36 Years.

My parents have been married for 36 years. Wow. I'm in awe, especially when in our society marriages don't even seem to last 5 years. I love my parents so much and I am so thankful for their amazing example. And of course, as always to celebrate a momentous occasion, I made cake. I made a white chocolate raspberry cake. Yum. The recipe can be found on the Kraft website. Also, my mom loves bears, so I figured I'd make a cute little topper for the cake. Please focus on the topper more than anything. Don't pay attention to the piping or the icing job. Just look at the cute little bears!

I made the bears out of fondant, and I'm really happy with how they turned out, especially on a first try! I'm excited to try all sorts of new little fondant figurines now. I think a giraffe would be super cute... Now to find someone who needs a giraffe cake!

 Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad! Love you lots! 

And thanks again for such an amazing example of a wonderful marriage!

Happy Fathers' Day!

So, instead of cake, I made my, Mr. Fix-It, Dad cookies. I think they turned out pretty good. I played a little with the color when I was editing the photos, but they are still very close to the actual color.

so I need to work on my piping a little, but my flooding is getting better!

Happy Fathers' Day Dad! Thanks for everything you do and for fixing anything and everything that I need! And thank you for instilling a determination and willingness to try to do new things and figure out how to do them, and not taking short cuts, but doing it right. : ) Love you lots!

Cake Wrecks

I have discovered the most spectacular blog ever. Cake Wrecks. That's right. Hours of entertainment. A friend of mine is moving away, and since she and I enjoyed Cake Wrecks together on many occasions, I made her, her very own cake wreck. Every part of her cake came from this site, so you really need to go and look at it!

Bad spelling, Poor use of punctuation, the mistake then fixed, horrible following of instructions.... Poo border. I could go on and on!

just look at the balloons... yes those are supposed to be balloons.

carrot jockeys... quite possibly the most bizarre thing I've ever seen on a cake

little Kyle doing Tae Kwon Do.... just let the image sink in

I had so much fun making this 'on purpose' cake wreck, I may have to make more! Some of my favorites  are some of the Christmas cakes. Seriously, if you haven't clicked on the link yet, do it now. In fact here it is again! Cake Wrecks. Your life will never be the same.

Berry Fresh! Tastes like summer!

I made these cupcakes in May for a birthday party. They were fresh and light and perfect to get me feeling like summer! Too bad we've had roughly 3 weeks of pure rain which have since removed all summer feelings from me.

Here they are Lemon cupcakes filled with fresh raspberry and icing puree. So yummy! I purchased a 'Betty Crockers Best Cupcakes recipe book', and these little beauties were in there. So many amazing cupcake recipes that I need to try, and for those of you who think, I don't want to make cupcakes from scratch! It just seems like too much work, then these recipes are for you! They all use cake mixes with other things added to them. For example, this particular recipe called for a white cake mix and to make it lemon, you just mix in lemon zest. Also, the icing was the tubs of Betty Crocker pre-made stuff, again just adding things to it. So easy, and incredibly tasty!

Nothing better than biting into a cupcake and being surprised with raspberry goodness.

By Popular Demand.

So I guess I can't just get away with posting some pictures of some delectable treats. I've had many requests for the Cookies N' Cream cupcakes that I posted..... YESTERDAY. Apparently people do read my blog. It's always nice to know!

Here is the recipe I used. I found it at Annie's Eats. This website is amazing. So many different things I want to try. Not just the yummy looking treats. For simplicity, instead of making you search through the entire site (even though you really should) here is the recipe I used, as she actually has 2 different Cookies N' Cream cupcake recipes on the site.

Cookies N'Cream Cupcakes

Yield: 24 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

24 Oreo halves, with cream filling attached

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 2/3 cup sugar

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup milk

20 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped (I quarter them)

For the frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2 tbsp. heavy cream

For garnish:

Oreo cookie crumbs

24 Oreo cookie halves

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 24 paper liners. Place an Oreo halve in the bottom of each liner, cream side up. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir together with a fork to blend and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Blend in the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, beat in half of the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Add the milk and beat just until combined, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Gently fold in the chopped Oreos with a rubber spatula until evenly incorporated, being careful not to over-mix.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Blend in the vanilla extract. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar until incorporated and smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add the heavy cream to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed just until incorporated, then increase the speed to medium-high and whip for 4 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired. Sprinkle with Oreo crumbs and garnish with Oreo halves.

So there you go. Isn't technology amazing? I find it so fascinating that I can locate all these wonderful recipes by the clicking of a few buttons.



Cookies N' Cream

I love scouring the internet for new ideas and recipes, and when I found this one I knew I had to try it. I really don't believe that much explanation is required. I'll just let the pictures entice you!

Yum!

And yes, that is half an Oreo including the cream filling at the bottom of that cupcake. Delicious. I think what really did it for me on these was the cream cheese icing. Seriously good.