School's Out for Summer

A few weeks ago, I made some cookies for my girls to give to their teachers as end of the school year gifts. My idea for these cookies came from a new "toy" I bought myself and from another "toy" I had gotten myself a bit ago.

The flower cookies were done with a new stamp I found.  The idea is you stamp a piece of fondant, sugar paste or edible paper, and then place it on you cookie or cake.  I decided I needed more play time with these stamps as they didn't quite come out like I would have liked.  I had to hand paint a lot of the detail back on the cookie as it didn't transfer in the stamping process.

For the other two cookies designs, I broke out my stencils. I  simply laid the stencil on the cookie.

Then, using a gel food coloring, I dab the stencil with the desired colors.

And there you have it.  Also I feel I need to work more with the stencils, as I wasn't happy with every cookie.

I added detail with some edible silver dust just to finish off the look.  The teachers loved them, even if I didn't.

A Sweet Surprise

About two weeks ago, I got a text from one of my close friends asking for a favor. That weekend she was going to be in Chicago to celebrate her Mom's 60th birthday, and she needed a cake. The hotel where they would be at wanted an incredibly insane amount of money for a cake that would feed 10 people. I don't blame her at all for not wanting to pay that, because it was down right crazy. She asked me knowing that my week was a little busy as I was preparing to make my son's birthday cake. She gave me an out, and I know she would never be upset if I had said no, but how could I. So we talked and settled on a white cake with a delicious raspberry filling and almond buttercream. Here is what I whipped up in a few days.

The flowers on the cake are made of sugar paste, and I did buy those pre-made. They are from Mr. Ace of Cakes himself Duff, who has a cake decorating line that you can find at Michael's. The flowers come plain and then I used my good old edible gold dust, some pink gel food coloring and a little vodka to achieve their look. Duff says to use a air brush machine to paint the flowers, but I don't have one and the vodka worked just fine. My friend told me that her Mom cried at the cake, not because it was her 60th, but because she was so touched that a close friend of her daughter's made it for her. This made the cake priceless to me. :)

Racing 4 Riley

It was a big weekend in our house...Riley's 4th birthday party. When I was first starting to plan his party, I was thinking a pirate theme or a beach theme. Riley on the other hand had his mind made up, and neither of my plans came close. True to himself, Riley requested a Disney Cars birthday. He loves all things Cars, with Lighting McQueen being his favorite. After some searching of Pinterest and Flickr, I was finally able to put my cake idea down on paper to be approved by Riley.  Here is what we came up with...

McQueen and a couple of his buddies on a checkered flag cake.  Riley loved it.

He really like the Cars emblem with his name on it and I was happy with how it turned out too.  Always fun when I get to bust out my edible metallic dusts.

McQueen in the winner's circle.

For the favor bags, I made some McQueen cookies. Did I mention he's Riley's favorite?