black, brown & tan

flavor board #38

Many years ago I heard a fashion rule...don't mix brown and black.  I think that rule should be broken.  I love black mixed with different shades of brown and tan.   After making peanut butter & chocolate cupcakes this morning, where brown and black came together in a yummy combo, I was inspired to dress up in a long black dress with a little brown jacket.

brown chair, chocolate salted peanut butter cupcakes, brown & tan umbrella, black & tan diaper bag, mini black dress outfit, boots, glasses, belt

the tale of a tall cake

Jose Villa asked me if I would make a cake for a Fuji ad campaign photoshoot & Mag Rouge.  Of course I said yes (I love everything about Jose – not just his beyond stunning work, but the kindness and sincerity he consistently exudes), but I wanted to get try to get into his head and make sure I knew his vision because as I said to him, “I’m so honored you asked me to participate and I do not want to dissapoint or let you down…I want to be certain I make what you want.”

Jose sent me a couple visuals for inspiration.  One was a textured design and one was smooth.  I love textured frosting on cakes, it adds dimension and interest and it’s forgiving…extremely forgiving.  Texture hides bulges, crooked lines, crumbs, etc.  Frosting a cake with texture takes a fraction of the time is takes to make a smooth buttercream cake. So that would have been too easy, right?  I opted to go the smooth route.  Since I’m completely self-taught in the cake making department, I didn’t really know anything about smooth vs. textured buttercream cakes when I first stared making them.  In a sense I started the hard way, and for whatever reason, all of my first cakes had smooth finishes…I think that’s just how I thought they were supposed to be made.  Since I don’t use fondant (which gives a nice sleek look), by default I became very comfortable & at ease with making smooth buttercream cakes.  However, Jose also requested that the 2 tier cake be tall, very tall, about 20 inches tall.  That’s about double a standard 2 tier cake height.  I loved the idea of the dramatic height.  I just went for it and didn’t really think about the different challenges associated with making each very tall tier silky & smooth.  I love that this project stretched me and pushed me to work with different tools and test new techniques (& test my patience).  Thank you Jose, for having confidence in me, challenging me and for asking me to participate!  Please check out more photos from the shoot here on Jose's blog and featured in Mag Rouge.

an outfit inspired by strawberries & lavender

I try to spruce up my daily attire, but it is a bit challenging with only about 1/8 of my clothes actually fitting my almost 7 month pregnant belly.  I'm not one to run out and buy clothes that will only fit for the next handful of months, so instead I thought I'd do some "pretend" shopping for an outfit inspired by the beautiful colors of strawberry & lavender (these colorful and fragrant ingredients are featured in our strawberry lavender chardonnay cupcake flavor this week).  Below is a fun outfit that I won't buy or get to wear, but it makes me happy to look at it on my screen...a little pretend digital shopping therapy :)

purple scarf, pink & red earrings, pale pink stripes maxi dress, purple sandals, strawberry lavender chardonnay cupcakes

march calendar

Happy March!

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

buttermilk french toast cupcakes & a vintage collection

I've never been a big "collector" (unlike my little girl who has rock, shell, dress, squinkie, stuffed animal and even toothbrush collections!).  I'm the type that's constantly purging and refreshing, not saving things.  However since we started this business, I have devloped an obsession with (not simply a collection of) cake stands, and more randomly - vintage syrup dispensers.  We were able to put our syup dispenser collection to use at Sierra + John's wedding, where we set up a cupcake topping bar.  Guests poured gooey sauces & toppings on (and in) their cupcakes, using the dispensers. 

Photos by Moore Photography

This week, we featured a buttermilk french toast cupcake flavor, and I couldn't resist putting the housemade buttermilk syrup topping in one of those cute containers.

Buttermilk French Toast...cinnamon sugar cake, with a creamy vanilla bean filling, topped with vanilla frosting & housemade buttermilk syrup.

ingredient spotlight: oats

Everyone pretty much knows that oats are good for you...good for a healthy heart + cholesterol, high in dietary fiber, minerals & vitamins, etc., etc.!  You can read more about the wonders of oats here .  Although when it's put on top of a cupcake it's not necessarily the healthiest treat (which is what we did this week at the shop with a vanilla chocolate chip cake, filled with honey mousse, topped with chocolate glaze & housemade vanilla granola)...

so I have some yummy (& pretty) granola recipes to share with you so you can pack your in your oat intake! Click on the links under each photo to get to recipes.

healthy homemade granola recipe

coconut chocolate granola recipe

healthy granola recipe

homemade granola recipe

Topping cupcakes with homemade granola wasn't a first for us this week, we did the same thing about a year and 1/2 ago, but with a different nutty lemon granola recipe. 

passion fruit + watercolor

flavor board #37

i originally thought the vanilla passion fruit cupcakes looked like eggs, but then i started to look at them in a different eye and now i associate them with a section of a watercolor artist palette.  i want to dip my paintbrush into that gorgeous passtion fruit color and create!

vanilla passion fruit cupcakes, watercolor bouquet, aqua watercolor, watercolor palette, watercolor splashes

wine & cupcakes shoot by Cameron Ingalls

Cameron Ingalls is not only an amazing wedding photographer, but is he is also one of the most loving, kindess guys you will ever meet.  He is very passionate about his art and wanted to create a resource for local brides and grooms, showcasing gorgeous venues and other wedding professionals that are just as excited and passtionate about their work as he is.  Hence, the Wedding Standard was born.  Cameron invited us to partake in an artist interview and set something up for him to shoot to coordinate with the interview for the Wedding Standard.

When we moved to the heart of wine country and established Enjoy Cupcakes, it was obvious to us that wine needed to be threaded into our product and business, as a way of melding in with our environment (and it makes a very awesome cupcake ingredient).  So, our retail loca­tion is nes­tled within the a wine tasting lounge (Saar­loos & Sons). We make wine infused cup­cakes.  We offer cup­cake tast­ings (a.k.a. flights) that pair with the Saar­loos & Sons’ wines. Many of the brides & grooms we work with get mar­ried at winer­ies / vine­yards and serve wine at their wed­dings. We wanted to pro­vide Cameron with a photo shoot set up that rep­re­sented every­thing that's men­tioned above. The Saar­loos and Sons wine labels rep­re­sent what is most impor­tant to them, Fam­ily, which clearly trans­lates to love, honor, & mar­riage. The wines & labels change every year, but the phi­los­o­phy stays the same. Their bou­tique wines are a per­fect mar­riage for wed­dings.

We made sure to include our signature cupcake flavor (the only mainstay that's on our menu every single week), the Chocolate Blackberry Syrah, & three other wine infused favorites...Ginger Lime Chardonnay, Caramel Pinot & Blueberry Lemon Chardonnay.  The wine lables (that are perfectly labeled for wedding celebrations) were His, Hers, Extended Family, &, 1945 (read more about them here).  The shoot took place at one of the Saarloos and Sons' vineyards.

Thank you, Cameron, for including us in the Wedding Standard!  We also thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for snapping some pics of our growing little family (we will cherish them).