School + Cupcakes? Yes Please!

My "Reconstructing Historical Landscapes" class had a final project, 

I chose to write a paper and do a presentation about Invasive Species in Florida.

For this test, I brought cupcakes to class, and had participants guess which species was NOT exotic to our state.

 

Answer: Dandelions! They are an annoying weed, but native.

 Tropical Soda Apples are toxic to livestock, and have awful spines on stems and leaves.

They are successful invaders because of the thousands of seeds they can produce in a season.

Hydrilla can outgrow native species in waterways, infests more than 75,000 acres of water in Fl. 

Armadillos are exotic but not particularly invasive, they do not threaten native species.

Feral hogs can destroy acres of farm and wild land in no time, population control most aided by year long hunting season (on private property). 

Red Imported Fire Ant, this invader is nasty. There was a big fight to control their spread in the 1960s-70s, however controls have relaxed, basically giving in to the fire ant in Florida.

This was a fun little stunt for my presentation, and even more fun to make! 

It was a great class!

Wedding Cupcakes

My younger sister got married on Easter Sunday, and I couldn't let the opportunity go by to make her some adorable treats to celebrate.

One guess what this is? (A topper, but not a top hat)

I made an assortment of mini cupcakes (1/3 of a regular cupcake) with teeny wedding cake toppers!

Not everyone enjoys fondant (even the Marshmallow variety) so I left plenty with just a swirl of icing.

This is my favorite one, I love the trend of wedding cakes with just one BIG flower as the decor.

Sometimes the big focal flower is the topper for the wedding cake.

Added another splash of color here, navy blue trimmed tiers with yellow "ribbon roses."

Sparkly yellow brooches were made as some of the toppers.

Lighter yellow trimmed tiers with teensy hearts topper.

The bride loves yellow, and her husband is in the navy- so I stuck with a white/yellow/navy blue palette. (Well, and a touch of pink)

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Seay!

Wild Girly Cake

This request was for a girly, zebra print cake with lime green base and bright pink trim. With a K monogram letter topper.

The customer sent me a photo of her inspiration to recreate.

Ta-Dah!

Happy Birthday Twins!

My Dad and his identical twin brother Stephen have great mustaches, they have been my cake theme for their last two birthdays- this time in cupcake form.

Stan on the left, Stephen on the right, and because I only make twenty teeny mustaches some of the cupcakes were decorated with a teal rosette.

Daddy and Uncle Stephen were excited, btw these were labeled "stud muffins" and the ones without mustaches were made with mini-chocolate chips so they would be "studded" too.

The birthday boys with their respective cupcake-selves.

One shot of the little cupcake flags.
Happy Birthday Boys!

Mini Gator Football Cake

Our pastor is a serious Gator fan. Thought it only fitting we reflected that in a cake for him.


2 layer, 6" square cake, with a mini football field and sprinkle "fans."

I know nothing about football plays, but I made up a few for the sides. :)