A Cousins Birthday

These are 2 cakes that I did for cousins who had their birthday parties together! They wanted the cakes similar but not identical. So this is what we came up with :)



And then we did cupcakes to match :)

MMA Cake

This is a cake for an LDS missionary who was going home after completing his mission in our area. Before serving his mission he was a multi-black belt MMA fighter! The cake was a 1/2 sheet frosted in buttercream frosting. All of the figures and the and the ring are made out of fondant. I used wooden dowels and skewers to keep the form.

In the center of the ring I made a replica of the Fresno California Mission symbol.


The lady who ordered the cake wanted the fighters to be the missionary before he went on his mission and then him going home from his mission!

Winter Cupcake Flavors

I thought it was time to come up with some fun new flavors for the Christmas Season. Of course we had to have a chance to sample so hopefully you were able to make it to my ornament party or the Holiday Open House a couple of weeks ago to sample these new favorites!

I saw these adorable little cuppies in an article and had to try them out for myself. It is just a cupcake (any flavor) with buttercream frosting mounded on the top and then smoothed out. Then, while the frosting is still fresh, sprinkle it with sugar crystals. It looks like a giant snowball. Then I made sugar cookies using miniature cutters, decorated them with royal icing and stuck one on top of each "snowball"! Such a festive little cuppie is sure to bring joy to all of your holiday gatherings!




The cute little cuppies in the front are Hot Chocolate Flavored! It's just like home made hot chocolate (you know the kind that Grandma used to make) but in a cupcake!





These yummy little things are Peppermint Flavored! I couldn't decide which flavor cupcake so I tried it out 3 ways :) We had chocolate cupcake with Peppermint buttercream, Vanilla cupcake with Peppermint Buttercream, and a Peppermint Cupcake with Peppermint Buttercream. The most popular seemed to be the chocolate cupcake with peppermint buttercream!

Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake Torte

This is another recipe I found on my daily BHG email. This was my first attempt ever at a cheesecake made from scratch! It was oh so rich but so yummy! So rich in fact that I couldn't handle more than a couple of bites at a time :)

For the full recipe you can try their website. The layers are brownie, chocolate cheesecake, brownie, white chocolate cheesecake, and chocolate ganache piped on the top! So good!!!

Having Fun With Truffles

I found this really cool website, its called "Better Homes & Gardens" :) I subscribed to their email list and so I get daily emails with either recipes, decorating ideas, gift ideas, and a ton of other ideas. There were some yummy recipes for truffles and other chocolates so I had to give it a try! They were certainly a hit at our Thanksgiving Dinner :) I've included the recipes so you can try some of them yourself!

Peanut Butter Truffles
1 cup softened butter
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups rice krispies
2 cups powdered sugar

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl and form into round balls. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes. While they are chilling, melt a bag of milk chocolate chips in a double boiler. Dip the chilled balls in the chocolate and then place on wax paper. Return to the refrigerator to chill for about 30 more minutes after you have dipped all of the balls. Now they are ready to eat :)

Oreo Truffles
1 package any flavor Oreo cookies
1 package Cream Cheese softened
White chocolate chips

Chop the oreo cookies until extremely fine. Combine with the softened cream cheese. Form into balls and dip in the chips melted in a double boiler! So yummy!!!

Peanut Clusters
Mix equal amounts of any flavor nut (I used peanuts) and melted milk chocolate. Scoop little spoonfuls onto wax paper and let chill. So easy and so yummy!

This is a stand I got the idea from the BHG website. The picture isn't very good but I think you get the idea. You need a serving platter, a dinner plate, a saucer, and 3 parfait glasses all of the same design. I chose clear glass for mine. Then just stack them as you see here. An idea I also read to make the stand more festive was to put decorations inside of the parfait glasses. That would kind of dress up the serving platter and you could change the theme quite easily to go with the holidays.

Happy Turkey Day

I saw a picture online of a cake made to look like a turkey and I had to try it out! I made a 1/4 sheetcake and stacked it 4 tall. I tried to carve the shape of the turkey with a knife. I used fondant to mold the legs and wings and then frosted it all with buttercream tinted light brown. I then sprayed the entire cake with orange and yellow to give it the toasted look. I used some of the cake I had carved off and cut it into little chunks and put at the "open" end of the turkey to look like stuffing. It was definitely a hit at Thanksgiving. Most people thought it was another turkey :)

Big Bird Cake

This is a cake I did for a little boys 4th birthday. He wanted Big Bird - I wasn't thrilled with the face but I'm not an artist so this is the best I could do freehand!