When you walk into Baked By Amy’s, the happy smells of baked goods automatically put you in a good mood. Then you spot their big glass case of beautiful cupcakes, cookies, macarons, and pies, and you wonder if you’ve won the lottery.

I gathered some of my sweetest blogger gals for a party at Baked By Amy’s. The bakery makes some of the best cupcakes in town, and when I heard about their “big kid parties,” I was all in.

Their decorating parties are for kids AND big kids. They prefer to host big kid parties at night since guests will be imbibing alcohol (BYOB) and these parties are longer than the kid parties. Bringing savory treats is a good idea since there will be lots of sugar.

The big table in their store is a great setting for creating our masterpieces. With our cute aprons and individual stations all set up, we were ready to start. Our Baked By Amy’s hostess taught us how to fill and cut our piping bags and showed us different piping techniques and decorating ideas.

We joked that our cookies needed a little more practice but it was fun trying out the different designs. One way to make it flawless? Cover it in sprinkles!

Photo by me

We also decorated mini cakes and tried the watercolor technique. This is done by spreading a base color and then blending in streaks of another color.

These turned out much better than the cookies, in my opinion. Look how cute they are!

Photo by me

All that hard work deserves some snacks, right? We enjoyed some tres leches cake, cupcakes, and macarons.

Photo by me

If you were wondering, yes, Baked By Amy’s is related to Amy’s Ice Cream, one of Austin’s favorite ice cream shops.

Even though we left hopped up on sugar, we enjoyed learning how to decorate cookies and cakes, all while snacking on those addictive gummy bears!  Thank you for the fun time, Baked By Amy’s!

Unless noted, all photos were taken by the awesome Yvan!

P.S. Here are a couple of links you might like:

• Want to see more options for culinary classes in Austin? This post is for you!
• I really like cake. If you’ve been following me for a while, you might remember the cake potluck I threw for my birthday a few years ago.

Keep up with me elsewhere! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Bloglovin’. You can also subscribe to the exclusive email list.

The post Cookie and Cake Decorating Party at Baked By Amy’s appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

Houston is full of good food! I’ve included all the best restaurants I enjoyed in Houston in this post. When you travel like a foodie as I do, you love thorough research about what restaurants you will enjoy. Houston was no different! It was impossible to visit all of the restaurants on my list and I’m still adding restaurants to this list, so check out my to-try list at the end of this post. Here are some recommendations of the best restaurants I experienced in Houston. Happy travel eating!

Oxheart
*EDIT* Oxheart closed in 2017 and Chef Justin Yu opened Theodore Rex.
The one reservation I made beforehand was at Oxheart. Chef Justin Yu won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest this year and was nominated in the previous years. Oxheart is lauded as one of the best restaurants in Houston. This unassuming restaurant on the corner of a quiet, empty street felt like a hidden gem. There was no sign on the door, and the interior holds 30 seats, including 11 counter seats, arguably the best seats in the restaurant. A record player (Leon Bridges, Lauryn Hill, and Marvin Gaye were some records we listened to) provides the entertainment if watching the chefs carefully construct the dishes isn’t entertainment enough. You’ll have two choices of 5-course tasting menus: Summer (or whatever seasonal it is), and Garden, the vegetarian version of the seasonal menu. Options for 3-drink and 5-drink pairings are available.

As the servers flow and present dishes with ease, every dish seems to be an interesting and somewhat unexpected combination of flavors and ingredients. We enjoyed the summer menu and my favorite dishes included: the mung bean crepe, the tilefish in basil broth, the chicken stuffed with rice and collard greens, and the creme fraiche cremeux with strawberries glazed in mushroom and sorghum.

Overall, a good meal and fun experience. This was one of my favorite meals enjoyed in Houston!

Offering: New American cuisine; prix-fixe menu; dinner; offering lunch soon
Hours: Thurs – Mon: 5:30 – 10pm; reservations required
Address: 1302 Nance St, Houston, TX 77002

Hugo’s
I was excited to try Hugo’s because they seemed to be THE spot for brunch. They’re an upscale Mexican restaurant with a buffet brunch on the weekends. Their selection was wide and it was really enjoyable. In fact, when I returned with my dessert plate, Boyfriend exclaimed, “wow, you’re not holding back there.” His plate looked the same when he returned a minute afterward. Ha! With all the good-looking options, it was hard not to fill up your plate to try a little bit of everything.

Offering: Mexican cuisine; lunch and dinner; happy hour; Saturday brunch; Sunday buffet brunch
Hours: Mon – Thurs 11am-10pm; Fri – Sat11am-11pm; Sun 10am-9pm
Address: 1600 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX 77006

8th Wonder Brewery
Loved this brewery! They have a lot of Houston pride, so the brewery and branding are decked out in Houston references, including the names of the beers. The brewery is very spacious with a huge outdoor area. There are plenty of picnic tables and they host a food trailer on site. They had about eight beers on tap. My favorite was the Astroturf, a dry-hopped cream ale. Their tasting options are $8 for a tasting flight of four; $10 for three pints; and $15 for three pints plus a souvenir glass.

Offering: craft beer on tap
Be sure to try: Astroturf – a dry-hopped cream ale
Hours: Mon – Sat 11am-10pm; Sun 11am – 6pm
Address: 2202 Dallas St, Houston, TX 77003

Fluff Bake Bar
I’ve enjoyed Fluff Bake Bar’s treats at Austin culinary events, so I was excited to visit their store! Of course, I had to try one of their cupcakes – the Veruca Salt. It was devil’s food cake with salted caramel buttercream, pretzel crunch, and milk chocolate crunch pears. Highly recommend! They also have cookies, bars, tarts, pies and more.

Offering: dessert
Be sure to try: Veruca Salt cake
Hours: Tue – Thu 10am – 10pm; Fri – Sat 10am – 12am; Sun 12pm – 10pm
Address: 314 Gray St, Houston, TX 77002

Pho Saigon
We spontaneously chose this restaurant because it was close. We arrived to find a packed restaurant, and we enjoyed pho and spring rolls. I found out later that this restaurant is part of a chain that has a location I’ve enjoyed in Austin. While I noticed their servers running around slightly unorganized, I thought their food was good!

Offering: Vietnamese cuisine; lunch and dinner
Hours: Every day, 8am – 9pm (time may vary by location, call to check)
Address: 4 locations in Houston area: 2808 Milam St, Suite D, Houston, TX 77006; 15754 FM 529 #300, Houston, TX 77095; 13610 W Airport Blvd #100, Sugar Land, Texas 77478; 890 South Mason Rd, Katy, TX 77450

Crave Cupcakes
Cupcakes, of course! They’ve got three locations in Houston to get your sugar fix.

Offering: dessert
Hours: Mon – Fri 8am – 8pm; Sat 9am – 8pm; Sun 10am – 7pm
Address: 3 locations: 1151-06 Uptown Park Blvd. Houston, TX 77056; 5600 Kirby Drive, Houston, TX 77005; 2501 Research Forest Drive, The Woodlands, TX 77381

Sinh Sinh
Every time my family passed through Houston, we made it a point to eat at Sinh Sinh. Their Chinese food is good!

Offering: Chinese cuisine; lunch and dinner
Hours: Every day, 10am – 2am
Address: 9788 Bellaire Blvd, Houston, TX 77036

Petite Sweets
Cupcakes, cake balls, cookies, macarons – they have a bit of everything!

Offering: dessert
Hours: Sun 12:30pm-10pm; Mon-Thurs 10am-10pm; Fri-Sat 10am-11pm
Address: 2700 W. Alabama, Houston, TX 77098

There are SO many restaurants on my Houston list that I want to try, especially because they have an abundance of unique restaurants. Here are some that I researched or were recommended:

BREAKFAST AND COFFEE

• Common Bond Café (baked good heaven)
• Morningstar (fancy donuts and breakfast biscuits)

DRINKS

• Captain Foxheart’s Bad News Bar (upstairs patio)

LUNCH/DINNER

• Fat Bao (Asian fusion cuisine, meat-filled buns)
• Foreign Correspondents (Thai cuisine)
• Coltivare (Wood-fired pizza, Italian cuisine)
• Caracol (Mexican coastal cuisine)
• Helen Greek Food and Wine (Greek cuisine)
• Ninfa’s (Casual Mexican cuisine)
• Tiger Den (Ramen)
• Pondicheri (Indian cuisine)
• Down House (New American cuisine)

SWEETS

• Sweet Bakery (macarons)

BREWERIES

• Karbach Brewing
• Saint Arnold Brewery

What are your favorite restaurants in Houston? Please leave your recommendations in the comments below! I’d love to know for my next trip!

Want to read more about Houston? Check out my Houston Travel Guide and Best Things to Do in Houston.

Keep up with me elsewhere! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin’, or Snapchat (@wanderlustanita). You can also subscribe to the exclusive email list.

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Homemade Crock Pot Pho
Continuing my goal to try more crock pot recipes, I made pho! It was missing a key ingredient that made the taste slightly off, but otherwise, it was delicious!

Homemade Upside-Down Peach Cake
I also made this scrumptious upside-down peach cake for a dinner party and we gobbled it down! I will definitely be making this one again. The recipe is from Austin360 and I substituted with gluten-free flour.

San Antonio eats
If you’ve been following along my Instagram and blog, you saw that I started this month eating my way through San Antonio. Watch out, Austin! San Antonio’s culinary scene is heating up and there are tons of tasty eats. Check out this post for the full details about craft beer, fine dinners, and amazing breakfast.

Lunch at Boiler Nine
I was excited to try Chef David Bull’s newest restaurant Boiler Nine. Lunch was nearly flawless.

• Appetizers: the beer bread and steak fries were perfect. The beer jam that comes with the beer bread is made with my fave beer, The Lone Pint Yellow Rose IPA. The crispy steak fries were seasoned very well and it was hard not popping all of those in my mouth.
• Entrée: I got the Confit Fried Chicken Thigh sandwich for my entrée and it was a little messy but scrumptious! My lunch mates both enjoyed their burgers and said it was a top choice in Austin.
• Dessert: For dessert we split the chocolate cake, churritos and banana cake. The griddled banana cake with malted milk, white chocolate, and grape ice cream was a clear winner. It may sound and look funny but the flavors blended perfectly. Highly recommend this dish.

Appetizers at Boiler Nine: Beer Bread and Steak Fries

Boiler Nine: Confit Fried Chicken Thigh Sandwich

Boiler Nine: Chocolate Cake

Boiler Nine: Banana Cake

Dinner at Saffron
This Indian/Asian fusion restaurant in Northwest Austin was a hit! We each got a different dish and had a bite of each. I enjoyed my Saffron Goat Curry and my other favorites were the Murg Shahi Korma (boneless chicken in creamy cashew and pistachio sauce) and Saffron Chicken Lazeez (minced chicken and fresh spinach in creamy sauce). I’ll definitely be coming back here to satisfy my Indian food cravings!

Pizza, Cookies and Sparkling Wine Cocktails at ATXBloggerMixer
At the ATXBloggerMixer, our sponsor Salvation Pizza provided us a huge selection of delicious eats! I really enjoyed the pizza. Our other sponsor Shortbread Baking Co made these cookies that are pretty and mouth-watering! And finally, Mighty Swell Cocktails brought the drinks and since I had only tried the Grapefruit previously, I now have a new favorite – the lemon!

Good, Healthy Eats at True Food Kitchen
Yes, I went to True Food Kitchen twice in one week. Back in December, I visited the location in Dallas for brunch and really loved it, so I was excited when they opened an Austin location recently! I LOVED the ancient grain bowl with chicken. On the second visit, I enjoyed the kale guacamole, asparagus and mushroom pizza and the kale salad.

Homemade Steak and Veggies
I shared one of my boyfriend’s go-to home-cooked meals on the blog this month. Steak and veggies. It is always a highly satisfying and hearty meal packed with flavors! Check out the post to see how to make it for yourself.

Whole30 Eats
After starting Whole30, my boyfriend and I have been eating in and taking homemade lunches to work. While some days include a lackluster salad, most days have involved making new dishes like Turkey Mushroom Salad Bowls, Pot Roast Bowls and a whole lot of Chia Seed Pudding with fresh fruit. Check out the Austin360Cooks post about my chia seed pudding!

What delicious things have you been eating lately?

Keep up with me elsewhere! You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin’, or Snapchat (@wanderlustanita). You can also subscribe to the exclusive email list.

The post Flavors of the Month: July 2016 appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

The idea of Cake Party started as a random idea. I had found a beautiful cake recipe and posted it on Facebook with a quick caption along the lines of, wouldn’t it be heavenly if I had a cake potluck and everyone brought a cake like this? A lot of friends were very enthusiastic about this idea. Fast forward to my birthday party planning time and if you know me and my cake-loving ways, a cake potluck was the only party theme that seemed right. Here are all the details that made my Cake Party so much fun!

Everyone was encouraged to pull up their sleeves and try making a cake. Non-cake sweets and savory snacks were also appreciated. Behold, the sweet table, complete with DIY tissue paper and cardboard CAKE letters and a DIY tassel garland. Please give all your heart eyes to this beautiful sugar spread. We’ve got M&M fudge, saltine chocolate bark, pecan shortbread cheesecake with caramel, Japanese cheesecake, sesame peanut butter banana cake, red velvet cake, Chocolate stout and Irish whiskey and Irish cream cake, tres leches cupcakes, strawberry shortcake, pumpkin pie, and chocolate peppermint bundt. Whew!

Some friends decided to bring savory snacks to balance the sugar and to them, we will be forever grateful. For the savory snacks, we enjoyed fancy goat cheese and crackers and marcona almonds, chips with salsa and guacamole, and brie and bacon jam pastry on toast. My sweet guy, who would probably say cake is the last thing he would want to eat, made his favorite kale salad for the party. His cake label had a few people fooled/confused at first.

My friend Alicia recently started her own mixology company called a.k.a. mixologist and she brought infused liquors of strawberry daiquiri made with rum and a whiskey drink similar to an Old Fashioned. There’s a lot of science behind the process of creating these fresh and natural liquors that takes fancy machines and time, and all I know is, they were refreshing and smooth! You can learn all about it on her website.

There was a Decorate Your Own Cupcake area for a little DIY fun. It was cute watching friends try their hand at frosting and sprinkling.

My very talented friend Kathy graciously created pretty framed illustrations for the event. You can see the “Decorate your own cupcake” above and the party tagline below.

The result was the king of all sugar comas (similar to a previous dessert party), lots of laughs and community, and me going to bed with a smile on my face, thinking about all my sweet friends who made me feel so loved for my birthday. What an extra sweet way to celebrate a birthday!

The post Cake Party – A Potluck Birthday Event appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

I love Brit + Co because their website has so many creative and fun DIY and party ideas. I was excited that Brit + Co and Scotch provided me these awesome kits filled with cool Scotch products to throw a DIY garland party. I decided to go with a confetti theme and we DIY-ed some really cute garlands. It was a fun and relaxing afternoon with lovely ladies. Take a look!

For confetti decor I made colorful vases by dotting a rainbow of colors, a wreath with crepe paper, and a garland with rainbow tissue paper.

For snacks I made lemon basil cookies topped with confetti sprinkles and cereal milk tres leches cake. Yes, that means the milks soaked Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal before being strained and poured onto the cake! It was as good as it sounds and looks. Of course, it was also topped with confetti sprinkles.

Now for the star of the party: the crafting!

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A post shared by Anita • Austin TX Foodie + Blogger (@wanderlustanita)

The end results were these pretty garlands. My friend Julie used hers later that night for her man’s birthday party and my friend Amy used hers the next day to celebrate her dog’s graduation. I can’t wait to put my HUSTLE garland up in my room. They were super easy to make and all perfect for brightening up a room for a celebration or for inspiration.

Here are some great Instagram photos from my party friends. You’ll see one super cute and fluffy puppy guest – Basil.

https://instagram.com/p/z8IaJaisY6

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A post shared by Amy Drohen – Austin Food, Texas Travel & Wine Content Creator (@sushigirl_atx)

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A post shared by Ashley Wilhite (@ashleydevinxo)

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A post shared by KOKO | AUSTIN TEXAS BLOGGER (@atasteofkoko)

Want to throw your own DIY/crafting party? Here’s the tutorial we used for our garlands. Brit + Co has TONS of DIY tutorials. Go create something today! No matter what your skill level, you can find something on the website to exercise your creativity. You can also check out Brit’s new DIY book Homemakers and explore the #iamcreative and #homemakers hashtags on Instagram.

One of my goals this year is to throw 12 celebrations. This is #3 of 12. These are big and small parties for any occasion with the goal of planning and executing something fun. See all the celebrations here.

Have you ever thrown or gone to a craft party? What did you make?

Disclosure: Brit+Co provided me complimentary Scotch-sponsored Brit Kits. I was not required to review the kits or write a blog post about the party.

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Chocolate Mousse at Quickie Pickie
I met up with my friend Ellen for dinner and we enjoyed this chocolate mousse cup for dessert/my birthday.

Strawberry Cake at Jacoby’s
This bad lighted photo is a good Strawberry Cake! Strawberry Cake has always been my favorite cake flavor and we finished this fun birthday dinner with some.

Lobster at Quality Seafood
This was a great decision one weekend: ordering a lobster each while watching some football. I learned the right way to crack and eat a lobster!

Texas Squeeze Pineapple Juice
Have y’all tried this yet? Made by the same people who make Texas Tea, this pineapple juice tasted very pure and tasty!

Kerbey Lane Pancake Mix
I was gifted some Kerbey Lane buttermilk pancake mix so we decided to try it out one weekend morning. They came out a little more dense than we thought they would but with our play-by-taste homemade strawberry syrup, we liked them.

Belgian Waffle at The Grape (Dallas)
Yes, this Belgian waffle with whipped cream, strawberries, pecans and bacon was as delicious as it looks. We also tried the award-winning one of the best burgers in Texas and the fried chicken jalapeno biscuit – both on point.

Pistachio, Salted Caramel and Vanilla Macarons at Joy Macarons (Dallas)
Stopped by this cute place for some macarons. Yum!

Homemade Pear and Apple Gallette
We won girls’ night by not only whipping up some steaks, mashed potatoes and asparagus, but also this pretty pear and apple gallette, all by intuition. It was a magical night.

This month I also enjoyed:
-an outstanding dinner at Tomo
-a great taco dinner at Taco Flats
–pasta dinner made by Linda
-Dim Sum at the re-opened Fortune
-a Christmas Eve crab leg dinner made by my boyfriend

It’s ok to admit it. What are the tasty indulgences you enjoyed in December?

The post Flavors of the Month: December 2014 appeared first on Fearless Captivations.

Cookies by Kellies Kandies and Cookies at the Austin Way Magazine Launch Party
How about those cookies with Ethan Hawke’s face / the premiere magazine cover on them?

Pulled Pork and Thai Grouper Tacos and Soy Sauce Soft Serve at Fork and Taco
Some friends and I decided to make quick Taco Tuesday plans and tried the newly opened Fork and Taco. Pretty good tacos and their menu has plenty of enticing options.

El Presidente at Fresa’s Chicken al Carbon
For a quick dinner, I stopped by Fresa’s Chicken al Carbon because I always noticed the colorful building when driving by it. This taco has chicken fajita, pickled carrot, jicama, cucumber, jalapeno, and tomatillo salsa. Spicy with crunch and lots of flavor.

Homemade Beef Noodle Soup
My friend MJ made one of the best beef noodle soups for her fiance Peter’s birthday party. A labor of love I tell ya.

Birthday Cake from Polkadots Cupcake Factory
After enjoying the noodle soup, we sang a song, watched Peter blow out candles and cut this pretty chocolate cake.

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