Babycakes.

Another first... a baby shower cupcake order. Half double chocolate chip and half mint chocolate chip cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese frosting decorated with fondant rattles, soothers and blanketed babiesss. Peek-a-boo.

Time for Holiday Baking.

My first batch of holiday baking for the season. Posting these a little late because I was stuck in a flurry of final exams and then took a week-long break from the real world in hot hot Mexico. Double chocolate chip cupcakes with cream cheese frosting decorated with fondant mittens, snowmen and holly. Happy Holidays!

Happy Birthday to Me!

The dream realized! Kitchenaid mixer in my kitchen!!! All thanks to my amazing, amazing, AMAZING brother and soon-to-be sister in-law. Now I totally feel like Martha Stewart and sometimes have the urge to narrate my own baking process. Is that weird?


And as a gift to myself... a Wilton fondant tool set! Beautiful.
Efficiency is growing. Stay tuned, I'll be posting some Christmas cupcakes soon!

Cupcakes for A Cause.

I've got my red ribbon, do you have yours? Take a second to watch the "Knowledge is Power" PSA.

Two summers ago, I was fortunate enough to travel to Zambia -- a country that is inhabited by a staggering number of people living with HIV/AIDS. I saw first hand, how a population so grossly affected by the disease has been learning to fight the epidemic. It was, truly, a humbling experience to work with some of the strongest, kindest and most optimistic people I have ever met. Though most associate HIV/AIDS with African countries, we need to realize that the virus is prevalent all over the world. And awareness needs to be spread. As the PSA states, "Knowledge is Power".
Yesterday was World AIDS Day and I contributed some cupcakes to my school bake sale. Wish I had time to bake more... I heard they went fast! Double chocolate chip and chocolate peanut butter chip cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and fondant red ribbons.

Have your people contact my people.

Becoming more official by the minute!!! I just received my business cards this week. I was originally planning to wait until the Spring to start up some real advertising and business cards, but I had an idea for a design, and I jussst couldn't waittt. So.. ta-da!
I've got one hundred of these little fellas in four lovely designs... get 'em while their hot!

Cupcake Cupcake & Engagements.

More cupcakes!! Clearly I have problems telling people no when it comes to taking orders.
You can never have enough cupcakes, right? Right. Fondant cupcakes on top of vanilla chocolate chip cupcakes = cupcake cupcakes!




And a last minute order of cupcakes for an engagement dinner.. Congratulations!! Hearts.

Happy Birthday Roomie!

Cupcakes for my roomie, Rhonda. Apple & ruler for the aspring teacher and pies because if you know Rhonda, you know she loves pies. We're a dangerous combo in the kitchen -- fresh baked cupcakes and pies like you wouldn't believe. Thank goodness for the gym a couple floors down!

Sportif.

Here's an order I managed to squeeze into the madness that was October... birthday cupcakes for a sports fan. A request was specifically made for running, hockey and golf. Three exams, a lit review and essentially an all-nighter later, I got my oven mitts on and was off to work. I really wish I had more time to work with these, but time was definitely of the essence. Maybe I'll be ambitious and go for an entire cupcake golf course next time. And yes, they were double chocolate chip cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I SWEAR I can make other flavours, however chocolate and cream cheese are what the clients demand :)

Temporary Hiatus.

My apologies for not updating in the last.. ahh has it been a month already?! As the photo depicts, I'm stuck with my nose in the books. The air is getting c00ler, leaves are falling and as usual, midterms are piling up, leaving me with no time for cupcakes (well I managed to squeeze in one order). I have free time sporadically in November and will be available for the second half of December for anyone looking to book an order so e-mail me and we'll see if something can be arranged. I apologize for all the orders I had to turn down this month... trust me, I'd rather be baking than reading textbooks. I'll have a couple of orders to post soon.. until then, bundle up it's getting so cold!

What girl doesn't love flowers?

I received an order for birthday cupcakes, sans fondant for a bit cheaper (minus the birthday message). The only request for design I had with these were "something girly".. so I decorated these double chocolate chip cupcakes with two-toned pastel yellow hydrangeas and pink begonias. Girly, yes? I was able to use my new piping tip to create the hydrangeas :) Check out the close ups for details of the petals.

Bon Voyage Ma Famille!

These cupcakes were made as a send off for some friends (aka family) who are traveling to Vietnam for a month to do some tremendous charity work. Please take a second to learn more about the family-run organization they're representing, the GIFTS Foundation HERE
To keep with the traveling theme I made some airplanes, Vietnamese boats and hats and rice bowls with chopsticks. For the boats and hats I used a chocolate marshmallow fondant (also in the sunglasses, nail polish caps and guitars in the previous post), which gives your a deeper dark colour without having to add as much colouring gel. And yes, again: double chocolate chip cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.


I also had another friend, Kelly, who left yesterday to teach in London for the next 10 months. These were made for her going away party.

So many people leaving!! Good luck ladies!!!

Happy Birthday Mon Emi!

Birthday cupcakes for two very lovely people in my life. Set one for Monica who loves the greatest colours of nailpolish and is always styling some great shades (and outfits)! Set two for Emi who is a great guitarist and knows a helluvalot about his macs.. yay for apple! These were both double chocolate chip cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Again, the most popular flavour as you'll see with the next few orders I'm posting...

Handbags and Heels.

Click photos to enlarge.
Mmm.. fashion and sweets. Here's an order I received for a friend's mom's birthday. These cupcakes are the results of an amalgamation of her interests.. designer bags, shoes and the colour pink.
Individualized orders usually take some time to plan things like colour schemes and the sculpting logistics. This order by far took the longest to complete. I usually try to spread the work out over a few days so that an order isn't so overwhelming. Definitely less stressful when breaking down one large project into smaller tasks to tackle one at a time. For example.. day one: make fondant, day two: sculpt fondant, day three: bake cupcakes and decorate (I like to bake and set cupcakes the day of the order to ensure that clients get the freshest treats possible in their bellies).

Let me powder my nose.. it's time for my *close-ups*...
First up we have heels.. I had a specific request for leopard print :)

After some research and I created some fondant knockoffs of common designer bags by.. Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Coach. (I definitely underestimated how long these would take.)

And finally the classic Chanel logo on a white quilted background and her star sign.. Virgo.

It's official!

As of a couple days ago Dericious was officially registered as a business! (!!!) And so it begins... the great cupcake adventure. I have no gigantic plans as of yet, but I'm having fun taking it one order at a time and excited to find out where it ends up. My main focus now is getting through my last year of school and making some use of the tens of thousands of dollars of tuition I've "paid" for the last 6 years (finance the dream maybe?). Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone, from the bottom of my heart, for all your love, support and encouragement... it's what gave me the balls to take my hobby to the next level. Every comment I receive means a lot :)

Yesterday I took a trip to St. Lawrence Market to purchase some more supplies. Mmm.. Placewares. That place will make any chef/baker drool. Icing tips, fondant tools, a billion types of cutters and more, more, more! Seems like most of my sale profits have been put towards supplies and other little start up things... probably going to stay that way for awhile. No shopping sprees for me juuust yet..

Cookoff cupcakes!

I received a request for a cookoff theme cupcakes for a birthday. These were double chocolate chip cupcakes frosted with french vanilla icing. (Click on any photo on my page to get a larger view)

Here's a few close up shots for detail...

I made a few variations of a chopping board with veggies.


Also some pots with veggies and chef hats.

Happy Birthday Roots!

Birthday cupcakes with afros and honey pots for my lovely roomie who is all soul and loves honey. (Oh, and the colour seafoam).

Vanilla chocolate chip cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.