cupcakes and cake pops

Last weekend, my mom was super busy making 2 wedding cakes, 6 dozen cupcakes and cake pops. Being the good daughter that I am, I went over to help her make the cupcakes and cake pops for her neighbor's baby shower, they turned out pretty cute!

 lemon cake pops dipped in tinted white chocolate

 Lemon cupcakes with random blue dots

The lady who was hosting the baby shower was using a "dot" theme she wanted used in the food too (and she has a super cute blog you should check out here, when I have kids i may have to steal her ideas for parties because they are adorable). I thought it turned out pretty cute! 

Cake Experiment

A few weeks ago, I had the strangest craving for spice cake.

I really believe that spice cake is underrated and not given enough credit. Of course, chocolate is my favorite kind of cake, but spice is definitely up there as one of my favorite flavors.

To satisfy my craving, I (with the help of husband) made a spice cake for a ward potluck, but we added something different to make it ummm... different: melted white chocolate.

Oh my gosh, and it was heavenly. If white chocolate and fall spices got married, this cake would be their baby.

 It was joyous and wonderful (and the sunday after the potluck, an old man in the ward came to tell me that it tasted delicious and also asked me if I worked in Disneyland because I look so much like Snow White... ha.) 

We also added this amazing syrup to the cream cheese frosting. This, is Buttermilk Syrup, and once you try it you will never need regular syrup again. You make it with buttermilk, lots of butter, and sugar. After cooking it a while it starts to taste like caramel. It's a recipe from one of my old Young Women's leaders and it's so good! So good, I am going to share the recipe with everyone. Go home and make it, then put it on pancakes, french toast, ice cream, or just eat it plain on a spoon. 

Buttermilk Syrup

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. corn syrup

Combine butter, sugar, and buttermilk in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil 1 minute and add vanilla, soda, and corn syrup. Let it cook until it turns golden brown. Serves 4 to 5. 

Thank you Sarah for such a great recipe. Happy cooking everyone! 

Let them eat cake

I just wanted to share this super cute cake my mom did for a wedding a few weeks ago.

I think it's really adorable (the stripes are edible ribbon). 

Thoughts in my head right now

Katherine's wedding...NAMIWalk...Jewish Wedding Project... Katherine's wedding...NAMIWalk....Jewish Wedding Project....Katherine's wedding....NAMIWalk.... and so on and so forth. My head might explode right now. It's one of those crazy weeks.

Not bad crazy, it's definitely the "fun" kind of crazy, except for the moments where I can't remember what I'm doing for which event. I have to remind myself that I don't have to pick up a chuppah (planning a Jewish wedding for school) for the NAMIWalk or that I don't need to plan potato sack races for Katherine's wedding. I'll be glad this weekend when I'll have the NAMIWalk crossed off my list.  Here are some of the thoughts going on in my head:

Jewish Wedding (this is fake, but it's for school)

Budget: $120,000 (I know right??)

I really haven't made much progress on this. I know nothing about Jewish Weddings except that there is a chuppah... which I learned from Gilmore Girls.

So, naturally, the chuppah should be made Gilmore Girls style:

 Also... I think this should be a mountain wedding. It just sounds nice, doesn't it?

NAMIWalk:

This includes:

-Leather Bracelet Stamping (thank you Matt and Abby!)
-Relay Races
-face painting
-Brautwurst (I'm not in charge of the Brauts but it sounds good right now,  so it's on my mind)
- Juggling
- Team T shirts


The NAMIWalk is this Saturday at Valley Regional Park, it will be a great time!

Katherine's Wedding:

Burlap linens (yup. burlap). Scrim, green, or muslin sashes for chairs? What to choose? 

 (I'm in love with the burlap, great for a countryish/rustic/mountain wedding)

 Is it ok not to put chair covers on old wood chairs with maroon pads? Even though your colors are orange and green and will clash badly with maroon...

 sigh...maroon. And my mom's leg right there.

Katherine has also expressed a desire to include S'mores in the wedding somehow... after all, what says mountains and rustic more than a good, old fashioned s'more?

She actually hasn't mentioned this to me in a few weeks... so I don't even know if she still wants it (by the way, do you still want it Katherine?), but that doesn't mean I can't do some poking around. 

"Poke around" is exactly what I did, and I found this:

 S'mores cake from a website called "Desserts for Breakfast "

I pretty much need to have this now. If Katherine doesn't want it, I will just make some for myself and eat it in front of all the guests at the wedding. Because, that's really good manners and stuff.  

So yeah. I hope you enjoyed that. You will probably be looking forward to the day when I won't always be blogging about weddings and things.  

Does anyone know anything about Jewish weddings? Or what kind of fabric I should get for sashes?

It's coming...

 I plan to go to New England to see the Fall Foliage someday.

I stepped outside at 7:10 this morning to go to work and I noticed that it was a bit chillier than normal... and it felt lovely.

And then I realized that it is September 1st, which means Fall is coming.

It felt so much like fall this morning. It even smelled like fall. I love feeling like I need a sweater when I go outside!

Fall means a lot of things to me:

-Pretty leaves (I need pictures of this)
-delicious food, which includes but is not limited to:
         * pumpkin pancakes are a must have
         * I plan on making Spice Cake with Buttermilk Caramel Frosting... something that has never been attempted, but I plan on making it happen because it makes me drool and cry with joy at the thought of it. I will tell you to come over when I make it... unless I eat it all by myself, or it's a disaster.
         * Donuts. HOMEMADE donuts. Something I have never done... but want to try so bad.
         * Homemade donuts with HOMEMADE caramel apple cider. 
         * Butternut Squash Soup, and other delicious, comfort-food soups.
         * Pumpkin Steamers from Starbucks
         * Halloween candy, it really does taste different from regular candy

- umm Halloween of course. Best. Holiday. Ever.
-How about the NAMIWalk coming up in a few weeks? 
-how about general conference?!? heck yes! 
- new sweaters
-Thanksgiving
-ummm did I mention UTAH football!?!? pretty much.... it's awesome.


Now I am off to Boulder where it feels like deathly summer to help me get really excited for fall. 
        

Cooking Adventures: Part 1

Since I am now a college graduate and need something to do in the evenings, I made a goal to try some of the recipes I have been wanting to make for a while and also learn new things with baking and cooking. I just think food is so great, and that I should make more of it. Last night, I had the chance to go to a cupcake decorating class (something I've wanted to get more practice on) and took some pictures of what I got to make:

Exhibit A: The Daisy Cupcake

Exhibit B: Hydrangeas 

Exhibit C: Ice Cream Swirl (that's what I call it) 

I think the icing on this one is bigger than the cupcake itself, but that's what makes it soooo yummy.

Other things I'm going to try? Stuffed pasta shells, chocolate-almond torte, caramelized bananas, among other things. It will be wonderful and delicious... or at least I think it will be.