Birthday Cupcakes

My first real adventure was to make a batch of cupcakes for a friend's birthday.  I used a box mix but my own frosting, because I wasn't quite ready to make a cake recipe from scratch!  (Here's a secret - I had never made a cake from scratch before!)

So, she requested strawberry cupcakes and I used the evite from her birthday party for my color inspiration.  I called in my great friend Marlo to help me out with the fondant designs. 

I used a fondant circle and a "wall" of icing with sprinkles and a stencil for one design, and I used fondant flower cut-outs in different sizes on piped icing for the other design.  The sprinkles did NOT stick well, and the foil cupcake liners were AWFUL.

However, my friend Dawn was SO impressed, as were her parents and my friends!  Everyone loved the cupcakes and couldn't believe how cute they were.  I was so excited that my new adventure was taking off!