Frosty the Snowman Chocolate Covered Oreo..

Countdown to Christmas is beginning the final stretch. For our edible Christmas family gifts this year I went with chocolate covered oreos. I wanted to make a large amount to see how long it would take so each box contains 6 cookies. 20 boxes = 120 cookies. I made 140 just in case a few were duds. It took me just over 3 days. I really enjoy doing large amounts of things. It reminds me of my pastry classes. We boxed them up and mailed them across the country this morning. Hope everyone enjoys them!

I made orange and blue drizzled cookies as well. Here are the finished boxes.

It's always nice to see a bunch of smiling faces!

There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.
- Erma Bombeck

Cake for Breakfast and Dessert!

A couple weekends ago, I found myself awake a lot earlier than usual, so I decided to make the best of my time before the rest of the house woke up and make a coffee cake. Now I don't usually get up early enough to make this wonderful yummy because it takes around 25-30 minutes to get it into the oven and an hour to bake it, so coffee cake is more or less a special treat around here. This one was a cinnamon coffee cake. It was wonderful! Coffee cake is definitely best straight out of the oven and still warm. We ate it for breakfast 3 days straight. I look forward to making it again the morning that we open Christmas presents.

It was already half-eaten the morning it was made. My family does not skimp on cake, even for breakfast.
I have been meaning to try out this cake/filling/frosting combination and finally got around to it. It's my version of a Boston cream cake. The cake is butter yellow and filled with Bavarian cream. Then, I made a chocolate ganache and poured it over. This same combination will make an awesome dessert cup!
The holiday season is in full swing and Christmas will be here before you know it. These are hard times for us all, but if you are able, please take the time to help bring some cheer to children who without it, may not have a gift to open on Christmas. Donate to Toys for Tots. Involve your children in donating this holiday season and teach them to appreciate their blessings and how to help bring blessings to others. We all share this beautiful world. Take care of your neighbors and remember, we are all in this together.

Seek joy in what you give, and not what you get.

-Unknown

Black Hole Sun Cake

Hand-painted and airbrushed. Sizes: 8, 10, 10, 14. Serves 178. I think now that I should have made the top tier a little smaller. It makes it look "squat" with the tiers so close in size.

Cake with sketch.

Chocolate fudge with peanut buttercream filling. Frosted in Swiss meringue buttercream and covered in fondant.
Butter yellow cake with fresh strawberry buttercream filling. Frosted in Swiss meringue buttercream and covered in fondant.

"Don't lose hope. When the sun goes down, the stars come out."

-Unknown

Halloween Dessert Buffet Table

Here is the finished dessert buffet.

The cookie tray.
Cakepops and brownies.
Layered vanilla pudding shooters.
Caramel and chocolate dipped apples.
Shoe box cake and chocolate shoe.

Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!

-Unknown

Buffet Table Prep

I have spent the past 4 days preparing a dessert buffet table for Halloween. Here are some shots of the "work in progress".

The shoe box cake. Completely edible. I used frosting sheets and designed my own little shoe logo.

The chocolate shoe.Apples on sticks, ready for dipping.

My apple dipping station.

Apples dipped in caramel.

And after being dipped again, this time in chocolate.

Cake crumbs and swiss meringue buttercream for the cakepops.

Cake pops rolled into balls.

The dipping station.

Cookies before going into the oven.And after baking.
Decorated.
Everything took about 4 days from start to finish. I love making a variety of desserts and don't want to get burnt out by just doing cakes all the time.

Today's progress was yesterday's plan.

-Unknown

Like Sand Between My Toes...

So about three weekends ago, I drove about an hour up to Murrieta, California, to the Cake Cottage for their huge chocolate mold sale. I came home with over 30 molds. I bought a sea shell mold and wanted to try it out, except I used fondant instead of chocolate. The starfish are hand molded and dusted with cocoa powder. The shells were marbled with cocoa powder as well. I hated to cover the sides of this cake after getting it so smooth and the corners so sharp but it was good practice. I look forward to making many beach themed wedding cakes in the future since we will be living at the coast.

It isn't the mountains ahead that wear you out, it's the grain of sand in your shoe.

-Unknown

Could You Hold My Cake Purse? Without Eating It?

I have been meaning to make these for a while but always get distracted with something else. After looking at several tutorials and pictures of other purse cakes, I figured I'd give it a try. I had some left over red velvet cake and cut out some mini purses. They are frosted in cream cheese frosting and covered in fondant. I airbrushed one pink and the other blue. There were originally four purses, but two of them looked so delicious that my 3 year old daughter decided to sample them. *Sigh* They were for practice anyway and my kids are just like their mother, nobody can take sugar from these babies!

Here is a size comparison so you can really see how small they are.

A heavy purse makes a light heart.

-Unknown

Lego my Logo!

While trying out my edible ink printer, I decided to give making chocolates a try. Practically anything can be printed on chocolates with use of frosting sheets and edible inks in all sizes and shapes. Here is a variety set of several different sizes, all with my bakery logo on them. I plan to get a business card mold as well to make life size business card chocolates.

Large suckers in both milk and white chocolate.
A smaller maybe 2-bite size chocolate.

There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.

-Unknown

Save the Ta-Tas!

It's October again. My favorite month of the year because Halloween falls in it, which is by far my favorite holiday. October is also Breast Cancer Awareness month. I like to do something every year in honor of bringing notice and information to women about preventing breast cancer and to show support to those brave souls who are living with it. I decided to make "Save the Ta-Tas", pink ribbon cupcakes, and dipped pretzels. Cupcakes are chocolate and vanilla swiss meringue buttercream with fondant decor. My husband, children and I will be joining in on the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk this coming weekend. I hope that everyone who reads this will be willing to join the fight and "spread the word" about how to get screened as well as do-it-yourself checks for preventing and recognizing symptoms of breast cancer, such as those found on the American Cancer Society website. We can find a cure for breast cancer. Feel your boobs; it can save your life.

I think this post calls for a couple different quotes:

It's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. -Abraham Lincoln

The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it. -C.C. Scott

and finally...

Never, never, never give up. -Winston Churchill

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