All a Flutter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!