Torte Roundup

Chocolate Raspberry Torte: chocolate cake with raspberry filling, covered in chocolate ganache, topped with fresh raspberries

Lemon Blueberry Torte: Lemon blueberry cake filled with vanilla butter cream and topped with fresh blueberries

Chocolate Chip Torte: Chocolate chip vanilla pound cake filled with chocolate butter cream and topped with mini chocolate chips

Triple Chocolate Torte: Chocolate pound cake with milk chocolate butter cream, drizzled with semi sweet ganache.

Flourless Chocolate Torte: A rich bittersweet, creamy chocolate torte

Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte: Chocolate cake filled with chocolate butter cream, iced in peanut butter buttercream and drizzle with chocolate and peanut butter

S'mores Torte: Vanilla pound cake filled with chocolate ganache, iced in a marshmallow buttercream topped with a chocolate drizzle and graham cracker sprinkles

Princess Torte: A princess cake (prinsesstårta in Swedish) is a traditional Swedish cake consisting of alternating layers of sponge cake, jam, pastry cream, and a thick layer of whipped cream. Topped with marzipan.

Chocolate Bourbon Apricot Torte: Chocolate cake with bourbon apricot filling and chocolate cream cheese icing.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Torte: layers of chocolate cake and chocolate butter cream topped with a large pool of salted caramel.

A torte(from Italian and Spanish torta) is a rich, usually multilayered, cake that is filled with whipped cream, buttercreams, mousses, jams or fruits.

Sofia the First Cupcake Dress + Pirate Cupcakes

 My first Sofia the First cake! I love getting introduced to new things by my customers on a daily basis. I certainly had never heard of this TV show before. So, to incorporate Sofia into cake form. We decided to do her beautiful dress. Piped rose swirls, with some fondant details and a candy necklace charm.

This very considerate customer also wanted to do some pirate cupcakes for the little boys at the party! How cute are their little faces!

Wedding cupcake tower with fruit topped cupcakes and rustic cutting cake

Cupcakes have really been the "it" wedding cake choice for a little while now. I have another one coming up this fall. This couple really wanted to incorporate fresh and fruity flavors in their wedding cupcakes and cake. The cutting cake on top is lemon pound with buttercream frosting. The cupcakes are blueberry with lemon buttercream and lemon with vanilla buttercream all topped with fresh berries.  The cupcakes were also tinted different shades of purple to go along with their wedding colors.
I especially love how fresh and appetizing a cupcake looks with fresh fruit. Perfect for summertime. Another fun detail was this hand crafted and personalized wedding cake topper! It tied in their rustic theme perfectly!

21 weeks + it's a boy!

 We are so pleased to announce we are having a boy, a little brother for Liam! He's pretty much on board with the idea as well. He just struggled with letting go of that pink balloon in the photo below. He really wanted it to come back after it floated up up and away. Part of me wondered, if it was also symbolic of me letting go of the idea that we may not ever have a girl. An idea I have made peace with and have also left room in my heart for the unexpected surprises, life throws your way. Regardless, I am so happy to be carrying a healthy baby boy again!

I have begun arranging our bedroom in my head to accommodate a little one again, and am excited to get out that newborn box of clothing. So many special pieces that hold so many dear memories that we get to snuggle a new babe in again.

We are also getting ready to demo the first floor in our house (except the kitchen and laundry room which are mostly finished projects) in hopes that we can have a finished downstairs living space in time for the new babe. If there's anything I've learned in becoming a homeowner to a project home and a mother, it's that that both take up massive amounts of our time, resources and energy. There really won't be room for a big renovation while we have a newborn + toddler. So we are striving to make a big, fast push forward so we can be comfortable in our space with our new little one, expected to make an appearance late this October. Meanwhile Liam and I are living with my parents. Away from the dust, debris and construction.

Kicks and movement from the bean have become a regular occurrence these days. These are some of my favorite moments of pregnancy! It's amazing how fast time is going this time around.

19 weeks

We are all pretty over the moon excited for this new life growing inside of me. Liam was our bear cub and this babe is our baby bean. We are planning to find out the gender this time which is exciting and different this time around. Everything else pregnancy related has been pretty much the same as with Liam.

 Liam has went from wanting a sister to a brother weekly. He also likes to share his food with me, he says its for the baby, to help it grow! It's all very sweet and I am excited for Liam to feel the baby move around in my belly in the coming weeks!

 

Floral Cakes

Floral cakes have been something I've come to love more and more. I've tried to push myself outside of the box with this. Whether I'm making them to match an invite like the first picture or covering the cake in roses, incorporating old vintage wedding flowers or making,  hand sculpted/ painted flowers for a little girls dedication. Each one is unique and something I may not have ever tried before, which keeps me motivated and excited for each new project!

Easter, Mother's day, asparagus and life lately

Just trying to catch up on some of the past months of happenings before I totally forget. Easter at my parent's was a week later this year since were were traveling to Goshen, Indiana and Pittsburgh to visit friends over Easter.

Sometimes I'll just look at Liam and remember to pull out the camera and take a casual shot of him playing. Those looks, the house all messed up with toys and his simple actions are what I want to remember most some days.

I had a great Mother's Day with my two favorite boys. Filled with amazing food, fun, and playgrounds.

We recently rediscovered some asparagus in our yard. We always knew it was there, but could never find it in time. We ripped out our huge overgrown forsythia patch this spring and stalks of asparagus were plain to see after that, which was quite a fun surprise.

Spring has been full of fun, planning for our summer renovations, working hard at our jobs, getting together with friends and dreaming about the future.

At the fair 2015

First fair experience for my little boy. It was a lot of fun, especially getting to go with Jason's aunt and her daughter who were visiting from Texas. He LOVED the rides. The Ferris wheel and carousel bored him. I couldn't believe how adventurous of a spirit he truly is. I want to bottle up in my memory and heart the joy in Liam at the fair.

Backyard Camping: Memorial Weekend 2015

Liam has been asking to go camping since November, so last weekend we finally got to make that happen for him in our backyard ( starting close to home) The weather was a dream, so we gathered our provisions and headed down to the back part of our yard that is nestled into the woods and has some privacy from the road and the rail trail.
Jason set up the tent and built a new fire pit so we could roast hot dogs and marshmallows. We made campfire bread to wrap around the hot dogs we roasted ( a very cool idea I got from my sister and her family ) Here's the recipe we used! They turned out great! Liam loved helping with the fire and getting to cook his food on it. We invited our neighbors over for s'mores and sparklers and the kids had fun roasting, running and tumbling around till it got dark.
As far as Liam's first tent sleeping experience...well, lets just say he needs a little more practice. He was rather excited, so it was late to bed and early to rise. Thanks to Jason for keeping him company all night. I'll have to join them next time!