Pink Champagne Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

Frosting for the Cause

January 2013 Update
Frosting for the Cause website has been removed due to funding,
 so I'm posting this on BIWB.

We appreciate all the support since its inception in 2011. 

Keep up the fight! 


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November 2011

I'm baking in honor of my friend and all my friends' mothers who have fought their own personal battles with breast cancer and other forms of cancer.  And, especially, I am dedicating this baking post to one woman who holds a very special place in my heart, Mrs. Evelyn Finch. 

Mrs. Finch came into my life when I was a very young teenager and she is the mother of two very dear friends from my teenage and college years, Carol and Betsy.  I knew almost from the first meeting that Mrs. Finch welcomed me as another daughter, and the years and years of caring and support by both Mr. and Mrs. Finch have always made me feel safe and loved.  And, even when I wasn't able to see them often.  It can be an uneasy world sometimes, but knowing that they always loved me even when they didn't have to love me has made me a much better person in this life.  Without them, I have no idea how I would have survived some very difficult years.  They were always there, always welcoming, fully supporting me, and never judging me. 

Mr. and Mrs. Finch

So, on to Mrs. Finch's story.   She's battled two bouts of breast cancer with lumpectomies on both breasts and also was diagnosed with kidney cancer.  She's am amazing survivor on many levels.  Always kind-hearted and generous.  A bit of a temper when pushed too hard, but that's the fighter in her.  I'm amazed when she describes her diagnoses and treatments...Almost like they are just something in life you "make do" with and move beyond.  She's had some other health challenges in her life, and seems pretty pragmatic.  I'm a wimp when it comes to medical issues, so she's teaching me to stay steady and work hard to get better. 

I recently visited the Finches whom had moved to Ohio last year.  I hadn't seen them for too long, entirely my fault.  And, what an amazing visit and time with them.!!  I cooked for them and did a few errands, but it was so great to just see them and be in their presence.  Grounding and solid. 

She's often asked me to call her, Evelyn, but I just can't.  She'll always Mrs. Finch to me and I will always love her for keeping me a part of her family.

So, I've made Pink Champagne Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream, adapted from a recipe in Intoxicated Cupcakes.  I have shared with Mrs. Finch and her family many a champagne cake created by Nugget Market in Davis, California.  I'm sharing my baked goodies with a local breast cancer group, Bosom Buddies, and they have asked that I speak about Frosting for the Cause.  My other donation will be to the Placer Breast Cancer Endowment which funds cancer research at the U.C. Davis Medical Center.

Mrs. Evelyn Finch

January 2013: I'm also sharing this link over at Cake of the Week's Baking with Spirit!

Recipe follows...

Frosting for the Cause

FROSTING FOR THE CAUSE

Update: Frosting for the Cause website has been removed.  Please following this link to my

Pink Champagne Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream. 

Today, I'm posting at Frosting for the Cause, an amazing year-long collaboration of bakers who share their baked goods and stories of those touched by breast cancer.  As today's guest baker, I made Pink Champagne Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream and shared a story about Mrs. Evelyn Finch, a very, very special woman in my life.  Please join me over at Frosting for the Cause today!

Frosting for the Cause

The website was created by Paula Kelly-Bourque as an act of love.  Plain and simple.  Her devotion is a true inspiration to me...Here is what it's all about (paraphrased from Paula):

Beginning January 1, 2011, a total of 365 bakers from across Canada and the United States will take turns doing a guest post. Once a day, every day for a year, a new and talented baker will showcase their home-made, hand-decorated cookies, cupcakes and sweets or all kinds and will include their recipes. The guest bakers can also share a personal story about a woman in their life who has had to face this terrible disease head-on.

By signing onto this project each guest baker also commits to donating a batch of their baked goodies to a local Women’s Hospice, local hospital or similar cancer support group.  We also commit to making a personal $25.00 donation to the Canadian or American Cancer Society, or other cancer research organization, to be directed to research projects that are working diligently to find cures specifically for cancers that affect only women.  We, the 365 guest bakers on Frosting for the Cause, will not only raise awareness of all of the cancers that currently affect women, but we will raise a total of $9,125 for research into these diseases.

If you are interested in learning more about this project, please contact Paula at:

Decorating@frostingforthecause.com



Together We Are ♥ Baking ♥ A Difference

Ellen 

Bananas Foster Cupcakes (with Rum)

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic these days: my 30th high school reunion in July, a 25 year Unitrans reunion of bus drivers last weekend, and a trip to Ohio to see people who loved me even when they didn't have to love me.  I was feeling like making something warm and comforting.  I found these cupcakes in Intoxicated Cupcakes by Kate Legere. 

Warm cinnamon caramel, sweet bananas and what else: RUM!  

 

Oowey, gooey cinnamony goodness.


I wasn't going to make anything for the blog for a while...Guess that was a pipe dream!  Seriously, I have to STOP myself from baking more.  I'm pretty swamped now and leave tomorrow on a week-long vacation to visit very dear old friends.  Mr. and Mrs. F. are really like my parents, if the true be told.  I am grateful beyond words for their support and love all these years.

Gold Country Fair Crazy for Cupcakes Competition

No, we didn't win.  Alas.  They say that winning isn't everything, right?  Well, that may be true, but winning sure does feel pretty great, huh?  To put it technically, we didn't "place" BUT we are WINNERS just the same.  Okay, enough already.

Jacqueline's Creations
Mint Julep and Chocolate Stout with Bailey's Frosting
Please note the REALLY COOL frosty-mug motif, replete with sugar handles. 
Yeah, these are my new friends!

Ellen's Creations
White Chocolate Liqueur, Root Beer Float and Raspberry Liqueur

Jacqueline's hubster came home 2 weeks ago with a flyer for a cupcake baking competition at their neighborhood fair, Gold Country Fair in Auburn.  When she told me about it and suggested that it would be a fun way to enter our BIWB creations, in all honesty, I wasn't in the right frame of mind.  I had JUST completed a marathon cupcake-baking frenzy the night before, and I was T-I-R-E-D of cupcakes, baking, cleaning the Kitcheaid bowl (someday...I will have 2 bowls!), doing dishes, yadda, yadda, yadda.    So, I said: give me 24 hours to think this over.

24 hours later: Voila!  We were entering the contest.  Jacqueline would enter her FAB Mint Julep and her Chocolate Stout with Bailey's Frosting.  I was going to enter my Raspberry Liqueur and my non-BIWB Root Beer Float.  We were set.  I was game as long as the contest was on a Sunday: it was.  And, if I could bake everything on Saturday: which I could do.  Check. Check.