Start your Engines!

Hello All!

This past weekend I had two birthdays to bake for.  The first one was my nephew, Tristen's, 3rd birthday.  He wanted Cars theme again.  Last year I did a cake for him, so I thought I would do cupcakes this time.   My sister wanted marble cupcakes.  I made three different toppers for the cupcakes.  Flags, tires and Lightning McQueen.  The cars took a little while to make, but worth it :)

 

 

The second cake was for a friend from school.  I have known Teresa since 1st grade, long time ago!  She was turning 30, now I feel old :(  She wanted a vanilla cake with cherry filling.  I have made raspberry but not cherry.  The filling was pretty simple to do.  Drain the cherries and boil the juice with sugar.  mix together with a touch of lemon juice and there you have it! 

Teresa has a Dodge Challenger and loves zebra print.  I made the car out of Rice Krispie Treat
s covered in fondant.  I haven't made a car before.  I got all the treats on the counter and just sat there for a minute thinking "what did I just get myself into!"  But, in the end wasn't too difficult to shape. 

 

Hope you have a great Easter!  Thanks for looking.

Flower Power!

Hello All!

I decided to do another challenge from LilaLoa this month.  This time it was to change up your photography. 

I have a potluck for a girl at work this week.  It is her last day at the company.  She requested that I make her cookies one last time.  How can I say no to that!  I thought it would be a perfect reason to participate in the challenge.

I made 36 flower cookies.  I might have had one or two.....Paul might have had a couple too.... Today at work I had to count the potluck sheet to see how many people are participating.  Last I looked it was 25.  I packaged up 28 cookies to bring to work.  Yes, I saved a couple more to enjoy tomorrow :)  I am addicted, what can I say!

I normally take a pic with just a couple cookies on a plate.  Boring, I know.  I don't normally stack the cookies on top of each other.  I would like to say it is due to some great photography trick I learned, but it is not.  I am too impatient to let the cookies dry overnight to take the pics.  I am a Do it Now kind of girl.  I figured I would take the challenge to heart and make myself wait a day before taking the pic so they would be fully hard.  That way they don't have indents from the other cookies or my fingerprint from smudging it while moving it. 

I stacked most of the cookies on a plate to see how I liked it.  It really does look different vs 3 cookies on a plate.

Of course I had to take a close up.  Creature of habit.

And then I decided to line them up in a row.  For a spur of the moment decision, I think it was a good pic! 

I am glad I did the challenge this month.  It is nice to venture outside of my comfort zone and do something different. 

Thanks for looking and have a great week!!

Lila Loa challenge

Hello All!

I follow LilaLoa.  I love her blog!  Oh, how she can make me laugh!  Plus, her cookies are amazing.  She has a challenge this month to sketch a design and then make the cookies.  I decided to join in the fun.

My girlfriend, Kasey, bought me a new shamrock cutter.  I decided to make a couple designs with it that were inspired by Lila Loa. 

As you can see, I was thinking of using my frame cutter as well.  Couldn't think of what to do with that one :(

I made some shamrocks for Kasey

I then made some round cookies with blue hearts. 

I used gold dust for the outer heart. you can either use vodka or extract to mix with the dust to paint on.  I have always used vodka. We only have the good stuff in the house right now :)

I also tried some pink heart cookies.  I love my AmeriColor Electric Pink!

I had to get both bags ready for I would need to use them one after another for each cookie.

I flooded the cookie with white then put pink dots on right away.

Then I took a toothpick and drug it through all the dots to get the heart look.

Thanks for looking!
Have a great rest of the week :) 

My Favorite Store

Hello All!

I thought I would take a minute and share my favorite store with you. It is Lynn's Cake and Candy Supplies in Fridley, MN.   check her out here  Without them, I would not be baking!  I can't count how many times I have had to stop what I was doing and run up there.  Or, called the store in a frenzy and they have had all the right answers.   So, here is to Lynn and all her wonderful employees!!

What color cupcake liners would you like today?

I think this is where I developed my sprinkles addiction.  There are just way too many to choose from, I must get them all!  This isn't the whole shelf either, this is only half the shelf :)

The wall of cookie cutters!!  My new found love :) 

I love walking in the back of the store where the candy supplies are.  If you are having a bad day, go back there and inhale the wonderful smell!  It is heavenly.  I love her chocolate for it melts so smoothly in a double boiler.

I bought just a few things tonight for this weekend.  I have a baby shower cake due and am hoping to make some cookies for the Super Bowl.  (Yes, those are more sprinkles!)

Please remember to support your local small business!  They are the backbone of America! 
Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Decorating Cookies

Hello All!

When you work with royal icing everything has to be grease free.  You have to clean all your tips, spatulas, bowls etc.  I use vinegar to de-grease everything.  You cannot do that to anything plastic like tupperware or cloth bags.  I used to use a separate plastic bag each time.  Gets to be a little expensive.  I have learned a new trick for piping royal icing.  Karen has a great short video on how to do it: karens cookies

I was in love with it the first time I tried it!  Will never go back.

Lay a sheet of saran wrap on your counter.  Drop some icing in the middle. 

Fold the corners together the triangle way.  Roll it up.

Then do a hard roll, like a wet towel.  Just don't try to smack anyone in the butt with this  :)

Put the icing in your plastic bag that is fitted with a coupler.  Secure the open end with a rubber band.  Snip off the other end and put your desired tip on.  You are ready to pipe!

These were my Christmas cookies.  I made the outline first, then flooded the cookie right away.

 

Hope you have a great day!
Thanks for looking!

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3

Hello All!
I know it has been a while.  I have been busy planning a wedding :)  We are to be wed July 20th 2013.  Lots to do in the next 5 1/2 months! 
I will be making my own cake and cupcakes.  The cake will be a dummy cake, so I can have that done in June.  Paul wants the traditional tiered cake sitting there for looks.  I didn't think it would be so hard for me to pick a design.  I looked for about a week straight for ideas.  I think I finally came up with something. 
The one I found has some stencil work on it.  I have never stenciled on a cake before, so I thought I better start practicing!  I haven't baked since Christmas so I thought I would make my favorite chocolate cake.  It has chocolate chips mixed into the buttercream in the middle.

I had some royal icing left over from Christmas.  I mixed it a little to make sure there were no lumps.

I put the stencil on the top of the cake and used my straight edge spatula to smooth on the icing.

Peel off the stencil and I was done!  Not too shabby for the first time :)

I tried the side of the cake.  That was a little trickier.  The stencil was smaller which made it harder to handle and stay in place.

I then made some cake pops from the leftovers.  I thought I would show you the difference between dipping once vs twice in chocolate.

 

I hope you all have a great weekend!

 

Thanks for looking!

Christmas time

Hello All!

I know I am a little late with posting, but it has been a busy, hectic time!  We hosted our first Christmas here in our new home on 12-23-12 with Paul's family.  I made Tetrazzini and dessert.  I have wanted to do a dessert table for a while now, but haven't had a reason to.
I wanted to keep with a few colors, red, green and white. 

I made one of my favorite cupcakes: Red Velvet.  Don't you just love my new cake stand :)

Paul's favorite are white chocolate covered oreos.  I used leftover Royal Icing to give them a little color.

I made sugar cookies.  Stockings and presents.  I learned a new trick with icing bags for Royal Icing that I will post another time.

 

I also had red and green M&Ms

I was super happy with how it turned out! 

Hope you all have a great New Years!
Thanks for looking!