Visions of Farmers markets spinning in my head

It's been less than a year since my self-taught, trail-and-error cupcake hobby/business was born...I NEVER thought I would be where Im at with this already and Im SO excited for what the future brings. Ive found myself not being able to stop for one second thinking about the farmers market next year and MAKING THIS HAPPEN for myself....In an earlier post I was talking about getting some shallow "tubs" to store my cupcake's in a jar in during those hot and humid Iowa farmers markets....well, I FOUND IT!!!! it's about $250.00, but it is TOO cute not to get...Using this as an "ice tub" and placing my cupcake jars on top is going to FOR SURE be an eye catcher! I still want to use something different for the cupcake kabobs (maybe), still looking around...Maybe an OVERLY large novelty "baking pan" that I can fill with ice and then just set my oblong tray over it. Who knows....we've still got time.

Supply Check #2

I got some new liners and such while out shopping for supplies for my upcoming 4th of July cupcake topiary project (no worries, only doing 2 this time, charged enough to cover my costs, and correct my mistakes from last time!!! :)). See them here!

Bridal shower!

Most recently, I just finished up a bridal shower order for some vanilla cupcakes with raspberry buttercream. The wedding colors were hot pink and gold, so I did hot pink icing with big gold sugar crystals.

My piping with this Wilton tip is getting MUCH better/easier/faster, so I was VERY proud of myself. :) :)

Graduation Luau!!

Below are some cupcakes that I did for a graduation party. The party was in a luau theme, so I did key vanilla cupcakes with key lime frosting and dipped them in crushed graham cracker to get the "beach" look, then stuck drink umbrellas in them. I also did "smores" cucpakes the same way, so they all turned out looking the same.

The sheet cake was done by Cindy Hartman, one of my cake-baking peers!

I decorated the cupcake boxes with luau and tiki themed stickers! :)

Something different

Stole these from the Pampered Chef party cookbook I got:

Cupcake kabobs

Here are the little guys I was talking about in my "Mothers Day" post and I am truly exicted about them! The color and flavor options are endless, as well as the other "food accessories" joining the cupcakes on the skewers. These are also super cheap to make, so I figure the best, most cost effective way to sell these would be on an individual basis at the farmers market. Ive just got to figure out how Im going to preserve them in the heat...I may just buy an extra ice tub and sit decorative platters displaying the kabobs on top. This will also allow me to decorate them in MANY different ways. I'd probably charge 2.50 per kabob, which would be a profit of 1.50 per kabob. Im VERY excited for the farmers market next year.

Kevin's Birthday

So for Kevin's birthday, I wanted to do a really special cake. Since I got him a motorcycle helmet as his gift, I thought it fitting to make a motorcycle helmet cake. I looked EVERYWHERE for a motorcycle helmet cake mold and found absolutely nothing. I wanted to make the cake 3d rather than 2d because, well, thats boring...SO....after about 4 anxiety attacks and a lot of lost sleep, I came up with this:

I 100% without a doubt proved to myself that I am NOT cake boss...there's a reason I dont do cake sculpting...because it turns out looking sloppy. this was my absolute best attempt, and even the fondant work wouldnt lay 100% how I wanted it to because its all about the sculpting. It turned out good enough to do the trick though, and Kevin was SUPER happy and thought it looked really impressive. Since he was who the cake was for, thats all the matters.

Now.....back to something I CAN do....cupcakes! :)

MOTHER'S DAY Topiaries

Yes, this blog post is coming a little late, but better late than never. I decided that for Mother's Day, I would take as many orders for these cupcake topiaries as possible, and I ended up with 18 orders. I charged $20 a piece for them and should have charged twice that much with how much everything ended up costing. Also, this was a HUGE mistake on my part to try to take on a task this big with never having attempted one of these before. This took up an entire week of my life, staying up most nights until well after 1am....but, After a few mistakes and "trial run" looking orders, I had some REALLY cute looking topiarys, and I am glad that I will have several "examples" for a website that I hope to build at the beginning of next year. I plan to make a Cupcakes 4.0 website with options for cupcake bouquets, cupcake kabobs (coming shortly), themed cupcakes and cakes, and gourmet cupcakes and cakes (where Ill specialize in flavor and design less than a "theme".)  I also plan to open a booth at the Valley Junction farmers market every Thursday night next year and sell "cupcakes in a jar, adorned with bows and lid stickers, in different themes, ect, as well as cupcake kabobs. To "beat the heat". I will have to buy big shallow tubs for ice to display the jars in, and havent quite figured out how I'll do the cupcake kabobs, but Ive got a whole year to figure it out, right?

Now, for the pictures!!

Bumble-bees!

Full view

Square-topiary. I love the color scheme, but am not a big fan of the "square" look.

Wrapped version. This kept the cupcakes VERY moist. Its just a "large treat bag", cut to fit, and then I tied them up with matching ribbons from the pot.

This was one of 2 of the large foam balls. Ill be going with the smaller ones next time as these make the pot too top-heavy. Ill also need to find something to weight down the pots more, as some had "tipping" problems.

butterflies!

bumble-bees and daffodils

Full view

Garden-theme

Garden-theme 2

My favorite one. too top heavy wiht going all the way around.

wrapped-up

Boxed Goods

I'd really like to find some online sources to find some bulk cupcake boxes. I have been buying some big cake boxes to hold orders of 24.00 cupcakes, however, I cant find ANY with the pre-cut cupcake inserts to hold your cupcakes securlely. This has made transport tricky and I would HATE for one of my orderers to ruin their order taking it home. However, it's been fun to get these plain white boxes is decorate them with cupcake and bakery themed stickers and cloth ribbons!

This is a vanilla flavored layer cake (9 inch teir) with Martha Stewart's Rum-Vanilla Bean Buttercream.

I must admit, ever since I made this cake, Ive been OBSESSED with vanilla bean. I would not use this recipe again, as I didnt get it down quite right and the rum flavor overtook everything else. I did, however, find a vanilla bean buttercream recipe for cupcakes that doesnt seem as complicated. It doest have so much powdered sugar in it and hopefully wont harden as much.

Ive also bought a few pre-patterened cupcake boxes for smaller orders; the only problem is that I havent really had any smaller orders and it wouldnt really be cost effective for me to make orders in such small quantities. Theyve been cute to dress up a bit and put small cupcake gifts to family in though. (see below)

Odd's N Ends

Attached are some pictures of some random "cupcake plates" that I made with leftover batters and frostings from orders.

Strawberry Mini's

Citris Feista Mini's

Key Lime Mini's

Making these mini's have been easy and fun to experiment with. Ive been using only a "very vanilla" cupcake to keep things simple and just experimenting with colors and designs. I want to start experimenting with some different piping tips, but Im afraid that usually by the time I get to these "leftovers", Im so worn out from the actual cupcake order I've just finished that my effort is lacking. :) Ive been charging 15.00 for 24 of these mini's, with 24 being the minimum order amount. Kevin and I (cross your fingers) may be getting a mini chest deep freeze and housing it in the garage (gotta love apartment square footage), so that will make things MUCH more cost effective for me to just freeze the leftover unfrosted minis that my different batters mad and allow people to order them in whatever quantities they wish. I feel lucky that cupcakes freeze so well!