Ok, I'll admit it, I'm a thief.

When I first started teaching, I had to go to an induction program at the Intermediate Unit and during one of the sessions, we watched a video by Harry Wong called "The First Days of School." He also has a book that you can purchase here. Anyway, one of the things that he said that really stuck with me was that the BEST teachers are thieves. They beg, borrow, and steal ideas from other teachers they admire to better themselves. Well, I wouldn't call myself the best teacher or anywhere near it, but I definitely did try to steal things from people that I admire.

So now that I'm hard-core baking, I'm again becoming a thief! I have learned to beg, borrow, and steal, especially from other bloggers. I usually tweak recipes or take the cake from one person and frosting from another to make my own creations, but I don't believe in reinventing the wheel.

One of the BEST blogs that I absolutely fell in love with is Ice Cream Before Dinner. This girl can cook! I originally stole (yes, stole) her recipe for Pear Muffins with Gingersnap Crumble. But don't search her blog for those, because you'll then realize that mine, in comparison, are lame. I love this blog, and the owner has no idea.

Ice Cream Before Dinner is now hosting a contest to win one of their cupcake stands and I REALLY want to win! If there was voting involved, I would definitely ask you all to vote. Check out the blog and send her some virtual love on my behalf. :)

Yoohoo!!!!

Aww shnikies! I have really let this page get away from me! I am going to try to start it back up here and hopefully I'll be a more dedicated blogger this time.

I've recently started adding more cupcakes to my repertoire and let me just tell you, I am having the BEST time baking, decorating, and of course (best part here...) taste-testing! I've been scouring the internet looking for inspiration. I'm finding myself more creative than ever before, and so excited to try all of the new ideas I'm coming up with. Here's what I've whipped up so far:

S'mores cupcakes
Triple Chocolate cupcakes (pictured below)
Peanut butter Cup cupcakes (also pictured below)
Chocolate Toffee Crunchcakes (again, see below)
Strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
Cinnamon Swirlcakes (These were THE BEST! Photo to come soon!)
Raspberry White Chocolate cupcakes
Blackberry cupcakes
Red Velvet (like your long lost best friend)
Chocolate Covered Pretzel cakes (Thanks, Dudak!)

Here's an amazing photo of some of my creations that a good friend, Lorrin Sell, took for me:

Now if you haven't heard of Lorrin Sell, I'd bet you may have heard of her photography company, Itty Bitty. She is INCREDIBLE. Her photos are unbelievable, and I'm not just talking about images of cupcakes! Lorrin is one of the sweetest, sensitive, most talented women I know, and she is also such a great mom. When I took B to her for his photos as a newborn, she captured magical moments with him and I knew I just had to keep coming back.

 Just because I'm a proud momma, I have to share this picture that Lorrin also took of me with B:

She's good, right?? Although I do think he's pretty photogenic, anyway!

If you want contact info for Lorrin, please let me know!



So anyway, I am going to be working on more and more cupcakes and hopefully you'll all want to try them out. Coming soon, watch out for Tiramisu cupcakes, Lemon-raspberry cupcakes, Sangria cupcakes, and a handful of others. Mmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it!