Oh May, Oh My!

Happy Memorial Day! It seems like May just flew by. Finals, end of the year parties, favorite seniors graduating... bittersweet for sure. I took a trip home at the end of May for Mom and Grandma's birthdays and it was great to spend some time with family, I didn't even mind the 15 hour drive each way.

While in Oklahoma I went with Mom, Carrie, and Jon to try a new cupcake shop that just opened in OKC called Sara Sara Cupcakes.

The shops minimalistic modern-chic white dishes and furniture allowed the cupcakes to be the only pop of color and the main focal point.not to mention delicious!

Cupcakes seemed to be the theme of the trip... even Smokey got a cupcake! Carrie and Jon brought him a catnip cupcake from San Diego!

Then of course I had to bake some cupcakes! Mom requested something lemony or citrus for summer, and Grandma loves raspberries, so the obvious answer was lemon cake with raspberry filling and lemon buttercream.This was my first time filling cupcakes, and I decided to do it the old fashioned way by cutting the tops off and then replacing them after filling with a homemade raspberry sauce. Then I made two-toned lemon buttercream and piped flowers on top!

I made some mini's too, but they were too small to add the filling...

Then back in Athens, I needed to make some birthday cupcakes for Alex's 22nd! He requested something with chocolate, and with raspberries still fresh on my mind, I figured that chocolate cupcakes with raspberry buttercream was the perfect solution.

Virginia picked out the fancy gold sugar crystals for the top, and they turned out great!