School's Out for Summer

A few weeks ago, I made some cookies for my girls to give to their teachers as end of the school year gifts. My idea for these cookies came from a new "toy" I bought myself and from another "toy" I had gotten myself a bit ago.

The flower cookies were done with a new stamp I found.  The idea is you stamp a piece of fondant, sugar paste or edible paper, and then place it on you cookie or cake.  I decided I needed more play time with these stamps as they didn't quite come out like I would have liked.  I had to hand paint a lot of the detail back on the cookie as it didn't transfer in the stamping process.

For the other two cookies designs, I broke out my stencils. I  simply laid the stencil on the cookie.

Then, using a gel food coloring, I dab the stencil with the desired colors.

And there you have it.  Also I feel I need to work more with the stencils, as I wasn't happy with every cookie.

I added detail with some edible silver dust just to finish off the look.  The teachers loved them, even if I didn't.

A Sweet Surprise

About two weeks ago, I got a text from one of my close friends asking for a favor. That weekend she was going to be in Chicago to celebrate her Mom's 60th birthday, and she needed a cake. The hotel where they would be at wanted an incredibly insane amount of money for a cake that would feed 10 people. I don't blame her at all for not wanting to pay that, because it was down right crazy. She asked me knowing that my week was a little busy as I was preparing to make my son's birthday cake. She gave me an out, and I know she would never be upset if I had said no, but how could I. So we talked and settled on a white cake with a delicious raspberry filling and almond buttercream. Here is what I whipped up in a few days.

The flowers on the cake are made of sugar paste, and I did buy those pre-made. They are from Mr. Ace of Cakes himself Duff, who has a cake decorating line that you can find at Michael's. The flowers come plain and then I used my good old edible gold dust, some pink gel food coloring and a little vodka to achieve their look. Duff says to use a air brush machine to paint the flowers, but I don't have one and the vodka worked just fine. My friend told me that her Mom cried at the cake, not because it was her 60th, but because she was so touched that a close friend of her daughter's made it for her. This made the cake priceless to me. :)

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.