Snow, snow go away

Late tonight and into tomorrow, we are suppose to get snow. A lot of snow. I usually wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't for the chance that school will most likely be closed tomorrow. And that's bad because I would have one very disappointed little guy on my hands. Thursday is suppose to be his holiday party at school. He has been looking forward to this day, and even though he loves snow, he is not happy about what is coming this way. But just in case the weather forecasters are wrong (please, oh please let them be wrong) and the party (and school) are still ago, I made some cookies to take to along.

I made the Rudolph cookies last year too, and they were a big help. And I must give a shout out to my friend Cecilia for coming over today and helping with these guys. We try to get together twice a month, and I asked her to come over to my house since I had a bunch of possibly needless baking to do. The snowmen cookie is something I have wanted to do and was able to since I had some leftover sugar cookie dough. I will say if I were to make them again, I would make them a little bigger just for effect. I'm sure the kids in Riley's class won't mind. Riley was already asking which one was his and could he eat it now.

Cracked up (again)

Well, it's that time of the year again... Christmas Crack time!! I discovered this recipe last year, and it became a full on addiction for me. This year I thought it would be fun to try some different flavors and toppings.  So far I have made Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter, Chocolate Cherry, Dark Chocolate Mint (oh so yummy) and crack topped with toffee and peppermint Andes Mints. If I gain 20 pounds this holiday season, it's all due to this one simple recipe.

If you need the recipe again, here it is...

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 and 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. To make the flavors I used 1 cup of the chocolate chips and 1 cup of the flavored chips. You can also use the chip mixes by Nestle.

I've got my eye on you

Super quick post this week. It kinds of finished off the crazy October I had, having a cake to make every weekend.

 Every year our friends in Milwaukee have a Halloween party, so I made these cake pops for the occasion. Having lots of leftover cake and buttercream in the house made it pretty easy to do so.

A little pumpkin treat

With the craving of our pumpkin this year, I decided to roast the seeds for a yummy snack. This is something I used to do all the time as a kid, but hadn't done for my family yet. And because I live with a bunch of picky eaters, I thought it might be fun to try some different flavors on our pumpkin seeds, in hopes they might try them.

The recipe itself is super easy. Separate the seeds from the membrane. The website I was following suggested soaking the inside of your pumpkin in cold water to help the seeds free themselves from the goop. Well, they didn't just unattach themselves magically, but it was pretty easy to separate the seeds once they had soaked. I placed my seeds on a paper towel and let them dry overnight. Now for the roasting part...preheat the oven to 350. Once the dried, toss the seeds in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. Lay the seeds in a single layer on a sheet pan. Here is where you get to have fun. The three flavors I chose were cinnamon sugar, traditional salt and a caramel crunch mix from Pampered Chef. You could really do anything sweet or savory. Place in oven for 15 minutes and then you are done.

I think my favorite are the caramel crunch, although I have to say all are really tasty.  Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

Can you hear me now

This past weekend, was our neighbor's birthday. His wife Melissa asked if I would be able to make a cake for him, and of course I said yes. Now Mike is very into his cell phone. Loves the little device. And because of that, a cell phone cake was a must. Melissa and I were very sneaky and I was able to take pictures of Mike's phone on my phone to help me recreate it. The cake was chocolate with a chocolate fudge filling, covered in vanilla buttercream and good old marshmallow fondant.

Melissa texted me later that the cake was a big hit and that Mike loved it.

When I first saw Mike's phone I really liked the dandelion on the screen, and I'm pretty pleased at how that came out here. I hand painted it on just using some white and black food coloring.

Hooters

This past week, I made a birthday cake for a friend of ours who was turning 40. 10 years ago when she was turning 30, my husband and some of their other coworkers took her out to lunch to celebrate her birthday. The one thing is they told her they were taking her to one restaurant and ended up taking her to Hooters. So, because of this legacy, the party organizers (her husband and one of her old coworker) wanted to have a cake with a Hooters feel to it. And they were hoping for a 3D effect on the cake. I needed to make a cake that would feed 70-75 people and had boobs on it, not a challenge you get every day (at least I don't) To make the cake big enough I made 4 14" cakes, 2 vanilla and 2 chocolate. The coordinating layers went together and then the vanilla was placed next to the chocolate on a big old cake board. To create her chest, I basically made cake pops and formed them to the shape I needed. And to make her face, I simply used buttercream and a whole lot of cursing. The end result is below...

Sorry for the fuzzy picture, it was after 11:30 when I was able to finish this cake and I have to admit, I was a little fried.

I do

What happens when you take over 2000 hand rolled fondant pearls,

a bunch of hand made fondant flowers and combine it with different flavors of buttercream, and three kinds of cake...

You get Emily and Steven Seiltz's wedding gift.

This past weekend, I had the pleasure to create this wedding cake for the wonderful couple. It took about two weeks of prep time, many, many, many eggs and a couple of curse words to pull the cake together.

The cake stood just over 2 feet tall and the pearls had to be put on to the cake one at a time with a pair of tweezers. The layers were white cake with almond buttercream and raspberry filling, chocolate with chocolate fudge filling, spice cake with caramel buttercream, chocolate with coffee and caramel almond buttercreams, and the final layer, for the couple on the first anniversary, was white cake with chocolate fudge filling.  I got many compliments that night, the best one coming from the bride when she told me it was even better than she imagined. Congratulations Emily and Steven! :)