Batter Bucket Cupcakes: September 2010

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Fall Flavors

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip with a Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Caramel Apple: Apple Spice Cake with a Maple Buttercream Frosting

Pumpkin Cranberry with a Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

NEW Butter Pecan with a Brown Sugar Frosting

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Orders Benefitting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Check out my fundraising page by clicking on the link below

http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/sealtri11/nikkiduke

My Best Friend is Having a Baby!

This was pretty exciting news for a couple reasons: Not only is Kelsey my first close friend having a baby, but she and I have been friends since kindergarten. Okay, maybe we didn't really like eachother til 3rd grade but that's a whole other story :) Kelsey and Matt picked out the most adorable things for their registry (I now have a weird and potentially dangerous obsession with gift registries), and I could not decide between the whale or frog theme, so I went with both. Her shower was a success, and it was so good to see the loving and amazing family (my favorite family besides my own) excitedly waiting to meet little Matthew.

Animal Birthday Cupcakes

Under the Sea

Butterflies and Bees

I like to give these cupcakes most of the credit for inspiring me to practice my cupcake decorating. This is one of the first designs that caught my eye while browsing endless baking blogs; as soon as I saw them I knew I had to bake them for Miss Serena Sedillo; anyone who knows Serena knows why. I had this recipe in the back of mind for a good 6 months, so when June 23rd came around I couldn't wait to get in the kitchen and give them a try. Another interesting fact about Serena is she tends to get a little more spoiled by me on her birthday than my other friends. There is, however, good and completey fair reasoning behind this... Serena's birthday takes place around the time I'm ready to get summer started by vacationing. I beleive I've missed the past three birthdays? but I ALWAYS deliver presents and celebratioins before my departures, so I think (and hope) I make up for it.

My little cousin Natalie is a little lady after my own heart; the girl loves cupcakes just as much as I do! When I was asked to supply cupcakes for her 5th Birthday by my uber cool older cousin, Alyssa (I just realized you are my only older first cousin), how could I say no? And to make matters even cuter, she was having a garden tea party. I, of course, had to make butterflies but this time add in some bumblebees as well.

Country Flags

My friend Cindy and I have travelled to some pretty awesome places together, so when her birthday came around I wanted to make some cupcakes inspired by some of the countries that we've visited. Since we were all still recovering from the World Cup and Waka Waka was still stuck in my head, I opted to decorate cupcakes with countries' flags. I guess the 6 inch Eiffel tower and mini Acropolis will have to wait til next year.... or my next order.

Sorry, France...as you can see, I wasnt paying attention when I packed these up; you can view it as either a sideways France or an upside down Netherlands :) Or maybe since Cindy and I have been to both this was purposely done to represent the two countires in one cupcake. Yea, that sounds a lot better.

Welcome Home Cupcakes

A good friend of mine was returning home from her Study Abroad program in Wales. We were all excited to have her home, and I figured there'd be no better way to celebrate than with cupcakes and Olive Garden! I decided to make a cupcake collage of Southern California's finest; this meant I would need to use fondant for the first time. As you can see, I never did master the art of block lettering, and a few planned toppers had to be replaced with boring stars. I plan to redeem myself now that I've had a little more practice decorating with fondant. hint, hint...

4th of July

The 4th of July is filled with reasons to make TONS of red velvet cupcakes. Not only do I have two households to provide cupcakes for (Mom's and Dad's), but the holiday happens to fall on my best friend Meli's birthday.

Melissa, a political science major who has, well, just always loved America + America's celebration of Independence = the most fitting birthday pair!