Cheesecake

My daughter requests a strawberry cake with a rainbow on top. My son requests a PLAIN cheesecake. No decorations, no colors, NOTHING. He has already requested this for his next birthday. Admittedly I'm a little disappointed that I can't make a fun decorative cake for him. That said, this kid could live on cheesecake and I'd rather him be happy considering that cheesecake is a rare occasion for us!

I can turn just about anything into cheesecake!

My Daughter's Beautiful Cake!

My daughter's birthday cake request was "a strawberry cake with a rainbow on top". So, that is what she got! This cake was so much fun to make! And it was wonderful to see my daughter's reaction to her cake!

Vanilla cake

Vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.

Gender Reveal Cupcakes

I really enjoyed making these! A friend from college who was pregnant with twins asked me to make gender reveal cupcakes for their gender reveal party. Vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting (white on top and tinted blue for the filling).

Just For Fun (and Practice)

This was a practice cake that I did awhile back. I wanted to practice covering a cake with fondant and making a fondant bow. It was fun to make!

Star Wars Cake

Bridal Shower

Bridal shower cupcakes decorated with wedding dresses and a coordinating flower. Lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting. These are made with fresh lemon zest and lemon juice freshly squeezed from real lemons (no bottled lemon juice in these babies!).

Easter

I was in charge of desserts for Easter. I made a white cake with strawberries and kiwi (it's called an English Trifle). The frosting and filling was a light and fluffy cream. I think I used heavy cream and powdered sugar with some gelatin to keep it's form. The individual cupcake looking desserts were individual cheesecakes. A local bakery had shared their recipe which was a recipe featured on Cupcakes (they were also winners). They were yummy.

Princess Party!

My cousin's daughter turned 3 and wanted princess cookies and cupcakes. I love these! The flavors are vanilla and salted caramel.

Bridal Shower Cupcakes

More bridal shower cupcakes...love these! The flavor is lemon with lemon cream cheese frosting.

Dump Trucks

Rehearsal Dinner Cookies

As lovely as these cookies turned out, they were almost the death of me :( If something could go wrong, it did. I made the sugar cookie cutouts before moving on to the frosting. Made the frosting and thought the consistency was a bit off but didn't pay much attention to it. I mean, I used the same ingredients I always use: meringue powder, water, and powdered sugar. Can't get much simpler than that! I frosted each cookie (50! and they were huge) and left them to sit. After awhile I noticed that the frosting seemed off. I always make a couple extra to "test" just in case ;) I felt the frosting and it was the consistency of SAND-something it should NOT be. I felt several...same thing. There was NO WAY I could save these cookies. I was so sad (angry!) as I dumped them into the garbage. All that work-hours and hours-in the garbage. I couldn't not remake them so I went to the store and bought new meringue powder and powdered sugar just in case. I had to remake all the dough, cut the cookies, bake, make the frosting, and frost. They turned out perfectly the second time. Way way better than the first time (even if the frosting had turned out).

Wedding Reception Cupcakes

My mom's friend had a wedding reception for her son and his wife awhile after the wedding. These are the yummy cupcakes I made. She wanted something simple, so we went with vanilla and chocolate with vanilla frosting and flowers that matched the reception decor.

Bridal Shower Cupcakes

Aren't these adorable?!?! This was my second time making wedding dresses on bridal shower cupcakes and I love them! The color matches the wedding colors. One kind is vanilla and the other is salted caramel (father of the bride's favorite cupcake).

Baby Shower

I made these adorable cupcakes for a baby shower. The host didn't want something super baby-ish yet she wanted something girly. I thought these fit perfectly!

Baptism Cupcakes

Baptismal cupcakes for my niece. I made the cross and her first initial out of royal icing on fondant.

Cupcakes!

Pirates!

My mom's friend from work wanted pirate cupcakes for her son's fourth birthday. I wasn't sure if I could pull this one off, so I told her to let me think about what I could come up with. I searched around the internet and came up with a very similar picture. After studying the picture, I knew I could come up with something similar. And this is how they turned out...

They are cute but TIME CONSUMING! I've had another request since these...which made me think I should advertise that I can make them. Oh well, too cute not to share!

Gracie's 3rd Birthday Cake

Wow! It has been almost a year since my last post. Life just got too busy :/ Last month was my daughter's 3rd birthday. We had a very small family party. I had decided not to have a big party for her, but of course I still had to have something! And I really wanted to make this cake. She loves Ariel right now so I googled "Ariel birthday cakes" and most were way too hard. I found the perfect tutorial for this. Even though the cake is small, it was so time consuming. I have a new respect for cake makers and decorators. The cake was a doctored box mix (gasp!). The cupcakes were lemon with lemon frosting and vanilla with vanilla frosting. I didn't want to cut the cake (we didn't cut it at the party) because I just wanted to stare at my hard work! Finally that evening my daughter said, "Mama, aren't we going to have my cake?" Me: "(Sigh) Well, I suppose so." Finally we cut into it!

Girl Scouts Again!

I love Samoas. Thank goodness girl scout cookies only happen once a year. Never mind the Samoa copycats in the store (Keebler, I think). I've had them once, and they don't even come close to Samoas.

So, tonight I tried Samoa cupcakes. They are very tasty! Chocolate cupcake with coconut flakes baked in the batter. Topped with caramel buttercream (the caramel is homemade), toasted coconut, chocolate ganache, and caramel drizzle.