Baker Spotlight: by.Ivonne Cake.Love.Couture

*Baker: Ivonne of  Cake.Love.Couture.by.Ivonne

*Contact information:      (305).639.8621

                           by.IvonneCakes@gmail.com

                                       Coral Gables, FL.

 *Flavors & Fillings: Flavor Selections include Guava & Cheese, Red Velvet & Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Buttercream, Chocolate, Chocolate Strawberry, Confetti Vanilla, Vanilla Martini, Key Lime, Peanut Buttercup, Creme Brulee, Strawberry Shortcake, White Chocolate, White Chocolate Raspberry, Lemon Merengue.    We will customize any flavor combination for you.

*Pricing: Dozen Couture Regular Cupcakes $24, Dozen Couture Mini's $18.  We specialize in custom orders and Fondant Cupcake Toppers.

1. Meaning behind bakery name. by.Ivonne Cake.Love.Couture really just says it all when it comes to my cakes and cupcakes.  Having my name as part of my shop's name was something I always wanted.  Cake.Love.Couture came to be part of the name when I was asked to describe what by.Ivonne was all about and the best response that came to mind that day were these three little words.  At by.Ivonne we are all about delicious Cakes made with Love and Speicalize in Couture flavors and designs. 

2. How did you get started in cupcakes? My story is simple. It started with a love of food, fashion, and a passion for all things sugar.  I fell in love with the cupcake after trying one for the first time on a vacation with the family.  As soon as I got back to Miami I got to work on experimenting with recipes on my free time from working in the fashion industry and began to bake for friends and family events. I was facinated on how creative you can get with a cupcake.   After meeting my amazing husband who is a member of the National Guard, I found myself with extra free time when he was away on orders, so I pursued courses in cake design and decorating and took up baking and designing cupcakes fulltime.  This is how by.Ivonne Cake.Love.Couture began. I fell in Cupcake Love... and I hope you will too!

3. What is your signature cupcake?

A Guava infused Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.

4. What is your personal favorite cupcake? My personal favorite is a classic Red Velvet.  Simple, yet always delicious.

5. What inspires you when it comes to your cupcake creations? Fashion, Pop Culture, The Seasons, The City, Travel, Kids... So much goes into creating my cupcakes and flavors.  I am constantly reading and following up with the latest trends and I enjoy getting feedback from my husband and fabulous customers who come to me with flavor requests all the time. Taking popular flavors and turning them into new cupcakes. Whether you are a fan of simple cupcakes or if you want an amazing flavor no one has thought of yet.  No matter what, there’ll be a cupcake for you.

6. One reason why cupcakes are awesome. Cupcakes are awesome because you can enjoy two or three...(or four) of your favorite flavors in tiny cakes without having to only pick one flavor as you would for a cake.  They also look good and are so easy to serve. Cupcakes at an event are always a hit!

7. What do you think is the future of cupcakes? The future of cupcakes is still going strong and I think will continue to just get better..Staying ahead of the cupcake trend is a must.  Bakers are getting more creative everyday to come up with new flavors, and to offer unique flavors and designs.  To think that the appearance of cupcakes on the still popular TV series Sex and The City, took cupcakes this far...I am excited to see what the future of cupcakes will take us. 

8.What is the funkiest cupcake creation? Goat Cheese Frosting cupcake.. But really, Funky to me is when you move away from traditional vanilla and chocolate flavors and get creative with ingredients and the dress up of your cupcake.  Be it a cotton candy or goat cheese cupcake, presentation is everything. 

9. What has been your biggest cupcake disaster? Overfilling the cupcake liners and ending up with a huge mess in the oven!   

10. Share one cupcake making tip. Test your cupcakes by baking a trial batch first before baking your final batch.

Baker Spotlight: Sweetness Bakeshop

*Baker: Stephanie of Sweetness Bakeshop & Cafe
*Contact information: 9549 Sunset Drive, Miami, FL 33173, info@sweetnessbakeshop.net, 305-271-7791
*Flavors & Fillings: Selection includes chocolate, vanilla, banana split, caramel apple, Snickers, and margarita. For the rest of the selection go HERE.
*Pricing: Minis $1, Regular $2, and Jumbo $3

1. Meaning behind baker/bakery name. When we were first thinking of names for our store, we must have had a list of about 200 potential names, the one word that summed us up was “Sweetness”, our goal is to fill our customers days with a little sweetness whether it be in the form of a cupcake, cookie, gelato, sandwich, anything, we hope that just simply stepping foot in through our doors makes your day a little sweeter. Funny enough, we finally decided upon the name “Sweetness” during a 7th inning stretch of a Florida Marlins baseball game.

2. How did you get started in cupcakes? Sweetness is a family run business, my brother and I grew up watching my mom bake, and like most kids, thought we were helping lol. About 3 years ago, my mom and I started baking & selling cupcakes out of the house as “A Piece Of Cupcake”, the time came that we were producing so much we didn’t fit in our house anymore, I was getting ready to graduate from FIU and we thought the timing would be perfect to open a storefront.

3. What is your signature cupcake? Some think it’s our Guayabera, others think it’s our Maple Bacon or Irish Car Bomb, we don’t have one cupcake that we classify as our “signature”, we like to think that all of our 150+ flavors are our signature cupcakes, our flavor selection is part of what makes Sweetness what we are today.

4. What is your personal favorite cupcake? Believe it or not, I really don’t eat many cupcakes, but when I do, my favorite is Chocolate Covered Strawberry or Thrilla In Vanilla.

5. What inspires you when it comes to your cupcake creations? Everything around us plays a factor into the flavors we develop, we’re very inspired by pop-culture, we’re very into using seasonal fruits…and yes, even vegetables. One of the biggest inspiration for our flavors is actually our customers, they make recommendations and requests and we do our best to meet their expectations!

6. One reason why cupcakes are awesome. They’re a bite sized dessert, and you don’t have to share! It’s like your own personal piece of heaven.

7. What do you think is the future of cupcakes? It’s hard to predict, journalists have been saying for years that it’s a dying trend, but I only see it getting stronger, the key is to be unique and stand out from the rest, and I think we do a pretty good job at it.

8. What do you think is ‪funkiest cupcake creation‬? I can only speak for what’s been done in our store, there’s been some pretty crazy stuff made in our kitchens that our customers have never tasted. Such as popcorn cupcakes, it was a cupcake that literally tasted like you were eating a bowl of popcorn, we also made a buffalo blue-cheese cupcake, it was a cupcake made with hot sauce and the frosting was a blue-cheese/cream cheese frosting. Outside of our bakery, I think Bleeding Heart Bakery in Chicago, IL is BRILLIANT!

9. What has been your biggest cupcake disaster? I don’t like to call them disasters, more like learning experiences, the first time we made our crème brulee cupcake, we actually tried torching the sugar directly on the cupcake, and well…we ended up with burnt cupcakes…needless to say we’ve re-worked that and it’s now one of our most popular cupcakes.

10. Share one cupcake making tip. Weigh everything, it’s much more accurate than using measuring cups, and it’s also a lot quicker.

Baker Spotlight: A Cake in a Cup

*Baker: Denise of A Cake in a Cup
*Contact information: denise@acakeinacup.com, 305.301.0435
*Flavors:Vanilla, chocolate, red velvet, cookies and cream, banana nut, and marble
*Fillings: guava, dulce de leche, strawberry, chocolate hazelnut, chocolate and vanilla
*Pricing: Regular cupcakes $1.50 , With filling $1.75 Mini cupcakes $.75 with filling $1.00

1. Meaning behind baker/bakery name. I have always referred to cupcakes as little cakes in a cup so hence the name a cake in a cup.

2. How did you get started in cupcakes? Ever since I was a little girl I have experimented with different ingredients to bake up all kinds of things.

3. What is your signature cupcake? Well living in Miami and being part a Hispanic culture I would say the guava filled cupcakes.

4. What is your personal favorite cupcake? My personal favorite is red velvet with cream cheese frosting.

5. What inspires you when it comes to your cupcake creations? I get inspired by watching my kids they are very creative in everything they do.

6. One reason why cupcakes are awesome. Cupcakes are awesome because it's like having just enough of a great thing.

7. What do you think is the future of cupcakes? I think the sky is the limit with cupcakes, there are so many different flavor combinations that could be created.

8. What do you think is ‪funkiest cupcake creation‬? I think that whenever someone makes cupcakes with unique flavors or decorations it makes them funky.

9. What has been your biggest cupcake disaster? My biggest cupcake disaster, was when I was making a delivery and the boxes collapsed on top of each other all the cupcakes were ruined, needless to say I had to make them over.

10. Share one cupcake making tip. Never over beat the batter.

Baker Spotlight Feature

I've reached out to all the local bakeries and I am patiently awaiting their responses (how exciting!). I am going to ask all participating bakers to answer a few questions and feature them here on the blog. This will be a great way of getting to know something about the person behind the cupcake because behind every great cupcake is an even greater baker. Without further ado, here are the questions:

1. Meaning behind baker/bakery name.

2. How did you get started in cupcakes?

3. What is your signature cupcake?

4. What is your personal favorite cupcake?

5. What inspires you when it comes to your cupcake creations?

6. One reason why cupcakes are awesome.

7. What do you think is the future of cupcakes?

8. What do you think is ‪funkiest cupcake creation‬?

9. What has been your biggest cupcake disaster?

10. Share one cupcake making tip. 

PS Stay tuned for two features tomorrow!

Update: Logo Change

I'm sorry there haven't been any updates. I approached the first bakery last week and just when I was going to approach the second I saw a sign for CancerCare for Kids Cupcakes for a Cause campaign. Needless to say, I needed to rethink the name and redo the logos and the flyer for the event. I didn't want to get into any trouble over the name.

The event's name will now be Cupcakes for a Wish * Cupcake Camp Miami.  Everything else is the same. I actually think this name is more appropriate for the event and its purpose. Now I can really move forward!

Mark Your Calendars!

It's official! Cupcake Camp is coming to Miami! This particular Cupcake Camp will be extra special because it's also going to be a fundraising event benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Southern Florida. If you thought eating cupcakes was a good thing, imagine how great it will be to eat cupcakes for a cause.

Now I know you are dying for details so I won't hold back on the basic information. The event will take place on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm at Cafeina Wynwood Lounge, 297 NW 23rd Street in Miami. 100% of the donations will go to the charity. There will be a silent auction. There will be a cupcake judging competition. I have a lot of plans for this event but I don't want to share too much until I know for sure if I'll be able to do everything I want. Just know that this event will be beyond awesome and utterly amazing. I am so excited about this event and so excited about finally not feeling guilty if I eat one cupcake too many (cupcakes eaten for charity have zero calories, didn't you know?).

Now the fun begins: approaching bakeries and potential donors. If you are interested in helping with the event, donating cupcakes or something for the silent auction, or if you know of any potential donors email me at cupcakecampmiami@gmail.com. Would telling you that Nov. 3rd is 54 days away get you excited? Well, if it does then Cupcake Camp Miami is 54 days away! Make sure to follow Cupcake Camp Miami on Facebook!