It's Wedding Season!!

When I think about all the summers of days gone by I undoubtedly think about weddings! Big weddings, small weddings, weddings here, weddings there, weddings everywhere!!! Weddings galore... I think one summer my record was 8 weddings... phew! I don't think there is a place in this city that I haven't been for a wedding. Between friends and family I was busy!! And then there was the summer of my own wedding a couple of years ago. Needless to say that was pretty consuming :) And now wedding craziness is all about cupcakes and cookies... I love it!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of providing sweet treats for Elyse and Sean's wedding. Their reception was at the beautiful Niakwa Country Club. Congrats you two!!

Elyse provided the hilarious cake topper and orchid flowers to complete the look!

The great thing about being a teacher is that I can devote my summers to wedding fever! If you are still looking for the perfect treats for your summer event I still have a few weekends left. Shoot me an email - I would love to chat!

Peekaboo Beans... and a **GIVEAWAY!!**

I don't have any mini beans of my own but if I did I would definitely shop {HERE}!

Introducing... Peekaboo Beans - playwear for kids on the grow! These clothes are unbelievably adorable :) Too cute for words really! And... Canadian to boot {gotta LOVE supporting our fellow Canucks}!

Here's how it works...

1. Contact my friend Cory {she's a super cool chick!}

2. Host a Beans Soiree at your house

3. Invite your friends to come to your Soiree and order ridiculously cute, well made, affordable clothes for your beans

4. Have the best-dressed gang on the block!

Seriously, if these clothes were available in adult sizes I would wear them too!

And, because these moms have thought of everything, you can even sell your vintage Bean-wear on the PB website once your kiddos have outgrown your favourite pieces. Says something about the quality, doesn't it?!

Now onto the cookies!! Cory, being the amazing host she is, asked me if I would be interested in making some sweet treats for her Soiree guests. Of course I excitedly agreed and got to work!

The Peekaboo Beans logo is very fun but after a few attempts to recreate it in cookie form I decided to get out my {new and very exciting} edible image printer {more info coming about this soon!!}. It is the perfect solution to logo cookies.

 Did I mention that the clothes are amazing?!?!! Well, they are! For the next set of cookies I was inspired by them. The lollipops are way to much fun and who doesn't love a polka-dot print?! I couldn't resist :)

You can also contact Cory through Facebook to find out more information on Peekaboo Beans.

I cannot say it enough - the clothes are great... you will not be disappointed! And you may even get a cookie or two ;)

** Sweet GIVEAWAY** .....aka fun! fun! fun!

If you're interested in trying out Peekaboo Beans clothes for yourself {and I know you are!} this is the perfect opportunity! Check out the Peekaboo Beans website, take a look around and then come back here to leave a comment below this post telling me what your favourite Beans clothing piece is. One lucky person will win $50 towards their next PB purchase through Cory!

{Giveaway runs until midnight, May 12th}

Good luck

Draw closed - THANKS to everyone who entered :)

...and the winner is... JASMINE TARA!!

Congratulations! Please contact me to find out how to get your $50 in Beans Bucks!

I {Heart} You!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just a quick post tonight of some of my favourite Valentine's Day goodies this year...

In keeping with my new cookie obsession I made a lot of hearts this year. I also learned a **very important** lesson... if your royal icing doesn't seem to be stiffening up in your mixer {and yes, I let it mix for a LONG time!} do not, and I repeat do not, add more meringue powder after the fact!! I have made royal icing many times and have never had this problem. However, on the particular night I decided to ice my cookies I also decided to try a new recipe. Sometimes this works in my favour, other times, not so much. This time, not so much!

Once upon a time I read that if you need to add meringue powder to royal icing after the icing is already mixed, dissolve it in water first then add. I tried, no luck. As you will see below you get tiny little dots in your icing. Not the flawless finish I was hoping for. If {or when} this happens again I will just toss and start fresh, as much as it pains me to waste perfectly good-ish icing!

These cookies were donated to the my-dad-wants-cookies-to-take-to-work cause so all was not lost. And, don't worry, I had a few taste testers make sure they were edible first :)

I used Duff's Cake Graffiti spray in silver for the first time on these cookies and I was really impressed with the results. It took a few tries to get a feel for it but now I am addicted! I can't wait to "spray paint" my next set of cookies!!

pretty in pink...

... and some sparkly minis...

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day filled with love, chocolate {and maybe a glass of wine!}!

congrats christina & chris!!

A couple of weekends ago I had the pleasure of creating cupcakes for Christina and Chris' wedding. Truly, the best part of my baking adventure is meeting new people... Christina was a delight to get to know!! I love sitting down with brides and discussing all things wedding... brings me back to my own day of {super stressful!} wedded bliss. The set up for this wedding was particularly enjoyable - their reception venue was a quick 5 minute drive from my house and the hubby helped out! It is always way more fun with two {although my slight perfectionism sometimes gets in the way ;)}. I hope I wasn't too annoying!! Ha!

Christina and Chris' cupcakes were vanilla and chocolate with almond icing. Their "cutting" cake was red velvet with almond icing and fondant.

Congratulations Christina and Chris!! Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your special day!

...and this is what happens when the hubby ventures into the kitchen... :s

Good thing they were extras!!

sugar & spice and everything nice

These beauties were created for Stella and Grace's 6th birthday party. Their mom, Corinne, contacted me about making cupcakes for their Golf Dome birthday party with only one stipulation - NO princesses!! Haha! Made me laugh...guess princesses are getting old on the parent front! She did, however, say that pink and purple were most definitely in (of course!!)! So, we decided on butterflies, ladybugs, and flowers. I can imagine it might get annoying to have to share everything with your twin sister so I personalized some of the cupcakes with "S" for Stella and "G" for Grace. I think that these cupcakes turned out to be a pretty great alternative to princesses!

Stella and Grace`s cupcakes were marble and chocolate flavoured with chocolate buttercream and vanilla (pink and purple) icing.

Happy 6th Birthday to Stella and Grace!!! Thank you Mizak`s for including me in your special day!

autumn's 5th birthday

I had the pleasure of making cupcakes for Autumn's 5th birthday at the beginning of January. I have known Autumn's mom, Jenna, since we were in junior high together and her dad coached our baseball team...its been awhile!! Jenna now works with Gerardo so I was thrilled when he mentioned that she would be interested in having me make Autumn's birthday cupcakes!

When discussing the party Jenna mentioned that they didn't really have a theme for the party but that Autumn absolutely loved cats, pink and purple! I like making "favourite things" cupcakes...so much fun! The cupcakes are vanilla with a whipped, vanilla icing. The cats, balls of yarn and mice were made from fondant. The great thing about fondant is that it hardens on the outside to keep its shape but stays chewy on the inside...like a soft candy that kids love! Thank you to Clever Cupcakes for the idea I used for the cats.

Thank you to Jenna, Ernie, Autumn and Ocean for letting me be a part of the party! Happy 5th Birthday Autumn!!






Jenna also asked for chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing for the adults. I have to say that I love the contrast of the dark chocolate buttercream icing and the silver edible balls. The chocolate buttercream icing is delicious!!