Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Onesie Sugar Cookies, again....

Made a few onesie sugar cookies for my best friends new little boy!  I used a marshmallow fondant with detailing done with royal icing and some melted candy melts. 

Small Cake


Kate really wanted to touch the cake, and perhaps have a bite.




And I said no......



I've been experimenting with marshmallow fondant lately.  It's really not hard to make.  Just microwave some marshmallows and water and mix in lots of powder sugar.  Easy to make and even easier to make messy!!  It becomes very sticky until you add ALOT of powder sugar.  Which then of course leads to a powdered sugar mess.  Ahhhh, the joys of baking in a small kitchen.  :)  Anyhow, I bought two 6" round pans so I've been experimenting with decorating a layered cake.  I gave this cake away to a friend.  The best part about it was the homeade raspberry buttercream hiding underneath the fondant.

More Birthday Lollipop Cookies

These are for a friend who's little girl turns 5 this week!  I'm trying to take some better pictures.......I just can't seem to find the camera's "sweet spot." 



Thursday, April 8, 2010

Bridal Shower

These sugar cookies are for a bridal shower this weekend.  I did about 60 cookies total.  I tried out marshmallow fondant on these cookies.   Very simple recipe that I got off All Recipes. The fondant learning curve created a little more work than anticipated, and quite a powder sugar mess.  Once I really figured it out, it looked great.  I'm not sure I like it better than flooding with royal icing.  The taste is fine, but its more "on my feet" kind of work.  Where as with royal icing I can sit down and watch a little TV while working.  Just my little nit pick.  :)  They did come out beautiful though.  All the detailing was done with royal icing.  I will defintely try out the marshmallow fondant on cakes in the future. 

Erin's Wedding Dessert Buffet

I did a dessert buffet for my sister Erin's wedding.  I was busy baking for days!!!!  It was two 8 ft. tables sweets. 

The wedding colors were blue and brown.  I did some color coordinating with fabrics, and candies but my main focus was spent on baking a lot of sweets.



Yep, even some cupcake pops!  My dad made a wooden box with just the right size holes to display them on.

The list of included desserts:
Chocolate Cupcake Pops
Monogram Stamped Shortbread
Chocolate Sundae Cookies
Peanut Butter Buddies
Chocolate Chip
Sugar Cookie Wedding Cakes
White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread
White Chocolate Raspberry
Rice Krispie Treats
Chocolate Caramel Pecan Delights
Lots of Candy: Sixlets, licorice, Starburst, Gummi Worms, Mints, Whoppers, M&ms.

Looking back now, that was an insane amount of baking for me to do all at once.  The only way I was able to accomplish it was because I had the summer off.  Got to love a teaching schedule!! 

Rainbow Cake

I used 2 white cake mixes and separted the mixed batter into 6 bowls.  A generous amount of gel paste food coloring was used to achieve these bold colors. 

Starting with one color, pour a 1/2 cup to 1 cup into the center of the pan.  Do the same with the next color but pour it on top of the first color.  It pushes the first color towards the sides of the pan.  Continue doing this with all your colors.

This is the cake after baking the normal time indicated on the box.


Ok, yes this is a pretty ugly cake on the outside.  I didn't spend much time on decorating and I'm not the best cake decorater anyhow.  Its something I need to  invest into a class for.  Maybe this could qualify for Cake Wrecks!  ;)


Satisfied customers!! 

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Giant Cupcake

This giant cupcake was for Kate's 1st Birthday Party.  The cake is a Banana Spice (minus the walnuts).  It's actually meant to be a bunt cake recipe, but it is so yummy and somewhat (not really) healthy since it has 2 bananas in it.  I had attempted a giant cupcake before and was not really thrilled with the look.  I bought the expensive pan from Williams-Sonoma and was determined to make this work.  I did some googleing of images and found some inspiration.  I lined the bottom of the pan with melted white chocolate (tinted pink) to form a shell that I could put the cake into.  I had to do a couple of layers of melted chocolate to get a nice thick shell.  I baked the cake and then had to trim the bottom to fit it into the shell.  This is a lot of cake.  The top has a thin layer of cream cheese frosting. 



Cake trimming and placing into the chocolate shell.

Lollipop Sugar Cookies


I've had fun making these lately.  It's a sugar cookie baked onto a lollipop stick and decorated with royal icing and various sprinkle sugars. The pastel ones were for Kate's 1st Birthday Party.  I wrapped each one individually in a small cellophane bag and displayed them in a mason jar full of jelly beans.  They were great take home treats.  The yellow, red and blue ones were for a co-worker who's son was having a birthday party. 

Monogram Cupcake

Chocolate cupcake with buttercream frosting and a chocolate monogram letter.  The letter is delicate and beautiful.  The monogram was made by melting chocolate and piping it onto parchment paper until it hardens. 

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Wedding Cake Sugar Cookies

These were made for my sister's wedding.  Her colors were blue and brown.  At the reception I displayed some of them on platters.  For her bridal shower I packaged one for each guest as a favor and placed them at place settings.  These are so fun to make and the possibilities are endless!

1st Birthday Dessert Buffet




Kate's first birthday was so much fun to plan!  Her colors were pink, yellow and peach and the theme was pinwheels and pennants.  I made cupcake toppers, paper pennants, pinwheels, door signs, table centerpieces, napkin photo rings, and alot of desserts (including her cake).  This buffet was pretty and I was happy with my final design. 

I also did a lot of baking! The dessert buffet included vanilla whoopie pies with raspberry buttercream filling, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookie lollipops, sugar cookie "1's", vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting, M&M's, Peach-O's, Peeps, Pastel Jelly Beans and Ice Cream Cone Meringues.  Kate's Cake was a giant cupcake cake (banana spice) with a white chocolate (tinted pink) shell. 

Onesie Sugar Cookies

These sugar cookies are cute and delicious! The onesie shaped cookies are custom decorated with royal icing. They look great on a platter for a baby shower. For my best friend Julie's shower we put them in a favor bag and tied with coordinating ribbon to place at each place setting. A very nice shower favor that leaves a lasting impression.




Trying to occupy a newborn while decorating cookies is a challenge.  Luckily Julie was there to help.


Rubber Ducky Friends.