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

Owl Cake

I was originally going to do this for my final cake for class but I got too antsy.

It turned out so good! The pictures dont do it justice. Pumpkin spice cake (from scratch!) and homemade cream cheese buttercream frosting. The frozen buttercream transfer was so fun to do. I will be doing a lot more in the future. :)

Cupcake Pops

Found this recipe from http://www.bakerella.com/   :)

I watch You Tube videos all the time online to learn new ways of decorating. Besides the 3 cake classes I have taken., You Tube is pretty much my source for being taught new things.

I think Im going to try a "Frozen Buttercream Transfer" for my final cake next week. Here is an outline of what picture Im going to use. Also in the post below, theres a "how-to" video on how to do a frozen buttercream transfer. Im going with a Fall theme and thought this cute little Owl would be perfect. The cake will be pumpkin spice.

FBCT How to do a Frozen Buttercream Transfer

Wilton Basic Cake Decorating Class #3

Tonight we learned how to make Pom Pom flowers and Shaggy Mums. My shaggy mums turned out looking like bright orange hay stacks but my blue pom pom flowers turned out pretty good. :)

Next week will be the final class in the 1st course. We get to make our final cake and its gotta be good! Im going to take some time over the next fews days to design how I want it to look.

Anyway, here are a couple pictures of my pom pom flower cupcake. :)

Spice cake with buttercream frosting. :)

Happy Birthday Braden! 12 years old...

This is the "Alien Cake". Bright green fondant with buttercream details. Cherry chip cake with vanilla buttercream filling.

Adam made the little balls that go around the bottom. :)

Kathis birthday cake.....

I finally got to do a more "elegant" styled cake. I really want to do a 3-tiered wedding cake like this someday. Maybe once I get better at the piping. I think I could spend an entire day piping these squiggles onto cakes!

Chocolate cake with buttercream filling, covered in white fondant with violet buttercream details.

Wilton Cake Decorating Basics Class #2

I was so excited for this cake. It was lemon with raspberry filling. The design was the Wilton cupcake transfer that eveyone in class had to use. It was mainly to practice different frosting techniques.

Anyway - disaster! It may look cute on the outside but once I got it home (which might I add, driving a stick shift while trying to balance a cake is NOT easy!)....anyway - once I got home and cut it open I found a mooshy raspberry soaked cake. I was not happy. Lesson learned....don't overstuff. All in all - it was good practice.

The Rainbow Cake!

This was a fun cake to make. It was also my first batch of buttercream frosting I ever made. Mmm Mmm Good!

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