TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT!!!! (IN THE WORDS OF ROD STEWART)

Well, getting excited and ready for the fourth Iron Cupcake Challenge! Tonight's event, which I am hosting, is complete with talented bakers, four amazing judges, wonderful prizes, anticipated delish cupcakes and the chance to support a wonderful worthy charity!! This event is a dress-up event and I have secured a great costume--a vampire witch with faux eyelashes, black lipstick, long black wig and white ghoulish face paint! I can hardly contain my excitement--but not just for dressing up and feeling like a kid again. I am excited for the fun we always have at these challenges!! I will be bringing many cupcake related door prizes for folks; my official $300 sound system fit with high tech microphone and the awards/certificates for the new winners of the Iron Cupcake Challenge!! Tonight's charity is the Knight Park Playground Foundation and its goal is to provide a safe and fun playground for kids of all physical abilities and ages. One of the most exciting parts of tonight's challenge is that it's being hosted by Connie and Stink Fischer of Collingswoods infamous, The PopShop! The PopShop has been featured on the Food Network because of their unique and whimsical menu featuring over 30 kinds of grilled cheese, dozens of unusual pancakes, soda fountain drinks/desserts and more! BOBBY FLAY himself challenged Stink (owner) to a grilled cheese throwdown recently and I bet you don't need to tell you who won--STINK!! The food, atmosphere, and owners are unmatched-so please come join us for a wonderful night of delicious cupcakes (this month's secret ingredient is: PUMPKIN, of course!), great friendly competition, amazing food, Halloween dress-up ghoulish fun and wonderful prizes!!

Cupcake Tower#3 COMPLETE!

Well, I completed my third cupcake tower over the weekend. It was my largest order ever of appro. 200 cupcakes. I ordered the cupcake tower about a week ahead and chose a fall color palette to decorate it. My plan was to make tons of sugar paste flowers and decorate it with those. Of course, plans are great but even the best laid plans don't always come to fruition! I very smartly planned ahead and purchased a dozen roses the day before the tower was due, in case I needed supplemental flowers or just to add to the decorations of the tower. I made three kinds of cupcakes: vanilla, chocolate and red velvet. Whew-was that a ton of cupcakes to make. By the time I finished icing them all my hands were quite sore. I tinted the frosting in three tones; a copper shade, a cream color shade and a rose red. I had used coordinating ribbon and faux flowers to try to give the tower a wonderful fall feel. When all was said and done, I def. am glad I had the extra real flowers-I didn't have nearly enough gumpaste roses/flowers and it worked out very well! In the end, the cupcake tower and the cupcakes all came together well and I thought it was a nice fall arrangement. I have received positive feedback from the client, so I think she was pleased also! Thank goodness I had those roses to bring it all home-disaster averted-for now at least!

Next Iron Cupcake Challenge

Well, we are gearing up for our next Iron Cupcake Challenge! (In the photo above, our judges from the last challenge carefully sample and "grade" the cupcakes which were entered in our maple ICC for September) I am so very excited because this time we are being hosted by the PopShop in Collingswood! The PopShop has amazing food including over thirty varieties of grilled cheese and many delish choices for food lovers of all ages! The PopShop was even featured on the FoodNetwork recently when Bobby Flay challenged him to a THROWDOWN! The owners, Stink and Connie Fisher have been gratious enough to host our fun cupcake event and we are psyched to be there! The secret ingredient this month is PUMPKIN and we are encouraging all bakers and guests to dress up in their favorite Halloween gear! Can't wait to see all the ghouls and goblins who show up! We have an unprecedented FOUR judges this time and as always, top prize is $100.00 for the adult baking level!! We have recently added a jr. bakers level (kids 16 and under) and top prize for them is $20!!

As always,  a portion of the proceeds from this event will benefit a very worthwhile charity--this month we are donating to the Knight Park Playground Foundation! Come out and join us and enjoy some delicious cupcakes, have great conversations with other cupcake and baking enthusiasts AND help a very worthwhile cause!! Can't wait to see you all dressed in your Halloween finest AND taste your delicious pumpkin cupcake entries--see you on October 25th at the PopShop! Here's a link for more info: www.meetup.com/Iron-Cupcake-Challenge-Moorestown
And: if you'd like to see some pictures from our previous challenges: take a look here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1175443@N22/

Fishy Friends!

Aren't these little cupcakes cute--made for a dear friends birthday. She is the fishing queen-constantly showing photos of her catching one big fish or another, so ocean life was the perfect theme. I hope she enjoyed the little buggers and can't wait to see what's she catches next! Happy Bday LG!

Yeah Me--A New Blog--soo cute too!

Yeah, I have a new blog--do you like it-do you love it--I am in awe--thanks so much to Kristin over at Simply Whimsy Designs and her amazing talent!! She did an awesome job-perhaps you can give her blog a looksie!

Cupcake Tower Number 2 --DELIVERED!

Well, I had to deliver my second cupcake tower this passed weekend. It was for another first birthday party for a lovely little girl. I was asked to make the color palette pinks and greens, so I took that and ran with it. I used pink tulle, pink satiny bows and pink polka dot ribbon to fancy it up. I covered the cupcake tower with thick green wrapping paper and piped pretty tulle ribbon along the edges. That, plus sixty cupcakes with tons of fluffy pastel icing and tiny fondant toppers (plus lots of polka dots) made it all come together. The centerpiece was a three layer cake (made of three stacked six inch cakes) which I placed a giant G on (in honor of the birthday girls initial). Lots of pinks, greens, dots, frosting, ribbons and tulle made for a girly-girls cupcake tower dream. Hope the birthday girl got to sample lots of them!