It's been several months since I've done one of these blog posts, so I thought it's about time I do one!  The growth of Steph's Sweet Treats has led to the opportunity to do even more fun and unique orders.  Here's a behind the scenes look at a few recent orders!

I'm known for my cutout sugar cookies (if you haven't tried them, please do!).  But when I opened Steph's Sweet Treats I wasn't going to do the whole decorating of cookies things.  Not sure why, but my cutout cookies have just always been simple....great cookies, great frosting, and that's it.  Nothing fancy; just plain yummy.

However, as the business grew, so did the demand for decorated cookies...so I gave in!  I am not a fan of royal icing; I find that it lacks flavor and is just too hard.  So I came up with an icing alternative for decorated cookies.  It still hardens to the touch like royal icing, but it is not as hard and still has flavor.  Opening the door to decorated cookies has led to some very fun orders, including the one from above!  These cookies were not only extra special because I loved the colors and designs (there was also some with the wedding date on them), but because they were ordered by my best friend for a high school friend/fellow cheerleader.  

Not all of the decorated cookies are iced.  I have done some with the traditional frosting as well.  These don't allow for as much detail and run the risk of smearing/the design getting squished (although I do use layers of wax paper between the cookies to help avoid this).  All of which I let people know when they are deciding between icing and frosting.  I had the pleasure of doing almost 200 cookies for Dean Clinic of Dodgeville for Health Care week.  This happens to be where my doctor is, so it was pretty cool when my doctor told me how they enjoyed my cookies!

 These next two cakes were for the same family and same weekend.  They got to have a double celebration of a birthday and gender reveal!  And did I mention two super fun cakes!?  

They both presented new challenges to me, which I loved.  The customer sent me photos to base the cakes off of and then I had to make them come alive.  The horse silhouettes were the aspect I thought would be the most challenging, but it wasn't!  I was soooo pleased and happy when I tried and was successfully able to paint on buttercream!  I have painted on fondant before, but never buttercream.  It worked and I was so pleased with the end result.  This cake also needed flowers.  Don't get me wrong, I love making fondant flowers, but they can be very timely to make, resulting in more expensive for customers.  So I have a stock of a few different kinds of flowers on hand and they worked perfect to make this cake extra special.

Now I always love a gender reveal cake...so of course I was excited about this one!  I had fun making the fondant aspects of this cake; although I'll admit the boots were probably one of the most difficult things I have had to sculpt.  They may not look difficult, but they were!  

Fun fact:  I have now been able to bake for all three of Cheyenne's birthdays since opening Steph's Sweet Treats! Here are year one and two:
-Farming themed smash cake
-Minnie mouse themed rosette cake (following copyright laws of course!)

Last but not least, I'll give a little information about a tiered cake from last weekend.  I don't get to do a ton of tiered cakes, but they have definitely picked up this year...in fact I had three different tiered cake orders last weekend!!).  This one was a for a surprise 30th party and hunting lover. I gave the customer some design options and we decided on a different look for each tier.  To make things easier, I delivered and set up the cake at the venue before the big surprise.  (If I don't set up, tiered cakes come in VERY large boxes and are very heavy when fully assembled....so people don't always have the space or capability to haul them around).

When I got the venue the customers kids were super excited to watch me set up the cake and it was great to see their reactions in person. I hope the birthday boy was excited and surprised by his party and cake!

Thanks for another week of orders everyone!!

Holy moly I feel like time is flying!  How is it that I am almost already to my third trimester?!  I'm at 27 weeks and 3 days and in less than three months our baby will be here.  CRAZY and so exciting!  So how was it baking in the second trimester?

Not bad!  Sure, I get sore a lot faster and bending over to get to my flour and sugar can be hard on the back (which is why I try to remember to tell myself to squat, not bend-I usually remember AFTER my back is already aching), but overall it has been great.  I have been having some crazy busy weekends this past month....so every time I get through one of them I can't believe I was able to do it.  Despite the soreness and being tired, I feel like growing this little baby has given me temporary super human powers.  Last weekend I was able to take on almost 1700 cupcakes, 400 cookies and 5 cakes!    I may still be catching up on sleep from this...but that's besides the point!

The beginning of the second trimester was great for energy, but now that I'm entering the third I'm definitely feel my eyes getting heavy a lot quicker and my body telling me to sit down after what seems like only a few hours.  Even though I've been taking on a lot of orders, I know I will have to cut back in a month or two... and then things will get to the "order at your own risk stage."  By this I mean I will be telling everyone when I get closer to my due date and warning people that while I will certainly fill your order, there is always the chance that it may not get completed if I by chance go into labor.  So in other words...order at your own risk.

So consider yourself warned!  Please, please, please make an effort to place orders with as much notice as possible.  I'm terrible at saying no, but at this point I have to make myself say no because it's not always possible time wise or physically to add last minute things..  

Fun facts:
-The first time my husband got to feel the baby move was on his birthday when I was 20 weeks along....talk about a great birthday present!  He has since been kicked several times...including in the face when he tried putting his ear on my belly...baby doesn't like having things resting on him-that means no using my belly as arm rest for me..unless I want to get hit!
-Latest "craving": this one has been around for awhile now and hasn't really gone away....peanut butter and jelly.  I wouldn't say it's a craving as in "gotta have it"....I just eat it a lot...and I use natural raspberry preserves which make it extra yummy!
-I've become clumsy.  Tipping things over and dropping things is getting old mighty fast!  
- We are putting finishing touches on the nursery and I go in there a lot just to use the rocking chair and read :)

Thanks for another week of orders and for making last week's open day such a success!