people actually buy this stuff?!?

Turns out that if you give away baked goodies long enough, people will start ordering them from you! Ordering and pricing information for San Diego coming soon...

cake pops

I finally was able to document a batch of cake pops! I had never had my Nikon handy when I made them - and these things don't last long enough to be photographed... As Abby from NCIS would say, these things are more addictive than pistachios.

I got the recipe for these sweet little cake bites from Bakerella - who is pretty much a superhero in the baking+blogging world. I mean, she's been on Martha. Forreals.

I started out making real cake pops - with lollipop sticks - but

the lollipop-stick-less version is a lot easier. But I still call them cake "pops" because cake "balls" seems to always bring on an onset of giggling. Can't imagine why...

So, these cake pops in particular were made for an anniversary celebration. There are chocolate cake pops covered in dark chocolate candy melts, and red velvet cake pops covered with vanilla candy melts. Both contain cream cheese frosting, which I prefer because it has a mild and less-sugary taste than other frostings. Oh, and I only use half a can of frosting, while the original Bakerella recipe calls for a whole can.

Spaghetti!

A wonderfully corny pick-up line about spaghetti inspired these cupcakes, which i recently made for a wedding reception here in Bonita. They are vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting "noodles." The "meatballs" are coconut and chocolate candies - a d.i.y. recipe I got from the Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine. I used a homemade strawberry glaze as the spaghetti sauce.

Pretty cute if I say so myself.

(these were even adorable before they were finished with the sauce!)

Signature Cupcake?

A few weeks ago, while snacking on my absolute favorite Dark Chocolate Almonds with Sea Salt and Turbinado Sugar from Trader Joe's, I thought that all those flavors together would make a pretty awesome cupcake. So, I decided to try an almond cream filled cupcake with a chocolate ganache and a pinch of raw sugar and sea salt. I thought they would be pretty rich, so I finally invested in a mini muffin tin so I could finally make mini cupcakes.

I used Martha Stewart's recipe for her Almond Cream Filling. Steps one through four result in an almond custard and the addition of heavy cream in step five turns the custard into a cream. Well, we forgot step five, so attempt #1 at this signature cupcake was an almond custard filled cupcake. They're pretty cute, though.

Cupcakes!

So when I was lazing around at home for a few weeks this summer and getting addicted to stumbleupon all over again, I started baking. And then I started taking pictures of things I was baking. And then, people started asking me to bake them stuff! Who knew?

Feeling Crafty.

Well, artsy-crafty, not scheming-crafty.
I was finally able to use the sewing book that Lynsey got me for Christmas! I decided to make a couple bibs for my master teacher, since she has been wonderful and helpful while I've been in her classroom, and I won't be around when she has her baby in May.
They were simple, cute little bibs made with cotton for the front and soft cotton flannel on the back. Since she is a big USC fan, I made a USC bib, and since she (and I) went to Biola, I also made a Biola bib.

USC Bib...



















Biola Bib...

For the Biola one, I used white muslin and stamps to make the "Biola" label, sewed on with a zigzag stitch.

And, they have little nifty snaps!