Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!

This is my Easter basket cake from Easter 2010. I was in the process of making it again this year until I decided to dump my entire cake batter on the floor! OOPS! I didn't have time to make one for this year, but this is my cake from last year! It is a lot of fun to make and if you want to make one for next year here is what you do:

1. Cake of your choice and bake in two round 8 inch pans or whatever size rounds you want!
2. Let cake completely cool and if you want to torte your cake in between layers you can!
3. Use about a cup of coconut and dye green to use as your grass for the top of the cake (carve out medium size circle on the top of your cake, but don't go to deep just enough to make an indent. Frost the entire cake. I used a pastel yellow, then put your green grass all around the top of the cake.
4. I used M&M's to decorate around the cake
5. Feel free to use jelly beans, malted milk ball eggs, chocolate eggs or whatever you want to use as "eggs" for the top of the cake! Get creative!
6. To make your basket handle use aluminum foil and fold into a handle. Use ribbon to cover your foil handle and insert into cake!

Here is what it will look like:

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Easter Basket Cupcakes

These were super easy to whip up! All you need is a cake mix, frosting, licorice, candy (such as m&m's or jelly beans), green dye, and marshmallow bunnies! To make the "grass" all you need is the grass tip which is tip #133. Of course I had this idea last minute so I didn't feel like making it all from scratch! Here is how they turned out!





Monday, April 18, 2011

Cake Pops

Cake pops seem to be the new "thing" to make these days! They are very easy to make. You can make your own cake or you can do a box mix. This was my very first time making them so I did it the easy way! I used a box mix (my mix of choice was strawberry cake mix) however I did make my own strawberry frosting! Here is how to make cake pops:
  1. Box cake mix (or homemade) bake in a 9x13 pan and let completely cool
  2. Crumble cake completely making sure there are no large pieces of cake left
  3. Use about 1/2 cup of frosting (purchased or homemade) and mix until the cake crumbs form one large ball. Your crumbled cake may need a little more frosting but start out at around 1/2 cup and simply add more if you need it to stick together. (I learned the hard way and used to much frosting and had to bake another cake to absorb all the frosting!)
  4. Use a melon baller to form small cake balls (Put in freezer for about an hour)
  5. Melt candy coating (I used almond bark candy coating)
  6. Dip your lollipop sticks into the candy coating and insert a stick into each cake ball
  7. Dip your cake ball into the melted candy coating and decorate with candies, sprinkles or whatever your heart desires!
  8. Work quick as the candy coating does dry fast!
  9. Insert your decorated cake pop into styrofoam so the cake pop can dry.
  10. Once your cake pops are place them in an air tight container
This is really simple and really fun to make! These make a great centerpiece for birthday parties or wedding and baby showers!



Saturday, April 16, 2011

Justin Bieber Birthday Bash

So Taylor requested a Justin Bieber birthday party...I didn't know how we were going to pull this one off! I decided to call a local party store near us and found out that they did have Justin Bieber party supplies! Ah ha! I'm in business!! Several dollars later on party stuff I was trying to figure out what we could do for a cake. None of the local bakeries around us could do a JB cake and the one I did find that could do it wanted to charge $65 for a small cake...um no thank you! Ebay was a great friend of mine and we were able to locate an edible image of JB! I think it turned out great and this was my very first buttercream cake! Photos to follow!




Friday, April 15, 2011

Here Are Two of My Favorite Blogs!

Ironically my two favorite blogs are about baking and from Minnesota! If you want some great tips on baking and green living visit these blogs:

http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ (the person in the photo with me is Jennifer McKinney aka MckMama from mycharmingkids.net). She was in town and did our family photos! We love Jen!

http://www.iambaker.net/

My Very First Post!

I tried doing this blogging thing a few years back and failed miserably at it. I'm hoping to be better at it this time around! So without further adu let the blogging begin! I promise to post more this weekend!