Tackle it Tuesday 4: Mega Birthday Weekend!

Last week was lil man's 4th birthday, and we had not one but TWO parties for him. First one was last Thursday at school, where we sang Happy Birthday with his classmates, and the second one was on Sunday at home with the entire family.

I had several tackles related to this mega birthday weekend:

1. Create TWO birthday cakes (or in this case, cupcake displays) using lil man's selected theme: Hot Wheels.


2. Assemble the goodie bags for his 23 classmates and 8 cousins.


3. Make some of the appetizers. Thankfully, my Mom helped by also making some.


4. Get the house ready for the birthday. This included getting all the crap out of the way, and putting up all the decorations. Thankfully, hubs helped me with this.

It was all worth it, though. Lil man had a great time, and that's all that matters.

[caption id="attachment_484" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="Cupcake display for lil man's classroom"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_483" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="Singing Happy Bday with his classmates"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_486" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="Cupcake display for the family party"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_485" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="Singing Happy Bday with his cousins"][/caption]

Now I'm going to have to tackle the toy situation in the living room/play area!

[caption id="attachment_487" align="aligncenter" width="576" caption="Living room / play area disaster!"][/caption]

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Thanks to the ladies at 5 Minutes for Mom for creating Tackle it Tuesday!

Zelma's Bakery: October's featured cupcakes

OK, so I live in Puerto Rico and we don't really have Fall, or any season other than Summer for that matter. That doesn't mean I can't get inspired by the flavors of Fall. I might eat them with hot cocoa and a warm sweater, but then again, I might melt and people will surely call me crazy. :)

Take a look at the cupcakes I have featured for the month of October:

Almond Chocolate Cupcakes:

These yummy cupcakes are almond-flavored with chopped toasted almonds. With double-chocolate buttercream icing and topped with chopped toasted almonds.

I think the almond taste is very subtle, and the chopped almonds give it a great crunch. The icing is super chocolatey!

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes:

These cupcakes are apple-cinnamon-flavored with chopped walnuts and raisins. Filled with cinnamon-sugar-cream-cheese filling. With vanilla buttercream icing and topped with chopped walnuts.

I would categorize these more like muffins than cupcakes, and the filling is the awesomest I have ever tasted!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes:

These cupcakes are peanut-butter-flavored. With double-chocolate buttercream icing and topped with chopped peanuts.

Everyone who likes peanut butter cups will surely love these. Even my husband liked them, and he doesn't like peanut butter!

Zelma's Halloween Cupcake Box:

Happy Halloween! These festive cupcakes are vanilla-flavored with orange and black jimmies. With vanilla buttercream icing in orange and black colors and topped with a halloween-themed decoration in fondant. Includes a variety of decorations: pumpkin, ghost, bat, and witch's hat.

These have to be the cutest cupcakes I've made so far, if I do say so myself. They're so friggin' cute, my lil man started screaming when he saw them!



Unfortunately, these are only available in Puerto Rico. If I try to ship them, no matter how careful I am, the frosting will get smushed, and that's definitely NOT good eats!

Zelma's Bakery: My Cupcakes

I still can't believe it's been 2 weeks since my last post! The reason is that things have been pretty busy at Zelma's Bakery. You see, lately, I've fallen in love with cupcakes. They're super easy to make, and they're the perfect portion-controlled treat. So I decided to look up different tasty and interesting recipes, and have been having a ball testing them!

Besides my standard vanilla and brownies cupcakes (which I still love!), I have decided to start testing the following flavors:

• Almond Chocolate: Almond-flavored cake with chopped toasted almonds inside. Double Chocolate buttercream topped with chopped toasted almonds.


• Boston Cream: Butter cake filled with Bavarian Cream. Chocolate Ganache frosting.


• Apple Cinnamon: Apple Cinnamon cake with raisins and chopped toasted walnuts inside; filled with Cinnamon-Sugar Cream Cheese. Cinnamon-Sugar Cream Cheese frosting topped with chopped toasted walnuts.


• Mocha: Mocha cake (chocolate and coffee). Mocha buttercream frosting topped with chocolate shavings.


• Peanut Butter: Peanut Butter cake with chopped toasted peanuts inside. Double Chocolate buttercream topped with chopped toasted peanuts.

So far I have only tested the first three, and can I say YUM!! The Apple Cinnamon is more of a muffin than a cupcake, but it's still super tasty. I'm working on taking photos of all my cupcakes for my album, and I will post them soon!