Mmmmm...cupcakes!

In the boredom of my Saturday, I (photographer) decided to try out a new cupcake recipe. Aaaand, it was delicious! Because it contains fruit, I've decided that the recipe is super healthy, so I'm sharing pics with you plus the recipe, below...

Before the frosting...



Apple Banana Cupcakes:
2 c. flour                                        1 1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda                       2 eggs
1 tsp. salt                                        1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon         1/4 c. buttermilk
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg            1 c. ripe bananas
2/3 c. shortening                         2 apples (peeled, cored and shredded)

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; set aside. In a large bowl cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla and buttermilk. Beat in flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the mashed bananas and shredded apples. Fill each of 24 muffin cups 1/2 full. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes; allow to cool.

..and after!



Dueling sanders - the update

Hey everyone! Just thought you might like to see a little update on one of our furniture projects... So, finally, here's the progress on "dueling sanders" a.k.a. the beautiful rocking chair that I'm refinishing.

So far I've sanded, and sanded, and sanded, and have finally resorted to stripping the rocking chair. Hopefully she'll be completely done soon, but here's a quick look at what's going on.

This is how she looked when we first found her.

It kind of looks like planet earth with all the colors she's been. We found white, black, green, blue, and more green.

If you really pay attention, she's got beauty on the inside!!



Spiderman...Spiderman...

Photographer here again! (Pretending to be Baker...) My nephew Jaydon just met the milestone of turning 3!! Since he loves anything to do with Batman and "Piderman" I decided to make him a Spiderman cake for his big birthday bash.

I'd never made a character cake before so I wasn't sure what this was going to be like. However, pardon the pun, it really looked like it was going to be a piece of cake. Little did I know, that it would take me a few hours to frost the thing! Below I've included pictures of the cake in all of its stages. Who knew that this much work went into getting the cake to be this cute! :)

Fresh out of the pan.

I made a white cake & marbled it myself by adding powdered cocoa into half of the batter. You can't see it in this picture, but it worked out perfectly.

Stage 2: White frosting on in all the right places and black frosting outlines.

Doing the outlines was SO much harder than it looked, LOL. I guess it will be easier the next time I make one of these things. Anyone need a spiderman birthday cake?! I'm a pro these days...



Blue frosting all done!



Filling in the colors was probably the easiest part of the whole cake. It took forever, but it was not too bad once I got started. And, the frosting was deliciously fun to work with. The trick to making it tasty is butter flavored Crisco. You guys should try it, it makes it super smooth and creamy, and mighty stupendous tasting. (Don't mind the calories. I hear if you eat standing up it it's only worth half.) ;)

Ta-Da!!!



She shoots...she SCORES!!

Photographer here again... Just wanted to write a quick post about my recent baking adventure (Baker would be so proud I did it all by myself)!! I made cupcakes for a local High School basketball team and I think they were a "slam dunk". Hardy har har...



A cake fit for a queen!

Well folks, it's been a while, but we are still working hard on projects these days. Our most recent endeavor was a cake for a princess themed 21st birthday party. Our direction was "pink and totally girly". No problem! We came up with a simple idea for a white half sheet cake and two dozen strawberry cupcakes. They were a huge hit! (See the pics below...)

The cake for Princess Chelsey



The tie-dyed frosting was really fun!!



A buncha bikers riding through town...

Thin Mint cake pops

The latest photographer, baker, & furniture maker endeavor: Farmer's Market! So, tomorrow Ragbrai is riding through town. What better way to get our name out there & sell some of our goodies then having a table of deliciousness ready for 10,000 bike riders?! ;)

We'll report back tomorrow on how it went...

Cake batter cookies...

rolled in sprinkles!!!

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt...take 2

Photographer here! Well, I've been working diligently toward making Teddy look better than when I first found him. Lately, all I've done is done more sanding work on the piece and finally had warm enough weather to get a first coat of black paint on!

I've also taken apart one of the drawer fronts, have painted it black, and have set it aside for another project (the reveal will be later on).

Keep checking back for more progress!