Giant Cupcake Smash Cake and First Birthday Party

If you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed that my beautiful niece (aka my birthday buddy) just turned one! My sister-in-law and I continued our tradition and baked a cake together to mark the occasion. We waffled on the theme a little. At first we wanted to do strawberries in honor of the…

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon-Brown Sugar Icing

You guys. It’s the second most wonderful time of the year! PUMPKIN SPICE SEASON Last year I bought the Costco pack of organic pumpkin puree, and based on how September has gone thus far, I’m going to need to stock up again this year. I know a lot of folks think this whole pumpkin spice…

Low Carb Vanilla Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Last week I was invited to a surprise party for a very close friend. His girlfriend wasn’t able to bake for the occasion without blowing her cover, so I volunteered to make my first foray into keto-friendly (low carb, LCHF) baking. Prior to making these cupcakes I did some extensive research on flour replacements and…

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

OK, Confession time: I had never tasted red velvet cake until everyone went red velvet crazy in 2009. In fact, several years prior, I made a red velvet cake at the request of a colleague without even knowing what it was supposed to taste like, and just assumed it was basically chocolate cake with copious…