Happy New Year!

Hi everyone! Long time no blog! Between the holidays, computer viruses, no camera and general running around we haven't had a chance to sit down. The holidays were busy as usual here. We are getting ready to settle into January which is usually very slow. Hopefully we will be booking 2009 weddings, taking a vacation and paying some taxes. Whoo hoo! I will blog agan soon! Come visit me down here at the cupcake!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy late Thanksgiving. Here is a little picture of our fantastic turkey cake. Gobble gobble. We all had a great Thanksgiving here at the cupcake. Tomorrow we have the parade and then the Christmas walk on Sunday. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It's right up there with Easter. Anyhoo, we had a great meal here 23 people total. We wrapped up our dinne with an assortment of homemade pies made right here at the cupcake. AMAZING! Hope everyones holiday was just as wonderful!

Press Room

armadillo grooms cake

Hey All! This is my version of an armadillo grooms cake. When the bride and I sat down together we had an instant "steel magnolia" connection. It was pretty awesome. She would start a line and I would finish it. I told her I could "do a snake but I didn't have enough counter space." LOL! I totally crack myself up! Anyhoo, I love him and I named him Burt. Why? You ask.... I like the name Burt. So here is his dillo data. He is a red velvet cake, covered in delicious homemade fondant. His deep piercing eyes are royal covered in black piping gel. His particular stance is one of pre being hit by a car. Note the look of pure stupidity on his face. " NO!!! BURT!!!! LOOK OUT!!! ........aw dang, poor Burt. We wont show those photos. It's a family site. Stay tuned for more of our adventures........... Hope you love him too!

Gingy

Happy late Halloween!!!! Here is a picture of Sommer, Gingy and I while we, the kids, were trick or treating. DELICIOUS! Not a whole lot of other news to report here at the cupcake. This weekend we had two weddings. And our normal amount of regular cakes. The camera is still on the fritz so I am awaiting pictures from other sources. Both were beautiful weddings. One in Butler and one at the country club. The highlight of the two was being able to work with one of our favorite people, Dan Nagy. Dan owns the Flower Basket and is one of our favorite vendors to work with. It was a beautiful Autumn day Saturday with great weather and it was a nice relaxing set up at the Mount Vernon Country Club. I don't know if I have mentioned before how beautiful it is there since they updated it. Dan did the flowers for that cake. He is a joy to work with and I enjoy watching him work and getting a chance to talk shop with him. Other news, our computer died. We brought it to ECR and the hooked us up and gave us a loaner until they could fix us up. Thanks Guys! Turns out our hard drive bit the dust. Lucky for us no valuable info was lost.

Since I have no real cakey news to report or pictures...grrrr, how about I chat about my new favorite things? Like.... YOU TUBE!!!! You have got to check out Dr. Horrible's sing along blog. AMAZING!!!! If you have about 45 minutes, and some popcorn, you are in for a treat! If I knew how to link this crazy thing I would. It's five cupcakes in my book. I have lots more favorite things but I would hate to use them all up on just one post. Stop by the shop and see me this week! Mention Dr. Horrible and I will give you a free cupcake. LOL!!! Love, B

gingerbread house contest!

Hey, hey, hey, hey! it's again for our annual gingerbread house contest! We switched it up a bit this year. We have our expert class, and a NEW novice class. All expert houses and the winner for the novice class will all help raise money for Food For the Hungry. Food For the Hungry houses will be on display during the Christmas walk. 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes will be given for both classes! 1st in expert- A ONE NIGHT STAY AT THE WHITE OAK INN!!! 1st in novice- A NEW KITCHENAID MIXER!!!!

All houses MUST be completely edible. The drop off date is November 7th at noon at he cupcake. Judging will be November 8th. Good Luck!

Homecoming at the pink cupcake

Can you tell we love Jim Perry here at the cupcake? Homecoming went of well. The girls looked beautiul in their dresses. what? You want to see some pictures? Lets see what I can do.
This is Allison (Not my kid), Steven (also, not mine) and Arie (mine). My other daughter would kill me if I put her picture on here. Trust me, she was beautiul. We lost the game, who really pays attention to that anyway?LOL! The girls reported that everyone had a great time.
Our window reflected (get it?) our support for the team and our support for football player, Jim Perry. Uncle Dave's son. I love small town life here in Mount Vernon. We watched the parade go by the shop and everyone went to the bonfire. So cool all the kids go to school together and Sommer's family is HUGE and has really adopted us. It's really wonderful.
Lucky for us the yellow jacket's colors are orange and black (not sure why? wouldn't it be yellow? I digress.) Anywho, we can switch right over to halloween. I am really excited for some scary halloween cakes and maybe a wedding cake. Hopefully we can start on that monday after I wash the window. Thats it for now. It was a super busy weekend. Not many pictures. One wedding in Coshocton. You can check out the pix on the flickr site. www.flickr.com/photos/thepinkcupcake

Gordon food show

LOL! Guess what I did today!? This is me munching down at the Gordon food show today in Columbus. It was a pretty fun time. Not a lot of bakery items but I did buy a new mop bucket. WOO HOO! Pretty sad when one gets so excited at the sight of the rubbermaid booth. It was a fun day away from the shop. I was a bit nervous leaving but the girls handled everything just fine. Part of owning your own shop are the perks, like a food show. The other part would be having to spend $43 on a new mop bucket. The pink hair got me lots of attention today,lol. And we left our salesman, Randy, a pretty funny message at the message center. I hope it doesn't get him in trouble. We were in rare form after eating a lot of seafood and lots of meat. Sounds funny when I say it out loud. We saw our friends Jeanne and Stu from the Gambier Deli. And I tried a very yummy guava pastry that I think we will start to carry. So all in all, a good day. Tomorrow back to the grindstone.

The millennium falcon

A quick disclaimer before we get started....
To my fellow cake decorators, The photos on our home page are not ours. They are stock photos that our webdesigner has used to show us how our finished page will appear. Our web page is currently under construction and we have alerted our webmaster that they must be removed. We are only able to make changes on our blog. We are currently not in control of our page. All other photos are ours. PLEASE Do not send us emails informing us of this. He has been told of the problem. We would like to appoligize about this in advance. And we truly hope you understand. We hope his issue will be corrected ASAP. Thank you so much for visiting our blog and we hope you will find your stay an enjoyable one. Again, we are sorry.
Beth

Let me begin by saying what a fun project this was. It truly was a work of art from beginning to end. When you work closely with a person every day it can go one of two ways... It can become a battle, and you can dread the thought of going to work every day. Or, it can be a beautiful dance. Where words don't even need to be uttered and you can sense the other persons thoughts and feelings. When you are totally in sync and everyday is more fantastic than the day before. The latter is what it is like here at the cupcake most of the time. Apart from the jokes and general fooling around we do here at the cupcake, the partnership we share here is rare. Sometimes when we are in the midst of a project Sommer and I just look at each other. No words are spoken. But the thought is the same.... BLISS.

This project was very quick and very fun. It took about 6 hours I would guess, start to finish. 3 of us worked on it. I will try to talk you throughout our process. 1st, we plan. This first pic represents our planning process. We talk it out and bounce around ideas. Sketches are made and a plan is formed. We ALWAYS have a base plan to go by. No changes are made unless they are discussed and agreed upon.

This next picture is after Sommer has baked the basic shape. She is shown here carving the cake. Rarely do we use shaped pans. It lets us have much more freedom with our designs and gives us a crisper, more classic look.

After much discussion, it was decided to go with rice crispy treats for the gun hatch part (forgive me for not knowing the technical terms). I love the crispies for sculpting. Not only are they yummy, they conform to any shape needed.

Chocolate fudge is applied as the base. Normally a thin coating of butter cream is used but this was the clients request. The chocolate fudge is difficult to work with under the fondant as it is very soft.

Chris and I cover in fondant and pipe on the details using royal. Earlier Christine had designed the gun for the top and satellite dish out of gumpaste.

Sommer paints and adds the details. And we're DONE!

Surviving the storm

Hi everyone out in cupcake land.
We survived the storm. For those who don't already know, we had terrible winds from hurricane Ike. I guess Mount Vernon was declared a disaster zone. I can totally see why. I guess some are still out of power. I hope they come out to the pink cupcake for a fresh muffin and some coffee. I am so sorry for those who can't get their morning fix. We have had power all along, thank God! So this is just to let everone know we are still alive. No cake pictures right now. There is a lot going on, I'm going to try to put some pictures on my flickr account later tonight. Love you all, Beth

The finished cake

This is the finished cake. Just darling! A really pretty fun cake. The perfect ending to a busy weekend.

Angie and Kevin's wedding

Here I am at the Dan Emmett working on Angie and Kevin's cake. The Dan Emmett has never looked so fabulous! Honestly, the chair covers rock!!!! They totally make the room. I just love, love, love them. I will post the finished cake pix as soon as I get them back. Today was a good cake day. Three weddings. All our special occasion cake photos didn't come out. They were all shadowy and weird. So no super cool stuff this week. I posted more of what we do have on our flicker account. All in all a great day!

brian and stewie

Fun times at the hospital..... This cake is for a nursing school graduate. His favorite show is, of course, family guy. I totally love this cake. Originally this was just Stewie taking care of Brian but I had an idea. Seeing that Family guy is one of my favorite shows also. I just love the episode where Brian owes him money. So awesome. Sounds a bit twisted when I say it out loud.

The rest of the weekend was totally exhausting. More cakes than I can count and Lots of wedding cakes. Sadly there was no time to take pictures of them all. We did a darling white and green wedding cake that we didn't get a picture of. I will call her next week to see if I can get a picture. I will post some of what we have on our flickr site. Hope everyone had a great week. Happy lobor day! www.flickr.com/photos/thepinkcupcake

Mmmmmmm.......Donuts

A quick picture of what I would say is the most beautiful donut cake ever made. Completely made of donuts. Mmmmm.... it's making me hungry just looking at it. Sommer constructed this bad boy after dreaming about it's construction. Isn't that just so cool! We researched donut cakes on the web and NOTHING was even close. I think it is just the best feeling when we come up with something totally new and never been done before in the cake world. I guarantee someone somewhere will see this and we will see these popping up. This cake is actually a grooms cake, the brides cake is a lovely 3 tiered pink fondant cake. I am planning to post some pictures of this weekends work on my flickr. www.flickr.com/photos/thepinkcupcake It was so busy this week I didn't take any photos of any special occasion cakes, Just wedding stuff. Thats really the cool stuff anyway. Be sure to check out the flickr site and let me know what you think. Till next time, Beth

I'm back!

I'm home and just in time for the Dan Emmett festival. Since there's not a lot cakewise to do with good ole' Dan we decided to go with a pink and black theme. The stripes are sheer pink and black. I love it because you have to come close to get a good look at the cakes or you need to come inside. Great for business. We have enjoyed the festive this year. Our parttimer, Jamee, actually sang on Saturday night. She looked great and sounded great, too! Job well done Jamee! It was a nice light cake week, got a lot of consults in. And it was nice to relax a bit from my trip.

Speaking of...... Here is the link to Jen's blog. http://www.shetakesthecake.blogspot.com/ My batteries in my camera died, so no pix. I'm not a very good packer on spur of the moment trips. We did however get to make a pit stop in Niagra falls. FANTASTIC! All my love, Beth

Ima newyorka!!!!

Hi from New York! The State not the city. This is Beth writing in from New York. I am here visiting my friend in upstate attempting to help her with a giant wedding cake order. There is no service for my cell phone here so I am totally going through texting withdrawls. I thought it would help if I blogged. So this is just a note to everyone who loves me. I MADE IT HERE!!! It's a beautiful area. Lots of giant hills and beautiful green grass. LOTS OF COWS AND GOATS. It's very rural, not like what you would expect. Anywho, I need to get back to work. I will take pictures. XOXO

He...... lives in a pineapple.....

Hi everyone, This is Sommer. It's so great t finally get a chance to write on here. I guess I should tell you a bit about our weekend. We had no weddings. Sad, but a welcomed rest. We had some great cakes go out this weekend.

We did a great 3d spongebob and crabby patty. Thats a number 5 on the top of the bun. A huge bridal shower cake and a lot of other misc. cakes. It was a really great and creative week. We are looking forward to the Dan Emmett Festival coming up starting on the 7th. We hope to have a lot of great pictures to share from that. It's always so exciting to have downtown so busy and it's also a great chance to connect with everyone in person. Be sure to stop in and say hi to Beth and myself when you come down to the shop. Enjoy your week and we will see you soon!

A busy weekend

I thought it would be cool to see a bit how making a 3d cake works. This is Darth's head before we airbrushed it. 90% of our cakes are buttercream and most of the time we airbrush. This the original Darth Vador head, there are 2 you know. He's looking pretty good. He was to be a surprise for one of our grooms this weekend.

This weekends work included 3 wedding cake and numerous special occasion cakes. Most of our peeps were on a mission trip in New Orleans so we were down helpwise. Also, bieng closed the beginning part of this week just made things extra busy. We survived it though.

Here is the finished product. He's fairly awesome. Lucky for us Sommer is a Star Wars expert. I am very lucky, with all the people around someone is always an expert on something. Like it or not sometimes, LOL!

I think the hardest part of the weekend sometimes is the delivering. It seemed like we were driving to get to destination #3 for hours. No mishaps though. So all is well. That's all for now, Beth

Nanci, Carol and the Candy Clipper II

WELL! What started out as a normal dull day actually turned into a fabulously fun day. Even though we are closed, I met two of the most beautiful pink princesses and their chariot, the Candy Clipper II! Nanci and Carol were the highlight of my day. It is always so wonderful to meet people who share that special passion and zest for living as we do. The ladies were out and about and decided to stop by. We are just tickled pink that they did! Look out for more adventures with the four of us. We have plans in the works! Isn't this the best car!?! Thank you ladies for stopping by. You made my day!

Happy Knox county fair week! The entire town is at the fair this week. We are using this time for some rest and relaxation. Lots of weddings this weekend and not to many orders at the beginning of the week so we took some time off. This was a fitting cake we did last week for Ping. Her goat is not going to the fair as it is a pet. But, I thought I would throw her on here just the same. No goat burgers for us this year. We do love the fair though. Other than the fair really not much going on. We are pretty much smack dab in the middle of wedding season and all is good. Going to use today to catch up on some paperwork and get some pictures printed off. Enjoy the fair! Beth

Christine

This cake was made by the fabulous Christine. I just wanted to show it off to the world. Christine is our fantastic cake decorator trainee/counterperson/admin assist. She totally rocks at shaped cakes. I can't tell you how impressed I am with her. Also, I don't know how she puts up with me because I am such a PIA person to work with. I think I have it all with her. So here is her cake......Yay Chrissy!
One wedding yesterday at the castle. And just some special occasion cakes for today.
Last night Sommer totally dominated in Guitar Hero. Our new favorite game. Only her second time playing and she was rocking out. She is so cute...She stands up and really gets into it while she's playing. It was a fun time. Will write more soon, Beth

VocationVacations !!!

Back to give this another try! I wanted to post more fun pictures. Also, I wanted to remind folks to check out our flickr account http://www.flickr.com/ under thepinkcupcake or my name princesscuppycake01 . I probably should have given one second of thought to naming myself princess cuppycake. Anyhoo, back to the photos. Also, if your interested in learning more about VocationVacations you can go to http://www.vocationvacations.com/ . I cannot say enough times how much we enjoyed this. Above is me fixing frosting, I forgot to double the sugar. Fun fun. And our beatiful plate from Mindee. WE LOVE IT!!! More later....Beth

Our vocation-vacationeer!

This is a little snappyshot of Mindee and Christine. Mindy spent the last two days job shadowing us. I know I had a ton of fun. I hope she did too! We really enjoyed our vacation-vocation experience. Can't wait to do it again. I had a blast, I got to talk a lot, always fun for me. And I had a captive listener. LOL! Also fun for me! The first da was spent wth Sommer starting at 4 with Sommer. A long day for mindee. And what would normally be a slow Tuesday was actually a bit busy. Tues was spent with me going about my day to day. We showed Mindee a few faboo tricks of our trade. And did a 3d dragon with some baby cupcakes just for fun. Because I can't seem to navigate this to add more pictures I will add another blog in a bit. We enjoyed yummy dinners at our favorite restaurants Fiesta and The VI. That was lots of fun also. Mindee fit right in although she passed on getting the cupcake logo tattooed on her cupcake. I don't know why....

So all in all a super time was had. Mindee gifted us with a beautiful piece of pottery from North Carolina With our snazzy website logo on it. ONLY THE BEST PRESENT EVER!!!!! I will try posting that too. Must get back to work making royal pansies. XOXO

attempt number 3

GEEZ! I am not the sharpest crayon in the box! This is my 3rd attempt to show you all one of todays weddings. This is the front of the cake. The MOB picked this cake out and the bride HAS NO IDEA what it is. Looks nice huh? Pretty 4 tier buttercream pretty gumpaste lilies. Very elegant.

THIS IS THE BACK!!!!!

I hope she has a sense of humor. The groom is a basketball coach. It actually came out really cool. If I do say so.

This was an awesome weekend. Low stress. A nice change. Really good cakes this week. After my big fridge purchase next week my plan is to buy a camera. Ken, our photographer, has been enjoying his life and we are not getting many pictures as I don't own a camera. I am sorry for not posting more often and posting more pictures.

Happy late 4th of July! My head is hurting from trying to figure out how to post. Enjoy the weekend! XOXO

flickr

Hi all! Beth here. I have discovered a few new internet thing. If you go on www.flickr.com under search person princesscuppycake01 you can see some of our stuff. Whoo Hoo! I love the internet! Fun fun fun! GOBA is in town the next 2 days so maybe we'll get some shots of us and our new bike friends. Thanks for reading, Bethy

Graduation weekend phase one

Beth here-
First day open after the big graduation blowout. I lost count after 48 cakes. Two wedding cakes and a grooms cake. It was a pretty fantastic weekend. Some small bumps in the road but all good for the most part. This weekend should be fantastic also. No pictures were taken. I hope to get some this weekend.
We have our first vocation vacation confirmation today. For sometime in July. I am very excited about that. So all good news here at the pink cupcake.
XOXO, Beth

Our Story

Beth Murdock and partner Sommer Meade opened The Pink Cupcake three and a half years ago. Both Beth and Sommer learned the baking trade by working for years for large grocery stores as bakers and cake decorators. But when the two met at a gingerbread house auction shortly after they both had moved to Mount Vernon, they realized the town didn't have a bakery. They admired each other's houses and became friends. The women, who were both baking/decorating at home and selling their goods to the public and local businesses, started chatting on the phone about sugar. One day, Sommer called Beth and told her to meet her so they could look at their bakery.

"She had mentioned opening a bakery, and I said "whatever," Beth recalls. "Sommer has a 'We can do anything' attitude. She never thought we wouldn't open a bakery."

So they made the plunge, and after six months of renting a commercial kitchen,and the help of another silent partner. The ladies opened their bakery on Mount Vernon's Main Street.

The partnership couldn't have worked out better.

"We have complementary strengths," Beth says. "One of which being, she is a morning person, I am a night owl."

Because of that, Sommer opens the bakery each morning at 4 a.m. and does the lion's share of the baking, while Beth does more of the business end, deals with customers and closes up the shop each night.

The bakery features a case of yummy treats like muffins, cinnamon rolls, cupcakes, danish and more. However, the major part of the bakery's business comes from creating wedding, birthday and other special occasion cakes. Beth says the work of decorating a cake to meet a customer's vision is incredibly rewarding.

"Every cake is an expression of art for us," Beth says. "It brings us joy to meet our customers' vision of what their cakes should be. These are little pieces of someone's life that we've turned into an edible creation. We just get to play the whole day."

" To me this is the best job in the world," Beth says. "We provide happy things. No one is ever sad to see a cake."