Savory & Sweet Cupcake Inspiration

I absolutely LOVE salads and one in particular that I have had many versions of but I must admit Mimi's makes the best of is a Strawberry, blue cheese, walnut & balsamic vinegar salad!

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While creating yesterday's Tuesday Treat: Maple Bacon Cupcakes I began to think of other savory and sweet dishes that I could create into cupcakes and that salad was the first thing that popped into my head! I am really excited (and a little nervous) at the same to to create this amazing cupcake! I want it to taste just like the salad so I am planning on making a strawberry cupcake (real strawberries of course) and then topping it with a blue cheese frosting and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar along with a sprinkle of walnuts! In my mind is sounds amazing but we wont find out until next Tuesday :)

Greeting Cards

Recently I received The Cupcake Bible from my sister-in-law and today she gave me Bakerella's Cake Pop's book, which I am so excited about! I wanted to give her a thank you card but unfortunately I did not have one on hand and I did not want to go out and purchase one because very few times do I go shopping and actually come home with only one item. I then realized that I had so much scrapbooking paper from my cupcake toppers that I decided to try my hand at a thank you card. I decided to use the colors orange & blue because I think she is going to be using them for my nephews 2nd Birthday party next month and I thought maybe it would be a great way to advertise how crafty I can be! We will see what she says about it tomorrow, but until then, I think it turned out pretty darn good. Here is a couple pictures of it....

Maybe I will begin creating and selling these too along with my cupcake toppers on my soon to be Esty shop!

July 4th!

Every year for the last couple of years my husband and I have met most of my family on Main St. in Huntington Beach for their famous 4th of July Parade! This year is no exception. Last year I brought a dessert to the party and I was so proud of it.....

 Plain old cake with a surprise inside...

 an American flag!

Turned out pretty good!

I found this cake on a blog but since it was a year ago I completely forgot which one! This year I would like to do another dessert but I am still debating which ones. I recently began following this very talented woman who runs a website called TheTomKatStudio. She finds amazing things around the Internet along with creating her own amazing products as well. I would love to be the OC version of her and some day I hope too! Anyways she has some very cute ideas on her website like this one.....

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These adorable cupcakes are mimicking the old school red, white and blue Popsicle you get from the ice cream truck. The recipe to make them is also suppose to taste just like the Popsicle as well. I am not too sure if I will follow the recipe or if I will just make vanilla cupcakes with colored cream cheese frosting, but I definitely think I want to make these for the party!

I am really looking forward to the 4th this year and celebrating Independence in style!

Speaking of Independence, on a side note, I wanted to mention that today was a very special day in NYC because a law was past to allow gay marriages! I personally think laws do not need to be passed or sign allowing anyone to get married.....we all should be treated equal! I hope California jumps on board soon!

Cupcake Toppers!

As I have been lurking around the DIY websites and blogs I noticed these toppers that were very cute and added an extra pizazz to desserts and decor. I decided to try and do my own cupcake toppers but adding a little twist to them! I really liked all the toppers I saw but they were all printed off of the computer, I wanted 3D toppers that POP out at you as well as encouraging people to use them again when scrap booking or for other projects. Therefore, me liking to plan ahead, I created these toppers for a "What's it gonna bee?" party, which someday, hopefully in the near future, I can use for myself!

What's it gonna bee?

Bee embellishment

Flower embellishment

I then made some for my sister-in-law's bridal shower in hopes that they would use them, and they did! I made sure they were the colors being used for the shower and the bride-to-be made these really cute cupcakes that complemented the cupcake toppers so well!

Flower embellishments

Perfect colors!

I then began making them for birthdays, fundraisers, Boy Scout events, holidays and so on. Lately I have been lazy making them but I am planning on making some toppers for the decor for my Mom's dessert table and instead of sticking them on cupcakes I was going to use them for little signs!

St. Patrick's Day

Relay For Life

1st Birthday-Ladybugs

60th Birthday for Dad

Boy Scouts Pinewood Derby

Dessert Table: Garden Themed Birthday Party

I am known as the dessert queen in my family. I am always the one to bring a special treat to all the family gatherings. I love to bake cakes for my nieces and nephews, cupcakes for special occasions, cookies for bake sales and I have decided what better way then to just do it all and take a stab at the new up and coming fad, dessert tables!

My next project is creating a Garden themed dessert table for my Mother's birthday. She recently became an avid green thumb and what better way to express her love of gardening then through desserts!

The first thing I did was look into garden themed cupcakes. My go to for cupcakes is one of the two books, "Hello, Cupcake!" or "What's New, Cupcake?" by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson. If you have not already (and you love to bake), go out and buy these books, your cupcakes will be the next big thing at parties! So I found a perfect "Garden Party" themed cupcake that look like little vegetable patches of radishes, peas, carrots and lettuce. I cant wait to make them! Here is a picture of the Garden Party from the book....

In the next few blogs I will discuss what other sweet treats I am making for the dessert table along with all the embellishments!

Goat Cheese & Chocolate

Now the title of this post may not seem too appetizing but they are examples of savory & sweet, the two tastes I want to base my whole business on! I want to make a twist on the plain desserts that you grew up on by adding savory to the sweet or visa versa. I do not plan on making everything both savory and sweet however a few cupcakes, cookies, whoopie pies with an added treat never hurts!

Based on Wikitionary Savory is something that is salty or non-sweet, such as meat, vegetables, bread, cheeses, rice, and so on. Whereas Sweet is the opposite, having the taste of sugar, such as chocolate, butterscotch, honey and so on. I want to take ingredients that have both tastes to complement each other and create a masterpiece in your mouth and excitement in your eyes! For example one of my favorite savory & sweet combinations has to be caramelized pears and Gorgonzola cheese. I think this must be the first savory & sweet creation I should work on.....

However, right now, I plan on just keeping it simple and sweet.