Sunday, March 31, 2013

Happy Easter!

Confession: I've never in my life made cupcakes for Easter. Weird, huh? I mean, I gueeessss my baking has increased quite a bit in the past two years (that's how long it's been since I've used fondant to decorate/cover cakes and cupcakes). Any who, here's my take on Easter themed baked goodies! 
Easter cupcakes! (also my third attempt at making green tea cupcakes)

Cookies and cake pops aren't typically my thing, but I have something coming up where they could [potentially] be useful. Just thought I'd give it a try! 

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Alumni Feature!

Screenshots from the feature! (Video link below)
So a couple of posts ago, I said I had an upcoming project coming up. I can now share what the project was!!

Basically, my old high school's film production class contacted me earlier this month. They contacted me to ask if I'd be interested in filming an alumni piece (note: I literally just graduated last year! haha) due to my unique hobby in baking and how I started "Karess's Kreations." I'm pretty sure I didn't hesitate at all to agree to do this right after I had read my messages. Honestly, I've always [secretly] wanted to be somehow featured in an episode of NTV (Northwood Television) hehe. I mean, I guess I can't say that I've never been on NTV. I've been in the background of features in the past, mainly, for spotlights whenever dance shows at my school were coming up, but I'm pretty sure I was the only one who could actually see that I was in the background haha. So I guess it's safe to say that one of my high school dream(s) has been fulfilled, even if it was completed after graduating from high school...?

So yesterday, my friend, Tiffany and I went on campus to view the feature live. *I should add that it was Tiffany's birthday. What a trooper, right?! What kind of friend would wake up early on their birthday just to go to their former high school to see a little mini feature?! Don't worry I made her some cupcakes which I'll show later on in this post! However, a lot of students didn't know that we'd be coming to campus. So when we went to an advisement (we went to Tiffany's brother's advisement.. thank you again, Mrs. Guy!) they all gave us a confused look but continued to proceed in watching the NTV segment. When my feature finally came on, I couldn't help but want to run away like a little girl. I don't know why but I find it extremely uncomfortable to hear myself talk. Am I weird? It took awhile for the students in Mrs. Guy's advisement to realize why Tiffany and I would randomly be in her advisement. However, when the clip of me cutting out a piece of the ombre cake out, students started to flip out. When that happened, Mrs. Guy told them that I was the girl being talked about/talking in the video. Thankfully, most of the confused looks started to fade away haha. By the end of it all a few students started asking me questions such as, "are you going to open a bakery?!" and "wait, you graduated?!"

I still find it funny that people don't necessarily believe me when I say that I graduated from high school already. In fact, last week I came on campus to film with my former advisor, Mrs. Crowley! When I was on campus I had passed out a few cupcakes to random students I didn't even know. I thought it was a nice gesture, no? Turns out that election week was coming up and a few students thought I was actually trying to bribe them to vote for me. I assured them that I had graduated but I don't think I convinced them well enough... Long story short, they took some cupcakes for themselves anyways. Hahaha.

Back to Mrs. Crowley! Soo if you're reading this Mrs. Crowley... I cannot thank you enough for taking the time out to come film!! Honestly, Mrs. Crowley is one of the nicest teachers I've ever had in my life! For the people who aren't aware of what's happened in these past few months.. let me say that Mrs. Crowley was the teacher that I had done the baby shower for back in January. I believe that was the last time I saw her before seeing her again last week? Any who, she had her baby literally I think a month or perhaps even just a couple days shy of a month ago!! Crazy!! I mean, I would have loved if she'd be available to interview for me. Although, I knew that she had just had her baby so I totally would have understood if she could not make it! Being the saint she is, she ended up coming! I don't know how I can ever thank her for this!

Okay, I think I have written waaaaaay more than necessary.. oops..

Any who, here is the video!! 

I was told that the feature will be posted on YouTube within about a month so if a FaceBook account is required in order to view this video I will repost the YouTube version as soon as I can!
I feel like these guys should get some recognition! Without them,  my dream of being on NTV would have never came true! From left to right: Sagarika, Me, Nicole, Nihal. *Missing: Cindy

Earlier in this post, I mentioned that it was Tiffany's birthday as well. This year has been quite the change among my friends and I when it comes to celebrating our birthdays, mainly due to the fact that no one has actually been home during their birthdays. So this was a first for me this year. But I thought it wouldn't be very me if I didn't at least do something for Tiffany! I thought that in order to be somewhat I guess, fair (?) to the rest of my friends (for not being able to bake for their birthdays), I would start with making Tiffany mini sized cupcakes of her favorite flavor (pb chocolate chip)! Why minis? She commented once when I made minis of the flavor and said that because she found the flavor to be too decadent, that she thought mini sized were the perfect size. Luckily I remembered her saying this so that's essentially what I did for her! I also attempted to take a couple of the cupcakes to make a "cupcake cake" that was in the shape of a sun but that didn't look very nice... You can judge for yourself but please don't be too critical! It was my first time trying to attempt the whole "cupcake cake" thing.. :|

Saturday, March 23, 2013

SPRING SPRING SPRING

Spring is here!! ...which for me means it's...SPRING BREAK! Don't worry, I'm not the type that goes out causing mishap around town! In fact, I actually have a midterm in one of my classes after my break is over :( . Anyways, let's keep this post in a happier tune...


This week I...

-Made "Welcome Home" cupcakes! 
A guy I knew from high school wanted to get his mommy something special because she was coming back home after a trip. 


-Made cupcakes for a "Cake Walk!"
A club from my old high school called, "She's the First" invited me to make cupcakes for their "Cake Walk."She's the First is a non-profit organization that helps raise awareness for girls' education in third world countries. For more information on their club, visit their Facebook page and "like" them! :) 
I was asked to color the frostings of the cupcakes to resemble the club's colors (Purple and Teal). 

It was originally planned that I would give the club, regular/frosted cupcakes but, at the last minute I decided to also give them some fondant flowers and letters ("S","T" & "F") in case they wanted to give the cupcakes a bit more flair. Also, thank you to Hannah Pacun for this picture!!

While I was making the cupcakes for them, I had found out that they were giving the cupcakes away so I thought it'd be nice to give the members of the club some mini cupcakes for all their hard work! :) *Thank you again to Hannah Pacun for this picture as well! 


& that's it for now! Upcoming on Monday, March 25th will be, I guess you could say my second year anniversary since working with fondant? For those who are curious, you can see how my first experience with fondant, here
**Warning: my first time working with fondant wasn't my finest hour... and I can only hope that I have improved with my fondant work since then!!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Sneak Peek of An Upcoming Project!!

I'm going to try to contain my excitement buuuuut, about a week and a half ago I was contacted about doing a project. I won't say too much about it [yet], but let's just say that I'm super excited about it and it's secretly been a dream of mine to be chosen for it! I'm not exactly sure when this project will be finished or come out but I will definitely keep you all posted! :)


Here's what I made for the project...
An ombre cake! I maaay have gone a bit overboard with the flowers...oops.

The inside of the ombre cake! For those of you who are curious, the cake is vanilla flavored with cream cheese frosting (probably my favorite go-to frosting to go with just about any cake flavor!).
 I also made some red velvet cupcakes which can be seen in the background of the pictures :)


* I should add that these pictures were not taken by me. They were taken by a student named Nihal Khan! If you see this Nihal, thank you so much again!