90 Already?

my grandpa and grandma

My grandmother turns 90 Tuesday. So in honor of her birthday my parents had alot of us over for dinner. She made some really great roasted butternut squash , and baked potatoes and ribeyes on the grill ( cause it wasn't 15 degrees out for once) I made a blue cheese butter for the steaks that turned out really yummy , but my actual contribution to the meal was dessert I made Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with a Vanilla Bean Frosting. The turned out amazing. I had a slight reading comprehesion problem and failed to let everything that needed to come to room temperate , I'm not so sure how it would have turned out if I did to that.


I would make these everyday , I love the flavor , and I especially love the little flecks of vanilla in the frosting. It was my first time working with an actual vanilla bean, I can't believe I waited this long to work with them. It is so worth it! I really love piping the frosting on. I don't think I will ue the offset spatula again. They look so pretty!

So , It was a pretty busy weekend so sadly I will not be contributing to Tuesday's with Dorie this week. I am most definitely going to be making that cover cake , it just wont be in time for tomorrow. I am very excited to see everyone else creations!!

Obama, Lincoln and Cupcakes

So I've been home sick with bronchitis since Wednesday. Friday it got interesting... I was looking though my google reader and it updated with a new post from Cake Wrecks. It was talking about Zilly Rosen of Zillycakes. She was at the Smithsonian and would be creating Obama and Lincoln in cupcakes( 5,900 of them!) live! So I tuned in to ustream.tv and watched the whole thing .I took some screen grabs of the process , enjoy its amazing!

blank canvas

they started just after 2pm est

you can make out their eyes!

is that a flag in the backround?

uh oh! fixing Obama's head

Finished product

the cupcake team!