Author: Allie Zottola

Cupcake Baking and Cake Tasting

Jimmy and I had my father-in-law and his fiancé over on Thursday night for a little wedding cake tasting! As I mentioned before, we are nailing down the flavors they want in their wedding cake.

I spent most of Thursday baking four different cupcake flavors with fillings and frostings so they could have some small bites to taste and decide for their cake.

Here are the flavor combinations I baked up:

Vanilla cake + raspberry preserves filling + marshmallow buttercream

Vanilla cupcake with buttercream for wedding

Chocolate cake + caramel mousse filling + chocolate frosting

Chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and caramel filling for wedding

Strawberry cake + vanilla mousse filling + marshmallow buttercream

Strawberry cupcake with vanilla filling and buttercream for wedding

Lemon cake + lemon creme filling + lemon buttercream

Lemon cupcake with lemon filling and lemon buttercream for wedding

Spending the day baking was seriously fun, and the cake taste testing went so well! My father-in-law and his fiancé were able to ask me questions about flavor combos, get an idea of how the cake would be constructed, and of course got plenty of cupcakes in their bellies! They even made a final decision on which flavors they wanted for each tier.

The top tier is going to be strawberry, the middle will be chocolate, and the bottom will be lemon. They’re also going to have some cupcakes around the cake, which will be chocolate.

I’m really excited to start practicing the cake exactly how they want it now that we have the details all set.

Cupcake taste testingchocolate, strawberry, lemon, and vanilla cupcakes on cake stand

If anyone is interested in the recipes, I’ll be happy to share them! Also, I filmed a vlog that day as I was baking. Jimmy even makes an appearance and pipes a perfect rosette on a cupcake. The man never stops impressing me 🙂

What is your favorite cake flavor?

Mavis at Nine Months

Mavis is now nine months old! She’s closing in on a year so fast that I almost want time to slow down. I’m also excited to see her become a dog, you know?

Parti colored Cocker Spaniel puppy therapy dog in training harness on walk

New Things

  • Mavis graduated Adult Level II training classes with flying colors! She is now phased out of training at Petco because they don’t have any classes higher than Adult II, haha.
  • She took her Canine Good Citizen Test and missed the mark on just one behavior, which was having a stranger touch her paws. This is important for therapy work (because people will be touching her if she’s a therapy dog!), so we are working really hard on paw touching before we re-take the CGC test.
  • She’s going to be a big sister!

Hard Things

  • She loves playing fetch with a ball, but if it rolls underneath something, you would think the world was ending. She whines, cries, scratches, and barks until she gets that ball back.
  • When it’s cold out, she goes #2 on our back porch. Yuck.
  • She still jumps on the couch from time to time (when Malcolm taunts her… he is a bad influence on her, ha!).
  • I recently had to run into Walmart while Jimmy and I had Mavis in the car with us, so I left her in the car with Jimmy and he said her little body shook the entire time I was in the store because she missed me. Poor gal. I missed her just as much!
Black lab cuddling cocker spaniel puppy on raised dog bed

Mavis loves cuddling with her big sister! Also, they really love their raised bed.

Other Things

  • I can’t wait for it to warm up in Pittsburgh so we can do more training outside!
  • Mavis still hasn’t gone into heat. I think it’s normal for the first heat cycle to begin any time from six months to a year, so I expect it to happen soon.
  • Her growth seems to have slowed down.
  • She is still doing great with not being in a crate and not chewing things.
  • She still gets along wonderfully with basically any dog she meets. She wants to play, play, play all the time.
  • Sometimes I just look at her and just kiss her little face. She’s so cute and truly brings me so much joy!
Cocker spaniel puppy practicing leave it command with dog food puzzles

Practicing the “leave it” command by waiting patiently before being allowed to figure out her puzzles!

Favorite Things

There you have it, that’s Mavis at nine months! Our puppy is turning into a dog before our eyes! We love the dog she’s becoming and can’t wait to see her be a big sister in the fall!