Awoooooooooooooooooooo!

So we celebrated Father's day a little early in our house. And I decided to make Dad a wolf cake! He loves wolves.
I've never done a 3D figure before so I made some mistakes, but also learned a lot.

The cake was chocolate peanut butter, and so was the frosting.

He loved it and was so surprised. When I asked him if there was too much peanut butter in the cake he said "No, it sticks to the roof of my mouth, I love it!"

That means there is probably too much peanut butter for the rest of us!

Enjoy!

With Love,

Sarah
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I even made eyelids for his eyes!! I need to get a better camera.

This wolf have been beefing up his legs like crazy!

Camping anyone?

Okay, so two of my favourite people (outside my family) kind of gave me the break I was waiting for.

They trusted me with baking and creating the cupcakes and cake for their wedding. Their wedding!! I had never done a wedding before, I was a little nervous but mostly determined to provide them with the absolute best cupcakes and cake they had ever tasted.

Last year around this time they did Lemon cupcakes which were so moist and dense and absolutely bursting with lemon flavour. I topped it off with my now semi famous cream cheese frosting in a Tiffany blue and edible glitter. The second was a chocolate cupcake with raspberries (one of my favs!) topped with a dark chocolate ganache and a sea shell (beach wedding theme) made out of blue fondant. For their original wedding cake I made a chocolate cake into a Tiffany ring box with a bow.

They are pretty traditional and wanted to save the wedding cake to have on their first anniversary, but do to unforeseen events it just wasn't possible. So they contacted me again to make their 1 year anniversary cake. I hope this becomes somewhat of a tradition!! This time they were going camping so they challenged me on how I could make a cake with a camping theme. As soon as they said it my mind started racing with ideas!

So I made a mocha cake with vanilla buttercream into a tent. I added a roaring fire, because what's camping without a fire. Added roasting marshmallows...because what's a fire without marshmallows? And even a little pond with a frog!

When her husband came to pick up the cake he was blown away! I love doing that.

Anyways, please enjoy my pictures and let me know if there are any questions!

With Love,

Sarah
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Look at that roaring fire and those yummy marshmallows!!

I loved the frog. I used tiny Nonpareils for his eyes!

Lovely little scene!

FORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's RIGHT! For Father's Day, and our cupcake of the month is your very own Golf course!!

Help Dad eat his way to an Eagle! But watch out for those sand traps!!!

Ordering info can be found here! Order soon to ensure delivery in time for Father's Day!

With Love,

Sarah

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Wedding Cupcakes

I made some example/taste test cupcakes for a clients upcoming wedding for her and some friends to test out.

I loved the cake choices she went with, she decided on Blueberry and Mocha! So original!

So I made a few different design options for her.

Enjoy!

With Love,

Sarah
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Layered ribbons with lavender flowers and silver balls nested in secret places:

Same design but in a silver liner:

Open star tip with lavender flowers

Closed star with silver balls

How will she choose?

May the Force be with you...

I made some Key Lime Pie Cupcakes for a friends birthday after his wife contacted me in secret!

First off, I have to say that these cupcakes truly were amazing. They were so moist and bursting with key lime flavour. I even hid some of the key lime filling inside of the cupcake! I finished the top off with some key lime cream cheese frosting.

He is also a huge Star Wars fan, so I had to make the cupcakes all decked out with some light sabers! And of course what are Star Wars cupcakes without Yoda and Darth Vader?!

Enjoy!

With Love,

Sarah Couto
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The battle begins! (love the Yoda and Darth!)


Who will win out?


Which side will you choose? Good or Evil?

Cookie Art

This truly is what the title says! Cookie Art!! I somehow stumbled upon Bake at 350. Brace yourselves people, this is one of the best blogs I have stumbled upon in a long time. This woman takes creativity to the max and then super sizes it! Or something...
Her cookies are unique and absolutely gorgeous, you'll love them. And they really aren't that hard, to prove it, even I could do it!

I used my favourite shortbread recipe...but then, I'm partial to shortbread. You can use your favourite sugar cookie recipe as well. Basically any cookie recipe that you can roll out.

She gives you a lot of great instructions and tutorials as well. Like I said it is one of the best blogs I have come across in a long time. Please check it out!

With Love,

Sarah
Cupcake Carousel

Piped my outline and let it dry for 24 hours:


Then I filled them in and tried my hands at some different designs:


Dinosaurs! ROAR!


Loved the hands:


Couldn't cut out some cookies without butterflies for the little one!

Brownies and Beignets!!

Mmmmm just reading the title makes me excited.

This weekend I somehow had a bee in my bonnet for two things. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies, and Beignets.

I'm a big fan of dense fudge like brownies as opposed to cake like brownies and I found an a-MAZING recipe on the Food Network. These did not disappoint, they were rich and fudgey and dense!

For the Cookie Dough I added Dark Chocolate Chips and Butterscotch Chips:

Yes...it's true the recipe has Chopped Chocolate in the mix along with the cocoa powder!

Just pour the brownie mix into your pan and press the cookie dough all around the brownies!!


Now onto the Beignets! I think what happens with me is I hear something or think about something randomly...and I can't stop thinking about it until I just make it.

Thus Beignets!!

They can be a little tricky, and some tips I will give EVERYONE who would like to make them:
1. Let your mix sit in the refrigerator for a good 24 hours.
2. Don't be tempted to roll your dough too thin. It's not meant for a pie!
3. Do not reuse dough. I.e. roll it back up and try to re-roll pieces you don't like.
4. Roll the Beignets out and let them sit for about 15 mins while your oil heats up.
5. Make sure your oil is at 350 degrees F. Buy a thermometer if you do not have one.
6. To see if your Oil is at the right temperature test it by adding a small off shaped piece. It should float to the surface of your oil within 5 seconds. If it does not your oil isn't hot enough.
Oooh Golden Brown Goodness!

I sprinkled them with Powdered Sugar I mixed with Cinnamon!! Mmmm

Bloom!

This weekend I decided to try out a Cupcake/Bake Shop I had heard about called Bloom.

It's in downtown Middleton WI. It is a cute little corner shop, which unfortunately doesn't have a lot of parking, but you can usually grab a spot somewhere in the area.

It was starting to get a little busy when we were there, so we decided to make our choices quickly. I tried their vanilla cupcake with Milk Chocolate Buttercream.
It was pretty good, the top of the cupcake was a tad dry, but overall it was pretty good! I will warn you that their icing is pretty sweet, so make sure you have something to drink with you!

My daughter wanted the Silly Cupcake, which was a moist banana with chocolate chip cupcake and a cream cheese frosting. It had a chocolate chip on the top...but sadly this did not last long...

It was a very sweet shop, and if you have a gluten allergy you can find gluten free cupcakes. Also if you are a vegan they have a variety of Vegan friendly cupcakes!


Bloom is open Thursday-Saturday from 11pm-7am.

Mystery cupcakes

So last weekend I was in a creative mood. I love caramel...and I love chocolate. So I decided to make some of our Intense Chocolate cupcakes, and filled them half way.

Then I did this:

Yup! Added Caramel in the middle! And then I did this:

YEP! Marshmallows AND Chocolate chunks!!

I decided to try to lighten up on the frosting since there was so much going on, so I combined some dark chocolate ganache with some Whipping cream to make a light ganache whipped cream frosting. I know I just made your mouth water eh?

And that made this:

Warm gooey center!!

Cupcakes for a Cure!!

We are supporting and running in the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure this year.

So this month's Cupcake of the Month are our Light Sunny Lemon Cupcakes with Pink Buttercream frosting and a Pink handmade candy ribbon!

10% of all Cupcake sales during the month of May will go toward our donation goal of $500 for the race!

If you would like to donate without a purchase please click our donate button below!

Thanks for your support!

Take me out to the ball game!

Now that the Cupcakes have been delivered and are being consumed as we speak, I can let the surprise Cupcakes out of the bag!!

I know two Boston Red Sox lovers, and thought this would be the perfect way to celebrate their birthday's and general being awesome!

It was VERY hard for me to keep these a secret so long, and I am very glad that the secrets are over!!

The cupcakes were Vanilla, and Chocolate (gluten free!). Then I cut the socks and the B out of rolled fondant!

Enjoy, and of course...GO SOX!!

Sushi...cake?

What could be better than Sushi? Sushi Cake!!

I made this cake for a coworkers birthday. It's made out of our Vanilla cake, and dipped in white candy melts, we then rolled them in white sprinkles for the rice. Then wrapped it in black fondant.

I had a lot of fun making these cakes, hope you have as much fun viewing them!

xo Sarah

Ma-Ma-Macarooooons!

First, I am sorry it has been so long since I've been able to post. Between not feeling 100% and work being crazy I haven't had much spare time. But I do now!!

So my favourite colour is pink, I love anything that you can make pink, so naturally I adored Macarons!

The recipe I used was actually from Epicurious.com.

If you try it let me know what you think. I let my cookies sit for about 60 mins, then baked them and let them sit for an additional 30 mins.

Our daughter called them Krabby Patties!!

And the winner is....

Erin O!!

Erin Wrote:
Erin O. said...

All of my Easter memories are good ones. But my favorite would have to be when i was a kid and waking up and running downstairs to get my easter basket. It was like a mini-Christmas, and with a kid's favorite thing-candy. Then my mom, brother, and I would all go out to my aunts and my whole family would be there and all of us kids would have Easter egg hunts in the backyard and try the hardest to get the plastic eggs with the $1 bills in them. :)

Thank you to everyone who wrote your favourite memories! I had such a great time reading them.

Check back to the blog often, we will have more giveaways coming up!!

Want to win some Cupcakes?

Cupcake Carousel is giving away 4 Easter Cupcakes!!

What do you have to do to win? Just leave a comment listed below telling us what your favourite Easter Memory with your Family is. We'll use a random number generator, and that person will receive 4 Easter Cupcakes in the Mail! (US residents only please)

The drawing will take place on Monday March 29 5:00 pm CST. The winner will be posted, and we will try to contact through email for address, if not check back here on Monday and Tuesday to email us your address!!

If you would like to sign up for our newsletter, and have your information kept for all future giveaways, click here.

Good Luck to Everyone!

Hey...We're Famous!

Okay...so not really :)

However, we were just featured on one of our favourites CakeSpy.com!

Thanks goes out to CakeSpy owner Jessie, who took on the hardship of having cupcakes delivered right to her door and suffering through the consumption.

To take a peak at the featured blog, click here!

Happy Irish!!

Cupcake Carousel would like to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day!
We've made these lovely Pot of Gold Cupcakes with a black Cauldron, green cupcake inside and gold shimmering frosting!

How much more lucky could one get?

Adventures in Swiss Buttercream

So I wanted to master Swiss Buttercream, and decided what better way to master it than with a Vanilla bean Buttercream using real Vanilla Beans from Madagascar!

Below was the absolutely delicious results! Enjoy!

Beach Wedding!

Hey Everyone!

Well Cupcake Carousel was on a short hiatus, as we visited Marco Island Florida, just outside of Naples. Not only were we able to enjoy a little sun and relaxation, we were also able to witness my Mom and Step Dad say "I do" in a wonderful beach wedding.

So naturally I offered to bake the wedding cake and cupcakes. My brilliant idea popped into my head while visiting one of my favourite baking stores in Wisconsin called Vanilla Bean. While aimlessly walking down one of their aisles some gold sparkling sanding sugar caught my eye. I picked it up studying it thoughtfully when it hit me...Beach Cupcakes!! I quickly called my Mom and explained my idea, which she loved and thus, Beach Cupcakes were born!

We had our standard chocolate and Lemon cupcakes, then I used Buttercream icing in ivory to use as the background for the sand, applied the gold sanding sugar, then used bright blue Buttercream to pipe the waves on the beach. Lastly I added a starfish and clam shell to the "beach" made from rolled fondant.

Not only were the cupcakes delicious, (I think I ate 4!) but they looked great! Everyone loved how they tied in with the theme of the wedding.