Going to the Chapel

For many, a wedding isn't a wedding unless it is in June. I'm sure there is some stat out there that says more people get married in June then any other month, but I didn't bother to look. Just knowing all the couples with anniversaries this month leads me to believe it's true. In the beginning of the month, my friend Kara asked if I could make cake pops for her to take to her friend's bachelorette party.



For the party I made a few that looked like wedding cakes. If you read Bakerella.com at all you would have seen then when she did them. They take a little more time, but came out very cute.

I also made one special for the bride to me.

And then the ever so popular chocolate with stripes. The bride is using pink at her wedding, so pink stripes were in order.

The finished product. The bride loved these so much, I am working with her and my friend Kara to make some cake pops for a wedding after party.

Summertime and the Baking is Easy.

To celebrate the first day of summer and my sister-in-law coming over for dinner, I made a berry crisp. My original plan for dessert didn't actually include a crisp...

But after finding fruit like this, how could I not make one. I love summer because you find wonderful fruit at a great price. It makes eating well so easy. I don't really have a recipe for a berry crisp, and I was a little too lazy to look for one, so I just adapted an apple crisp recipe. So below is the recipe I made, which did produce a yummy treat, but I will admit it was a little juicy.

Berry Crisp

4 cups berries, washed and cut (if needed)

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons lemon juice (optional)

Simply toss the fruit with all the other ingredients and spread into a butter pie or casserole dish.

Now for the crumb topping...

Oatmeal Nut Topping

1/3 c brown sugar

1/3 c sugar

5 tablespoon flour

1/2 c instant oatmeal

1/4 c chopped nuts (in this case I used some sugared pecans that I happen to have)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 c butter, softened and cut into pieces

Crumble all the ingredients together by hand. Spread evenly over fruit. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until crumb topping is golden brown.

Let cool. Serve with whipped cream, ice cream or all by it's self. Enjoy!

Momma...We're Hungry!

I hear this said to me quite often, but this time it was presented like this...

Two adorable little girl asking for some Applely Zappoly. What is Applely Zappoly you might ask? Well, I didn't know at first either, but what is became was a very tasty treat.

Along with the chopped apples, we used...

I was very happy to have the puff pastry in the freezer. I have to admit I don't always have it, but I find it makes the most wonderful things when I do.

We used the cinnamon blend and some sugar and tossed them with our Granny Smith apples.
Both my two helpers did their best at making sure all the apples got coated in the cinnamon sugar.

Then I made a braid with our puff pastry. May not look pretty right now, but the finished product sure was good.
We then brushed the braid with melted butter so the sweet apple sprinkles would stay on top.
Each girl got equal time to make sure the braid was just right.

Topped with the sweet apple sprinkles, our Applely Zappoly was ready for the oven.

We couldn't wait for me to take a picture of our creation, so here what was left after our pieces were plated.

Add a little whipped cream and we had our yummy afternoon snack...

Nice warm Applely Zappoly.

Milk and Cookies

On Monday, my sweet little boy turned two. Oh, how the time has flown by. I look at his pictures and see my little baby turning into a little man. For his birthday, we had a milk and cookies theme. Cookie is one of the few words he chooses to say right now. Cookie is also his universal word for anything yummy. I had seen a very cute milk and cookie party on the blog Half Baked, so I took my cues from there. I made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and 3 kinds of cookies for our shindig.


Here is Riley's birthday dessert table. My friend Cecilia loaned me her little milk bottle creamer that went perfectly with my theme. I thought it was fun that not only did the 2 on the side of the milk bottle on the cake represent Riley turning 2, but the could also stand for 2% milk.

Here's a close up of the birthday boy's cake. The cookies, milk bottle and letters were all made with marshmallow fondant.

My signs were a last minute addition that I turned out to love. Chocolate chip cookies are always a favorite around here and a must have.

Just so I wouldn't have all chocolate (although I don't believe that is a bad thing), I made a batch of Snickerdoodles.

I think I have talked about these peanut butter cookies before. They are the easiest cookies to make. I love them. The only have 3 ingredients...that's right 3! And you can do so much with them. Here I made simple thumb print cookies with some grape jelly. I noticed I haven't posted any recipes lately, so I will post this one (since it is so easy)

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup sugar

1 cup peanut butter

1 egg

Mix all ingredients together until incorporated. Scoop out cookies onto a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350.

(see I told you they were easy)

As favors, I found a milk carton template online, put them together and then filled them with some mini chocolate chip cookies. These were not the easiest thing to put together, but I really thought they came out so cute.

Here's my birthday boy Riley ready to enjoy his cake!

Sixty Times Three Equals...

A cake for three people turning 60. Yep, that's what I have for you today. My friend Gina asked me to make a cake for her Dad's (and other relatives) birthday party. Everyone was turning 60 this year. Gina said that they were making shirts with silver angel wings for the birthday people, and wondered if I could make those wings for the cake. Always up for a challenge, I said sure. The colors being used for the party were black, white and silver, so I made a white cake (actually the cake was marble, the buttercream was white) with silver wings and a black 60. Gina also asked for some cake pops to accompany the cake.

Starting with my blank canvas (so to speak). This is marble cake covered in vanilla buttercream.

To make the wings, I printed out a picture Gina sent to me of the wings they were using. I used the print out to cut out the wings. Then I brushed them with metallic silver dust.

Mixing the metallic silver dust with some vodka allowed me to make a paste to create the details of the wings.

After placing the wings on the cake, I positioned the 60 in the center of the wings.

Using more fondant and metallic silver dust I cut out letters to wish everyone a happy birthday.
(and yes while I didn't see my error then, I clearly see it now...do you?)

The finished cake with the cake pops. I really liked how the wings came out. I think they looked very much like the picture I had to work from. And the report from Gina was everyone loved everything, and that's all that matters.