Dude...

...Remember when I used to blog?





Yeah...me, too.



*sigh*



I'll blog again ril soon...ril ril soon.



PS - ...I love cupcake.

...As If You Needed An Excuse...

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....

Oh. My. Goodness.

Last night I perfected my Eggnog Cupcake recipe.


Friends? I have a new favorite.



Meet the Eggnog Cupcake.

The cake is moist and eggnoggy with a hint of nutmeg. The icing is an eggnog buttercream topped with freshly grated nutmeg.

Yes...it's as yummy as it sounds/looks.

Let me know if I can, ya know....hook you up.

Dual-Side Icing Bags

Check out this post on CakeWrecks: Wow...

And be sure to click the link to see how they did it.

PS - I love cake.

Lighting The BBQ of My Heart Since 2008...

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"...

An Open Letter

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

Hot and Ikey

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...)

I Do NOT Like 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'.

The Station of Colleges

...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? :)

Ike Poo-Poo Face Stinkhead!

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.

Takin' Care of Bidness

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.

Mostly, though, this post will provide photographic proof that I really have been working. And hard. In the last 2 weeks I've had 10 cupcake jobs, got my DBA from the county, and opened my business checking account ("...yes, go ahead and make that check out to Seriously Cupcakes."). As I climbed into bed a few nights ago, worn out from baking all night, I mentioned to Andrew that I felt like I was working 2 jobs and he said, "...Honey...you ARE working 2 jobs." And folks...that totally made this girl smile. Because I AM working 2 jobs.

Feast your eyes on the following:

Yummy Carrot Cupcakes

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):

Oh yeah...and the most annoying cupcakes I've ever done. After doing these, I vowed never to do "cutesy" again.....unless they're paying reeeeaaally well:

More posts - more non-cupcake posts - to come soon!

Seriously Workin'

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.

Finger Finish

I have been obessed with Olympic swimming since 1992 in Barcelona when Jenny Thompson was at the height of her career and, along with Summer Sanders, pretty much inspired me quit theatre (briefly) to pursue my dream of being a gold-medal swimmer (apparently they want you to actually know how to "swim"...commies...).

I've watched a LOT of swimming races since then...but I have never - NEVER - seen a race like the Men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay last night. Holy crap...I couldn't sleep last night, I was so excited. And my head is still reeling...and my heart is till glowing Olympic gold.

Now, come on, Mr. Phelps!! Six more to go!!

Basket Full O' Cake

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.

Why Yes...I DO Crave Cupcakes

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.

...I Just Let The Cupcakes Do All The Work...

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!

CakeWrecks

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...

And The Winner Is...

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:

• Simply Cupcakes (my original favorite...even though there is already a shop in LA with that name)
• So Cupcakes (again...a favorite and one that I thought was original...but those of you in Salt Lake can visit a shop with that very name!)
• Seriously Cupcakes (my new favorite...and, as of this post, is completely original)
• Cake THAT! (Thank you, KaRyn...)
• My Favorite Cupcakes (nice one, Kristen!)

What do you all think?

Here are a few of my favorites that I won't be choosing...but absolutely LOVED:

• Frakkin' Awesome Cupcakes (Cami, I may use that as a tag line for my company...)
• Fairy Cakes
• Cupcake Escape (...try saying that ten times fast...)
• Like Muffin Tops...Only Better (when I read this, all I hear is Jane Krakowski singing "Muffin Top")
• New Boot Goofin' Cakes! (because...what the crap, Zach?)

Thank you, friends. From the bottom of my Boston Creme filled cupcake heart...thank you.

Allons Enfants De La Patrie!

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.

Cupcake _______ ?

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!