Sweet Treats for Secretaries!

 I love it when someone gives me a vague sort of idea or theme for a cupcake order and tells me to make whatever I want. It's a chance to get creative, try out new cake flavours and frostings, and of course to strut my cupcake stuff. So when I got a phone call from a lovely lady wanting to show her appreciation for her kid's school admin staff, I was pretty stoked. The brown-frosted cakes you see below are Vanilla Bean Chocolate Chip with Dark Chocolate Buttercream, and the pink are Lemon Raspberry Swirl. My favourite part of these decorations are the post-it notes (I have a bit of a thing for post-it notes as it is, but these are made of fondant!)...They're definitely a keeper for office-themed orders as they're the perfect template for writing messages!

no appointments? time for cupcakes!

office supplies!

A kid in my high school chemistry class stapled his hand once. True story.

The mouse cord suffered a little pre-photo, but still cute!

Post-it love

Sometimes I wish I was the one making those announcements:
"Students are reminded to adhere to the school dress code. 'Snooki' is not a look
and wife beaters are both tacky and incredibly ugly. You don't have
muscles yet, you're 13. Put some clothes on."

ring ring!

Late slips? pssh. Back in the day  I used to phone the school
pretending to be my mum and excuse myself from class.
Worked every time!

A tasty show of appreciation!

well duh.

Yes, I know this is out of proportion.

Not gonna lie, these are a huge pain to make.
So cute though!

click!

Vanilla Bean Chocolate Chip

Lemon Raspberry Swirl

Made With Love

This Valentine’s Day, I seriously considered making a sentimental cupcake post about love to go with all the romantic cupcake orders. Thirty seconds later I remembered that I’m really crap at being sentimental and that idea went straight out the window. Instead I was just going to stick a load of pictures up.

Since then though, a few things have happened that I really wanted to share. This is now a three-part post and I’m sorry in advance for the length!

Part One

My little sister arrived to pick up her special Valentines order yesterday afternoon- mini valentine cupcakes for her class at school. She’s ten years old, has a teenage attitude straight off the family channel that makes you want to strangle her, and is one of the most precious things I’ve had or will ever have in my life. I always know how much she means to me, but I sometimes forget that the feeling is mutual. Until I realize that out of all the people in her little world, she chooses to put her time and effort into making her Valentine’s card for me. It might just be a construction paper heart- but it’s got her best stickers on it and a painstakingly handwritten message inside and that’s all I need. My fridge is literally covered in ‘I Love You’ drawings of flowers and scarily disproportionate stick people with bellybuttons on their heads, but today, this little paper heart takes the cake.

Chocolate & Vanilla Valentine Minis :)

Part Two

Just in case rainbow sprinkle batter wasn't enough...
A rainbow sprinkle heart seemed necessary. Just so he'd know
what was inside, right?

A little later a friend came over to get help making a cake for her boyfriend for Valentine’s Day. Nothing fancy- vanilla cake with rainbow sprinkles and about a ton of vanilla frosting was the order of the day. As we set out to make the tackiest looking cake we could possibly create, this pretty quickly became my favourite baking project ever. It wasn’t about looking good, it wasn’t about impressing anyone with fancy piping or decorations…it was about the time and love she wanted to put into it and the end result was adorable. At the end of the day, the tackiest thing I’ve ever put out of my kitchen is also the best thing I’ve ever sent out, because it was lovingly made (using a seriously excessive amount of sprinkles.)

All together now: D'awwwwwwwww

What's better than a fondant heart? A tye-dye
heart with a face, duh.

Normally I'd rather die than use those toothpick paper
toppers....but I think they really tied the whole thing together here.

Part Three

As I’ve mentioned before, I work in a pub. It’s not the kind of place you’d expect to find a sentimental love story- mostly it’s full of alcohol and poor life choices. But everyone has a story, especially the old men drinking alone at the bar. One of our regulars found out about MeowCakes a few nights ago and immediately ordered a dozen Valentine’s cupcakes. “Make me your best ones, charge me whatever you like.” I was pleased, assumed his wife would be getting them to make up for him practically living at the bar and went about my business. Later that night, I found out that his wife has been dead for two years and he just wants to support my little project. It’s the same story with a few other regulars- one is a ninety-something guy who gets up at the crack of dawn every Sunday morning, visits his wife’s grave to tell her all about his week, and then waits outside for us to open so he can come have some lunch and a chat. Another was married to his wife for 65 years before she passed away- he pops in for a coffee and some company every single day. Even though he has the short-term memory of a goldfish, he can take you through every detail of his marriage beginning to end. I am one of the most jaded, cynical people you will ever meet- but the way this guy talks about his wife usually sends me running for the bathroom to have a little cry.  So that Valentine’s order is going to be as fantastic as I can make it, because in my own little way I’m making it for all three of those men and the women they still worship.

Red Velvet Valentine

The point of these three stories is that even though I am cynical and don’t usually like Valentine’s Day, this year I’m feeling pretty good about it. Because all of these stories, all these cupcake orders, all those kid’s drawings, all of them, were truly made with love. At the end of the day, who can complain about that?

That last Valentine order....check!

Chocolate Hazelnut

Red Velvet

Chocolate Hazelnut Rose

Valentine Order- top to bottom: Raspberry White Chocolate,
 White Chocolate Amaretto, Chocolate Hazelnut.

Red Velvets & Raspberry White Chocolate Roses!

White Chocolate Amaretto Valentines

Petal Dusted Rose

What it's all about.

                                                    

Happy Birthday Kelly!

Birthdays are the perfect excuse to get fancy as far as I'm concerned, and there's no reason home made cupcakes can't look better than a store-bought birthday treat. I love to surprise people with their birthday orders and give them something ten times better than they expected. I also like to theme the decorations to the person they're for--for example a girly soon-to-be-bride planning her tropical destination wedding! So plain old red velvets for a celebration? Not in my kitchen.

Working with fondant isn't really working at all...honestly, it's basically
adult play-doh and no one will yell at you for eating it! Win-win.

Criminal Minds on TV and a flower-making station on the coffee table!

Red Velvet Cupcakes, Cream Cheese Frosting & a little extra sparkle!

Hand-painted colours and petal dust make the perfect tropical toppers.

I was determined to fit the 'Happy B-Day' onto one cupcake... no matter
how much frosting it took!

Personalized birthday wishes for the birthday girl!

A little wonky, but they all fit! 

A tropical birthday cupcake garden :)

Meow Meow MeowCakes

I think, at the ripe old age of 21, that I've just accepted that I'm really quirky. Quirky is my way of making my countless idiosyncrasies and oddities sound endearing instead of weird, which is basically what they are. Lots of you have asked why my little cupcake project is called MeowCakes, wondering if I'm some crazy cat lady or if I'm baking kittens etc. The truth is I've never owned a cat and I don't even like them that much... I like big sloppy dogs that you can take for huge walks and that scare the crap out of the poor kids that deliver the paper or sell girl guide cookies. The name actually has nothing to do with cats at all, and everything to do with a little quirk my closest friends and I share. My project is called MeowCakes because at some point years ago, one of my best friends and I started randomly meowing at each other(think Super Troopers) and we never quite grew out of it. Unfortunately for all of our friends, it's highly contagious and very confusing for people that don't understand that meows are all part of our normal conversation, like grocery clerks and bosses. Almost six years later, it's a running joke with everyone that knows us and the only name I could come up with that was really, truly, me. (meow)

This tea towel from etsy essentially sums up my life.

The last week has been pretty interesting around here...and by interesting I mean the wrath of the Arctic has been dropped on top of Chilliwack and it's almost as cold here as New Brunswick. For those of you that don't know what that means, it means its really really reeeeeallly freaking cold here right now! It also means I've had lots of time to bake and try out my new stand mixer (yay!) because I'm a big baby who didn't buy a proper winter jacket and gets borderline hypothermic every time she goes outside. So until the Fraser Valley remembers that it's not supposed to be this cold, I'll continue to spend the majority of my time dancing around my kitchen while I bake things and forcing everyone I know to eat them so I don't weigh 600lbs by the time the snowpocalypse is over.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes: perfectly simple.

When asked what their mum would like on her birthday cupcakes,
the little boy and girl who placed this order knew that race cars
and butterflies were the only way to go!

Mini-Meow order from a boss for his employees!
Vanilla Bean, Chocolate Coffee Caramel, & Raspberry!

Holiday Catch-Up Round-Up!

The first week of January is always one of those weird twilight zone periods for me.  I don’t know if it’s just the feeling of new beginnings, or if it’s that after-holiday sadness as all the Christmas lights and decorations come down and everyone realizes how broke they are… either way, I’ve been keeping busy to avoid all that post-holiday melancholy and I’m a few batches behind on my blogging duties!


First off, I have a few small but exciting MeowCakes updates! After an extensive ‘pretty cardboard-vs-practical plastic’ box debate, I finally ordered some clear plastic cupcake boxes. Initially I thought the cardboard was a classier look, but after thinking about it I decided that keeping things fresh and being able to see the cakes were more important…and the mini meow boxes are the cutest little things I’ve ever seen. For a little extra, I got stickers printed with a logo and phone number to stick on each box, mostly because my little brother and sister insist on stickers for all things in life. Last but not least, MeowCakes now has its own official website! It’s still in the early stages at this point, but I’m super excited anyway so go check it out (and you may have noticed the blog revamp that goes along with it!)


Otherwise, this post is just to catch you up on all of my cupcake adventures over the last few hectic weeks!  Here’s what you’ll see today:


(1) Some cute little reindeer cakes made an adorable Christmas present for some adorable kiddies!
(2) One of my favourite fondant orders so far, Hello Kitty Cupcakes for a lucky lady’s birthday.
(3) Something new, Crème Brulee Cupcakes! These cakes were flavoured with vanilla custard, topped with a brown sugar Swiss meringue buttercream, and sprinkled with shards of caramelized sugar.
(4) The last of summer cherry preserves turned into Cherry Toasted Almond Cupcakes! (I’ll use any excuse to buy maraschino cherries so I can eat them out of the jar, it’s a problem)
(5) Key Lime Brownie Cupcakes to try out a new chocolate recipe…it’s a little too heavy for me, but sweet-tart key lime frosting = great success!
(6) Last but definitely not least, S’Mores Cupcakes! These are honey graham cakes with dark chocolate flakes, topped with marshmallow buttercream and more chocolate shavings.

Cake Turds & Other Misadventures

We've all had those days, you know the ones. The ones where you wake up thinking it's a normal day but within ten minutes its painfully apparent that nothing is going to go right for the next 24 hours. On these days, the best thing to do is get it over with quickly and go to sleep again so you can start fresh the next day. In my case, I had so much to do that there was even more opportunity for the universe to make things go wrong. After sleeping through my alarm, losing a stack of papers I needed to study for a final, and getting called in for a closing shift at the bar the night before my last exam, I thought cupcakes would be a good way to let off steam. Can't go wrong with something I can do in my sleep, right? WRONG. 

I know my day is going really badly if I can't even bake properly... I started off intending to make chocolate hazelnut cupcakes, and after getting everything ready realized I didn't have enough butter for the icing. Strike one. Then after putting the batter together, I realized I had approximately four cupcake liners left. Strike two. After going out to get these things, coming back and geting them in the oven, I realized that I hadn't been paying attention and had added baking powder to my dry ingredients... twice. Strike three, you're out. For those of you who don't bake, adding too much baking powder basically means my lovely little chocolate cakes exploded in the oven and then caved in on themselves. By the time they were cooked, they looked like sad little crispy volcanoes and I was about ready to stick my head in the oven with them. 

Not wanting to waste all that cake, which actually tasted phenomenal, I decided to try something I've never done before- cake balls. If you've ever seen them, they're adorable little balls of cake and frosting, usually covered in chocolate candy coating. If you look up how to make them, it looks like a childrens activity- Step 1) Bake cake and crumble it. Step 2) Mix in frosting. Step 3) Shape into balls & freeze. Step 4) Coat in chocolate and present amazing little treats to people who will ooh and ahh at the sheer cuteness of what you've made. I managed to stay on track until Step 4...and I think it's safe to say cake balls are really not my thing. I managed to get one or two passable-looking balls out of the entire batch, and the rest can only be described as cake turds. So here's my prettiest one (that's right, one , out of about thirty):

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Cake with Nutella Buttercream, dipped in Milk Chocolate

All I Want for Christmas is a Stand Mixer… and my sanity back.

As I’ve said before, I love December. I spend the whole second half of November looking forward to it, and then it hits and I suddenly remember that December is the month I spend frantically cramming an entire semester’s worth of information into my head. This semester is even worse than years past, because this year I’ve been finishing my courses online and have no real deadlines. Naturally, that means I’ve done absolutely no school work since September. Since my ultimate deadline is December 24^th, I have written six papers in the last eight days and still have four more to go. As a result, I’ve stopped being human and become this weird spaced-out creature who drinks whipped cream vodka in coffee (its rank, I don’t recommend it) and then drunkenly buys shoes online at 3am after filling a governance paper with Jersey Shore references. The only thing keeping me remotely sane right now is taking study breaks to fill cupcake orders, so I thought I’d share those little adventures with you before I hit the books again.

Candy Cane Love

My kitchen basically looks like Christmas threw up on it at the moment- there are cupcakes everywhere and they’re all holiday flavours. I’d like to say I just whipped them up effortlessly, but to be completely honest it couldn’t have been more of a disaster. After dropping a bag of icing sugar on the floor and running out of mini cases half way through, my trusty superstore hand mixer finally took its last breath and completely crapped out. A few exam-stress tears and a shopping trip later, all’s right with the world again and things are back on track.  Mini Holiday Cupcakes = great success, and hopefully a hit at the staff party they're heading to!

White Chocolate Mint Cake with Peppermint Buttercream

Mini Meows!

White Chocolate Eggnog

Caramel Buttered Rum

Sparkling Red Velvet

All ready to go!