Monkeying Around

Today I am sharing with you a collection I did for a friend's daughter. Little Rainee has a favorite monkey toy that she takes with her everywhere. We decided on a collection inspired by her toy!

  

    

Rainee even had her own monkey smash cake!

   

  

 

My favorite part is this monkey topper. She was so fun to make and really pulled the design together!

What The Duck Is It?

I am so happy to share that my best friend Kelly is expecting baby number 2! You may recall the baby shower dessert table I designed for her first child, Isaac. Click HERE to see more about that.
Kelly and her husband Dave went for my suggestion of doing a gender reveal party for this baby. At their ultrasound the doctor put the gender in a sealed envelope which I picked up from them. I had to hold my excitement for about a week. We settled on the theme "What The Duck Is It?" so I made a duck cake and cupcakes, the inside was colored to represent the gender. Check it out!

 

So the question of the day...What the duck is it???

A BOY!!!!!

Congrats Kelly, Dave and Isaac!!! 
Thanks for letting me be part of sharing the big news!

 

Tuxedo Strawberry Cake

A friend of mine asked me to do a small wedding cake for her brother and his partner. They wanted a black and white theme, and the only stipulation was to include tuxedo strawberries. I was thrilled at the idea! I had actually never made tuxedo strawberries before, so I was really excited to have an excuse to make them. Here is the finished cake!

I had a few extra strawberries so I had to keep making them. They were so easy and so fun!

Since I already had the strawberries out and the chocolate melted I tried a bride and groom pair too. I think the tuxedo ones are my favorite though!

Congrats to the happy couple! I'm honored to have been able to contribute to your day!

Mountain Dew and Doritos Cake

My boyfriend David says that I have odd tastes in food. He often thinks that flavor combinations I think sound good, sound awful.  He says that my tastes in food are "bougie".  According to Urban Dictionary, bougie means "anything that is perceived as "upscale" from a blue collar point of view. 'Bougie' (pronounced boo'-she) is a hacked truncation of the word Bourgeoisie, which refers to the middle-class in Europe, but refers to a more affluent class level in the United States." 

So I have to ask, does the combination of Mountain Dew and Doritos...in a cake....sound bougie to you?

Mountain Dew and Doritos Cake

From Nothing But Country

Makes 1, 6 inch 2 layer cake and 12 cupcakes or 24 cupcakes

Cake and/or Cupcakes:

1 box lemon cake mix

1 box lemon pudding mix

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups Mountain Dew

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients together except Mountain Dew. Once ingredients are combined well, slowly pour in the Mountain Dew.

Pour mix into prepared pan and/or lined cupcake pan

Bake cupcakes for 14-15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Bake 6 inch cake for 35 minutes or until aa toothpick comes out clean.

Allow cakes to cool before frosting.

Mountain Dew Buttercream

4 cups powdered sugar

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1/8 cup Mountain Dew

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tbsp lime juice

Directions:

Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. Add in Mountain Dew and juices.  Continue beating until smooth.  If consistency is too thick, add Mountain Dew, 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is achieved.
If you would like to color your frosting like mine is in the photos, divide the icing into 2 separate bowls, add lime green to one bowl and lemon yellow food coloring to the other. I piped the green swirls on first and topped with yellow.

Top your cupcakes and cake with Nacho Cheese Doritos.  Then, when you taste the awesome flavor combo, accept the fact that you are now, officially, just as bougie as me. Lucky.

Blood Orange Cake

A few years back my sister, friend Heather, and I traveled to Rome, Italy. We were travelers on a budget, so we stopped in a local market to pick up food to pack lunches during our daily sightseeing. We grabbed a bunch of fresh oranges and headed on our way.  We were quite surprised when we peeled the oranges to find them bright red in the center! We had never seen, let alone, eaten blood oranges before.  We were quickly hooked on them and ate them almost every day of our vacation!

 

Recently I was walking through the grocery store and saw blood oranges on sale.  I bought some and eating that first orange brought me right back to the first park we sat in when we realized what they were. It got me thinking......Do you remember this mouthwatering grapefruit cake I made last year? It is still one of my top favorite cakes, however this year I decided to try it again but with a twist, blood oranges!

This version of the cake was just as heavenly, but with a sweeter, more orange-y taste. I'm not sure which cake I like better they are both so good!

Click HERE to go to the recipe for the grapefruit cake.  All I did was substitute blood orange for all of the grapefruit ingredients. I also added a little orange food coloring to the batter to enhance the color.

Try it out! The original and the new cake are both great summer treats!
What's your favorite summertime dessert?

Belle of the Ball

"Tale as old as time...." Beauty and the Beast, one of the best Disney movies ever! (Next to the Little Mermaid---but I may be partial to red heads!). My friend Amie was throwing her adorable daughter a Belle themed birthday party.  This little princess was in love with all things Belle and I got to be the lucky one to make desserts for her!  We decided on cookies, cupcakes and cake focusing on the dress and the rose.

 There were a couple of boys attending the party so I made sure to include a few beast cookies too.

Thanks Amie for letting me make these fun desserts! I hope Audrey's party was a huge success!

Day of the Dead Inspired Red Rose Cake

Today I am sharing with you a birthday cake I made for a friend's daughter. She turned 14 and was really into  skulls. She also was digging the rose cake I've done (You can see the one I did for her Mom HERE). I made her a red rose cake with skulls inspired by Day of the Dead skulls.  Check it out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Filling

I was walking through the local grocery store today and something caught my attention. It was the enticing scent of apple cinnamon and spice. We've had such a strange "winter" that it really could still be autumn. Its strange how a scent can trigger so many memories flooding back to you! Today I'm sharing a cake I made this past autumn.  I was inspired by Sweetopolita's Autumn Delight Cake.  You see, I'm a bit of a lazy baker. I loved the look of this recipe but decided to make it a little easier on myself.  Instead of preparing the cakes like she describes I used a spice cake mix, canned pumpkin, pumpkin spice and chopped pecans. I prepared the cakes and filled them with toasted marshmallow filling.  The cake was then iced with brown sugar and cinnamon swiss buttercream.  I topped it with candied pecans.

Click HERE for the full cake how to from Sweetopolita.

Toasted Marshmallow Cake Filling
(From Sweetopolita)

Ingredients:
12-16 standard size marshmallows
1 cup unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk (I used whole)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7.5 ounce jar of Marshmallow Fluff
Pinch of Salt

Directions:
1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and arrange marshmallows on top. Place on the lowest rack in the oven. Broil until nice and brown.  Keep a close watch on them, they will burn quickly. Remove cookie sheet and carefully turn the marshmallows. Brown the other side. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
2. In your stand mixer, using a paddle attachment, whip butter. You want it really pale and fluffy, this will take around 8-10 minutes.
3. Add powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and salt. Beat for another 6 minutes.
4. Add cooled marshmallows and marshmallow cream. Beat on low for another 2 minutes.
5. Use filling right away, it will be sticky but spreads nicely as filling and keeps well in the cake.

Top 11 of 2011

As the year closes, lets revisit some of the highlights from 2011!

1. The completion of my Party Challenge.

I completed 1 party every month until I turned 30. This came to completion at the end of January 2011.

2. Grapefruit Cake

This became my favorite cake of the year! I made this so many times, and its just as delicious every time!

3. Our Valentine's Day Table and Red Rosette Cake

4. Happy Birday Cookies

5. Champagne Wishes and Strawberry Dreams Cupcakes

6.  A Royal Affair

7. Designer Inspired Frosted Glass Mirrors

8. How to Clean Graffiti

9. Burberry Inspired Puppy Party

10. Wonderfall Wine Tasting

11. The Reindeer Run

2011 has been a great year! Thank you so much for following along on my blogging journey!
May you have a blessed new year! Happy 2012!

Blue Rose Cake

Recently I got to do a birthday cake for a friend's wife.  He really liked the Red Rose Cake I did for Valentine's Day, but his wife was more of a blue rose kind of girl. I was thrilled! Its my favorite cake to do, and also my favorite color, not to mention a color not often asked for when it comes to flowers.  We decided to also add a little "tattoo" detail to it. I hand painted the birthday banners in a classic tattoo style text and made black royal icing butterflies to accent the roses.  

Don't you love the vibrant color?! I'm still obsessed with this cake...what color to try next?!

Tropical Iris Cake

Recently I was asked to do a cake for a friend's wife. It was her birthday and he wanted to give her a special cake. She loves irises, the colors red, yellow, and orange and she was originally from Hawaii. From that, I was given free reign to design her cake. I'd never made sugar irises before, but I gave it a shot. Check out the finished product!

For my first attempt at irises, I'm quite proud. I learned so much doing them, that hopefully my next attempt will be even better!

Fairytale Frosting Blogiversary

This summer Fairytale Frosting turned 2. I cant believe I've been blogging for 2 years. The time has just flown by!  To celebrate my "blogiversary" I invited some friends over for a whimsical evening get together.  I decided to incorporate some of my favorite things, such as night time in summer. I love warm nights, sitting under the stars with the glow of tiny lights on the patio. I also love fondue, chocolate dipped fruit, and of course a glass of wine or two. I styled my little party after these things that I love. Check out how it came together!

Upon entering my backyard, I had giant origami lotus flowers light with battery operated candles, creating a sort of pathway to the fun.

One of the trees in my backyard has this branch that hangs low and is perfect for creating a cozy dining area.

My party was in the evening and I used the moon and stars as inspiration.  My color palette was a range of blue hues. I had just recently painted my picnic table so I chose to forgo table linens and let the color and pattern of my painted table do the work for me.

I created some evening mood lighting by hanging star lanterns with tea lights over the table, and using some faux mercury glass lanterns that I made (UPDATE: See the tutorial HERE)

It was a warm evening so each place setting had a small fan for my guests to keep cool.

I used royal blue sheer curtains over twinkle lights to create a starry night type back drop, and kept the table simple with only a black cloth.  Origami lotuses also flanked the table with candles in them as well. They glowed beautifully as the evening grew darker. I made the moon in the center after being inspired by a bon voyage photo booth over at Oh Happy Day.

The desserts were simple and summery. I served cheesecake filled strawberries, sugar cookies, and chocolate dipped fruit. I also made a lemonade bundt cake, and blackberry mojitos.

 The star of the show, however, was a dark chocolate cake with blackberry buttercream. I modified the dark chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream recipe from Sweetopolita. I had been dying to try it, but I had to put my own little spin on it. I wasn't sure how the blackberries would translate into a buttercream but it was spectacular! My mouth waters just thinking of it.

After the fondue and sugar rush, we moved to my patio to sit and chat until the wee hours of the night! Ok, maybe not the wee hours, but late enough anyway.

I did take a couple of photos as it grew darker out. The photos really dont do it justice.  The lights twinkled warmly and overhead just so happened to be a full moon! I hadnt even planned it that way! What great timing!

Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the last two years.  This blog has taught me to much about myself. I've been able to express my creativity which I had no idea how valuable that was until I began to write it all out here. Thank you for allowing me to share my creations and find love and support when doing so!