One Fish, Two Fish, Pink & Blue Starfish

I love bridal showers. They are a great excuse to get together with your best girlfriends and close family members and just spend time with each other. I will never forget the amazing cupcakes that Mrs. Wiggins made for my bridal shower, and I hope that Monica won't forget these! For Monica's shower, I made Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting. I topped with cupcakes with Tiffany blue and salmon pink white-chocolate starfish. Yum!

Congratulations Monica and Greg... I wish you guys a long and SWEET marriage! Thanks again to Lauren for trusting me with this opportunity. Here is a photo of the cupcakes ready to be picked up. Enjoy!

Perfect Pineapple Wedding Cake

There was a lot of love and do-it-yourself projects that went into our wedding day. We painted wooden table numbers, hand-sewed the ring pillow, made the veil, dug holes for the 10-ft bamboo poles around the dancefloor, and selected each song to be played by our cousin and brother-in-law on the guitar during our ceremony. The entire planning process itself is a wonderful memory.

One of my absolute favorite elements of the day was - of course - our cake. A few people asked me if I made it... and I probably just looked at them with one of those "are you crazy" kind of looks. We selected an island pineapple cake from Cakes by Carie in Eustis. It was simple, elegant and delicious.

My uncle Bill spent hours in his workshop making the special wooden box that our cake was displayed on. I now use the box for wedding keepsakes such as invitations, pressed flowers, etc. I know this sounds cheesy, but I hope my daughter will want to use this cake stand for her wedding one day.

Now, if only our one year anniversary would get here ASAP... I am having trouble staying away from the cake in our freezer!!

PB&Yay!

Alright, I know what you are thinking... what is it with me & peanut butter? Well... taste one of these cupcakes and you will find out!! I was testing recipes a few weeks ago and found this oh-my-goodness-rock-your-world recipe for Peanut Butter Cupcakes. So yummy!

I shared these cupcakes with my mother-in-law and she loved them just as much as I did!

He sure is a handy man...

This weekend, I was asked to make "Handy Manny" themed cupcakes and a cake for a little boy named Brock on his 4th birthday. For the party, I made Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla-Marshmallow Frosting. I topped the cupcakes with handmade fondant "tools," which were characters from the Handy Manny cartoon. So cute!

I also made a Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream frosting...

Here are the cakes ready to be picked up. I wasn't there to see his reaction when he first laid eyes on the cake... but I was so happy to get a phone call from Brock's mom later that day expressing how yummy everything was. Brock even got on the phone to say thank you!

Fight for the cure!

I am a firm believer that every little bit helps. I joined a Relay for Life team at work this year... and we raised almost $2,000 to help find a cure for cancer! To raise money, we had a bake sale (of course!), yard sale, and sold candy bars at the hospital for Doctor's Day.

For the evening of Relay, I made these Strawberry Cake Pops and Chocolate Cake Pops. They turned out really yummy... the strawberry was my favorite! Take a look...

MMMMM... the Strawberry pops were coated in crunchy white candy coating.

The chocolate cake pops were good too... covered in red candy coating.

Did you really make these?

About a week ago, we invited my mom and Mimi over for an evening of dinner and browsing through wedding pictures online. My Mimi is 84 and adores chocolate even more than I do... now that is a true love affair! She is always saying something funny and typically mentions Johnny Depp at least twice a day.

To prepare my house for Mimi's visit, I knew I needed CHOCOLATE. I decided to make these Homemade Peanut Butter Cups... and boy was she happy I did!


After she ate peanut butter cup # 1, she said to me, "Did you really make these?" After she ate peanut butter cup # 2, she told my mom "chocolate is healthy, Shannon." After she ate peanut butter cup # 3, she asked for a ziplock bag to pack a few for the road. Are you inspired? You should be... she still weighs 120 lbs! CRAZY!