Michelle's Baby Shower

My cousin Michelle was expecting her first child, a girl, last summer. The shower colors were chocolate brown and pink and I created the picks in a onesie theme to top the cupcakes.  Each guest got to take a cupcake home in an individual box.  

Ella's Snowflake Cupcakes

Baby Ella is one of the newer additions to our family. Her first birthday was approaching and her mom, Amy, she was planning a Winter Wonderland birthday party.  With all the snow we've had here in New England this winter, it was a perfect theme!

I was honored to make her birthday cupcakes in keeping with the theme and went with vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. For the vanilla, I used Billy's Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes again but reduced the cake flour and increased the all purpose flour. A definite improvement with the texture and the cake was more sponge-like and moister. 

For the chocolate cupcakes, I used Martha Stewart's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes recipe.  It is super easy and so full of flavor. 

 The frosting was a simple buttercream but I added a little shortening to help stabilize it. I tinted it a light blue and although the hue was exactly what I envisioned, it worked.

Each cupcake was topped with a white chocolate snowflake covered in white sparkling sanding sugar.

I made the cupcakes the night before the party and was so thankful I completed them that night. The morning of the party I woke up with the worst headache and couldn't get out of bed until late morning. My wonderful husband delivered the 5 dozen cupcakes and was able to stay for the party. I was feeling better but stayed home with the kids to rest.  I was so sad to have missed Ella's big day but had great reviews on the cupcakes.

The birthday girl deserved her own special cupcake.

Monogram Cupcakes

First I'd like to thank Denise for the opportunity to make these cupcakes for her daughter Amanda's 18th birthday.  She requested a vanilla cupcake (I used Billy's Vanilla Vanilla Cupcake recipe) with Martha Stewart's Dark Chocolate Frosting.  The frosting is to die for taste-wise but I find that it thicken's up once set and becomes fairly firm. The cake is yummy but tends to have a dense but dry texture.  The recipe calls for 2 cups of sugar which sweetens the cake and gives it almost a crusty top.
Overall it's a good cupcake but needs a little improvement.

For the monogrammed "A's" I melted some Wilton white chocolate candy melts and piped them onto parchment paper.  While still wet, half of them were sprinkled with white sanding sugar for a little "bling".

Welcome!

Welcome!  The Nesting Bee blog is my creative outlet that has been months in the planning. Although it is still not "ready" (nor I'm not sure when it will be), I've decided to bite the bullet and just start posting.

My love for baking started as a young girl and these days my time isn't as plentiful. I'm slowly getting in some baking time in since that is my current passion. Testing recipes - tweaking recipes, and testing them again is all par for the course. My urge to become more venturous is growing and I seek perfection in what I create.

I love crafting but keeping a full time job and tending to the family does not leave much time to fit it all in. Over time I'm sure hoping it will come but until then, I can be inspired and dream.

This blog is just in it's infancy so be patient with me and enjoy the ride!

Deanna