I have several hobbies, but nothing brings me more joy and peace than being covered in flour, sugar, sprinkles and playing with recipes. You’ll find me in the kitchen baking when I’m stressed, when something is heavy on my heart, or even when I’m just super happy. The kitchen is my solace. It’s my domain. To put it simply, baking is my version of art and an expression of my love. Please notice it’s “baking” and not “cooking.” I don’t enjoy cooking. There is a difference and it’s a huge one.

One of the main questions I get with baking is “what if the recipe flops?” I have had many many flops and fails, and that’s part of the fun! When I try recipes from a cookbook, I make notes next to it so I never made the same mistakes twice. If a recipe is so bad it isn’t salvageable, I cross it out and move on! Some recipes are just bad recipes! Don’t take it as a failure, find the humor in it and move on.

One of the things I love to bake are cupcakes. Cupcakes are so versatile and fun to play around with!! Each cupcake can be individually unique depending on the accents chosen, the shade of frosting, the flavor combination, and a host of other variables. It’s so easy to personalize each cupcake and isn’t that difficult. I’m not artistic in any way, shape or form, BUT I can decorate cupcakes.

I was asked to provide cupcakes for a wedding end of May. The bride-to-be requested around 50-75 cupcakes and together we came up with five different flavors (with one being a gluten and dairy free option). From start to finish it took me roughly 5-6 hours to complete the order which resulted in 101 cupcakes.

1. Gluten/Dairy free chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

2. Triple chocolate cupcakes with chocolate fudge buttercream accented with small and medium Pearl candies

3. French vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream accented with greenery made from rice paper

4. Mocha cupcakes with espresso frosting accented with a chocolate covered espresso bean

5. Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting accented with gold sprinkles and chocolate writing of either “love” or “Mr❤️Mrs”

Overall, everything went smoothly and there wasn’t a single cupcake left. I take that as a huge win and compliment for my amateur baking heart!

Writing with chocolate has been the latest “skill” that I’ve been playing with. It’s surprisingly easy and so fun! I started by tracing typed out cursive words and now I free-hand it. High-School calligraphy is finally paying off! (Algebra still hasn’t payed off, but I digress…)

The mocha, chocolate and red velvet cupcakes were the first flavors completely gone, in case anyone is wondering.