We have been doing a lot recently trying to bring some new things to the table. From filling orders, to blogging, tweeting, getting the new site up and running, and a few more tricks we have up our sleeve…..we’ve been pretty busy. So, we decided to recruit some help.

Meet our newest team member Alicia! Yes, she is my sister. Alicia is 21 and mother to my beautiful niece Adrienne. She is a wonderful Mommy and full time student. She is just getting her feet wet with this whole cupcake universe and I think she will quickly realize how amazing and popular these goodies are. Alicia will be handling a lot of the “paper work”. She will be introduced to the world of Tweets and blog posts and will be answering your emails and helping with deliveries! We are super excited to have her on board and know she will bring some great things to the table. We would love it if you sent her some words of encouragement to show her how amazing this cupcake community is.

Be sure to keep checking back with us as many exciting things will continue to unravel!

If you missed, you sure missed out! We ran a giveaway for 2 dz custom cupcakes from Two Parts Sugar, complete with custom Super Bowl decorations….but that’s not all, we also threw in a “Sporty Couture” apron from Kitchen Couture….AND 2 dz custom cupcake wrappers from Sugar Cat Studio!

AND THE WINNER IS: 

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Chrissy Says: 
January 19th, 2010 at 5:47 pm   edit

Just darling – and yummy I’m sure! The apron a must have!

I follow you on FB too and Twitter

Cheers

CONGRATULATIONS CHRISSY! It looks like you are in OC…so we will be hand delivering your cupcakes to you the day of the big game!

We had so much fun hosting this giveaway…a big THANK YOU to all who participated!

Listen up all you football fanatics, cause this is one giveaway you won’t want to miss! Two Parts Sugar, Kitchen Couture, and Sugar Cat Studio are teaming up to bring you the ultimate Super Bowl party package.

Enter to win 2 dozen gourmet cupcakes from Two Parts Sugar, complete with custom made Super Bowl decorations….a “Sporty Couture” apron from Kitchen Couture, and 24 custom cupcake wrappers from Sugar Cat Studio! You could win everything you need to make your Super Bowl party one your guests will not soon forget.

Super Bowl final four

“Sporty Couture” arpon

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment here telling us who you think will be going to the Super Bowl..that’s it! Want this Super Bowl party package REALLY bad? Well, you can earn another entry by Tweeting about our giveaway …earn another entry by posting about our giveaway on Facebook, earn yet another entry by blogging about our giveaway, and finally, earn one last entry by going to Kitchen Couture and checking out their awesome aprons, come back here and leave a comment telling us which apron you liked best. That’s 5 entries for a chance to win!

When is the deadline to be eligible to win? All entries must be submitted by no later than Saturday, January 23rd (the day before the final four teams will play to go to the Super Bowl).  If your team wins on Sunday January 24th and is moving on to the big game, then you will go in to the drawing to win the ultimate football party package!

When will the winner be announced? All friends & fans whose team wins on Sunday will be put in to a random drawing.  The winner will be drawn and announced on Monday, January 25th.

When will I get my prize? The prize package will be delivered by February 4th to the lucky recipient.

Is there any cost to me for winning? None whatsoever (but we would really appreciate it if you told your friends and family where all of your fabulous football goodies came from)!

GOOD LUCK!!!

Mark your calendars!

Grab your Gucci, slip in to your Betsey Johnson best, and bring your appetite because the L.A. Cupcake Challenge is back and this year the competition is going to be fierce! Nineteen of the ‘best of the best’ cupcake masters will gather in Los Angeles at the Renaissance Hotel on the 20th of February to display their top-secret cupcake recipes with hopes of winning the title of the tastiest cupcake in all of southern California! 

Kitchen Couture and Sugar Cat Studio will be joining Two Parts Sugar who will be bringing some “sinfully sweet” treats (and a little bit of fashion) to the challenge. In 2009 Two Parts Sugar took 2nd place in the “Best Traditional” category for their Raspberry Red Velvet cupcake, and this year we are coming prepared with more than just mouth watering delectable’s. In preparation for their 2010 battle, we have been busy preparing two new cupcakes especially for this event. Their special ingredient? Two parts sugar (of course) consisting of one part naughty and one part nice…a sinfully sweet combination that is sure to leave a mark on the competition. We have a lot planned for this year,  including a very special announcement which will be made on January 11, 2009…We are bringing lots of fun to this challenge and are hoping to walk away with a victory and, of course, bragging rights for the best cupcake in all of Southern California! You can read more about last year’s competition here.

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!

That’s right, Football season is upon us and with the Super Bowl right around the corner you don’t want to be tackled at your party because you forgot to order your cupcakes early. We’ve got cupcakes to represent any team. Anything from team colors in icing or sprinkles, to helmets and footballs, to more elaborate team logos! Here are a few of the cupcakes from last year. 

Steelers vs Cardianls

Falcons vs Broncos

We’d love to hear from you! Let us know if you have any questions or would like to place an order. 

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!

Last week we had an order for some too cute cupcakes. Little Adam was turning 2 and his mom wanted cupcakes to match the party decor (plates/napkins, etc.). How fun! So we worked out all the details and she sent over a photo of the decor. Here’s what we came up with:

This was my first time attempting to swirl the icing colors…it was a little heavy at first and I feared there’d be kids running around with dark blue tongues (which I’m sure they’d love). We did 3 dz cupcakes, each with swirly blue frosting (the “water”) and chose some cute elements off the plate to decorate each cupcake with. We were very pleased with how they turned out! 

“Thank you for the yummy cupcakes! They were definitely a big hit!” 

Tiffany…Adam’s mom

So, there you have it Cupcake Wars has aired and we couldn’t be more thrilled (for the airing, not the outcome). If you don’t know the story behind it all, you can read about everything from the call, the audition, the call back, the dilemma, the casting and all of our thank yous. Yes, you can experience it all as if you were there! 

So, if you caught it I really hoped you enjoyed it! We would love to hear any feedback, good or bad! Let us know what you thought of the show, the competitors, the judges, the host…we want to hear all of your comments! If you caught us on facebook or twitter, you got the inside scoop on a few things and how we were feeling as we watched. We received lots of feedback and questions…we’d like to answer a few questions: 

When are you due?

Had baby girl number 3….Angelica on November 27, 2009! Yay! 

Where was the “spicy”? 

 Yes, I know we technically did not use the “spicy” component as many of the others interpreted the term. However in reading the definition below, you can clearly see our cupcake fell into more than one of the 5 definitions!

Spicy

adj. spic·i·er, spic·i·est

Was the churro cupcake the only thing you could come up with?

Of course not! Sky’s the limit when it comes to flavor combos! We originally were going to go with a mexican chocolate cupcake…always had a box of Abuelita or Ibarra sitting around the house as a kid. The initial plan was a mexican chocolate cupcake, filled with cinnamon whipped cream and topped with a rich mexican chocolate ganache frosting and topped with gold sprinkles. I absolutely cannot stand the taste of mexican chocolate, so I made the executive decision to cut it. I can’t sell something I don’t absolutely LOVE! Plus…we wanted to stay away from the chocolate as we felt it would be a popular pick amongst the contestants. I wouldn’t change a thing though…except the frosting!

The frosting?

OK, so our frosting pretty much sucked! We made one batch of icing that just wasn’t hitting the mark for us, under the pressure, I think we missed a step. So, we made it again. This time not having enough vanilla bean or enough time to mix it to the consistancy we would have liked…..that’s just how it goes. We have since improved our recipe and LOVE it!

Did we know we were going home after the judges table?

We knew it was a possibility before the judging even began. We knew if it was anything it would be our frosting that got us sent home. The cake was delicious…moist and flavorful…the churros, to die for. The frosting was our detriment and we saw it coming before those bad boys were even plated. We were just hoping someone else had a worse encounter. But, at least I know the judges were on top of their game…they knew exactly what was wrong with each cupcake, including ours. 

Was it hard to film being pregnant?

Yes and no. There was a lot of prep involved and lots of sleepless nights. I am a very persistent person and put my all into everything I do. That being said, I was not going to let my pregnancy get in the way of anything. I was mindful of my little angel, careful and knew my limitations. But I was not going to go into this without giving it my all. Days were long and my feet and back would hurt…the tent was a bit warm at times too, but everyone was very supportive and helpful. The whole production crew made this experience amazing for me! 

What was your design for the presentation round?

While no, it was not a lady in a dress, it’s kinda hard to describe without a photo. Do I think we would have won that round with our design…possibly. But I must say, Elfie’s idea was great. I loved that she incorporated a real woman in the center and that it was mobile. She did a great job!

What’s next?

Well, maybe you guys should be asking what’s not next. We are working everyday to bring our tasty creations to you all. We are constantly trying to put a new spin on cupcakes and everything they represent. We have the LA Cupcake Challenge in February, the Arthritis Walk in May and hopefully many things in between! I also hope to open a storefront by the end of the year! 

So, Thank you to everyone who tuned in. We really do appreciate the continued support. Again, we’d love to hear your feedback…so drop us a message!

You can also read more of the “inside scoop” from Natalie over at Bake and Destroy.

First, can I say WHAT A YEAR! One year ago this month I embarked on the journey that is cupcakes.

While yes, a majority of the business was in my hands, from baking, decorating, and flavor concepts, to marketing, blogging, and even clerical….by NO means did I do it alone. I’ll try and make it quick, but here is where my gratitude lies: I am blessed to have help from my NUMBER 1, my husband. Thanks for ALL the PATIENCE and SUPPORT. My now three daughters Alicia (3), Anabelle (2), and Angelica (1 week)….they have no idea what lies ahead in the cupcake world! My Mom and sisters who have been there to help with baby sitting, taste testing, and creative ideas. My Dad, who is my voice of reasoning. My genius of a brother and sister who help in all creative aspects from packaging, marketing and website design. Ruth my beautiful model. Kitchen Couture for partnering up with us to bring you a couture line of aprons exclusive to Two Parts Sugar. Sugar Cat Studio for partnering with us to bring you couture cupcake wrappers. Dan Silberstein for getting us in last minute for last year’s LA Cupcake Challenge. The ENTIRE Super Delicious Team, Food Network and Ren Messer for believing in me! Katie B for graciously extending a hand to someone in need. Andy Ortega Photography for some amazing photos. The awesome bloggers out there….Zen Cupcake, Bake And Destroy (Natalie),Cupcakes Take The Cake, The Cupcake Activist, and anyone else who has helped spread the cupcake word. The CUSTOMERS……without you we would not have a place in the kitchen! Thank you to anyone and everyone who has crossed our path and helped to get us where we are today! 

So, as I was saying….This time last year we launched our website and life has been madness (in a good way) ever since. I have to admit, being a wife…no wait, a coach’s wife,  raising 2 children (now 3) and running a business is no easy feat. There were many times I wanted to give up, but my stubbornness wouldn’t allow me to. In the past year we have whipped up lots of cupcakes, cakes and treats, and have learned lots along the way. Our favorite moments of the year include participating in the arthritis walk to help spread the word about amazing kids like Faith who suffer from Juvenile Arthritis. Almost as rewarding, our blog was featured in the OC register, we took second in the LA Cupcake Challenge in the best traditional category, and auditioned and earned a spot on The Food Network’s CUPCAKE WARS (due to air December 27)! Needless to say it has been quite a BIG first year of baking for us!

This post is just to let all of our supporters, customers, family and friends how much we truly appreciate EVERYTHING! Also, to let you all know we are NOT slowing down! We have lots of aspirations for 2010! Some of our newest features include….a “make-over” for our website, new packaging exclusive to Two Parts Sugar, our “shop” which will include couture aprons and cupcake wrappers, new gourmet treats added to our menu, and much, much more! Events where you can find us: The Food Network’s CUPCAKE WARS, air date December 27, 2009…..The LA Cupcake Challenge, February 20, 2010…..The Arthritis Walk May 16, 2010! Please keep checking back for the latest, and if you have an event you’d like us to participate in or would like to place an order let us know!

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