Guilt

So I feel really guilty about not posting for about a month.

In fact I gave some cupcakes away this weekend to make me feel better about it (by the way, I do fairly regular cupcake giveaways on my facebook site, you should check it out), I'm not sure it worked.

So instead of continuing to give away cupcakes (not that I'm stopping...) I figured I would finally ease my conscious by doing that which the lack of had made me feel guilty to begin with...blog!

I'll give you my good reasons why it's been a month since I blogged.

First, I made this cupcake cake for a twelve year old girl. She told me it was exactly what she wanted. High praise from a twelve year old!

Then, I made these little cuties for Easter. They also happen to be two of my summer flavors: coconut cream, and sunshine (lemon cupcake with orange cream cheese frosting) cupcakes.

Bright and early at 5am the next day was my trip to Philly, which was wonderful. I came home and hit the ground running, making these for a fun networking event I got to go to. Red Velvet minis.

After that I had put the finishing touches on my husband's surprise 30th birthday party. I would like to say that it's really hard to plan things without your significant other knowing. It was a given that I was going to make cupcakes for his birthday, so it wasn't difficult to get a flavor request from him. Normally his request would be red velvets, but he had gotten spoiled with leftovers recently, so instead he requested (my favorite!) raspberry almond with chocolate frosting. If you don't order them though, you might not get to...because those are too good to give away, no matter how cupcaked out I am!

I have a few other things I've been doing in the last month, but I have to save some things to show you, or else I won't post for another month!

I have weddings almost every weekend in May, so my weekend availability is almost non-existent. I still have some week day openings if you want to try to get in on that. I'm already getting requests for August and September as well. All that to say, if you have a date in mind you think you might want something for, let me know! I will pencil you in for that date!

I have difficulties saying no, so it would just make my life easier if you book early so I don't have to tell you no : ) That's another thing that makes me feel guilty...

Spring and Life

I consider it spring when the daffodils have bloomed and I can wear flip flops out at least once with out regretting the decision. Due to my calculations, it's officially spring! Spring always brings about the thought of flowers and Easter. I've been doing some experimenting with both:

These are half of another set that spelled out "Happy 28 Kate", the purple ones were flower inspired

This is a chocolate cupcake with vanilla buttercream decorated to look like a hydrangea

These are my Easter cupcakes. Admittedly, I'm not very into chicks or the Easter bunny, I don't want to distract from the focus of the holiday. That said, I don't mind eggs because they represent new life. So they are chocolate cupcakes with a mini Cadbury egg baked inside (and on top) frosted with vanilla buttercream and toasted coconut.

Good Friday brings the start of spring break here. My kids are not in school yet, so typically this wouldn't effect our family however I lead a small group of high school girls with the youth at our church. Every year they go on mission trips during spring break and this year I get to go with them. I'm super excited to go and serve in the inner city of Philadelphia, but that also means that I will be out of touch for a week.

So if you email me or call, I may not get back to you right away, and won't be able to do any orders for that week (April 5-10). I will have my email on auto reply with some information and my number for if there is something you need right away, but even that make take some time, so please be patient!

If you are interested in Easter orders though, I'm taking those until Thursday!

St. Patty's Day Birthday

This is my last St. Patrick's Day related post until next year, I promise! I must say, the Guinness chocolate and Bailey's cupcake was my new favorite, but after taste testing for the umpteenth time...even I'm burnt out.

But when I made these I was still in love! And I love the idea of a St. Patty's day themed party.

a jumbo cupcake used as a first birthday smash cake

green velvet cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream and shamrock sugar cookies


green velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and four leaf clover sprinkles

Wedding Season

It's that time of year again! I must admit, it's a bit of adjustment for me. I've been out of the wedding loop for at least two years now. Almost all of my friends are married and I was just starting up last year so missed out on most of the wedding fun.

Admittedly, I thought I was over all the weddingness. Coming up on 6 years of marriage, I thought the fun of weddings was past until my (mythical at this point) daughter went through it. Thankfully I was wrong!

I had delivered cupcakes to my first wedding of the season a couple of weeks ago. She, her mom, mother in law, friends and wedding planner were all there setting up. It was gorgeous. I went home and told my husband I wanted to get married again and have it be just like hers. And just like that I was sucked into it all over again!

I still look back on my wedding and remember all of the details fondly, particularly my wedding cake. Maybe that's because even back then I was a growing foodie who had a special fondness for cake, but I think it really impresses you when people go out of their way to make a particular part of your special day extra special just for you.

I'm excited to have the opportunity to do that for my customers!

monogrammed sugar cookie favor test run for an upcoming wedding


delivery: the most dreaded part. I have nightmares of dropping one of the boxes on the way in or something!

Just a few of the snickerdoodles, although they were slightly different than my typical ones, these were made with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting instead of the typical cinnamon sugar buttercream

At the wedding. Champagne, hydrangea, cupcakes and the man of your dreams, where could a girl go wrong?

Helper

Using my high tech method again my handsome helper picked a name for me:

I must admit I'm partial to the name. It was actually my maiden name, but I got called by that more than my first name. It's a great name!

Congrats Libby!

Feeling the Love

I got a lot of love from the last cupcake giveaway. Maybe it went to my head a little bit, because I'm doing another one! I'm giving away another half dozen Guinness stout chocolate cupcakes with Bailey's frosting. The world needs more of them!

Details:
You can get multiple entries on this one, the more entries you have, the higher your chance are of winning. Here are the ways you can enter:

• write a comment on my blog
• write a comment on your facebook status about my cupcakes, either linking to my blog or putting @CupKates to link to my FB site
• write a comment on the CupKates FB site

IMPORTANT: In order to be officially entered (so I know to look at your site to see you did them) you must comment on my most recent FB status letting me know you have entered and which ways.

Go here to access my facebook site. The winner must be able to pick up late afternoon Saturday or sometime Sunday.

And the winner is....

So I did my first giveaway last night. Half a dozen St. Patrick's Day cupcakes. I did it for a couple of reasons.

1. I love my customers. Seriously, y'all are so great and sweet.

2. I wanted to do something special to celebrate my first year in business. It was almost exactly a year ago that I started CupKates.

That said, I think I am going to start doing this more often. Goodness knows we don't need any more cupcakes sitting around our house!

Sometimes the giveaways may be on the blog only, and sometimes on facebook only, or something both. So keep your eyes peeled to both sites!

And with out further ado....

I used a very high tech method to decide the winner

Thanks again for all of your support!