Peach Cupcakes with Sangria Berry Icing

I've been baking a lot lately. I'm not sure if it means I am in a creative mood, a cheery mood, or a just plain hungry mood, but it's made for some delighted tummies. The fruit this season has been delicious, probably because of all the heatwaves. Regardless, I've been wanting to bake something new (not the usual chocolate goody), and we had some peaches from the local farmers' market that were about to go bad. I found a super yummy peach cupcake recipe at Smitten Kitchen as well as one for sangria cupcakes [from a different site]. Feeling a little adventurous, I took the sangria syrup from the latter cupcake recipe, which called for adding fresh berries to a red wine, and used it to make a sangria icing. The result was almost too sweet, so I've gotta play around with the icing. The peach cupcakes, however, were perfect - so moist and light! I highly recommend trying it out; you can find the recipe by clicking here.

I took extras into work and received rave reviews from the summer school peeps. Don't worry, the sangria syrup involved boiling the wine, so I'm 99% certain that the alcohol completely burned off. Here is how they looked (I found the cupcake liners on Sweet Estelle's Baking Supply site on Etsy). Once I figure out a better icing recipe, I'll post an update. Until then, enjoy!

Belated Birthday!

I figured I'd finally post pictures of Olivia's very first birthday. We were blessed to be surrounded by family and friends as well as to have a gorgeous day. Olivia enjoyed everyone's company and was the ham that we know she can be. And to everyone who attended or sent a gift, we appreciate all of it... our thank yous are just a little behind. I wonder how much longer I can use our new house as an excuse?

We decided to make the birthday party a Yo Gabba Gabba! theme because Olivia LOVES the show. She lights up when DJ Lance Rock walks out in the opening scene, and lately, when she dances, she dances just like they do on the show. Single? No kids? Haven't a clue? Honestly, check it out. Frank and I find the show hilarious, and the little known bands they showcase are pretty awesome, too. I could go on and on, but if you're ever bored, catch it on ONDemand or NickJr.

Does your child love Yo Gabba Gabba! as much as ours? Thinking of planning a shindig, too? Well, it was far easier than you'd think, especially with the help of the Gabba Friends website. I'm going to post specifics about the cakes I made in a later post, but this website inspired everything.

The balloons:

The cakes:

At first, Olivia didn't know what to make of the cake. She stared at it and wouldn't touch the thing. When we tried to put it in her hand, she shook it off! She did NOT want to get dirty. But once we put a bite in her mouth... look out, world! Olivia LOVES cake! Although, you still wouldn't know it from the pictures...

Showing off a present:

And tuckered out from a long day of partying:

At 1 year old, Olivia [could]:

weighs 20.7 lbs.

is 30 1/4 ins. long

says cat, dog, hi, bye, mom, dad and uh oh (sometimes Pop Pop & baby)

crawls all over

stands up by pulling on something

cruises (walks holding onto furniture or hands)

stands on her on for about 3 - 5 seconds

throws balls, even to others (or Monty the cat)

points to things and says "Dat!" or "Dat?" (want and what?)

claps on her own and when told to

dances to music

does easy shape sorter pieces

gives hi-5s

LOVES Monty the cat and will play with him and try to pet him

wears size 3 diapers

wears clothing sizes from 6 mos (onesies or tops) all the way up to 18 mos (pants)

eats 7 jars of baby food every day!

feeds herself puffs and teething cookies

puts her arms up for SO BIG!

Happy Birthday(s)!

Sadly, advanced cake decorating was cancelled. However, I have been happily practicing by making birthday cakes for friends. Note to self: practice writing and learn how to do something other than flowers. ;-) Side note: the middle pictures are from intro cake decorating when we learned how to use fondant. I must say, I prefer icing although the fondant does give the cake a very professional look. Quarter-life crisis, here I come!

A Rose by Any Other Name

Jealous? I know you are. I made these. Out of icing. Leaves & stems are apparently next class. Now taking orders.

They're cakes; I bake them.

One of my fondest memories from my childhood is actually of a cake book my mom kept stashed in our dining room hutch (left-most drawer... is it sad that I know that?). I loved looking through the small little paperback book (magazine? leaflet?), reading the instructions on how to make all different kinds of novelty cakes and drooling over the pictures. (My love of sweets started at a young age.) Our birthdays were always a big deal (apparently, this is not the case in every household), full of decorations, presents, cake, and parties (yes, plural). I really want to be able to do this for Liv, so I decided to take a cake decorating course through a local adult school.

First, cake decorating is hard. Sometimes, I pretend I'm someone on the Food Network and just do it all fast...trust me, wishing really hard is not an effective way to hone a craft.

Second, I love it. Not only is it fun, but it's a nice break. It's one of the few places where I'm known as Alicia and not Alicia, the Mommy.

Third, my plan to not eat so much cake by inundating myself with cake is slowly working. I am almost sick of cake. Almost.

So, I've gone through 3 weeks (it's 2 different courses at 5 weeks each) and am posting the cakes I've made so far... don't be jealous, I'm obviously amazing at this. Whenever you are ready for an Alicia Original, shoot me a comment. One pretty awesome, one-tiered cake (we don't do tiers until course 2) with class buttercream icing coming up.

Week 2: Clowns (totally made of icing -- Frank was stoked)

Practice cake celebrating Liv's 6 month birthday. Can you tell that I learned stars, dots, and faces that week?

Week 3: Rainbow cake (except I didn't have the energy to use multiple colors) -- I'm getting TV show worthy. Start the wait list!

Check back often for future skill demonstrations!