Merry Christmas!!!!

I hope everyone has enjoyed celebrating Jesus' birthday!!!  That is the reason for today!

I have not been on here since July.  I began my full time job.  I have to say that I'm disappointed that I've been moved into International customer service.  It's not what I had in mind, but I'm just thankful to have a job to help provide for my family.  With that being said, since I do have my job we can take on projects that we couldn't before.  Goal for 2013, re-organize/decorate/remodel each and everyone room. 

On the agenda for 2013 for my blog.

• Blog once a month (I'm taking two classes for spring semester, kids schedule and oh my full time job).
• Feature what we are doing around our home (organize/decorate/remodel or sweet goodies too)
• Re-work my blog so it's more my style then what templates are provided
• I would like to get more followers and maybe partner up with someone who has the same interests as I do.

Well folks I'm off of here.  I have a movie to go watch shortly, "Is this 40?"  I'm hoping for a good laugh.  Indiana is suppose to get some nasty weather and I'm not looking forward to the drive to work tomorrow morning.  If you have to get out tomorrow be careful and take care.

Make sure you eat something sweet today, I'm sure you will....It's Christmas!!!

~Amanda

Lots going on....

Since the last time I posted I have obtained a full time job on the Northwest side of Indianapolis, called SpaceKraft.  I'm doing customer service like my past jobs.  I work with really nice people and I think it's going to be a great job.  I'm very thankful to have it.

I am about to finish up my summer classes, thank goodness.  It's been pretty crazy.  I completed by Servsafe certification and passed along with my first aid/cpr training.  I'm looking forward to getting my Servsafe cert so I can put it in a frame to hang up.  It took a lot of hard work and studying to get it.  Thanks to my hubby for taking a day and a half vacation to help me study.  I couldn't have done it with out him. 

A few weeks back the hubby and I went running around in Avon and found a new shop called Sweet Treats Cupcakes & Soda Shop.  It's located 7900 E US 36 Avon, IN 46123.  If you are familiar with the area it's just off of Dan Jones behind CVS.  I'm kinda bummed they don't have a website or facebook page, but it appears they just opened.  Hopefully with time they will get either one of those up and going.

So my hubby and I are watching our calorie intake and working out so we didn't want to go crazy.  We purchased one cupcake each and they were delicious.  I had the wedding cake cupcake; it had a slight almond taste buttercream and the cake was moist and tasty.  My hubby got the peanut butter cupcake and he stated the buttercream was creamy along with the cake moist.  I liked the atmosphere because it reminded me of the soda shop that used to be in my hometown of Roachdale.  They had different types of ice cream along with ice cream sodas.  Who wouldn't want a Black cow (root beer, chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream).

They provide breakfast from 6:30 am - 10 am; hot cinnamon rolls, muffins and biscuit sandwiches with egg, cheese, bacon/veggie.  They have an assortment of flavors of cupcakes, pies, cheesecake and cookies.  They offer homemade breads and dinner rolls. 

They also have the room for you to host a party along with catering.  I look forward to going back in the future. 
Hours Mon - Thurs 6:30 am - 7pm  Fri & Sat 6:30 am - 10 pm and Sundays 7am - 6 pm

Check them out I highly recommend them to anyone. 

Make sure you eat something sweet today!!!!

Visit to Ohio....

The hubby and I went on a trip to Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio.  We were celebrating our five year wedding anniversary.  As you can imagine we had to stop at a cupcake shop.  We pulled out our Yelp app on our iphones and found a place about 20 minutes west of West Chester, Oh where we were staying.  We made it into Hamilton, Oh and followed directions to a home of all places, not a shop at all.  The hubby and I both thought that wasn't a good idea to purchase cupcakes from a home.  Hubby put a post on Yelp to let other people know this was not a shop, but a home. 

The next day of our trip we went to Wright Patterson Airforce base to check out the FREE museum.  Awesome place, but I was still trying to find a cupcake shop to spec out.  We found a shop called GiGi's Cupcakes in Beavercreek, OH right next to the airforce base.  It was a cute shop, small with a few tables inside as well as outside the shop.  I couldn't believe the price per cupcake though, $3.25 each.  Holy Cow!!!!  I should not complain about the prices in central Indiana at all. 

I grabbed four cupcakes, Midnight Magic, Mississippi Mud, Lemon Supreme and S'Mores.  First and for most if you don't like a lot of frosting on your cupcake then you have to special order your cupcakes.  The cupcakes have waaaayyy too much frosting on the tops for me.  I felt it was just a waste of frosting.  I tried the Lemon Supreme first, lemon cake, filling and buttercream on top.  I took about half the frosting of the top.  If you REALLY like lemons this would be your cupcake.  It was good, but not my favorite.  The Midnight Magic and Mississippi Mud both were chocolate cake.  The Midnight Magic was just an ordinary chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream.  I liked it the best out of all four cupcakes.  The Mississippi Mud I was dissappointed because the outer edge of the cupcake liner and cake was burnt.  I e-mailed the shop to let them know and it was explained to me that they put marshmallows in the batter and sometimes they get burnt while baking.  Maybe they should re-think that recipe.  My hubby tried the S-Mores cupcake and he said it wasn't bad. 

All in all I it wasn't horrible, but I've had better.  I did a little research and found that GiGi's Cupcakes is a franchise, which I prefer just your mom and pop shops rather then a franchise business.  I think you lose the homemade and made with love in a franchise shop. 

I believe this business has a shop in Indy and a truck running around Indy too.  Check out their website at www.gigiscupcakesusa.com.

I just read late last week that a cupcake shop opened up in Crawfordsville.  I believe the kids and myself will be taking a trip sometime this summer to check it out.

Make sure you eat something sweet today.

Till next time!

Road Trip to Terre Haute, IN

The hubby and I decided since we had no kiddos Saturday we would take a road trip to Terre Haute, IN to check out a couple of cupcake and cake shops.  We went to Caboodle Cupcakes http://www.caboodlecupcakes.com/ and I LOVED their shop.  It was a house that was a light pastel pink color on the outside with a porch that had the posts painted bright green, orange and pink.  The inside was vintage in style.  The owners Michael & Susan Tingley were very nice and friendly.  They wanted to know where my husband and I were from and come to find out Susan used to do some work for a previous job in Lebanon, IN. 

My husband and I decided on their vanilla cupcake with orange buttercream, vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream, margarita and vanilla cake with dulce de leche and vanilla buttercream on top.  The presentation of the cupcakes were displayed in a cooler with the different assortments of cupcakes.  I found out if you do not get their when they first open up flavors that you wanted maybe gone.  I was disappointed that I did not get to try one of their Chocolate with Toll House Ganache Filling.  Since the cupcakes we purchased were mainly made of Vanilla cake it had a good texture and taste.  The orange buttercream I personally thought was made with imitation orange flavoring.  I would have liked to have had it with real orange juice.  The margarita was our favorite.  It tasted just like a margarita, it also had the margarita salt sprinked on top of the buttercream which was a very nice touch.  My husband enjoyed the dulce de leche cupcake which is a thicker version of U.S. carmel sauce. 

I was pleased to see that they had different size containers,  you could purchase from two, four, six and 12 cupcakes.  If you want a special cupcake you need to call at least two days prior so they can have it ready and typically they will have that flavor for the day.  I think that's good thinking since you do not want to just make a small batch of cupcakes when you can make a large amount and sell for the day, very cost effective. 

I would recommend making a stop to Caboodle Cupcakes.  Awesome atmosphere and great owners. The cupcakes are just icing on top.

Next stop on our road trip, Tier of Elegance Cakery http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tiers-Of-Elegance-Cakery/134134449982728 which is just down the street from Caboodle Cupcakes.  We had to take a back way to get to the shop since they were having road construction right in front of their shop.  I'm sure that has been hurting their business a little bit. 

First impression in the shop was displays of decorated cakes which is a nice touch, but I would make sure that you do not have broken pieces on the cake.  It doesn't make a good first impression.  They had a large chalkboard with flavors, coffees and tea selections.  This shop provides assortment of cookies, cakes and cupcakes.  You can purchase a half dozen and get a cupcake free which I would assume is because of the inconvience of the road constructions.  That was a nice touch.  The hubby and I decided to get a wide assortment of cupcakes to try; chocolate, chocolate, vanilla, vanilla, vanilla strawberry swirl, red velvet with cream cheese buttercream, yellow cake with chocolate buttercream and our favorite chocolate with peanut butter buttercream. 

The cake on all of the cupcakes were very tasty and moist.  The buttercream was blended well where you did not taste a grainy texture.  The strawberrry swirl was made with real strawberries and the vanilla buttercream set it off nicely.  The peanut butter buttercream was AWESOME, it tasted just like peanut butter, but just a touch sweeter with the powdered sugar incorporated in the peanut butter.

The gentlman that was behind the container was nice, but not overly friendly.  You can tell he was there to run a business and not sure if he had a huge passion for it.  I was disappointed they did not have a business card or a list of their flavors, but it appears you can see that on their facebook page. 

So if you are in the city of Terre Haute, IN I would recommend checking out these two shops.  It was a great day and tasty cupcakes too.

Make sure you eat something sweet today. 

Plans to visit more cake and cupcake shops....

I'm excited at the idea of visiting cake and cupcake shops throughout Indiana on a monthly bases.  I want to see what other shops have out there in regards to taste, appearance and customer service friendly environment. 

My goal after completing baking and pastry art is to open my own shop.  I want to see what mistakes people have made and learn from them along with their pricing.

 There is a shop I found in Terre Haute, IN called Cadoodle Cupcakes http://www.caboodlecupcakes.com/ that I intend on visiting hopefully this month. 

I will feature them in my next blog post.  Let's just hope this idea doesn't cause me to gain a bunch of weight.  Good thing I just started a jogging program. 

Make sure you eat something sweet today.

Visit to a cake shop and pic of my mom's bday party!!!!

ROAD TRIP



Sooooo I made a road trip to a cake shop down in Southern Indiana.  First impression walking in, what a clever way to display your cakes.  They had cases that were about 6'3" tall and narrow.  There was at least four single shelves in the case.  Each shelf had some type of cake or yummy confection. 

I decided I would try their cupcakes.  The first cupcake I tried out in the vehicle (no tables to sit in the place) was a lemonade raspberry filled butter cream cupcake.  Oh my goodness was it moist, just the right amount of citrus and sweetness.  I would love to get the recipe.  The other cupcakes were vanilla, chocolate and red velvet.  All these were moist and the buttercream was good as well.  This shop is known for their piping of pansies.  I was very impressed by how they looked. 

Only bummer part was the cupcakes I took home in the box ended up flipping over and the buttercream was stuck to the box and not the cupcake.  I would recommend the shop looking into cupcake inserts for their boxes.  Just my opinion. 

I noticed they had a three tier 9" round vanilla cake with buttercream; the whole cake was $26.95 which I thought was reasonable concerding I know some places up here in Central Indiana charge at least $35+ for a three tier 9" round cake. 

I have to say my little sister is pretty lucky to live near this cake shop.  She can scoop up one of those lemonade raspberry cupcakes anytime.  I'm soooo jealous. 

Sharing pictures of my mom's birthday party!!!



The birthday girl's decorations.  She likes pastel colors.  I loved the poofy balls above the table.

  Close up of the poofy balls.  Can I just tell you it took me two hours to fluffy those things, but it was soooo worth it to see my mom's face!

My mom's birthday cake I made.  It was White Velvet cake with vanilla butter cream all made from scratch.  Super yummy!!!!

Close up of the table.  I used my clear tiers to display the rose cupcakes.  I had a blast decorating for her birthday party!!!!

It's a party with cupcakes and oh yeah Valentine's Day!

Zoie's 16th Birthday!!!

Above is the birthday table displaying the Purple Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.  I used white chocolate and tined pink to make the "16" on top of the cupcakes.  The cupcakes are actually red velvet, but I substituted the red food color for purple food coloring.  It's hard to tell in this picture that its purple.

On the container to the left is holding granulated sugar colored with neon food coloring in assortment of colors and then put into layers.  I took marshmallows dipped them in chocolate and sprinkled graham cracker for a smores on a popsicle stick.  It was a big hit with the kids.

Close up of Zoie's cupcakes.  I had them on clear tier containers that had curly ribbon on the inside for color.

Zoie beside her birthday table.  I think it looks pretty good for finding out exactly what she wanted to do three days prior.

Valentine's Day Cupcakes !!!!! 



German Chocolate Cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and chocolate hearts. 

So lots going on...doing well with school so far.  I'm going on my fifth week working as an intern at a cake shop.  It's been fun and exciting.  I'm learning different techniques. 

Make sure you eat something sweet today!