After bringing my hamburger cake home, I got a little bored the next day and had some leftover icing, so I figured I could practice some techniques I’d learned, and this is what I ended up with. A little overboard? Yes. A lot of fun? Of course =)

So I went to A.C.Moore one day, and signed myself up for the Wilton Cake Decorating Basics class. I’ve never made a better decision in my life. Although I’ve now spent a pretty penny buying all of the different materials, I loved every second of it.  The second week of class we were asked to bring in a cake so we could learn how to ice it and transfer designs. So here it is immediately after class. Nothing spectacular, but I was pretty proud of my first real cake.

A week after my chocolate chip peanut butter cupcakes, the baking bug bit me again. This time, I used my facebook status as inspiration for flavors. I had multiple requests for Nutella (even though it ended up that the people who requested them never actually came over to eat any. Oh well, their loss). So off to google I went, and found what looked like great recipes for a Nutella cupcake, Nutella buttercream, and a Nutella filling. I wasn’t sure exactly how to fill a cupcake, but by golly I was willing to give it a try.

I really need to invest in a new bowl for my dads KitchenAid, because doing three different recipes using the same bowl is just a tedious process of washing dishes, which is the only part of baking that I don’t love. So the cupcakes bake perfectly, and I whip up the icing and put it into a ziplock bag so I can just squeeze it on instead of trying to do it with a spatula. Then comes the difficult part: trying to figure out how to fill these darned cupcakes. Not knowing about the bismark tip, or any actual decorating tools for that matter, I ended up using a paring knife to cut a cone out of each cupcake, sliving the pointy part of the cone off, filling the cupcake, and then using the remaining portion of the cone as the lid to cover the gaping hole and filling. After filling all the cupcakes, I cut a corner off of the baggie & proceeded just to do simple swirls on top of the cakes with the icing. They’re not the prettiest things, but hey. I’m working on it.

2.5 hours after starting, my cupcakes were done.

I’m not really sure what came over me one day back in May, but I suddenly had this burning desire to bake cupcakes. Not just cupcakes from a box that I would add eggs, water, and oil to, but down to earth cupcakes from scratch. Icing and all. So, being the peanut butter fanatic that I am, I decided I wanted to do a peanut butter buttercream icing, and since my neighbors were moving back to Wisconsin and they didn’t like solid chocolate cupcakes, I went with a chocolate chip batter.

Let me just say, these cupcakes went off great! The cupcakes had a light fluffy feeling to them, and the icing just added the perfect texture and taste to an already delicious cake. I served them at the neighbors farewell dinner, and someone there actually ate 4 entire cupcakes. Granted it was a 14 year old boy, but still. They don’t just eat anything, right?

So with my ego flying high above me, I decided to myself, maybe I could do this. Maybe I could be successful with something. And so I went…

I have entered the realm of blogging. Inspired by a friend and a passion for baking (even though I’m not currently the best baker), I’m going to document both my successes and failures while I’m on this journey that will hopefully one day lead to me either working in a bakery part time or having my own business out of my house. So, here it goes.