Lately...

The heat in Texas makes for less than optimum baking weather...aka I haven't wanted to turn on my oven and warm up the house.  But a quick hello and to show you have a few things I have made lately...

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cheesecake
(same cheesecake recipe I used last year but added sliced strawberries and a drizzle of chocolate)

Another repeat, the hub's favorite birthday cake- Tres Leches.

 Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting to celebrate the discharge of one of my little ones---based on my favorite onesie that he wore.

Pistachio Cupcakes with Almond Cream Cheese Frosting

(need to tweek the recipe, but it will be up shortly)

And last but not least, Fall Cookies-my attempt to welcome the season!

Hopefully with cooler temperatures in the forecast, I'll find motivation to bring my pretty pink mixer back into action!  Will be back soon. :)

Rosette Cake

Last weekend was this crazy girl's third birthday...

You may remember that for her first birthday, I made her a very pink strawberry cake with whipped cream-cream cheese frosting and for her second birthday a cherry cheesecake.  

While I should probably learn how to make gourmet dog treats to celebrate her birthday, I usually just end up making her something pretty and tasty.  She We like pretty things.  This year, I had my heart set on finally trying to make a rose cake.  

Nelly approved.

I actually took a shortcut on the cake and doctored up a boxed red velvet mix.  I only had one day off this weekend and quite frankly didn't feel like buying ten ingredients for a cake, sifting it all together, etc etc.  So, there you have it.

It's recommended to use a sturdy, crusting buttercream for rosettes, but I really wanted a red velvet with cream cheese frosting, so I just added a little extra powdered sugar to the icing to make it a little thicker.  

Turned out pretty well and very tasty.  

I used the Wilton 1M tip to make the roses.

 Happy 3rd Birthday, sweet Nelly! :)

(For the record, I let her lick the icing off of the displayed cut piece.  But no cake since it was chocolate.  She thoroughly enjoys cream cheese frosting...don't judge)

Red Velvet Cake

(adapted from MyBakingAddiction)

1 box red velvet cake mix

1 cup sour cream

1 cup oil

1 package instant chocolate pudding 

4 eggs

1/2 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Combine all ingredients in bowl and blend until thoroughly combined.  Split between two 8" cake pans or 24 cupcakes.

Bake for 30-35 minutes for 8"cakes or 18-20 minutes for cupcakes.  Cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package cream cheese, room temperature

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, room temperature

6-8 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat cream cheese and butter together in bowl until smooth.  Gradually add in one cup of powdered sugar at a time until desired sweetness and thickness.  Add vanilla extract and beat on medium speed 3-4 more minutes.

Frost and enjoy!

Candy Cane Fudge, Peppermint Pie, and the rest of December...

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year! I realize I'm about 4 days too late to the Christmas recipe party but better late than never right?  

This December has been a whirlwind of events.  Birthday. 1-Year Anniversary. Christmas. Parties. Headband business starting. And not to mention, I had to actually work sometime in there.  Here's a little recap of December and what I've been baking lately and just life in general.  

Rather than type out and post the recipes I used, I'm just going to link them straight up.  

That being said...my December.  

Tollhouse Pie

One-Year Anniversary---Enchanted Rock, Fredericksburg, TX

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

Train themed birthday cake for 1 year-old

Celebrating the holidays in Llano, TX...I have no idea what sort of gun I'm shooting.

Merry Christmas, from Nelly.

Candy Cane Fudge

I didn't use nearly enough red dye or peppermints but it tastes delicious.

Peppermint Ice Cream Pie

Christmas Eve with my siblings.

Here's to 2012 :)

Fall & Fiesta Birthday Cakes

October is a big month for birthdays in this household.  It's probably my second favorite month of the year because of all the birthdays.  For when there's birthdays, there's an opportunity to bake!

First up in October is my older sister's birthday.  Crazy thing, she turned 29 again this year.  29 and holding, as she would put it.  I feel so guilty, I didn't make her a special cake.  She came to visit the week before her birthday when I had all the wedding cupcakes, so I just made sure she had lots of those.  Sorry, sister.  Next year.

But I did write about my brother's 16th birthday cheesecake.   He's next in line.  

And now for the grand finale...my good friend, Laura, my twin niece and nephew, and my mother, all share an October 30th birthday.  Needless to say, I had a very busy baking weekend.  

For Laura's special day,  I went with the theme of her cocktail party...Fall.  I had seen a picture online with this idea and tried to do something similar.   

I used my pumpkin cake recipe with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and fondant for the decorations.

Since we don't have changing tree colors with seasons in Texas, I turn to fondant.  

And now for the twins' cake.  The theme of their party was Fiesta! 

I made pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and fondant (obviously) for decorations.

As far as the decor on the cake goes, I just started playing with fondant and cutouts and came up with these.  I started with white fondant and picked bold colors to work with.

The banner idea came from here.  I now want every cake I make to have a banner.  Just sayin. 

At the party with the pinanata!  If you asked the twins what the birthday donkey says, they would say "Heeee-haaaaww!"

I also made a dozen pumpkin cupcakes in yellow and pink so the kids could have a personal cake.  

Again, my mom was lumped in with the masses.  But for the record, I asked her if she wanted her own cake and she said she'd just have a slice of the twins.  I tried.  At least sister and mom get their picture on the blog.  Happy Birthday :)

Angry Birds Cake

I've been a busy bee...and I love it.  Now that I've successfully completed one complicated cake (aka a wedding cake), all I want to do is decorate cakes.  Truth be told, I did not make this actual sheet cake.  That is compliments of Costco.  I did however make all of the Angry Birds decorations!  

Last week,  a few of my co-workers asked me if I'd be willing to make decorations for an "Angry Birds" birthday cake.  I'm not one to say no, especially when it comes to a challenge.  Before I actually said "yes", I looked up a few pictures online to see what I could come up with.  Then I sketched out my idea, presented it to them, and voila-I was hired!  They assured me I didn't have to make the actual cake part, which is a good thing because it was only three days ago that I made the wedding cake and wasn't quite ready to do it again.

I made everything out of fondant except for the logs/bricks which are tootsie rolls.  I had some leftover pre-made green fondant from the succulents that I used for the grass and the little green guys.  Then I started with basic white fondant and added Wilton gel food coloring to make the other colors.  

Not going to lie, the eyes and eyebrows on each of the birds and green creatures (what are they? pigs?!) were the most difficult part of this whole thing.  It took many attempts to get them to stick to the body rather than my fingers, but perseverance is key!

Now that I'm on a fondant kick, I've already got pictures and ideas for upcoming October birthdays....get ready. 

Succulent Wedding Cake

I love sugar, that's no surprise. And it's a good thing because this past Thursday, I had icing all over my arms, in my hair, down my shirt, and the stickiest hands ever.  Sounds like a normal day, right?  Well, maybe if I were in the business of making cakes, it would be. And that, my friends, is the goal.

8 dozen assorted flavors of cupcakes and one 8 inch top tier were made for the long awaited wedding of Lucy and Willy last Friday night. Sneak peak:  

Four dozen chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel buttercream frosting, two dozen carrot cake cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, and two dozen lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting and one top tier of chocolate cake with strawberry filling and cream cheese frosting.  Whew, I did it. 

Not to mention, I spent hours making, molding, and shading a dozen fondant succulents. My inspiration for these succulents came from here and here.  

Sadly, I neglected to take any up close pictures of my succulents after I had shaded them, but I'm hoping the photographer snapped some good shots that I'll post later.

A brief run through, I bought the Wilton Gum Paste Flower Kit and an cala lily kit cutters to make the succulents.  I basically just looked at a few pictures and went from there.

Camera phone pictures....my apologies.

My mother was a great help in making these and even let me do all of my baking and decorating at her house...she has double ovens.  For the win.

I made these succulents about a month ago because I wanted them to harden and keep their shape.  I placed a few of the larger ones in cupcake tins so they would maintain their shape and the big daddy in the first picture in a bowl for its shape.  Then I bought a dark purple, light purple, dark green, and moss green dusting powder for the shading.  I'm no professional, but when it was all said and done, I thought they looked pretty darn real...and cute.

Lucy and Willy built the cake tower themselves and added the teal ribbon.  I added the purple ribbon to their top tier.

Like I said before, I hope the professional photographer took some good pictures for me to show you later.

Overall this was an amazing experience.  My FIRST wedding.  My FIRST (detailed) fondant use. And my FIRST time to make that many cupcakes in one day.  And frost them all.  And panic when I had to transport everything.  I felt like I was on one of those shows when you finish everything then you have to transport it and every little bitty bump in the road feels like it could knock all the cupcakes over and result in disaster.  Thank goodness for my sister's mommy-van (aka the Mamba).  It packs a smooth ride.

Many thanks to my wonderful mother for all of her help throughout this whole process.  Little does she know she's signed on as my partner in crime for my bakery business.  Hehe.  AND thank you to my younger sister, Meredith, for her sweet cupcake baking skills that she contributed and my older sister, Brandy, for stellar cupcake placement on the tower and the smooth ride.

I yoinked this picture from Lucy's facebook page. I did not take it.  But congratulations, Lucy and Willy, and thank you for trusting me to make your cake!

A day to celebrate

Today is the Grand Chawhee's Birthday! (name that movie...before you click on the link)

Aka my favorite guy...aka my best friend...aka my hubs' birthday!

Since the start of his new job and the start of his classes, we don't get a lot of free time to spend together, so today was a special treat where we both had off! (Until he went to class at 6, but still)

So first, I surprised him with breakfast in bed!

My family has a running tradition of "breakfast in bed" on your birthday and always, always includes pigs-in-a-blanket.  I'm pretty sure birthdays are the only days of the year we ever have these little guys and I'm so excited to bring Ry in on the tradition!

Just Lil'Smokies wrapped in biscuits and baked.  So simple. So good.  Plus a fruit cup. All served on a cake pedestal.  I realized soon after the piggies came out of the oven that I don't have the proper "breakfast in bed" trays that my mom always used to carry the food up to our rooms.  Cake platter it is. 

Weeks ago (I like to plan), I asked Ryan what type of cake he wanted for his birthday.  Last year, he asked for a blackberry cobbler.  

This year, he said "I want the Tres Leches cake from Whole Foods but I want you to make it. :) "

Humph.  Whole Foods makes an amazing Tres Leches cake that we contemplated serving at our wedding.  This was the first time I straight up asked if I could just buy it from WF rather than risk messing it up.  Being the best husband ever, he said he knew I could do it and he wanted me to.

So, the search began.  I spent forever a few good hours looking up recipes for Tres Leches that sounded similar to Whole Foods.  The problem is, every recipe I found had a whipped cream topping, whereas WF's Tres Leches has a marshmallow fluff meringue topping.  Finally, I found two different recipes I liked the sound of.  I used the cake from one and the icing from another and created this:

Thin cinnamon-y sheet cake soaked in three milks with a fluffy meringue topping.

Ry said it tasted just like, if not better, than Whole Foods.  He's sweet and I don't believe him, but it's the thought that counts.  It does taste pretty darn close, but I swear they must mix marshmallow fluff into their meringue to make it.  Next time I'm trying it.

For those of us who don't own culinary torches, I put the cake under the broiler and rotated for a few seconds to get the perfect brown-ness. 

And I was pleased.

But more importantly, the birthday boy was happy. And that's all that matters.

You can find the Tres Leches cake recipe here.

Not Quite Marshmallow Fluff Meringue Topping

adapted from about.com

4 egg whites

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

1 tbsp corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla

Place egg whites in mixer and beat until stiff peaks form.  Combine sugar, water, and corn syrup and bring to boil over medium heat.  Cook for 4 minutes or until sugar mixture thickens and strings when it cools.

With mixer turned on, slowly pour sugar mixture down side of bowl into egg whites.  Beat 4-5 more minutes.  Add vanilla.  

Frost cake with topping.