Couture Cupcake Craziness

modeling a caramel apple cupcake - still smiling one order in.

I've been blog MIA for a few weeks now because (thankfully) the cupcake business got off to a great start!

First up was 5 dozen holiday cupcakes for my friend's annual Christmas shindig, plus a few to-go cupcakes for a friend moving back to Michigan.

After that was a few shipments around the States for friends and then the doozy: 7.5 dozen cupcakes for clients, courtesy of my boss (who has thrown support behind me from the get-go.)

Here are a few photos from the Christmas party - my menus, business cards and flavor flags are courtesy of Lila Designs. If you have stationary needs - Lindsey is your lady! She's also the blogger over at Wed Michigan; check it out if you haven't yet (her blog always makes me want to get married in Michigan.)

*All photos are courtesy of Lindsey (pictured below)Lindsey was dying to try the champagne cupcakeholiday sampler cupcake tower - I picked up the towers at Michael'smenu cards, designed by Lila Designsflavor flags designed by Lila Designs

After making about 200 cupcakes for the holidays (that's a lot for a one-lady shop!) I am closing shop until January. I'll be back with some new menu offerings for the spring, but for now I am going to enjoy some much-needed family time back in Texas.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

In a Flash

Life has been incredibly busy for the past two weeks, and my blog writing (and reading) has suffered immensely. But I owe it to my small handful of readers to update you on my life since so many of you are far, far away. Without further ado, my life story of the past two weeks:

Work:
I've been at Emerge for two weeks now, and they weren't kidding when they said I'd be diving in head first. I'm on three accounts right now, one of which is a brand new client, so I'm working late each night trying to wrap my head around what my clients do, what my roles and responsibilities are for each account, and still trying to meet the deadlines.

It's been exhilarating, to say the least! My mind hasn't been this challenged in a long while, and I'm so very thankful for the opportunities and trust my new colleagues have placed in me so early in the game to get things done. I also feel like I'm in a position now where my experience and career level gives me a certain amount of credibility to get the job done, and I'm being given the opportunities to prove that.

Everything about Emerge felt right from the first time I interviewed with them when I first got laid off, until I got the call from them 5 months later with an offer. My colleagues are brilliant, talented, and definitely live the motto of teamwork. It's a family there, right down to Tessie, the black lab who's frequented our office one day each of these past two weeks.

Marathon Training:
Marathon training has been going slower than I'd like, but my knees haven't felt so great. I'm taking steps to correct that, starting with getting properly fitted for my needs. I went to a running store on Friday and got fitted with shoes that fit like a glove. Apparently I over pronate when I run, and the balls of my feet land on the inside, so it's throwing my alignment out of whack. I got some shoes to curb that and I'm hoping that helps. I'm also taking a glucosamine/chondroitin complex. It's supposed to help regenerate cartilage and lubricate your joints, so hopefully these two steps will help make training a little easier.

Despite all this, I love getting up and running. It's such an accomplishment to see how much my body is progressing and changing and how my stamina is steadily increasing. I've decided that once I'm steadily running 5 miles, I'll join the local running club to really work on increasing strength and decreasing my mile time.

Cupcakes:
Last, but definitely not least, is my side passion of baking cupcakes. I baked 3 varieties of cupcakes last week, totaling 5 dozen cakes. Everything was made from scratch, from the batter to the icing. The Kitchen-Aid was in full effect! Here's what I made:

Strawberry-Lemon - A moist vanilla cake with fresh-sliced strawberries folded in, and topped with a light, lemon frosting.

Caramel-Apple - Delicious apple cake with a creamy caramel core, topped with cream cheese frosting.

S'mores - Scrumptious chocolate cake topped with marshmallow cream frosting and a graham cracker garnish.

The S'mores were the raging hit, as tasted by my colleagues and our MSU friends at Easter Brunch. The Caramel-Apple cupcake was a close second, followed by the strawberry lemon. I'm having trouble firming up the home made frostings, but I've got some ideas of different ingredients I can use to try to make that happen. I can't tell you how happy I was to spend a whole day baking away and making these delicious creations. And to have validation that I was on to something was just another level. I've got some ideas for about a dozen different new recipes and am planning to start another blog to document the cupcake side of my life.

So there you go. That's been my life for the past two weeks. It's been hectic, but it's been great. Stephen is still on the job hunt, but he remains optimistic. He's headed to North Carolina with some of his former colleagues next week, so I'll have some alone time (very nice!) and then we're headed to Puerto Vallarta the week after that. We're both looking forward to lapping up the waves and working on our tans (and I'm looking forward to running on the beach, something I've never done!)

Cupcakeista

Last week I coined the term cupcakeista for anyone who is passionate about all things cupcake. After baking the Baby Jesus Cake with Stephen's family at Christmas time, I've been giving a lot of serious consideration to exploring this passion and seeing where it leads me. I've often waxed poetic about how I would love to get into cake decoration as a side career and so I did some digging over the weekend and discovered the first thing I want to try:

The Margarita Cupcake

Thanks to Cupcake Project for posting this delicious recipe and the accompanying photo. After checking out this site and others, including I Heart Cuppycakes I've decided to start practicing my art and hopefully I'll be good enough to start testing my cupcakes and cake decorating out on my guinea pigs.*

*full disclosure: they have all volunteered with the exception of Stephen, but he never says no to anything I bake.