and buttercream with a touch of chocolate ganache. Yum!!

Well, I think it's time for me to go. I will leave you all (or maybe just the 2 faithful readers I have...spread the word, folks) with this debate. This is a hot debate in my house right now...drumroll please...when is a grilled cheese no longer a grilled cheese? Kyle and I think it's a grilled cheese even if you add something to it. My brother (who dines with us most nights) thinks once you add something besides just the cheese, you have to call it something else. Thoughts? Let's settle this hot debate! My thoughts...I made the sandwich, I can call it whatever I want :) Have a good night, everyone!

Busier than I thought!

My little helper

Pumpkin spice cupcakes with brown sugar buttercream


Cinnarum


Cocoa Banana

I am sitting here typing when I should be baking!! I am going to be very busy with orders again this weekend and I could not be more excited. I will be doing cupcakes for a baby shower on Saturday, a couple of grandparent's day orders and I thought I would sell my overflow of cupcakes from these orders and that far exceeded my expectations. The flavors for this weekend are pumpkin spice, chocolate champagne, red velvet and lemon raspberry. This isn't going to give me time to work on the new flavors I have been dreaming up but there is always next weekend.

Some of the cupcakes I am doing for this weekend are pumpkin flavored which just gets me all excited for Fall! Nothing makes your house smell better than something "Fallish" in your oven! While I am feeling inspired for the season, I think I am going to try my hand at some fondant shapes. I have tried fondant in the past and I was not overly thrilled with it. However, I have high hopes this time. I am going to start small with some leaves as toppers for my pumpkin cupcakes. I found a new fondant recipe that uses marshmallows which sounds good to me. Who doesn't love marshmallows?? Anyway, wish me luck with that!

I guess I had better be going. 9 dozen cupcakes by Friday morning is a lot and then you add a 4 and a 2 year old to the mix and look out!! I hope everyone is having a great day! Before I go though, today is grocery list and meal planning day. It is actually one of my favorite things to do during the week...don't judge, I realize it is sort of sad. This week, I am drawing a blank...any dinner ideas for me? Have a great day, everyone!

Here I am!

Well, for awhile now a few people have asked me to blog about my "cooking and baking adventures". So, here it is! I am going to use this space to promote K.B.'s Sweet Shoppe, of course, but I am also going to use it to tell stories from my kitchen. It is definitely the most active place in my home and I hope it is as entertaining to everyone who reads this as it is to me. Cooking and baking is my favorite thing to do and right now, I am lucky enough to get paid for it but it is more than that. It is how I show love to the people that are closest to me. It brings me great joy to just feed people and I hope that is shown through my blog.

I will start simple tonight. There are some folks who are not on Facebook to post a few pictures of my cakes and cupcakes so here are a few and I will add more tomorrow. Enjoy!!