Gender Reveal

Elegant and simple gender reveal cake.  (P.S. it was a girl! Congratulations Claudine and Todd!!!!)

This elegant design is incredibly simple using sugar sheets!  After covering the cake in fondant cut strips out of black sugar sheets and using a dab of water "glue" them in place :)!

Hello Kitty & Ninja Turtle Cake Pops

Hello Kitty:

These pops are almost too cute to eat!  But they are simple to make too!  Start out making a regular cake pop but before dipping the pop into the chocolate use some melted chocolate to "glue" white chocolate chips onto the cake pop, when that dries dip the pop into the chocolate.  Once that chocolate hardens I used edible markers to draw their faces and pink chocolate to make their bows.

Ninja Turtles:

I used Air Heads and edible markers to make the faces for these Ninja Turtles :).

Hello Kitty Cake

4th of July

Stars and Stripes <3 font="">

Shark Bites

Summer is finally here and what better way to celebrate than with cupcake bites that look like they might bite back!

The decorations were so easy to make out of gumpaste; I felt like a kid playing with play-doh, only this time you're encouraged to eat it :)!

After dying the gumpaste with black gel coloring I rolled it out and used a large star cookie cutter to cut out triangles.  As soon as I cut each triangle I bent the tip slightly to give it more of a shark  effect and then let them dry.  Gumpaste hardens quickly and gets very hard so it holds its shape well.

These little sharks were super easy too!  I took a chunk of gumpaste and used a large skewer to create the mouth opening.  While they were drying I used a small star cookie cutter to cut out their mini fins.  I "glued" the fins on with a small dab of water.

To bring the sharks to life I used black gel coloring for their eyes and white frosting for their teeth.  I dipped a toothpick in the gel coloring and dabbed it on the shark to create the eyes.  (FYI DO NOT DOUBLE DIP THE TOOTHPICKS).  Using a #2 tip I piped each little tooth in the sharks' mouths.

If you have extra mini fins put them on the cupcakes to create a pool of sharks :).

ENJOY!

Pretzel Cookie Dough Bites

If you need something easy and completely delicious than these are for you!  This treat is so simple you don't even need an oven!!

I found this recipe on Pinterest by Baked From a Box but I had to make a few changes to really perfect this!

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Butter
• 1 Cup of Sugar
• 1 1/3 Cup Yellow Cake Mix
• 3 Cups Flour
• 1/2 TSP Salt
• 2 TSP Vanilla Extract
• 8-16 TBSP Milk
• A Lot of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (yes "a lot" is a real measurement)
• Salted Pretzels (EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT THEY ARE SALTED)
• Sprinkles
• Parchment Paper

I made the mistake of getting unsalted pretzels, HUGE MISTAKE!  I had to individually salt them myself so they would taste right.

HOW TO:

1. Cream the butter and the sugar to make it fluffy and light
2. Mix in the cake mix, flour, salt, and vanilla
3. Next add the milk, this requires a judgement call so add until you think it has enough :)
4. Now roll out the cookie dough, you can decide how thin or thick you'd like it! :) yumm
5. Cut the dough so it's about the size of a pretzel and sandwich it between two pretzels
6. Freeze the pretzel sandwiches for about 30 minutes
7. After freezing your pretzel sandwiches melt your chocolate chips and prepare your sprinkle bowls
8. Lay a piece of parchment paper on your counter 
9. Dip each sandwich half way into the chocolate and then directly into the sprinkles
10. Then put the sandwich onto the parchment paper and let it dry

SOME HOW TO PICTURES:

Pretzel Sandwiches

Not eating the cookie dough might be one of the hardest things you've ever done (and that's coming from someone who's taken Constitutional Law)

Dip it 

Dip half to a quarter of the pretzel in the chocolate

Sprinkles!!!!!!!!

Change up your spinkles (I like the small round sprinkles the best)

YUMM!!!

Advice: Make extras!

Hello Kitty Pink Gingerbread House

Those Gingerbread Wars really put me in the mood to make a more traditional gingerbread house.  But then I found this kit for a pink Hello Kitty house :).  Ding ding ding! We have a winner!!

Gingerbread Castle

I was on vacation at Woodloch Pines this past week and I was delighted to hear about their Gingerbread Wars competition.  They give you a sheet of gingerbread, a few random items, and half an hour to make a gingerbread structure.  My grandfather and boyfriend helped me with this cute castle, complete with a mote, draw bridge, guards, and jail.

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

(Tip: 2D)

Christmas Vase Cake

(Obviously I'm not a photographer)

A Big Top Cupcake pan makes baking this cute Christmas dessert a piece of cake!  Stay tuned for a how-to video :)!

Fancy Nancy Skirt Cake

Every year I get to make a birthday cake for one of the cutest little girls I know.  This year her theme was Fancy Nancy!

What could be fancier than ruffles, pearls, and a crown?

 

Happy Birthday Annemarie!

Gender Reveal Cake

Gender reveal cakes are the cake pops of the pregnant world.  My aunt and uncle are having a baby and asked me to make their reveal cake.  They gave me a sealed envelope from their doctor with the new baby's gender written inside and let me surprise them with a cake

The outside of the cake doesn't give anything away.  It is pink and blue and leaves everyone else in suspense.  The inside however reveals the baby's gender to the entire party!  Pink cake for a girl and blue cake for a boy :).

          CONGRATULATIONS MARI AND 
            JOEY ON YOUR BABY GIRL!!!!

How to Make Cake Pops (Video)

Firecracker Cakesicles

Cakesicle

       [kāk-si-kəl] noun

      Popsicle shaped cake on a Popsicle stick :).

These are especially easy if you have a Cakesicle Maker.  Just make sure that you cook each piece thoroughly without burning them.

Put Popsicle sticks in each piece of cake while the cake is warm :).

Dip the cake in melted frosting and spray with Wilton's edible spray.  

-OR-

Dip the cake in melted chocolate and use different colored melts.

Homemade Yellow Butter Cake

This recipe makes the most amazingly delicious yellow cake <3!

The cake comes out as fluffy and light as a pancake but tastes like a delicious sugar cookie even before your frost it.

Ingredients:

1. 2 Cups and 10 Tablespoons of flour (or 3 cups minus 6 tablespoons)
2. 3 1/3 Teaspoons of baking powder
3. 3/4 Cup of salted butter (room temperature)
4. 1 1/3 Cups of sugar
5. 6 egg yolks
6. 1 Cup of milk
7. 2 Teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

First sift the flour and baking powder together in a medium sized bowl, then set it aside.  In a separate bowl beat the butter until it is creamy, then add in the sugar and beat it until it is light and fluffy.  Next add in the egg yolks one at a time, beat well.  Then add the vanilla extract and mix until all of these ingredients are combined.  After all the ingredients are combined gradually the flour/baking powder and the milk (add 1/3 of the flour, then half of the milk, then 1/3 of the flour, and the second half of the milk, then the rest of the flour).  Mix all of the ingredients.

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes

You'll never go back to boxed cake mix!

Buttercream Recipe

Up until now I HATED buttercream, but after playing around with the Wilton recipe I think it is delicious!


Nobody ever complained about my previous buttercream recipe, but to me it smelled like popcorn (not something I wanted on a cupcake).  

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Crisco

1 Pound of Confectioner's Sugar

At Least 8 Teaspoons of Milk

Steps:

1. Blend all of the ingredients together

2. Add more milk if the buttercream is too thick or too sugary

3. Continue blending until the mixture is whipped

4. Use on cake and cupcakes :)

Simple Elegant Cupcakes

         Matching cupcake liners and cupcakes boxes and cupcake wraps topped with sugar pearls :).

Textbook Cake

Made this just for fun, one of the simplest cakes I've ever made <3.  

Give it a try anyone can make this :)!

To make a cake like this you need:
- 1 Box of Cake Mix
- Fondant (1 Box of Witlon PreRolled)
- 1 Can of Frosting
- Edible Color Sprays
- Chocolate Writers

First bake a regular cake (13X9).  While the cake is baking begin making the fondant covers for the book.  Roll out fondant and cut 2 rectangles (14X10) and the spine of the book (eyeball that measurement).  Next decorate the fondant, I used edible color spray to get the colors I wanted.  By now the cake should be about done.  Allow the cake to cool before frosting it with the icing.  

While you are waiting for the cake to cool continue decorating the fondant (give the spray a little time to dry).  I used chocolate writers to write on the fondant, icing didn't hold its shape well enough and I didn't feel like cutting out fondant letters.  After the cake has cooled and you have frosted it cover the cake with a white piece of fondant.  Put the bottom book cover on a cake board and move the fondant covered cake onto the bottom book cover.

Now Use a fork to gently draw lines on the sides to create the illusion of pages.  Allow the book spine and the front cover of the book to harden (you may have to leave it over night).  Once they have hardened use a small amount of water to stick the spine and book cover onto the cake.  Share, eat, and enjoy.

Easter Egg Cookies

Easter Sugar Cookies