winery wedding at firestone, los olivos

I am a bit partial to Kimberly and Brandon's wedding.  Why?  Beacause the main color, sprinkled throughout the whole wedding, was pale pink!  I love pink, it makes me happy (I love it so much, I recently painted my room a soft shade of pink called, Blushing Bride!).  Check out the whole beautiful gallery of pretty pink wedding photos, taken by Michael + Anna Costa featured on Style Me Pretty.

The couple chose to rent our silver stands & platters, which were a great compliment to the pale pink flowers (by Juniper Floral Designs = amazing!) and linens on the cake table, and also tied in with the bride's beautiful silver belt on her weddding dress!

Jessica Kuipers of Bijoux Events planned the glorious day and is always such a joy to work with.  I actually didn't even meet the couple until I was there setting up their goodies the day of because Jess handled the majority all of the details / correspondence and ensured everything came together seamlessly.

pineapple cupcakes + shopping guide

Opal & I are headed to Maui next month to visit my family and we are ecstatic!  We picked out a sweet little pineapple bathing suit for Opal in preparation for our trip and since pineapple and "aloha" are on my mind, we have a pineapple cupcake flavor on our menu this week.  I put together a funky online pineapple themed shopping guide.

Pineapple Strawberry Chardonnay...chardonnay cake, filled with pineapple curd, topped with strawberry frosting, strawberry glaze and a little piece of pineapple.

Target.com

etsy.com

vintage ad : etsy.com

pineapple bookends: etsy.com

pineapple broach:  etsy.com

free monthly printable Enjoy Cupcakes calendar

We've been asked & encouraged numerous times to come up with a cupcake calendar, so I decided to take action and design one for you all!  On the first of each month, come back and visit the blog for a free imprintable cupcake / cake calendar page.  The main photos may be from new creations, inprired from the month, or some of my favorites from past years.  The Feburary image is of a sweet little cherry cake I made with Valentine's Day in mind last year.  Happy February!

Simply drag the calendar image to your desktop, set to print at "landscape" and Enjoy (the file size is 10.75 x 5")!

ingredient spotlight...pecans

Pecans are so rich in flavor & texture.  I love using them in cupcake flavors as an added dimension.  Not only do they make desserts delicious, but they have great benefits as well.  Out of all the tree nuts, pecans contain the highest amount of antioxidants.  Pecans are really high in fiber & protein.  Approx 3 ounces of pecans have about 10 grams each of protein & fiber.  They are also high in sterols, which help block cholesterol absorption.

This week pecans add an unexpected twist on the every popular peanut butter + chocolate combo. 

Mississippi Mud...Chocolate chunk pecan cake, filled with marshmallow mousse, topped with whipped peanut butter frosting & peanut butter fudge

beer + cupcakes

Last week we featured a chocolate stout peanut butter caramel cupcake flavor & it was definitely one of the more popular choices that week.  It was a chocolate stout cake, filled with peanut butter caramel, topped with sweet cream frosting & more p.b. caramel.

This flavor reminded me of some custom craft beer cupcakes we made for a wedding last fall.  The groom makes his own beer and gave us some vanilla coffee porter to douse the cupcake batter with and, of course, his beer was also served at the wedding.  If you're going to serve beer at your wedding, I thought it would be a fun idea for brides & grooms to collect vintage beer mugs throughout their engagement and have one for each guest, which could also serve as their wedding favor.  Since I love searching for unique vintage finds (even if I don't buy them!), I sourced some cool mugs...

silver mugs, "happy days are here" mug, green mugs, amber mug

pastel mugs, pink depression glass mug, yellow depression glass mugs, aqua mug

glass mugs, milk glass mugs, copper mug, engraved mugs

simply beautiful rancho dos pueblos wedding

Last fall we worked 5 weekends in a row with photographer Braedon Flynn and each wedding was entirely unique from the next.  It's been fun to see the weddings pop up on Ruffled Blog, Style Me Pretty and Braedon's own blog.  I always get a bit giddy when brides tell me that Braedon will be shooting their wedding because we love his work so much, and then when they tell me the venue is Rancho Dos Pueblos, I am over the moon! 

I wanted to share some pics from Stephanie and Rob's wedding because they are gorgeous photos and I think they are a great testament that most of the couples we work with narrow down their flavor selections (from our ridiculously long list) based on flavor preference, rather than color, looks, etc.  I've been meeting with a lot of couples over the last few weeks regarding their upcoming weddings and they all ask, "how should we go about selecting our flavors?"  I think it's best to pick the flavors you love and let the set-up (table, linens, backdrop, stands & platters) tie the desserts in with the rest of the wedding, rather than the trying to match the actual cupcakes to the wedding decor. Below you'll see a classic, lovely, elegant wedding (and couple!) combined with BACON cupcakes...I love it!  I used vintage soft pink glass, clear glass and silver stands with glass domes for the dessert table set up. 

You can check out more eye candy from this wedding here and here!

Photography: Braedon Flynn of Braedon Photography / Coordination + Design: Joy de Vivre / Florals: NLC Productions / Rentals: Classic Party Rentals / Lighting + Drapery: Bella Vista Designs / Venue: Rancho dos Pueblos / Catering: Duo Events / Cupcakes: Enjoy Cupcakes / Transportation: Santa Barbara Airbus / Linens: La Tavola Linen / Ceremony Music: Classic IV Quartet / DJ + Photobooth: Gavin Roy / Linens: La Tavola

ingredient spotlight...carrots

We have spiced carrot cake cupcakes on the menu this week...

and before you start to feeling guilty about coming in for a carrot cupcake, I'll try to help convince you that it will be good for you :)

Carrots are very high in fiber and improve stomach and gastrointestinal health.  Consistent consumption of carrots prevents the formation of gastric ulcer and other digestive disorders.

The body better absorbs the nutrients when the carrots are slightly cooked, rather than eaten raw (perfect since they are baked into the cupcakes!).

½ cup cooked carrots = over 4x amount of RDA of Vitamin A, which is important for eye health.  While they make won’t your vision better, they will help prevent cataracts. 

grapefruit + lavender

The grapefruit & lavender chardonnay cupcakes are for sure the best smelling cupcakes we've ever made!  When I was mixing together the lavender scented sugar with grapefruit zest for the top of the cupcakes, I wanted to turn it into a lotion!  But, aside from smelling good, the flavor combination is delicious too (which is way more important that how it smells)!

Grapefruit Lavender Chardonnay...chardonnay cake, filled with grapefruit lavender curd, topped with grapefruit frosting & lavender, grapefruit infused sugar

I love soft shades of lavender & lilac with hints of gray just like the pretty things shown below ~

anthropologie

urban outfitters

shop ruche

etsy

pottery barn