inspiration : "sprinkles" cupcake painting

I'm not sure what it is but I'm enthralled with cupcakes. Not so much the eating of them, but just how cute they are. From the perfectly piped frosting, to the detailed decorations, even the ones with a big plop of homemade frosting that a grandma might make. It could be the scalloped-edge wrappers in all their fanciness too. Maybe it's because they are a delicious treat made specifically for one. Could it be the sparkly sugars, silver-glistening non-pareils or colored sprinkle balls? Whatever the case may be, they are too cute and they have inspired me to paint. I can see more cupcake paintings coming soon, because this one was just too much fun. Let me introduce you to "Sprinkles."

All of the merchandise you see in the above photo is now available in my Cafepress shop. Items are located in the following sections: Baby & Kids, Apparel, and lastly the Stickers, Buttons & Magnets section.

The "Sprinkles" cupcake print is now available in my Etsy shop and the original will be available for purchase soon! Stay tuned.

let's eat cake - birthday cake that is!

Today was an unusually warm February day in Michigan. The sun came out for a few hours, and most of our snow melted, but mostly it was gray outside. I really didn't feel like doing anything, except, baking a cake. On Wednesday of this coming week it's my husband's birthday, so before we go on our weekend trip to Chicago I wanted to bake him a special birthday cake.

Every year, I ask him what kind of cake he would like and every year it's always the same. Yellow butter cake with chocolate frosting. The man knows what he wants! This year though, we mixed it up a little bit. Yellow butter cake with German chocolate frosting in between the layers, and milk chocolate frosting on the outside. I jazzed it up a bit with toasted coconut on the sides, and decorated the top with whole pecans to compliment the German chocolate frosting filling. If that's not enough, I added some mini semi-sweet chocolate chips just to polish it off. It turned out so pretty that I thought I'd share it visually.