Taking the cupcake to another level!

Every time I visit a bakery/cupcakery it seems as though the cupcakes are so standard. Although the standard cupcakes (like the red velvet or the carrot cake) are definitely crowd pleasers, after a while they become uninspiring. Therefore, I decided to think outside the box and present my customers with a one of a kind cupcake! Here are some of my latest creations:

Spiked Mint Chocolate Bailys

Macadamia Nut Craisin with White Chocolate Sauce

Pomegranate Orange

Pistachio with Rose Petal Preserves

The Caraglio Wedding

I absolutely loved doing this wedding! The couple was laid back, carefree and truly a delight to work with! The theme colors were different shades of blue and the flowers of choice were hydrangeas. The wedding invitation was simple with a teal paisley border. These were all elements I wanted to incorporate into the wedding cupcake pyramid.

When it came time to create the pyramid I had to take into consideration that the wedding was at BAR in New Haven making it somewhat of a casual event.

Therefore, I kept the pyramid simple but was still able to bring all the components of the wedding together! I used different shades of satin blue ribbon, chandelier trim, a hydrangea flower, and paisley trim to obtain my goal. Here is the final result!

Cheshire Patch

Kicking off the new cupcake season with an interview with Tom Smith from The Cheshire Patch!

http://cheshire.patch.com/articles/cupcakes-borrow-flavor-from-classic-desserts#c

This year cupcakes will be made available on Fridays and Saturdays on a first come first serve basis. Looking foward to seeing everyone again!

Gone to the Beach!

To our valued customers:

We will be closing from July 25th-August 27th. We are currently taking orders for events being hosted after the the 27th. Thank you all for such a wonderful and successful year!

1 year old becomes one with his birthday cupcake!

This family celebrated their son's first birthday with a giant cupcake! Seems like the cutie patootie enjoyed his cupcake a little too much!

The Nelson Wedding

A Gerber Daisy Theme

This couple has been coming into the restaurant for years. So when it was time to plan their wedding they came in for a cupcake consultation and chose my cupcakes for their special day. The bride came in with a picture of the Gerber Daisies and a swatch of the bridesmaids' dresses.

We both agreed that the cupcake pyramid would look beautiful if each tier was draped with chandelier trim.

For the cupcake decorations the bride chose yellow cupcake liners and coral/yellow miniature daisies adorned with silver dragees.

When the time came to decorate the pyramid, I used a glue gun to glue the trim around each tier. After I was done the pyramid did not look "complete", and was not formal enough for a wedding. Therefore, I purchased Gerber Daisies that matched the brides color scheme and ran them around each tier.

The cupcakes were dark chocolate chocolate chip with vanilla buttercream. The mini cake on the highest tier was a two layered mini cake with dark chocolate cake a vanilla buttercream. I really think the pyramid brought all of the wedding components together! Once again congratulations to the Nelsons!

The happy bride's testimonial:

Rita - You did an amazing job! I can't thank you enough for how everything came out. So beautiful. Everyone commented on what a great job you did and how awesome the cupcakes were! I have extras and can't wait to eat them. haha Hope to see you soon. Thank you xoxox..

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Kokona Street?

My Kokona's 2nd Birthday!

When trying to decide what theme to pick for Kokona's 2nd birthday party it was pretty evident that it would be Sesame Street. I didn't have a specific idea in mind but the party elements evolved after I created the invite.Front Back
Creating the invitation was rather complex, it took hours on PowerPoint! My inspiration came from an Abby Cadaby headband I stumbled upon at the dollar store. So I dressed Kokona up as Abby Cadaby and incorporated her into the invite as that character. After I created the invitation, I was able to use that as a guide to make decorations, the cake, cupcakes, favors and goody bags.

For the main focus of the cake, I wanted to make the Sesame Street Sign/Logo but have it read Kokona Street instead. I envisioned a three tiered cake decorated with the primary colors, edible crayons and an ELMO cake topper of course. The cake turned just as I had hoped!The flavor of the cake was vanilla cake with berry filling and lemon buttercream. The cupcakes were vanilla cake with lemon and berry buttercream.

To accompany the cake and matching cupcakes I made M&M and cotton candy cones; to further add to the kids' sugar high! The steps I took to make the cones are as follows:

1. I cut and taped parchment paper into cones.

2. I made thank you labels out of Kokona's invitation and glued them on.

3. I figured they would look nicer if I could somehow hang them on something due to their shape. Therefore, I poked a hole on top of each one, ran a ribbon through the top and tied them on a silver plate stand that I had.

4. Finally, I filled each one half way with M&Ms and topped them off with cotton candy.

Sticky labels of the invite were also used for the party favors (which were individual cupcakes in peep window boxes). Colorful ribbon was used to tie each one.
I was pretty satisfied with the way everything turned out. Thanks to everyone that was there to help us celebrate our Sesame Street bash!

Working with a theme..

Recently a customer came in to place an order for her daughter in law's baby shower. The sex of the baby was unknown therefore they chose an animal theme to play it safe.

(The invitation/theme)

The customer brought along the invitation and requested to have the owl incorporated into the final product. Being the perfectionist that I am I also decided to make the raccoon so it would resemble the invite even more!

The gumpaste designs were cut freestyle (no gumpaste cutter was used for either of the animals).

The final product!

Although making the cake and the cupcakes and seeing the final product was rewarding, it wasn't as rewarding as the email I received from the customer post event!

Testimonial:

Rita,

AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME, !!!!!!!! The raccoon/owl cupcake - cake, was a great hit! The cake was fantastic and the detail you did on the "creatures" was unbelievable. Everyone was so impressed that you created these animals to look exactly like the invitation that Lisa had picked out. Lisa was so impressed she took home the "creatures" too! Any suggestions on how she can preserve them? Cupcakes were, as expected after our tasting - perfection - and Lisa's Mom stated how vanilla & lemon was Lisa's favorite combination (which I was unaware of).( Lisa's Mom is also the family go to cake person cake/cupcake baker in her family and she was a great fan) The comments I heard were "cupcakes are so light and fluffy, frosting is soooo good - and "these are made in a pizza restaurant!!!??"

Thank you, Thank you - I am so glad I saw the article in Cheshire Herald about your adventure - - it made a decision easier of helping a small business in Cheshire , I appreciate how easy and accommodating you were to work with - you were so accessible via email / phone - so open to what we wanted and also offering wonderful expertise of what would work / not. Thank you again - if anyone ever asks me about getting cupcakes you are definitely going to be recommended by me.

Sue

Spicing it up!

Spicing it up with a little Pumpkin Spice.

Vanilla cinnamon cupcake with pumpkin buttercream.

The face says it all!

Cupcakes Take The Cake~Spotlight Simply Rita Cupcakes!

Nichelle and Rachel cupcake bloggers from The world's most popular cupcake blog, Cupcakes Take The Cake, spotlighted Simply Rita Cupcakes on their blog! Take a look...

http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/2011/03/spotlight-on-simply-rita-cupcakes-of.html#comments

My cupcakes equate to lifelong friendships...

When I first started Simply Rita Cupcakes around 3 years ago I never imagined how many wonderful people I would of met along the way. The people I have met are not only my customers they truly are lifelong friends.

Diane, a Greek-American residing in Greece was in search for the perfect cupcake for her daughter's baptism. Who would of ever thought that a simple cupcake consultation would of ended up with us sipping coffee on my balcony and discussing everything from marriage to our children. Three years later Diane and I still keep in contact, and she's been so supportive of my business and I'm so thankful for that.

Ralph and Denise, were amongst my first customers here in Cheshire, CT. They stumbled upon my cupcakes when reading the weekly issue of The Cheshire Herald. When I first met Denise it really did seem like I had known her for years. She has been great at helping me promote my business by referring me and by networking on her facebook profile. It is devoted customers like this that makes my business successful.

And how can I forget Ms. Cupcake Couture, the winner of February's Drag Wars. Although I've only known Cupcake Couture for a short period of time, I know it's going to be the beginning of a great friendship. I'm confident that when we join forces we will be successful at using our love for cupcakes to raise money for great causes!

This is only the beginning of many more friendships to come...Thanks to all!

Why I decided to decline The Food Network's offer to audition for Cupcake Wars..

When I was contacted by The Food Network to audition for Cupcake Wars I was excited, nervous, flattered and willing to go on the show and bake my pants off for cupcake pioneer Candace Nelson and Frenchy Pastry Chef Florian Bellanger: The master of macaroons.

But the more I thought about it the more anxious I would get. The anxiety wasn't because I would potentially have to design a 1,000 cupcake display and bake the cupcakes within a 90 minute time frame, it was the stem of something else....

Regardless of the outcome of the competition it is likely that my business would pick up after the show aired, and I wasn't quite sure if I wanted that. Currently, my mother and I are able to bake small batches of cupcakes 3 times a day Thursday-Sunday. If it ever got to the point where my mother and I couldn't handle it, it would mean more staff members, bigger batches, and an inability to micro manage, to be precise, and to pay attention to detail. There would be no more cherry on the Key Lime Pie Cupcake, no more dollop of strawberry preserves on the Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcake, and no more homemade meringue cookie on the Lemon Meringue Cupcake (kudos to those cupcake shops that are still able to do all this while mass producing). Although business would probably be better, I personally wouldn't feel satisfied with the cupcakes being produced, which is why I have decided not to go on Cupcake Wars!

Wow, Simply Rita.....not so simple after all!

Going Green!

When I was asked to make cupcakes for an event in Middletown, I wasn't too sure what the event was all about until I got there. The developers of Centerpoint were celebrating the launch of the first "Green Complex" in Connecticut. The event had a great turnout and the attendees included the Mayor of Middletown, and of course the media and press. Good luck Lennie and the rest of the team at Centerpoint, I was honored to host your event!

Mayor Giuliano of Middletown enjoying a Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcake.

Bon Voyage Ziggy!

The Cheshire Men's Basketball League threw a going away party for Ziggy! What better way to say goodbye but with pizza, beer and cupcakes?

Although Ziggy is clearly "TRAVELING", the team believed my cupcakes were a "SLAM DUNK".

Cheshire Pizza: Where it's okay to be a kid again!!

2 Ovens, 222 Cupcakes and 2 Generations: All For the Love of Cupcakes...

Today I managed to bake 222 cupcakes for 3 separate events!

A Sweet 16, a Baby Shower and a Bridal Shower.

Thank heavens for my parents who were sweet enough to wake up at the crack of dawn to start baking with me (the clock was set on bar time it was actually 4:30 a.m. when I got there).

Sometimes I feel like the guy from the Dunkin Donuts commercials whose catch phrase was "Time to make the donuts". What was that guy's name anyway?

Yes it was still dark out!

One of the most beautiful humble families I have ever met!

Happy Sweet 16 Shani!

The giant cupcake!

The giant cupcake along with my father's giant mustache!