{WISHLIST WEDNESDAY} : Cupcakes & Clean Eating

 

I find it funny that our society, or at least consumers, are seemingly obsessed with things that contradict each other. Unless you live under a rock, you've probably noticed that health and fitness has become an obsession of instagrammers everywhere, and that the amount of selfies taken at gyms across North America has multiplied by about six thousand percent (figures are estimated) over the last couple of years. At the same time as this, the 'handheld dessert' industry has skyrocketed, with cupcake shops, donut shops, and now apparently "cronut" shops (croissant donuts, srsly), popping up everywhere, and doing damn good business to boot. Starbucks is celebrating the imaginary anniversary of a chemically-flavoured beverage this winter, and my newsfeeds are full of people frantically hashtagging "#cleaneating" on one picture and then "Yum #PSL Frappuccino" in the next. It seems that, as consumers, we love being sold extremes: extreme health, extreme indulgence, extreme beauty. And this is where it changes for me: I don't like extremes.

 AT LEAST twice a week, I get asked some variation of "how do you not weigh 300lbs?" People, women in particular, are fascinated to know how I can spend the majority of my time creating things made from the terrible trio- Butter(gasp), white sugar(sob), and wonderful gluten-rich white flour (OH the horror!) and not look like a rhinoceros wearing an apron. This always makes me wonder what people think I do while I'm making cupcake orders ("one for you, two for me" *chompchompchomp*) But seriously, my only honest answer is that I just don't stress about it. Outside of Little Bow Sweets, I try to take good care of myself- I meal plan, try not to eat "bad carbs", have the best intentions to exercise at least twice as much as I actually do...pretty standard stuff these days I think. But if I want to eat a cupcake, it's not a big deal. If I don't make it to drag myself up and down 200 steps a few times, its not a big deal. I don't feel the need to be extreme about my health- I just want to feel good and not get sick. I'm far from thin, but I'm the healthiest I've ever been and I'm also spending more time creating sweets than I ever have before. These two apparently contradictory things, to me, just showcase the actual "secret" to happy healthy people: balance. When we're all old and saggy, we're not going to be proud of ourselves for all the cake we didn't eat. So go do some exercise that you enjoy, eat your vegetables, and if you want a cupcake then eat a damn cupcake.

{THE WEEKENDER} BEE-DO BEE-DO

This weekend, I branched out from my little vintage round birthday cakes and took on an adorable challenge: a minion cake! Despicable Me is one of my favourite kids' movies...and I really, really like kids movies. (Sorry, not sorry) I wanted my minion cake to convey all the things that everyone loves about the minion characters: they're impulsive, playful, and full of childlike glee. That sounds like the perfect combination of things for an 8th birthday! Anyway, after battling with some really questionable pre-coloured fondant which led to a few tears and some pretty handy patchwork, I think he turned out pretty well for a first attempt! I've called him Jerry.

{WISH LIST WEDNESDAY: The Tale of the Whale (That Was Really A Snail)

This Wednesday, my wish is to be less blonde. And by that I mean less of complete idiot 90% of the time. I am an intelligent person, as far as people go....but at least once a day I have what I refer to as "facepalm" moments, where all I can do is shake my head at myself and seriously wonder how I manage to dress myself in the morning.

This week I bought some fantastic cookie/pastry cutters from Ikea, and I've been itching to use them because I'm cool like that. Since I like to keep Little Bow Sweets updates coming pretty consistently, I snapped a picture of my slightly confusing new cutters for Instagram.

Almost immediately, Faye from Bake Me Happy SF (@bakemehappysf) pointed out the blindingly obvious fact that the object of my confusion was a snail...and not a whale. Just...cringe. I still don't think a snail matches all the other cutters, but ANYWAY. I made cookies, they are delicious, and some of them are shaped like animals of questionable identity.

These are my favourite little bears. At Christmas they'll make perfect polar bears!

Most. Breakable. Cookie. Ever. ARGH.

My sister thought this one was a dinosaur, so I'm going to blame genetics for our animal identification issues.

I realize that there's a finger in this photo, but it's too nice to crop :)

SEE.

{THE WEEKENDER} New Goodies!

For a while now I've been putting some thought into expanding the Little Bow product line. I personally think there is no occasion that couldn't be improved with a little cake, a lot of cake, or a lot of little cakes...but different strokes for different folks, and different treats for different days! So on that note, I'm super excited to introduce the newest Little Bow Sweets: Custom sugar cookies and 'designer' popcorn!

Left to Right: Chocolate Peanut Butter Popcorn, Vanilla-Raspberry Sugar Cookies, Birthday Cake Popcorn

{THROWBACK THURSDAY} Ruffle Me Up!

This Throwback Thursday, I'm featuring the most popular "wish" I encounter lately.... Ruffles! Not only are these sweet designs on-trend, there are so many variations in style that they can take you all the way from shabby chic to haute couture cake art. Even though they're time consuming, I love love love the results....so keep ruffling, brides, birthday girls, and everyone else!

Almond Raspberry Ruffle Cake from earlier this Spring

Photo Credit: Hillary Smith Photography

Double Chocolate Cake wrapped in seafoam shabby chic ruffles!

Last Thanksgiving: Butter Pecan Dulce De Leche Cake with Loose Vanilla Buttercream Ruffles

Almond Raspberry  Mini Ruffles

{THE WEEKENDER} Fabulous Florals

Hey Sweet Things, just thought I'd brighten up my Monday by sharing some shots of this weekend's flowery goodies! There's something timeless and elegant about buttercream flowers... they're almost too pretty to eat! Luckily I think everyone managed to power through and enjoy the yumminess...til next time! xo

{THROWBACK THURSDAY}: Time Flies When You're Making Cake

There's a lot of downsides to being the first-born. For example, your parents generally have no idea what they're doing the first go round and just wing it. They find their parenting style by trying them all out on you and hoping for the best...seriously, ask any parent. If you are child number one, you are the product of trial and error- and look how well you turned out! On the flip side, my favourite part of being the first-born is watching all my siblings grow up. I'm the oldest of five, with big gaps in between us, so I've been old enough to really experience all the fun and headaches as my brothers and sister have grown up. This week, "the middle ones" had their birthdays. These two are the closest in age out of all of us and their birthdays fall just three days apart. Naturally they've spent their whole lives fighting like cat and dog, but like all of us, I know they would do anything for each other (as long as it doesn't involve sharing!) This year I let them both pick whatever they wanted for their birthday cakes, and I actually think their choices reflect their personalities perfectly. On the one hand, we have a completely outrageous, massive, triple decker chocolate caramel crunch cake. On the other, a petite and chic lemon raspberry fondant number. They couldn't have gone in more opposite directions, which pretty much sums up the pair of them!

Triple Decker Chocolate Caramel Crunch Cake: Chocolate cake, salty-sweet caramel buttercream,
sponge toffee pieces, and caramel drizzle....can you say O.M.G.

I think it's been statistically proven that there is no creature on earth more irritating than a 13/14 year old boy...
but look how cute he used to be! He was pretty much as excited about this cake as he was about that light saber.

 

VSCO Cam is my new favourite app, can you tell?

On the other end of the scale, we have this on-trend, ombre chevron mini cake with glitter hearts!

This little girl and I have been unbelievably attached since she was born, even when I was away at school.
 Two girls in a sea of boys need to stick together!