{ My FAVES } Frosting.

The frosting makes the cake...  or cupcake in my case!  There are so many to choose from, there's buttercream (italian, french or the "original"/American that most people are familiar with), whipped cream, royal icing, vegan frosting, fondant, ganache, etc...  the options are endless.

Personally I prefer an icing that isn't overly sugary, otherwise I just scrape off the icing to enjoy the cake...  and that's what I've done for many years.  That was until I tried a cupcake from The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co in Seattle, it was a Boston Cream Pie cupcake and it was delicious!  The next day I searched the internet for a hint as to what kind of frosting they use... it was a buttery, sweet frosting that I'd never had before, I had to know what type it was so that I could make it for my cupcakes!!  After a little searching I found my answer... ITALIAN BUTTERCREAM.  Next came finding a recipe for Italian buttercream and that's when I found Cake Journal, a wonderful blog about cake decorating, and the perfect recipe for Italian Meringue Buttercream also know as IMBC.

Picture courtesy of Cake Journal, IMBC.

You can find the recipe for this lucious, decadent fosting here.


Here are a couple of frostings that I've made and the recipes...

Mascarpone & Whipped Cream frosting { perfect for Tiramisu cupcakes }

Vegan Whipped frosting { courtesy of Chef Chloe, Cupcakes War award winning recipe }

Do you have a favorite frosting?  Maybe a favorite cake?



ENJOY!

Love,
Steph

Sewing room, yes please!

Just a short 7 weeks from now my family will be enjoying the single family residence lifestyle!  We are giving up on the apartment living and finding a house, more specifically a house with 3 bedrooms... and one of those 3 bedrooms will be my new sewing room (and the Prince's playroom)!

Lately I've been thinking about what I will need in my SEWING room (I just LOVE calling it that) and I drew the inspiration for my DREAM desk from here...

 

This beautiful desk is from Poppyseedliving, a wonderful shop on Etsy that I will have to draw my inspiration from because shipping any of their beautiful creations would just be too pricey (not to mention that they only allow local pickup/delivery).

Now for paint colors...  LOVE!

Sherwin Williams
SW6274 Destiny

Wall color

 { I've recently accepted that gray is my favorite color and what better time to use it! }

Sherwin Williams
SW6859 Feverish Pink

Sherwin Williams
SW6847 Ice Plant

Two options for refinishing the sewing desk I've yet to find.

Sherwin Williams
W6934 Rally Green

Carter' table

{ Since it's a sewing and playroom, I have to consider the table that Santa gave Carter for Christmas this last year...  another color I'm in LOVE with. }

And then the there's my chair...

Boss Segmented Mid Back Modern Office Chair 

Zuo Criss Cross Modern Desk Chair

Office Star White Eco Leather Mid Back Office Star Chair

So many to choose from, but one thing is for sure... it will be WHITE!  I think I'm leaning more towards the style of 1 and 3...  Any recommendations?

As I find more ideas and inspirations you can be sure I'll share them with you, and once we've moved in and had the time to put the room together I will be sharing details!

Wish me luck finding my sewing desk!

Until then,

Love Steph

Spokane for the weekend.

We're in Spokane this weekend!  Which means a weekend full of Papa and Ma, a bridal shower for my beautiful cousin Debbie, sunshine, hot temperatures (90+ degrees), and A/C in the house to enjoy the 90+ degree weather with.

Yesterday was a very busy day for us...  

It started with making the cupcakes for the shower with the bride-to-be and her sister :) 

Then came the shower itself at Linwood Park in the 90+ degree weather... 

fun with family and friends + yummy food = perfect way to spend the afternoon

And it all ended with a nice relaxing evening at mom and dad's with some A/C.  And in case you were wondering, I'm focusing on the air conditioning so much because in the Seattle area it's definitely not the norm to have A/C in your house so it truly is a treat for us when we visit during the summer.

And now comes the other reason for this post...  pictures of the Raspberry Tiramisu cupcakes that I made for the bridal shower...

 Since there were both children and adults I made some of the cupcakes without the coffee and Kahlua mixture, both were delicious!

{ Vanilla Raspberry cupcakes }

{ Raspberry Tiramisu cupcakes }

If you'd really like the recipe that I used (a hybrid of two different recipes I found online) just leave your email address in a comment below...  did I mention that they were delicious, yummy and so good that most of us tried both :)

ENJOY!

Love

Steph

{ Inspiration. Inspired. } Fashion.

A pretty fabulous Saturday, if I may say so myself! 

1st- Carter and I started our morning off with a visit to the Country Village in Bothell to visit the duckies and chi-chis (chickens), we were even prepared and had treats for all of our friends! 

2nd-  We then ventured to the mall so that I could take my COACH purse back to the store because the fabric was wearing out and it's only a little over a year old, not acceptable for a designer purse, right?!  LUCKILY the salesperson said it would be no problem to exchange it and that's just what I did!! 

I'm in LOVE!

Seriously an all around fabulous trip to the mall!  What could be better than getting to shop for a new purse and not having to spend any money?  Oh I know! Not losing my cell phone while Carter and I spent a little time at the kids area in the mall... luckily I realized only a few minutes after leaving that it wasn't in my purse or my pocket, so we rushed back and I found it on the floor before someone else did...  phewww!

You may be asking yourself, so how does this post get titled { Inspiration. Inspired. }?  Well because the other week when I was searching for ideas for my Independence Day post I found some sweet little CHANEL inspired cupcakes.  And seeing as how I LOVE designer purses, I thought that I would combine that with my LOVE of cupcakes/party designs.  And with that you get the PERFECT inspiration for any party, a bridal shower/baby shower/I even saw a 1st birthday inspired by Juicy Couture!!

By the way, I know I'm not the only girl out there hearting over designer purses and/or clothes and/or shoes, so hopefully I've covered most of the designers that you LOVE!  Here goes!

My go-to/fave purse designer, COACH!

And on to Tiffany & Co., I just LOVE the little blue boxes!  Here's a sweet and simple Tiffany cupcake... 

And then there's the more 'detailed' interpretations, feel free to click the top image to see more details.  And seriously, can you believe the little blue box is an actual cake? It's covered in fondant to look like the famous little blue Tiffany boxes.... AMAZING! 

The cupcake which inspired this entire post, sweet/simple/CHANEL!!

And this one is just beautiful, like the quilted black and white purses it's drawn it's inspiration from!

What blog post about designer inspired cupcakes would be complete without Juicy Couture?!

Here are a few more ideas/inspirations...

And for those with a taste for fancy cars, I even found a little something for you!

What designer do you find yourself being drawn to the most?  You know the one that no matter how much their designs are you just have to have it...

Have a wonderful 4th of July!

Love

Steph