Sometimes Life Is Sweets, Sometimes Life Is Sour, But Mostly Life Is Everything in Between!

I cannot imagine how two and a half weeks has passed since my last post.  A lot has gone on,  some good and some not always so great, but, oh, how I've missed baking and blogging about it!  Life Is Sweets has become such a nice constant amongst unpredictable days.

I wanted to write about Easter.  It was such an amazing day!  The majority of my family is in Buffalo so I am not able to spend most holidays with them.  My Husband's family is from Ukraine and do not celebrate holidays in general.  So, once a year I love gathering my in-laws and the rest of my Husband's family together for a Holiday meal.  This year we hosted Easter, despite the fact some family members are Jewish and others are Russian Orthodox, so their Easter is a week later.  Truthfully, it was my first Easter as a hostess, so I tried some new recipes.  Some worked, some didn't.  Case in point, the ham:

I was so excited to try a recipe I found for Dijon/Brown Sugar/Gingersnap Crusted Ham.  It seemed simple enough to do, BUT, the crust fell off in chunks and bits...basically everywhere but on the ham.  HOW DO YOU SUCCESSFULLY MAKE A CRUSTED HAM??!!  I still haven't found the answer.  The ham was delicious despite my efforts.  ;)

Another new recipe I found from Pinterest, Honey/Balsamic Glazed Baby Carrots turned out perfectly delicious:

The recipe, from So Wonderful, So Marvelous, is so easy I highly recommend it!

Balsamic Honey Glazed Roasted Baby Carrots

2 pounds baby carrots

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling

3 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spread carrots on cookie sheet, careful to not pile them on top of eachother.  Drizzle with some olive oil adding salt and pepper.  Roast for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and add the two tablespoons of olive oil, honey and balsamic vinegar.  Roast for 5 more minutes.  Eat and enjoy!

My Husband decided our featured Easter drink would be Chocolate Martinis.  Yeah, they were super delicious!!

Before everyone arrived I made sure everything was ready in the dining room, which is fairly small.  We have a long table with both leaves inserted.  As a result, we have to turn the table sideways to fit everyone.   For this gathering we needed seating for 10 adults and 4 children.  I had ideas on an earthy tablescape, but also wanted a bit of fun for the kids.  I found the adorable string bunny and egg decorations and hung them along the curtain rod.  I thought they added some Easter cheer without being tacky.  Not only did the kids love them, my cat did, too!

I bought some loose flowers and eucalyptus leaves to make floral arrangements in three square glass vases.  I loved how they turned out, though I can definitely use some practice at arranging.  I also bought egg cups and filled them with some jasmine I snipped from a bush in my yard.  

And then there was dessert.  I made white cake mini rose cupcakes and a meant-to-be-but-not-really hydrangea cupcake.  The icing was a brighter green than I was going for, and I got overzealous with the frosting, but, hey, I tried!  At least the roses turned out cute. it was my first time trying the technique and it actually works!

Hold the cupcake in one hand and in the other a piping bag fitted with a 2D tip.  Holding the piping bag upright over the cupcake, start piping from the middle of the cupcake and slowly spiral around, ending where you begin.  So super simple!

I wish I could say these cupcakes were totally delicious, but they were dry and not very tasty.  At all.  I was completely embarrassed!  However, I made my Lemon Tarts, too, and they were a HUGE hit.  They saved the day.  :)

I made Easter baskets for my niece and nephews filled with candy, puzzles and other fun stuff.  My Secret Service Agent cat Morticia took her job seriously and guarded them closely.

My sisters-in-law brought eggs dyed and designed by the kids and a wonderful collection of pussywillow branches with colorful hanging eggs.  So cheerful!

Dinner was totally delicious with great food and tons of laughing.  It was such a gorgeous day outside...we played games, egg hunted, scavenger hunted and enjoyed the sunshine.

And then everyone went home happy!  Am I the only one who feels a sense of satisfaction of a job well done when I see a table of used dishes stacked up after a gathering?  It's not that I love the cleanup, I just enjoy the remnants of a good time had by all.  :)

I hope you had a wonderful Easter or Passover!!

Mother's Day Flower Bouquet Cupcakes

When I first began this blog last August, I had a wish for myself.  I hoped that, although I got started by finding recipes and designs that inspired me and creating them as exactly as I could, one day I would suddenly start having my own ideas for additions, substitutions, and designs of my own.  Slowly, this has been happening and I can't tell you how rewarding it is!  I've admired so many bakers and bloggers ability to make amazing confections...and how they find inspiration EVERYWHERE!  Well, I still begin by finding images of whats been done before, but, sometimes, I come up with something on a whim.  Like these flower bouquet cupcakes I made last night.  How exciting!!

I'm certain something like this has been done before, and I would find it with a bit of Googling, but I didn't see it first and then make it.  No, instead I was sitting with my Husband while he ate a late dinner and I just started playing around with leftover cupcakes and icing.  And I love what I came up with!!

These are such HAPPY cupcakes.  Don't they make you smile?  The colors and the illusion of tiny little flowers piled high....sigh.  I just love them.

While I was looking at them I immediately thought of Mother's Day and how perfect they would be to give to one of the most important women in our lives.  And, honestly, they are just so easy to make.  Really!!

Begin, of course, by making a batch of cupcakes.  I used some leftover strawberry ones from my Ladybug Cupcakes.  You can use any flavor you like, but some of the cupcake color will show through the flowers, so bear this in mind when coming up with your color scheme.

Next, make your buttercream.  This is my favorite recipe:
Buttercream Icing

2 sticks butter, room temperature

4 cups confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

In large mixing bowl, beat butter on high speed until fluffy.  Add three cups of sugar, one at a time until combined.  Add vanilla extract and milk, along with last cup of sugar.   Beat until smooth.  Add more milk, one teaspoon at a time, to reach desired consistency of frosting.

 Split the icing into as many colors as you'd like to use.  I used yellow, purple, and pink.  Then fill a piping bag fitted with a Wilton #2D tip (place each color of icing into a separate bag).  Use the photo below for reference while reading the written description that follows:

First, pipe a circle of flowers around the outside of the cupcake (first cupcake in photo).  Then, fill in the exposed middle area with four flowers (second cupcake in photo).  Pipe four more flowers on top of the middle four flowers.  Lastly, pipe one flower on top of the second layer of four flowers, centered (third cupcake in photo).

When you've completed the flowers, use a pair of tweezers to add a single dragee in the center of each flower:

Here is the succession of steps:

And that's it!  Couldn't be simpler!!  I used green for the demo, as I had some left over from making the grass on my Ladybug Cupcakes.  The color doesn't work for the "bouquet" I put together, however it would be nice for next St. Patrick's Day or Christmas.  But it's neither late-winter or mid-winter, so let's enjoy the light, bright colors!!

Would your Mom be impressed if you gave her something homemade rather that store bought goods?  I know mine would.  So, even if you don't make this particular design, play around and see what you can come up with.  Mom's love a little thoughtful creativity.  :)  

Lovely Little Ladybugs!

Omigosh I am so excited I was actually able to make these!  I've been wondering for some time now why people bother to use fondant and gumpaste for cakes, cupcakes and cookies.  I mean, they look beautiful, but you can't eat them despite the fact they are edible.  You can eat fondant, but it's not tasty.  So what's the point?  Then I made the Minnie Mouse Cupcakes and it was so much fun...I started to get it.  It's about channeling your inner elementary art student days and being creative.  You can make anything you want!

Now, I've never been terribly good at art - drawing, sculpture, visualizing - so I'm going to start with only the most elementary designs.  Like a ladybug.  How can you screw that up?

I began by making a batch of strawberry cupcakes.  I used a box mix and added a package of vanilla pudding and used 1 cup of milk instead of water to make it a bit tastier.  While they cooled I began shaping the ladybugs using gumpaste.

Gumpaste becomes hard pretty quickly and is very sticky, so you can use Vegetable Oil to help keep your hands free of gummy residue and to keep the gumpaste pliable.  Rub some on your hands and coat your work surface before handling the gumpaste. I used it quite generously with no negative effects of the design.  Using smallish amounts of gumpaste at a time, work some coloring into the paste using your hands.  I didn't use gloves and the dye made a mess of red all over my hands, but it washed right off.  I used Wilton No-Taste Red gel dye.  I could not photograph this process since I didn't want my camera to be covered in red!

Next, I made odd oval shapes in different sizes.  I worked some black dye into a separate ball of gumpaste and then used it to make the heads and dots, as in the photo above.

Then it was time to mix up some buttercream.

Buttercream Icing

2 sticks butter, room temperature

4 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk


In large mixing bowl, beat butter on high speed until fluffy.  Add three cups of sugar, one at a time until combined.  Add vanilla extract and milk, along with last cup of sugar.   Beat until smooth.  Add more milk, one teaspoon at a time, to reach desired consistency of frosting.


I removed about 3/4 of the icing from the bowl and mixed green dye into it to make the "grass".  I used a Wilton Tip #233.  To make the grass, squeeze the icing in the piping bag gently and lift up as you stop squeezing.  After covering the cupcake completely with grass, place the ladybugs randomly on top.

I divided the remaining 1/4 of icing and split it into 2 bowls.  One I dyed yellow, the other light purple.  I used a Wilton Tip #2D. Before piping the flower on top of the cupcake, I made a few practice flowers to get a sense of the pressure to use and just how it worked in general.

Once I felt I had the hang of it,  I piped some flowers randomly on the cupcake and used tweezers to add one white dragee in the center of each flower.

And then the last step - adding a white picket fence around my little ladybug garden.  I picked up some cupcake wrappers I found at my local Michaels Craft Store:

And Voila!!

I honestly think it's so amazing you can go from a simple, plain cupcake to something so special and cute!

I'm pretty excited to try some new sculpture and other avenues of decoration I have resisted.  I'm not sure what I'm going to try next, but the sky is the limit!!!  Happy Spring.  :)