Boney turns 8!

Saturday is Boney’s 8th birthday. It seems like yesterday we were just celebrating his 4th birthday with a pupcake! Boney has been a good helper in the kitchen since his Brother left us but he hasn’t helped make any pupcakes yet so that was his birthday request.

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We have a full day planned on Saturday, so we are celebrating Boney’s big day a day early. He doesn’t mind because he gets to eat his cake sooner :)

The Georgia Mixed Dozen

A good friend recently submitted this letter to us and asked that we share it with you to help prevent any future losses by the Georgia Bulldogs.
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I feel the need to apologize to the Georgia Bulldogs, their fans and most importantly, Mark Richt. The Dawgs started the 2012 football season 5-0. And on each of those five game days, I diligently watched ESPN Game Day, wore my lucky black shorts purchased the same day Georgia defeated the LSU Tigers in the 2005 SEC Championship, turned a single dollar bill upside down in my wallet and ate a red velvet cupcake. Sometimes two or more, if I’m being honest.

On Saturday, October 6, ESPN Game Day was at South Carolina for the UGA vs. USC showdown. I watched. My lucky black shorts were freshly laundered. I wore them. I had a single dollar bill in my wallet. I turned it. Folks, I hate to admit that I did not follow my fourth—failsafe—game day ritual. I did not have any red velvet cupcakes. Naively, I thought this would not hold any significance in affecting the outcome of the matchup. Perhaps the Dawgs strength had everything to do with training, coaching, strong offense and defense and nothing to do with cupcakes. Boy, was I ever wrong.

I think we all know how this story ends—with the bewildering 35-7 defeat of the mighty Georgia Bulldogs at the hands of the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. Which, by the way, is just a glorified chicken. I could not feel worse about my actions and how they led to this blemish on UGA’s heretofore perfect record.

Bulldog Nation, we have some big games coming up and it is squarely upon me to right this situation—with cupcakes! I encourage you to join me in the consumption of as many red velvet cupcakes as humanly possible each and every UGA game day.

Believe me, I understand, with the preparation of so many game day wings, dips, casseroles and potato skins, adding another item to the menu may be tough. Might I suggest The Island Baker? It’s up to us, Dawgs!

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And with that, we bring you the Georgia Mixed Dozen.  One dozen standard cupcakes in red velvet, chocolate and vanilla, dressed in your favorite bulldog colors for just $20! Be sure to reserve yours for game day today!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, David!

Yesterday was my father-in-law’s birthday.  Normally, when it’s someone birthday, we all get together and have a family dinner.  Well, both we and Joe’s parents had prior obligations last night, so we decided to postpone the birthday dinner until today.

My father-in-law ranks up there with some of the most awesome people I know (of course, on that list is my own father, as well).

He has a PhD in organic chemistry.

He gathers his own supplies and makes grass baskets by hand.

 

 

 

 

He is an incredible woodworker.  This is a bar that he built for us and the coordinating jacket and top for our kegerator.

 

 

 

 

 

 

He is always willing to lend a hand when needed and has helped us do almost all of our home renovations, including making over our kitchen from this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

to this (this is a picture from the end of renovations, we’ve made a few minor changes since then):

 

 

 

 

 

 

He is also a pretty awesome baker.  His dinner rolls from scratch are some of the best I’ve ever had.  He makes a pizza crust with ease.  And his bars and cookies are pretty scrumptious.

I wanted to do something special for his birthday and we had just seen an episode of America’s Test Kitchen that has a delicious looking peach cake.  I figured it was the perfect time to make it, so I got some farmers market peaches today and rolled up my sleeves.  The kitchen smelled of sweet peaches and in the end we had a beautiful cake.  I just hope we can wait until tonight to cut into and enjoy!

Happy Birthday, David!  I hope you had a good one!

Happy Birthday!

An acquaintance of mine wanted to do something special for his wife in her birthday. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to get cupcakes or a cake. We found a compromise: the cupcake cake.

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I bought the pan last August to make for one of my good friend’s birthday, but haven’t used it since. So, last evening I made my from scratch (the only way to bake!) red velvet cake. I got up early this morning and frosted it to look like a giant cupcake. The “liner” is chocolate cream cheese frosting and the top is regular cream cheese frosting with gold and red sprinkles.

I hope the birthday girl is happy!

Back in the Day…

Last weekend I made a trip to a local store, Viola’s Market, to check out their farmers market that had been advertised in the most recent edition of Golden Isles Magazine (I might add that my husband happens to be the art director for the magazine). I was looking specifically for some fresh fruit to make some mini pies. While they did have peaches that looked quite tantalizing, I wasn’t really in a peach pie mood. I hadn’t been in the store in a while, so I looked around at all the new merchandise.

My husband was the first to spot it – The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook. I was immediately drawn to it by the cover. A couple that looked like they were incredibly happy to be doing something that they loved AND a totally awesome back drop of old timey bakery stuff. SOLD! Then I opened the book and read that one of the folks from this dynamic duo was from none other than MINNESOTA! DOUBLE SOLD!

I’ll admit – I have a bit of a cookbook problem. I tend to buy them for one recipe and then put them in my supply room and hardly ever look at them again – the exception to this is my cookbooks that are nothing but cupcakes (and yes, I have multiple cookbooks devoted to nothing but cupcakes). But when I flipped through the book quickly, I didn’t see a single recipe that I didn’t want to try. That night I went home and made the blueberry muffins.

If I had more time, I’d have made something new every night for the last week. As it worked out, I had a couple orders to fill and didn’t get to bake for myself until this weekend. So, last night after dinner with friends, I came home and made Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins – in both standard and mini sizes. Delicious doughnut like muffins dipped in melted butter and then cinnamon sugar. I can’t imagine a better way to start the week than with a bite of that incredible flavor.

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When topping the muffins, the combination of the scents of melted butter and cinnamon sugar brought me to thoughts of “back in the day” when I would spend a week at Grandma B’s house in order to attend the Steele County Free Fair (which is the BEST county fair EVER). We’d often get Tom Thumb mini donuts or elephant ears – both of which are covered in butter and cinnamon sugar!

I cannot wait until we make our next weekend day trip to Savannah, so that we can stop by the Back in the Day Bakery (oh yeah – did I mention that the actual bakery is just an hour away from where I live?!?). If you’re in their neighborhood I encourage you to stop by – from what I hear, it’s THE place to satisfy your sweet tooth for baked goods!

PupCakes!

This weekend we got a call from a friend of a friend.  She would b visiting St. Simons for the weekend and while here,  celebrate the first birthday of her french bulldog, Rhett.  She asked if we made cakes for dogs. We talked about sizes and flavors and determined that the small PupCakes would work best for Rhett’s party as he was expecting several guests who are relatively the same size as him.  That way everyone could have their own cake.


Since being the birthday boy is big deal, Rhett’s PupCake was frosted on all sides and the top.  The guests PupCakes were frosted in a variety of styles on the top only.  We got the pleasure of meeting Rhett when we delivered his goodies.  He was very excited to see us and wished him a Happy Birthday!

Rhett, we hope your day was perfect and full of love and treats!

 

Fun in the Summertime

If you haven’t already guessed by the name, I live on an Island.

And as you know, baking is (unfortunately) not my full time job. I work for a real estate and vacation rental company.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to live on a quaint little island in south east Georgia so we are a popular vacation spot. The 4th of July is one of the busiest weeks/weekends of the year for us.

Every year the vacation rental staff decks out the lobby with beads, hats, and all kinds of crazy patriotic stuff for our guests. This year, I decided to make some sugar cookies and red velvet cupcakes for the folks checking in to enjoy.

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I hope that everyone has a great weekend planned and a safe 4th next week!

Now Offering Mixed Dozens

We are proud to now offer our cupcakes in mixed dozens.  We realize that often times, you want to try more than one flavor at a time.  We are now offering our cupcakes in mixed dozens (up to 4 flavors per dozen).  Currently, you can only mix and match within the same category (mini or standard sizes, classic or IntoxiCake varieties).

What flavors would you mix and match?

Itty Bitty Bites!

I had an idea pop into my head a couple months ago, but hadn’t had a chance to try it out.

Have you ever been to a party or small gathering and there are several desserts available? You want to try them all, but they are usually large “single” servings. Well, what if there was such a thing as an itty bitty serving so you could try them all?

This is one of the reasons that mini cupcakes are so popular – at just a bite you can try multiple flavors. Why wouldn’t that work with pies?

I was concerned that with the crust being so small it would either be burnt and the filling done or it would be perfect and the filling would be undercooked. I had some time today, so I decided it would be a good time to try it out!

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I tried making blueberry and rhubarb (my favorite!) and they turned out great! We’ll be adding more pie fillings to our Itty Bitty Bite line up as time goes on. If you want us to try something particular, drop us a line!

Itty Bitty Bites are available for $20/dozen.

Experimenting with New Flavors

From time to time I pick up new cookbooks that are nothing but cupcake recipes. I’ve had one such cookbook 500 Cupcakes for a while. As you may have guessed from the title, it will be a quite some time before I can make all 500 varieties!

I’ve had my eye on two very unique flavors (lavender & honey and pistachio & rosewater) for a while and finally had time to try them (and a few other recipes) over the weekend. Although I am not a mom to any two legged children, my four legged children decided that I should do whatever my heart desired on Mother’s Day and that was to bake. I think they may have had ulterior motives as well since they know that any crumbs that fall on the floor are fair game.

I went for crazy flavors (with a couple safe ones thrown in). Below, from left to right: Lavender & Honey, Chocolate Bacon, Oreo, Honey Goat Cheese, White Russian, Pistachio & Rosewater

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The jury is still out on some of the flavors, but we’ll definitely be adding a couple to our menu line up.

Are there any funky flavor combinations that you think would be worth trying?