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July 2012: Sweet Pea Baby Shower

I am going to be an Aunt at the end of August!

When we found out months ago I immediately declared I had to throw my sister-in-law a baby shower. She's spent most of the pregnancy referring to the baby as "Baby P" so I decided on a "Sweet Pea" theme. While making the decorations and buying the gifts for the party was a lot of fun, what I enjoyed the most was making the cupcakes!

So, without further ado.....

 

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Both the baby and the sweet peas were made out of marzipan.

 Unfortunately it was hot on the drive over, so the chocolate frosting melted a bit.

 

The baby shower was a lot of fun and I look forward to meeting the little sweet pea in a few months!

July 2012: Bridal Shower Mini-Cupcakes

A couple of months ago a friend asked me to make some mini-cupcakes for her friend's bridal shower. They turned out great and I had a lot of fun making them.

For cupcake toppers, I decided on diamond engagement rings. Since it would be a little expensive to put an actual diamond ring on each cake, I decided to make some out of gum paste! ;)

 

First I rolled out white gum paste and using a circle cutter and round piping tip I made the rings.

 

I then sprayed both sides with silver food spray and let them dry overnight.

Meanwhile, I cut diamonds out of white gum paste and painted them with sparkle dust. 

The next day, using royal icing, I "glued" on the diamonds and "Ta da!": Engagement rings!

August 2010: Pink Rock & Roll Cupcakes

I haven't been up to much baking, except at work, lately.

However I did make some really cute cupcakes for a girl's birthday. She loves music and the color pink so I came up with some totally rocking birthday cupcakes!

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She loved them as much as I loved making them!

February 2010: Super Mario 1-UP Cake

It was a friend's 26th birthday over the weekend and since we recently become obsessed with playing the new Super Mario Brothers on the Wii; I decided to make her a Mario themed cake. Since a birthday means you're turning 1 year older I felt that a 1-UP cake is fitting. It was a 6 inch (two 2 inch cakes stacked on top of each other) layer cake made of both chocolate and vanilla cake filled with whipped cream and strawberries. This was the first square cake I covered with fondant. I thought it was going to be a lot easier than it was. (Darn you Wilton website!) I think I need to practice with a fake cake. The mushroom was made out of crispy rice and marshmallows. This was also harder to cover than I thought. Since the crispy rice was bumpy I covered the whole thing with some buttercream first before covering it. It still was kinda lumpy in spots though. Also, it was really heavy! Luckily I planned ahead and put dowels in the cake to support.

Roulades

Hazelnut Praline, Caramel, and Ganache

Cinnamon-Sugar, Peaches, and Almonds

Strawberries, Cream, and Vanilla

Christmas Cookies

Tannenbaum "Christmas Tree" Cookies.

Easy Sugar Cookies & Buttercream

1 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2½ cups of sifted flour
½ teaspoons salt

Sift together flour and salt, set aside. Cream together butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix in flour mixture. Let the dough chill in the refrigerator for at least three hours before you roll it out. Bake @ 350 F for 8 - 9 minutes.

Mix one stick of softened butter and 1/4 cup milk with 1 lb powdered sugar. Add vanilla to taste.

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Zimtsterne: Swiss Cinnamon Stars

My boyfriend's Swiss mom taught me to make these this year.

Rum Balls

Adapted from Emeril Lagasse

1 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup gold rum*
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 1/2 cups finely crushed vanilla wafers
1 cup finely chopped, toasted walnuts
1/2 cup dried fruit**

In a large bowl sift together the sugar, cocoa powder and allspice. Stir in the rum and corn syrup. Stir in wafers, nuts and fruit. Place in the refrigerator for around 30 minutes so the mixture can firm up a bit.

Scoop up the dough and form into 1 inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in refrigerator over night. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

*The original recipe called for dark rum, but I used what I had. These balls are really strong, so if you're not a big rum fan use light colored rum.

** I used Zante currants in mine. Craisins or dried cherries would be awesome as well.