a baker's remix

Teacher, Teacher, Can You Teach Me

2012-02-14T07:05:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! This year I didn't make the kids treats to take in with their valentines. One, because one of the my kids' classes has a student who is allergic to nuts, and we have been asked not to send in homemade treats for that student's safety, and two, because I would have needed 56 cake pops to cover just the kids! That doesn't even include the teachers, which between my three children, there are 6 of, and I always like to give the teachers a little something. So this year, I just made some special treats for them, and it wasn't cake pops ,which three of the teachers might be a little upset about since they have had them the past two years and this is their last year to get them...oh well.

This year I made cookies.
I started off by baking some rectangle cookies and icing them in green royal icing.

After they dried, I made a border with brown marshmallow fondant.

Then I cut up some straws and filled them with melted white chocolate. I put the straws in the freezer for just a little bit, and then peel away the straw to reveal a stick of white chocolate.

I dusted the green royal icing with a little powdered sugar and attached heart sugar cookie that I had iced and sprinkled with light pink sugar. I glued the heart in place with some melted white chocolate.

Then I glued on the sticks of white chocolate, or chalk as it was meant to look like, and I was all finished with my sugar cookie chalkboards for my children's teachers. I hope they enjoy them. :)

Splish Splash

2012-02-07T09:50:00.000-08:00

I have had a couple of cake pops orders lately, so I decided to feature one of them today. My friend Carson's son just turned four. And for his pool party, he asked his Mom to order cake pops to give as a favor. At first the cake pops were just going to be blue to match the pool water. Then I thought maybe I could make them into fish or starfish, but that felt more beachy than pool to me. (I know, I'm crazy). So I ended up making beach balls. I know, also beachy, but you are more likely to find a beach ball at a pool then you are a starfish right?

I made my basic chocolate cake pop and dipped them in white chocolate. Then I colored some marshmallow fondant red, blue, and yellow, and using a small cookie cutter, created the stripes on the ball. After that, I use a small round cutter to finish off the tops and the bottoms.

I was a little worried they weren't going to look right until half way through making them, my 5 year old came up and told me were cool looking beach balls. Success!

The Resolution

2012-01-31T12:12:00.000-08:00

Can you believe today is the last day of January? I know I can't. This month flew on by I swear. In the begin of the new year, the family and I (and by that I mean me) decided to reduce the amount of sweet and tasty (also know as high fat, high calorie)goodies in the house in an effort to eat healthy. And also to lose this fat I carry around that I can no longer call baby fat since my youngest is going to be 4 this year. Now my kiddos all have a major sweet tooth, just like their momma, so I decided to try and make a snack for them that satisfied both the sweet and healthier eating. I give you chocolate covered frozen bananas.

You can make bigger sizes of frozen bananas, I just chose to make slices for easy little pick them up snacks. I have also seen these guys done by spreading some peanut butter on top of the banana, freezing and then covering in chocolate. All I did here was freeze the banana for about 10 minutes just to make it easier to dip. While they were in the freezer, I melted some chocolate, and then using a spoon and a dipping fork, I covered the banana slice. Easy peasy right!?

I used the dipping fork to remove the banana from it's chocolate bath, tapping the fork on the side of the bowl to remove any extra chocolate.

I placed the covered slices on a cookie tray lined with wax paper. At this point you could sprinkle some nuts or jimmies to fancy the slices up. Then back in the freezer they go until the chocolate is set or you are ready to eat them.

The ones with the sprinkles were for the kids, the plain ones were for my husband and myself. :)

The Artist

2012-01-24T09:51:00.001-08:00

This past weekend, we had a birthday party for my middle child, Mackenzie. It is so hard to believe that my little girl is five, but sure enough, in three days she will be exactly that. This year, we went with an artist theme. Mackenzie loves to draws, can spend hours doing it and is even in charge of the art area at school (probably because she is always there).

Here is Miss Kenzie's cake. It was pretty easy to make the art palette and I'm happy with how the cake turned out. As requested by the birthday girl, it was a chocolate cake with strawberry icing. The cake even had some fresh strawberries in one of the layers.

The idea for this cake came from pinterest. I really like the tubes of paint here and it even gave me a chance to break out my silver edible dust.

The picture was added because after the invitations were made and sent, Mackenzie informed me that she wanted a pink and purple cheetah party. So this was my compromise.

The birthday girl throughly enjoyed her special cake. :)

The Twelve Days of Goodies - Day 12

2011-12-24T06:01:00.000-08:00

My last goodie of this whole adventure is not a recipe, but a decorating post. The cookies I used are gingerbread, but you really could use any roll out cookies. I picked gingerbread because of the color (you'll soon see what I mean). To start roll out your dough, cut out circles and bake like you always would.

Once the cookies are cooled, attach a red M&M, with some melted chocolate, to the cookie.

Next, pipe two small dots of melted chocolate to make eyes.

Then pipe two lines above the eyes. After that make three smaller lines on your larger line. Make the smaller line have a slight angle. You have just created an antler.

This is probably the easiest decorating you could do on a cookie, and it is just about the cutest cookies for the holiday season (at least in my opinion).

Use brown M&Ms too, and you have Santa's team already for Christmas. Merry Christmas to all of you who have followed me on this fun project the last twelve days. I hope you have discovered some new goodies to add to your Christmas celebration. Enjoy your holiday!

The Twelve Days of Goodies - Day 11

2011-12-23T09:03:00.001-08:00

Just in case you have someone in your life who has been naughty this year, I have a goodie for them. Nothing says "you've been bad" like some coal. But it's always best to see the good in people this time of year, so how about some edible coal.

Oreo Bars

1 package Oreos
5 cups large marshmallows
4 Tbsp butter

Butter an 8x8 cake pan and line with parchment or wax paper. Make sure the paper goes up the sides of the pan.

Using your food processer, pulse the oreos to make a fine crumb.

Combine the marshmallows and butter in a saucepan. Melt until combined. Stir in the Oreo crumbs.

Grease your hands and press the mixture into the prepared pans. Let stand for at lest 10 minutes.

You can cut into squares, or to make it look it like coal, rip into pieces. Best tasting coal ever.

The Twelve Days of Goodies - Day 10

2011-12-22T10:15:00.000-08:00

My husband only made one request for a Christmas goodie this year. I of course, granted this wish for my Honey. So in our house we now have a container full of Peanut Butter Balls. This is my Mother-in-law's recipe that she gave me when we first moved here.

Peanut Butter Balls

2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, softened

Put all ingredients in a bowl. One tip, if you buy an 18 oz jar of peanut butter, you have your 2 cups without having to measure it all (anything to save doing more dishes).

Mix like you would a pie dough. I even broke out my pastry blender.

I also suggest using your hands to finish mixing. Check that the mixture will stay together for you. If it seems a little dry, add a little more butter.

You can make the balls any size you would like, I like to keep them closer to bite size.

Melt some chocolate coating and dip the peanut butter balls in the chocolate to thoroughly cover them. Set on a baking sheet to dry.

And that's all there is to it. No oven, little measuring, lots of yummy!

The Twelve Days of Goodies - Day 9

2011-12-21T09:34:00.000-08:00

This goodie of the day is one I discovered back when I worked in a restaurant. I picked this recipe because it used Guinness and we just so happened to have Guinness in our refrigerator. I will have to warn you, this recipe is kind of coming from the dusty old files in the back of my mind. If you saw what I have written down as the recipe, you would wonder how in the heck a cake was going to come out of it, but here goes anyway.

Guinness Gingerbread Cake

1 cup Guinness Stout
1 cup dark molasses
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350

Combine stout and molasses in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add baking soda and cool.

Whisk together the eggs and sugars until lemon in color.

Whisk in the oil.

Stir in molasses mixture and combine thoroughly.

Combine flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg together. Gradually add the flour mixture into the cake batter. Pour into a greased pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean.

I tried my new silicone tube cake pan that I just got. I thought it would make a great cake for Christmas. Sadly, the cake didn't quite come out of the pan as clean as I would of liked it. So as the saying goes, when the world (or in this case, my oven) hands you lemons...

Make gingerbread cake pops! I let the cake cool, threw it in a bowl with some vanilla frosting and mixed it all together. Dipped the pop in some milk chocolate, topped it off with a little fondant to resemble royal icing and then embellished with some candy holly leaves and berries.

The Twelve Days of Goodies - Day 8

2011-12-18T13:46:00.001-08:00

Thumbprint cookies are relatively easy to make and always look nice on a cookie display. And they are also easy to change up the flavor combination depending on what filling you choose.

Cherry Pecan Thumbprints

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans
1/3 cup Smuckers Black Cherry Spreadable Fruit

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and extract.

Combine flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together. Gradually add flour mixture to creamed mixture, alternating with the sour cream. Beat well after each addition and make sure dough is thoroughly combined.

Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in chopped pecans. (I will say I wish I had chopped my pecans a little finer then what I did)

Place on cookie sheet and use your thumb to create a small hole in the dough. If you wet your thumb a bit each time before using it, it helps stop the dough from sticking to you. Fill with jam.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly brown. I like the deep jewel color these cookies add to the plate. Enjoy!

The Twelve Days of Goodies - Day 7

2011-12-18T13:09:00.001-08:00

I use to make today's goodies all the time when I was working at a catering company. They go by many names, but the name I have heard used the most is Magic Bars. Here is the version I used this year.

Magic Bars

3 cups finely ground cookies (12 ounces), such as graham crackers or chocolate wafers, or a combination
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup pecan pieces
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 375. Line a jelly roll pan with a Silpat or parchment paper.

An easy way to create cookie crumbs is to put the cookies in a zip lock bag and then use a rolling pin to crush them. Combine crumbs, sugar and butter in a bowl. Press evenly to the bottom and slightly up the sides of the pan.

Bake for 10 minutes until firm and lightly browned. Cool for 20 minutes.

Sprinkle pecans and chocolate chips over crust. When I went to make these, I discovered I didn't have enough chocolate chips, so I add some crasins to the mix.

Pour condensed milk over crust and spread evenly, which I have to admit is easier said then done without moving all you chips and nuts.

Put a layer of coconut on top and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until coconut is toasted.

Let cool, preferable on a wire rack. Then cut into squares. You can trim the edges if so desired.

The Twelve Days of Goodies - Day 6

2011-12-17T06:56:00.001-08:00

Today's goodie is one you can easily do with the kids. I didn't grow up with these little yummies, and I don't even know for sure what they are called. My one friend calls them Belly Buttons, so I'll go with that.

Belly Buttons

60 pretzel rounds
60 Hershey Kisses
60 M&M's (I used red and green ones)

Preheat oven to 225.

Lay pretzel rounds out on a cookies sheet that is lined with parchment paper or a Silpat.

Place one Hershey Kiss in the center of the pretzel round.

Place in oven for 2-3 minutes until the Kisses are melted. They should have a nice shine to them. Don't stray from your oven, you don't want to over heat the kisses.

Using the M&M, push the melted Kiss into the pretzel round, making sure the chocolate touches the sides of the pretzel. Let the chocolate cool and enjoy. I know my first batch didn't last the night in our house. Thank goodness these are quick and easy to make since they disappear so fast.

The Twelve Days of Goodies - Day 5

2011-12-16T13:23:00.001-08:00

Now you can't have hot chocolate without topping it off with some marshmallows. Sure you can just buy them, but believe it or not, marshmallows are simple to make, so why not try making some for yourself.

Simple Homemade Marshmallows

3 envelopes of unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cups corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
powdered sugar for dredging

Sprinkle the gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water in a mixing bowl. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup cold water. Bring to a boil. Let the sugar mixture boil for a minute.

Pour boiling sugar mixture into gelatin and mix on high speed. Add salt and beat for 12 minutes.

Add vanilla, or any other flavoring you choose. Pour marshmallow into a pan that is lined with oiled waxed paper. Lightly oil a spatula, or your hands, and spread marshmallow smooth.

Top with some powdered sugar and let set for a few hours. After that you can cut them in to squares or use a cookie cutter to create fun shapes. After cutting, dredge marshmallows in powdered sugar. Shake off any extra sugar.

The Twelve Days of Goodies - Day 4

2011-12-15T12:22:00.000-08:00

Nothing goes better with cookies on a cold winter's day then hot chocolate. So today's goodie is hot chocolate, but with a slight twist...it's hot chocolate on a stick. When I first saw these guys on pinterest, I so wanted to make them right away. Once again, a very simple and pretty quick recipe. And once again, I thought I had pictures of the whole process, but sadly only the end stages.

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

1/2 cup heavy cream
14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
18 oz (about 3 cups) chopped semi-sweet chocolate or chips
4 oz (about 3/4 cup) chopped unsweetened chocolate
25 lollipop sticks

Start by preparing an 8x8 pan by lining it with aluminum foil and spraying the foil with nonstick cooking spray. Combine the two chocolates in a bowl and set aside. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the heavy cream and condensed milk, and heat to a simmer. Pour the hot liquid over the chopped chocolate and let sit for a minute to soften. Whisk the cream and chocolate together until it's smooth and shiny. It will be thick. Pour the chocolate into the prepared pan and smooth to have an even layer. Let sit overnight or 3-4 hours in a refrigerator.

Once the chocolate is firm, cut into 25 squares. The best way to get a smooth cut is to run your knife under hot water (and then dry the knife) before each cut. A hot, clean knife works the best. Gently push the lollipop sticks into each square.

To make the hot chocolate, heat a mug a milk, not water, and place a square into the warm milk. Let sit a minute or two and then stir to dissolved the chocolate.

Wrap up and use a gift, that's what I did. You can store the squares in an airtight container for up to a week at room temperature, two weeks in the refrigerator, or up to a month in the freezer.

The Twelve Days of Goodies - Day 3

2011-12-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

Day 3 brings another super easy recipe and a gluten free one at that. I have friends and family who have to eat gluten free, so I figured I should include a cookie they could enjoy. And it doesn't hurt that's it's chocolate and super yummy.

Flourless Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 to 4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare your cookie sheets by lining with Silpats or parchment paper.

Whisk together the powdered sugar , cocoa and salt in a bowl.

Whisk in the vanilla and egg whites starting with just two of the whites. Beat the batter until moistened. It should look like brownie batter. If it's too thick, then add another egg white, and then the fourth egg white if still too thick.

Fold in chocolate chips. Use a scoop to portion the cookies onto the cookie sheets leaving room for the cookies to spread. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies have a lightly crackled and shiny top.

Store in an air tight container, if they last that long in your home. ;) Enjoy!

The Twelve Days of Goodies - Day 2

2011-12-13T09:29:00.001-08:00

Welcome back for day 2. Now these next cookies I made for our Thanksgiving dinner, but I thought they could be a different flavor for a Christmas cookie. Who says pumpkin needs to be limited to just Halloween and Thanksgiving. So here is the recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. Sadly I had forgotten to take the step by step pictures, but rest assured, these are made pretty much like standard chocolate chip cookies, and therefore very easy.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup canned pumpkin
1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.

In a bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda and cinnamon, set aside. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternatively with the pumpkin into the creamed mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop, with a scoop or with teaspoons on to a baking tray. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

The recipe should yield about 4 dozen. The family really enjoyed these and I will definitely be making them again.

The Twelve Days of Goodies- Day 1

2011-12-12T04:28:00.000-08:00

So I haven't been posting lately because I've been working on finding 12 different holiday goodies to share with you all. I tried to find recipes (mostly off of pinterest) I have not made myself. And I tried to have step by step pictures for you on the whole process. To start my twelve days of goodies, I picked one that is simply Christmas crack. This stuff is sooooo good and sooo hard to stop eating. Also, it's sooooo simple to make. What could be better at this busy time of year.

Christmas Crack

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup light brown sugar

2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

40 saltines crackers

Preheat the oven to 350.

Line your jelly roll pan with tin foil and spray with cooking spray. Lay a flat layer of crackers on your pan.

Melt sugar and butter together until it reaches a boil. Reduce to a shimmer and cook for 5-6 minutes or until mixture is thickened and all the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the mixture over the crackers. Spread evenly.

Bake for 5-8 minutes or until the toffee becomes bubbly. Remove from oven and let sit for 3-5 minutes.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the toffee. Let sit a few minutes and then spread melted chips over the toffee. If you like you can add nuts or some other kind of topping, but I chose to keep it simple (this year).

Let set up by sitting out or speed things up and refrigerate. Once set, break apart into pieces...

and start eating. Although I do warn you once you start, you may not be able to stop. I know I had a very hard time. :)

Coming Soon

2011-11-30T11:01:00.000-08:00

Short post today. Since I really didn't get any feedback from my last post, I haven't made anything to show you. I am however working on a project dealing with cookies and christmas. See please check back to see what's to come.

I Got Nothin'

2011-11-08T11:35:00.000-08:00

I try an post here every Tuesday, but today I really don't have anything to share with you. So this leads me to ask anyone who is reading this...what would you like to see. I'm serious, I would love suggestions. I'll listen to all and do my best to create or recreate what you have suggested. I do have some things planned for future blogs with the holidays coming up and I would love to have more. So leave a comment and lets see what we can come up with.

Boo, Meow and Jack

2011-11-01T12:52:00.001-07:00

With yesterday being Halloween, I volunteered to bring a sweet treat to my oldest daughter's Halloween school party. I went back and forth on what I should make, and then with time running out, finally decided. Long long time ago I bought a small Wilton Halloween cookie cutter set. I believe I only used it once before this, so after dusting it off, I got to baking. I made 6 dozen sugar cookies in three different shapes. And let me tell you, my daughter was worried that the 6 dozen cookies would not be enough for herself and her 13 other classmates. Thankfully it was plenty. After the cookies were cool, I iced them with some royal icing and then added a few touches to finish them off.

Here is the plate of cookies at school ready for the kids.

The ghosts were my favorites to look at, not my favorite to ice.

Black cats and... jack o'lanterns to round out the group. The kids loved them all. Hope everyone had a fun and happy Halloween.

Who Pissed off Tweety?

2011-10-25T09:22:00.001-07:00

I'm the first to admit, I really don't know much about Angry Birds. It's not a game that myself or my kids have started playing, so I only know what I know from friends and things I might see on tv. So when my friend Aimee asked for Anrgy Bird cupcakes for her son's birthday, I'm not going to lie, I was a little worried about pulling it off. Her son loves the game, I'm pretty sure he has it mastered and I wanted to make cupcakes that would do him proud when he took them in to school for all his classmates. So after searching pinterest to see what others have made, here is what I created...
I introduce to you the Angry Birds.

Red Bird...lovin the eyebrows.

Yellow Bird...don't mess with his eggs.

Blue Bird...look out Green Pigs, he's coming for you.

And last, but not least Black Bird...the birthday boy's favorite.

It's in the Bag.

2011-10-04T11:17:00.001-07:00

I realized yesterday that I had nothing to share today, my deadline that I gave myself when I started this blog. And while I absolutely love the cookies from last week, I came up with a last minute, easy peasy treat for this post. Lately I have been looking at a lot (and I do mean a lot) of Pinterest. If you don't know what that is, a friend on Facebook described it the best...she said "It's like when you were getting married and you cut all the stuff you liked out of bridal magazines and stored them in folders or a scrapbook or whatever. But digital. And you get to share it." So with all the looking I have done, I saw a big cookie crammed full of others treats and decided to make my own. And the best part about these cookies is I didn't have to go shopping for any added ingredients. A couple of weeks ago when I was food shopping, I noticed that Betty Crocker Snickerdoodle cookie mix was on sale for 99 cents, so I bought it not really knowing what I would do with it. Grabbing that mix along with some dark chocolate chips (which are now a staple in the pantry), a mix of dried fruits that I had high hopes of my kids eating (they had other thoughts) and some roasted soy nuts (another failed hope for the kids' diet). I followed the recipe on the bag, but did add about another 1/2 tablespoon of water. And instead of rolling the cookies in the supplied cinnamon sugar mix, I added a little bit of it to the batter and saved the rest for another day.. I used an ice cream scoop to portion out the cookies...I wanted really big cookies this time around (I usually make bite size). After baking for 20 -25 minutes at 350, I had my post for today.
Have fun, mix things up and enjoy!

I Love You to the Moon and Back

2011-09-25T05:37:00.000-07:00

One of my oldest and dearest friends is expecting her first child next year. I am so happy for her and wanted to send her a little something to celebrate baby. I had a onesies cookie cutter that I knew I wanted to use, but I also wanted something a little more. So after some thinking I came up with moon cookies.

First I started with a round sugar cookie (little side note, my friend's nephew labeled my cookies the best cookies he had ever had...just saying). I used a yellow food color marker to draw my moon on to the cookie.

Then I used some stiff royal icing to outline the moon.

Once the outline had dried, I used the flooding technique to fill the moon. Then I took some stiff dark blue royal icing to make an outline on the rest of the cookie. After drying the moon and outline, I once again did the flooding technique to complete the cookie.

To fully finish off the look I was going for, I made an eye and mouth with a brown food color marker and then used a pink food color marker for the moon's check. Then I brushed the moon with some pearl luster dust. I also used pearl luster dust to create the stars in the sky.

Once again, the flooding technique was used to make the little onesies.

Here's the complete set and I'm happy to report that Mommy, Daddy and even baby are enjoying them.

Banana Nana Fofana

2011-09-20T15:26:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, my oldest asked if we could make something fun. Fun for me is baking, so I decided we would do that. I had two very nicely ripen bananas, plus one more in the freezer, which was just enough to make some banana muffins. To make them even more fun, I decided to make them dark chocolate, because as we all know chocolate is way more fun!

I found the banana muffin recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. This is the book I won from Beantown Baker a few years back. To make it chocolate, I simply substituted some flour with cocoa. Here is the recipe I used.

Dark Chocolate Banana Muffins

1 c Flour
3/4c Cocoa (I used Premium Cocoa which is a mixed of natural and Dutched Process Cocoa)
1/3 c Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Egg, beaten
1/2 c Milk
1/4 c Cooking Oil
3/4 c Mashed Banana
1/4 c Dark Chocolate Chips

Streusel Topping

In a small bowl combine 3 tablespoons flour, 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Cut in 2 tablespoons butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Preheat oven to 350 and grease twelve 2 1/2-inch muffin cups. Do not use paper bake cups.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In another bowl combine egg, milk and oil. Add the egg mixture into the flour mix and stir until just moistened. Stir in banana and chocolate chips.
Scoop batter into muffin tins and top with streusel topping.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean. Cool for about 5 minutes, then serve warm.

Maybe with a nice cup of tea.

Enjoy!

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu

2011-09-13T10:56:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to a farewell party for our dear friends Stephanie, Michael and their adorable little girl Ellie. They are leaving our fun group here in Green Bay because Michael finally was given the promotion he deserved at work. And while we are all sad to see them go, we couldn't be happier for them. I made the cake for the party which was Dark Chocolate with Chocolate filling and Vanilla Buttercream. Lately on the blogs I read, I have been seeing black and white cakes with cool geometric design on them. I have to say I am always mesmerized by these cakes and have been wanting to make one myself. Stephanie is my young hipper friend (she gets me carded at ballparks when we go!) and I thought she would really like this design.

Extreme close up!!! I love the pattern created by just some simple pieces.

The cake says it all...we will truly miss our friends and wish them the best in life.

Dessert Incognito

2011-09-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

This post has a little bit of an indentity crisis going on. I'm not really sure if you should consider it a salad or a dessert. Or maybe a dessert with multiple personalities. Either way, it's really simple to make and very yummy to eat. Now I have heard this called a couple of different names, but I call it a Snicker Salad, but in no way should the name make you think it's at all healthy like a normal salad.

Here are the ingredients in this salad. Yep, three things, couldn't be simpler right? Amounts you use can vary, if you like more apple or more Snickers. And don't feel you have to use Granny Smith apples, I just like using them because I think the tart helps balance out the sweet of the Snickers and Cool Whip.
Step one is to cut up almost a full bag of mini Snickers bars. A way to make it easier to cut them up is to refrigerate them before cutting. I cut them in pretty small pieces because I find it easier to eat once the salad is all together.
You can peel the apples, but I like it with the skin on, and it's one way to make it just a little bit better for you. I used about 4 good size Granny Smith apples for this recipe. Once things are all prepped, mix in a full container of Cool Whip thoroughly.

And because I am a dork and after 10 years of making sure things look nice as well as taste good, I decorated the top of the salad. Trust me this is so not necessary. But if you would like to, I cut up two Snickers into very small pieces and had thin slices of apples (I did soak them in some lemon juice first to prevent browning) to arrange around the edge.

The Unsharables

2011-08-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

Back in August of 2010, I made a batch of Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies to take tailgating before a Brewers game with our friends Aimee and Steve. The cookies where a big hit and I posted the recipe I used here on my blog. Aimee made a big batch at home one day and gave some to a friend to enjoy. Upon hearing this, Steve explained to Aimee that "these are cookies we do not share". Now fast forward to August 2011, and it's time for some Brewers tailgating again. This time we were with a pretty large group, and we decided that everyone was to bring a dish to share. I, naturally, decided to make cookies, the chocolate ones at that. But this time I made a slight recipe change.

I went a little chip crazy! I saw these Dark Chocolate Chips and knew they had to be in the cookies. And I love the Caramel Chips, so those were a must, with the White Chocolate Chips seeming to mellow and balance out the other two. I used the same recipe I posted here (although I did double it) http://abakersremix.blogspot.com/2010/08/c-is-for-cookie.html. To the batter I added a total of 4 cups of chips. The breakdown was the entire bag of the Dark Chocolate, and about 1 cup of the other two.

I once again had a hit on my hands, as all the cookies were devoured. And I am happy to say that everybody shared the unsharable cookies, even Steve.
Steve with one of the unsharable cookies!

Sweets for a Sweet Girl

2011-08-23T05:20:00.000-07:00

So to continue on with our crazy birthday weekend of August, we had our daughter Samantha's 6th birthday party. Samantha is a very energetic and creative little girl, and has been planning her 6th birthday party, well since before her 5th birthday party. (and yes she was planning her 7th before this party even started) She asked to have her birthday at Chuck E Cheese, and after that I was free to have what ever theme my heart desired. I choose a Sweet Shoppe Theme and while Samantha loves her fruits and vegetables, she did inheret my massive sweet tooth. That is why I chose the sweet shoppe theme.

I saw this gumball machine on another cake, and thought it would be great to make for Samantha's cake.

Sorry for the bad picture, it really was a crazy weekend. There was fondant gumballs, wrapped candy and lollipops decorating a dark chocolate cake with raspberry and chocolate fudge KitKat filling. The KitKat filling was Samantha's idea. The mini gumballs next to the cake were the favors, I just thought they were to cute not to have.

Here's our Happy 6 year old (still can't believe she's 6) with her cake. Before the party, she told me that her cake was beautiful and the best, oh how I love her.

Game On

2011-08-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

We were party central here in Wisconsin this past weekend. And not just any old birthdays, but some milestones. We had 3 family parties to throw and attend... our oldest turned 6, Jeff's grandmother had her 90th celebration and my hubby Jeff finally turned 40. Now he has to tell people he's only a year younger then me, not the two years he usually tells people the 5 months between our birthdays.

Jeff is a little bit of a gamer, so I instantly thought of a video game cake for him. And what better video cake than an XBox.
Jeff has an XBox 360, so here is my interpertation of the game console. The cake itself was a dark chocolate with a raspberry and chocolate fudge filling. I also made a small game case to have his birthday greeting on, the controller and games in the picture are real and not at all edible.

Buzz Buzz

2011-08-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

Last week, I saw some adorable ladybug pretzels on a couple of different blogs. The creators of these cute treats were some talented ladies of Bee In Our Bonnet. After seeing their ladybugs, I wanted to try and make some myself and also make some bumblebees to go with them.

To start, I gather some colored candy melts and mini pretzels. I couldn't find any black candy melts at the store, so I got dark chocolate and added some black food coloring (and shortening to help keep it thin).

I dipped the bottoms of the pretzels to make the heads of the ladybugs and bees.

Then I dipped half of my pretzels in red candy melts...

and the other half in yellow candy melts.

I added the final touches of the ladybugs' spots and the bees' stripes and wings.

And there you have it, some cute bugs you would love to see at your next picnic.

For Your Eyes Only

2011-07-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

I want to start this post by warning that the picture below is not really for young eyes. It's not that it's super bad or nasty, but if you don't like your children seeing cakes that look like parts of the human body, then you would want to look at the picture when they aren't in the room. That being said, lately I have been making some special cake pops. I have had friends and friends of friends who have had surgery on their chest for medical purposes. So to celebrate their surgery, I made some boob cake pops. Basically I make a double cake pop and leave it au natural. Also below is a picture of a cookie with a fancy bra to celebrate the shopping ahead for one of my friends. The cookie is gingerbread with a fondant and royal icing bra.

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

2011-07-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday my husband texted me to let me know he needed a dessert for work on Thursday. They we having a special lunch that day where they could wear Hawaiian shirts and shorts in honor of the party. Since cake pops are relatively easy to make and I had the supplies on hand to whip them up, that is what I went with. But I didn't make the standard chocolate cake pops this time, this time I had more fun with them. Having the island theme already established, I chose to make, what I like to call, some Pina Colada Cake Pops, and here is how I did it.

I started with a pineapple cake mix. Yep, I was short on time and need something easy, so a boxed cake mix came to my rescue. When I went to make the cake pop mix, instead of using frosting as a binder, I used rum. I knew these pops were for adults only, so I figured why not. Now, I didn't measure the amount I put in, but I will say it wasn't a whole lot and no one would ever get drunk off these cake pops. It was just enough rum to help hold the cake together. Next I dipped the pops in some white chocolate and sprinkled them generously with some coconut. Here is the end result...
(purse and Aloha bracelet not included.)

Play Ball!

2011-06-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

I love baseball. Have since I was 8 years old. I am a die hard Phillies fan, although I do cheer on the Brewers (as long as they aren't playing the Phillies) now that I live here in Wisconsin. So when my friend Drina asked for some baseball cake pops for her son's last t-ball game, I thought what fun. Then I started making them. Now I'm not saying I didn't enjoy making them, but they were a bigger challenge for me then I thought they were going to be. In the end, I was glad I got to make them and they turned out really cute.

Play ball!

Old Glory...in Cupcake Form.

2011-06-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

My oldest Samantha has been asking to bake something lately, so I decided to takes the opportunity to make some colorful cupcakes. I have never really liked making red velvet cake because it requires so much red food coloring. But since July 4th seems right around the corner, I thought I would have fun and play with a red velvet recipe to make some patriotic desserts.

So the recipe I used for my cupcakes was really easy. I found it on the Just a Pinch Recipe Club website. Here is the recipe as it appears on the site.

Red Velvet Cake

1/2 c crisco
1 1/2 c sugar
2 oz red cake coloring ( 4 bottles)
2 egg
1 tsp soda
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 c buttermilk
2 1/4 c cake flour sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp vingar

Cream shortening , sugar and egg. Make paste of the coloring and the cocoa and add to the mixture. Add flour, salt, milk and vanilla, beating with mixer. By hand fold in vinegar and soda. Bake in 3-8" pans- bake at 350 for 30 min. let cool before icing.

Now I generally don't bake with shortening, but I have nothing against it. I just grew up using butter and margarine. Thankfully I had some Crisco on hand, so I used it. I also creamed the shortening and sugar by itself first, then added the egg. At first I didn't add the cocoa because I wanted to keep my batter white. I divided the cocoa amount into thirds, and that when I added the colors.
So here are my three batters. After I divided the batter into three parts, I add the cocoa to the bowls for the blue and red layers. I did not use the amount of color the recipe called for, I kind of eyed my amount. I used AmeriColor Super Red and Navy Blue gel colors to get my shades.
I started layering the batters by putting about 2 ounces using a scoop...blue first.
Then the white...
And topped it off with the red cake batter.
I was really please with the tops on theses cupcakes and I loved how the colors stayed true during baking.
Topped with some cream cheese icing and red, white and blue sprinkles, the cupcake is complete.
Loving the layers and ready to make them again for the 4th!

Building a Cake

2011-06-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

Back in May, I was asked to make a LEGO cake. Actually first it was to be an ice cream LEGO cake, but then it was changed to a chocolate cake (the best kind next to ice cream) that looked like a LEGO. As a kid, I used to love LEGOS. I had hundreds of them and was always building something from them. So this cake brought back all the memories of my childhood LEGOS. My friend Tami pretty much gave me freedom to make this look how ever I wanted. She just asked for a basic LEGO color. I went with yellow because I figured it would create fewer colorfull tongues and less stains should it drop on any clothing. I used small red and blue fondant LEGOS to add a little more color and interest to the cake. The knobs on top of the cake were made out of cake pop mix, so getting one of those pieces was extra special.
Sadly, I was kind of out of it the week I made this, so this is the only picture I took of the cake.

3,2,1...Blast Off!

2011-06-07T09:50:00.001-07:00

My little boy turns three today. It seems so hard to believe that he is three already, but I must face the fact that he is. (sniff, sniff).
This weekend we celebrated Riley's birthday along with his good friend Noah's. The boys were born 4 days apart. Noah's Mom, my good friend Cecilia, and myself worked together to make sure the boys had an out of this world birthday celebration. We went with a space theme. Cecilia made these incredible and adorable invitations. I should have a picture here, but sadly I don't. She also made great food labels for all the food we made for the party.
We had Gravity Grub and Extraterrestrial Munchies.

We also served Cosmic Fruit Salad, PB & J Stars and Moon Sammies and Moon Rock Meatballs.
There were also Asteroid Dogs and Solar Flair Brats (I just don't have a picture of them). There were 3 Refueling Stations along with Rocket Fuel for the kiddos. This one just happened to be my favorite.

For dessert, we had star cake pops. These guys were a big hit and went very fast.

I had a lot of fun making the boys' cake. I got to use wires (for the first time) and metallic disco dust. Of course the cake was all chocolate, because according to Riley "Chocolate gives me power".

The boys seem to be very happy with their cake.

And enjoyed eating their very own special mini cakes complete with a martian popping out of it.

May Flowers

2011-05-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

My middle child Mackenzie recently graduated from preschool. So I needed a gift for her teachers.

This is what I had to work with. What to make, what to make...

Oh yeah, I had some cake pops too. Mackenzie's teachers fell in love with the cake pops last year when they had my oldest daughter Samantha. They were pretty happy to find out they had Mackenzie this school year so they would still have a chance to have cake pops. (they are also happy that they get next year too with my son) So, with some white chocolate covered cake pops that I sprinkled some pink sugar on, I decided to make the teachers little bouquets of flowers. I cut a slit into the circle to about the middle and then punched a hole. I wrapped the circle around the cake pops and tapped it together and on to the stick.

After that I made eight small triangle cuts to create the pedals. I then rounded the edges to make them look even more like flowers.

I did three fun bright colors (we have had a ton of rain as of late and need any color we can get around here).

I bundled them up and tied some pretty ribbon to finish it off. Mackenzie was happy with the outcome and so were her teachers.

So Much in Love

2011-05-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

One of my husband's cousins is getting married this summer, and this past weekend was her bridal shower. I was asked if I could make favors that could double as place cards for the party. So I got to thinking what cookie cutter did I have that is approriate for a wedding and big enough to write a name on...

My answer was a wedding cake. After baking and icing the cookies, I piped a white border around the edge. Now I probably could have piped the border first and then do the flooding technique to cover the cookie, but I wanted to make sure that the border was raised higher than the icing. I really wanted it to stand out since it was the same color.

Next I colored some of the royal icing a pistachio green and piped some scroll work in the corner. I love scroll work, don't know why, just do.

Then I used a dab of royal icing to glue a royal icing flower to the cookie. I had all different color flowers to add more interest to the cookies.

Once I had the corners decorated, I wrote a name on each cookie and let the icing dry for 24 hours before I put them in bags and tied them up with pretty ribbons to finish the favors.

Congratulations Erica and Tim! May you have a wonderful life together!

The Blue Bird of Happiness

2011-05-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

A month ago, I made some cakepops that looked like birds. I had seen some brownie pops dressed up as birds and wanted to do pretty much the same thing for my bunco buffet and for little favors for a playdate I was having for my oldest daughter and a bunch of her school friends.

I started by shaping the cake pop more like a strawberry then a ball. Then dipped it in blue candy melts (and a few got covered in yellow as you will see below). After they were all set, I mixed up a batch of handy dandy marshmallow fondant, coloring some a periwinkle blue and some orange.

I took little balls of the orange fondant and shaped them into little triangles. Then I used water to glue them onto the front. I used a food color marker to create the eyes of my sweet little birds.

I cut tear shaped pieces for the wings. To make them a bit more realistic, I curved the tips of the wings. I used water once again as glue, to put the wings on the side of the bird.

And there you have it, my blue (and yellow) birds of happiness.

I'm Baaaccckkkkkkk.

2011-05-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the absence...it's been a crazy two weeks. First it started with me having gallbladder surgery. I knew I had to have the little bugger out, but thanks to an attack that started Sunday night, and really didn't end until they removed my gallbladder, it happened a lot faster than expected. Then last week, after dropping the kids at school and my Mom at the airport, I got back to our house without power (thanks to a storm and bad driver) in time for my hubby and I to find water in our basement. Yep, that's what you need to find, I'm sure you all agree, to make life calm and easy.

So anyway, now I am back and have recipes that I promised you all like three weeks ago. At my recent hosting of bunco, I made brownie whoopie pies, and that is the recipe I have for you all today. These are so simple to make and you really don't have to be a talented baker to make them. First, I started with some Duncan Hines Brownie Mix. Yep, you heard me right, brownie mix...something I have nothing against and find handy to have in house at all times. Instead of making the normal recipe, you simply take the mix and add 2 eggs and 1/3 cup oil. Stir until just blended and dry ingredients are moistened.

Use a cookie scoop (my preference) or drop by tablespoon on to your cookie tray and bake at 350 for 11-14 minutes, until cracked in appearance and just barely set at center when lightly touched.

Once cool, fill with you favorite frosting. I picked coconut pecan, and turned the whoopie pies into mini German Chocolate cakes. You can either buy the coconut pecan frosting or make your own. It's a pretty simple recipe.

Coconut Pecan Frosting

1 c. evaporated milk

1 c. sugar

3 egg yolks

1/2 c. butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. flaked coconut

1 c. chopped pecans

Combine first 5 ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and add coconut and pecan. Beat until cool and thick. Spread cooled frosting onto one of the brownie disc and then top with another brownie disc to make a sandwich.
So here is your finished product. All that's left to do is enjoy!

With a Roll of the Dice

2011-04-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

It was that time of the year again, my turn to host bunco. What is bunco you might ask, well one website I found described it this way... "Bunco is a social event. It's a party. It's a blast!" And this is so so true. My friends and I have a total blast eating, drinking, chatting and just having a good old time. So since there is food involved, I try my best to make fun things to eat and some things I have never made before. I also like to pick a theme, and this time around I went with spring. Since I always have to have cake pops, here are my blue birds of happiness along with some flower apple pie pops.

The bottom plate is filled with brownie whoopie pies with a coconut pecan center. The top plate are little veggie sandwiches.

The trio here consist of chocolate raspberry truffles, orange sugar cookies and a cheese and cracker plate.

And what's a bunco night without drinks. I had ice water with lemon and cucumber slices, sweet tea and then assorted sodas and wines for the picking.

And since I didn't want the table to be all sweets, I also had apricot sweet and sour meatballs and some texas caviar (not real easy to see the bowl of this in the picture, but trust me, it was there).

I did remember to take pictures of things as I was making them and plan to share the how to's in future post. So check back in weeks to come. :)

When the Moon Hits Your Eyes Like a Big Pizza Pie

2011-03-31T11:12:00.001-07:00

At about 6:00 last night, my oldest daughter decided she wanted to make cookie pies. I told her we would have to wait until the next day as it was pretty close to her bed time. So today after school and lunch she asked again about making the treat, although this time she changed it up to cookie pizzas. So into the oven four cookies went (and I'm not going to lie here, they were slice and bake, not from scratch) and the gathering of topping began. For our "pizza" sauce we took regular white frosting and added some strawberry sauce to it so it would look a little bit like real pizza sauce. We had shredded coconut for our cheese and coconut M&Ms, chocolate chips, Dots, candy corn and rainbow circle sprinkles for our toppings.

I thought I would show the kids how to make their cookie pizza first and then let them loose to have fun. Here's the begin of mine.

And here is my finished pizza. I didn't want to over top mine as I was afraid my stomach wouldn't be able to handle all that sweet stuff.

After taking turns saucing their pizza crust, the kids went to town decorating them.

Even my youngest wanted in on the act, and wasn't going to let anything stop him from reaching the toppings.

They had lots of fun and didn't fight over the toppings or anything. It was really fun to see their different styles emerge.

Here are the finished pizzas (my oldest couldn't wait to try her's).

What's White, Black and Hot Pink All Over?

2011-03-23T08:53:00.001-07:00

Cake pops of course. Bet you thought this was some hard riddle...nope, just a quick post about some pops. Back in the begin of March, my friend Heidi contacted me to see if I could make some cake pops for her Goddaughter's 21st birthday. I thought, sure no problem. But there was a catch, Heidi needed them right away, like in a day or two, and she asked if they could be black and hot pink. I told her as long as she trusted me, I thought I could fill the order. Supplies to make the cake pops were no problem. I had an order coming up later in the week, and had the cake and sticks I needed. My dilemma was the colors and container to display the cake pops. Here is what I came up with on short notice...

To start, I took a cardboard box and glued hot pink cupcake liners to it and finished it off with a nice black ribbon. For the cake pops, I started with the zebra striped ones. I have never ever done any kind of animal print before. I was pretty happy with them and wouldn't mind trying them again. To achieve the black coating, I took regular chocolate and added black food coloring (and shortening to thin it out). I then brushed the pops with some pearl luster dust to give it some extra sass. And the hot pink cake pops have a spiral of hot pink sanding sugar to make the color stand out. Put them all together and you have a fun, sassy cake pop bouquet for a 21 year old.

A Question Answered (hopefully)

2011-03-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

About a week and a half ago, an old friend from college sent me a message on facebook. She wanted to know how I make the Oreo cookie pops and could I please do a blog about how I did. So Michelle, this is for you.

The first step is to separate all the Oreos and line them up for the sticks.

Next, dip the lollipop sticks in some melted chocolate and gently stick into in the creme filling. The chocolate will act as a glue when you reassemble the cookie.

If the cookie is breaking when you put the stick in the center, try cutting out a little channel.

Then do the same step as above with the stick and melted chocolate.

After you let them set for a bit, (I usually wait at least half an hour) dip the Oreos in some melted chocolate and place in a piece of styrofoam to dry.

The last step is to decorate how ever you please and then enjoy.

I hope this helps Michelle. ;)

Get Your Fat On!

2011-03-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

It's that time of the year...Fat Tuesday. The past couple of year, I have had some friends over for a Fat Tuesday Dessert Fest and this year was no exception. I like to make bite size goodies so you don't feel like your eating so much, even though you are.

So for this year's enjoyment here is the spread of yum.

I formed the rice krispie treats by putting them in my mini muffin tin.

These are some of my favorites to eat and probably one of my least favorite to make. I have been making chocolate dipped coconut macaroons for years now and they are still as good as the first time I had them.

I brushed the outside of these chocolate dipped mint oreos with some edible gold and metallic green dust just to help incorparate the colors of Mardi Gras.

Since I always have to have some kind of cake pop, I opted to make the "chocolate covered strawberries".

Since I knew I had a lot (and I do mean a lot) of chocolate items, I made some peanut butter and jelly cookies, aka thumbprint cookies.

You can never go wrong with brownies.

Oh My Ganache

2011-03-03T13:18:00.000-08:00

I had planned to post on Tuesday, I really did. But life as I know it went from crazy to extra crazy this week. So here is my post on the chocolate truffles I made for the Death by Chocolate event we went to at my friend's house.

Truffles are super easy and taste oh so yummy! A truffle filling is made from ganache, and while ganache sounds all fancy and hard to make, it is one of the simplest most versatile things. Three ingredients to make the truffle base is all you will need really. This recipe I am going to share is from Better Homes and Gardens. I happen to stumble across it online and luckily, had what I needed to make the truffles.

Chocolate Truffle Base

10 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped (you can use chocolate chips and make it easy on yourself)
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup butter, cut up

In a medium microwave-safe bowl combine semisweet chocolate, whipping cream, and butter. Microcook, uncovered, on high for 1 minute. Remove from microwave and stir until smooth. If necessary, return chocolate mixture to microwave and cook on high for 30 seconds more; stir until smooth.

Now I call this a truffle based, because I added some flavors. I divided the ganache into three bowl and had a little fun.
First I started with some Peppermint extract. I have to admit, I didn't measure how much I used. I just splashed a little in, stirred and gave it a taste.

I did the same thing with the raspberry extract.
For the coconut truffles, I used coconut extract and also added a little shredded coconut to the ganache.

Once you have you flavors mixed in, cover the bowls and refrigerate for 1-1/2 hours. Line a baking sheets with nonstick foil or lightly greased foil or waxed paper. Drop chocolate mixture from rounded teaspoons (or use a small cookie scoop) onto the prepared sheet. Cover with waxed paper; freeze for 10 minutes. Roll the scooped ganache to form a ball. After that you are ready for the coating. I used cocoa for the raspberry, pink tinted coconut for the coconut and powdered sugar for the mint.
The finished delish project.

I Died on Sunday

2011-02-22T12:06:00.000-08:00

Last year for Valentine's Day, my husband, myself and some friends of ours went to Appleton for a Death By Chocolate tour of restaurants and bars. We had fun, enjoying some yummy treats and some oh not so yummy (really gross) treats. Since Valentine's Day was on Monday this year, and since one of the couples was going to be away, we didn't make it this year. So to make up for missing it, the couple who was out of town, had us all over for our own Death By Chocolate (minus the gross treats).

A week or two ago, I saw a blog about "chocolate covered strawberries". These strawberries were actually red velvet cake bites shaped like strawberries and the dipped in chocolate. After seeing them I knew I had to make some for the event.

Instead of red velvet cake, I made a strawberry cake. I have yet to have success with a red velvet recipe, and I didn't feel this was the time to try. So after I shaped the "strawberries", I dipped the tops into red candy melts.

Then I dipped the bottom half into chocolate and drizzled a little chocolate over them to pretty them up.

For the green tops, I made up a batch of marshmallow fondant. I used a flower cutter to get the shape and then pinched each petal to give it more of a leaf look. Now I did dry the tops for a while, which I later regretted since I had trouble attaching them to the strawberries. I think if I had turned this drying tray over and had used the rounder cups, it would have worked better for me.

I attached the green tops with a little water and my berries were ready to be displayed.

I also made Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peanut Butter Mallow Bars (not pictured) and three kinds of truffles, which I'll talk about next week.

Let me tell you, we all made pigs of ourselves and enjoyed all the chocolate that everyone had brought to share that day. Even the foot of snow that was falling outside couldn't stop us from enjoying the night. Thank you again to our friends Aimee and Steve for having us all over!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

2011-02-15T12:33:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post from me today. Last week I had an order from my friend Sharon for some vanilla cake pops for her daughter Lizzie's 5th birthday. Lizzie's birthday falls on Febuary 13th and Sharon wanted something that wouldn't look valentineish. Since Lizzie is such a bright young girl, (and I remembered how much I liked rainbows as a child), I suggested using the colors of the rainbow. Sharon loved that idea and away I went.
I loved the finished look of the cake pops. They were so bright and would looked great displayed on a dessert table. Both Sharon and Lizzie loved the cake pops, and I promise Sharon I will not sell them to you every week even if you beg me to. ;)

Go Pack Go

2011-02-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

I live in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The happiest place on Earth right now. Everyone here is in heaven over the Packers' Super Bowl win! On what turned out to be the best day in the month of February (so far), we held our annual Super Bowl Party. I made some Packer themed treats for everyone to enjoy as they enjoyed watching the game. And I think the two Steeler fans who were here enjoyed the treats too.

First, I made some rice krispes pops dipped in chocolate. I have seen these on many different blogs and thought it would be fun to have all the desserts on a stick.

I was so, so happy when I found football shaped Oreos. They were perfect for the game. I got the sprinkles for the cake pops at my favorite local cake supply store. Nothing say Go Packers like green and yellow and football sprinkles.
My idea of having all the desserts on a stick ended when I decided that I didn't have enough desserts for the party. So the day of (about 1 1/2 hour before guest were arriving), I quickly made up these mini brownie cupcakes with a dollop of chocolate frosting. And of course some Packer sprinkles.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

2011-02-01T11:45:00.000-08:00

Since we here in Wisconsin, are having yet another snow storm and my friends and family out East are getting slammed by yet another snow storm, I thought today's post was appropriate. A couple weeks ago, after a snow fall, the kids and I made some snow ice cream. I had never heard of snow ice cream until last year. And I had never attempted snow ice cream until now. It was pretty easy and pretty tasty.

Start with 6-8 cups of newly fallen snow, 8 ounces whipping cream, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
Mix the cream, sugar and vanilla together until the sugar dissolves.
Pour the cream mixture over the snow and stir with a spoon until creamy. Add more snow if needed to get the right texture and it resembles ice cream.
Serve immediately. We made ours into sundaes with some chocolate sauce and sprinkles.
I should have added some more snow to my ice cream. It melted pretty fast, but the kids really didn't seem to mind one bit.

Fancy for Kenzie

2011-01-27T10:51:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe (at least for me), but my baby girl is turning four today. Yep Mackenzie, my middle child, is now the big 4. We had her birthday this past weekend and went with a Fancy Nancy theme. And even though I really didn't need a big cake for the event, I made a two tiered cake anyway just to get the right look.

The bottom layer was made to look like a tutu. I tried about 3 different ways of creating the ruffle until settling on taking individual circles and half circles and placing them on the side of the cake. Then, I put the flowers, brushed with some pearl disco dust, on for a finishing touch

The top layer I iced with a vanilla buttercream (I was really happy with how smooth I got it). Then I hand painted on the cow spots with black gel food coloring.

The tiara was simply made with hearts and circles of marshmallow fondant. I used the sugar pearls to give it a little extra bling.

To really finish off the cake I used some tall pink candles I had leftover from my own birthday cake. I also put a large gummy butterfly to give one more pop of color. As you can see from the background, the birthday girl couldn't wait for her cake.

Happy Birthday Miss Mackenzie...I love you!

A Sweet Game

2011-01-18T13:01:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I had the pleasure of making a birthday cake and smash cakes for three very cute kiddos. My good friends Aimee, Stephanie and Kara had a joint birthday party for their newly turned 2 year olds. After much thought, they came up with a Candyland theme and asked if I could make a cake like the game board.

This was my interpertation of the Candyland game. I based my design more on the original Candyland game instead of the new updated versions. The cake was marble, with a raspberry filling and a vanilla buttercream.

I was very proud of myself with the making of the playing cards. They were made with white chocolate and then I made them "double" to represent the kids' 2nd birthday. Also due to a big brother's peanut allergy, I made the peanuts out of caramels.

For the smash cakes, I decorated each one with a different candy and a fondant gingerbread man playing piece.

A sweet cake for three very sweet birthday kids. I'll play this version of Candyland anytime.

Where the Wild Things Are

2011-01-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

I meant to post this entry last week, I swear. Then before I knew it, it was the next week. Then I meant to have it all typed up on Monday so I could post it on the very busy Tuesday I had scheduled, but that didn't happen. And well, Tuesday, let's just forget that idea. So anyway, here I am on Wednesday posting. Back in December, my friend Jess asked if I could make some cupcakes, smash cake and cake pops for her little monster who was turning one. She was going with a monster theme for Vincent's big day. So always up for a challenge I said yes and happily started decorating based on the napkin she was using at the party.

For the cake pops, I made three different flavors and then decorated them to resemble monsters (and so people would be able to know which flavor was which). There was orange cake pops dipped in white chocolate, chocolate cake pops (with the green eyes) and almond joy cake pops, one of Jess' favorites.

The colors in the napkin were fun and bright. Oranges, greens, blues and purples. I made this guy up with a little bit of each monster.

For the cupcakes, I went with the four monsters on the napkin. I used the colors and then tried to decorate the cupcake as close as possible to the design using Skittles, fondant, marshmallows and white chocolate.

Here's my collection of monsters all together.

Hut Hut Hike

2010-12-29T05:19:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of making a football themed cake for a little cutie turning one. His mom Stephanie asked for a marble cake with raspberry filling and a smash cake for Greyson. They had decided to go with a football theme, and living here in Green Bay, I naturally made the colors green and gold.

So I started with some green vanilla buttercream to make the field.

And made the side of the cake look like a football field.

For Greyson's smash cake I made his very own #1 jersey out of marshmallow fondant. I used green disco dust to color the 1 and add the stripes.

The football was made by stamping the design on to a piece of fondant.
Touchdown!

So Which One Are You?

2010-12-21T13:53:00.001-08:00

Last week, I shared some snowman cookie pops that I had made for my bunco night.

Remember these?

I had planned to make them again after my husband volunteered to bring dessert to his work party. But when I went to dipped them last night, I realized I did not have enough white chocolate to make 2 dozen of them. So, I started thinking up other ideas. Now mind you, December has been an extra crazy month for me with cookie orders, cake orders and then the everyday crazies that any household has, and my brain was kind of fried at this point.

Then like a lightening bolt, it struck me! I knew how to decorate these tasty looking dark chocolate dipped cookie pops. I decided they needed to ask the age old holiday question.

Well, which one are you? Would Santa bring you this treat?

These are pretty easy treats to make. Sorry I have no pictures of assembling them, I always think about it right after I finish up the last one. I figured I could walk you through it with no pictures, so here goes. First you separate your Oreos into two halves. Then dip the lolli pop stick in some melted chocolate. Place it in the cream section of the cookie and then put the second half of the cookie back on top. Let set...yep pretty much that simple. After they are together, cover in melted chocolate just like you would a cake pop, standing them in a piece of sytrofoam so they dry with no flat bottoms. To make the cookie pops above, I took some melted white chocolate and wrote nice. I let the chocolate completely dry so I would be able to put it face down.

Next, I took a reddish pink chocolate I had leftover from another project to write the word naughty on the other side of the cookie pop.

For display, I took a small box, covered it in one of those leftover pieces of wrapping paper you always have from wrapping gifts, you know the ones I mean. I put in a piece of sytrofoam and ended up with this display.

I just want to end by saying I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks so much for reading my little blog here. :)

Bunco!!!!

2010-12-15T12:33:00.000-08:00

Last April I started playing Bunco with great group of ladies. We take turns each month hosting Bunco night. I got to host the wonderful month of December. Now at first you might ask, are you crazy to host with a month that is so busy with holiday preparations, and the answer to that is yes, yes I am. But then again, after 10 years in the service industry, a crazy December is kind of like second nature to me. Now, when hosting, you always want to make sure you have a great variety of treats and drinks for the other ladies to get the night started off right.

I set up a little cocoa bar to help warm everyone up. I had regular hot chocolate and a white chocolate cocoa, along with chocolate dipped peppermint stirrers and Peppermint Schnapps for those who wanted their cocoa with a little extra something.

I made Cranberry Barbeque Meatballs and a yummy Cherry Butter Braid (sold by my daughter's school at fundraising time).

I also had some sugar snowflake cookies, Peanut Butter Blossoms (my favorite) and Orange Cherry Tea Cookies.

For dips and spreads I made a Cranberry, Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Spread (you can kind of see it in the picture there on the left) A warm Artichoke and Spinach dip, Amaretto dip and fresh made Salsa (thanks to my Mother in law). For my friends dipping pleasure I had Snowflake Ritz, Apple Slices and Tostitos.

Here's a closer look at my cookie selection.

And of course, it wouldn't be one of my parties without cake pops. Accompanying the cake pops are Mint Oreo Cookie Pops. This was my first time ever making them. They were pretty easy and I ended up hand painting on the faces with food coloring because my food coloring markers weren't working on the white chocolate.

Hot Wheels

2010-12-01T09:20:00.001-08:00

My lastest cake was for my friend Drina's adorable son Emery. Emery was turning one and Drina asked for a cake and a smash cake for his party. She had no colors in mind and no theme that she was using. She told me that Emery liked anything with wheels...so a car cake it was.

I have a couple of sets of cookie cutters that have matching stamps. So I cut a car, a pick-up truck and a fire engine out of marshmellow fondant and stamped them with bright colors. I also cut out some stars and stamped then to go on the cake. This was the first time I have tried something like this, and I'm really happy it worked.

I then arranged the cutouts on the side of the cake.

Finished off with a top and bottom border of small shells, and a happy birthday to Emery, and his main cake was done.

For his smash cake, I thought it would be fun to make the side look like a racing flag. I achieve this look by cutting little squares of black fondant and placing them on the cake. I then made a little car out of some fondant to top of the smash cake. After looking at the cake, my youngest, Riley, said cute race car, so that gave me the idea to add the red one on the side of the car.

The complete set. Vroom, vroom!

Pumped for Pie

2010-11-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I decided to make today's post about pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie, yet only really eat it this time of year. It is also a tradition of mine, thanks to my wonderful Poppop, to have a slice of pumpkin pie for breakfast the following day. This year, my parents, as they have done in past years, came to visit for an early Thanksgiving celebration. I made the usual...turkey, stuffing, corn, mashed potatoes and pie. But this year my oldest declared the pie I had made boring. She thought it needed decorating, so I obliged. I pulled out my stash of marshmallow fondant and my fall cookie cutters and away we went.

I cut out some little acorns and started painting them with some food coloring.

I liked how the brown and green looked here.

My oldest, Samantha, was in charged of painting the leaves. I gave her some red, orange and yellow food coloring to play with. She quite enjoyed herself.

I arranged our creations on the pie, and voila...

a non boring pumpkin pie. Now as for the recipe, I have to admit I used Pillsbury pre-made pie crust and followed the recipe on the back of the can of pumpkin puree. It tasted great if I do say so myself.

I wish you all a Happy Holiday filled with loved ones and yummy pie! Happy Thanksgiving.

Something Old, Something New

2010-11-09T05:11:00.000-08:00

I know by the title, you would assume that this was a post about a wedding cake. Well, it is not. The old is me covering a cake in fondant. I haven't done it in awhile, and when I have, I haven't always been thrilled about the results. So I figured I would practice and show you how to cover a round cake.

First you want to have a cake with a beveled edge. Hopefully you can see it in the picture here. Then give the cake a crumb icing. By this I mean, just a thin coat of buttercream, frosting or jam is good. You don't need to make it perfect because it's going to be covered in fondant. Refrigerate your cake for about an hour.

Dust your rolling surface with some cornstrach and roll out your fondant to about 1/4 inch. I always tend to roll mine out to thin. It's something I need to practice.

To easily transfer your fondant to your cake, fold it in half and then lay it on to you cake.

Then unfold the fondant to cover the rest of you cake.

Trim your edge and use your hand to smooth out the top and sides of your cake.

Now for the new. I have been seeing these beautiful cakes where the person has hand painted them. I must say, these people are truly artist and the things they create are amazing. Since I was happy with my covering of the cake, I decided to try my hand at some painting.

I started off easy by painting some leaves. I figured my children can draw leaves, so I should be able to paint them on a cake. First I put a base coat of yellow down to get the shape of the leaf.

Then I added some red highlights to create a contrast for my leaves.

And then I finished with some brown and a very fine paint brush to add the final details of the leaves.

And while I had the brush out, I painted the birthday wish on the top. This cake was to celebrate my wonderful father -in- law's 65th birthday!

BOO...I've Got my Eye on You

2010-10-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

With the start of October comes a month long making of Halloween themed goodies. I started the monthy making some cake pops for my friend Stephanie for our Bunco night. Then I made an order for a friend Heidi, for her Halloween party. And to finish up the Halloween cake pops, I made some for my daughters to take to school and pass out to all their classmates and teachers.

Cake pops ready for Bunco and a Halloween party. When making the cake pops for Bunco, I wanted to make mostly chocolate covered ones because I know people prefer them over the white chocolate ones. However, I just could not resist making the eyeball ones, it is the month of Halloween after all.

My oldest daughter Samantha took these for her 4K school party. I made them out of Pink Lemonade cake, white chocolate coating and them some marshmellow fondant to complete the look.

For my daughter Mackenzie's school party, I made some ghost for the kids. I used vanilla cake and then mixed it with some green and purple buttercreams. The result was a kind of spooky purplely gray cake inside. I thought it went well with the whole ghost theme.

Pretty Pretty Princess

2010-10-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

I know I had a small hiatus there, sorry about that. I didn't have any cake orders and then I had one for last weekend, but since I don't like to show the cake before the people whom order it get to see it, I had nothing to post. Anyhoo, the order I had for the past weekend was for Gabby, who was turning four. Her mom, Jess, asked for a princess cake and sent over a picture of a beautiful cake that Gabby herself picked out. With a few adjustments, Jess and I came up with what you will see below.

The original cake was a three tiered cake, but Jess didn't need quite that much cake. The cake is a marble cake with two layers of a wonderful raspberry filling and one layer of chocolate.

The princess crown was made with marshmellow fondant and then brushed with pearl disco dust to add some shimmer.

I loved how bright the colors of the cake were. Happy fourth birthday Gabby!

All a Flutter

2010-09-28T12:02:00.001-07:00

One of the moms from my playgroup asked if I could make the cake for her daughter's birthday. Wendy said she would like something with butterflies. She also stated that she was planning on using blues, purples and greens, and nothing pastel.

The cake was a white cake with two layers filled with lemon curd and the third layer filled with a strawberry filling. I was going for a strawberry lemonade flavor combination.

I thought it would be fun to have the butterflies flying up the side of the cake. The flower's petals were actually made from the large butterfly wings that I had made to put on the cake, but decided not to use.

All the butterflies were hand painted. I figured by hand painting them, I would keep the color bright and vibrant. This was a fun cake to create and I really like how the butterflies turned out.

Chugging Along and Constructing Some Cakes

2010-09-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

My friends Aimee and Laura had a joint party for their boys, who just happen to be the best of friends. Their cakes were a lot of fun to create, incorporating the likes of each boy. I wanted each cake to be different but coordinate with one another so they looked good together at the party.

Josh loves diggers, so Aimee gave me a bunch of toy diggers to use on his cake.

We went with a construction theme for Josh's cake, which was chocolate with a chocolate filling. I loved the way the rocks, made from marshmallow fondant, turned out.

For Noah's cake, which was vanilla cake with vanilla filling, we went with a train theme.

Laura gave me this great little train set to use on Noah's cake. I had fun making the train seem to go through the cake. I also like how the trees give some added color to the whole cake.

The boys both loved their cakes, which made me very happy to hear. This was a different way of doing cakes for me. It's not too often I get to use toys to decorate cakes. I liked how each cake got to represent the little boy it was created for. Happy belated Birthday Noah and Happy Early Birthday Josh.

The Gift of Cake

2010-09-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

So my cake challenge for this past weekend was to make a cake for two precious little girls for a joint birthday party. A mom from my playgroup Stacy, had first asked if I could make a cake and a smash cake for her daughter Violet's 1st birthday party. She had no particular theme, but wanted a cake that looked like a present and wanted the ribbon to be violet in color. Then she decided to have a joint birthday party for Violet and her other daughter Lily, so we added another smash cake to the order. At first, when asked, Lily said her favorite color was red and therefore I was going to put a red ribbon on her cake. Then she changed her mind to pink, so we went with a pink ribbon, and then used both pink and violet ribbon on the large cake to tie everything together.

Sorry this picture isn't better. I think I need to take some classes on photography when I'm not making cakes.

For the smash cake, I made over sized cupcakes, leveled of the tops, turned them over and made little presents out of them.

The ribbons and name cards were made out of marshmallow fondant.

The cake, a pink lemonade cake with lemon curd filling, was frosted in a pale yellow buttercream. I took great care in making sure the yellow did not get to bright so that the cake would in no way resemble a Minnesota Vikings cake. That would not be looked upon favorably here in Packer country.

I made the ribbon loops and name cards the night before so they could dry and then me put into place. The flowers are made out of marshmallow fondant and then hand painted.

Monkey Business

2010-08-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I had the pleasure to make a fun themed cake for a sweet little girl. At least I think it was a fun theme. Her mom, Stephanie contacted me and asked if I could make a cake with monkeys on it. Thinking a monkey theme cake would be fun to do, of course I said yes. Also fun, was Stephanie wanted to use the colors of pink and brown together. I love pink and brown together.

I had seen a similar version of this monkey on flickr and instantly fell in love with it. I thought the face was so sweet and you can't help but smile at her.

And because I loved the face so much, I made some for the side of the cake too. Extra smiles all around.

Along with the monkey faces, I covered the cake with pink flowers.

I hope Carleigh enjoyed her party! I was told she loved her cake.

Go Fish

2010-08-24T05:04:00.001-07:00

This week, I had a different kind of request for a cake. My husband's cousin Lynn needed a cake for a 30 year old. Now this might not seem strange to you, but you see I don't get a lot of orders for adults. In fact this might be only my second one since I started this blog. Lynn was going to a birthday party for a friend, and when she asked the hostess what she could bring, they said cake. So, after a phone call to me, I got working on what the cake would look like. Lynn told me that the birthday boy was very into hunting and fishing. In my head, I figured that shouldn't be a problem...wrong. Since I'm so use to making cakes for kids, I never question if the figures I put on the cakes look too cartoonish. However, since I was making something for someone over the age of five, I didn't want it to look childish. And of course all the ideas popping into my head where just that. Then I came to the happy conclusion to try and make as realistic looking a fish as I could. It was fun to do, plus I got to use my metallic edible dust to give the fish some piazza.

Pretty happy with my large mouth bass here.

To add a little fun to the corners I made some cattails and pebbles.

I loved getting to use my metallic dust and the way the fish shimmered.

Even the worm and the hook got to shine.

Peanut-5, Honey-39

2010-08-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I had the pleasure to make cakes for two very special people in my life. My oldest daughter Samantha, aka Peanut, turned the big five and my hubby Jeff, aka Honey, turned 39. On Saturday, we had a birthday party for Samantha, and I went with the theme of cupcakes.

First, I made the favors. I had seen on one of the blogs I read, these "cupcakes" made with candy, and thought they would be perfect. Now of course I found these "cupcakes" a week and half before her party, and I wasn't sure if I could get them in time. After thinking about it some more, I decided I could easily make my own "cupcakes". So off to the store to buy some Jelly beans and chocolate truffles for the cherry on top. I was pretty happy with how they turned out and the kids all seem to really like them.

The colors I had put on the invitations were pink, purple and green, so I just continued that to the cake.

Samantha likes polka dots. I figured it would be fun to cover the side of the cake with big dots with a cupcake here and there.

Here is the final outcome. Samantha was very pleased with it, although at one point she did tell me it was missing something. That something turned out to be Minnie Mouse, whom sadly did not make a appearance on the cake.

The next morning, while my hubby was sleeping (a perk of having a birthday fall on the weekend), I made up a cake for his birthday. I then hide the cake and surprised him with it for dinner. Both cakes where chocolate cake with a wonderful raspberry filling and chocolate frosting.

Happy Birthday Peanut and Honey! I love you both!

C is for Cookie

2010-08-10T11:23:00.001-07:00

We love cookies here at my house. So easy to make and so yummy to eat. Now I live by the rule, if it's not chocolate, why bother. The other day I decided to make some Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies. The recipe I used was right on the back of the Nestle Chocolate Chip bag. Now you may be thinking, the only thing I have seen on the back is therecipe for Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies, and you are right. That's the recipe I used. You see, I learned a trick in culinary school where you can basically turn any regular cookie recipe into a chocolate cookie recipe by substituting some cocoa. Rule of thumb is to replace 1/4-1/3 of the flour with cocoa. Very simple and with great results. Here is the recipe for the cookies pictured below. I halved the original recipe because at the time I just wanted a small batch. So the measurements listed below are for a small batch.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 c flour

1/4 c plus 2 Tbsp cocoa (I use a mix of natural and Dutched process cocoa)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/3 c sugar

1/3 c brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 1/2 c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

Beat the butter, brown sugar, sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until creamy. Add egg. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.

Scoop out cookie dough onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake 9 to 11 minutes. Cool and enjoy!

Moooo...Cow!

2010-08-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

That is what my youngest, Riley, said when he saw the latest cake I got to make. Moooo...cow!One of the moms from my playgroup asked me to make a cake for her daughter, who was turning two this past weekend. She didn't have a theme for the party, but did tell me that her daughter was into farm animals. The only thing she asked for is that it be a yellow cake with strawberry filling. So after doing some browsing on flickr for some inspiration, I got to working on some adorable (at least in my opinion) farm animals made out of fondant.

I made three cows , 2 ducks and 2 pigs to sit on top of the cake. The spots and hooves on the cows were hand painted, as were the eyes for all the animals.

I thought it would be cute to decorate the sides of the cake with a bandanna print.

Along with the animals, I also made a cake with candle, party hat and blanket out of fondant. All things necessary for the animals to throw their own little birthday party on top of the cake.

I have to say I really had fun making this cake and I was really happy with how it turned out.

Short and Sweet

2010-07-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it's been a couple of weeks now that I have posted something new. And it's not like I haven't made anything as of late. I had an order for 75 cake pops for an after wedding party. That was the first time I had to ship the cake pops, and happily, it went well. Then reason I haven't posted is vacation. The one week I was trying to get ready for it, and the other week, I was on it. And this week, we are recovering from vacation. So, I really don't have anything to post today either, but I wanted to at least explain my lack of blogging. I hope to have a post for you next week.

Going to the Chapel

2010-06-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-06-22T04:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-08T14:46:00.001-07:00

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...

2010-06-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

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.

Cake Pop Takeover

2010-05-25T05:02:00.000-07:00

That's right...a cake pop takeover here on the blog. I know as of late they have been taking over my kitchen. I have been making different styles, different flavors and even a different shape. I always have people ask me for the recipe for these guys, so here goes.

Step one- make your favorite cake. It can be from scratch or from a box, doesn't matter, just bake it off and let it cool.

Step two- crumble the cake in a big mixing bowl and then mix with your favorite frosting or icing. Once again can be homemade or can be out of a can (I've done both and they both taste great).

Step three- shape into balls, insert lollipop sticks, let set in refrigerator (or if you are in a hurry the freezer) and then dip into melted chocolate.

Step four- enjoy!

See, they are pretty easy and if you would like a more detail recipe, go to Bakerella.com. That's were I first saw cake pops. You will be amazed what she does with cake pops. She even has a book coming out this fall (have to pre-order mine today) She's great at giving step by step instructions with great pictures.

Below, I have pictures of the cake pops (well some of the cake pops) I have made over the past year. It's fun coming up with different ways to make a simple cake on a stick so yummy. Enjoy (I know I have)!

These are cupcake cake pops. Who knew this would be the start of it all.

Cake Pops for Taya and Tyla's birthday.

Sometimes (I will admit) I get a little overwhelmed with all the cake pops orders, so here's a little cake pop humor. ;)

Cake pops for my oldest's last day of preschool. The teachers were very happy to find out my middle child would be attending next year.(quote "yeah, cake pops next year too")

Cake pops for a house warming gift. I love the way the ones with the sugar pearls look, but you have to like you cake pops crunch to eat them.

I like how the dark and white play out here. I think it's a nice visual.

Cake pops I quickly made up last night. These are some of my experiments with flavor. The two on the ends have a lemon crunch sprinkle on them (a fun new goodie I got from Pampered Chef) and the middle one is a Almond Joy cake pop (almond cake with coconut in the center).

Tease Revealed

2010-05-11T04:35:00.000-07:00

Remember this picture from last week?

Well, I'm here to show you the rest of it. As some of you guess, I was making something with a John Deere Theme. I know a tractor, which my nephew would love, was guess, but it was actually a John Deere Gator. Jodi, one of the Moms from my playgroup, asked if I could make a cake with a boy riding the gator for her son Alex's 4th birthday. She sent me a picture of Alex on his and armed with that and what I know about John Deere gators (which I must say is very little right now, I came up with the following cake.

Here is fondant Alex riding the fondant gator. The cake was covered in vanilla buttercream and I used buttercream to pipe the grass.

I covered the cake board with fondant and then added the fondant fence as a border. At the last minute, I added some fondant lady bugs, to add a little splash of color, but didn't get a new picture.

Along with the cake, I made some cupcakes for the party guest to enjoy. Happy Birthday Alex.

Tease

2010-05-04T04:20:00.000-07:00

This will be a short post, but I wanted to make sure to have one today, being Tuesday and all. I have a cake coming this weekend that at first scared me. I think I have mentioned before how I get a picture of what I believe the cake should look like. There are times then that the actual cake doesn't match the image in my head, and then I'm not happy. Well this cake , or to be more precise, cake topper just wasn't popping into the old noggin on how to make it. Then finally it came to me (big sigh of relief). Since I wanted to make sure to do all I could for it, I started making the topper last weekend. And I'm thankful to report that it's done and now I have to make the cake and cupcakes to go with it. So stay tuned, next week you will get to see everything put together. In the meantime, here's a little sneak peak of what I've been working on.

Double Your Pleasure

2010-04-26T08:56:00.001-07:00

Last week, I promised to show you what else I had made a few weeks ago. I also promised to post on Tuesday...I like keeping promises, so here we go. My friend Heather called to order cake for her twin daughters', Tyla and Taya, second birthday. And in the process of ordering a cake, she decided to order cake pops instead. She didn't care how I decorated them, she just asked for something girly. She also told me that the girls were into dolls, but that was all she could really give me. So challenge accepted and completely fun to do. Right away, my old brain went a working on what I could come up with for the girls' big day. Below you will see what the they got for their 2nd birthday.

Cake pops don't start out looking too pretty, but boy do they taste good. Amazing how you can dress something up with a little chocolate....white and red chocolate as this case may be. So from these not so appetizing balls of cake and frosting I made these for the girls...

Heather and I decided to have two bunches of cake pops for the party. So with that in mine, and the fact that the girls like dolls, I made these flower pots of goodies. I made different shades of pink by mixing white chocolate along with some red chocolate melts that I had. I bought the sugar flowers at my local cake supply store. This help me take care of the girly requirement of the order. To represent the girls interest, I added two more cake pops to the order and created little cake pop dolls. Another friend of mine was kind enough to give me some pretty paper to make the dolls' dresses. Then all I had to do was add the pipe cleaner arms and draw the faces on with food coloring markers.

A doll for Tyla...
and a doll for Taya.
For displaying the cake pops, I got two terra cotta pots along with some floral foam. Then it was as easy as sticking the pops into the foam and making a nice arrangement. After every pop was placed, I added some decorative grass to help hide the floral foam and really finish off the pots. And there you have a fun alternative to a cake.

Hope you had a great birthday Tyla and Taya.

Baby I'm a Star

2010-04-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I said I would be posting every Tuesday. And yes, I know it's Wednesday, and late in the day on Wednesday to boot. But life has just been so busy for me as of late that I totally forgot to blog yesterday. Funny how life gets in the way of blogging sometimes. Anyway, I had two orders again this past week. And once again they were two very different orders. I have one here to show you today. I'm saving the other for next week because as of right now, I have nothing to write about or show you next Tuesday (and I promise I will do my best to post next Tuesday). My friend Aimee asked me to make some cookies for her son Josh. Last week was his star week at his school, and she wanted something to pass out for all the kids to take home with them. So to celebrate Josh being a star, I made him shooting star cookies.

I used the flooding technique to ice the cookies. Here's my outline all ready to go.

I filled the star with white royal icing...but I didn't stop there.

I colored some royal icing and the piped on the different colors in a bulls-eye pattern. But I still didn't stop there.

I then pulled a toothpick through the wet icing to create a spiderweb effect. This is very easy to do and people love the way it looks. Simply start in the center and lightly drag the toothpick through your icing.

To finish off the cookies, I colored more royal icing and filled in the shooting part of the star. When that icing was dry, I used a food coloring marker to add the detail.

Cakes of the Week

2010-04-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

So this past week was very busy for me cake wise. I had two separate and totally different cakes for the weekend. The first was for my friend Melissa, who's little girl Nora was turning 2. Melissa was going with a rubber ducky theme and had found this cute bathtub cake for the party. The second cake was for my friend Cecilia's husband Doug, who was reaching the great age of 40 this past week. She requested a martini glass cake with cake bites on the side.
Both cakes had their challenges and both cakes were fun to make. I was pleased with how each one turned out.

To start the bathtub cake, I had to make some rubber duckies. Using yellow fondant, I shaped four balls into three different sizes, one for the body, one for the head and two for the wings. Then I also had a small orange ball to make the beak.

First, take the largest of the balls and shape that into the body of the duck.

Then, keeping the second ball it's original shape, I placed it on the body to make the head of the duck.

I flattened the last two balls a little and shaped them to create the ducks wings. I attached them to the side of the body with a little water.

With the orange ball, I simply shaped it into a beak and once again attached it using water. Then I took a very small paintbrush and some blue food coloring to paint on the duck's eyes, and I had my rubber ducky.

Rubber Ducky, you're the one... You make bath time so much fun...

Now on to the cake...

I used three layers of vanilla cake to create the bathtub because part of the top layer would be cut out to make the actual tub section. I was worried about getting that section out, but thankfully it went a lot smoother then I could have imaged.

After the cake was covered in buttercream, I used blue fondant to create the water in the tub.

Using fondant, a toothpick, edible metallic silver dust, a small paint brush and black food coloring, I made the faucet for the tub.

The duckies were quite content in their bathtub home.

To make the bubble, I rolled out some fondant and then used a large round pastry tip to cut them out. I quickly rolled them and the tossed them in some pearl luster dust.

A little fondant on the cake board to create a tile floor and Nora's cake was complete. Happy Birthday Nora!

Now on to Doug's cake...

With this cake I assembled the layers and then cut out the shape of the glass.

After getting the buttercream as smooth as I think I have ever gotten buttercream, I piped a little detail on the glass and then wrote salutations with melted chocolate to the birthday boy.

Then with a little food coloring, edible metallic dust and fondant, I topped the martini off with the customary olives on a toothpick.

The olives surrounding the cake are actually cake bites, and fun and sweet final touch. Happy 40th Birthday Doug and welcome to the club.

As the Cookie Crumbles

2010-04-09T04:27:00.000-07:00

I can not believe that it is Friday already. My week, no make that my year has been flying by, especially as of late. I truly meant to post on Tuesday, but my morning got away from me. Then on Wednesday, I was away basically for the whole day (baseball game). I have two cakes that I am making for friends this weekend, so Thursday was taking up by that and by the kids' new haircuts. So here I am, it's Friday morning and I'm finally putting up my post. My oldest has been on spring break this week, so last week I made cookies for her to take to school and pass out before all the kids left for break. Samantha was so happy to have the cookies and even told one of her teachers that her mom was really talented (I swear I didn't pay her to say that). So later that day, I went to pick her up at school, only to discover that they had forgotten to give out the cookies. Luckily I was one of the first there for pick up, so one of her teachers ran in and got them and passed them out to any of the remaining kids.

When I decided to make these cookies, it was kind of hard to settle on what I was going to do. You see, I had been seeing soooooooo many cute things on the Internet, I just couldn't decide what I wanted these cookies to look like. I finally chose to make them look like baby chicks coming out of eggs. This is the first time I have made cookies completely covered in fondant. I really likes how they came out.

My egg shaped cookies just waiting to be decorated.

I started off by making the chick. I used the same cookie cutter that made the eggs cookies, and then just cut the bottom half of the fondant off.

Next, with the egg cookie cutter in hand once again, I cut out the bottom half of the egg. Using a knife, I cut out the crack of the shell.

Using a large round pastry tip, I cut out the dots for the egg shells. Then, I glued them on the shell using a little water.

I used the same technique to make the chick's eyes.

A little blue food color to help dot the eyes and orange triangle for the beaks and Eggbert was ready for the kids...or at least the kids still there to get one.

Cookies for Gabby

2010-03-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

Last week, a friend from my playgroup, asked me to make some cookies for her daughter's naming ceremony. She asked that the cookies have the design and colors similar to the dress that Gabby would be wearing. Gabby's dress was this beautiful purple color and I must say it was fun having a base icing on the cookies that wasn't white.

I have to say sorry now, as my pictures are not the best. Don't know really what was going on, but I couldn't get a good shot to save my life that day.

Tools of the trade. Whoever thought up food coloring makers was a genius. They came in very handy when decorating these cookies.

A clean slate ready to be decorated.

I started off by doing the outline of the design. I tried to work one color at a time to make myself more efficient. Don't really know if I accomplished this or not since this was the first time I was doing these and I had given myself plenty of time before the shipping deadline (I'm good like that).

The yellow center is added.

It's a shame I'm such a bad photographer and that I couldn't get a true picture of the colors on the cookie. Here I added the purple touches to the cookie.

And to finish off the cookie, the green leaf is added and the flower is colored in blue. After all the cookies were decorated, they were shipped off to Arizona for the ceremony. Happily they made it there with only a few causalities which quickly became quality control tests.

Can you Show me How to Get...

2010-03-23T06:38:00.001-07:00

So here is the post I should have posted before my last post, but was so busy making goodies for my last post that I forgot to post it. Make sense? Anyway, this is the cake I made for my friend Gina's son Cooper. He turned two in early March. Gina had decided to go with a Sesame Street theme and asked me to make Cooper's cake. Gina was making some Sesame Street character cupcakes and wanted the street sign as the birthday cake.

Here is the finished product. I iced the cake with buttercream and then used marshmallow fondant for the lettering and the outline of the cake. I was hoping for a darker green, but didn't want to kill the icing with food coloring.

I ready liked how the yellow fondant curved on the bottom of the cake here.

Here is the cake at the party. I love the cupcakes Gina made and I think the birthday cake looked great with them.

I added this picture to show that I almost had a cake wreck on my hands. Can you see the problem, I'll give you a minute...

Yep, I spelled Cooper's name wrong. Thankfully, my husband came home and pointed out my mistake and I was able to fix my error. I was mortified that I did this, and yes Gina did see this picture as I sent it over to see if she wanted me to change anything with the cake. Right after I sent her the picture, I sent another message about the blunder and sincere apologizes. Still a little mortified that I did this. I'm just so glad the cake was fixed before the birthday boy got to enjoy it and his party.

The Big 40

2010-03-15T05:01:00.000-07:00

So this was it, the year of the big 40. That's my age now, and I'm fine with that. Hey with a number like that, a big party was in order, and a big party we had. And of course no party is complete without a dessert table right? I started making goodies for my table on Sunday, and finished Thursday night around 10:30. I was very busy last week with the making of treats and my oldest daughter's class field trip that we went on together. That would be why I didn't get a chance to post last week. That amd I cpmpletely forgot to. And of course I had something to show you all. Oh well, I'll have to hold that for another day. As for my dessert table, I got a little carried away, like always, and some things came out exactly how I wanted them, and others did not. But all in all, I loved how my table turned out and everyone enjoy the treats. Below you will find pictures of the table in all it's glory and individual shots of all the goodies my guests had to choose from. Enjoy, we sure did!

I used the colors of pink, green, brown and red (all colors on the invitation sent out) to create and decorate the treats and table. And before you think I did all of this on my own, I did not. I had help from my husband and two great friends.

Here is my birthday cake, and yes I did make my own birthday cake. Sounds crazy I know, but I like my cakes, so why should we pay someone else. Now I will admit, at first I hated my cake. You see it didn't look like this in the beginning. I redid two of the layers because I hated them so much. Also, I am my own worst critic. The problem is I get a vision of what I want in my head, and then when that vision doesn't come close (and in this case, anywhere close), I start to not like my work. After reworking the layers, I liked my cake and it got to show itself off on the table. There are still some things I would have done differently, but I was overall pretty happy with it. The K on the second layer is actually fondant that I shaped and then brushed with a red metallic dust. It was suppose to sit on the top of the cake, but ended up being to heavy to do so.

These are the famous cake pops. If you are friends with me on Facebook, you may have seen a lot of banter and posting over these guys. People just love when I make them. I wasn't sure how to put these on display until my friend and I went to JoAnn Fabrics to buy supplies for the table. What we came up with was cutting a big styrofoam ball in half, painting it with chocolate and then pressing some floral grass (I'm not really sure what it's called) on it to make a base to stick the cake pops into. I was really pleased how they turned out and saved the half balls to use again(since I'm sure friends will always be requesting cake pops).

These are my favorite. Chocolate dipped coconut macaroons. I have made these for years now, and I love them every time. In fact, it's probably a good thing that they are a bit of a pain to make, because if they were easy I would be eating them all then time. And then my waistline would disappear.

I thought it would be nice to have some chocolate dipped pretzels just to give the table some height and color. You can get much easier then these guys and I really liked how they turned out.

Good old brownie bites with buttercream icing.

These are my Mom's dainty almond tea cookies that we usually only have at Christmas time. I made them to give a non chocolate option to my guest, and to add a little red to the table.

Believe it or not, these guys were suppose to be fortune cookies. I had my batter all ready and the fortunes printed out ready to hide in the cookies. My friend Cecilia came over to help make them since we would only be able to make a few at a time and I wanted about 50 cookies. We did many attempts, probably about 5 times or roughly 15 cookies. They tasted great, but just weren't working. So plan B went into effect. I piped out the cookies, baked them off, dipped them in dark chocolate and Cecilia sprinkled them with the pink sugar I had gotten for the fortune cookies. For a failed cookie, these were definitely one of the favorites of the night. Basically the cookie batter is a chocolate tuile that I added a little almond extract and orange zest too. These are a keeper for sure.

Here is another dessert that didn't quite turned out the way I was hoping it would. My Father-in-law had brought over some cream cheese earlier in the week, and one of the containers was a mixed berry flavor. I figured with that. I could make little cheesecakes, but when I went shopping for last minute ingredients that I needed, I forget to get the Cool Whip (I was making a no bake recipe). I did have some Cool Whip, just not enough for what the recipe called for. I went ahead and made them anyway, because once again, I wanted to give a non chocolate option. I wasn't going to use them, but after my 2 taste testers (my husband Jeff and friend Cecilia) tried them and liked them, they were dressed up with some strawberries and made the table.

These chocolate truffles were my third and final dessert that didn't come out as I wanted, but tasted too, too good not to use. My ganache was just a little too soft and even though the truffles were rolled in cocoa twice, they came out with a marble look to them. Still tasty and still enjoyed by the party goers.

Me with my table. Looking forward to my next dessert table now. :)

What's Been Going On.

2010-03-02T04:44:00.001-08:00

So I have been meaning to post these next pictures for almost two weeks now. One picture is from the Valentine's Day party that my oldest had at her school, and the other pictures are from the Fat Tuesday fest I had with some friends. I really did mean to blog about them, but other posts got in their way. What can I say, sometimes I have too much for the week, and other times (like today) I haven't got squat. I figure today was better late then never for these guys, so here they are for your viewing pleasure.

First up, the Fat Tuesday fest of little desserts.

This is a Donut Muffin. These are super simple and pretty tasty. I covered mine in cinnamon sugar, but I'm thinking you could also roll them in powdered sugar, or cover them in a chocolate glaze. I'm planning on trying that sometime soon and will post the recipe and results then.

Here we have one of my favorites, Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons. I used to make these all the time at the catering company I worked at. The recipe is pretty simple too, they are just a little time consuming to make because they are shaped by hand (and I used to make hundreds of these a week). There is a recipe for these, but I have made them so much, I don't even measure anymore. If you would like to make them, here is the base recipe and then you can change as you wish.

Coconut Macaroon

6 T evaporated milk

3 cups flaked coconut

1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl. Shape by hand into small balls. Place on a greased baking sheet sprinkled with flour.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and then dip bottoms in chocolate.

These next goodies where kind of made up on the fly. I had come across a recipe for a Chocolate Ganache Cherry Macaroon Tart, and took parts of it to come up with these Chocolate Cherry Tarts. They were nice, but I don't think they were any one's favorites. Back to the drawing board for these guys.

Here we have Cake Bites that were shaped like little cupcakes. I believe these won hands down as everyone's favorite. I found this recipe on Bakerella's blog, and they have been big hits every time I make them. All you need for these is a cake, some frosting of your choosing and some chocolate for coating. I could give directions on how to make these, but I will give the link to Bakerella's site so you can have exact directions on how to make them. http://www.bakerella.com/cupcake-bites-made-easy/

These are Brownies Bites with Chocolate Frosting. You can never go wrong with brownies, and they make up so nice when you do them in mini size.

If your teeth aren't hurting yet from all the sugar, I have one more treat to share with you. For Samantha's school Valentine's Day party, I made sugar cookies for all the kids.

I decided to practise the flooding technique again with these cookies. While the icing was still wet, I added the red dots of royal icing so the dots would blend with the background. They came out nice and I hope all the kids enjoyed them.

Well, there you have it. What I have been doing along with the other post of the past couple weeks. Busy, busy busy. And the next two weeks are going to be more of the same, so stay tune.

And They Called it Cuppie Love

2010-02-22T15:00:00.001-08:00

On Bakerella's site yesterday, she was having a giveaway for a diaper bag that was call Red Velvet Cake. After seeing that I decided to once again try my hand at making a red velvet cake, or cupcake as the case may be. I'm not a huge fan of red velvet, but I figured if I ever do get to open a business up, I should have a good recipe all ready to go. Plus, Iron Cupcake Earth is here again, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and set about whipping up a batch of cupcakes yesterday.

As always with the IC Earth challenge, the prizes are wonderful. And just like last time, you all get to vote and maybe help me win. What are the wonderful prizes you ask, well to begin with there is The Demy by Key Ingredient (check it out here http://www.mydemy.com/). And then there are the books Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson (http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/) and The Cake Doctor Returns! by Anne Byrne (http://www.workman.com/products/9780761129615). Plus fun cupcakes accessories from Bella Cupcake Couture (http://www.bellacupcakecouture.com/), the Cupcake Stacker from Gourmac (http://www.gourmac.com/custset.html) and Beautiful Bakeing Liners by Vestli House (http://www.vestlihouse.com/index.htm). And last but certainly not least Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Bakery & Cupcakey Supply (http://www.acupcakery.com/info.html). How could you not want to enter this challenge with all these goodies up for grabs.

This month the challenge was passion. So I had to make something based or inspired by love or passion. I decided that, as of late, cupcakes have been my passion, so I created the following cupcake.

My red velvet batter ready to be made into cupcakes. I didn't add a ton of red food coloring and as a result, got more of a red garnet velvet batter.

Ready for the oven.

Not as red as I had hope for. Next batch should probably have more coloring.

I filled the centers of the cupcake with cherry preserves. To cut out the centers, just use a circle cutter and then hollow out some more if you want a deeper center.

I topped the cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream, making sure to get a nice and high crown of frosting. Then I put them in the freezer.

And the reason I put the cupcakes in the freezer was so I could dip them in yummy ganache. I double dipped my cupcakes to get a nice coating, putting them back into the freezer between dippings.

Here's one cut in half so you can see the whole make-up of the cupcake.

After adding a few fondant pieces, I achieved Cuppie Love!

So if you think this looks good, please go vote for me. (please, please,please) Voting will begin no later than Sunday, February 28th 8:00pm and last until Thursday, March 4th at 12 noon CST. You can go to Nobody Puts Cupcake in a Corner at http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/ to vote for me (please,please, please). And if you would like to find out more about IronCupcake Earth, please go to http://www.ironcupcakeearth.com/.

The Cake Blues

2010-02-16T12:44:00.000-08:00

For this week's blog, I once again got to go under the sea. Birthday girl Lizzie told her Mom Sharon, that she wanted a cake with Ariel the Little Mermaid on it. And not only did she want Ariel, but she wanted the cake to be blue inside and out. I decided to make a Kool-aid cake to achieve the blue color without killing it with food coloring. To make Ariel and Flounder for the cake, I used marshmallow fondant. I also used the fondant to make some coral and seaweed to decorate the sides.

Blue buttercream covering a blue cake.

After cutting all the pieces out of fondant, I used a food coloring markers to outline Ariel and Flounder. I added candy pearls to make bubbles.

Bright color coral and seaweed to complete the sides.

Under the Sea for birthday girl Lizzie!

A Super Dessert

2010-02-09T04:25:00.000-08:00

First I must start out by saying I had planned to do a little more with my dessert for the Super Bowl, but this past weekend brought a lot of changes at our house. Instead of having a busy weekend full of parties and friends, we had a weekend of hospitals and surgery. My husband had his gall bladder removed on Saturday. This was in no way planned, and a total surprise to both of us. I am happy to report that everything went great, and he is recovering nicely. With him at the hospital, I also got to spend my day there, so nothing got done at home for our Super Bowl party. Yes, believe it our not, we still had the party. Crazy, I know, but true. So Sunday morning before picking him up from the hospital, I threw together the dessert. You might remember from a previous post, me talking about making dirt dessert. Before, I made it with white chocolate pudding and vanilla wafers to make it look like sand (or desert as I was calling it). Well this time around, I decided to make turf. I figured it was only right with the big game and all. So this dirt dessert was made with chocolate pudding and crushed Oreos. Below is the recipe, which you can adjust to make whatever flavor or look you want, and a picture of the finish product (in my rush to get things done on Sunday, I only got one photo).

Dirt Dessert

1 package instant pudding
1 1/2 c milk
8 oz cool whip
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 package Oreos, crushed

Prepare the pudding mix with the milk. Set aside.
Whip the softened cream cheese, and then combine with the cool whip.
Stir the cool whip mixture into the pudding.

Layer dirt filling and crushed cookies in a pan, making sure to end with a layer of cookies.

Now to make the turf, I took some sugar cookie dough, dyed it green, and then baked it off. After that, I crushed it just like the other cookies, and I then had my field, or turf. The lines on the field, I just piped royal icing to create half a football field. I bet players wouldn't mind a face plant into this turf.

Some Like it Hot

2010-02-02T15:00:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been reading a lot of blogs that have some of the most beautiful cookies you have ever seen. This week, I decided to try my hand with the technique they use to decorate the cookies. Now, I have done this way of decorating once before, just never on a cookie. So, with a special person's birthday coming up, I went to work on the cookies. My sister-in-law, who has a birthday this Thursday, recently moved to Flagstaff, Arizona. To celebrate that and her birthday, I made some cactus and chile pepper cookies (not in taste, just in looks). Now I know that I usually don't post pictures of things I have made for people before they get to see them, but I'm sure Katie has seen these, as I sent them out a little early for her birthday (just wanted to make sure I didn't miss it).

Anyhow, here are the cookies, and how to decorate by flooding your cookie.

First, with a stiff royal icing, pipe your outline of the cookie. Let this dry to form your border.

With the chile peppers, I worked with two colors to make them look real.

Two tone borders. Pretty, but not quite done yet...

Now, thin your royal icing with some water. If you apply the 5-10 count rule, you will know if you consistence is right. What I mean by this is, after mixing in the water, run your spatula through the icing and count to 10. If the icing comes back together and looks smooth while you are counting from 5 to 10, it's good. If it is under 5, add a little more powdered sugar to thicken it up. If it takes longer then 10, add more water.

Fill your borders with the royal icing. Give your cookies a little shake to help smooth out the icing. If you have any air bubble, pop them with a toothpick or pin. If you let them pop on their own, they will create a hole in your design.

And there you have it. Cookies with a smooth glossy finish that look as good as they taste.

I liked doing these cookies, and plan to make more, as there are other tricks with this type of decorating that I would like to try...stay tuned.

The Cat's Meow

2010-01-26T06:22:00.000-08:00

This past week, I took on a cake challenge for myself. My little girl Mackenzie is turning three tomorrow, and this past weekend was her party. So I had to pull out all the stops to make her cake. The theme I went with this year was cats. Kenzie loves cats and sometimes even pretends to be one. I had seen a 3D cat cake on flickr and crazy me, decided to make that cake for the party. This was my first ever 3D cake, and first time having to crave a cake (if you have ever seen Ace of Cakes, you have seen them doing this to cake). I will admit there was a time that this cat cake was either going to end up headless or not at all, as the head came very close to being thrown across the room. Thankfully, once I made a few changes to the cake and the vision in my head, everything came together.

To start, I assembled the body. Here is pre-craving ...

...and here is post craving, iced and ready for fondant.

Now the colors I used for the party were pink, orange and green. Since Kenzie's birthday is in the dead of winter, I wanted bright fun colors. Because of that, I decided to make the cat orange.

Body complete with legs and tail. This part went so well, that I was ready to brave making the head, with very high hope for it to go as smoothly as the body did.

The head ready for craving. Feeling really good still at this point. Sadly, my hopes were dash pretty fast, and things were looking bleak for our little cat here. Thankfully after 4 attempts (and they say third times a charm-ha!) I came up with the following...

A head for the cat!

Notice the cat is smiling...it was very happy too that it didn't go airborne.

Here is the final cat cake. For not really knowing what I was doing, I'm happy with how the cake turned out.

Back view of the cake, complete with pretty pink bow.

Wanting to make sure I had enough cake for everyone, I made some matching cupcakes. They were never in any danger of flying across the room.

Our happy birthday girl with her cat cake. This picture alone makes any trouble I had with the cake all worth it.

And because we didn't have enough cat stuff for the party, I made these cookies as favors for the kids.

Here I Go Again

2010-01-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

Yep, I'm trying again. I am entering the IronCupcake Earth Challenge, and maybe this time I will win. What is the IronCupcake Earth you ask...well, it's a monthly worldwide competition where bakers make yummy cupcakes based on that month's theme. And even though I have great family and friends who voted their butts off, I didn't win last time partly due to my lack of reading the full write-up on how the winner is picked. Oh, well, I had fun making my last entire, and I had fun making this on too. This month's theme is winter warm-up, so instantly I thought of hot chocolate. But I didn't want to do just a simple hot chocolate cupcake, so I decided to reverse mine. For this month's challenge I made a Reverse Hot Chocolate Cupcake (at least that's what I'm calling it). So my cupcake is a Marshmallow Cupcake, filled with Chocolate Ganache and topped with Chocolate Ganache and a few marshmallow. I found a recipe online for a Snowflake Marshmallow Cupcakes by Gail Wagman' Cupcake Galore, and then changed the recipe a little to come up with my cupcake.

And just like last time, you all get to vote and maybe help me win some wonderful prizes. What are the wonderful prizes you ask, well to begin with there is The Demy by Key Ingredient (check it out here http://www.mydemy.com/). And then there are the books Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson (http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com/) and The Cake Doctor Returns! by Anne Byrne (http://www.workman.com/products/9780761129615). Plus fun cupcakes accessories from Bella Cupcake Couture (http://www.bellacupcakecouture.com/), the Cupcake Stacker from Gourmac (http://www.gourmac.com/custset.html) and Beautiful Bakeing Liners by Vestli House (http://www.vestlihouse.com/index.htm). And last but certainly not least Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Bakery & Cupcakey Supply (http://www.acupcakery.com/info.html). How could you not want to enter this challenge with all these goodies up for grabs.

So below is my recipe for marshmallow cupcakes and pictures of the assembled cupcake.

Marshmallow Cupcakes:

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup marshmallow fluff
1/2c mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350

Combine flour and baking powder and set aside.
Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until incorporated.
Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, starting and ending with the flour.
Blend in marshmallow fluff and marshmallow.
Fill muffin tray 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick come out clean when stuck into the center of a cupcake.

Once your cupcakes are cooled, it's time to fill them with yummy ganache. Using a circle cutter and knife, I cut a cone shape out of each cupcake.

Fill each center with ganache (sorry for the picture quality, I forget to turn the flash on sometimes)

Put the tops back on the cupcakes.

Cover the cupcakes with more ganache to finish your creation.

Then just for fun and presentation, I put a few marshmallow on top to really finish the cupcake off.

Also, I just wanted to say thank you to all my tatse testers on this one. Glad you liked the cupcake.

So if you think this looks good, please go vote for me. (please, please,please) Voting will begin no later than Thursday, January 28th 8:00pm and last until Thursday, February 3rd at 12 noon CST. You can go to Nobody Puts Cupcake in a Corner at http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/ to vote for me (please,please, please). And if you would like to find out more about IronCupcake Earth, please go to http://www.ironcupcakeearth.com/.

Hold Me Closer Tiny Dancer

2010-01-18T05:12:00.000-08:00

I have been very busy with cake orders lately. I had yet another this past weekend. I love getting all these orders because it allows me to be creative without the worry over consuming all the calories if those cakes and goodies were to stay at my house. Plus, I have plenty of material for this blog, so much in fact, I will be posting another one tomorrow. But I digress.

This past weekend's order was for Ellie's 1st birthday. Her Mom, Stephanie, ask for a birthday cake and smash cake, and let me know that they were doing pink and a ballerina-ish theme. She also told me to have fun and do what I wanted. First up, we have the smash cake. I had seen a ballerina cake online that I so wanted to do, but there was one problem with it. The cake was covered in fondant, and I just didn't think a fondant covered cake made for a good smash cake for a 1 year old. So I went back to the drawing board, but all I seem to be coming up with dealt with a cake covered in fondant. Then finally, the lightening bolt struck. I went back to my original idea for a ballerina, and made a tutu smash cake, with lots of buttercream to provide the birthday girl with plenty of mess.

To start the tutu cake, I baked a small chocolate (of course) bundt cake and then put a first coat of vanilla buttercream on it.

From there, I piped the ruffles on the tutu with a flower tip. The ballet slippers are made of fondant and then covered with pink glitter dust. I also sprinkled a little glitter dust on the tutu, but it's hard to tell in the picture.

I cut a bodysuit out of fondant and once again covered it with pink glitter dust. Behold, a tiny dancer for a tiny lady.

For Ellie's cake, I decided to keep it fairly simple, and tried to make it as pink as possible. The side work is suppose to represent the ribbon on ballet shoes that a ballerina would lace up her legs. And since ballerinas get flowers after a performance, a few pink roses for the birthday girl.

Hope you had a very Happy 1st Birthday Ellie.

For the Glory (and Baby Alastair)

2010-01-13T03:39:00.000-08:00

On December 30th, my friend Jan and her family got to welcome their son, Alastair, into the world. So to celebrate his arrival, I may some Sleeping Baby Boy Cupcakes, and some Baby Nittany Lion Cupcakes. Now you may ask why I made the Nittany Lion ones...you see Jan, her husband and myself all went to Penn State. And being out here in Wisconsin, you have to show off your Lion pride whenever you can. So I had a lot of fun creating these little guys to give to them. Sorry the pictures are smaller then usual. Once again my computer knowledge gets in the way, but at least I was able to post.

We are...

Penn State!

Under the Sea

2010-01-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, I had an order for some cupcakes for a 3 year old's birthday. His mom, Nicole, was using an Under the Sea theme for his party, and asked for cupcakes to match. I went to a store and got a dolphin, a starfish, a seahorse and a fish cookie cutter to make the toppers for the cupcakes. Nicole ordered 24 cupcakes, 12 chocolate and 12 vanilla, with a special cupcake made up for the birthday boy.

Here are all the cupcakes. It's hard to tell, but the buttercream is two shade of blue to help tell the cupcakes flavors apart. I like how colorful the group turned out to be here.

Each fondant sea creature has glitter dust to add a little special touch to each one.

Here is the birthday boy's special cupcake. I'm really happy with how the octopus turned out. He's definitely one of my favorites. I also liked that he could hold the sign to wish Hayden a happy birthday.

I also made some special cupcakes for another friend who recently had a baby. I had forgot to take pictures of them before I gave them to her, but she was sweet enough to take some, and email them to me. Unfortunely, since I am basically computer illeriate, I will have to wait for my husband to get home to figure out how to post them here. I did download them, I just can't upload. So look for another post tomorrow.

Ringing In

2010-01-02T16:51:00.000-08:00

For New Year's, my husband and I were invited to party (like rock stars of course) at a friend's house. So the old brain got a thinking, and came up with cupcakes to bring along. After many different flavors and decorating ideas, I settled on making dark chocolate cupcakes with chocolate champagne ganache and marshmallow fondant. I had a lot of fun putting these guys together, and I was really happy with how they turned out. Little know fact, I have very high expectations for the things I make, and if they don't come out to look exactly like the picture in my head, I'm not happy with them even if everyone else loves them. So I was really pleased with these particular cupcakes and I hope the following pictures can do them justice.

I tried a new technique this time around... putting a filling in the middle. It's very simple and makes a nice impact when you bite into the cupcake. Take a round cutter and simply cut a circle out of the top of the cupcake.

Fill the hole with what ever filling you choose to, in this case it was chocolate champagne ganache. For those of you that have never heard of ganache before, it is type of icing, a filling for pastries and a glaze. It can also be used to make truffles. All in all, ganache is just wonderful stuff. And it's super easy to make. The basic recipes consists of two ingredients, chopped chocolate and heavy cream. Just take 3 parts chocolate to 1 part heavy cream. Heat your heavy cream in a saucepan, remove from heat and add chopped chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate is melted. There you go, you have ganache.

Now, back to the cupcakes...replace the circle that you cut out of the top of the cupcake.

Frost the cupcake with more ganache, making it as smooth as possible.

Cut out circles of marshmallow fondant to cover the tops of the cupcakes. With you hand, stretch out the circles a little. Place on top of the cupcake and use your palm to smooth out any pleats.

Then decorate how ever you wish.

Initially when my friend sent out the invitation , she hinted for me to bring dessert. They only problem is she asked for desert, which I in turned asked if she would like the Sahara or the Gobi. So for fun, I made her a special batch of dirt dessert, but instead of Oreos, I used vanilla wafers, thus making it look like sand.

Tis the Season for

2009-12-28T05:12:00.000-08:00

Cupcakes! At least in this house it is. For Christmas this year, I made 3 dozen cupcakes to take over to my husband's Uncle's house. I had 1 dozen Christmas lights cupcakes, 1 dozen medallion cupcakes and 1 dozen cranberry upside down cupcakes. I will admit, the first two cupcakes where the same flavor, chocolate with vanilla frosting, just decorated different. Also, I don't have my usual pictures of the cupcakes. In all the Christmas madness, I forgot to snap away here at home, so pictures were not taken until we were at the party. To be more concise, until I was in the food line and my husband was waiting to get his dinner. So thank you to my husband Jeff who took the pictures for me, so I could share them with you.

First up we have the Cranberry Upside Down Cupcakes. I use to make these all the time (in bigger form) at the catering company I worked at. We would take extra cranberries, glaze them and then but them on top, which I had planned to do but unfortunately, I ran out of cranberries. I decided to add some tangerine zest to the batter this time around, and I think it added a nice touch.

For Christmas, my sister got me the Hello Cupcake book. In it, I found the recipe to make these Christmas light cupcakes. I had planned to make all the cupcakes look like the lights, but after doing a dozen of them, I realized my time was running short (naps were almost over), so I stopped at that dozen.

I made red, yellow, blue and green lights. Some of the party goers thought they looked like turtles.

So here is what I whipped up for the second dozen of Dark Chocolate Cupcakes. I took a disk of fondant, and using another gift from my sister, I embossed the design on the disk. Then I painted them with red metallic edible dust and some edible pearls. I really like these guys for just coming up with them on the fly.

And here are the cupcakes in yet another Christmas gift (this time from my aunt and uncle). I love this carrier. It holds 2 dozen cupcakes and when not in use, it is collapsible. If you plan to make and take a lot of cupcakes places in the new year, I highly recommend getting one.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas, and that you are enjoying your gifts as much as I have been. Next week, how a cupcake started New Years.