Superhero Birthday Party

Cake and Cookies for my grandson's 4th birthday.

The cake is actually four 6" cakes individually iced and put together on a 14" cake board.

They were blue and yellow on the inside made with rainbow chip cake mix and cherry chip cake mix. Gasp! Yes, I used a cake mix. I read that boxed mixes take food colouring better than homemade but 

I have also had success with "jacked up" boxed mixes in the past. I do 4 eggs, sometimes butter instead of oil and I use mild instead of water. It makes a big difference and it is a convenient shortcut when pressed for time. Nobody complained and all of the cake was eaten eventually so I really don't apologize for using a mix in this instance. I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the cake - I can't believe I could forget that but they were dyed blue and yellow and looked and tasted delicious.

The cake toppers were cookies - I made four sugar cookies that were over 3" round and thinner than the other cookies to place on the cake instead of fiddling with fondant. I just wasn't up to dying fondant, rolling it out, shaping it and keeping it from drying out etc. I love the look of fondant cakes and the decorations but I have very little space to work with and to be perfectly honest, very little patience for all of that but nobody minded and it looked pretty good as it was. The icings were vanilla buttercream and almond/cherry buttercream.

The cookies were made using my go-to sugar cookie favourite: Sweet Sugarbelle's sugar cookie recipe and her royal icing recipe - but I used Kirkland Pure Vanilla Extract and Nielson-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste for the cookie dough instead of Sugarbelle's preferred almond extract. 

Late August cookies - Fishing, Ice Cream & Back to School

Last lazy days of summer

These cookies were made using Sweet Sugarbelle's sugar cookie recipe and royal icing recipe. ALWAYS my go-to recipe for cookies and RI - I use real vanilla extract in the cookie dough and add artificial vanilla to the RI. To me, both of these are no-fail recipes, always with excellent results.

Paris Themed Wedding Cookies

I was honored to make these Paris themed cookies for our niece's wedding party. I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe by Sugarbelle and her royal icing recipe. I've made so many cookies from these recipes that I have them memorized by now.

Fifties Themed Cookies

Fifties theme for a Sweet Sixteen

Vanilla sugar cookies with vanilla royal icing. The poodles were royal icing transfers.

Graduation Cookies - royal icing transfers

These cookies were made for my nephew who successfully defended his PhD. The grad cookies were to celebrate the "Doctor" in him and the Batman minis were for the KID in him - never too old for Batman!

As I usual, I used Sweet Sugarbelle's sugar cookie recipe and her royal icing recipe. For the cookies I always use good quality vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste (unless another flavor is requested) and for the royal icing I use clear artificial vanilla flavoring.

Wedding Shower Heart Cookies

Wedding Shower Cookies - Piped Lace and Brush Embroidery

Elmo and Cookie Monster Cookies

Vanilla Sugar Cookies - recipe by SweetSugarBelle

Elmo and Cookie Monster Cupcakes

"Fur" created with Wilton tip #233

Eyes created with 1/3 of a regular marshmallow. I tried it with 1/2 but the eyes bulged too much for my liking. The eye balls are black royal icing (left over from the cookies) I could have used black buttercream but I was too lazy to mix it up, so used what I had. Elmo's nose is an orange peanut M&M. The mouth is half of an Oreo, just the cookie part, not the icing.