!Wow It’s Been 4 Months

 It’s been 4 months since my last post.  Wow I have gone a few weeks before, but never a few months.  What’s up with that? 

4 months, what have I been up to the past 4 months.  Well, I wish I could say I was developing a new product that would change people’s lives forever and I had become a million, no billionaire.  But no.  Jason and I have been busy with life.  He finished school and graduated with his associates degree and drafting certificate (very proud of him).  I’ve been working at promoting my SweetHeart Cupcakes business and also working part-time at a local retail store.  Plus there of course is Mr. Cameron who has been busy with school and Cub scouts.  Jason and Cameron stay pretty busy with that.  Jason what a guy, not only does cub scouts, but now he is a cubscout leader for Cam’s pack. 

Jason and Cameron have had a campout, pack meetings, derby races, hiking trips and even went and played in the snow for the day at Mt. Hood.  A few weeks ago Cameron did graduate from a cub to a um, o no I don’t remember the name now.  But he received patches and a new hat, scarf and guide-book. 

Here they are leaving for their big camp out a month ago.

Now for SweetHeart Cupcakes well I have been busy.  I created a Facebook page, a new blog, business cards, shirts, hats, magnets and so on.  We have sold gift certificates, cakes and cupcakes.  We found a commercial kitchen to rent, got all our licenses and even applied at several farmers markets around the area.  Unfortunately the farmers markets haven’t worked out.  I was either placed on a waiting list or just immediately declined because they already had their quotas for bakers.  But that’s ok because I am now onto even bigger things that will keep me moving forward. 

Heres a list and pictures of some of the things I have been doing.

2 peas in a pod for a twins baby shower.

Jared’s Jewelers to introduce Le Vian’s Chocolate and Strawberry Diamonds

Lots and lots of Birthdays.

   

And most recently a small tiered congratulations cake.

And Many Many more.

On top of just taking orders and making cupcakes, I have been trying to promote my business.  But with like $0 in the budget, I have had to be creative and work hard.  Facebook pages are free and I have used it to run contests like our new summer flavor contest.  The winner received a dozen of their chosen flavor. 

Pina Colada was the winner and they were pretty darn good.

I have also started making YouTube videos to help promote.  But I haven’t finished a single video yet.  The one I did ended up not to bad, but it stopped recording more than half way and I didn’t know.  So I finished the whole baking project to find it didn’t record.  Finding time to make these videos with Jason, Cameron and the 2 dogs, is not easy.  I can’t afford to rent my commercial kitchen for recording videos and it’s always so busy and loud around our home.  But I will continue to keep working on it.

Here’s the video that almost made it.  It’s bad actually, so feel free to laugh your ass off. 

http://youtu.be/WWy3b07gNyk

I have decided to slow down promoting the business and registered for pastry and baking school with Le Cordon Blue.  I’m so freaking excited.  I get to polish skills I already have and learn new ones.  I”m going to be AWESOME!!!!!(just kidding)  :)  But seriously I get to learn everything from baking breads, pastrys, pies and cakes, to candies, chocolates, blowing sugar and more.  WOW I can’t wait!!!!! 

Jason has helped push me and well I”m extremely excited he has.  Now I get to learn all this awesome stuff.  I even applied and was awarded some grants and scholarships to help pay.  Graduating from Le Cordon Blue will not only make me better, but help me promote my business even more.  So here I go back to school and ready for it. 

SweetHeart Cupcakes is my registered business, so I’m not leaving it but I will be baking off just during school.  I have commitments that I will keep, and I will still take orders when I can but overall I will be holding back on promoting so hard.

Our long-term goal is to have our own bakery or should I say cakery.  Jason and I have even discussed doing a bed and breakfast.  He would run the hotel part and I would run the bakery and breakfast part.    Again as I said long-term goal.  I like the ideas though.

I start classes on August 20 and its a year-long program with 8 weeks of internship before I get my diploma.  I hate this picture, but I was being fitted for my uniform.  No scarf or hat yet, but on their way.

 Excited for this great new adventure!

Other than that I have had friends getting married , friends having babies  and well just friends hanging out .

Jason and I took a long weekend and enjoyed ourselves up in Mt. Hood for Erin’s wedding.  We did wine tasting, drove the fruit loop, checked out fun shops, the Maryhill Museum and just had a great weekend. 

This next week is going to be busy again and fun.  Jason’s Mom rents a beach house in Newport every year for her birthday, so we will be going to that next week.  Plus he has family coming from the east coast to join.  Cameron has his big cubscout camp this week and the Fourth of July parade. 

After that I have my brothers Wedding reception/family reunion and then school starts.  It’s going to be a great summer.  Maybe Jason and I can try to fit in a small camping trip or two. 

It’s late and I’m tired, so Good night all.

Loves,

Amiee

Level 1 Complete

Today I had my final class of level 1.  We had to prepare a 2 tier wedding cake.  Well they said wedding cake, but you can decorate it any way  you want.  Soooooooo I picked clowns.  LOL that’s right I made a 2 tier clown cake instead.

To get started I baked a total of 2 lemon chiffon cakes, 2 9 inch and 2 6 inch cakes.  Then I split them and stacked to make both tiers 4 layers with a lemon buttercream filling.  O how I love the smell of the lemon mmm.  Then I had to do a crumb coat and after that dried then I frosted and smoothed them out.  At that point they were ready to take to class.

Crumb Coat

Smoothed and ready for class

In class we learned to stack our cakes.  Wow what construction goes into this, I never knew.  Since I did a stacked cake I had to install wooden dowels into the bottom cake to help support the top cake.  Then I had to stake a taller dowel with a sharpened end through the two cakes to keep from sliding when transported.  OMGoodness.

This cake was so much fun.  I did pokadots on the bottom tier in different colors and sizes and the top-tier in red and yellow lines to look kinda like a big top.  Then I added multi colored dots on the borders.  The top I placed 2 clowns sitting on the edge and 2 clowns pulling themselves up to the top.  LOL then for fun I placed another clown on the bottom to look like he had fallen.  It’s so fun.

  

I’m excited to start level 2 in a few weeks.  Thanks to my parents I can now afford it.  LOL They bought this cake for a $100.  Ok well maybe they just wanted to help me with the class, but I did put the cake on auction to help raise money for the next level.  Well this cake and also to sell more dozen’s of cupcakes.  But my parents are awesome and as I was auctioning off my cake, my Dad says “sold”.  Just gotta love your parents.  I don’t know what I would do with out mine.

Thanks Mom and Dad.  Love you guys!!!!!!!

 

My last 2 weeks at Cake Class

I never updated with last weeks cake decorating class and now I have to share this week because I am so excited about the results.

Ok so last week 2/14 we learned to make clowns, ducks, swans, storks and well pigs.  I had a blast making the clowns.  I have even shown a neighbor girl how to make clowns already.  Plus next week is my final class and we get to make a 2 tier wedding cake.  Well I’m doing a 2 tier cake, but I’m making a fun birthday cake with the clowns.  Can’t wait to post it.

Here are pictures of my clowns.  I am also going to share my birds, but my pigs sucked so their staying with me.

  The second picture is a clown climbing the wall.  So next weeks cake will  have clowns sitting around the layers and a few climbing the walls.

 O yeah and we learned grapes, but mine were ok.

Now this week we got to make a 8 inch layered cake.  My home work for the week was to make some roses to decorate my cake with.  So I decided to make red with a little bit of pink roses to put on a white cake.  And to make it even prettier,  I made a 4 layer red velvet cake with a cream cheese filling.  I figured it would be beautiful when you cut into this cake.

Here’s my before

After

top

The inside

It’s not the best, but not to shabby for my first.  Looking forward to next weeks cake.  LOL the biggest challenge is having to keep feeding people cake.

Loves, Amiee

 

4th Week of Class

This week we made the Doll cakes.  I am so not good at this, but I am learning new techniques that I can adapt to my cupcakes.

Here is my before cake.  Baking a cake in that dome pan was not the easiest thing to do.  The first attempt I almost pulled it out too soon but then ended baking it too long and it stuck.  Since this cake was going to my bro and his family I made chocolate layers and a vanilla layer.

And after several hours here is my finished doll.  LOL her roses started to melt and one even fell off.  Plus her hair is horrible.  If I do cakes I may need a doll hair dresser class.  LOL

 

This doll is not my vision.  I followed my instructors instructions, but I wanted to make her into a cupcake princess.  I would make 2/3 the bottom of the skirt and frost it to look like a cupcake liner and the top of the skirt up to her waist a big swirl like the top of a cupcake.  Then use the star technique for her bodice.  I will have to make her again.  LOL

Next week we are learning clowns.  O My.  I need to take Cameron, he would make a good model for this class.  LOL

 

 

My Third Week of Class

This week was so hard.  We learned how to make frosted flowers.  I had the worst time making the rose.  It doesn’t help having your thumbs don’t work like they used to.  Getting an early arthritis due to retail.  I was so frustrated I left in tears.  But I came home and spent the next several hours working away at it and well here’s my results.

This was my favorite, but I did do a whole tray of them, along with daisies and another flower.

I’m going to keep practicing.   I still have several other flowers I want to master.  The rose was the one I really wanted to get right.  This will be a beautiful topper on my cupcakes.

Next week I’m excited because we get to do one of those doll cakes.  This cake will be tall too.  She will be sitting on top of a 4 layer 8 inch round cake and then her 8 inch tall skirt.

Excited to bake it, decorate it and give it away.  LOL This one will probably go to my brother and his fiance again.  I gave them my baby carriage cake from last class and I bet Justine’s girls will like it.

So look forward to next weeks results.  Good night all.

Loves, Amiee

 

Baby Cakes

I started a cake decorating class last week.  Soooooo fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Even though I make cupcakes not full cakes the techniques I’m learning will be able to adapted over.  Last week we went over all the supplies we will need, learned how to make a piping bag out of parchment paper, learned how to do flooding with royal icing and learned how to make sugar decorations.

This week we had to bake and bring in a half sheet cake to make a baby carriage.  LOL this was interesting my first cake to cut up and decorate.  I have frosted layered cakes and decorated, but nothing like this class.  My cupcakes right now are so easy and simple I just pipe frosting in a swirl over the top and add garnishments.  Most importantly I have been working on the flavor and quality of my product.  This class will give me more techniques in fondant, more piping and other skills.

So that cake turned into this cake.  LOL

I have to laugh because it’s so not perfect, but that’s why I’m taking the class right?  LOL I have to laugh at myself though.  Everyone’s in the class looked the same.  I do have to say my cake was the most beautiful unfrosted cake in class.  The whole class came over to eat my pieces and awed at my aroma of moist chocolate.  That made me smile big time.

I’ll keep posting my projects each week.  Next week we making roses.  By week 6 we will be doing a 5 or 7 (don’t remember) layered wedding cake.

Bye for now

Love, Amiee

“Ace of Hearts”

Hearts have become my symbol, mark, stamp on life and myself.  Literally LOL 

I have done the impossible and fell in love with myself again.  I have new loves and old loves in my life, but I wasn’t one of them until now.  I guess even at 35 it’s never too late.

I lost myself for the longest time and I ended up not loving myself.  This past year I have rediscover myself and a new directions that I could never have foreseen.  Now I’m so happy and most importantly I like and Love myself and that’s not an easy thing for any of us.  In this process I have hurt feelings, broken hearts and well pissed people off.  And I hate to say this because to those people it doesn’t make sense I’m sure, but I not only love myself now, but I’m a better person for it too.  I was so unhappy and depressed that I was a royal bitch to all my loved ones.

Months and months and months and months ago I have posted about a huge leap I was making.  Well I leaped, but I fell in a completely different direction than what I was aiming for.

http://citysandal.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/omgimstanding-on-the-edge-and-ready-to-leap/

http://citysandal.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/more-about-my-leap-omg-am-i-leaping-excited/

http://citysandal.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/update-on-my-leap/

http://citysandal.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/as-far-as-my-leap-goes-he-he-he/

Again I leaped, but landed in a completely different direction than what I intended or started out doing.  Of course for any of you who know me do know there was one big influence to this decision.  My Jason .

Well I wasn’t looking for a relationship, I had just gotten a divorced and  had never really dated in the adult world and being 100 pounds lighter I was having fun.  Then all of a sudden look who sneaks up and snags my heart.

Minus Jason though I have really found myself a passion that I didn’t really even new existed and well I am pretty good at it too.  “Baking”.  I liked to bake before, it made me feel complacent.  But I never really made any time to do it well or put in the time and practice you need to do it great.  I was always so busy working and trying too hard to be a good mother, wife and daughter that I didn’t really do anything for myself.  And I do know I’m not the only one out there, most Mom’s are the same way.  I had become resentful of all my loved ones around me.  I always felt guilty when I didn’t spend the day running arrands with my mother (to spend time with her because I love her) even though it took my whole day and I only had two a week that wasn’t consumed with work.  Or when I felt I needed to do something memorable with my son and husband because I only had a few days a week to spend  with them.  I put too much pressure on myself to be everything, the guilt always ate at me every day.  I used to drive to work crying just about everyday.

This is where Jason comes in.  He doesn’t let that happen.  Jason makes me stop, he forces me to just breath and do what I want.  Don’t get me wrong I was coming around before I met Jason.  Between the separation and divorce of my husband and rediscovering myself I was just running forward with no direction, just running as fast as I could.  This is why a week before I met Jason I had given my notice at work, which on top of a divorce was a scary thing to do.  I had been a retail manager for over 16 years (hated it with a passion) and married for 14 years.  I was just running and making a big leap not really sure were I was going to land.  So Jason wasn’t my influence on change, but he is my support for my landing.

Jason and I are creating a new life together with Cameron.  Cameron has a healthy and good relationship with his Dad and spends time with him on a weekly basis.  But Jason and I fit each other and we have become a great support team for each other along with  loving each other for who we are, not who we need to be.  I have never felt this type of love before.  Jason gives me what I need.  He tells me what to do and as much as that sounds terrible, I need that.  I need someone to say ”stop”, “go ahead it’s ok”, “sounds great let’s do it”, “do it”, ”no just do it”.  I need that and I love it.

Now I love my life.  I work part-time (still in retail, but only in sales no management, huge relief), I am home with Cameron everyday (dream come true) and I found a new passion “baking”.  I’m baking just about everyday, taking orders, experimenting, making samples and just enjoying myself.  Currently I am taking a cake decorating class and I am looking to enroll in some baking classes.  I can bake and bake pretty damn good, but I want to learn more of the science so I can create my own recipes.  I am learning to do everything from scratch.  No boxes, no instant mixes, just me.

http://sweetheartcupcakesshop.wordpress.com/2012/01/07/dontbeasquareandstepoutsidethebox/

My new adventure and direction is my “SweetHeart Cupcake Shop”.  I’m creating delicious cupcakes for all occasions.  My cupcake name “SweetHeart Cupcake Shop” represents my loves.  Plus since I have a fairly new heart tattoo, I felt it was only fitting.  After running and taking a huge leap, I got lucky and found a perfect 4 of a kind “Ace of Hearts”. 

So watch my business grow and be a part of it by making me a part of your next event, family gathering or just to satisfy a sweet tooth.  There pretty damn good I’m telling you.  So far I have gotten great reviews from previous orders and samples.  Check out my blog and order some cupcakes, I dare you!  LOL

http://sweetheartcupcakesshop.wordpress.com/

       

Give me a try.  There’s plenty more where these came from LOL.

Loves, Amiee