A Look Back at Christmas....

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and New Years! Hard to believe we are already heading towards the end of January and I'm trying to catch up with things I have made! For Christmas celebrations I made two different cakes...one turned out amazing and the other, well it looked pretty but did not taste good so definitely will not be making it again! My first up was a chocolate cake torted with peanut butter buttercream and frosted in chocolate buttercream and crumbles of peanut butter cups on top....AHHHHHMAZING!!!!

Showers Galore....Wedding & Baby Oh My!

I had so much fun creating all the treats for these two showers! The Eiffel Tower cookies and chocolates were one of my first attempts at decorating sugar cookies with icing! I realized how much fun it was and really has totally become a fun hobby of mine! I love baking cakes and cookies for friends and family! There is just something so wonderful about being able to share good eats! Here are some photos from the two showers I have done!

friends moving away....so let's eat a cupcake!

So we have these wonderful friends that must return to the frozen tundraness part of the world. We will miss them terribly. This is my friend who I have learned all my cake/cupcake decorating skills with! It will be sad if I do anymore cake classes and she is not with me, however they will be with family and that is worth more than cake classes! We all went to their going away party last Sunday at a park and their two little boys are huge Spiderman and Mickey Mouse fans and here is what I came up with....I found these cute little Spiderman and Mickey Mouse cupcake picks at Walmart!

Spiderman Cupcakes for.....

The cutest little Spiderman I've ever met!

Mickey Mouse Cupcakes for the cutest little Mickey Fan ever!

Chocolate Turtle Cake

I had friends in town the other week and came across this recipe....it was delish! The recipe I found was from a bakery in St. Paul, MN...just a stones throw away from where I'm from! I knew I had to try it when I came across it!! It was wonderful...the only thing I might change up is use homemade caramel vs. caramel sundae topping (still good when your in a pinch). I thought the caramel flavor got lost in the chocolate. Here is the recpie if your interested in giving it a whirl!
http://www.justapinch.com/recipe/bakersqueen/cafe-lattes-turtle-cake/cake?source=fork_FB_turtle_cake

Spring Cake 2011

So I decided to go ahead and re-do my Easter A.K.A. Spring cake....this was originally supposed to be for Easter weekend until the cake batter bowl slipped out of my hands onto the floor! OOPS! I re-made it 1 week later for a little gathering of friends we had! This cake I made white cake and chocolate cake and layered them with vanilla buttercream and chocolate ganache! It was decadent and oh so good! Here is what it looked like!

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:

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!