beautydetermined

Susan Heuser, who holds a very special moment in my life… introduced me to the Mitsch Family in March 2001.  She was their current nanny and ready to graduate that May.  Susan was one of Tyler’s neighbors when we first started dating and we always had the best conversations!  One afternoon she had mentioned something about helping this family find a replacement nanny for the summer and my ears perked.

Cute kids, awesome family, stylish Mom, and sports fanatic Dad… sounded great to me!  I had also really wanted to stay in Raleigh over the summer, so I could make a little money and spend time with my new beau, Tyler.  Good plan, right?  I married that hot 19 year old soccer player and that awesome Mitsch family IS my family now.  

So, I was super excited when Susan recently ordered cupcakes for her friend’s 40th Birthday!  They had plans for a limo to take them around town while they enjoyed adult beverages and went bar-hopping.  I thought that Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Jameson Ganache Filling and Bailey’s Buttercream Frosting was a PERFECT match to their evening.  Susan also wanted a basic combination, so I whipped up a batch of Vanilla Cupcakes and topped them with a Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.  Yum!

I topped them with little 40s and sent them on their way to be devoured all night long!

Sorry for the fuggly pictures, but the 40s looked awesome!  I think next time I’ll add a little grass and flowers to the pseudo-gravestones to make them a little more festive.  

Thank you again Susan for thinking about me for your friend’s special birthday.  So great to see you!  I’ll always be very grateful for that day when we talked about how you were looking for a nanny for the Mitsch family.  

xoxo

Well, cupcakes for Mama at least! Kristy D, one of my bosom buddies ordered cupcakes for her friend Jenn, who just had sweet baby Joshua.  

Kristy had plans to visit Jenn in Greenville a few weekends ago and thought it would be  a nice surprise to bring her celebration cupcakes! 

I had a mix of cupcakes ready for Kristy when I met her in Wilson that morning. She was on her way to Greenville and we were heading to Tyler’s parents’ house for Bryson’s birthday and Mother’s Day… so the Target parking lot was a perfect meeting place. 

Ohh, Wilson.  At least you have a Target now.  :)

Cookies and Cream with Marshmallow Filling and Cookies and Cream Frosting, Chocolate Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting, and a few with a Fresh Strawberry Buttercream all for the Jenkins’ family!

The monkey made a return and so did my favorite fancy monogram topper designs.

EKK!

Complete with Little Js for Joshua!

Thank you Kristy for being a great friend and awesome cupcake empire supporter! Congratulations Jenn on the sweet baby boy!  He is precious!

P.S. I “borrowed” these 2 pictures from Jenn’s Facebook page.  Don’t you think I should hire her as a professional photographer??

XOXO

For some reason this picture reminds me of the Witch’s Army in Wizard of Oz… “OEO” “OHHHH-O”… the monkeys are coming.  The monkeys are coming!

Have I told you lately how much I LOVE these monkeys?! 

Some of these cupcakes were for Kristy’s friend, Jennifer to celebrate the arrival of their baby boy Joshua, but the others were to share with Tyler’s family for Bryson’s 1st Birthday and Mother’s Day!

Smash cake, you say? Well, you know Aunt Emily comes with sugary butter love!

We had a wonderful afternoon with the family as Bryson opened his presents from Grandma, Mama Penny, her friend Nicole, Barb and Bill, and Uncle Tyler and Aunt Emily. We spent several hours relaxing on the back porch, while Tyler and his dad worked in the garage on the 7-tier round cupcake stand for an upcoming wedding that I had booked.

The ladies played with Bryson and helped him open presents… smash eat cake… play with his sister, Savannah and try to walk.

Precious!  Watching him open gifts was absolutely adorable…. and of course, my thoughtful Mom Dean had made sure to buy little party hats and horn blowers for Bryson and Savannah.

Ohhhh, here we go! Let the fun begin! It’s 1 year old cake time!

Hmm, that’s pretty tasty…

Let me try that again.

Deliciousness.  Aunt Emily has skills.

Someone got a little sleepy and rubbed his eyes. What a hot birthday mess!

All done Mom! Get me out of here!

Now that’s a Happy Baby!  One last smile before his cakey meltdown.

Since I’ve witnessed SMASH cakes before, I knew that I would need some extra cupcakes for the family, so there was plenty of CLEAN FRESH cake for everyone.  

Happy Happy Birthday Bryson! We loved being able to spend the day with you as always. We love you very much. Keep that Dean smile forever. xoxo

I’m not even sure how to start writing about Beans. I know I’m not ready, but I miss her dearly. She was my little buddy. Our sidekick for life. I knew that I would never be ready for this day, but I wasn’t prepared for the pain. Besides sorrow and loss, Tyler and I have gone through so many different emotional thoughts of denial, guilt, anger and of course depression.  

When I came home this evening, I was missing those little blue eyes and thought that it would help to remember all of our good times together… she was the most amazing loyal best friend that anyone could ever have and l couldn’t stop thinking about her.

She knew when I had a bad day. She knew when I was baking cupcakes. She knew when to protect me. She knew how to make me smile. She knew how she could steal chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting off the chair in a split second. She knew how to unconditionally love us. She brought Tyler and I together as a family and will forever be in our hearts and memories.  

Beans passed away suddenly on Thursday morning from Bloat while we were vacationing in the Outer Banks. Apparently, Bloat which I had never heard of until now… is the 2nd leading cause of death in dogs behind cancer… deep-chested breeds, Great Danes/Boxers, and older dogs are at risk.  

Beans has always had issues with digestion, gas, bloated tummies, etc, and for years we’ve spend more money on the dogs’ food than ours. We refused to feed her handouts and always made sure she wasn’t gorging herself on Poor Little Rosco’s food.    

Thursday morning was absolutely awful. Our world stopped and our hearts burned. We weren’t ready to say good-bye. We needed her. Rosco needed her.

I needed her.  

I’m not able to write about those morning details just yet… as we and the vet did everything in our power to save her, but wanted to remember the good times this evening.  

I miss her soft ears… sweet face… smooth chest… her comfort and presence… and will remain in denial for a while that she’s not here. 

Thank you to our family and friends that have been there for us the past few days. We have really needed you to lean on for additional support and extra love. Beans was a huge part of our lives and she will be forever missed.

Goodnight my little Beansie Baby, see you in our dreams… We love you.  

xoxo

Happy Birthday Sweet Lucy!  

Jaime Martini’s friend, Stephanie ordered a cake and cupcakes from me a couple of weekends ago for her daughter’s birthday party.  She was planning on a Candyland/Lollipop theme with fuchsia and teal colors.  Super cute idea!

Candyland was one of my favorite games as a child and I love a fuschia/teal combo, so I was thrilled to start on this project!  I couldn’t wait to create lollipops and design the rest of the toppers.  Something completely different!

The color fuchsia has always been a color that draws me in.  If I could paint the house that color, I probably would… AND this is exactly why Cary NC has lots of town rules in place… to protect my neighbors from crazy painters like me. 

Also, through www.ancestry.com and my other relatives research, we found that we were related to Leonhart Fuchs, a 16th Century Founding Father of Botany who was named after the Fuchsia species in the early 1700s when discovered by a French scientist, Charles Plumier.  My Grandmother Jesserer is of the Fuchs family!  I always knew there was a reason why I loved fuchsia and magenta colors.  

So, let’s check out these cupcakes and then I’ll stop distracting you from the end of this crazy baking day……

Yay, for upright lollipops!  I whipped up a batch of royal icing and “glued” lollipop sticks to the backs of the braided spirals.  I was worried that we may have a casualty in transportation, so I even sent Stephanie with an extra lollipop just in case.

Stephanie requested Cookies and Cream cupcakes with Marshmallow filling topped with a Cookies and Cream Buttercream Frosting… and Fresh Strawberry cupcakes with a Strawberry Buttercream Frosting!  

Good thing Tyler picked up a flat of yummy strawberries from the NC Farmer’s Market that week.  These babies smelled glorious!

I loved the light pink strawberry buttercream with the toppers!  Since, I use a fresh strawberry puree in the frosting the cupcakes have a natural pink color to them.  You can even see little bits of fresh strawberry!  Perfect for a little girl’s birthday party!

And, what’s a Candyland theme party without ICE CREAM cones with SPRINKLES!?

Super easy to make!  I used a pairing knife to cut out little cones, hatched them, then used a flower cutter for the top.  I added little edible pearls for the ice cream part to look like sprinkles.  Too cute!

All together now!

Oooo, and what about that special separate cake for Lucy?  Stephanie wanted to make sure that she had her own little strawberry cake just for her. 

Here she is!  Complete with Candyland steps, lollipops, and adorable piping along the bottom.

Now, here comes the “slice of humble pie”…

Let’s look at Lucy’s cake again…

Do you see that “2” lollipop on top of her cake?

That was supposed to be a “3”.  

And the 6 cupcakes with “2”s on them that you saw earlier?

Hard to breathe Hard to breathe Hard to breathe.  Dying.    

That night as the evening died down, I was stalking people out on Facebook and noticed that one of Stephanie’s friends had posted several festive pictures from Lucy’s party.  My first thought as I was loving on the pictures of sweet Lucy blowing out the candles on her cake, was…

“Wow, Lucy looks older than 2”

My heart stopped beating.  I frantically read through my messages with Stephanie and immediately realized my mistake… there is was…

She was turning 3.  I died inside.  The party started at 2pm and Lucy was turning 3.  How could I mix those up?  I burst into a huge ball of crocodile tears and immediately sent Stephanie an apology message.  I was mortified.  I had to make this up to her!  How could I do this?  

Stephanie is one of the most compassionate people that I’ve ever met.  She wrote back the most gracious and loving message.  She said mistakes happen and that she was a very satisfied customer.  I had a terrible time sleeping that night as I re-played the day in my head over and over again, however was comforted that we are surrounded by amazing people that we’re lucky to have in our lives.  Stephanie, thank you for being such a kind woman… I will be forever grateful for you.

I’ll never forget that day.  What a hard life lesson to experience, but I am determined to learn from my mistake.

Love to you all.

xoxo

30 is on the way folks!  I have about 3 months to accomplish so many things that I had envisioned for myself when I was even more naive than I am now.  I’ve definitely overloaded on my gummy B-complexes and lack of sleep to check off as many “to-do”s as possible until then.  Better late than never, right?

The cool thing is that I get to celebrate 30th birthdays with lots of special family and friends in my life BEFORE my birthday this year!

Yay for having a birthday in August and being one of the youngest in my groups of friends.  

I was super excited when Julie Maye emailed me about cupcakes for her husband David’s 30th Birthday party.  David’s favorite flavor combo is Cookies and Cream… he loves Subaru STIs (white ones by the way)… and plays the drums…

Hmmmm, what would that look like all together?

Like that!  Little Subaru STI cars with a windshield and spoiler… complete with a Subaru STI emblem on the front.  Drums with sticks and all!

Check out the cars from the sides!  Super cute!  I think Tyler even ekkk-ed this time!

And last, but not least… the topper of them all, the Subaru logo!  

Drum roll please!

Boom.  

Thanks Julie for thinking about me for such a special occasion. Happy Happy Birthday to David!  I hope he loved those little STI cars.  I really wanted to eat one, but I figured that his cupcakes wouldn’t have been evenly matched.  They just looked so tasty!  

Hope you had a wonderful day with family and friends… I hear 30 is an awesome year! I can’t wait!

XOXO 

What a wonderful few days of celebrating the birthday of my awesome Mother-in-law, Mom Dean!  

We spent the afternoon in Wilson with the family and were able to even have some time with our ridiculously cute, nephew Bryson who was trying out his new bike carrier…

… TELL me this baby doesn’t look like Tyler!  Precious… and of course, you know what I brought as part of Mom’s birthday gift…

… A lovely mixed cupcake dozen!  Nothing says a birthday like a little cake.  

As our main present to Mom Dean turning the BIG 60, we surprised her with an evening stay in a King Suite at the Umstead Hotel accompanied by her special sidekick and handsome beau, Tyler’s Dad.  

We treated her to an awesome dinner at Herons and even set-up a Swedish massage at the Umstead’s Spa for the morning after.  We really wanted her to have a day off!  She does so much for the family and really deserved and needed a few hours for JUST HER.

A happy and satisfied family… full of amazing appetizers, food combos, wines, and desserts!

Happy Birthday Mom Dean!  We love you very much.  Thank you for your patience, grace, selfless acts of kindness, love, support, homemade cards and photo albums :), and everything single thing you do to make our family complete.  

XOXO

Looks a little like this…

Yumminess… that usually starts around 3am!  Ouch!

Sometimes a little later if I’m lucky.  I’m still baking the morning of the event to ensure the greatest quality baked good.  I want my cakes and cupcakes fresh, moist, and smelling AMAZING.  

I’ll continue to bake the “day of” as best as I can until I can’t humanly wake up earlier or legitimately don’t have enough hours in a Saturday to get cupcakes finished. 

I want fluffy frosting and soft, moist cake!  Plus, folks always have a few cupcakes left over and I want them to have an extra day of freshness.  The only things I’ll make in advance are the fillers and marshmallow fondant toppers.  Fillers store great as long as they are sealed and keep in the fridge and if sealed carefully, marshmallow fondant toppers can last for weeks!  Just don’t put those in the fridge, because condensation will leave watermarks on your toppers.

Jaime Martini’s sister just celebrated her engagement the other weekend.  The happy couple had a color-theme of bright pink and a summery orange.  Jaime needed flowers and “E”s!  

I made little mini roses out of rolled fondant for the chocolate with dark chocolate frosting cupcakes…

Piped pretty, bright pink “E”s on the vanilla and vanilla cupcakes…

You know I love these “E”s.  My favorite letter besides “M”.  I added a little flower or two to each cupcake which really soften the “E”s and brought everything together.  

Super cute!  I don’t have a chance to pipe very often, but LOVE it when I have an order that needs it.  

Piping is so much fun!

And, I couldn’t have forgotten a few sweet “e” monogram toppers in pink…

… and orange for the fresh strawberry puree cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting!  You can’t really tell in these pictures, but the bottom piece was also embossed in a flowery pattern just to emphasis Jaime’s party theme.

Ekk, more flowers!  Not only are there little flowers on top of the cupcakes below, but the piped frosting also looks like big flowers.  Jaime also wanted a new flavor combination!  I recommended a dozen of my Guinness chocolate cupcakes with Jameson ganache filling and Bailey’s buttercream.  

Perfectly fitting since I met Jaime through our mutual fabulous friend, Heather who works for Southern Wine and Spirits and who attended Jaime’s sister’s engagement party as well.

I decided to add a few more roses here and there.  I wanted the cupcakes to look like ever-growing gardens… and alive.

So sweet!  Jaime, I’m super happy for your sister and family.  Weddings are so much fun and you guys must be thrilled.  Thank you again for inviting me to be a part of your special day… as always!  You’re the best!

XOXO 

Most of you that have known me for years have a pretty good understanding of my outward personality.  I also have a hidden-hippie side AND a nerdy side.  Sometimes they come out from time to time, but only if you’re lucky.

I love art and all types of music.  Tyler and I attend every concert (indoor/outdoor/small/big) as often as we possibly can.  I draw and paint.  I love Phish.  I love tie-dyed shirts, dresses, and onsies.  I love dirty dirty dirty hippie hair on myself.  

Can’t get those curls to look like that with product!  

I’m obsessed with Star Trek.  Not to the point where I have 100 replicas of Captain James Kirk, but enough to where I still practice the Vulcan salute and ask Scotty to beam me up on bad days.  I love Star Wars and besides Art, my favorite subject in school was Math.  Coming from two English major parents, I’m not sure if this ever made sense, but I love numbers and probably why I love sales reports.  I am also infatuated with comic books, graphic novels, and the movies inspired by these stories.

I had a huge collection of Archie, Wonder Woman, Batman, Spiderman, Hulk… whatever, I had it growing up.  My siblings also read lots of them and believe it or not, we actually shared each others’ comic books without having to steal them or rip them a part.

So, when my two co-workers Amy and David asked for Batman and Spiderman cupcakes for their son, Noah’s 4th Birthday.  I jumped all over it!

Just a sneak peek of Spiddy!

And, the Dark Crusader!

Spiderman!  Boom.

Batman!  Boom.

What’s a Spiderman topper to do without a little blue frosting to bring out his colors?  Or a little dark chocolate buttercream to bring out Batman’s Bat-Signal of distress?

Amy and David requested Cookies and Cream with marshmallow filling topped with a Cookies and Cream frosting, Vanilla cupcakes with a Dark Chocolate frosting, Vanilla cupcakes with Chocolate frosting, and Chocolate cupcakes with Almond/Vanilla buttercream and then some with Dark Chocolate buttercream.  Perfect for a party full of adults and kids!

Little “4”s just for Mister Noah!

Happy Birthday Noah!  Hope you had a wonderful day celebrating with Mom, Dad, and your family and friends.  Keep loving comics and enjoying the stories… you’ll never forget them!

Now, who wants some hippie cupcakes?  Tie-dye anyone?

XOXO

These are cupcakes without gluten my friends.  Yes!  They can look amazing and taste delicious too!  My gluten-free Mom better watch out.

I was terrified to take on this project for our friends Todd and Katie, who needed cupcakes for a friend who just had twins.  A little boy and girl!  

Todd called asking about gluten-free cupcakes for their friend’s shower and I explained that I’d love to make them, I just can’t technically call them gluten-free.  I use wheat in my baking area!

Todd said that as long as the ingredients were gluten-free, I would be just fine.  Just to cover my bases and take it an extra step… I also bought new measuring cups, measuring spoons, pastry tips, mixing bowls, spatulas, and mixers just to ensure that they were as gluten-free as possible.  

Let’s talk about shopping for the recipes.  I had such a tough time finding all of my ingredients.  Luckily enough, Walmart and Earth Fare had the most ingredients that I needed.  Whole Foods only had the King Arthur Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour that I actually found at Earth Fare for a little cheaper.  Score Tyler!  Score!  

Surprised about Walmart?  Yeah, me too!  They had a HUGE selection of gluten-free baking ingredients and products.  At midnight the Friday before I needed to bake, I was very thankful that Walmart saved the day.

Onto baking!  Todd and Katie wanted chocolate and vanilla cupcakes mixed and matched with different buttercreams topped with Winnie the Pooh theme toppers.

I baked a dark chocolate cupcake and topped half of them with an almond/vanilla buttercream frosting and the other half with a dark cocoa buttercream frosting… then took an extra few chocolate and chocolate cupcakes filled them with a marshmallow filling and decorated the tops with a drizzle of marshmallow yumminess.

The rest of the cupcakes had a vanilla cake base with vanilla frosting and then some with a dark cocoa buttercream frosting.

Side note, you have to use the best unsweetened cocoa to make sure there isn’t gluten.  I was also sure to carefully read every label and research every product I was using in my recipes.  An extremely long process, but what a great learning experience for me!

Now for the toppers!

Just wait… my favorite toppers to date!

<insert squeal here>  LITTLE BEES!  Do you see those wings?!

And a HUNNY (honey) pot!  Where is Pooh Bear?

And you can’t forget Piglet!  We needed a little pink in there.

Thank you again Katie and Todd for thinking about me when ordering cupcakes.  I’m so glad they were such a success!  I didn’t even know that Todd actually knew where the exclamation point WAS on his phone… until I received this text:

“Home run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Thank you sooooooooooo much!!!!!!!”

Followed by this sweet text from Katie:  ”Your cupcakes are amazing and a huge hit!”

Yay, little did they know that I was on the edge of my seat that whole afternoon waiting for feedback.  It took every little bone in my body to NOT text them to find out what everyone thought.  I had eaten a chocolate cupcake for breakfast that morning and LOVED them, but I was really looking for feedback from their gluten-free friends.  Todd’s text was clutch!

Todd and Katie, hope your friends had a very special day.  Many hugs and kisses to their little ones.  I can’t wait to hear when they come home to Mom and Dad.

XOXO

Dozens of cupcakes for hungry Delta Zeta - Charlotte sorority girls the weekend of April 20th! Lea, my youngest sister requested basic flavor combos; vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream, vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, chocolate cake with vanilla/almond frosting, cookies and cream with a marshmallow filling topped with a cookies and cream frosting, and red velvet for her DZ event.  150 cupcakes in total!  

Pink and Green are their colors… can you tell? 

Yes, yes… I know.  I told you this was one of my favorite topper designs right now.  You’ll see more designs soon… I just LOVE this one though!  

A little vanilla buttercream dyed light green!  Love it.

Yum yum yum!  I was EXHAUSTED after this baking event.  What a huge day full of tons of orders.  I was definitely very thankful to have my favorite new personal assistant, Lea… 

Don’t worry, Tyler’s okay with it.  Lea was the best ever.  She was the personal assistant and employee you hope for in any professional setting.  She was eager for new projects, things to create, or anything for that matter.  She just kept asking “what else?” “how can I do this?” “let me do that”… and I only had to show her ONCE. 

ONCE.

Something tells me, I need to grab her before some other company does… and I’ll actually pay her.  

Sorry Tyler.  You get free smooches.  That’s WAY better.

And, what do Delta Zeta cupcake fiend lovers look like after eating a scrumptious cupcake baked and decorated by myself and my trusty future awesome personal assistant?

And, no… alcohol was not part of this event.

Not at all.

XOXO