Racing 4 Riley

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

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

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

McQueen in the winner's circle.

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

A Teacher's Gift

Last Thursday was Riley's preschool graduation.  It's hard to believe that the school year is over for him, it went super fast.  It's also hard to believe that we will no longer be a part of a Good Shepherd preschool class.  We have been going there the last three years.  The teachers at Good Shepherd are wonderful and have always been so sweet to our kids.  In the three years we were there, the teachers  discovered a huge like for my cake pops.  Their eyes lit up like kids anytime I presented them with the goodies.  So what else would I give as the final teachers gift...                                                            

You got it, cake pops!  I tried to make them as fancy as I could.  I had three different designs and each teacher (three in total) got a dozen cake pops to share with their family, or hide and save them all for themselves.  Thank you Mrs. Lagina, Miss Malcore and Mrs. Magoon for starting my little ones on the right path to loving school.  We will miss you next year.                                                                         

A First

Back in April, I made a first communion cake for a friend's youngest son. All her son requested of the cake was that it by white with white icing.  Ok, I can do that.  This cake became a first for me for many different reasons.  I have never done a first communion cake, and I decided to try my hand at making modeling chocolate.  The last time I dealt with modeling chocolate was in culinary school, and that was a long, long time ago.  Plus, in school I didn't have to make it myself.  I found a super easy recipe on a blog called The Crafty Penguin.  Here is the link for the recipe (because I took no pictures of me actually making the chocolate, plus she described it so well, I thought I would share) http://www.the-crafty-penguin.com/2011/07/cake-with-horizontal-stripes.html.  Not only is this a recipe, it's also explains how to cover a cake in horizontal stripes of modeling chocolate (another first for me).

So here is what I came up with for the cake.  I'm not going to lie, I had some troubles with modeling chocolate, mainly the blue because I don't think I made the colored modeling chocolate correct.  I tried using colored candy melts instead of coloring the white modeling chocolate, which I should have done.
                                   
Not really knowing what to do with a first communion cake, I tried to put symbols associated with one.  So I put a loaf of bread, grapes and a cross on one side.

 

And I put another cross, chalice and stalks of wheat on the other side. Our friend was pleased as punch with the cake and she told me that her son really enjoy it too.

Look Hoo's Having a Baby

This past weekend, we had a surprise baby celebration for our friends who are expecting their third baby. I say baby celebration because it wasn't really a baby shower with gifts and games, just a family bbq with good friends and family. We all had a great time. When my friend was first announcing she was pregnant, she started pinning (on Pinterest of course) adorable things for a nursery. One thing she found was a wall decal of a tree with three owls. Around the same time, I saw this adorable cake that matched the wall decoraction perfectly.   So from that, the owl theme was put into place, with another good friend making the most adorable party invitations (sorry no picture).

Here's the version of the cake I made.   I loved the little owls, and how they sit on top of the tree.  The cake was red velvet and devils food with cream cheese frosting.

I added some fondant bumble bees, flowers, bushes, mushrooms and a bird all around the cake for added fun.

Happy baby number 3 to our good friends. Welcome to the crazy parents club. ;)

Dippidy Do Da

Like I said in last week's post, my husband needed a dessert for a brunch lunch they were having at work. So to go along with the chocolate waffle cookies, I also made a chocolate chip cookie dough dip. Pretty easy to make, and was a big hit. I found the recipe here

chef-n-training.blogspot.com and you will find it down below.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

½ c butter
¼ c brown sugar, slightly packed
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
8 oz. cream cheese , room temperature
½ c confectioners’ sugar
1 c mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a medium saucepan melt, the butter and brown sugar. Whisk together over medium-high heat until sugar has dissolved, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla extract. Set
aside and let cool, and if you’re in a hurry stick in the freezer for about 15 minutes.

While that is cooling, cream together the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar for 1-2 minutes. Slowly pour in the butter/sugar mixture. Beat until the mixture is combined and not separated. It may take up to 5 minutes. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Put in your container and top off with some extra chocolate chips for fun.

You can pair it with waffle cookies, or graham crackers, or fruit.

Ironing out a Cookie

Last week, my husband's work had a lunch at work that required me to whip up some dessert. Sometimes, they have themes for their lunches, and this time it was a Waffle Bar Brunch. At first, I had no idea what to make, but then, thanks to Pinterest (again), I had my answer.

I found a recipe for really simple cookies to make and I thankfully had all the ingredients I needed. The special trick with these cookies is that they are made in a waffle iron.

Chocolate Waffle Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 ½ cups sugar

½ teaspoon salt

4 eggs

¾ cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat your waffle iron.

Cream together the butter, sugar and salt. Then beat in the eggs until well incorporated. Mix in cocoa powder and vanilla extract. At last, add the flour and mix until just combined.

I did spray the iron with some cooking spray, but I'm not sure I really needed to. Using a 1 ounce scoop, I put my batter in my waffle iron, shut the lid and "baked" for 90 seconds.

You could even go a little less on the time with the cookies being this small. After they are done simply remove the waffle cookies with a small spatula, let the cookies cool on a wire rack, and start all over again.

The recipe I was following decorated the cookies with some chocolate frosting. I decided to make a chocolate chip cookie dough dip (that I also found thanks to Pinterest) to go with these cookies. Also you can use a larger scoop to make these cookies, and once I had enough to send with my husband, I did use one to finish off the batter. Next week I plan to share the recipe for the dip, so stay tuned. :)

Another Eggperiment

Last week when I was playing around with the bunny cookies, I also tried something new on some egg cookies.

I bought these stencils awhile ago, and had never used them. So I thought they would be fun to use on the egg cookie. On Pinterest, I saw a post with some beautiful cookies that used stencils. The only problem with the post is it was in another language and I could not read it. Thankfully I could understand basically what to do from the pictures. So the first step was to lightly brush some shortening over the stencil.
I sprinkled the cookie with some disco dust. I recommend doing this over a paper towel so you can tap the excess off over the towel and then fold the towel up to create a funnel to pour the dust back into the container.
Sorry for the blurry photo. I was in a rush and this goes to show that it's a good thing my hobby isn't photography.
Now because I was in a rush, I didn't let my royal icing completely dry on the cookie. And because of that, my stencil sunk into the icing. To cover that mistake, I piped some royal icing to hide the cracks and ridges I created by not having any patience.
Here are the cookies I made while playing. It was fun and my family enjoyed eating all my creations.