Dear Reader - it's National Cupcake Day! Show your support for the cutest and tastiest treat out there by hitting your local cupcakery for a yummy yummy cupcake. (If you don't know of a cupcake shop close to you, tell me where you are and I'll find one!)
In the meantime...food porn this:
Mmm...cookies and cream-y....
Last night I perfected my Eggnog Cupcake recipe.
Friends? I have a new favorite.
Meet the Eggnog Cupcake.
Yes...it's as yummy as it sounds/looks.
Let me know if I can, ya know....hook you up.
Check out this post on CakeWrecks: Wow...
And be sure to click the link to see how they did it.
PS - I love cake.
Andrew and I, working hard with our doctor to get me knocked up, got a little impatient...we needed our family to grow. And rather than allow me to steal that cute little girl wandering through Kroger, Andrew let me get a kitten.
And dear reader...I haven't known her for 12 hours and yet I love her so completely!
Meet Briquette (...because she's charcoal colored...):
Playing with her rolly-bell-drum:
Sleeping, all tiny-like and cute, in my hands:
Thank you to Heather for taking all the photos!
I despise that I have to leave her cuteness and go to work tomorrow...maybe I'll call in "kitten"...
Dear Reader,
When you have a kid that has a birthday and you decide to hire me and my mad cupcaking skills to make some fun cupcakes for the occasion, I beg of you - I BEG of you - hire me to do something like this:
NOT something like this:
Your kid won't care and I'll still like you afterwards.
In related news, here's a picture of some pretty Red Velvet cupcakes (I have proclaimed the Red Velvet Cupcake my nemesis!!...bonus points for anyone who can explain to me WHY people like them!) I like the flower cupcake...it makes me happy.
Sincerly,
Susan G.
Owner and Awesome Baker of Seriously Cupcakes
It's over...ish. We came back into Houston Sunday morning. By then, our house had power but no water. We lost a shutter but luckily it landed in our back yard and is still in one piece. A lot of water came up under our front door but happily we had a rug right there that sopped it all up, keeping it from getting onto the carpet. All in all, our house fared very well. By Sunday night, we had even had water.
The aftermath of Ike is NOT fun. We are far and away better off then our neighbors in Galveston, but we are still reeling from this hurricane. You cannot drive 100 feet without seeing trees down, fences in pieces, or road signs in the road. Most traffic lights are either blinking red or off completely. Most gas stations still do not have gas (we found some on Sunday and only had to wait 20 minutes in line!). We went to the grocery store last night (when we found one open) and they only had about $40% of their shelves full, and not a single frozen item. Many restaurants either do not have power or still do not have eatable food. Andrew and I both got Monday off of work because our offices had no power. But we're both back today. My office has power except no AC and no drinkable water. The water thing is OK...the AC thing? Not so much. What's worse is it's a GORGEOUS day outside! When I woke up this morning, it was a crisp 61 degrees! That's like arctic to us Houstonians! I brought a sweater to work and everything!.......And instead I sit here and sweat. Bah.
But I'm really not complaining. SO many people lost homes and lives and so I truly am grateful. I hope this little blog finds you all healthy and happy and eating a cupcake! (I made Ike Cupcakes last night...they were pretty...unlike Ike...)
We're safe and dry. It's wicked windy and rainy here in College Station but, as you can see, we still have power...for now. The worst of the storm has yet to hit this part of Texas but I think we're much better off here than in Houston.
I spoke to my parents this morning - they are good. They lost power about 2:45am and about 5 in the morning, their brand spankin' new fancy fence fell over. They also have a little bit of water coming in under their brand spankin' new fancy sliding door and is underneath their brand spankin' new fancy wood floor. ...Other than that, they are good. I spoke to them early enough that they still weren't hot and sweaty with no AC...but they'll get there.
I love you all and will post when this is over. I'm betting we'll lose power some time today...should be interesting. But as I said, we're with wicked fun friends and power or no - we will be rockin'.
...I did it. I batted my eyes, did a little girly sigh, and smiled a crooked smile...and convinced my wonderful husband to take me far away from Ike. ...Ok, not far - only an hour...and it's still right in Ike's path. BUT our friends are here! Our family is here (Andrew's brother Nathan and his wondeful family live here, too)! We are currently at the home of the wonderful Kennedy's, Jake and Anne. They were Andrew's friends first and then they became my friends. I love this cute couple and I LOVE crashing at their beautiful country home. We brought our Rock Band, my cupcake making materials (I'm making 2 dozen for an A&M freshman tomorrow!), and lots of diet coke with lime. ...It's gonna be a party!
My parents stayed behind...so I still have a bit of worry left in Houston. But I feel much less stressed being here than if I was in my brand new little home, walls shakin', glass shattering....
...What, I'm not dramatic at ALL......
......See why we left? :)
So, I've lived in Houston off and on for the past 21 years. Sometimes it surprises people to learn that we consider ourselves as living on the coast (the Gulf of Mexico is about an hour drive). And in those 21 years, we have yet to have a real full-on hurricane hit us. We've had Rita, who scared us all into the Worst Evacuation In The History Of Ever but didn't rain a single drop on the west side. We've had Allison, who was a tropical storm by the time it hit us but flooded parts of Houston so badly that businesses were closed for weeks. And I seem to remember a Gilbert when I was in high school...but I also remember that it went off somewhere else.
And then there's Ike. Now, if Rita taught me anything it taught me that hurricane's can change direction without warning and in the drop of a hat (...where did THAT saying come from?...Zach?) So, chances are come Saturday morning, Beaumont (east of Houston) will be once again ground zero for any and all hurricane-type weather. But "chances are" when discussing hurricane's...well, you always want to err on the side of caution. So, I am in the process of talking my husband into evacuating. I had an order for 2 dozen cupcakes to be delivered to College Station (home of Texas A&M and about an hour from our house) on Saturday night, so we were already planning a "business trip", followed by dinner with our friends and family who live there. I am now trying to convince Andrew that we should leave tonight or tomorrow morning, so that we can be having an Ike Sucks! party with our friends, who WILL have electricity and AC, as opposed to staying here and having a Ike Sucks MORE! party with no friends and possibly no electricity or AC....
Wish me luck.
I'll update my bloggy friends when we decide.
Grr...work has wicked picked up so I'm not all bloggy during the day. And I've been so busy with the cupcakin' that I'm also non-bloggy at nights! I swear to do better.
Super yummy coconut on vanilla:
Super DUPER yummy Chocolate on vanilla with fancy chocolate chunks ("fancy" means I totally pounded the crap out of a Ghirardelli dark chocolate bar and a Valrhona milk chocolate bar):
And my new favorite...WICKED super duper yummy Key Lime Pie Cupcakes with lime cream cheese icing (...PS - I will never use that much green coloring again...promise):
I had 2 cupcake jobs last week...I know, right? It was amazing. I mean, sure...it was for one of my best friends...and her mom. But still! Two jobs! I'm full on a cupcake maker, yo!
Here's a few photos of the ones I did for A. I made her a 3 Vanilla with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese icing and a chocolate on chocolate.
I'm still searching for the perfect Chocolate cupcake...any ideas out there? I'm going to try and convert my grandmother's Hot Fudge Cake into a cupcake...we'll see. In the meantime, keep those Seriously Cupcake orders comin'! Know someone having a birthday/anniversary/bad day? Do they live in or around Houston, Texas?! ...You know who to call.
I'm done with my cake classes. We only did one cake this whole month...and it was quite a cake. Or it was supposed to be. Every week we did some flowers that, for the final, we were supposed to use. The cake was just supposed to be an overflowing basket of flowers. However, I had, some, *ahem* technical difficulties with my flowers...like maybe most of them broke before I could get them on the cake. So, this cake has a third of the flowers that I was supposed to use.
But in my opinion, it was gonna be all tacky and whatnot with all those flowers anyway...so there!
Let's take a closer look at that basket weave, shall we? ...Mostly because my hand throbbed for days afterwards and so you darn well better LOVE IT!!!
Ah, yeah...icing basket weavin', yo.
I read a LOT of cupcake blogs. And when they're not talking about baking cupcakes, they're talking about eating cupcakes. Most of these blogs are from people who live on the east or west coast, where you can't spit without hitting a cupcakery. However, for those of us in the south, say, Houston, for example...this is not the case. In fact, here, there are only 2 cupcake shops in all of Houston but they both sell other things. We do not have just a CUPCAKE shop.
...Until now.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Crave Cupcakes. They are located in the Galleria area of Houston - the hippest place in town (high-brow, old money...the Bush Sr's live there). My friend A and I went to visit them today. They've only been open 5 weeks but with the amount of business I witnessed, I wouldn't be surprised if they were already breaking even.
I ordered the vanilla - just a simple vanilla bean cupcake with vanilla icing, rolled in yummy white sprinkles. ...I'm not gonna lie, folks...this was the greatest cupcake I have ever placed in my mouth. EVER. It was so different from any other vanilla cupcake I've eaten...so rich, SO flavorful. It was like an entire vanilla bean set up house in my mouth...but in a good way! A got the vanilla on chocolate - chocolate cake with vanilla icing (though decidedly a different icing than mine). It was also VERY amazing. The chocolate cake had just a hint of bittersweet cocoa without being actually bitter. I brought home one of their Dark Chocolate cupcakes...which I'll try later (since I've already had TWO cupcakes today...Weight Watchers, what?!)
I also fell in love with the store itself. It's located on the corner of a hip strip center and it's entirely encased by windows - and half of that is the kitchen. You can WATCH them baking and icing the cupcakes from the parking lot. And folks...I drooled. I drooled as I watched the lady plop the batter into the cupcake shells with her ice cream scoop. I drooled as the girl iced each and every cupcake. I even drooled watching the woman roll out the fondant. And I wasn't drooling because it all looked tasty, even though oh-holy-crap it DID. I drooled...because I wanted to BE everyone of those women! I want to be dolloping my cupcake batter into huge cupcake shells and icing my cupcakes and yes - even rolling out fondant!
*sigh*
Soon...very soon.
It's official. I did it. I sold my first cupcake. My first forty cupcakes, to be exact. They took over 5 hours from start to finish...and it was the 5 most fun hours I have EVER had "working". I am in LOVE with being a baker.
The woman to whom I sold them works at my company and I had never met her before today. We have an electronic bullitin board via our email system and last week she posted a request for someone who made homemade cakes. I responded and told her my forte was cupcakes and directed her to this-here blog. She hired me to make 40 cupcakes for her 2 sons' birthday party, which had a sports theme. ...And this is what I came up with:
I apologize for the horrible picture - one of my first major business purchases will be a GOOD camera. However...I'm quite pleased with how they came out. And the recipe was AMAZING! It was first experience with Billy's Vanilla Vanilla. I have made his buttercream icing many times but this was my first time pairing that with his vanilla cupcakes. And they are great. I still prefer this recipe...but most people don't. So I will mostly use my tweaked version of Billy's cupcakes for selling purposes.
Also, soccer balls are the HARDEST design ever. I'm ok if I never have to do those again.
The lovely lady who purchased these cupcakes (someday I will have a cupcake flavor named Lauren in her honor) just posted a photo of the cupcakes on the same bullitin board telling people how great they are (she's already had 2!). Here's hoping more work comes my way!
I know...I KNOW. You're all sick and tired of hearing me babble about the cake world. But I promise you...THIS website is for everyone...
I especially enjoyed reading the post on June 21. I think I see a new carrot cupcake topper...
Alrighty, blogging friends. Thank you so much - I have absolutely LOVED everyone's suggestions for my budding cupcake company. I have decided on a short list and would, once again, love to hear some votes:
Thank you, friends. From the bottom of my Boston Creme filled cupcake heart...thank you.
Happy Bastille Day!
I was in the MTC on Bastille Day mmphbmmph years ago. I was lucky enough to have a French teacher - Seour Cannon. She decided that for French class that day, she'd teach us the words to the Marseillasie, the French National anthem. It's an amazing song and, even if we didn't completely know what we were singing, it was/is incredibly powerful. For the rest of the day (and several days after), every time we left for our tri-daily walks, the entire district would break out and practically shout the song.
I learned later, while in France, that the French LDS hymn book did not contain the national anthem as it contains lines talking about filling "our trenches with the impure blood of our enemies". ...I love the French.
Andrew asked me yesterday if I knew what Bastille Day was all about...and shockingly and embarrassingly...I couldn't answer. I knew it had something to do with Louis the something and Marie Antoinette maybe? Yeah...I've repented and done my homework. Check it out here. Or...watch this awesome episode of one of my all-time favorite TV shows.
Ok, my favorite blog readers. I need some help. I am trying to push my cupcake company idea off it's day-dreaming butt and I need serious input. I am having the HARDEST time coming up with a company name. Nothing so far has really jumped up and bit me...and I really feel that if I'm going to make this happen, I need to be bitten! So, come on campers, show me your creativity!
...And if I end up choosing your suggestion, I will totally overnight you some yummy yummy cupcakes.
Ok?....Go!
I am back from a week long trek to the Utah. A wonderful time was had by all...well, at least by me and Andrew. We spent the first days chasing a perfectly perfect one year-old boy named Max...I may have mentioned him before. He's without doubt the single cutest child EVER. Here...take a gander:
See? He's my favorite. I cannot believe how much he grows in between my visits. I am the youngest child and this is my first nephew. So, I've never spent a lot of time around growing babies. I love knowing that I am going to watch Max grow from birth to an adult. It is so much fun watching him figure out things like walking and talking (as evidenced by the video). We had such an amazingly wonderful time with Erik and Monica and Max. I love their home and I love feeling at home in their home. Thank you, Keller Family!
We then spent the rest of the week with Andrew's family - immediate and extended. Our real purpose of this trip was a family reunion on my mother-in-law's side. It was her father's 80th birthday and their 60th wedding anniversary. We spent lots of time playing around the Salt Lake area. We spent the 4th with my father-in-law's family up in the mountains...I have forgotten how beautiful Utah can be. It was fabulous to meet my new extended family! I never realized this part of getting married - not only do you get a new family, you get new cousins, new aunts and uncles, and most importantly, for me, new grandparents. I haven't had living grandparents for 10 years. So...to see BOTH sets of grandparents this week was just perfect!
In other news, Andrew and I still love our Rock Band. Our band, Frakkin Awesome, is a headlining act now, with Andrew kicking serious bottom on the guitar and I'm doing pretty fabulous on drums. Though occasionally I like to dust off the microphone - last night I got 100% singing "Black Hole Sun".
Krisanne has this adorable addiction...she probably doesn't want me sharing...but she lives in Korea...what can she do about it? She calls it Food Porn. Let's picture cute little Kriface, sitting in a dark room, late at night, by the light of the computer. She has a hankering for creme brulee...so she goes to Google, clicks on images, and types in "creme brulee". ...Then she starts the drooling. Ogling picture after picture of creme brulee, saliva forming in her mouth, looking over her shoulder so no one knows her dark secret. Food Porn.
Ladies and Gentlemen...I present to you Cake Porn. (And remember - they make us do these cakes just like this...they were NOT my design...and if any of you ever take a Wilton cake decorating class, you'll do the exact same cakes)
My first cake:
My second cake:
And my final cake (there was some issues traveling home so I had to do some clean-up...please don't notice those little mistakes!):
And finally, my forte - cupcakes. Here is a picture of the cookies and cream cupcakes I made. Mushed up Oreos in the icing AND the cake. Seriously folks...they rocked me.
And they can rock you, too...for a fee...
I know...I KNOW! Sheesh....
I'm fully going to steal from Teresa and give you a Top 10 List as to why I've been so absent. Mmkay? Just be warned...at my new job I don't have much to do right now...so expect a long and babblelisicous post.
10. Moving in to a new house. We officially moved in May 16th. I LOVE our house. Instantly, it felt like home. We've painted some walls (red downstairs, light ice blue in our room), bought some new living room furniture, hung fans and blinds, bought workout machines and created a little gym, watered and fertilized and watered our new grass and tree...and basically have had a ball being homeowners. Pictures coming soon...
9. Cupcakes. I have fallen head over heels in LOVE with cupcakes. I've known people who love cupcakes, I've eaten many in my life, and I've even been to the famed Magnolia bakery in Manhattan for a 30th birthday cupcake! But it wasn't until I threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law, where at I made the most amazing cupcakes that I actually fell in love. I mean real love. I have bought 3 cupcake cookbooks and experimented with a few - my favorites being cookies n' cream and chocolate peanut butter. Mmmm...
8. Cake decorating. I have been a cake decorating FOOL for the past month. With this new cupcake obsession, and the idea of making a little tiny career of them, I thought I might as well learn how to decorate them. Those who really know me, know that I'm not crafty. I can pretend I'm artsy...but there's no faking the craftiness. But...I'm actually not horrible at this cake decorating stuff. And what's more - I enjoy it! Like, I really have fun doing it. Today is my final class...I'll post a picture soon.
7. Missing my best friend, Krisanne. She's already done this over-seas livin' before...so I don't know why this is harder. But she's only 4 months into a year long stay (with a possible Swiss extension) and it's killing me.
6. My husband. He is still the cutest person in the world...and let me tell you, it is VERY hard to step away from that in order to blog. I could not be MORE in love with my perfect husband.
5. Unpacking boxes. Vacuuming a huge house. Mowing our lawn.
4. Getting a new job. I know! It's just a temp job...and it's REALLY far away...and I don't really get the people...and it's less money than I was making...........
3. Quitting that job.
2. Getting a new job! (Those of you out there who don't TOTALLY know me, this isn't me - I don't just quit jobs all the time...but....you know...) I LOVE this new job. I actually interviewed here before getting that other job but they didn't really have anything. Then a few weeks ago they called and said, we're ready for you! Bonus' include - a 15 minute drive from my house; being an actual (not temp) employee; having benefits!!; really liking the people with whom I work. The only downside is that right now I don't have a ton of work (hence the wicked long blog). But that should change soon.....hopefully.
1. Wii. I love our Wii. For a while there I was playing Star Wars Lego with a kind of sick obsession (especially considering I'd already played it all the way through twice). Then we got Indiana Jones Legos, which we're still playing through and enjoy, though not near as much as Star Wars. And last night...we got Rock Band. We have been sooo excited for this. And we're not disappointed. The drums are surprising the hardest thing ever - I doubt I'll ever master it. And there's not a lot of girl songs to sing (though I wailed last night on Bon Jovi's "Wanted (Dead or Alive)...). But we love it. I was being a cake baking fool last night so I didn't get to play as much as I wanted. But you better believe that we will be having lots of concerts in our living room. Feel free to join us!
In conclusion, I've been busy...but not so busy that I couldn't have popped in to say hi. I will be posting more regularly now, I promise. With pictures of our house, of cakes and cupcakes, and our upcoming trip to Utah.
Here's a tip for any of you who may in the future have a hand in the building of your house. When you go to the little home studio to pick everything that will go in it, take pictures. Take pictures of everything you choose. That way, when they do what you chose, you don't look at it and say, "...There is NO way I would've EVER chosen that."...only to go BACK to the studio and look up what you chose...and see that you DID choose that....and then you look like an idiot.
Our house is green.
And we chose that.
And actually...it's growing on us.
I'm not embarrassed to say that I am wicked excited about this.
...Ok...maybe a little embarrassed.
So, I'm still unemployed. ...Just...you know...FYI.
I'll post for realsies later...but for now, enjoy the awesomeness that is my nephew Max: The Most Perfect And Cute Child EVER.
PS - mostly this is for my sister...enojy, Heather!
This has been a long week...but it's Thursday night...in a few hours it's the weekend and some exciting things are afoot!
First of all, most of my readers know I hate my job. I usually hate my job but this one, and particulaly lately, is by far the most hated. Well, yesterday afternoon, I walked in my boss' office and gave her my two weeks' notice. ...I know, right? Now, before you ask, no...I do NOT have a new job yet. But a week ago I put my resume on http://www.monster.com/ and already I've had 5 calls, 4 emails, and one fabulous interview (for which I have a second one on Monday!). So I'm not worried - obviously there is work for document controllers in Houston. And let me tell you - it feels AMAZING to do this on my own terms. Because I don't have a job yet, it's like I'm saying, "This place is horrible, hateful, and sucks the very marrow from my bones." If I already had a job, it'd be like, "...I have a new job. Peace out." It's kinda been exciting around the office...mostly because I quit the day after another one of the document controllers...yeah...we're hoping to start a trend.
My super duper friend Teresa left me a message on my phone this week. She told me that I was lame-o for never updating my blog. And I was all....yeah...you're right. So, me voila! I post!
