This, that and 400 things in between

Greetings folks...today I have finally been stopped in my tracks by a sinus infection so what better time to finally write another post. Sooooo much has been going on since we last chatted (well I chatted, you sort of listened) amongst our engagement party, wedding planning and every day life I was lucky enough to be asked to make cupcakes for Coco Bliss Superfood cafe on the busy Oxford Street in Bulimba.

These guys focus on making good food yummy again and let me tell you, I am a fan of that - I generally tell anything green to go jump off a cliff. Candi and Mellita started the very popular Happy Little Dumplings chain which are now popping up all over Brisbane and are filling me up atleast 2-3 times a week for lunch! When they asked me to contribute to their venture at first I shit myself, not literally, well maybe a little, but then I put some clean underwear on and sucked it up! I was quite skeptical that I could make anything to fit in with their vision but with a few tweaks of my favourite recipes here we are! Currently I am supplying them with clean carrot cupcakes and vegan chocolate cupcakes. The 'clean' term is used because I don't use refined items. Using ingredients in their purest forms is what Coco Bliss is all about and I am loving every minute of it!

I know both the girls have such bigger plans for Coco Bliss and I can't wait to continue our blossoming relationship! And if you aren't already, head on over to Instagram and check them out!!

I also have to mention the awesome write up on The Urban List today about Coco Bliss AND an awesome photo of one of my carrot cupcakes, you can have a read here www.theurbanlist.com/brisbane/a-list/coco-bliss-superfood-bar-verdict

Earlier this week I made a cake for a lovely customer Razia and her new fiance Kalif. Razia showed me a photo of the material in her dress and I immediately got so excited. Royal blue, orange and gold were the main colours used on the cake and cupcakes. Safe to say the couple were very happy, as was I!

As I mentioned on my Instagram post, this order was very special to me because I was contributing to a very traditional celebration, which we don't get to see a lot of in everyday life. When I dropped the cake and cupcakes off I have to admit I was a little nervous because people tend to judge me quite quickly with all of my tattoos, but I honestly could not speak highly enough of how friendly Razia and all her family were and how excited they were to see the cake. To me, there is nothing more special than family gatherings!!!

I also had to say goodbye to someone I have known for quite a while now and who also has left a pretty good mark on the internet! Elle and I have been friends since we were about 15 or 16 and she recently moved over to LA to pursue her dreams and I couldn't be more proud of her. Elle plays a big part in a few businesses including the Bruce Heart blog, her hair extension company Pastelle Locks and Rawr energy which is a vegan protein powder as well as being the face of many local and international brands and using her platform to promote the vegan lifestyle and animal cruelty free products. So I sent her on her way with some vegan cupcakes of course! I have to give her a lot credit too as she cops A LOT of shit but still carries on and doesn't let that bring her down - I like dat!

Well, apologies again for the lack of blogginess but I will have another for you around Christmas time as I have a few great orders between now and then! Peace out!

Our engagement party

What a life tick, I've found my best friend who can double as a husband as well! Ben and I have been together nearly 4 years and got engaged in Central Park NY in June this year. It sounds cliche I know but it totally wasn't! We'd been walking around New York all day sight seeing and cramming in as much as that amazing place had to offer and of course we had to take a wander through Central Park. 

It was hot, I was thirsty and probably whinging like a 4 year old that I wanted a lemonade and all the while Ben was plucking up the courage to ask me to be his wife. After aimlessly walking around with no real direction, Ben pulled me aside and made me start to climb up on this rock formation so I was face to face with him. He grabbed a hold of me and pulled out the little blue box from his pocket which held my dream ring (ok that part is a little cliche but it's true!) he told me how much he loved me and asked me to be his wife. I think I started crying and shaking and put the ring on and he had to double check that I'd said yes!!! So amongst all the excitement I asked a random lady to take a photo for us and it's about as cheesy as I'll ever get! 

So we decided to make the trek back to our hotel to get some wifi and tell our families (even though I think half of Bens already knew!). I called my dad then my mum and sister who were all ecstatic for me, even at 6:30am!

I couldn't believe how exhausting sharing such amazing news is! Facebook and Instagram gave us a hand though too 😉.  

We decided to have our engagement party when the weather was a bit warmer and when we could give family and close friends plenty of notice for travel etc.

Having the party at home was great, we got together some hire furniture, paid a visit to our friend Dan Murphy's and got a great supplies of BBQ goods from our local butcher. I can't express enough how lucky Ben and I are to have such special people in our lives and a big thank you again to everyone who could make it, especially Bens beautiful grandparents who flew down from Townsville!

NOW the cake!!! I've been wanting to do a purple rosette cake so that's what I did! I also made 30 cupcakes which obviously wasn't enough, I have never seen cupcakes go so quickly! 

And to anyone wondering, yes I am crazy enough to make my own wedding cake/cupcakes too!! 

And party and party and pa and pa and party

Yoohoo only me! WELL what a fun few weeks I have had but where to begin. Thankfully I haven't been too inundated with orders which has given me plenty of time to plan our upcoming engagement party this weekend and so I can decide on what sort of cake/cupcakes I will make for the occassion. I thought I should also take the opportunity while I have been a bit quieter to trial some new designs/create some crazy shit. 

 I recently recieved a pretty cool book that had some awesome inspiration in it for cake/cupcake toppers. These cupcakes are the result of said book and I have to say I am pretty happy with how they turned out! 

 

 I was also lucky enough to make cupcakes for the lovely Nicola and her daughter Eadie for her first birthday! Nicola gave me an image of the material that Eadie's dress was made out of for the day and so I matched up the decorations to that! 

 

 I am really getting a kick out of new and different orders and certainly have quite a few of those from now until Christmas which will give me a good challenge! 

 The weekend just gone we celebrated my little sisters 21st birthday with a weekend down the Gold Coast and a night out at the Casino of course! I am happy to report I walked away $130 up! Anyone would have thought i'd won the jackpot the way I was carrying on!

 So of course for such a special occasion I made her a birthday cake and she opted for a blue rosette cake. I have to say the more of these I am doing the more I fall in love with them! 

 

 We ventured out for dinner to the Groove Train in Surfers Paradise, who served up some delicious meals and even prepped the cake and lit the candles for us. 

 Just to give you an idea of how many this serves also, I think 10 or 11 of us had a piece of cake and there was still half left over!

I will be posting next week with the cake and cupcakes I make for our engagement party oooooooo excited!!!

TTFN!!

Big boy pants = Activated!

PHEW! I think this is the first time this week I have actually sat down for more than 5 minutes, ok I may or may not have been spoilt by my mum with a massage and nail bar session on Thursday but that was like two days ago! 

It has been a busy few weeks for me with orders and I have certainly challenged myself to try new things. Most of you may not know but I haven't had any formal training in cake decorating or been to any courses, everything I have learnt has been visually either online or in books I have collected over the past year or so. Also I find now a lot of people tag me in photos either on Facebook or Instagram for inspiration which is great!

SO to get to the exciting part, here are some orders I have done in the past few weeks, some are for specific occasions which I will go into and some are 'just because' orders - I've got a few returning customers for those ones!

These babies were made from fresh strawberries as I was lucky enough to get an unlimited supply for a few weeks from Ben's relatives on the Sunny Coast, mmmm Strawberries.

And who can resist giving a neice half a dozen cupcakes, the other half went to Dad on Father's Day of course (pink seemed appropriate for the occasion!)

My next order was for one of my oldest friends and also now one of my bridesmaids! We had a get together at my place for her birthday so I made some regular and gluten free cupcakes and I went with the bright colours to welcome in the warmer weather, because Winter was so cold PFT.

Also last week I was lucky enough to make some cupcakes for my old pal Sean and his new fiancé Nikki for their engagement party in the Valley, I was surprised they all made it to the party knowing how excited Sean was to get his hands on them

Thursday just gone I sent a few orders back to Toowoomba with mum who almost has her certificate three in helping me with orders! But seriously, she is awesome. Another old friend of mine from my Softball days, Jodie ordered some cakes for a baby shower and they made their way up the dusty, slow old track to Toowoomba!

AND last but certainly not least, my most recent order for the lovely Chelsea and her sister Courtney, who asked me to make their 21st cupcake tower. I love clients who trust me enough to give a few basic ideas/colours and let me run with it, I even surprised myself on this one! I made a vanilla top tier cutting cake covered in buttercream and then added some modelling chocolate stars and '21' on top. The cupcakes were also vanilla with buttercream and as you'll see the theme was pink, white and silver. The silver cupcakes have what's called a lustre dust, which is basically an edible spray paint! Also some little edible stars to top them off

I have probably rambled on in every post I have written so far (like 8 haha) BUT I am seriously so grateful and humbled that people ask ME to make a cake/cupcakes for their special occasion. I am nothing fancy, just a girl covered in tattoos who enjoys baking waaaaaay too much. I think you may also be pleasantly surprised with my pricing as I know how expensive cakes can be! For any orders, quotes or questions please email me on karleeskupcakes@gmail.com I am also on Instagram @Karleeskupcakes and have a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KarleesKupcakes 

Hi, yes I am still alive and baking!

What a day...week...month...year. It's almost September which means SPRING! I am already enjoying these warmer days and even more so now that our resident plovers have moved on. Do you ever get the feeling of not knowing what day it is, or noticing your underwear are on inside out!? Yeah, me neither...... I got a mini promotion a few weeks ago while my boss was away getting married and I don't think I have ever been so exhausted in my entire life! ( all of the mothers reading this have permission to mumble under their breaths that I'm in for a surprise one day). 

For any of you that don't know, yes I do still work a full time job at BOQ in their fraud department. It's one of the best and most challenging jobs I have had so far. 

So when do I bake? Good question, usually once I'm home, showered and fed i'll whip out the tools around 6:30 or 7 o'clock and then on the weekends! I am lucky enough to finish a bit earlier on Thursdays so I shouldn't complain too much I guess. I am bloody tired though! Ok enough of me whinging, lets talk cake! 

So since my last post I've had a bit of fun trialling different flavors finally! These chocolate and caramel fudge cupcakes were deeeeeeelish. The best part is I only used the dipping sauce you buy in the fruit section of the supermarket. I put a spoonful inside the batter and then drizzled it on top for decoration. Hello calories! 

I also got to make some monkey and crocodile cupcakes for Franklin, my almost second cousin, like he cares! 

Frankie has to be one of the smartest 4 years I know and I know alot of 4 year olds. He can list out all the planets in order AND he knows to leave out Pluto. He can also tell you about his favorite dinosaurs.

I purchased the monkey toppers they are Wilton brand (only my favorite!) and the crocodile toppers were hand made by yours truly, what a mission! But I was happy with my first attempt, the rest of the kids seemed to enjoy them too! 

I also managed to whip up some cupcakes for our good friends Dom, Jeanette, their daughter Harper and newest edition Hendrix! Safe to say these didn't last very long! 

I managed to squeeze in another baby shower batch of cupcakes for another lady at work and I have to say I am in love with this design!!!

Last but certainly not least, I made two dozen gluten free cupcakes for my other almost cousin (Ben has A LOT of cousins) Steph as it was her birthday, yay! These GF babies also got the tick of approval from other GF homies which made me feel even better! Ps I loved the theme on these too! 

 

Well boys and girls that's enough from me. September is going to be a busy month and i'll be sure not to leave it so long between posts!!! 

TTFN! 

Baaaabbbiieeessss!

So I don't think it's any secret to my friends or family that I love squeezing other people's babies, in a good way. I love their kankles, chubby cheeks, gummy mouths and wrinkly little butts! Sadly I am not making these cupcakes for myself just yet BUT they are for someone who is the same height as me so I've got a good indication of how big I'll get one day and I have accepted the fact that I'll be wider than I am taller. 

Today at work we wished our colleague Daisy off into the scary and unknown world of (DUN DUN DUN) parenthood and honestly how else would we do that than with mini pink cupcakes with little pink feet on top in little pink papers (apologies to my future daughter/gay son) 

Daisy managed to keep her pregnancy a secret for 20 whole weeks before we all accidentally found out - not going there! 

I've had many a conversation with her unborn baby as I've been told they eventually recognize voices from inside the belly and I like watching them move around - so alien like. So I expect in about 2-3 months she'll walk in the office and be all like 'sup KP!'. 

So we sent Daisy on her way with all our mostly useless parenting advice and I yelled at her belly one last time 'WAKE UP', I got nothing. I have already called shot gun on first cuddles when we get a visit to the office and we'll probably make Daisy do a few hours work too ;)

I LOVE BABIES (minus the poosplosions)

Holy Santa Claus....I did it!

Soooooo I should get some sort of certificate or medal for my ability to convince myself I probably can't do something and then finding out I actually CAN if I use a little self belief and that thing called effort. I received an email for a CAKE order and immediately told myself I probably couldn't do it. My client Elle had a little something to do with my decision making and me actually attempting to decorate something bigger than an apple, or cupcake.

There was also a little underlying apprehension due to the fact that Elle and her brother Jake were runners up on My Kitchen Rules 2013, yeah I KNOW. Throughout the whole process (4 days yikes) Elle was so friendly and so understanding that I hadn't attempted anything like this before but still encouraged me to do the best job I could so that's what I bloody well did!

I started with two round cakes about 7 x 3 inches stacked on top of each other then 'dirty iced' with buttercream to hold it all together!

I then proceeded to start my layers of rosettes around the cake with great caution and a few curse words in between.  Once I got started I said to myself 'Hey, this a not so bada!' and yes I do tend to talk to myself A LOT when I bake. So four colours later and a lot of butter this was the end result

Yes, I actually did make this and I am still trying to convince myself also. Everything went as smoothly as I could have hoped and not ONE rosette fell off YAY!

The best part of all was that Elle loved it! I get so wrapped up in each order that I forget how good it feels when I see the smile on my clients face. Admittedly, I was terrified. This girl has been on National TV and was a runner up on a cooking show for pete sake! So Happy Birthday Elle and I actually cannot wait to do another one of these bad boys! 

Shoot me an email if you are interested! karleeskupcakes@gmail.com :)