Dahlia Cupcakes :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Tommy

Chocolate Cake Pops - just for fun

Glitter Shoes

GO DUCKS!

I have made 2 batches of these and can't wait to make another. They have a mini Snickers baked inside! My dad described them as "decadent". Isn' that cute? :)

Snickers Cupcakes

Makes 24-30 cupcakes
For the cake:
1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs; lightly beaten
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon of vanilla
24-30 frozen Snickers Miniatures
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line (2) 12 cup muffin tins with paper liners.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs, vanilla and water.
4. Evenly divide the batter amongst the prepared pans. {I use a large cookie scoop from OXO to scoop my batter; it holds 3 tablespoons}.
5. Gently push a frozen Snickers Miniature bar into the center of the batter and smooth the surface making sure to cover the candy bar with batter.
6. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Cool cupcakes thoroughly on wire rack.
For the frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter; room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioners’ sugar
1/3 cup caramel topping; plus more for drizzling
1/4 teaspoon salt
Method1. Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract, salt and caramel syrup and combine well.
2. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, give it a taste and decide if you want to add in more caramel syrup. For thicker frosting you can gradually add in a little more sugar.
Garnish with chopped Snickers bars and a drizzle of caramel of caramel syrup.


Recipe from http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/

Lemon Burst Cookies

I got this recipe from Tidymom.com. The most easiest cookie ever!
1 box Lemon Cake Mix
1 egg
1 tub (8oz) cool whip

Blend together......batter will be really sticky and thick. Take spoonfuls and roll in a bowl of powdered sugar. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.Voila! Super delicious lemon cookies!

Feliz Navidad!

Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treats

Tasty Treats!

Drizzled with white chocolate and topped with a gingerbread marshmallow man. :)

Me like Cake!

Last night Adam and I started on a birthday cake for Andy. Caveman theme in honor of the Paleo Diet he introduced us to. Adam is helping with this project, which I find adorable. So far he made the logs and the caveman head. These are made out of fondant....cant wait to see the final result!

Mini Donuts

I found a mini donut cake pan......fun breakfast on a weekend with the kids. :)

Primal Almond Butter Pumpkin Brownies

I can't even being to tell you how WONDERFUL these are. SO GOOD! Especially when its day 6 of not eating any starchy carbs. I am in heaven. I can't believe how fluffy these cooked up with NO flour. Amazing!!
*I added a bit of pumpkin pie spice to mine.

Almond Butter Pumpkin Brownies

Feel free to get creative with substitutions.   Try other nut butters, other forms of squash, other sweeteners, spices, mix-ins, the possibilities are endless. I made several batches using either fresh squash that I steamed and mashed or canned pumpkin. I preferred the fresh squash to the canned pumpkin, but the latter worked perfectly well and seemed appropriate for the upcoming holiday.
Consider topping with applesauce and/or pecans.
Ingredients:
1 cup almond butter
¾ cup mashed pumpkin or other squash, canned or steamed
1 egg
1/3 cup raw honey
1 tsp baking soda
Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Mix well.  Pour into a greased 8 x 8 in pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Serves 8.

Paleo Cookies!

These are probably the healthiest cookies ever, and pretty tasty too! GLUTEN FREE!

2 Bananas
1 Apple
Coconut Milk
Coconut Flour
Almond Butter
Cinnamon
You can add nuts too!

Skittle Rainbow Cupcakes

I made these to take to the kids at Bradens last football game this past Saturday. The Skittles and sprinkles were Adams idea. :)

Candy Corn Cupcakes

I ran across this cute little cupcake as I was browsing the internet for something new and fun to bake. Thanks to "Our Best Bites" for the wonderful recipe! http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/10/tutorial-how-to-frost-cupcakes-plus.html

These are how mine turned out! YUM!!!

And I also found a new recipe for frosting from this same website. It is SO GOOD! First batch I made was a disaster. I cooked the flour and milk way too long and it ended up a huge blob. So I dumped it and started over. My second batch was H-E-A-V-E-N. This frosting is so light and silky. Simply perfect.

Heres the link to the recipe and tutorial. In my opinion - WAY better than buttercream.

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/09/perfect-cupcake-frosting-and-filling.html

Cupcake + poured fondant

Final Fondant Cake

I "graduated" from my fondant class last night! :) This was a really fun cake to make. Since we are so close to Halloween, I went for a spooky theme. I made all the accents out of a mixture of gumpaste and fondant, used sparkly gel for the spider web and covered the cake board in pure fondant. The filling in this cake is raspberry.

Since I had extra cake batter and green fondant left over, I decided to make a few Halloween cupcakes too. I melted the fondant in the microwave and did a technique I learned on You Tube. This frosting technique is called "Poured Fondant".

Fondant & Gum Paste Class #2

Birthday Cakes

I had the opportunity to create 2 birthday cakes over this past weekend. One for Marian and one for Eric. Eric requested a white cake with lemon filling. I made Marians a white cake with raspberry filling.
Here's a tip: You can buy pie and cake fillings that dont soak thru at Cash and Carry for a great price. They also sell them at the Decorette Shop.
Marians cake was covered in fondant and decorated with the sugar (gumpaste) cherry blossoms I made. Erics was covered in a vanilla buttercream frosting. YUM. :)


Oh - one more thing. I made the guitar by using the "Frozen Buttercream Transfer" technique. You can search for free coloring pages on the internet and find some really cute designs to trace. Really fun. :) i just wish I would have smoothed out the sides of the cake a bit more. Oh well....live and learn. :)

Stamps and Fondant??

How to deco a mini cake: painting and flowers

Gum Paste Cherry Blossoms

My first class isn't until this coming Thursday for the Fondant and Gum Paste but I just couldn't wait. Impatient? Me? Yes. I just had to dig in.

I'm making 2 cakes for this coming weekend and one of them will hopefully look something like this.....but a MUCH smaller version. The cake Im going to make will not have butterflys and will only be one round. This picture gives you a general idea.

So last night I decided to make the cherry blossoms out of gum paste ahead of time. Which, I will say, I'm glad I did. Very time consuming. I tinted white gum paste with pink gel food coloring. Formed the flowers then dusted them with white pearl petal dust and added the centers. I think they turned out pretty cute. I cant wait to incorporate them on the cake this weekend.

Cake Pops by Bakerella

I did it! :)

I finished the 1st course! Yippy! Here's dorky me with my certificate of completion and my final cake. I LOVED making the buttercream roses. So fun and pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

The cake was French Vanilla with a chocolate pudding filling. I sent it to work with Adam and it was snarfed up in less than an hour by his co-workers. Nice!

making buttercream roses much slower with tk