Leave it to me to wait until the very last minute to participate in something! As some of you may have heard, Cupcake Camp is coming to Orange County. Others of you may be thinking….Cupcake Camp? Yes, Cupcake Camp! The concept for Cupcake Camp originated in San Francisco and promotes a true spirit of community and sharing, and Cupcake Camps now happen around the world and come in a wide variety of flavors and sizes.  They’ve taken place in Paris, Montreal, Boston, and New York to name a few.  The most essential feature of a Cupcake Camp is that it brings people together to share their love of cupcakes!  It’s open to professionals, amateurs, and even first time bakers. Cupcake Camp O.C. has a goal of raising awareness and money for EL POZO. EL POZO (the well of life) is a non-profit organization that was started in Mexico in 2010, with it’s purpose to work towards ending human trafficking and slavery in Mexico. So, what does that mean for you….CUPCAKES, of course! Over here at Two Parts Sugar we have a huge place in our hearts for charitable events and while we can’t always do everything we would like, we do try to help out as much as we can. Not only that, but if we are going to take part in something, we want to do it big. Have I caught your attention yet? Keep reading….all the way to the end (lots of opportunity to help).

So, here’s the run down: while the event is technically FREE, a suggested donation of $10.00 is asked upon entrance. Remember this is for charity and you’re lucky to get 3 cupcakes at some bakeries with $10.00. Already a win/win if you ask me. You’ll have access to cupcakes from lots of local bakeries as well as others participating who just love to bake! I have to tell you I was giddy with excitement when I found out Cupcake Camp would be happening in my backyard (not really in my backyard…..well, you know what I mean). I knew we had to participate and do it BIG!

We will be organizing a raffle where you could win BIG! I’m talking $1,000.00 BIG! 

The Two Parts Sugar GRAND PRIZE raffle will consist of the following:

100 decorated cupcakes

100 accent cupcakes (sprinkles/colored icing)

A 6″ decorate cake

A custom cupcake stand

-OR-

A cake valued at $1,000.00 

Not only will you be entered to win the GRAND PRIZE, but with every ticket purchase you will receive a coupon (coupon code if purchased on line) for 10% off you next order from Two Parts Sugar.

Tickets will be sold for $5.00 in the Two Parts Sugar booth the day of the event (please stop by and say hi even if you are not purchasing a ticket). You can also purchase tickets by contacting Monica via e-mail: monica@twopartssugar.com. We will then send you a confirmation and throw a ticket with your name on it in our raffle jar (to be drawn day of event). ALL proceeds go to EL POZO. Contest is open to all Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties. But wait, we didn’t stop there!

We will also be offering our signature “I bleed buttercream” T-Shirts (photo coming soon) at the event and on-line (until 7/31/10). Purchase a shirt for $20.00 and we’ll throw in a raffle ticket and a 10% off coupon! Again, ALL proceeds got to EL POZO.

Available in a variety of colors with white print.

Yes, there’s MORE….we will be debuting a NEW FLAVOR we have been wanting to do for over a year now(just waiting for the right occasion)! Not only that, but any cupcake we sell in that flavor from now until the end of the year, we will be donating a percentage of the proceeds to EL POZO!

So, let’s sum it up…$5.00 raffle ticket gets you a chance to win $1,000.00 worth of baked goods and a 10% off coupon towards a future purchase. Or buy a T-shirt for $20.00 and we’ll include the raffle ticket and coupon. You’ll be sampling a brand NEW FLAVOR and if you order some goodies in our new flavor, a percentage of proceeds goes to EL TOZO. You’ll meet lots of cupcake lovers and taste lots of yummy cupcakes. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, you will be helping great cause. 

Diabetic, don’t like sweets, on a diet, no worries, you can still participate. The organizers of Cupcake Camp OC are accepting donations! LOVE to bake? Don’t be shy, sign up and bring some cupcakes down to help raise awareness and money! 

Those of you not on a diet can enter the CUPCAKE EATING CONTEST!

Bottom line, a bunch of wonderful people are coming together to do something selfless and raise money for a good cause. Be a part of it and I’m living proof, karma will thank  you later.

*Grand Prize is valued at $1,000.00. Can be redeemed for one cake OR a 6″ cake, 100 decorated cupcakes, 100 accent cupcakes, and one decorated stand. Decorations subject to difficulty/time involved. Delivery/set up may or may not be included depending on circumstances. Open to Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and LA counties. Date of redemption dependant upon availability.

For questions feel free to contact us here or call Monica 714.651.9769.

You’d think I was baking for the president or something! To me, this was even better. If you follow my tweets/FB/Blog posts, you know I am obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba, er, uh, I mean my girls are obsessed, um, yeah. Who could resist falling in love with a show that brings your children so much joy, right? So, I get an e-mail from Laurie Cromie who runs the Gabba Friends website. This site is amazing. Anything you want to know about YGG from party ideas, to tour updates, to well, anything, it’s the place to find it. Anyway, Laurie e-mails me, after seeing our infamous YGG cake (which she posted on the site) and requests a cake for Parker Jacobs upcoming birthday. Yes, Parker Jacobs. I know, I had to google him too. Parker is the Art Director for Yo Gabba Gabba! He also was the Senior Design Director for Paul Frank and Professor for the Aquabats. I just about died laughing while reading his profile on Linkedin which stated his job interests as the following: my kids, organizational development (not really), strategic napping, corporate financial paychecks, extreme slurpee sipping, community (Church) theater, semi-professional networking, internet web research, canoeing, international travel, special cake baking, friends that like skiing, Disneyland history, listening to people reading novels, playing the ukulele. He also has a pretty sweet blog you can check out here.  Oh and check out this “Daily Doodle”! 

So, Parker’s cake…Laurie tells me he requested a “Big Pink Cake” as seen in The Cat in The Hat. The flavor….cherry chip. She attached an image and let me run with the flavor. I had no idea where to start with the cherry chip. I started thinking of the ice cream, chunks of cherries and chocolate chips. Then, I noticed a box of Duncan Hines Cherry Chip cake mix while down the baking aisle in my local grocery store. It would be perfect. I scowered the internet for cherry chips and experimented with icings until I thought what I had was just right. So, here’s the new flavor:

Parker Cherry Chip (yes we named a flavor after him, cause he’s just THAT rad!)….vanilla bean cupcake with cherry chips mixed in, topped with vanilla bean buttercream and cherry ganache drizzle….So Yummy!

Me, cake, Parker and daughter

Laurie is SO sweet, she made it a point to get in touch with us the following day, here’s what she ahd to say!

“I just wanted to thank you again for the wonderful cake! Parker and all of his family and friends LOVED it! Even the caterers were asking about it! Parker’s youngest daughter said, “Daddy, it looks like a cartoon!” which was the point! And the flavors were sooooo delicious! You did the most amazing job! Everyone raved over your cake, and I mean everyone!” -Laurie

“One of the most amazing things about the party was this CAKE. It was PINK & Suessy. The most delicious cherry chip & vanilla bean cake… So Good!! It was a Parker dream-cake…My favorite…And you know me and cake…     So, I’m a fan….” -Parker Jacobs

It was so special to me to be able to create something for someone who has created something so special for my girls (yes, YGG was created for MY GIRLS…lol!). Parker, from our family to you…we wish you a very happy birthday and a big thank you for being a part of our favorite show!

You may all think I am obsessed, and I guess I kind of am. My girls both absolutely adore Yo Gabba Gabba, so you can’t really blame a mom for LOVING something that brings her girls so much joy…right? So, back in January I threw together a YGG party in about a week for my Ani who was turning 2. After having SO much fun putting everything together, I was thrilled when my soon to be 4 year old announced she too wanted a YGG party. This time I had a bit  more time to prepare (about a month). So, in between being a mom, and baking my tush off, I found myself up late every night getting as much done as I possibly could to make this the best party yet. Of course there was still way more I would have like to have done, but time ran out. So, here it is, the ultimate Yo Gabba Gabba party for my Ricky who turned four. Oh, and did I mention I made the most awesome cake ever for her (I only say that cause my daughter loved it so much…I’d make changes if I did it again). 

SO many pics….where to start? The invite: I obviously wanted to incorporate the theme, but wanted to keep it modern and clean…went with the circle Gabba faces for most of the decor.

I guess we can go on to the goody bags….I chose colored buckets and made the faces of each character on the appropriate colored bucket. I then filled the bucket with some goodies: an apron they would be painting later, a windmill, a 5 page coloring book (one page of each character), a squirt gun (we had an inflatable water slide), a baggy of water balloons, and a bag of crayons and YGG stickers…each tied up with a black ribbon. They were finished off with name tags that read “My name is —– I like to dance!” The buckets also doubled as candy storage when it came time for the pinata!

So, next we had some decorations…You can never go wrong with coordinating streamers hanging from above, but I wanted to Gabbafy it. So,I made double sided faces of each character that matched the invites and strung them from some black ribbon.

On to entertainment….Along with a giant water slide we rented (and ended up purchasing…Yipee!), we had giant water blasters, big bouncy balls, a kiddie pool, and a plex sprinkler (we never used cause it needed a hose and that was already being run to the slide). Oh, and did I mention the games? I made a pin the eyeball on Muno (pretty self explanatory right?), as well as a “Party in my tummy” Brobee bean bag toss (bean bag food and all). One of the awesome moms also volunteered to paint faces, you’d never guess what the request of the day was….THE CAKE!

Ok, next hmmmmm…the centerpieces! These were my favorite! Originally I was going to paint the Gabba Lands and characters on containers but, I have 3 kids and a limited amount of time. So I picked up some clear plastic painters buckets and some paper, went to my computer and hit print. I then stuffed the buckets with tissue paper and popped in some rice krispie treats decorated to look like the characters faces….TOO CUTE!

Next, the pinata! My daughter’s favorite character is Foofa (the pink one) so I mad her a Foofa pinata. I found a Bratz pinata at party city on clearance for $5.00 (yes $5.00!) and grabbed a bag of pink tissue paper and went to town. I glued on the new tissue paper and cut out a face and eyes and viola…Foofa, fa Foofa, fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa Foofa! And yes…all my girls had on very colorful swimsuits to go with our theme! 

Now on to the yummy stuff…..Dazzle berry lomonade anyone? In one of the episodes of YGG Muno’s mom makes “dazzle berry lemonade”, so we served some up. Of course we had to include polka dot cups and colorful squiggly straws to go with!

I tried to adapt each character into a goody…all thought up literally the day before and made with whatever I had lying around the house!

Foofa oreos, complete with her signature flower.

Muno chocolate covered pretzels (and yes, I know I spelled it wrong on the label, I didn’t even realize until I was writing this blog)!

To top it off, here are a few more pics (as if there weren’t enough already) that I loved to pieces…ENJOY!

What a fun theme! I absolutely LOVE doing new cakes/cupcakes…keeps things interesting. This one was for Ellie who was turning 1. The theme…Snoopy! Fun right? So I began to search for cakes to get ideas and sent over some images to Ellie’s mom. She immediately fell in love with Julie’s (Blue cupcake) cake. Side note: I have admired Julie’s work since I first started doing this. Her work is AMAZING and she is such a sweet gal! OK, so it was a simple cake…not to much could be changed, but we did our best to tweak it just a tad. We also made coordinating cupcakes with Snoopy, Woodstock, Snoopy’s dog house, and some #1s. Once assembled on the stand, it all came together and looked fantastic. 

“The cake and cupcakes were a hit! Everyone, myself included, just loved the Snoopy decorations you created.  So cute! Not only that but they tasted delicious, especially the raspberry red velvet. Those were gone so fast that my husband didn’t even get to try them, haha!”  

-Ellie’s Mom

Since our recent article in the OC Register, business has been booming. I am trying to squeeze in every possible order, but it’s just insane (and I do need SOME sleep). So, one of our more recent orders was for 6 year old Julian. His mom contacted us and was so excited about doing something extra special this year for his birthday…. a cake/cupcake combo! Her theme was Mario Bros. and we had so much fun creating these goodies especially for Julian! 

“EVERYONE loved the cake and nobody even wanted to touch the cupcakes they thought they were decoration! 
I couldn’t BELIEVE how everyone reacted to the cake, when they bit into it, myself included people were like, omg…. it was sooo good!” 

-Julian’s mom

This past Sunday a huge article ran in the O.C. Register about my business, my family, my life. It gives you an insight of what I’ve gone through to get Two Parts Sugar up and running. I am truly blessed to have such a supportive family, friends and following. I truly love you all. A special thank you to Teryl Zarnow for writing such an amazing article and really capturing the heart of Two Parts Sugar.

From Sweat to sweet

Only a certain kind of woman is willing to mix it up and go head to head against guys in a wrestling match. You might not expect it to be the same woman who now bakes cupcakes for a living – but it turns out they require the same ingredients.

The tenacity to score on the mat is not all that different from the tenacity you need to make a business into a winner.

So call this a story about what happens when sweat meets sweet. To me, though, it’s that familiar tale of a young mother juggling family and work. Mothers who learn how to fit their dreams around their children know how to grapple with life.

Monica Serratos, 28, wrestled at Estancia High School in Costa Mesa. As one of two women on the team, she wrestled mostly guys in the 103 or 112 -pound weight class.

She didn’t win a single match in her first year, but that only made her work harder. By senior year she was team captain.

Monica met her future husband, Fernando, on the wrestling team at Golden West College — and that’s where three babies come in.

Monica is primed to tell me about all this, plus cupcakes and the Academy Awards, but 3-month-old Angelica announces – loudly — she’s ready to eat. There’s no arguing with that.

Monica fell into baking the way women fall in love: opportunity and attraction to something sweet. She was working weekends and nights at Macy’s, and wanted to start her own business. Then her sister took a culinary class and Monica sampled some recipes.

“I liked the cake on one and the icing on the other,” Monica recalls. “When we put them together, it was gold.”

First, she experimented with recipes – a little more egg here, a bit less oil there. A good cake is moist, not over-baked, with icing that isn’t overly sweet. One result is her signature raspberry red velvet cake.

“This is my passion … when people pop a bite into their mouth and their reaction is ‘Wow!’ you’ve created this little bit of dessert heaven.”

For a year she explored the idea of a baking business. She took some classes in cake decorating and discovered she was good at it – very good.

Monica began selling her creations to friends and their friends and suddenly realized: “I guess I’m in business.”

Two Parts Sugar (www.twopartssugar.com) launched in December of 2008. Listening to Monica explain how she hustles to build her business is exhausting.

Less than a year after launching, a very pregnant Monica was competing (and losing) in the first episode of the Food Network reality show, “Cupcake Wars.” Yes, she admits, she spent one crazy evening with power tools building a display stand for her cupcakes.

Twice she’s accepted the annual LA Cupcake Challenge, passing out thousands of samples so the public can eat and vote. The first year Two Parts Sugar won a second place and bragging rights for its (suddenly) “award-winning” cupcakes. In February, she won a third place for her chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes.

She’s already diversified from cupcakes into other sweets and aprons. With marketing help from her brother, Monica tweets and blogs and looks for every advantage.

When the Academy Awards came calling, Monica didn’t hesitate. She pulled several all-nighters to bake mini-cupcakes for tasting and “swag” bags for stars visiting the gifting suite.

She’s tasted other cupcakes. With no modesty she says:

“Some of the cupcakes out there made me realize that what I have here is fantastic.”

An entrepreneur and mother, Monica knows all about juggling her time. Most mothers mentally barter with our kids, trading more favors than a backroom politico: If we accomplish one chore for me, later we will do one fun thing for you.

Monica trades a morning at the park for a run to buy ingredients or make a delivery. She packs Alicia, 3, Anabelle, 2, and the baby into the car and tells them it’s time to make a trip. She bakes; they bake with an Easy Bake Oven.

After the girls’ 8 p.m. bedtime, she heads to her Irvine-based kitchen to work. Her time is her own until 6 a.m. when the kids wake up.

“I tuck them into bed. They know Daddy is here and Mommy has to go to work.”

No problem – if you don’t require sleep.

And here’s where wrestling comes in. This is a grueling schedule. To meet it, Monica calls upon the same focus and drive she needed just to finish a practice.

“Some nights I’m baking and I’m dead tired and I tell myself: All right, it’s overtime. I need that extra bit you have to give.”

Endurance counts. She’s taken a self-taught, crash course in business: setting prices (too low), buying supplies (no longer at the grocery store), packaging and marketing.

So far, Two Parts Sugar is barely profitable. The deal with Fernando is that she needs to at least cover expenses and pay the family’s bill for health insurance.

Monica is selling cupcakes, but she’s buying herself time.

Right now, her business is the freedom to stay home days and weekends with her girls. But she has ambitions: maybe her own storefront bakery one day, maybe a little saved for the girls’ education. She would like them to finish college.

“I am setting an example. My girls can see it’s important to be independent and be able to support themselves and not have to rely on anybody else.”

She wants to build a successful business. She wants to be a successful mother. She wants more hours in the day.

All mothers wrestle with that.

I have never gotten so many requests for the same themed cake! I had 4 Yo Gabba Gabba cakes within a week! I LOVE YGG so I was happy and thrilled to do them all. It was so fun coming up with different designs to please each customer. I really wanted to make each one unique…a cake is something special and i love when I can make something special and unique for someone who is equally special and unique. This cake was for 2 year old Sadie. 

We incorporated the signature starburst with a happy birthday message and the bottom tier was decorated with each character made out of fondant.

I have to admit…I walked into Jillian’s (Sadie’s mom) house and I was totally scoping it out for ideas for my daughter’s birthday party the following day! She had all kinds of cute decorations for the party. She put Sadie in a homemade YGG shirt with Foofa popping out of a cupcake (that’s where I got the idea to incorporate a cupcake into my girls shirts). The cake went perfectly with all she had set up for the party. Such a fun cake to do.

Thank you again for the wonderful cake!!! We had SOOOO many compliments and comments on it! And then there was almost an all out war on who got the first character slice!

-Jillian, Sadie’s Mom

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SADIE!

One of my 3 little cupcakes turned 2 today! My middle child Anabelle celebrated her birthday today. Actually, the real celebration was Sunday. We threw her a Yo Gabba Gabba party and proclaimed that our Ani was turning “TWO”dee (one of the characters names is Toodee). I have to be honest, there were lots of really cool ideas running through my head for the cake and decorations, but things are just way too busy, I had to hold back a little (actually a lot) in order to even get a party together. I pulled an all nighter the night prior to the party and while I was content with the outcome, I had so much more I would have loved to have done. So here’s a peek at the festivities! 

My little Ani on Halloween dressed as Toodee…we used this picture in the invitations.

I was swamped with work and a new baby and moving, so didn’t get to ordering any themed party decorations. Yo Gabba Gabba is SO hard to find in stores. So, 2 DAYS BEFORE the party I ran to find something that would work…heres what I did:

I was able to find bubbles in some of the colors of the characters and just added some of the simple facial features and POOF! they all came to life. The bubbles were a hit with the kids, but messy. I applied the same idea to the goodie bags, party hats and buckets for centerpieces. I was going to do the same to all the balloons but ran out of time! On a side note, I asked my 3 year old what kind of party she wanted, response: a Foofa party!

Here’s what the cake table looked like almost complete:

Here’s a shot of the cake!

So, the original plan was to do a 4 tier cake…each tier was going to have one of the Gabba lands as the background and the coordinating character on each tier with Toodee on top holding a ballon and the Yo Gabba Gabba starburst somewhere. Well, it was either a huge cake (with tons of leftovers) and no decorations, or a small cake and decorations. I opted for the tiny cake with cupcakes…much easier! I had a slight catastrophe with the liners…the all began to separate from the cupcake…solution: ribbon tied around each cupcake. 

I got SO many great shots of my angel on her big day, and I really tried to limit the number I posted.  Here’s my Ani enjoying her cupcakes! If you look closely you can see the shirt i made her is Toodee holding what else? A CUPCAKE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANABELLE!

…My mom just called and said the marble was so great, I also wanted to let you know that the marble was so good, I still have a bunch and all of my friends said the cake tasted great!! I was totally happy with everything, going to cut into the top red velvet tonight!! Dude you did the best! im really happy with everything, also my mom said the flowers tasted amazing!!!! She called and asked me to save some more flowers for her to eat. The flowers were a big hit at the wedding with all of the kids!!!!! There was like 25 kids running around with those flowers and they were all coming back for seconds! I think Two Parts Sugar is going to go really far. I’ve been referring whom ever I know…

The BEAUTIFUL bride and handsome groom on their big day!

You all remember our Star Wars cake and cupcake tower right? It was one of our most popular cake/cupcake combos we’ve done to date! Well, today it popped up on Fandomania! Fandomania is a blog about pop culture, covering news, reviews, and opinions on everything from TV shows to video games to toys and comics, and a whole lot of stuff in between. Here it is again for those of you who may have missed it!

You’ll definitely want to check out the detail shots — Grievous is incredible (and edible)!

Fandomania…THANKS for the kind words and post! We really appreciate the continued support from everyone! 

If you have any questions, comments, or would like to place an order you can reach us here.