First, my in-laws celebrated their 40th anniversary with a family gathering at an old fashioned pizza parlor. My mother-in-law repeatedly asked that I not make a fuss over the cake but to do something "simple" instead. And I really tried. Really. I even ditched my tips for the first batch of cupcakes and frosted them by hand (which takes a lot longer by the way!). But then I had an idea which let to another which turned into a fondant covered scene on top of a decadent cream cheese frosted carrot cake. Oh well. They were very happy despite my failure at keeping it simple.
Confession...I broke my camera by doing something stupid. (FYI: Just because a charging device that didn't come with your camera may still FIT in all the right places, that does NOT meant it will charge your camera! It may, in fact, fry it. Just saying.) So I took these pictures on a not-so-fancy camera and they turned out...not-so-fancy. Soooo...I played around with saturation and tints for the rest of these. It kind of goes with the whole theme though. It works.
Carrot cake and carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and pecans, and the apple pie cupcakes recipe from Annie's Eats.
My husband's dad is a carpenter and will sometimes etch the year or a name onto his work. He also loves trees. And while he would never actually carve anything into a tree, I combined the two ideas into one (correction...the tree idea was my husband's) and came up with this. Somehow in my mind it seemed a lot "simpler" than a swirly "Happy Anniversary" written on top.
Apple Pie Cupcakes
Everything made from scratch. I followed the cupcakes and apple pie filling recipe exactly like Annie's Eats. The butter cream recipe is my own and made with real vanilla beans. Oh so yummy!
Carrot Cupcakes
Secondly, we celebrated the baptisms of our niece and nephew this weekend. I'm sure the church was happy to have all the crazy cousins join them in service. (I think I said "No," "Shh," "Stop that," and "Sit still" at least a few hundred times to a particular two of the bunch). But we made it to lunch without any major melt downs and after eating my weight's worth of pot luck, we had more cake.
White almond cake with almond vanilla butter cream.
Confession number 2: I've never made a sheet cake before. This was my first. And it was only a "half" sheet cake. Other than the icing that cracked a bit after being moved around so much, I was pretty happy with it. It's always fun to try something new. But no worries. I'm still a cupcake girl.
Happy Anniversary and Congratulations to my wonderful families-in-law. Thanks for letting me help you celebrate! :)
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! All of it!!
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