S'mores cupcakes

You know what makes me think of summer and camping? Besides the sun, the beach, long days, etc. S'mores! I finally made the S'mores cupcakes from VCON and I can't believe I waited so long. Taking a bite with the chocolate ganache, light buttercream frosting and then the unbelievingly moist cake all at once, OMG! They have just the right amount of sweetness, i'm not a fan of real sweet treats. My advice to you. Go to your kitchen right now and make these.

I can't wait to go have another.

Cupcakes for Cancer!

My son comes home from school on Monday and says "oh mom, I signed you up to make 40 cupcakes for the school bake sale on Thursday". Wow that's alot, I was thinking. Not 12, not 24, but 40? I asked him why he signed me up to make so many and he told me that if they didn't get enough cupcakes baked then they couldn't have the bake sale. (Each classroom has sign-ups for the bakesale on Thursday after school.) The reason he wanted to make sure there was enough cupcakes was that this is just no ordinary school bake sale, it's for kids with Cancer.

It all started with a local girl who had gone through chemo. a couple of years ago. She had heard of a young local boy who was diagnosed with leukemia and it hit home with her because she could relate to the chemo. It is a touching story about this young girl wanting to help raise money for this boy and for other kids as well. She started "Cupcakes for Cancer" and you can read about her, what she is doing and the article on the young boy on the following site http://www.myspace.com/cupcakesforcancer. It's really nice to know that there are alot of young people that do care for others and are doing something about it. I was also touched at knowing that my son cares as well. I guess I'm doing something right as a parent.

So here are my 40 vegan cupcakes I made. One batch was lemon with lemon buttercream(these were awesome), chocolate with mint buttercream and drizzled with chocolate ganache, last but not least, chocolate with chocolate frosting.

BABY SHOWER CAKE

This is the cake I made for my cousin's baby shower last Saturday. The cake flavor I made was one I have previously posted. I was practicing. I also made the cupcakes. This was my second time using fondant and a bit of a mishap due to the chocolate. I had brown food coloring but when I was adding it to the fondant it was a clay color not brown! What to do in so little time before I had to leave. So I had to use cocoa again which dries out the fondant,those of you who use fondant would know this. So I didn't get a dark brown look like I wanted and it was a bit harder to work with because of it being dry. Anyways, it turned out alright. I actually preferred my practice cake the week before. Oh well. The baby's room is decorated pink & brown and the comforter has a ladybug on it, that's why I went with making the ladybug on top. My cousin and everyone loved it so I guess that's all that matters. I really need to take cake decorating classes.