Progressive Dinner

Every year the night before Christmas Eve, my husband's side of the family does a progressive dinner. We rotate every year between the three houses - one family does appetizers, one does the main course and the final house does desserts. Guess who got desserts this year? Thank goodness because this rounds out my New Year's resolution quota of one cake a month to enhance my baking and decorating skills. Yes folks the Year of Baking has come full circle. It is the first resolution I think I have ever kept! My husband designed a lovely holly cake for me to create. It turned out lovely - homemade butter cake covered in buttercream frosting and embellished with MMF decorations. Props to my sister for the creative colorful border! Of course I couldn't just have a cake though! I also made Molasses Snickerdoodles (tasted like a cross between a gingerbread and snickerdoodle cookie) which have become my husband's favorite cookie of all time and some Raspberry Chocolate Bark which my sister claimed after the festivities. It was all very yummy and there was enough to take to my parent's Christmas dinner and share with them as well. Merry Christmas everyone - who knows what bakery creations are in store for next year?

Fancy Red Velvet Cupcakes

Christmas is almost here and that means it's my Mom's birthday! She had mentioned a few months ago that she wanted Red Velvet Cupcakes for her birthday. She thought I had forgot but I baked up these little jewels and surprised her with them on her birthday! I made the Red Velvet Cupcakes from scratch (compliments of a cupcake recipe book given to me by my grandmother for my birthday this year!), whipped up some cream cheese frosting, tinted it a cool blue and then topped them with pearlized sprinkles. They turned out so elegant - perfect for my Mom's birthday!

Brownie Cupcake "Hugs"

My husband's younger brother was involved in a pretty nasty car wreck this week. Thankfully he is okay but he did end up with a badly broken wrist. I asked my mother-in-law if I could bake him something to cheer him up and she told me she thought it was a fantastic idea. So I decided to make brownie cupcakes (easier for a one-armed man to eat) and topped them with a Hershey's "Hug" to let him know we care and were thinking about him. Hope you get better soon Matt!

Inside Out German Chocolate Cake

Thanksgiving time is here which means it's my Dad's birthday! I asked my Mom if I could do my father's birthday cake this year for Thanksgiving dinner. Dad is not so much into decorated cakes as he is into delicious tasting cakes and my Mom's one request was that I make the traditional German Chocolate Cake since it is my Dad's favorite. Personally I'm not so much into German Chocolate Cake so I decided to do a variation on it and make it inside out! I found a recipe online from a bake shop somewhere in Vermont. I thought it would be easier to make since I didn't have to frost it with the cooked pecan frosting... needless to say I should have read the entire recipe! This cake took forever! The filling took 1.5 hours to cook and the ganache had to be cooked and cooled for another hour! Putting the cake together was crazy and I had major doubts of the final product but thankfully it was over the top delicious and everyone loved it - especially my Dad.

Kaitlyn's 8th Birthday

Are you noticing a theme lately? Once September hits it's birthday mania in our family! This cake was for a cousin on my husband's side. She was turning eight and had a special request for me to make her birthday cake. She wanted a flower-shaped carrot cake (mature for an eight-year-old) in pink, purple and yellow. I decided to add the fondant leaves so I could write a birthday message - there was no room on the cake! My husband and I had a wedding to attend the same night as her birthday celebration but we heard that it was a huge hit when we returned to pick up our daughter. There wasn't any cake left over for my husband or I to try! I received a thank you e-mail from Kaitlyn the following day saying that the cake "rocked" and that she loved it. Happy 8th Birthday Kaitlyn, we love you!

Carrot cake with buttercream frosting. Marshmallow fondant leaves.

Fancy Banana Cupcakes

My husband's birthday is very close to my daughter's. So right after her celebration it was time to make him a personalized treat. I asked him what he wanted and he said banana cupcakes. I had just found an online blog of an Australian baker who did personalized cakes and cupcakes for clients. Her cupcakes were amazing! She would personalize them by doing a basic flavored cupcake, topped with icing and then garnished with goodies and sauces! I was inspired! So I baked Josh some banana cupcakes (a homemade recipe from a cupcake cookbook my grandmother got me as an early birthday gift) and then I made some homemade banana buttercream icing to top them with. Then I got the creative juices going and decided to use crumbled vanilla wafers as a garnish and finally topped it all off with a banana chip! They were a huge hit with the entire family! I hope to try a lot more of these experimental fancy cupcakes in the future. Super fun and extra yummy!

Lana's 1st Birthday Cake!

My daughter turns one today! So of course I had to make her an extra-special birthday cake. I had a really hard time deciding on a theme for her first birthday creation. The theme of her first birthday party was "A Year of Firsts" so it pretty much left me with endless possibilities. At the last minute I remembered an ice cream themed cake from one of the first cake decorating books I received and since Lana loves ice cream we had a cake idea! Here is the main cake, mainly for the party-goers:

And here is Lana's personal matching "smash" cake:

The inside of the main cake was done checker-board style - which was a huge hit but not the easiest thing in the world to do. Thank goodness for helping husbands. My sister got a good picture of the inside:

Lana's personal cake was purple and white swirled on the inside (compliments of her Daddy). I don't have a picture of that but I have this one of her enjoying it (compliments of Aunt Ashleigh):

All in all a very successful first birthday party with one very happy (and completely worn out) one year old. Welcome to toddlerhood Lana Brooke! Mommy and Daddy love you tons!

Brickle Cookies

My grandmother that lives in North Carolina had a fall the other week and ended up in the hospital. Thankfully she is all right - nothing broken - but my mom is going to head down south to take care of her for a few days. I decided to try these Brickle Cookies out and send some with my mom as a get better soon treat for my grandmother. They are pecan butter cookies with a toffee topping. They turned out very pretty and tasted pretty good too. The dough was a little hard to handle since it calls for so many nuts but other than that they were a cinch to make.

Ice Cream Cake

My sister and I found this recipe in my vast recipe collection a few weeks ago and were dying to try it. We got the chance to make it for family dinner this weekend. It is called a Oreo & Fudge Ice Cream Cake. It was made from ice cream sandwiches, a filling consisting of hot fudge sauce, chocolate pudding mix, Oreos and whipped cream, and was covered in the remaining whipped cream topping. Then it freezes for a few hours and you've got yourself a tasty ice cream cake that is super yummy! My daughter escpecially liked that she could have some of the whipped topping and vanilla ice cream inside (no chocolate for her yet!). Everyone in the family loved it and my husband and I worked on the leftovers for a few weeks to finish it off. If you ever try to make this - one word of advice... Cut small pieces! This ice cream cake is super rich!

First Wedding Cake

My husband works with a guy who is a wedding photographer on the side. His friend got married this weekend and he had recommended me to make her wedding cake. It was a little scary - I have never made one before and this is a wedding cake people! Something that will be documented in wedding photos for future generations to see! Thankfully the bride was very easy going. She and her husband-to-be don't actually care too much for cake so I had free range in design and flavors. I ran this buttercream design that I found online by her (and really wanted an excuse to make!) and we were off. I think it turned out pretty good for my first wedding cake. Not perfect, and I learned a lot through making it, but in the end it served it's purpose. Congratulation Heather and Zac! Hope the wedding and reception were awesome!

First and third layers butter cake, second layer chocolate fudge cake. Covered, filled and decorated with buttercream frosting.

Superhero Squad Cake

I work with a couple that have two boys, one of which is turning five today! They asked me to make him a Superhero Squad themed cake for his birthday. They wanted him to be able to keep and play with the little action figures after the cake was done. This cake went through three design changes before it was even started! At first I was going to do a street scene, then it was changed to a round cake with buildings on the side and finally I decided to go all out and just make the buildings 3-D with the action figures attached. Josh helped me a lot with the structure and stability of the cake - I think by the end we had 12 dowel rods in it! It was worth it though - Logan's mom said the cake was a huge hit!

Butter recipe yellow cake base with chocolate cake buildings. Covered and decorated with buttercream frosting. Action figures not edible!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

So I made this recipe up. I was home with Lana and wanted to bake something so I checked out the pantry and decided to whip this pie up. First I made a homemade graham cracker crust. Then I made some Jell-O vanilla pudding and pie mix and added mini dark chocolate baking bits to it. I poured it ino the crust and sprinkled the top with a few more baking chips before putting it in the fridge to firm. I named it "Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie" and it was really delicious! This is the first thing that I have ever made up on my own (in the baking department). I know it's not much but it's a big first step for me! This Year of Baking Project is really starting to take off!

PS ~ Josh and I ate the whole pie within the next couple of weeks!

Outrageous Brownies

Family dinner dessert time again! This time I made the outrageous brownies. Chocolate fudge brownies with chopped up milk chocolate bars and... Miracle Whip? Sounds weird but it worked! Miracle whip, mayonnaise, coffee and more recently prunes have scared me in dessert recipes but it is time to branch out and explore the unknown! The results are usually surprisingly yummy!

Chocolate fudge brownies with chopped up milk chocolate bars and topped with more milk chocolate and walnuts.

Lake Forest High School Graduation Cake

My husband's cousin just graduated high school and the family decided to throw her and her fellow graduate friend a graduation party since we were unable to have the annual Memorial Day Picnic this year. Her Mom asked me to make a graduation cake for the picnic. They sent us a picture of the graduation program and my husband was kind enough to sketch their mascot (the Spartan) with a graduation cap. The cake is made to look like the school's seal with a graduation spin. It was a big hit!

Yellow cake with buttercream frosting.

Bowling Cupcakes

There is a bowling league at my work that almost my entire department is a part of... I am not one of them. My bowling skills are quite horrible. But others in our department are really good. In fact they are so good that they won the bowling league this year! So my advisor decided to throw our entire department a bowling victory party. I had promised to make the team these super cute cupcakes if they won. Unfortunately they were not the most stable edible creation and they ended up all over my passenger seat instead of at the bowling party. It was a shame but at least I have pictures...

Chippy Chewy Bars

Almost forgot to take a picture of these (as you can probably tell since they have already been dug into)! I made these for our Memorial Day Picnic at Mom and Dad's this year. They were really delicious - filled with peanut butter, cocnout and topped off with chocolate. My sister said they reminded her a lot of the 7-Layer Bars they used to make at Bridgewater College... but better!

90th Birthday Cake

A birthday cake for one of my co-workers. Her boyfriend's mother was turning 90 and the birthday girl's daughters wanted a very specific cake design. Was not the easiest cake in the world since they wanted three diffferent flavors of cake and 3-D lilacs (which I had never made before!) I honestly would have gone with a different design but it turned out pretty good in the end considering all the problems I had making it. This cake taught me a lot about pleasing (and compromising) with the client... even when I never actually met the client!

Half lemon/ half chocolate sheet cake with funfetti white cake for the 3-D 90. Buttcream frosting with royal icing flowers.

Mother's Day Cake

Here is the Mother's Day cake that I made for our Mother's Day luncheon today. Unfortunately I had to work (on my first Mother's Day!) so I got together with the Moms on both sides of the family and planned a luncheon on the Monday following. It was so much fun - except that my niece was sick and unable to come. Marshmallow fondant is pretty amazing but I want to take a break from it after this cake. I need to work more on my buttercream and royal icing techniques. Plus marshmallow fondant is yummy but it gets to be old after awhile... I want some softer frosting on my next creation!

White cake swirled with purple food coloring filled with wonder cream frosting and covered in marshmallow fondant. Bow and details done in marshmallow fondant.

Silent Hill Cake

My sister's 24th birthday was today! So as soon as I was finished placing the bow and delivering the baby shower cake to Easton I started on this creation for her. The cake is themed after our favorite horror survival game Silent Hill! This cake was very difficult to make. It was a four level, filling-filled nightmare themed cake. The fondant wouldn't tint red so I had to paint it with red food coloring by hand (and I'm still trying to get the red off my hands!). The homemade cookies-and-cream filling was delicious but not sturdy under heavy fondant. But in the end it was really yummy, looked totally cool and my sister got the theme right away!

Chocolate fudge cake with cookies-and-cream filling and vanilla icing. Covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.

Baby Shower Cake - Fondant Style

A girl at work who I have made cakes for before asked me to make her a baby shower cake this week. Here it is! The picture seriously does not do it justice! The bow was a little difficult. The first bow I made totally (and literally) flopped so I had to make a second one. Apparently bows aren't meant to be made out of fondant but instead a combination of it with gumpaste - who knew? This one was made out of fondant and left out to dry for 36 hours before placing on the cake. Thank goodness it worked because the end result was 100% worth it! She texted me after the shower and said the cake was a HUGE success!

Strawberry cake with strawberry icing, covered and decorated with marmallow fondant and royal icing flowers.

More Dissected Frog Cake Photos...

Abi with her cake. I was so glad that she liked it! My mother-in-law says it's going to be a hard cake to top! Bring on the cake challenges...

Thought I would post a picture so the front of the cake could be seen. The tongue has gotten a lot of compliments...

Dissected Frog Cake

My younger sister-in-law's birthday was today. She is a freshman at UMBC and is majoring in biology. What better way to celebrate her birthday than to make her a cake that looked like a dissected frog! Her Mom had suggested doing anything musical or biology related and I jokingly made the comment that I was going to make her a dissected frog cake and when I got home I couldn't get the idea out of my head! So I searched for some diagrams of frog innards and got to work. One hundred percent worth it. The cake was awesome and Abi loved it!

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

We had a very important client come to work and tour the facility this week. The tour went smoothly and the clients were very pleased so one of my coworkers and I decided to throw our department a thank you pizza party! He ordered pizza for everyone and I baked these chewy oatmeal raisin cookies with walnuts. There wasn't one cookie left in the tin to bring home!

Peanut Butter Candy Cookies

So I've decided to branch out - who says my year of baking has to be strictly cakes? So I made some gourmet looking peanut butter candy cookies. Basically peanut butter cookies with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups baked right in them and then drizzled with chocolate. Yum! My grandmother said they looked too fancy to eat!

Farm Animals

Some people have asked to see a closer picture of the farm animals on the farm cake I made - so here is a good one that shows almost all of the animals a little closer (sorry sheep!).

Colby's 1st Birthday Party

Another coworkers niece's son turns one this month! She asked me to do a cake since I have done cakes for her in the past. And here was the cake! A farm themed party called for the works - a farm cake with a 3-D barn and silo and plenty of farm animals. This cake took me a week to make. It is the hardest project I have ever done (so far) and the result took my breath away. This is exactly why I am doing my year of baking project - to challenge myself and discover I can make edible sculptures such as this! Of course Colby had to have a matching cow smash cake for himself to make the party complete!

Farm cake (including 3-D barn and silo) are yellow cake covered in buttercream frosting. Pigs, sheep, chickens, baby chicks and corn all are made from marshmallow fondant. Individual cow smash cake is four inch round chocolate cake covered in buttercream frosting.

Baby Shower Cakes: Cake 2

Here is the Minnie Mouse cake. This was done with another Wilton character pan (Thanks P!). Let me just say that black is a very difficult color to make with icing! But thankfully it turned out well (and black!) in the end. I really took my time on this cake and in the end it was totally worth it. I was proud to send both of these cakes off to the baby shower - I hope they made the mother-to-be's day a special occasion to remember!

Strawberry cake with buttercream frosting.

Baby Shower Cakes: Cake 1

So a coworker of mine's brother is having a baby which only means one thing - baby shower! His wife asked me to make the cakes for the shower. The mother-to-be had a multiple theme of Winnie the Pooh and Minnie Mouse. Here is the Winnie the Pooh cake. This cake was my first experiment with marshmallow fondant - amazing stuff! And yes that Winnie the Pooh is hand drawn (or should I say piped?). I designed this cake myself and it is one of the best cakes I think I have made to this day!

Red velvet cake with buttercream frosting and covered in marshmallow fondant. Buttercream icing details.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day cake I made for fun. I didn't take as much time as I would have liked on this cake... it's what happens when you are a full-time working mommy. I didn't hear anything negative from my coworkers who got to eat it! The bunny cake pan I used to make the cake is an older Wilton pan. I like the older pans because there are various cake designs to choose from. This particular pan can make an Easter cake, Valentine's cake or a regular bunny cake. So versatile! I wish more of the newer ones were like that.

Strawberry cake with buttercream frosting.

Elise's Personal 1st Birthday Cake

My niece's first birthday smash cake! My husband and I came up with the cool idea to write her name in the vines of the flowers I was going to pipe as decoration on top of the cake. The result couldn't have been better! Giving the year of cake baking a great start...

Four inch round strawberry cake covered in buttercream frosting. Royal icing flowers.