A Cupcake Laboratory

That's what my kitchen has become over the last few days - half bakery / half science lab! You see, I'm kicking it into high gear to really start producing my faux desserts for the opening of Lollishops toward the end of the year. More on that in a moment...

Well, I'm all better and up and at'em again! Unfortunately, after I recovered, two of my kidlets once again were sick. One (who had a fever for a day or so) complained once late at night that her ear bothered her...then her ear drum ruptured early the next morning! It was an ear infection we didn't even know she had - her first one ever in seven and a half years. The other one had a fever for several days - once up to 104.3, followed by bronchitis. She missed a week and half of school:( So it's been a tough month but we are ALL well now, thank goodness! Thank you to all those that stopped by and left well wishes - I really appreciate your kind words!

So...lately I've been dreaming about what kinds of things I want to make for my Lollishops store, and OH what fun! I went to Hobby Lobby last Saturday and had to keep reminding myself to focus on one or two products at a time...there are so many ideas spinning around in my head and it would be easy to leave a place like Hobby Lobby with a buggy load:) I picked up paint, pastel chalk, and three pretty glass cake plates of different sizes, from cake size down to cupcake size. They were half off and I couldn't resist!

I've been focusing for now on my cookies, candies, and cupcakes. I *wanted* to also be working on some sugared lollipops and sugared gumballs because they are so much fun, but there's only so much time in one weekend...*sigh*

I've used various recipes in the past for my faux cookies but haven't been completely thrilled with the cookies unless they were painted a yummy chocolatey color, which is fine - but not all cookies are chocolate. I basically needed a recipe that produced a cookie that looked delicious and natural right out of the oven and that only needed a clear coat sealer. I finally found it! I had some of my cookies on a cooling sheet the other day when my oldest daughter came home from school and she saw them and asked if she could have one, lol. (That's the tough thing about being a faux dessert maker and having kids...you do feel a *twinge* of guilt when you have to tell your kids that what they hoped was real was indeed fake, hehe. I do make plenty of real cookies, too, or else there would be a small uprising here!)

With my cupcakes, I've been trying to figure out how to make a realistic looking cupcake base - the actual cake portion of the cupcake. In the past I've used plaster and while it's easy to use and looks great piled high with yummy faux icing, I wanted something lighter weight and that wasn't flat on top - I wanted a bit of a rise like an actual cupcake. I experimented this weekend and am so excited that I think I've found it! Hubs was amazed (and it takes a lot to get a "Wow!" out of him!). I can't help but to think back to all the times I've spent pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to achieve a certain look or effect, using every product under the moon, and almost giving up. (And there will be many more times like that in the future!) I'm sure with many crafts, it's half art, half science experiment. You just never know if something will work until you try! My next "science experiment" will have to do with making faux fondant. I have my "ingredients" and tools but will have to see how it works out!

I'm also working on a new color palette. Chocolate is divine and I want to offer plenty of it, but in a place like Lollishops, there must be plenty of candy coated sweetness, don't you think? I've tested quite a few colors on some candy pieces and it looks like they are going to work! My girls especially loved the more "frou frou" looking candies. The same colors will be used on cupcakes, cookies, lollipops, etc. I've mostly only ever used red, white, cream, pink, and brown for my desserts, so I'm really excited about adding to my color palette!

On the home front, today a friend is coming to help hubs hang drywall in the hallway. Yay! One less area in our home with visible studs (and there are many!!)!!

But the most exciting news this week is that hubs gave me the go ahead last night to design my work studio! At this moment, the kitchen is slowly being overtaken by cupcakes and cookies as I work more on my desserts, and I have to have a place for all of it so that we can continue to function in there. BUT...here is the twist...

Ninety-five percent of my materials needed to create my studio will come from what we already have on hand in the garage. I need lots of shelving, a work table, seating, storage, and so on...and I want it to be pretty, of course:) So there will be a lot of trash to treasure projects to complete this makeover. I have some preliminary ideas already and hubs told me to give the plans to him when I'm done and we'll work on it together. When I'm able, I'll take a photo of the all the stuff I plan on using...from old woodend table legs to the bifold doors we removed from the dining room (you will probably think that I've lost my mind, hehe...but hopefully it will work out and also free up some space in our garage in the process!)

What I know I will have to buy is paint, some decorative trim for dressing up the shelving, and window treatments. The walls will probably be Malted Milk like the rest of our house so far and the furniture will all be white. For color, I've been dreaming about pretty long flowy curtains in a vintage or robin's egg blue. and the rest of the color will come from faux dessert displays. Ahhhh....

Wow, I wrote a novel! Thanks for popping in!

P.S

I may be having another much smaller online yard sale here in the next couple of weeks...probably less than 10 items:) Just a heads up!

P.S.S If you have haven't yet submitted your application to Lollishops, please do!