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.

Easter Cookies

2013 Easter Cookies

Chocolate Roll-out Cookies - recipe by LilaLoa

"Cars" Themed Birthday Party

On March 9, 2013 we hosted a birthday party for our grandson, Ben and the theme was "CARS" which he loves. I made vanilla and chocolate cookies with "2"s and "B"s for 2 year old Ben and Lightning McQueen, Mater and racing black and white check. I added some Mario Invincibility Stars just because they were SOOOO easy to do!
There was a cupcake tower - confetti cupcakes with "Cars" cupcake liners and a 9x13 cake with a "2" roadway with toy CARS characters. Very simple but it turned out pretty cute. After blowing out the candle, Ben wanted to drive Lightning McQueen on the "road", needless to say, they both needed cleaning up.

 Marble cake with chocolate buttercream filling, vanilla cream cheese frosting and vanilla buttercream. The "2 road" was chocolate as well. 

Candy Bar with 5 containers of candy and Lychee flavored poprocks.

We had about 15 guests and served baked taco dip with tortilla chips, popcorn, white cheddar popcorn, 4 kinds of chicken wings, Jamaican cocktail beef patties, baked char siu bao and of course, the cookies, cake and cupcakes.

It was a great day and the birthday boy had lots of fun and was thoroughly spoiled.

I hope my post has provided some inspiration for your own party.

More Valentine's Day cookies

Royal Icing Transfers - I didn't do them quite the right size but it was my first time.

"Wedding" style heart cookies

Brush embroidery and dots

"lace" and brush embroidery

John Deere-like cookies and cupcakes

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and fondant tractor toppers

I used Wilton fondant. The green, yellow and white are as they came in the package, I added Americolor Super Black gel food coloring to fondant to make it black. I did the original image on the computer, printed it out, cut it out and then used it as a template for the tractor - all in green. The I cut out yellow and black circles for the tires, additional green pieces for the fenders and white windows. This was my first time making fondant toppers - I'm so happy that they were a success.

Vanilla sugar cookies with royal icing

I had no idea that John Deere was so popular with little boys! I have had two 3 year old boys to do cookies for in the last 4 months. Apparently they really love JD.

Valentine's Day Cookies

Christmas Cookies

2012 Christmas Cookies

 Assortment boxes of 24 minis

Christmas 2012 was a great cookie Christmas! Many people wanted seasonal minis and large decorated cookies to decorate their plates of goodies for the holidays. I lost track, but dozens and dozens and dozens of cookies were rolled, cut, baked and decorated with love for holiday parties and family gatherings. Cookies included, gingerbread, vanilla and chocolate all with vanilla royal icing.

1D party cookies

Vanilla Birthday Party Cookies

This was my first time making 1D cookies. When I was asked if I could make them, I have to admit that I didn't even know what 1D was! Thank you Google! Turns out, 1D, stands for One Direction, an insanely successful boy band - I guess I'm embarrassingly behind the times!

These cookies are made with Callye Alvarado's (SweetSugarBelle) sugar cookie recipe.

Callye is crazy talented! She is my cookie guru if there is such a thing!

I made Callye's recipe but I used Nielson-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract and because I love the little specks of vanilla seeds, I added a small dose of Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Paste The icing is vanilla royal icing. 

John Deere Fan

Chocolate sugar cookies (LilaLoa's recipe) - John-Deere-like symbol and tractor tires.

I made these cookies in September for a little almost 3 year old boy who is obsessed with all things  John Deere.

LilaLoa's "The End-All Chocolate Cookies" Recipe copied from her site:

1 cup butter

1/4 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups granulated suga

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla 

1 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. baking powder

2/3 cup cocoa

3 or 3 1/2 cups flour

Cream butter, shortening and sugar together. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Add baking powder and salt and mix again. Stir in the cocoa until well blended. Add flour 1 cup at a time. IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE COOKIES RIGHT AWAY, ADD 3 1/2 cups flour. If you are going to "chill" the dough, or just wait for another day to make your cookies, STOP AT 3 cups. It will be totally soft and look all wrong, and you will want to ignore me completely and add more flour, but I'm telling you -- DON'T DO IT. Practice self-restraint. You will be glad you did and I will be proud of you. Roll out on lightly floured surface. Bake at 375°F for 6 1/2 minutes.

I have got to tell you - this is the easiest dough I have ever worked with - so smooth and rich - I just love it! LilaLoa knows what she is talking about. Go to her blog and indulge in all of the knowledge she so willingly shares - she is a very talented lady!!

Pink Ombre Rose Cake

I bravely attempted this cake for our final Ladies Fellowship Hour in May - what was I thinking?
This is a three layer strawberry cake - each cake layer is a shade of pink - similar to the icing pictured.
By the time I transported this cake to church, the flowers were beginning to slide off of the cake! Disaster! I mad the best of it and took an "oh well" attitude, what else could I do? I took the cake to the kitchen and tried to force the roses back into place with a knife. It worked somewhat but when a friend began to slice it, it all just started falling apart - again, disaster! Everyone said it tasted good but what could they say? I hope I have learned my lesson but somehow, I think I will continue to take risks with my baking adventures!

Tiered Cake - final Wilton course

I made this cake on May 29, 2012 for my "tall cakes" class at Michaels. It was a 3 hour class and we brought our cakes ready to go - each tier iced smooth and ready for fondant or final touches if we chose not to do fondant. I chose smooth buttercream because I really don't care for fondant and my family feels the same way. 

The board was decorated with a soft pink satin ribbon and each tier received the same ribbon treatment. The flowers were fondant/gum paste mixture & some were just gum paste - all were made in advance. The 

leaves were piped on with buttercream when I was adding the finishing touches.

Each tier consists of two layers, the top is 6" layers and the bottom is 8" layers on a 10" board. 

The top tier is on an eight inch board and there are 4 dowels in the bottom tier to support the weight of the top. There is a long dowel that goes straight through the two tiers into the bottom board for stability. Driving the dowel through the cake and board proved challenging to say the least! I had to use a hammer and of course I missed the dowel several times and smashed my top tier - this explains the positioning of the flower cluster on the top tier! 

As you can see, there is a bit of a "lean" to the final cake - in transporting it home, it shifted on the uneven seat of the car and some of the icing got smooshed her and there. It was definitely an eye opening  & learning experience. I haven't had the urge to make another tiered cake since then. 

Cherry Shortbread Cookies

New recipe!

First time seeing this recipe and just had to give it a go. The recipe can be found at Sweetopia along with a "how to" in making and decorating these yummy cookies. I followed Marian's recipe with one minor change - I added almost a full tablespoon of pure almond extract to bump up the cherry flavor. Next time I make these cookies I will be even more generous with the almond extract. These cookies are light pink with little specks of cherries throughout and are delicate and melt-in-your-mouth-delicious!

Check out Marian's blog and recipe here.

Two Tier Cake - My First Time

This is my first two tier cake - both the bottom tier and top tier are 2 flavors, dark chocolate and strawberry with strawberry buttercream and strawberry marshmallow fondant. It was also my first time making fondant! This was made for my daughter's 19th birthday in May.
The fondant was easy to make, simple instructions etc, but it doesn't roll out nearly as smooth as Wilton fondant. The cake looked like it had acne scars - it was very pitted which explains the over abundance of whimsical flowers everywhere! The fondant sure tasted a lot better but it did not give the smooth texture and results that I was hoping for.
I used the good old interwebs to learn about making a 2 tiered, stack on stack cake as we had not done the "tall cakes" class at Michaels yet. The top tier is a 6 inch round so I needed a 6 inch round thin cake circle. I also needed dowels of some kind. Since it was going to be only 2 tiers and the top was small, I went with plastic "straw" type dowels that I picked up at Flour Confections. They look like a bubble tea straw. They are easy to cut to size with a snip of the scissors. I also needed a 1/2" thick cake board to support the weight of the tiered cake. I purchased this at Flour Confections as well, I should have gotten a 12" but I got a 10" which served anyway. The bottom tier is 8".
I'd love to hear from you how you have made out with making your own marshmallow fondant and 2 tiered cakes.

French Vanilla Cupcakes With a Twist

French Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

These cupcakes were made for Friday night "games night" with my sisters and friends. I tried something different and "painted" the inside of the piping bag with 3 colors of food coloring before filling the bag with icing. You cannot believe how brilliant they thought I was! I used a Wilton 1M tip and made a "rose" by starting at the center and working my way out just using a clockwise circular motion. I added a tiny fondant blossom which had a sugar pearl in the center. You really have to try this method because I got so many comments on this simple cupcake - everyone with think you are incredible, which you might be - I am just average on a good day so I was pleasantly surprised at the reaction :) Could you imagine a "rose" cake done this way? That would be pretty!

I also filled some of the cupcakes that I made with raspberry jam - I used Smucker's seedless raspberry jam that comes in the squirt bottle. I painted the piping bag with just one color, fuschia, so that it would be easy to tell which ones had filling and which did not. 

It was my first time filling cupcakes and my first time using LorAnn Butter Vanilla Bakery Emulsion in the frosting. I also used Nielsen Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla extract in the frosting and the cupcake.

French Vanilla Cupcake with Raspberry filling and Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

**** Wilton 1M - I have a situation - why do my two Wilton 1M tips look completely different?

I realized that it is actually the 2D tip that is supposed to give you the rose but I used the 1M tip on the left in the pictures.