Cheesecake!

So as you can probably tell from this blog I love to bake. Although I absolutely love to try new things I have always been terrified of making cheesecakes. They always seem to be complicated - don't over mix, don't over bake, cool in a draft-free location. Very intimidating. My husband bought me my first springform pan last Christmas. It was time to bite the bullet and make a cheesecake. Turns out they really aren't that hard. And they are totally worth the end effort - delicious! This is a Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake. I got the recipe from a Taste of Home Cheesecake edition magazine. It was made for my daughter, Lana, who's favorite thing in the world right now is blueberries! Now that it isn't so scary to make them, I will definitely be trying out some new cheesecake recipes in the future!

Elise's 2nd Birthday: Butterfly Cupcakes

My sister-in-law gave me free artistic rein on the butterfly cupcakes. I had always wanted to try these 3-d chocolate butterflies that I had seen in the Hello, Cupcake! book but never had an excuse to make them... until now! Unfortunately the instructions that they gave in the book didn't work for me - the butterfly wings just weren't looking the way I wanted them to. So I did a little brainstorming and with the help of my sister we had 20 beautiful, colorful, unique butterflies on our hands! I baked some confetti cupcakes, iced them with buttercream frosting and my sister rimmed the edges with rainbow sprinkles that she had mixed up. Then I positioned the wings on the cupcakes at different angles to make it appear that the butterflies were fluttering on the cupcakes. So impressive and so fun! I have a feeling I will be using a lot of candy melts in the future for decorating. I see some candy clay in my future...

Elise's 2nd Birthday: Butterfly Cake

So this blog began with my niece's first birthday cake and now we have arrived at her second birthday cake! My sister-in-law requested two items: a butterfly cake for Elise's actual birthday party and butterfly cupcakes for the family celebration that evening. And so I had my mission. Here is the butterfly cake! White cake tinted a lovely shade of purple on the inside and the outside decorated with all the colors of the rainbow! The colored part of the wings had corresponding colored sugar on top of them to make them really bright! I also used Twinkies to make the body of the butterfly which ended up being the perfect size and shape! Elise and all of her little party guests really enjoyed this cake. I even got to use my new letter cut-outs to write a birthday message on it for her! All-in-all a great way to begin a new year of decorating. It turned out exactly how I envisioned it! Now on to the butterfly cupcakes...

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.