SO MUCH TO TELL! Wedding, Groupon, Grand Opening!!

Before I begin this LONG overdue update, I want to thank Darlene - AKA Ethel - for the beautiful post! All of it was so true & much appreciated. Love my Ethel! K - on to some exciting updates! I'll try to make this short & sweet but honestly - you might wanna get a cup of coffee & get comfy! Just sayin...

SO as Darlene mentioned earlier, on September 8, 2012 I married my best friend, soul mate, partner IN & love OF my life - Jeff Schowerer! Can I tell you all that this was the happiest day of my life (next to of course the birth of my children & grandchildren!) I think I only had 2, maybe 3 melt-downs during the weeks leading up to the wedding! And Darlene was with me every step of the way, from choosing my gown (she actually picked it out!) to planning my "Girls' Night Out" to driving all over the state of CT to pick things up to experiencing the traumatic pre-wedding hair appointment (seriously we both looked like we were ready for Halloween & couldn't look at each other without laughing &/or crying) to - yes - baking ALL of the cupcakes, cake pops and petit fours for the wedding!!! Come on now - you didn't think I would really let someone ELSE make my cupcakes right?

Darlene was my maid of honor & put up with my "stuff" for a few weeks - as did Jeff, & there were so many sleepless nights & high stress days, but at 5PM on Sept 8 as I saw my uber-handsome groom at the end of the aisle waiting for me - it was ALL worth it! No one else existed but Jeff as I walked down the aisle. It was a moment I'll treasure for the rest of my life! Having my kids & granddaughter there was the sprinkle on the cupcake! Here's a pic after the ceremony...

Didn't I tell you he was a cutie? Our little family thing ( Jeff, Darlene & me) is saying "love" - hence the reason the ginormous LOVE signs are in the background! Can I also tell you that our cupcake table was GORGEOUS! Pictures to come of that! O - here's a pic of my son Charlie and me - geesh, he's so handsome!

K so as far as cupcakes go we had PB&J, Fluffernutter, Salted Caramel, Lemon Blueberry, Peanut Butter Cup, Chocolate Raspberry as well as chocolate, white & strawberry cakepops! I also made our cake which is one of SuzieCakes specialties - our 6" petit cake - strawberry - all ruffled up & looking so yummy! I promise to post pics as soon as I have them all! Favors for our guests were petit fours all boxed up with a pretty satin ribbon - this was finished very late the night before the wedding by my son & daughter! Amazingly, only 2 or 3 petit fours were eaten during the packaging process! Hmm, make that 4! Apparently Darlene decided to try one but left the empty box in the back seat of my car! More wedding stuff down the road...

NOW on to some bakery news! SO SuzieCakes is now open Tuesday through Sunday from 11am-6pm! Darlene & I have been baking up some amazing yumminess over the last few weeks! Darlene mans the store during the day on weekdays and we're both there on the weekends! I still have my 9-5 but hopefully not for much longer....

So now let's talk about the craziness that has fallen over the bakery in the last few days! Darlene approached me a few weeks ago and proposed that we do a Groupon Deal and run it for 3-4 days. Not knowing a whole lot about what this entailed I said "sure, sounds good". We're just thinking 20, MAYBE 30 people would purchase a coupon, right? That sounds pretty reasonable. K - WRONG! at last glance we have sold over 480 coupons!!! WHAT? Are you kidding me??? 480 dozen cupcakes to go out the door! OMG OMG OMG!! I immediately went into panic mode! The bakery was crazy busy last weekend! BUT how fun it's been to meet all of our new SuzieCakes customers! People coming from all over; Fairfield, Shelton, Monroe, New London, Milford too! The response has been amazing! A little overwhelming but really amazing!!! It's been Sue & Darlene in true Lucy & Ethel form! I only wish some one had been there to video tape our kitchen escapades last weekend!! Luckily, Darlene's son (& my godson!!) Chris was in town from LA to visit & we put him right to work!! The sweetest guy you'll ever meet with a heart as big as the universe! Probably bigger, but you get the point! He was so funny & so great with the customers! He did a little whip cracking but still earned the dubious title of SuzieCakes 1st EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH!! Love that kid!

Some sleepless nights - yep! A little stress - o yeah! A tiff here & there - um yes! But over-all what a great experience! We LOVE meeting our customers, making new friends and providing you all with the yummiest cupcake you're ever gonna taste! Seriously! I mean people didn't even wait till they got home to eat their cupcakes - some didn't even make it out of the bakery! Take a look...

So we're gonna be kind of busy for the next few months! We'll be baking up all kinds of SuzieCakes yumminess for you! The dream is materializing before our eyes! And in a big hurry too! We're just so blessed to have this opportunity & I'm just so lucky to be doing what I love to do with my cousin & best friend! Also so lucky to have experienced my dream-come-true wedding day with my dream-come-true groom!


Stay tuned - next post is gonna be all about our Grand Opening!!! (heads up - October 11!) Thanks for visiting us and as Darlene always says; Stay Sweet!!!

Dreams Do Come True!!!!

So as I begin this blog, I have to say Sue usually does the posting, so I am going to surprise her and do a bit of the sharing this time. We have alot of great news to share and I might not be as funny as Sue but I will try to at least keep your interest. First of all I would have never imagined I would be moving from Southern California to Milford, Conneticut, but dreams do come true. Together with my best friend, partner in crime, and not to mention my cousin our dream of SuzieCakes on one coast is about to become real...We are actually going to be living our dream together after almost three years in the making. We actually have a home in Milford at 252 Melba Street where all the action and baking will be taking place. We are actually going to have a grand opening in September (stay tuned for the exact date) another dream we both have talked about for a long time and we actually have ok I will be honest here Sue has actually tested, and perfected over 100 different recipes that we are proud to offer, not all at the same time but if anyone could do it Sue could. She is the creative, dedicated, loyal, recipe keeper of the business and without her there would be no SuzieCakes. I am honored to be working along side of her as we take this journey together. We to promise to keep you updated on our "Lucy" and "Ethel" moments and events. It has been so much fun getting here, we can't wait to share our stories along the way with all of our loyal customers. So if any of you out there have always wanted to do something or have a dream of something you want, take it from both of us "DREAMS TO COME TRUE"! One more thing if not having SuzieCakes becoming real isn't enough in one year, get this Sue's biggest dream will be coming true on September 8th, 2012 when she marries her best friend and part of SuzieCakes as well her partner in real life Jeff. We have alot to be thankful for this year and we look forward to sharing it all with you along the way. Stay tuned for our quirky, funny but real life stories as SuzieCakes and Sue and Jeff start their journey together. Congratulations Sue and Jeff. Yes there will be plenty of wedding pictures so you can enjoy our dreams with us. Here I come Milford...... So stay calm and have a cupcake!!!


Darlene and Sue

Mini's for Core Athletics All-Stars!!

Being a former cheerleader AND All-Star Cheerleading coach - I still love all things cheerleading and continue to stay abreast on all the happenings! AND since my daughter happens to coach for Core Athletics in Rochester, NY I jumped at the chance to make her teams some cupcakes when they came to Hartford, CT for a National Competition!!

In addition to getting to see my daughter, Lauren (we live 6 hrs apart!) I got an added bonus - I got to have my grandbaby - Lily - for the weekend!! Needless to say we were quite busy catching up (she's 1 1/2!) and of course I asked her to help me make some cupcakes!

So....what flavor to make??? AHHH - Oreo Cookie Mini's with Cream Cheese Frosting! Who doesn't love Oreo's I ask?? Lily thought that was a good idea as well, so we proceeded to create our mini masterpieces....



And of course we had to complete the look with their gym's logo in the form of a cupcake topper!

I did a little choreography and set them in place for their dance sequence!!

All boxed up and ready to travel!

Lily helped me make the delivery! She was quite worn out by the end of the day! So much fun AND the team got their bid to the World Competition in April!! Good luck Diamonds! I like to think our cupcakes may have helped their cause....(just sayin..)

Fun stuff!

OMG it's been way too long since we've posted! Well, we're back now!! So...while playing around with some fondant the other day, I made this really cute ruffle. I immediately thought..hmm...that would make a super cute purse! SO -

up to my sewing room I went and tore thru my fabric stash and there it was!!! The super cute black and white print I had been saving for the right project. I thought - maybe an apron, but THEN I found the great lime green velvet I had been saving and KNEW that would make the perfect fondant ruffle! So I began......


OMG so cute right? I thought it looked just like the fondant ruffle! I have lovingly named this purse "Midnight Fabulous"! So - to me - it looks like a dark chocolate cupcake with cream cheese filling and lime buttercream adorned with a fondant ruffle! Brilliant right?

Here's another look! I just love it!

So now that the creative juices were flowing, I decided it was time to work on Valentine's Day cupcake topper picks. OMG - they came out so frigin cute! And since I can never just cut and paste anything, it was necessary to add some tulle!

LOVE THEM!

How cute will this look on top of our awesome red velvet cupcakes?

Yes, I take horrible pictures, but I'm practicing! These are my fav however! Hot pink hearts on top of a layer of white gathered tulle on top of a really cool damask card stock! Yummy!

K, stay tuned for more!! Remember....it's always a good time for a cupcake!

Jewelry Party + cupcakes = sparkly yumminess!

Hi everyone! Not sure how many "everyone" encompasses but HI nonetheless!!

Here's just a quick little blurb on some really cute mini's we made for a friend's jewelry party! She's launching a new business and wanted to have some cute cupcakes for dessert to serve her guests! OF COURSE we obliged!! K, so this was our 1st attempt at crafting jewlery out of fondant, but OMG so fun and actually pretty cute! Kind of hard to make things so tiny to fit atop mini's, but I think we came through!

Here they are! All ready to travel! We made some rings as well as a few pairs of earrings! These are Apple Spice Mini's with Cream Cheese Frosting. Little pink pearls adorned a few as well!

Here's a close-up of a few. We made both silver and gold! Just mixed a little almond extract with some different colors of Lustre Dust and voila! Sparkly fondant paint!

And here they are at the party! SO cute and quite yummy!!

Big E!

Ahhh the Big E! For those of you who aren't familiar - the Big E is an enormous State Fair which involves the New England States! K so I catch wind of the Domino Sugar Cupcake Contest to be held at the Big E (which is held in West Springfield, MA) SOOO I figured, what the heck - let's give it a go! So which cupcake to bring? Pondering over this for sometime, I decided to enter our Oreo Cookie Cupcake! YEAH! So rich and decadent - yep - I went with that!

I thought I was totally prepared...cupcakes-check, recipe-check, domino sugar proof-of-purchase-check, parking pass and entry form-check, cute outfit-check! K everything seemed in place. So I get there and it was POURING that day, but luckily I had an umbrella in the car. PHEW! I arrive at 9am, park in the vendor parking lot, gather my belongings and open the door to step out - WOAH! That's right my cute sandal is completely submerged in mud - up to my ankle may I add! UGG. But I trudged on in the pouring rain and finally arrived at the correct venue! K , looks like 30+ entries. I place my cupcakes in their proper spot and then go snoop out the competition....

These were interesting, not sure what flavor they were cause we were not allowed to label our cupcakes! PLUS there was only 1 judge! One lovely, very thin lady to taste all of these cupcakes! K more snooping....

Very nice...

OMG can you smell the yumminess? K so HOURS and HOURS passed then they finally announced the winners!!! And TADA....

BLUE RIBBON for Project Cupcake!!! YAY YAY YAY!! Trudging thru the monsoon-like conditions, submerging my foot completely in mud, having to ring out my dress several times, hair (which looked cute in the beginning of the day) now in a pony-tail...ALL worth it! Ahh the sweet, yummy taste of victory! Yes, I love the Blue Ribbon!!

O - and let us not forget the 15lbs of Domino sugar that I also won!!! Life is good!

Cupcakes for baby Hailey!

Yes, I know babies can't eat cupcakes! I wanted to try out a new technique and I thought - what better way than to make cupcakes for my future niece, her hubby and their new baby; Hailey Mae! And by "future niece" I mean my fiance's niece, Aimee! (Well actually I think that technically she IS my niece because Jeff and I have been together for 7 years now! So I'll just refer to her as my niece from here on out!) ANYWAY, I wanted to try my hand at dipping frosted cupcakes in chocolate. YUM right? Well, the finished product came out awesome, but I lost one along the way! More on that later....

I imagine that someday I will either get way better at taking pictures OR I'll get a different camera that allows me just to snap and it will do the rest OR I'll have a pro take all my pictures! But for now, it's just me! So these are the yummies! Dark chocolate cupcakes topped with the lightest and smoothest marshmallow frosting I've ever tasted! I loved it! Yes, I needed to make some sweet pink and purple flowers and as I mentioned earlier, some are dipped in chocolate - SOME.....

Here's another picture showing a little more detail of the flowers!

See that 1 empty spot? Here's the deal...so I made the marshmallow frosting with our BRAND NEW RED STAND MIXER and it came out amazing. OMG - love, love, love the stand mixer! It's not a Kitchen Aid, but it serves the purpose for now! It was so odd for me to be able to let the egg whites whip while watching over the boiling sugar/water syrup and take the cupcakes out of the oven! It was like I had an assistant! Then - once again - I thought; "MAN, I forgot to take pictures of the process again!" I promise next time, I will take pictures before DURING and after! Anyway, I piped the frosting onto 6 of the cupcakes, set them in the fridge to set up for about 10 minutes while the chocolate melted. Once the chocolate had cooled I gingerly and o-so-carefully dipped one of the cupcakes into the cooled chocolate to get the "hi hat" or dipped ice cream cone look. WELL - things seemed to be going well, when as I lifted the cupcake out of the chocolate - there was no mound of chocolate covered marshmallow on the top of my cupcake! It was still in the bowl of chocolate! It lay there beautifully covered in chocolate and still maintained it's triangular shape. ARGHHH!! SO - for the next few, I decided to spoon a little chocolate onto the frosting and then use my off-set spatula to do the rest! THAT is why there's an empty spot! i am NOT giving up on the whole dipping thing. I think maybe next time I may need to thin out the chocolate a little!

All in all, I am quite pleased with the outcome! They tasted amazing (I tasted the casualty that ended up in the bowl) and they look really pretty! PS - marshmallow frosting holds it's shape really well! Now to bring them to baby Hailey!