Summer Sweets

This summer has kept me insanely busy,

and yet again, I'm apologizing
to the small corner of the universe
that actually reads this blog.

I'm sorry!

Hopefully, this longer-than-usual update
will make up for my recent lapse in communication.

***

JULY was a fun month in Mary Casey's Kitchen!

I experimented with cake balls.
Red Velvet cake balls, to be specific.

(Forgive me for not capturing a photo of the inside of one of these treats.
Whenever I took a bite to take a look at the red, velvety insides,
I got caught up in the deliciousness and gobbled up the rest of it!)

These were an extremely messy treat to make,
but well worth the effort.
I decorated them with red, white, and blue
melted chocolate drizzles, and brought them
to my family's 4th of July celebrations.
They were a hit!


***

Later in the month, I was asked by my favorite extended family
The Dennetts!
to make mini-cupcakes for their family cookout on the Cape.

The theme?
THE BEACH!!

A hand-made and hand-painted fondant beach ball
atop a mini chocolate cupcake.

A cute, little hand-made fondant lobster!

I covered half of the cupcakes with graham-cracker crumbs,
which look like the sandy beach.
The other half of the cupcakes were topped with swirls of
blue-tinted vanilla frosting, which look like wavy waters.
I made a few little flip-flops out of melted chocolates, too.
There were a total of 80 mini beach-themed cakes!

***

In August, I was so happy to catch up with
The Keeler Family!
I hadn't seen Kristen, Scott, or the five Keeler kids in years.

Since they're such a sweet family,
I knew that I needed to bring them a few sweet treats!
The result?

The Keeler Cupcake Collection

I knew that most of the Keeler boys were baseball fans
(and more than one is destined to be an MLB player in the future)
so I had to include some baseballs in the bunch.

I also included some newer recipes that I'd tried...
A vanilla cupcake with milk-chocolate frosting
and an actual mini-s'more on top!


A cookies 'n cream cupcake featured chocolate cake
and a Oreo-cookie frosting.

But, the Keelers' FAVORITE cupcake was...
The Chocolate Minty-Cream Dream Cupcake!
(Otherwise known as the Aquafresh cupcake)

It was a chocolate cupcake with a peppermint-cream filling,
milk chocolate frosting, and an Andes Candy topper.
(When one of the Keeler kids asked what was inside the cupcake,
I joked that I filled it with Aquafresh toothpaste.
I love to kid with those Keelers!)

Three new treats, which I think were terrific!

Here's hoping that this busy summer allows me
just a little more time to attempt
even more fun, new treats
for my fun friends and family!

Batter Up!

Get it?
Cake batter?
Batter up!
Baseball cakes?!

I thought it was clever :)

I made these cakes well over a month ago,
but keeping consistent with my inconsistent blogging,
I'm just posting a picture now.

They were chocolate and vanilla cupcakes
with whipped cream frosting and hand-iced red stitching.

These cakes were a HIT!
You got that one, right!? ;)


Boy, I hope I have more time for baking and blogging this summer...
I need some new material!

Frog Princes and Lady Bugs!

Well, I'm officially a bad blogger.
It's been way too long since I've updated this thing.
But alas, I found some time today
to upload some photos of some recent projects...

In March, my friend Chelsea asked me to make
some princess-themed cupcakes
for her little girl Allie's 1st birthday:

I wish I had gotten better pictures, but I was in a rush
to get these goodies delivered to the party!

They were mini strawberry and vanilla cupcakes
with little stars, crowns, castles, and frog princes.
(I was inspired by these princess cakes.)

Here's a close-up of a fondant frog prince I made by hand:

Later in March, I visited my dear friend Kimberlee,
and we celebrated her little Dorothy's 1st birthday!
Dot loves lady bugs...
(and meatballs, if you can't tell from the sauce on her cute little mouth!)

...and together we made these cute cakes for her:

We used Oreo Cookies for the heads
and peppermint candies for the eyes.
Then, we just piped on the dots!


Hooray for Spring, first birthdays, and friends! :)

The Fanciest Cupcakes I've Ever Tasted

This weekend, I was overjoyed to attend a Cupcake Tasting at the Ritz-Carlton, Boston Common, with some of my very best friends. We sampled some of the most delicious cupcakes ever while sipping tea, marveling at the beautiful holiday decorations, and listening to Christmas songs being played on a grand piano right there in the restaurant.

From bottom left to top right: New England Caramel Apple, Boston Cream Pie, Chocolate Peppermint Patty-Cake (which was my favorite!), Eggnog, and Gingerbread Spice.

It was absolutely fabulous, and I'm so grateful for all the girls who attended.

For Birthday Girl, Julia!

Autumn turned busy very quickly!
Thankfully, there's always time for cupcakes :)

In November, I had the privilege of making birthday cupcakes for
my friend Lauren's daughter, Julia.
The theme: pink teddy bears!

Vanilla cakes with strawberry frosting.

I made the little teddy bears with a candy mold.

Lauren sent me the following pictures...
I'm so glad the girls (and the Birthday Girl, especially) enjoyed the cakes!

Wishing Julia a very, very sweet year :)

Ahh, Autumn!

It has been a busy couple of months! Thankfully, I've been able to slow down on this rainy Saturday afternoon, relax in my pajamas, and bake some autumn-inspired cupcakes! Ahhh, autumn!


This morning, I made pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream-cheese frosting. I'm especially proud of myself because these cakes are HOMEMADE and FROM SCRATCH!
I'm sorry, friends, but I have to admit that sometimes I use a cake mix or a can of frosting when I'm pressed for time. It's ghastly, I know.
But not today! Today, I woke up at 7:30am to prep! I measured out every teaspoon of nutmeg, ground cloves, cinnamon, and ginger that this recipe required! I messily spooned pumpkin puree into measuring cups! I felt like a chemist, adding the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together, and then carefully adding eggs and then the buttermilk and vanilla extract -- just a little bit at a time -- until the batter was the perfect consistency. Then, as the cakes were cookin', I whipped up the frosting with cream cheese, confectioner's sugar, and maple syrup. Sticky sweet and scrumptious!

I'm pretty proud of these cakes. They came out delicious, and my family really enjoyed them. Also, I made them without a stand mixer! I beat and whisked these cakes together with my little, ol' electric hand-mixer and my own brute strength!!! A real labor of love!

Here's wishing I could share the aroma of these little treats with you, too!

Why, yes, I'm bilingual...

Uno

Dos

Tres