Order Up: Happy 2nd Birthday Addison!

The order:

3 Dozen Red Velvet
2 Dozen Vanilla Chocolate Chip
1 Jumbo Cupcake


A few weeks ago, Jamie emailed me to place an order for her daughter's 2nd birthday party. Through emails, I got all of the details down - where the party was going to be (at a local pumpkin patch), that the theme was pumpkins and Addison loves Dora the Explorer. Sounds like the perfect match for Klicious!


After she picked her order, It was time to figure out how to incorporate Dora and pumpkins together...no problem - the "kid" cupcakes would get the Dora cupcake picks and the Red Velvet would be decorated to look like pumpkins. I was able to do some google images and come up with a few ideas in my head.


The jumbo cupcake, I wanted to make sure that this was something special for the birthday girl that incorporated both themes. I am in love with the glitter letters that I found at ACMoore and I decided to make cupcake picks with her name on them :




So girly - I love the colors! When it came to decorating, I wanted to use the new piping tip I got to see if I could make the cupcake look like giant roses. I didn't color the frosting because I didn't want too much going on.

I also told Jamie that I would pick up a #2 candle and while I was there, found a little Dora fall set! It had a little pumpkin, and 2 pie pieces - it was so cute that I had to pick it up to complete the look of the cupcake!
How adorable is that? And it completely ties it together!! I love the way this turned out!

Before I get into the pumpkins, I have to say that poor Jamie had to change her ENTIRE plan for the party from the local pumpkin patch to a game center for the kids because of the snow storm! Really? Snow in October. Mother Nature really is on a tear this year.

With all of the changes, Jamie did decide to keep the pumpkin theme which was so exciting and I loved making them! I love googling different images and then being able to replicate them! What do you think?

These are Red Velvets and you can't even tell!

Pretty boxes of cupcakes!

Next up were the kid's cupcakes. Earlier in the week, I found Dora stickers and made cupcake picks. Then it was time to bake the chocolate chip cupcakes and get them ready for frosting and decorating. I happened to pick up yellow and orange sprinkles which matched really cute with the cupcakes and tied it all together nicely!

What do you think?

Dora really is on the move!

Happy 2nd Birthday Addison - hope you had a fun birthday party and got lots of good presents!

Order Up: Pet'Ober Fest Donation!

The donation:
4 Dozen Assorted Cupcakes

Ok, it's no secret how much we love our local group LoveFourPaws that dedicates pretty much everything they have to the homeless animals in Philadelphia. Seriously, they are amazing.

I had been in contact with Teri who is the amazing mastermind behind this organization and when she mentioned a BIG adoption event that was going on in October, well I knew I wanted to donate some cupcakes to give back to all the volunteers for their never ending work and the amazing job they've done in just a year of existence.

And seriously - how cute is their logo?

So the weekend of the adoption event, the cupcakes were made and boxed up. We also added some cute cupcake toppers that had puppy assorted decorations (bones, paws, dog houses, tennis balls). It was such an awesome whirlwind of activity that Teri and I completely missed a photo-op...but don't worry - there will be more events and we'll make sure to snap a picture!

When I got down to the event - I finally met Teri in person. She's so adorable and the setup that they have for the events are so cute! Want to see pictures? Feel free to check out their facebook page (AND LIKE THEM!!!!) and their photo albums of the two day event here and here! In addition to the cupcakes, there was a box of Milkbones and a bag of Beggin Strips that made their way into the donation pile as well!

Also, I got to meet the bestest snuggler ever - little Autumn. She is such an amazingly cute dog who only wants the simplest thing - a lap to cuddle up in. The way she leaned her face into my hand and closed her eyes with content was amazing. It was so hard to walk away and not take her and a bunch of her friends with me!

If you ever want to volunteer or give some of your money, time, or maybe those old blankets you were going to give to Goodwill - consider donating to LoveFourPaws! Every little bit helps.

And who knows, maybe you'll find a furry addition to add to your family!

Order Up: B.A.T.S. Halloween Luncheon!

The order:
3 Dozen Basics - chocolate with buttercream and vanilla with buttercream

Know what I love? When I get an order from a family member - it's awesome! Leslie was talking with my Aunt Sherry (who was the one who first showed me cake decorating!) and they were talking about cupcakes I brought to the family reunion.

Every year Leslie throws a Halloween get together and this year asked if I could make cupcakes for the event. Of course! Count me in - especially since I've been blog stalking and searching pictures of fall themed cupcakes! So this was right up my alley!

Into the kitchen we go! Chocolate cupcakes made first, then the vanilla and set out to cool. I'm going to be honest, there is nothing "exciting" anymore about them - I've made them so many times it's like second nature and I love it!

During the week, while watching TV one night, I made up some of the cupcake picks from scrapbook paper and foam halloween cutouts! Also made BATS out of sparkly foam letters - since this was for the Bryn Atherns Thrift Store (BATS for short!).

I think they came out adorable - do you agree?


Steph said this resembles a cupcake graveyard...not so sure I agree ;)

BOO! I see you!
Trick or treat!

This order was so much fun to make and I think the toppers were the perfect accessories! Leslie and friends - I hope you enjoy your luncheon and hope you have a fantastic Halloween!

Order Up: happy 6th Birthday Skylar!

The order:
1 Dozen Vanilla cupcakes
1 Dozen Chocolate cupcakes
1 Dozen assorted premiums

What can we say? There's been a bit of a lag in the girl's orders lately so we're SO excited to get to make Skylar's "Rock Star" birthday cupcakes! Karen emailed me a few weeks ago that she wanted to place an order for Skylar's birthday and that the theme was Justin Bieber/Rock Star. Soooooooo that day I hit up 5 and Below and found some JB stickers and knew I wanted to make picks to go on top of the cupcakes.

Remember the order I mentioned here? Well since that was the same weekend, I was able to have a good mix for the party! Included were Take Pride, Death by Chocolate and Oreo Oh Oh. Quick picture before we get to the good stuff!


So into the kitchen we went - making up the chocolate and vanilla goodnes, turning buttercream the perfect shade of pink, and adding some purple sprinkles. YUMMMMMMMMMM city!


Earlier in the week while watching TV, I made the cupcake picks...since these were going to be transported to the party, I didn't want to put them on and have them look sloppy once we got there. Once we arrived, there was setup on the tray, added the picks to the cupcakes, along with some blow up microphone accessories and adorable rock star napkins, and voila, 24 cupcakes fit for a Rock Star!!!

Of course I had to make the birthday girl's name! I love these glitter letters and think they turned out adorable!
Happy 6th birthday Skylar, hope you were a total rockstar and enjoyed every minute of your party!!!

Order Up: Sweet Condolences...

The order:
1 Dozen Fluffy Elvis

This post is bittersweet. I hate that I have to write it due to the loss of a good friend, Denise's father...but love it because we have friends who care so much and Victoria who wanted to send a little something extra to Denise for opening her home to her last year.

As the schedules were crazy and didn't seem to line up (really October, anytime you are ready to make your exit, feel free - it's been a not so good month so far), it was hard to get down to Denise to drop off her cupcakes.

When things finally settled down, I was able to take them to her last Sunday and leave them for when she arrived home from her trip. I hope it was a sweet suprise and enjoyed by Denise :)

We love you!

(P.S. Sorry about the lack of pictures - this was done in a flurry and I completely forgot! Shame on me!)

Order up: Happy Birthday Talisa!

The order:


2 dozen premium cupcakes (Oreo Oh Oh, Death by Chocolate and Take Pride)


So Tekara emailed me earlier in the week about ordering cupcakes for Talisa's birthday bash that Saturday. Of course we'd make them! Since there was another order that weekend, we were able to give Talisa the mix of cupcakes that she wanted! I love when we're able to utilize multiple orders and give the customer a good mix of what they wanted!

First up were the Take Pride and the Oreo Oh Oh. Since they are both made with our vanilla cake mix, it was time to make the batter, then split it for coloring. Each time I make these, I love the way the colors are different and come out :) When they cooled, we frosted with cream cheese frosting and rainbow jimmies :)

Next up were the Oreo Oh Oh's...made the buttercream, added up the crushed Oreos, and voila. YUM city. Did I mention that I tried to use a piping bag AGAIN. Seriously, my brain wasn't functioning at full capacity. Once I realized what I was doing - it was time to just use the spoon, add the frosting and get those suckers done. I think they turned out adorable :)

Next up? Death by Chocolate. I seriously advise getting yourself some milk to go along with these. They are super yummy and chocolately, but they stick in your mouth and what better to wash it down with than some moo juice?!? ;)

Upon arrival, they were shaped into a 23 and accented with gold candles! How cute!

Happy Birthday Talisa! Hope you enjoyed every last bite and gave Tekara a big ol kiss for being an awesome girlfriend and ordering you some cupcakes!

Tasting Party Event: Step 2: Bakin' Nation!

And now the time has come to commence on the baking. It's Saturday, and that means it's time to load 'em up and take em out.

Let's see where do I begin. First, Gabby's dad was kind enough to let us use the kitchen he manages as our baking kitchen, which was wonderful.

Friday before the party, I was on schedule to do SO much stuff. And then guess what? Thursday I start feeling like I'm coming down with something. Something like the flu or strep throat. Sounds fun right? Not so much. Rich had antibiotics that I popped, I did what little stuff I could and then took a long nap on the couch. When I woke up that night, I felt 1000 times better and was able to get the orders for Saturday done, and pack up some of the containers that needed to go with us for baking and pack up the other decoration boxes. Then it was time for sleep...I knew if I didn't sleep the rest of the weekend would be bad.

Bright and early on Saturday morning, we loaded up the truck and headed right to Sam's to get the supplies for the huge baking task ahead of us. Once that was finished, Steph, Gabby and I sat down and started to mix up the dry ingredients. A genius idea I might add. We took freezer bags, took a Sharpie wrote the dry ingredient list on there, added the baking instructions, then added the list of what wet ingredients need to be added to finish off the cupcakes. This my dears, was a lifesaver!

Once all that was done, Silka and I headed off to drop off the cupcake orders. While we were doing that, Steph and Gabby packed up the house and went to pick up Andrew to meet us at the place.

Let the insanity begin. Start time: 6:30 PM.

While Silka and I stopped to pick up food for everyone (hey we needed to power with some nom nom's), the little bakers set everything up. I really wish I would have had a better counts of things, but here is what I remember:

• 50 lbs of flour


• 50 lbs of sugar


• 15 dozen eggs


• 68 lbs of butter


• 32 oz Vanilla


• 2 gallons of milk


• 36 blocks of cream cheese


• 64 ounces of sour cream


• 2 containers of Crisco


• 2 1/2 gallons of buttermilk


• 1 half gallon of heavy cream


• 1 bottle of white vinegar (didn't use the whole thing)


• 8 fl ounces of red food coloring


• 2 econo size boxes of large Reese's


• 2 econo size boxes of mini Reese's


• 2 econo size boxes of Oreo's


• 1 econo size box of Oreo's minis


• 84 pounds of powdered sugar


• 5 lbs of carrots


• 2 containers of Hershey's Chocolate


• 1000 mini cupcake wrappers


• 1000 regular cupcake wrappers

Steph was smart enough to use my iPad and capture these pictures.
Holy wow.

Best red food coloring I've found. I need to find this stuff in bulk instead of buying Walmart out of it everytime ;) (Random: why is 1 box always like $4.69 in stores?!!?)

That's a lot of eggs.

Oh hello delicious candy.

Moooooooooooooooooooove over, we have lots of ingredients!

Smile! Happy baker, not so happy assistant. Just kidding :) We love gabby.

Genius idea! (But don't steal my recipe!)

What's with all the long faces? Oh that's right. It was insanity and we were hungry. Ok, let's eat first before getting started!

Happy that I let them eat....

All the wrappers patiently waiting their cupcake batter so they can bake up.

And just when we think things are going great...BAM. The mixer decides to be tempermental and not want to work. We tried everything, unplug, reset, turn off everything and restart. Reset all the parts, take the bowl off, put the bowl on...then we had to call the baker and ask him what to do!

We wound up working with this machine for a while and finally got a batch completed. The mixer was so tempermental that we needed to keep trying to get it to work. I was sweet talking the machine, I gave her a nice rub, I even promised her a candle-lit dinner, but nothing. After 2 batches, she wasn't giving it up.

That's when we enrolled some elbow grease. Steph was whirling that bowl and paddle around with all her might. I grabbed another bowl and a whisk 1/2 the size of me and get to mixing. Silka, Gabby and Andrew kept filling cupcake cups and getting them in the oven.

Hello little cupcakes!

I think we used every spatula, scooper, cupcake pan, bowl, whisk, measuring cup and measuring spoon I owned.

All in all - I couldn't ask for better people to help me that night. It wouldnt have gotten done without all the dedication and cooperation from everyone.

Steph: Words cannot even describe the thank you that I owe you. You were amazingly fantastic, wonderfully ass kicker and red velvet mixer. Lord knows I wouldn't have be able to have half of the things I do without your thrifting, spray painting, kindly telling me what I 'need' to do, and just all around being amazing. Thank you for always being my partner in crime and the other half of my business mind. Now strap in, cause we goin to the top baby!

Gabby: Yo Gabba Gabba!!! Thank you for being that extra organization that I need. You were awesome in finding everything, scooping, mixing, putting the cupcakes away and labeling. Good thing beause there was no way I was going to be able to figure it out on my own!

Silka: Wifey dearest. Thank you for helping to keep me sane and all of our heart to hearts. Words cannot describe how happy I was that you were there with me. Best friend isn't enough.

Andrew:Thank you for sticking it out til the very end. I hope you had a great time and we entertained you. You were awesome at scooping and arranging the cupcakes. You'll have a job kid, as soon as I get my own bakery!

Ralph and Elyse: Thank you so much for the use of your awesome kitchen and for providing us entertainment all night! May I have some of your delicious milk and cupcakes?

It was one hell of a night, filled with more cupcakes than I could even count, laughs and random dances, looking like we got into a fight with flour (or maybe just me?), sore feet, tons of curses. It felt like the longest episode of cupcake wars ever.

After a ride home, 3 batches of icing made at home, showers all around, and people sleeping everywhere, we were finally done.

Stop time: 2:30 AM.

Stay tuned for Part 3!

Tasting Party Event - Step 1: Preparation Nation

Where to begin, where to begin? Oh yeah, how about at the point of preparation. I can't really say where the "point" started, but shortly, my house was being filled with thrift store finds, clearance rack specials, and bags and bags of display items. I shit you not, my whole garage was filled...and that was without setting foot into a store to buy the items to actually bake the cupcakes.

To start, we estimated that we would need surface area for give or take 1,500 cupcakes. No that is not a typo - one thousand, five hundred cupcakes. Well, time to get to thrifting. After walking around with a black and white notebook for months, stalking out blogs for table displays of sweet treats, participating in our first showcase, we had a good idea of how the tables were going to be laid out.

Sooo, off to Ross, Marshall's, Ikea, TJ Maxx, AC Moore, and every thrift store in the northeast...or at least that's what it felt like! We shopped, we scoured clearance racks, we bargained, and at the end, we had a nice stockpile of items that would soon be turned into beautiful displays.

In order to do so, it was time to get crafty. I furiously wrote in my notepad as ideas hit me, Steph would text me the things I "needed" to do all the time and they went right into the notebook.

We made pinwheels for center pieces using chop sticks, scrapbook paper and fasteners. They came out beautiful. We made decorative displaysd out of styrofoam balls and cupcake liners...only to forget them at home. Exhausted yet? We were, but there was no time for stopping. I don't even know how many cans of spray paint we went through to make plain stands look beautiful. There were many a nights spent with a hot glue gun, scissors, ribbons, and so much more. It was a crafting frenzy all around - and that is on top of working a full time job and handling other cupcake orders :)

The week before the tasting party, we laid everything out and realized that we had a lot of beautiful stuff! We had beautiful boxes, white tray displays, handmade crafts, boxes of table cloths, napkins, banners, plates, sprinkles, OH MY!

Once that was all put together, it was time to get onto the baking!!!

Order Up: Bridal Shower!

The order:
1 Dozen Reese's love
1 Dozen Strawberries and Champagne
1 Dozen Red Velvet
1 Dozen Vanilla with Cream Cheese Frosting
1 Dozen (1/2 Chocolate, 1/2 Vanilla) with Buttercream Frosting

A few weeks ago, we got an email from Lynda regarding placing an order for a bridal shower she was throwing for her brother and his future wife. (Awesome sister award goes out again!)

She let me know the date (another order the same weekend as the tasting party - YIKES!) and that the theme was going to be christmas since they are getting married in December. We're always up for a little challenge ;)

After exchanging a few emails, we agreed that for the plain cupcakes, we would make them christmas themed - holly berry, red and white frosting and christmas colored sprinkles. No problemo.

Friday night - when baking the other order, this one was prepared as well. Since it was a crazy weekend, Gabby was so kind to roll out the fondant and cut out the leaves for the holly, while I rolled the fondant into little balls. I am SO happy with the way they turned out and can't wait to work on some more orders for fall, halloween and christmas! Ahhhhhhhhhh I can't believe they are right around the corner.

What do you think? How adorable would they be for a Christmas party?



And of course our Reeses and Strawberries and Champagne....
Red and white tinted icing with gold sprinkles.So pretty!

Christmas colored sprinkles with a different piping tip!

I took this order for delivery and when I walked into the hall - it was amazing! Lynda and her family did a great display on the tables with the centerpieces, the favors looked like cake pops that were decorated with gorgeous scroll work, and it was just so beautiful! She even had a cupcake stand and the layout of the table for the desserts was just amazing (wish I would have snapped a picture dammit!).

All in all - it was so awesome and I'm so happy with the way this order turned out!

Best wishes to Lynda's brother and his future wife for many many years of wedded bliss!

Order Up: Bridal Shower!

The order:
3 Dozen mini Reese's Love
2 Dozen mini Strawberries and Champagne
2 Dozen mini Red Velvet

A week ago, we took a call from Gail who was at the baby shower that we did the weekend of Barb's wedding and she wanted to place an order for the weekend of the tasting party for her daughter's bridal shower. Eeeeeeeeeeeep. But how could we turn it down?

I spoke with Gail a few times and she just said she definitely wanted the Reese's and Strawberries and Champagne and to make whatever else we wanted to that wasn't chocolate. No problem at all!

Gearing up for the tasting party, we had so much going on that being able to stop and concentrate on an order was wonderful! (Side note: Friday night my allergies were acting up so much that I had to stop and take a nap in the middle of the day because I was afraid I was coming down with the flu that everyone kept getting...so I was a little behind!)

Late Friday night - I went into the kitchen to prep all of the cupcakes for baking. First up were the Reese's Love. Know what I like about the minis? I don't have to unwrap them since I am able to use the unwrapped minis. Love.

After that, it was time for the Strawberries and Champagne and Red Velvets. Another cool thing? The order for later in the day on Saturday was almost the same, so baking the batches of cupcakes, I was able to get through both orders pretty quickly! Another blog to follow on that one!

Once everything was baked, it was boxed up for safe storing overnight and it was up early on Saturday to get to making frostings and frosting some cupcakes! First up were the Reese's...mmmm peanut butter. Since they were small, I topped them off with a Reese's Pieces. How cute? And the colors were perfect for the first day of October!

Next up? Cream Cheese for the Red Velet, topped with some red sprinkle accents and then onto the strawberry buttercream. Since these guys are so little, putting a full chocolate covered strawberry on top doesn't work out so well, so we put a slice of strawberry and topped with chocolate sprinkles. Yummmmmmy.

Once these bad boys were boxed up, they were set out for delivery and arrived in style! Congratulations and best wishes to the bride to be!

(Sorry for the crappy photos - didn't have either camera and these were taken from my phone!)