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.