happy wedding day to bryan & valerie

let them eat cake's first wedding!

9"round bottom: 3-layer chocolate cake filled with chocolate buttercream frosting. 6" round top: 3-layer white cake filled with vanilla buttercream frosting. pale yellow buttercream frosting.

40 sunflower cupcakes:

groom's cake: (a friend baked her famous maple cake with maple frosting as a gift. they asked me to decorate it with them on a bike and drums as the wheels).

the figures are made of homemade marshmallow almond fondant.

details in fine print:

"just married" license plate

street signs: "hawaii," "happiness 1m," and "ever after"

carved into tree: "BR loves VE"

the bride's review:

Hey Suzanne,

Thanks for the GREAT cakes - they were a big hit! Next time I'd suggest people to get more cupcakes, they went in like 3 seconds flat! I think it's b/c we were there, cut the cake, then everyone was kind of standing around and they were available while the cake was being cut. Bryan and I actually cut two pieces at the cake cutting b/c the cake was so good!

Thanks again,

Val

MarthaStewartCupcake Club: zucchini spice

well, it's a week late, but here it is:

:

introducing: zuchinni spice muffins!

this is my first martha stewart cupcake club entry, so i figured i need to intro the book, and myself a little bit. you can tell a little about me by the pink & white polka-dot apron in the background and the oven mitt that says "domestic diva." the white hat with the pink minnie mouse was a gift (i don't really like disney much), and the pink sequined hat is what i hope to wear one day when i can dance like a hip-hop goddess.

on to the cupcakes!

paul grated the zucchini. at first i started peeling it, and then i decided i needed to shred it, until we decided that it indeed needed to be finely grated (and then drained). who knew the ways of preparing zucchini could be so complicated.

i halved the recipe, because we (who are playing "the biggest loser" with a group of friends), don't need 24 cupcakes lying around. halving the recipe also gets my brain working -- it's tough work remembering i need just 1 egg instead of 2 if i'm halving it, and only 1/4 a tsp instead of 1/2! critical measurements...

i wanted to use apple sauce instead of oil, but didn't have any applesauce. i guess work will get these tomorrow.

while the cupcakes baked (even though i halved it, they still needed the full 20 minutes), i washed.

i took them out a few minutes before the full time, so they turned out a little gooey. not quite a cupcake, not quite a muffin, not quite zucchini bread.

i didn't frost them because there was no cream cheese in the house, and again, we're trying to be big losers here. wish i could claim that these things were heart healthy... does being able to see the green zucchini specks count?

thanks to tracey of tracey's culinary adventures for choosing this month's recipe. next month kim of what the whisk chose pumpkin patch cupcakes. i can feel the chill in the air. i can't wait till it's my turn to pick...

hello fall

may the force be with you

martha stewart wannabe?

about a month ago when i was perusing the "internets" for lemon chiffon icing recipes, i came across a lovely blog called the tender crumb. she had amazing pictures of the delicious things she had baked as part of her membership in a club called "Tuesdays with Dorie." a visit to TWD introduced me to about 50 other sites and bloggers (mainly women) who have gorgeous blogs dedicated to baking. each week these women bake the same item from Dorie Greenspan's cookbook and share their insights, tweeks, mishaps, & ideas. they are baking their way through her cookbook! at first i thought these women were crazy -- who has time for this? but i was strangely intrigued and found myself checking their sites almost every day. paul was nervous. and then i watched julie & julia and was inspired. could i too follow my dream and become a baker and a blogger, and perhaps get my own book deal? i mean if jen of cakewrecks did it by posting ugly cake photos and adding snarky comments, then why can't suzanne "Q Monroe" lowell, of let them eat cake do it?

i caved. i joined one of those baking blog clubs! the one i joined is a bit more manageable for my crazy life. it's called the martha stewart cupcake club. in this club, we bake one recipe a month from martha stewart's new cupcake book (which is very cool). i'm already a bit behind though! i was supposed to bake zucchini spice cupcakes and post pictures and my baking tale by yesterday the 15th. i have a very good reason why i am behind though...

i am being hired for my very first wedding! i baked all day sunday -- 4 different recipes -- 2 different cakes -- 3 different types of frosting! that topic deserves a blog post of it's very own. which is coming soon. with pics.

but this post is just to apologize to my new blogworld friends -- i'm sorry i haven't posted or baked the zucchini spice cupcakes yet. please don't kick me out of the MSC club! i promise i will catch up.

for now, if you're interested, check out the MSC blogroll and visit all of these bakers' sites -- they are incredible.

sprinksmidge (for lunatics)

my family and i think brian regan is just about the funniest comedian around. this bit on those silly half-sprinkled donuts cracks us up.



 it wasn't much of a surprise when my sister requested a sprinksmidge for lunatics for her 29th. this is what she got: