Fancy for Kenzie

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

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

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

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?

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!!!!

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

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!