Sweets by Shauna

And so it was born.

I have some veryVERYvery EXCITING news!!!!

Today I officially got the ball rolling to make my own cupcake business! That's right ladies and gents, I have officially applied for an LLC and have started the process of getting the permits to sell baked goods out of my house!!!!! HOW FREAKING COOL!!!!!! (I think the last two batches I made for friends are technically black market cupcakes...you know me, always livin' on the edge).

but anyway I just felt the need to share it with everyone!!!!

LOOOK!!!!

Irish Car Bomb Cupcake

 This cupcake.... oh my goodness..... THIS CUPCAKE!!!!! Although the Bailey's and Coffee Cupcake still holds my #1 spot... This baby came in a close second! (if only I did a baileys/vanilla filling... filling really was the tie breaker)

This masterpiece (is that too much? taste it and get back to me) was created to celebrate st. patrick's day. Can you say Irish Car Bomb cupcake? Say it again. its that good!

I made a guiness chocolate cake. perfectly flavored baileys and crown (since it was my only whiskey on hand) buttercream frosting and topped it all off with some caramel sauce and some crushed chocolate covered pretzels. HOLY SMOKES!! This cupcake was to die for!

Blue Raspberry cupcakes

 

Somehow this month I've found myself in the kitchen about once a week whipping up a new batch of cupcakes. Needless to say there will be a couple more cupcake posts this month.This was an "easy" batch. I was hired by my co-worker to do a remake of the raspberry lime cupcakes for her son's 7th birthday. Since pink seemed like a poor color selection, I decided to make them "blue raspberry"... tell me, is there any difference in flavor between blue raspberry and regular raspberry? is one more tart? Meh, the world may never know.... 

These cupcakes also acted as a taste test for her sister who is having an event later this month. The biggest challenge of this batch was the fact it was small... she only needed one dozen and frankly... I'm used to making about 4 at a time.... I'm a little rusty with a "normal" quantity. (what do you mean I cant just use a whole bag of powdered sugar?!) Regardless, they did eventually turn out and I ended up winning my co-worker's sister over as well.. Mission accomplished.

New art series

Back in August of 2011 I drew the picture you see to the left. It was just a doodle to accompany a playlist I had made for a friend but I think it sparked an infatuation with this girl. I had gone through a period in life where I was interested in drawing people or faces but like most things that drifted from my focus and I found myself wrapped in the ease of abstract doodling.

Well... I guess it's time to revisit an old passion.

I'm in a sort of rough spot in life right now and I'm looking for as many things as possible to fill the gaps... and considering how much beautiful art has been produced from humanity's lows... who knows, maybe I'll do something great with this series.

I spent the majority of this last weekend curled up on a bed, listening to documentaries and catching up on Shameless while I worked out a couple sketches... I've got about 5 planned out in my head at the moment and will be picking up a new sketch pad on lunch today. 8 1/2" x 11" just isn't cutting it right now.

I think the plan with this series is to get these figures drawn up and project them onto much larger plywood panels...

I'd like to look into spray painting techniques for the backgrounds so that I can paint the designs over something massively colorful. Obviously I don't have the details of step two worked out yet... figured get the actual drawing portion done before worrying about an overhead projector and materials... but this is something I'm excited about.. something that hopefully will help me work through everything and move on to bigger and better things. Make it happen Capt'n.

Roommate hunting

One of the things that has kept me busy has been the hunt for a new roommate. Back in June when I moved into my place in the U-district I was lucky to move into a slummy house (with massive potential! I'll have to do an update sometime on all the projects I've done around there) and a couple wonderful roommates that I'd now consider to be great friends of mine. We had some bad luck however with the fourth room in our house. Worried that there was just some negative energy left in the room after the last couple roommates, Jeff ceremoniously burned sage to rid the house of all potential problems. Desperate times call for desperate measures... we had all lost hope that we could find that 4th person who would not just "deal" with living with us, but actually enjoy it, like we enjoyed each other. I swear we're not crazy we just acknowledge how busy life can get and we want an environment where going home will always be relaxing - we help each other out like a family, that is apparently weird when you live with people? who'd have thought.

ANYWAY.

After a couple hopefuls and failed attempts we finally found a roommate! He seems like he'll be a great fit - glass blower, photographer, adventurer, just trying to figure this life out, do what makes himself happy and find things that inspire him. What more can you really ask for? I'm excited to see what new perspective and friendship this brings into my life. : )

WooHoo! This is a major stress relief! 

Speaking of roommates-  look at the awesome valentine that was waiting for me after the gym! Jeff's a winner!

Raspberry Lime Cupcakes

Every year work has a bake sale to help raise money for United Way, which is a great organization to support by the way. Since this year, I'm on the team that plans and executes all of the company events (and because I knew that a bake sale would leave people expecting something tasty from my kitchen) I had to come up with something awesome! Our sale was right before valentine's day and I was in the mood for something pink and light... I've found the winter months leaving me longing for fresh fruit and sunshine. I had a co-worker come up and ask that I make something with raspberry so by the end of the afternoon I had come up with a plan - lime cupcakes, with a raspberry buttercream frosting. The fun part of this was dying the cakes. I have made a few of those fun/funky rainbow cakes, ya know, split up the batter, dye it different colors with food coloring and then drop them into the pan. TADA! cute little multicolored cakes! Next time i'm gonna make something marbled... maybe do a special st. paddy's day cupcake....mmm beer cupcakes! Ooh the possibilities.

oh hey - mini. update

I'm a little bit behind on my updates... sorry everyone, the last few weeks have been crazy. I've hit one of those lulls with my projects, the life things are mucking up my flow if that makes sense... I do have new cupcakes to share... and I'm gonna start working on a new series i think. gotta make something happen... hope the rest of the world is well. Catch ya later this weekend.