We've Got Spirt!

Today I'm all about cakes and decorating, there is more than Halloween to celebrate! I was reading www.bakingbusiness.com, and saw the NFL is expanding its target audience to include more women with jewelry, clothes and parties. They launched a few new pages on their website and now there are areas for kitchen tips, recipes and contests in favor of gameday planning, cooking and celebrating, as long as there is no excessive celebrating anyway! The idea is to promote a new part of Sunday to love, homegating. They have even gone as far as selling party packs which include all you need to decorate for a party, team plates, cups, napkins, balloon, party invitations and a 16 piece cake decorating kit! Most of these items are easy enough to get online, without having to decorate a cake on your own, so I was thinking…what a great way to boost fall business! Football cakes! After searching around online, there are a few options, at least, where you can buy football decorating kits like www.nflshop.com/, amazon.com, and other party shops. The cakes look fantastic, the picture above is from the NFL Website and I think customers would have a blast with them! Why wait for the Superbowl to throw a game day party!? Talk to your customers for team favorites, or support the home field and make some cake!! (For the record, they taste best with Abel & Schafer cake mix…I’m just saying.)

Do we see EYE to EYE....?

I am a flurry of Halloween excitement. Which is funny…it’s never been my favorite holiday, and I still don’t love dressing up; but it’s a holiday that centers around sweet foods and candy and wonderfully spooky decorating so I've been thinking, what’s not to love?! And seemingly, as the years pass for me, I get more and more interested in participating, being the “good house” on the block and hosting friends for a fun and ghoulish evening while all their little one sort through candy and trade goods. I’ve been a fantastic customer of A.C. Moore as of late, as well as Michael’s for all the great items in the Wilton and Martha Stewart line and it’s still early but I’m practicing what I’ll be baking for a party, I’ve not yet decided if I’m going to have, only creatively thought about.

After browsing numerous blogs I noticed a pattern, eyeball cupcakes. Not to be left out of something that looks so fun and delicious, I jumped on the band wagon and was a bit over-eager. After I started decorating, I only made 18 cupcakes, I realized I made too many eyeball cupcakes because there were so many creative ways to play with Halloween ideas! You need some pretty basic items for decorating, or just colored frosting. Because my space/supplies are limited, I bought a few things to use on my cupcakes for decoration purposes. My “eyes” are made of gummy candy and candy coated chocolate pieces. First things first...the cupcake. My choice of cake mix? Of course, the Abel & Schafer Crème Cake, 22004, which is also Parve! After baking up my cupcakes, I whipped up some frosting and then, cheated. I could have colored frosting, but went with Lifesavers Gummies, and mini M&M’s . I then used some colored icing tubes (I told you I cheated!) for the bloodshot eyes. When I started getting more creative, I made some angry eyes with some black string licorice, and vampire cupcakes, using the red eyes again for the “bloody” teeth marks and finally some mummies! Lol…so much fun!