My 2016.

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE! What a crazy, exciting time of year and I can't even believe the beginning of January is about to hit us!

For someone in my shoes, the months of October to December are nuts. I say "in my shoes" because I'm a Canadian who married an American and is living in America. Therefore, in October Jarryd and I celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, in November we celebrate American Thanksgiving, in December we celebrate Christmas, and now we celebrate New Years Eve/Day! There are four major holidays all within the span of three months for us! (Thank goodness Christmas is the only holiday where gift-giving is expected, or else we'd be sooo broke!)

Last night in the car, Jarryd and I were just talking about how great of a year 2016 was for us. Thankfully, and I say this with a truly grateful heart, nothing drastic or tragic occurred in our lives. (Thank you, God!) We both conquered some things we wanted to conquer, and accomplished things we never even dreamed we'd accomplish. But, there's also things we wish we would have done more of, or wish we would have done less of. Obviously our lives aren't perfect and therefore our year wasn't perfect. But overall, despite how exhausting and busy the year may have been for us, 2016 really was a good year.

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes With Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

I know, I know, it's December! It's that glorious time of year when the only baked goods that you see at parties, gatherings, read about on blogs, and scroll through on Instagram consist of either gingerbread, peppermint flavour, or Christmas tree-shaped sugar cookies. But here I am, in the beginning of December, baking LEMON BLUEBERRY cupcakes. It all just screams a hot summer pool party in July, right?!

I'll admit, ever since I was on Pinterest and stumbled upon Ashley's Lemon Blueberry Cupcake recipe at Baker By Nature, I haven't been able to shake the urge to bake these! I honestly just couldn't wait 'till Summer to bake these; I had to bake them now! So...let's just pretend it's Summer for the next how-ever-many-minutes-it-takes-for-you-to-read-this-post Ok? Ok.

And I don't believe I've even tasted a lemon blueberry dessert before, which is crazy--but the thought of the combination of those two flavours, along with a sweet cream cheese frosting is incredibly enticing. I love lemons, I love blueberries, and I love cream cheese. So why not give it a try?!
Also, I haven't baked cupcakes in over a month, which is WAY too long to go without cupcakes in my books! (Here, here!)

So last Saturday morning, (at like 6 am because I have the inability to sleep in nowadays😩 ) I zested and juiced some lemons, I mixed together the cake batter, scooped it into cupcake liners, slid them into the oven to bake, and then whipped together the cream cheese frosting. (Oh and all of this was done whilst listening to Christmas music AND having my Christmas Balsam candle lit. Gahhh! How magical.) And the whole process was a snap! A total breeze.

The most time consuming stage of all of this was piping the frosting, garnishing the cupcakes with blueberries and lemon zest, and of course styling and photographing them! (Which is obviously optional because one could easily just scrape the frosting on with a knife and snap a quick photo of it with their phone!) But I love food photography so I couldn't NOT take photos of these beauties!

But the best part was the result. You guys!! These cupcakes were amazing! 😍 They tasted absolutely incredible. They had the perfect amount of lemony flavour, they were moist, the blueberries added a whole new dimension of texture and sweet taste, and THE LEMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING was to die for. There's something truly exquisite about the marriage of cake and frosting; it's seriously a match made in heaven. (This is why cupcakes are better than muffins, right?!)

What do you guys think of my new piping design? I actually really love this and am thinking of making it my "signature" cupcake look! It's so frilly, ruffly, and pretty looking!

I even got significant praise from all of my taste-testers! They got the thumbs up from the husband, which is always important, right ladies? And also the thumbs up from my in-laws--aka my father-in-law the serious foodie. (I wish I could have shared them with all of you!!) Although I feel like I can hardly take any credit since this recipe wasn't created by me. It was all Baker By Nature's. I literally made this recipe exactly how it was written except...I halved the amount of lemon extract. But that's it!

Thank you to Ashley from Baker By Nature for sharing this incredible recipe with the world, and for the cupcake piping/design/garnish inspiration! I'm in love with how these cupcakes turned out both taste wise and looks wise! 💖

Personally, I think the best way to eat these is when the frosting is softened to room temperature, with extra fresh blueberries on the plate, and a cup of hot coffee. The photo above was literally my breakfast last weekend! Cake for breakfast!

Now, if I've inspired you to have a little "summer in December" (I don't blame you for not wanting to bake these, as baking Christmasy desserts of peppermint and gingerbread are just way too good to pass up), or if you want to give this recipe a try in the warmer months/when blueberries are actually in-season, you can find the Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe HERE!!

Thanks for reading, friends! Happy baking! (Or eating!) And Happy Christmas! 

Pastel Purple Flower Cupcakes.

Hi friends!! At the beginning of August I was asked by a dear friend of mine to bake cupcakes for her upcoming baby shower. I felt incredibly honoured and flattered by her request! I was also super excited to get things rolling because she asked if I could do my signature buttercream flowers on the cupcakes. {Click here to see my past work!} YAY! Piping buttercream flowers is my favourite thing to do in the world of baking. I find it very therapeutic, fun, and at the same time informative because I learn something new every time I pipe out another petal or flower; I learn what I like, dislike, if my buttercream is too thin, thick, cold, or warm, and if I'm applying too much pressure or too little pressure with the piping bag. If I'm not writing these things down I'm attempting to take mental notes. {I need to get better at taking notes while baking because I'm always telling myself that I'll easily remember every little step that I did...pfft! Nope, not the case!}

I was asked to do 4 dozen cupcakes. {48 cupcakes!!} 24 chocolate, and 24 vanilla. This was the biggest cake/cupcake order I've had yet, so I was super excited!! Learning from past experiences and mistakes, I baked half of the cupcakes {12 chocolate and 12 vanilla} the week before the baby shower, froze them {with my careful and tedious-for-good-reason cupcake freezing method} and then baked the other 24 cupcakes on the evening before the baby shower. I think some people look down upon freezing baked goods, because they're not considered "fresh" to them, but alot if not most cake decorators have freezers full of frozen cake layers/cupcakes because it saves them time on the day of decorating. But more than that, freezing cakes actually makes your cake moister. Seriously. {And if you're curious about how to properly freeze cakes, I'd love to share with you a tried and true way!}
I could have easily baked all 48 cupcakes at once, but one of the recipes I love I had only done for cakes so I needed to experiment how they held up in cupcake form and how many cupcakes it could yield. THANKFULLY they turned out perfectly because that recipe is my all-time favourite and I wanted to use it so bad for this order!

ALSO, baking some ahead of time helped me figure out what to price the cupcakes at. <---This part is always fun...not! But I must say, since I started pricing baked goods back in the beginning of the year, I have gotten much better at it! Compared to the time it used to take me to price cakes out, this order took no time at all! You guys, the fact that I've improved and progressed in this area makes me SO happy; I feel so encouraged because pricing and cost is a crucial part to the "business" of baking and I feel like I'm on my way!! :) Thank you, Lord!  <3

The evening before the baby shower {Friday} I finished baking all 48 cupcakes {truthfully, I baked a few extra in case some didn't bake properly, and I'm glad I did because there were a few cupcake liners that I didn't fill with enough batter. Oops!}

After experiencing hallucinations and nightmares all night involving some sort of cupcake catastrophe or distaster, on Saturday morning I woke up to my alarm at 7 am. Thank goodness because I had a nightmare that I woke up at 12 pm, leaving me less than 2 hours to whip up the buttercream frosting and pipe 48 floral buttercream cupcakes. Talk about a stressful sleep!! Anyone else experience dreams like this before a big event?!

In all honesty, I spent an extended amount of time on this buttercream frosting; like, much more time than most people would. I just wanted it to be absolutely perfect; not too sweet {especially this!!}, not too soft, not too firm, not too salty {I love salt soooo....it's important for me to remember that not everyone loves salt as much as I do!}. I'm kind of particular in this way...I have a buttercream recipe that I go off of, but after I adding all of the measured ingredients that are listed I just go with the flow, adding a little more vanilla here and there, another teaspoon of salt, another 6 cups of icing sugar, ect. :P And best of all, it's ALL pure, amazing, delicious, melt-in-your-mouth butter. No filmy-feeling-on-the-tongue shortening.
But most of all, I wanted this frosting to be theeeee most perfect pastel purple ever!!

As I briefly mentioned in a previous blog post, I used my 6 QT Professional Series KitchenAid mixer for the buttercream and it was AMAZING. {I should really be getting paid by KitchenAid for saying this...} I've only had my stand mixer for a few months now, so I'm new to the working wonders of the glorious KitchenAid mixer and I must say it's practically life changing. It's like when you have a baby. All is well before your baby comes into the world, and you can't even imagine life WITH a baby in it. Now, after having a baby, you can't even remember your life "before-baby" and can't imagine life "without-baby". Ergo, I can't even imagine my life "without-my-pastel-pink-KitchenAid-stand-mixer". {bahah, how terrible was that comparison?! I thought it was fitting with the whole baby shower theme...be nice to me in your comments below... :P }

ANYWAY...This particular cupcake endeavour was my most organized and successful one yet, take this photo for example:

I have a clean kitchen {culinary school's classic: clean-as-you-go system}, all of the cupcakes are laid out in their fancy "boxes", and everything is set up in "assembly line" fashion; buttercream frosting, piping tips and couplers, disposable piping bags, cupcake wrappers, and glitter {which I never ended up using}.
I even had it all planned out of what piped flower designs I would do and exactly how many of each design as well. {I've progressed immensely!}

This is just beautiful. When I see cupcakes like this I see delicious blank slates, ready for anything. I get so so soooo excited and nervous {the good kind of nervous!} during this stage of baking because it's my favourite part and also the most crucial part. I just love piping flowers and applying all of the finishing touches!

 My first four cupcakes in the rose design, none of which I had to redo! I got it all perfect on the first try!! Ugh, what a good day.

A few hours later, DONE. 48 cupcakes DONE! I get asked how long it takes me to do each cupcake and honestly, it can go from a few seconds to a few minutes. The rose swirls for example take literally seconds, whereas the tiny-petaled-chrysanthemum designs take minutes because of the tediousness. {But the intricacy of the eye-appeal is totally worth it!}

Due to the annoyingly horrible indoor lighting our kitchen has to offer, the colour of the cupcakes you see in this photo is not true. In fact, they definitely look more pink here than they do purple. That is why whenever I am colouring my buttercream frosting I'm always dipping my spatula in the frosting and then walking over to our living room window and holding the spatula up against the white wall so that I can see the true colour of the frosting I've produced. I think I did this 10 + times trying to achieve the perfect pastel purple {and it SURE paid off}!

I bought these BEAUTIFUL laser-cut lace cupcake wrappers off of Amazon and I wasn't completely sure if I'd even use them, just because I'd never used cupcake wrappers before. But the moment I placed the first cupcake in one of those lacy-white beauties I fell in LOVE.

The cupcake wrappers made these cupcakes go from "pretty cute" to "GORGEOUS"! They add a whole different dimension to the cupcakes because they hide those wrinkly transparent cupcake liners.

AND OF COURSE, anyone who knows me at all know that I need to photograph all of my beauties!! :D Note the colour difference from the photos taken in my kitchen to the photos taken beside the window! If there's any advice I can give to foodie photographers, please take photos of your food in natural light--you'll give so much more justice to the work you put into your creations!!

Unfortunately I didn't have alot of time for a photoshoot, so setting them on this marble tray was all I could come up with.

 ^The cupcake with all of the little petals is the one that takes the longest to pipe. {Can you imagine piping 4 dozen of just that design of cupcakes?!}

 I also ordered these amazing plastic cupcake boxes off of Amazon {Amazon Prime is my best friend--what is better than free 2-day shipping?!}. These boxes are perfect because their domes have a high height and their compartments are wide enough to fit cupcakes plus their cupcake wrappers-although it was a little snug in there. I'd ask for compartments with a teeny-weeny bit more circumference if I could...

All ready for transport!! Delivering them is also a nerve-wracking part of the whole ordeal.

Now, normally I drive to the destination, open the boxes to show them to my client to make sure they're pleased, return to my car, drive home and sigh a huuuuuuge glorious sigh of cake-decorator's relief. But this time was different as I was actually attending the baby shower. Not only did I have to bake the cupcakes, but I had to be present for when people were trying them and eating them for the first time! {GAH!!} So many fears and insecurities snuck into my brain at this time such as, "what if they're actually horrible? What if nobody likes them?!" but I just have to remind myself that I KNOW what I'm doing. I've done this before! I've had friends and family taste-test all of my recipes and give me honest feedback. I've tasted this batch of cupcakes at every stage of the baking and decorating process, and most of all, I have put so much love into this it's not even funny! I don't think I've ever put so much love into a cake order yet {mostly because my love grows surprisingly deeper and deeper every time! Haha!}.

Despite driving to the wrong house and not remembering the actual address of the baby shower and having to call Jarryd at home to go look at the invite to tell me the address and then mentally freaking out because I was arriving late to the baby shower and feeling horrible because this is an important cake order and it probably looks so bad for my reputation that I'm LATE, it was all good because it was so busy inside the house with everyone standing and greeting one another that nobody even noticed I was late! * gasp * WOOOOW that was a long run-on sentence!! {Plus, I think when my "clients"/friends laid eyes on the cupcakes it distracted them from me being 10 minutes late}. Phewwwwww!

And then there's THIS!! I always say that piping the flowers on my cupcakes is my favourite part of the process, but seeing the look of approval and joy on people's faces when they see and taste my cupcakes is actually my favourite part. It's the reason I even DO all of this!!

It felt incredible to have complete strangers come up to me at this shower and ask me "was it you who made the cupcakes?", and after an enthusiastic squeaky "yes!" from me, for them to say how amazing they were, that they not only looked gorgeous but TASTED incredible and that they'd like business cards, felt so so so good!! I honestly can't even tell you how many people came up to me to compliment me because I completely lost count {haha!}. I'm pretty sure I looked like I was permanently blushing the entire time. And it's not like I went around the room approaching people with a "sooooo how'd you like the cupcakes?!" just fishing for compliments {believe it or not, there ARE personalities who do this!}. Like, total strangers approached me; total strangers along with friends and acquaintances went out of their way to talk to me about the cupcakes. They didn't have to say anything, but they did, and I'm so glad!

I've always been a person who can take criticism well. I'm very teachable and can learn from my shortcomings; therefore, I appreciate ANY kind of feedback, especially on something that I'm most passionate about!

As I said in my above Instagram post, I'm so thankful for this passion that God has instilled in me; He gives us these passions for a reason. He's given me the patience to wait for cake batter to rise in the oven. He's given me a steady hand to hold a piping bag and for piping intricate designs. He's given me a creative eye for food styling and skill with a camera. He's given me introverted mind that never tires of dreaming, imagining, and exploring new ideas! There's also things that aren't so natural to me such as planning most efficiently and working with numbers, but He's given me the determination and motivation to grow in these areas!! He is so good and I'm so excited and willing to go wherever He takes me with this whole baking thing! <3

A few days later after all of this, my friend sent me photos that she took of my cupcakes {and some with her preggo belly!!} with her fancy-schmancy camera and because I'm so in love with them I just HAD to share them on here with you guys!

 Baby belly! :)

I just love how they look with the wood!

Thank you to everyone for supporting me and for all of your encouragement and LOVE. I appreciate it more than you know! And thank you for reading my bloggy blog. I would absolutely love to hear what you think in the comments below!! Until next time, friends! <3

Delicious Vanilla Cupcakes With Vanilla Buttercream Frosting.

So, this full-time chef job of mine has been a huge blessing to Jarryd and I. Huge!
Let's back up a little. I have always loved baking over cooking. In choosing between the two, I'd choose the former for sure. This is for several reasons.
One is because baking is so "by the book" and I'm very much a "by the book" person who strives for perfection. Either I want to do it perfectly or I won't do it at all. With baking there is no messin' around {except for the spilled flour all over your counter and the greasy butter fingerprints on your measuring spoons).
Also, cooking is all about speed and doesn't require much patience; baking on the other hand is a slower activity, in most cases at least. And it requires great patience as it can involve many repetitive tedious tasks, like decorating cupcakes for instance.

Once I decided I wanted a career in the culinary field {about four years ago}, I applied to bakeries like crazy. I didn't know it at the time, but bakeries are so hard to get into. :S

When I was living in Ontario I landed a job at a bakery--BUT only as a deli worker, slicing meat for eight hours straight. (My right bicep was huuuuge!) A few months into the job, after some convincing of "hey, I'm currently in culinary school and would love some extra hands-on experience in your bakery", I landed a few shifts in the back-of-house bakery. And I just LOVED every second of it.
I loved icing the wedding cakes, glazing the strawberries, filling the eclairs, and piping the buttercream frosting onto the cupcakes. I even didn't mind working at the counter and filling the little boxes with whatever delectable treats the customers' hearts desired. I realized then and there--and also within attending my pastry classes--that baking was what I wanted to do and LOVED to do.

Fast forward to getting married, moving to the US on a visa, and needing every penny we could, the baking thing kinda went out the window. Jarryd and I could hardly afford buying groceries, so how could I justify spending money on baking supplies? (Hmm...should we buy a roll of toilet paper or a bag of sugar? Haha!) :P

Now, approaching the two year mark of marriage {by God's provision, alone} Jarryd and I are now DINKS. Double-income-no-kids. ;)
It sounds like a lot of money, right?! But when you add paying off debt, bills, and taxes into the mix, it's as if the money was never there in the first place. Sigh.
Fortunately, we have a few extra coinage to spare and it's with these coins that I have FINALLY been able to buy baking supplies! This is such a HUGE blessing!! {Thank you God!!}
It makes me so happy that I can finally pursue my baking dream, which then makes Jarryd so happy because he sees me so happy--and let's not forget that I hired him on as my official taste-tester. So, hence all of the happiness going around.

About a month ago the two of us set out and went on a sort of "baking haul". We bought decorating tips/nozzles, piping bags, flour sifter, offset spatulas, cupcake liners, baking ingredients, a giant portable cupcake carrier, and other little goodies! It was THE BEST!

There is my little collection of decorating tips/nozzles. A few are from my culinary school kit, some are past christmas gifts, and some are brand stinkin' new! They're just all so fun to practice with.

So anyway, now on to the CUPCAKES!
One fine Saturday evening I tied my apron around my waist and got to baking. In regards to flavour, I decided to start with basic and simple: VANILLA.

I DO have a KitchenAid stand mixer now (it's pink!!) but I made these cupcakes well before that purchase. So, this is my humble hand mixer {wedding gift!}. Don't be fooled. It is KitchenAid brand so it gets the job done. Plus it's cute and pastel yellow. ;)

OH we also bought a new muffin tin from Kohls--on sale too!

Thankfully, the cupcakes themselves turned out perfectly.

The next day after church, I started on my FAVOURITE part of the baking process--decorating, applying the finishing touches, styling, and photography.

 Anyone who knows me, knows that pink is my FAVOURITE color, so I had to choose pink for the icing. No buts about it! I wanted to a try a two-toned icing for the cupcakes--so I went for two shades of pink: a light pink, and a very very very light pink. ;)

Mmm...this is vanilla buttercream frosting, my friends. Personally, it's my all-time favourite time of icing. Why? Because of the butter of course.

Here is how the two-toned vanilla buttercream frosting turned out. It is quite subtle, but it's there. I think next time I would create the two colours with a greater contrast because I want the tones to be more noticeable. But that's what this whole cupcake day was for--to practice, and to see what I liked and didn't like! :)

 As for the green one in the centre, I was originally going for a light "Tiffany" blue--my favourite shade of blue, but on the journey there, I decided that I REALLY loved the light minty green, so I kept it. :)

 Food styling and food photography are incredibly fun. When Jarryd watches me take all the photos, rearranging everything in every way possible, he just doesn't understand. But once he sees the end photo, it all clicks for him. Hmm...maybe my wife's not so crazy after all...

Here are all of the pink ones! We have begonias, roses, rose bouquets, and chrysanthemums!  

This rose cupcake in particular was SO much fun to do. Oh my word, I would love to do a thousand of these rose cupcakes. (Maybe one day?) :)

 I finally put my old cupcake stand to use.

 How fun is that swirly mint green one on the top tier? It's icing to cake ratio is INSANITY (I could never eat that much icing on one cupcake), but it's so adorable!!

 I didn't want to post this photo but Jarryd made me do it.

 Two of my favourite things: Cupcakes and Starbucks!! :)

This one is my absolutely favourite photo of them all!

The thing with making all of these cupcakes is that the recipe made 15+ cupcakes...meanwhile there's only 2 of us. They were too pretty and were made with too much love to just toss in the freezer for safe-keeping; so I decided to put a post up on Facebook {with the picture above} asking if any local friends and family wanted a free taste. I remember saying to Jarryd what if nobody wants any?! How awkward would that be?!

But after I pressed that "post" button, the response from people was incredible and more than I ever imagined. I mean, I thought that the cupcakes were good, but I didn't think they were amazing!

Isn't it funny how we undermine our skills? At least I do. I think to myself, oh anyone can ice a cupcake. It's easy. I often forget that yes, it may be an easy task for me, but to someone who has Pi memorized or can construct a house in their sleep, it may be something unfathomable to them.

I ended up giving all the cupcakes away--and could have given out more if I had more, but ran out! Delivering them was fun too because I got to visit with some amazing people who I hadn't seen in a long time! <3

If you're familiar with the Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman...one of mine is "Words of Affirmation". An encouraging and genuine word or two about my personality, skills, appearance, ANYTHING means the world to me. It makes me feel so loved. So when I got such an overwhelming response on Facebook about my cupcakes, I felt...really really good. :) And encouraged, and almost purposeful. 

I never want to forget any of the encouraging words my friends and family gave me, because they truly meant everything. I feel like God has created a spark in me in regards to my love for baking; I'm not sure what's gonna happen or where it could take me. All I know is that it's there and I feel like God keeps nudging me in different ways. I'm seeking God's wisdom in this, along with help and advice from those I trust.

Much is unknown right now, but what I do know is:

• Baking is one of my favourite hobbies.
• I absolutely love using a piping bag.
• If I had the opportunity to continue my Culinary education and get a degree in Baking & Pastry Arts, I totally would.
• My husband's eyes light up when he sees my baked goods comin' out of the oven {and he says he's not much of a sweets-guy. Pffft}!
• I love sharing my baking with my loved ones!!

Sooo, we'll see, my friends, we'll see! :) Thank you for reading! I appreciate you all!!