Hello, Jill..where are you????

I'm HERE!! It's been a wacky, crazy, slightly irritating kind of week! I had two big projects this week- class and a huge presentation, so I was already WAAAYYY behind on the blog when the stinky two-day migraine hit. Grrr.... it's still not completely gone, but a trip to Dairy Queen and one look at my extremely messy house has motivated me to slowly re-enter the land of the living!

So, in the world of the church ladies things came to a bit of a stand-still. We had several 'meet and greet' activities in the last few days that didn't require me to cook much! Plus, couple that with a VERY fun, large cupcake 'catering' event and the church ladies took a back seat! I have SOOO much to tell you!!!

First, let's talk about the cupcake commandment I mentioned several blogs ago. The commandment I broke is, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's cupcake tower." O-M-G!! I have wanted to build some kind of display structure for some time. Super husband and I were at a 'tasting' dinner for the University catering service and there it was, like Mecca beckoning me...a gorgeous cupcake tower. The cupcakes were nice, fairly average decoration and flavor, but the tower was to DIE for! This completely motivated me to talk to my dear construction-savvy friend, Sonja, about building me such a structure. I MUST have one, I NEED one...Dad, this is when you should NOT live in Florida! We have food structures to construct!!! AAAACCKKKK!! Ok, so I'm getting myself together now. All of this coveting has lead me to research some cupcake tower designs. Hopefully I'll have my tower constructed in the next two weeks so that I can use it for open houses, displays, etc. I'm also looking at using 'found objects' (wash tubs, antique plant stands, crates, etc.) to make creative, versatile stands. I'm really hoping to get some large 'catering' gigs so that I can make use of some of the hundreds of cupcake design ideas that are floating through my head!!!

Speaking of catering gigs...my gorgeous, talented, inspirational friend, Amy, is starting two new businesses. She'll be a consultant for Willow House and will also be running her own business called Inspired Designs. She is one of my two incredibly creative design friends. She had her business 'launch' open house on Tuesday of this week and was kind enough to ask to display some of my products at her open house! I crafted about 96 cupcakes. I had my signature chocolate peanut butter cupcake called, 'The Perfect Complement'. This cupcake is a chocolate butter cake, chocolate ganache filling, and peanut butter buttercream frosting! In addition to The Perfect Complement, I had my 'Bunny Hop' cupcake which is my caramel filled carrot cake topped with cream cheese frosting- yum-o!! There was also my 'breakfast-style' cupcake called 'That's How We Roll' which is a cinnamon coffee cake with a crumble top and finished with cinnamon buttercream frosting. Finally, I had 'The Pride O' The Bride' which is a classic white cupcake topped with champagne buttercream frosting! YUM YUM!!! I was super excited to debut these recipes and had great response. I have such fun creating these recipes from my own. I do 'cheat' and use cake mixes as bases and then add my own elements. I love to experiment with flavors and frostings, and am a pretty big risk taker when it comes to flavors! I am so filled with creative energy when it comes to baking!!! I can't wait to try out the next wave and can't wait for the orders to flood in! Just tell me what you love and I'll craft a cupcake for you! I am following a very 'Ben and Jerry's' philosophy...the names of my cupcakes will reflect pop culture, music, history, politics...you name it! Too fun!!!

Next up is my adventures with the fantastic fresh-picked apples I bought at the orchard in Fort Dodge, Iowa. There is NO better place to buy apples in the tri-state area!!! You can even order online- www.communityorchard.com!!!

Good eats,
Jill