Matt & Isabella: Wedding Cake

Okay, cut me some slack. The last two posts have been about some form of cake or another. But really, who doesn't love cake! And cake, in my opinion, can be made into a beautiful piece of art, so why not?

I was excited--okay, honestly. I was really super excited--when my mother-in-law asked me if I would mind making a wedding cake for my brother-in-law & his wife's reception here in Utah. (They were married last month in Brazil, and from the pics, it was gorgeous). Of course, having made my own wedding cake with her a few years ago, I immediately enlisted the help of my mom. (Thanks for the help mom!)

While there aren't necessarily "colors" for the open house there seemed to be a main color scheme of gray/silver, which I incorporated into the cake with the pewter-color ribbon and silver berries. I felt that these elements also really helped to make it feel like a "winter" wedding cake. You can't tell in the photo, but we also dusted some Pearl Dust onto the fondant to give it a subtle shimmer/glimmer--which reminds me a lot of the sun sparkling on snow.

We had a lot of fun making this cake and I think it turned out so well. (I hope the love birds like it!) It's clean & simple, yet has a sense of elegance.

And as a side note, I have a Cake Cricut making it's pretty little way to my house in the next week (as a graduation gift from my husband) and so there may be a few more cake-related "designs" popping up on this blog.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes & Topper Design

Those of you who know me are most likely aware that I will take any excuse I can get to bake. So imagine my excitement when we decided that in our department at work that each woman (there are no men in our dept) would be assigned to another woman, of whom they would bring/make dessert for on their birthday! What an excellent excuse to bake something fun and yummy! This year I am the "baker" for Michelle, who--when asked what she'd like me to bring--suggested that I make some cupcakes and incorporate a lemon filling, which is her favorite.

So--have you seen the show Cupcake Wars? While the host of the show annoys me. To death. I really love watching the bakers come up with cupcake concoctions based on the client/event chosen for the show. So I held my own "cupcake war" with the suggestions from Michelle in mind and went to work! I decided to make a strawberry lemonade cupcake based on a vanilla cake with some added lemon juice and zest in the batter. I then "cored" the center of the cupcake with my handy-dandy cupcake plunger (love it) and filled it with a lemon filling I found on Wilton's website. I frosted each cupcake with a fresh-strawberry buttercream, and viola! Delicious!

Now, no birthday cupcake is complete without little details (for me the presentation is just as important as the taste) so I designed & printed some cute cupcake toppers & made some cupcake liners, in a pink & yellow color scheme to match the cupcake flavor.

Free Printable Shopping List

In order to stick to a grocery budget, I keep a sloppy piece of paper on my fridge (aka my version of a "grocery list") and add items to it throughout the week as we run out of them. I find this is helpful in assuring I only buy items that we need & prevents the chance of forgetting what it was we needed the minute I walk in the grocery store.

You know the feeling of impending doom each evening when you realize you still have to figure something out to make for dinner? I know that feeling all too well, which is why over the past year or so I have resorted to making a weekly "meal plan" each weekend before grocery shopping that I can use for the upcoming week. This ensures that I already have meals planned (no hustle and bustle after I get home from work to find something to make) and by knowing ahead of time what I will be making each day for that week, it also allows me to pick up ingredients I may not have on hand for those meals while I'm out doing my weekly grocery shopping---nothing worse than starting a meal and finding that you are missing something for it!

So, here is a printable freebie I created, to help organize myself, that you may print out and try for yourself if you are interested. I love it, and it makes life after a full day's work a lot easier for me. Each day of the week is listed so that you may write down what you will be making that day, followed by a shopping list below (designed so it can easily be detached to take with you to the grocery store, leaving the meal plan still on the fridge) where you can add those ingredients you may need to pick up for each particular meal and/or add those items you find that you have ran out of during the week.

Simply click on the shopping list image at the top of the post, when it pulls up on the next window, right click--"save image as", save it to somewhere on your computer where you can easily find it again & access it to print. Viola! Hope you enjoy!

2011 Business Cards

What follows up a new year & a new logo? New business cards of course! I was getting a little bored with my current cards (something fresh and new is always exciting) and so I took this " re-vamping" opportunity to create new business cards inspired by design elements from the new logo. I choose to keep the cards simple, but couldn't resist adding some "fun" and a "pop" with the design and color on the back side. They'll have rounded corners and a pretty glossy coat. Just a few days away from getting them in the mail and out into the world!

Front:
Back: