New Blog Look and Giveaway!!!

Oh how I LOVE October!! It could be because my birthday is this month (can't believe I turned 39!)....and admittedly, I LOVE celebrating my birthday!! I also love all of the hoopla involved in a birthday and well, the CAKE!!! This year I thought I would get myself a birthday present, so I decided to invest in a brand new look for my blog. As I was perusing Etsy.com(my home away from home, lol!,)I came across Lynsey and her shop Shiny Magic. Let me tell you what....Lynsey is just amazing!! Not only is she very professional, she is also sweet and funny--someone who I could totally imagine hanging out with--and she worked on my blog until it was just perfect!! So, Lynsey, THANK YOU!!! I gushed to her about how much I LOVE it....and I keep going back to it just to sneak peeks, lol!! Plus, she included my most beloved animal, the elephant. *sigh* Oh the happiness, lol!! :^) Okay, so to celebrate my birthday AND my new blog, I have decided to give one of YOU a very special little gift!! I am holding a blog giveaway!! Yay!!! See that adorable little pumpkin? Yep, he could be yours :^) He said he loves me and all but would very much like to see the world...and what better way than to hold a giveaway for him. Here's what you need to do to enter yourself in the giveaway for this sweet little pumpkin: 1. Leave a comment here on my blog regarding what you like about my artwork :^) You can find a bunch of pics of my artwork on my FB page at http://www.facebook.com/CandiceWirthDesigns....just in case you haven't see the whimsies I create :^) Or better yet, just click on the FB tab up above...see the cool little ticket tabs?! Love em!! 2. Tell me in a sentence or two why lil pumpkin should come and live with you :^) 3. Be sure to leave your email address WITHIN THE BODY OF YOUR COMMENT....this way I can contact you if you are the winner!! Woohoo!! I know Blogger asks for email address in order to leave your comment, but that's for them, not me ;^) The winner will be drawn fairly and randomly...there is this cool program in which I can input all of your names and it randomly selects one! Whew, it's that easy :^) The giveaway will go until 9pm Mountain time (11pm Eastern) on Sunday, October 28th. I will announce the winner on Monday here on my blog, but he/she will be contacted sooner so I can obtain an address to send your pumpkin out asap. You SHOULD have him by Halloween!! Good luck to all of you!! I am finishing up four pumpkin-headed dolls as we speak, or I type...yes, I can multi-task, lol!! They should be ready to post on Etsy by Sunday (fingers crossed!!). I know Halloween is fast approaching, but some people just LOVE Halloween all year round....and besides, these cuties are the best of company no matter what time of year it is. 10/29/12...The winner of this giveaway is Amanda Smith!! Congrats Amanda! Your little pumpkin will be on his way soon!!! Yay!!! xoxoxoxo!

Hello Lovelies!! I just wanted to share that I have three dolls featured in the May issue of Prims magazine!! Yay!! I have always enjoyed submitting my artwork to magazines....and I have been fortunate enough to have been in Prims, Stuffed and Art Doll Quarterly. The staff at those three magazines are just fantastic! I strongly suggest that if you are a doll artist (or a plushie artist), you submit your work. It is such an incredible feeling to see your artwork published :^)

I hope you are all well :^)

I have been feeling a bit off lately. I guess it could be just an inordinate amount of stress that's doing it to me. Add to it the fact that I haven't worked on my art in, geez, I can't even remember. Life just seems so fragile as of late....does that even make sense?

I saw my 80 year old grandma a few days ago and was just struck (a force so hard I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me) by how much older she suddenly seems....even more so that just a few weeks ago. She doesn't seem well physically, but is a tough little Brooklyn bird and will not let anyone onto the fact that she may be experiencing an illness.

I just visited the blog of one of my FAVORITE art goddesses ever--Suzi Blu...and found out her dad has died. I sat there, tears running down my cheeks, reading. Her pain was so palpable. Of course it made me think about my own family...my dad, my mom, my grandma. Do I see them often enough?? Do I call them enough?? Should I do more? Am I not doing enough??

I needed something to lift me up, but couldn't pinpoint it. And then I got a postcard in the mail inviting me to an artist's reception for a fantastic art teacher friend (Kim Dufford...her artwork is pictured above) who I worked with in Aurora. She's a spunky lady whom I admired...and still do :^) Being that there really is no coincidence in life, I decided to go to her opening...cuz, you just never know. Needless to say, I am SOOO happy I went!! I saw a few WONDERFUL women whom I worked with, plus Kim. Happiness just emanated from them....their beaming smiles. They nearly glowed. For an hour and a half I forgot about what was bothering me and was able to just relax into the conversation and enjoy these women (and my husband who came with me...bless his heart, lol), enjoy being there, enjoy the energy in the room.....

By the time we left the show, I think there was a bounce in my step....and definitely a smile on my face. Like I said, there IS no coincidence :^) I will admit that going didn't make all of my worries fade, but I feel like things are a bit more in perspective now. And I definitely feel the burn to create....I think my girls are calling to me. I just love it. And I have been thinking about my family and just loving them...and appreciating them for who they are, for however long I have them :^)

Cake Ladies....are my sad cakes happy cakes??

I know this may sound kind of odd, but I find reading cook books relaxing. Whereas I used to curl up at night with a good fantasy fiction novel, now I find myself sitting amidst stacks of baking books...cupcakes, cakes, macarons. You name it, I have been devouring them lately. Corny pun, sorry about that, lol! I came across this book called Cake Ladies by Jodi Rhoden. It seems that every town--big or small--in the South has its own cake lady. These are the amazing women who bake the cakes for the special events in people's lives: birthdays, weddings, etc. I have been lucky enough to eat cakes that have been baked by Southern cake ladies....transplanted women who have moved to Colorado with their husbands. I truly believe that there is more to their cakes than just a fantastic ability to bake...these women put love into what they do, parts of themselves that help feed not only the bodies but the souls of the people they are baking for.

I read EVERY page in this book! I absolutey LOVED it!! Each chapter (if you will)tells about a particular cake lady, followed by her most famous cake recipe/s. My favorite story in this book is about Mary Moon, Marietta Georgia's cake lady (now long retired). This woman was SOOO beloved in Marietta that Mayor Vicki Chastain (1988) declared May 27, 1988 "Mary Moon Day." I will admit, I found myself crying (just a little...okay, maybe more than a little) after reading about her. I sat there thinking "Do I have it in me to be a cake lady??" I have not had any formal training in cakes or pastries....sometimes that makes me feel a bit inferior. However, after reading this book, nearly ALL of these women lacked formal culinary school training. What they DID possess is an ability and LOVE for baking. So in that respect, I should cut myself some slack. I do have a penchant, an ability to bake.....and I DEFINTELY have the love for it. Each cupcake I make is like its own little work of art. Each and every cupcake matters....from how I mix the ingredients, putting them in the liners, watching each little lovely rise in the oven, to icing and decorating.
Now on that note, I wonder if even cake ladies have days when every baking session turns into an almost epic failure...

I decided to make Betty Compton's Vanilla Almond Pound Cake for my mother-in-law's birthday. I have made numerous bundt cakes before. But for some reason, this cake was giving me a bit of trouble. I think it was my pan. I used a tube pan...and I wasn't all that happy with how the cake looked. But it DID taste deeeeee-licious! It was moist and oh so vanilla-y!!! I used vanilla paste in place of vanilla extract. You can use them interchangeably....vanilla paste has vanilla beans in it so you get that amazing flavor and the prettiness of the vanilla beans :^) The icing, well, it fought me as well. I think it came out a bit thick, but it was sweet and rich. Again, it tasted better than it looked, lol!! Shirley O. Corriher mentions in her book BakeWise that "A sad cake is a happy cake."
I am so uptight about all of my baked goods looking pristine and "correct"....and yes, perfect. This cake is a perfect example of a "sad cake", but oh, I'll admit that it made all of us happy last night, lol!
I've included the recipe for this pound cake at the end of this post :^)

So I decided to make cupcakes for the Super Bowl...even after my sad cake experience yesterday. Now mind you, I FIRMLY believe that what you are feeling is reflected in what you bake. As many of you know, we just recently moved to a new house (oh my gosh, unpacking and unpacking!!)and my sister and I are in the process of opening a cupcake bakery (a BIT stressful for the both of us). Add to that a 9-year-old son who has become QUITE the handful lately and a VERY active 2-year-old!! Okay, so I decided to bake...and I was feeling stressed, a little sad and terribly absent-minded. In the process of mixing my dry and wet ingredients, I got a BIG poof of flour that erupted from my KitchenAid mixer. Grrrr! Next, I spilled half an 8 ounce bottle of Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract (omg, it was a $15 bottle!!!) I was mortified...and even considered figuring out a way to get in back in the bottle. But no, I just wiped it up, ready to cry. I finally got those babies in the oven and they turned out okay. But the buttercream frosting, that's another story! I KNOW better than to use cold ingredients. My butter was room temp, but my milk was cold....so it seemed to curdle up a bit. Another BIG GRRRRR! I whipped that buttercream's pants off and got it to a working consistency. By that time, I was done....mentally. I actually entertained the thought of dumping all of it into the trash when my 2-year-old came in asking for "tuptakes." You really can't rationalize cupcake aesthetics to a little boy, lol! I begrudgingly frosted them with a butter knife because I didn't think this buttercream would actually hold up to being piped. I handed one to Lukas and he dug right into it with a big smile on his little face. He beamed with an ear to ear grin and declared "Mmmmmmmmmmm." He didn't care that they weren't photo shoot worthy, or that the frosting was a little runny, or that it wasn't perfectly piped. Lukas gave me a kiss with his sticky little mouth and thanked me. I guess to him, I am his cake lady :^)

This weekend's baking debaucle has shown me that not EVERYTHING needs to be perfect in my baking world....because it won't always be (but it BETTER be once we are in our shop, lol!!). I need to always enjoy baking whenever I do it...and always set my intention when I bake so what I produce is infused with love, care and gratitude :^)And, well, pretty baked goods are always a plus too....just sayin'! Tee hee!

Vanilla Almond Pound Cake
Ingredients
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (I upped mine to 2 teaspoons)
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract (I upped mine to 1 teaspoon)

Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 300 degrees F.

Spray a 10x6-inch tube pan liberally with nonstick cooking spray, or use your fingers to coat the inside walls and bottom of the pan with butter.

Add the butter and shortening to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on low speed until fully combined. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.

Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating on low speed after each addition. Beat on low speed for 3 to 5 minutes or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Scrape bowl down twice during this process. Add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, stopping mixer and scraping down bowl after each addition. Beat the eggs into the creamed mixture for 5 minutes or until they are fully incorporated and the entire mixture is light in color and texture.

Add the flour and baking powder to a sifter over a separate clean bowl. Sift the flour and baking powder together. Set aside.

Add vanilla and almond extracts to the milk. Add 1 cup dry ingredients mixture to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Add 1/2 cup of the milk/extract mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Continue to alternate adding the dry mixture and milk mixture to the creamed mixture, ending with the flour. Stop mixture and thoroughly scrape down the paddle, bottom and sides of the bowl, then continue to beat the mixture on low speed for 1 minute or until the ingredients are fully incorporated and the cake batter is light and uniform. Be careful not to beat the mixture too much or this will toughen the batter.

Scrape the batter into greased pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until golden brown and springs back to the touch. Let cook in pan for 1 hour and then invert onto a plate. Let finish cooling on plate.

You can frost this cake with your favorite frosting, drizzle with a simple icing or just sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!!!

(recipe adapted from Cake Ladies by Jodi Rhoden)

Cupcakes and artwork and good news.....oh my!!

It seems that I am up to my ears in cupcakes lately....cupcake art (like this magnet, cupcake stuffies, cupcake ATC's, etc) AND the real cuppie deal! I must have baked well over 200 cupcakes over the past month :^) Oh, the torture, lol!!

For those who have perhaps followed my blog (yes, I am guilty of not blogging regularly....bad Candice!), you might recall that about a year ago I had fessed up to wanting to leave teaching. I guess I really don't need to rehash that here. Well, my sweet friends, IT HAS HAPPENED!!! My sister (a teacher as well)and I have resigned from teaching....to open our very own cupcake bakeshop!!! Yes, our very own place!! We had been doing cupcake catering since June and it was pretty successful actually. But there's nothing like having your own brick-and-mortar place (as they call it). We did ALOT of soul-searching, planning, praying, wishing, hoping (beseeching...thanks Mom and Dad!!!) and some crying. In three short months my sister and I have had a major crash course (living and learning)in Business 101. I'm amazed how so many people go into business when there is SO MUCH, well, crap, you have to go through!! But anyway.....

Once Upon a Cupcake will hopefully be opening in mid to late March....we have LOTS to do!! Right now we are in the signing the lease phase, soon to move onto the construction phase...and that is where all the fun starts! Woohoo! I will post the renovations and progress as it happens :^) I truly can't wait!



I recently found out that my Seaside Sister dolls (Sybil and Sadie) are in the current issue of Prims magazine. I LOVE Prims so was excited to find out they were hangin' on the beach at Coney Island in this issue :^)AND....my Circus Girl candy jar trio will be featured in the May 2012 issue of Prims! When it rains, it pours, lol!!

And last but not least, we (the hubby, our two boys and I) have bought a new house :^) Right now we are living in a 1,000sq ft ranch home. Needless to say, it is WAY too small for us and our two big dogs. We are so excited, but are feeling that twinge of bittersweetness. We have so many beautiful memories of things that happened while living in our current house. Both boys were born while we lived here. It was the first house we bought after we got married and moved from NY. My eyes well with tears just thinking about it. But I know we'll create wonderful new memories in our new home. It is more than twice the size of our current house.....wonderful for a good game of hide and seek, lol!! And oh, what an awesome house to host some art classes :^) My sister and I plan to christen my new house by baking a few dozen Red Velvet (omg, my FAVORITE!!!!) cupcakes. I just let out such a sweet sigh...thinking about them makes my mouth water, lol!!

I feel that 2012 has started off with the most wonderful of blessings for me. I know this is going to be a year I--nor my family--will ever forget. It truly is the icing on my cupcake at the moment :^)

Be well and enjoy!