Blog - Rose Bakes

That day I compared myself to someone else and felt like a failure.

This site contains affiliate links which means that, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase. Thanks so much for your support in this way! Read my full disclosure policy here.

Have you ever seen how someone else is running their cake business, then convinced yourself the way you were doing it was not good enough?

Yeah. Me too.

Not so long ago, I saw another cake decorator (that I’ve admired and followed for a long time) post a beautiful picture of a table she had set up to do a wedding cake tasting.

And my heart sank. It was soooo beautiful. So classy and elegant. So fancy and … gosh, everything my tastings are not.

What I don’t have…

I don’t have a boutique cake shop with a beautiful seating area.

No fine china or silver. No crystal. No fresh flowers on the table. No beautiful placecards or perfect slices of cake.

I live in a very rural area in an old, boring house with 6 kids and enough clutter to… nevermind.

I meet my (potential) clients in a private geneology room at the local library in my tiny hometown. Continue Reading ▶

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Pumpkin Spice Buttercream

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #DelightfulMoments #CollectiveBias These Pumpkin Cupcakes with Pumpkin Spice Buttercream are the perfect way to welcome Fall!

Can you feel it? Fall is in the air! Before baking these cupcakes, I hadn’t really gotten into the mood yet. But I have to admit, these cupcakes have jumpstarted my mood and I’m all-in ready for Fall now.

This dessert is made extra special by adding a splash of International Delight® Pumpkin Pie Spice creamer. That’s really all it takes to feel like Fall and the holiday season has arrived – just a splash of seasonal flavor!

I’m calling these dessert, but I could seriously eat one for breakfast and be set for the day! Shhhh – just don’t tell my kids! They’re just a perfect mix of moist spicy cupcakes with super creamy buttercream frosting! Continue Reading ▶

Easy Princess Castle Cake

A couple of months ago, my darling sister-in-law Ariel {jokingly} told me that she wanted an (easy) Princess Castle cake when her birthday came. I vowed that’s what she would have and it became a joke between us (although I secretly planned to do it all along!).

Then when I made the Peace Sign cake and it was a tie-dyed cake inside, Ariel added to her request that she wanted a Pink Princess Castle cake and she wanted it to be tie-dyed inside. The girl doesn’t ask for much…hehe.

Easy Princess Castle Cake

Not being one to shy away from a challenge – and loving Ariel to pieces – I knew I had to make her this cake! Except I didn’t have a lot of time and I’d never actually made any kind of castle cake. Oops!

Continue Reading ▶

Sweet Socks + An Exclusive Offer for Rose Bakes Readers!

I’m so excited to share this fun offer with you today for some sweet socks!! Ya’ll know I love cute socks almost as much as I love my cake stands, so it should come as no surpirse that I jumped on an opportunity to work with HotSox to bring you this offer!

HotSox offered to send me three new pairs of socks to show you, and there were so many dessert-themed socks that it was hard for me to choose!

I ended up going with the Carrot Cake socks and Milkshake socks and Cookies & Milk socks!! Some designs come in multiple colors so you can choose the ones you love the most!

I immediately had to try some on and since I was in a “purple” kind of mood… I wore the Carrot Cake Socks first :

Can I just say… I have no idea how to properly photograph socks while on feet. Nothing I did looked cute, so you just get what you get!

Anyway, as I’ve come to expect, my newest HotSox did not disappoint! They’re soft, they’re very comfortable, and they’re so bright and happy! Continue Reading ▶

50th Wedding Anniversary Cake

Have you ever done more than an hour’s worth of cake work in 20 minutes? Haha!! That’s what happened with this 50th Wedding Anniversary Cake!

First, I had terrible insomnia the Thursday night before it was due. For me that meant being awake til nearly 4am that Friday morning.

After finally dozing off, it felt like I blinked and my alarm went off at 8am. I hit snooze and when I woke again, it felt like it had only been a few minutes. A glance at the clock told me it was 8:20am.

I flew out of bed and got to work. The cake was not too complicated so I was confident I could still finish the cake before the noon pickup (although I’d be cutting it close).

But a few minutes later when I got into the kitchen, I realized I was wrong. Continue Reading ▶

How to Make Homemade Marshmallow Fondant

This is one of the most popular posts I’ve ever written and it was also one of the first… from way back in 2010: How to Make Homemade Marshmallow Fondant.

I went through the post tonight and tried to clean it up a bit. The photos are now a little bigger and brighter and I updated my watermark. I really need to reshoot all the pics but this will have to do for now.

Before you get started… please know that I absolutely love questions and comments, but please read through it all before asking a question. I know it’s long (I’m sorry) but I’ve tried to cover most anything I could think of and over the years, I’ve answered repeat questions a lot!

The post includes notes (just below here) that are important, then the step-by-step photo tutorial for making the fondant, then a FAQ section at the bottom!

Beyond all that, if I still missed something, and it’s possible, I did… leave me a comment!! Let’s get started 🙂

Continue Reading ▶

Raspberry Lemon Sorbet

This Raspberry Lemon Sorbet is so creamy, light, and delicious. You’ll feel like you’re squeezing the last few drops out of summer when you enjoy this dessert!

The past several days have been super busy for us – there was a family get-together, my parents leaving for a mission trip to Africa, one of my boys and my brother celebrated their birthdays, and I had cakes due one after the other. It was just go-go-go.

I honestly wasn’t sure I’d get everything done and I’m dead-tired as I write this. But it was the “good” kind of busy and I’m so incredibly grateful for my family and our time together.

You know what else I’m grateful for? Dessert. This Raspberry Lemon Sorbet only took a short time to make and it was the perfect ending to our long Labor Day holiday weekend.

By swapping out the sugar for SPLENDA® Naturals Sugar & Stevia Sweetener Blend, I was able to cut the sugar in half and still have a fantastic sweet & tart dessert. It’s refreshing and bursting with flavor, yet light enough to enjoy before bed with no guilt.

I highly recommend this Raspberry Lemon Sorbet if you want to make an impressive dessert for an end-of-summer get-together. You can even make it ahead of time and freeze it!

We all loved this dessert and my only complaint is that it didn’t quite make enough for our family of 8. I’ll definitely have to double it next time around for our crew.

Now let me show you how easy this recipe is… Continue Reading ▶

Rustic Burlap & Turquoise Flowers Wedding Cake

Going through my archives after sharing the rustic anniversary cake on Tuesday, I came across another rustic cake that I had to share! This Rustic Burlap & Turquoise Flowers Wedding Cake.

It’s not my first time to do a burlap themed cake… it was loosely based on this Burlap & Lace Wedding Cake I did quite awhile back. But I did change this one up a bit and gosh… I loved the way it turned out! Let’s get down to the details…

Continue Reading ▶

{Ended} Local Giveaway : Enter to Win Cupcakes!!

This giveaway has ended! Congratulations to Lucy T. on your winnings!!

It’s been almost two months since I did a cupcake giveaway! Gosh, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long! But since I just looooove my local customers, I figured I needed to show a little appreciation by spreading some cupcake LOVE!

If you missed it last time, I’ve added a new email list ONLY for local peeps. That means I send out emails to local people only announcing when I have goodies for sale or I’m doing a giveaway or other special local announcement!

Since some of you don’t see my sales on Facebook, I thought it would be great to be able to email you directly when I’m doing a sale, a giveaway, or anything else that would be strictly for local friends.

So, here’s the deal. Tomorrow (Thursday, August 31, 2017), I’ll be giving away at least 1 box of cupcakes! There might be more than one winner, but for now I’ll say at least one.

I don’t know what flavor they’ll be yet – but they’ll either be wedding cake, vanilla bean, lemon, chocolate, or a combination of those!

If you’re local to me (in Meadville/Bude, MS) or willing to drive over here to Meadville, please fill out the form below to get your entry in!! Continue Reading ▶

50th Wedding Anniversary Cake with Edible Gold Sequins

A quick little post about this 50th Wedding Anniversary Cake with Edible Gold Sequins. I love cakes like this… a little bling mixed with rustic. Fancy and simple at the same time.

It was 5″, 7″ and 9″ rounds – the bottom and top were rustic (obviously) and the middle was edible sequins. The cakes were baked in my favorite Magic Line Round pans.

The flavor was white almond sour cream with vanilla buttercream. Simple, classic, delicious. Now, let’s talk details…

Continue Reading ▶