You better work it Wolfpack!!

At the Deese house we are 100% Wolfpack fans so when my mother in law asked me to make an NSCU birthday cake for one of her coworkers I was thrilled!! This howling devil's food cake was topped with a white butter cream icing.

As much as I would love to claim that this was done freehand, I can't...at least not completely. I used a print out to stencil an outline on the cake to guide me. From there I just piped red, white and black butter cream icing from the middle out.

The birthday boy not only graduated from NCSU but is also enjoys working on cars and what do you need to work on cars? TOOLS!! I stuck with the basics: a flat head screwdriver, a wrench and a hammer.

Each tool was cut out of gumpaste and luster dusted to look like metal. The handles on the screw drivers and hammers are made out of fondant, making them look like plastic handles.

These sinfully amazing red velvet cupcakes are paired with a cream cheese icing.

The whole time I was making these all I could think about was the hit TV show Home Improvement with Tim "the tool man" Taylor and his trademark grunt!!

Jungle Fever

Lions and Monkey's and Hippos OH MY!! These roarin' devil's food cupcakes topped with a super sweet butter cream icing, were made for a surprise baby shower for a coworker. I fell in love with his jungle nursery theme and just had to carry it over to my cupcakes.

I adorned each cupcake with jungle animal that was handmade from gumpaste.

I made each jungle animal in sections and the outcome was even better than I ever could have imagined.

Half way done!

Completed hippo :)

I made one special cupcake just for Baby Logan (pictured above in the bottom right hand corner) who was welcomed into this crazy world a few weeks later :)

Queen of Coupons

What do you give the queen on her birthday?! A Coupon Cake of course!! This cake was for one of my mother in law's coworkers. If you haven't guessed it already, she is the queen of clipping coupons and saving money! Hearing stories from my mother in law about what the queen buys and saves makes me wish I had the time to clip coupons but lets be honest, I'm a full-time mommy, wife, maid and chef...not to mention my 40hr work week :) oh yeah and my slight obsession with making beautiful sweet treats...haha I've got plenty of time on my hands! But enough about me...lets talk cake...

This devil's food cake was topped with a butter cream icing and smoothed by hand. The accessories on top of the cake were make of colored fondant. The scissors on the sides of the cake were made from gum paste and were my absolute favorite creation to date.

You can't tell from the pictures but everything has a little sparkle! The scissors turned out absolutely amazing, but unfortunately the picture does not convey it's awesomeness :)

The coupon queens birthday just happens to land on the LOVE DAY so I made these special cupcakes to go along with her coupon cake. Per the queens request, the cupcakes were chocolate on chocolate with sparkly pink hearts on top.

Nothing says Happy Birthday or I love you like a Simply Sweet treat :) All hail the Queen!!