Thursday, September 30, 2010

Birthdays Galore!

My husband's birthday is tomorrow, October 1. He is a fan of Texas Hold'em. While we were dating, he played in a tournament and won two tickets to Disneyland. That was one of our first dates and my first trip ever to Disneyland. I have wanted to make this cake for a while, but he has been deployed for his past two birthdays. I bought my printer for edible images so that I could make the cards and poker chips as realistic as I could. The cake is white vanilla with chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream.
My youngest daughter had her third birthday two weeks ago. She said she wanted a Care Bears cake. I got an idea to make the Care Bear cloud ship from the first movie. Here it is without the Care Bear figurines and with them. It is banana cake with cream cheese filling and buttercream frosting with a few fondant accents.


"Anyone who uses the phrase, 'it's easy as taking candy from a baby', has never tried taking candy from a baby."
-Unknown

I'll Settle for a Slow Down..

Wow, has it been a busy past few months! So many birthdays and lots of baking. October will be more of the same with Halloween coming up. I am planning a dessert buffet, so check back for that. I have been trying out more recipes lately so my house has been full of yummies! Here are some of the things I've been working on lately.

Whoopie pies! Oreos have nothing on these babies! I have made dozens of these lately and can't seem to get enough. Above are regular and Halloween themed whoopies.
This is probably my favorite of all the cake recipes I use. Banana cake with cream cheese frosting. So moist with a delicate crumb. My daughter, Cheyenne liked it so much that she requested it for her birthday cake this year.
I have had a hard time finding a lemon bar recipe that I wanted to use. I may still make a few tweaks to this recipe but for the most part, I am happy with the results.
One of my undecorated cookie flavors. Snickerdoodles, studded with toffee bits.
My oldest daughter, Harley, turned four this year. I was pregnant with her brother, so I couldn't spend as much time on her birthday cake (in this case, cupcakes) as I would have liked. Her brother actually ended up being born on her birthday. These cupcakes were rainbow butter yellow with Swiss Meringue buttercream.
I have made chocolate covered sandwich cookies in the past, but they were dipped. I purchased molds from Spinning Leaf, and piped on the flowers with royal icing. These would be a perfect party or wedding favor. Check back later, because I will be making snowman and snowflake chocolate covered cookies for Christmas presents this year.
For my birthday this year, I finally gave in to the dark side. I purchased an Agbay cake leveler. This leveler has the reputation as the best in the business and I can honestly say that it is truly my new favorite toy! This cake was one that I used my Agbay with. It creates perfectly even cake layers and helps me to get my perfect 4 inch height to the cake. It cuts through cake like butter. I would highly recommend the investment.


"The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing."
-Unknown