Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

Yep, I said it, Cookies and Cream Cupcakes!

OH. MY. CUPCAKES!  YUM!!!

I don't usually like to put lots of swirls and globs of frosting on top of my cupcakes, but for these glorious diet wreckers, I decided to make an exception.

And look! There's a surprise inside!

I got the idea here and made them minus the cream filling.

  Note her recipe says to finely crush the Oreos for the frosting. I made the mistake of crushing mine by hand- they looked finely crushed. But the few little chunks that were hiding in there refused to go through my piping tip and I had to make a whole new batch of frosting. (Dang it! Now I have tons of cookies and cream frosting in my fridge just begging me to eat it by the spoonful! I can't just throw it away and WASTE it!) SO, if you decide to try to make these and want to pipe some pretty swirls, definitely finely crush the Oreos in the blender.

Tangled Cake by Brooke

My neighbor, Brooke, asked me if I could help her make a cake for her daughter who was turning 5. I love Brooke to death, but (as we lovingly joke) her cake decorating skills are about the same as mine where when I was 10.... haha! So we found a cake here and decided to try and do a little replica. I did some of the work, she did a lot. And I think it turned out cute!

Here's a slightly closer view of the cake. Check out those lovely strands of hair! And Brooke did all the flowers!

To be honest, it turned out WAY better than my original Dora cake. I'm so proud of you, Brooke!

Lego Cake

I made this Lego cake for Logan (hence the L). He said he wanted chocolate cake. Well, he got it! Chocolate fudge cake with the MOST delicious chocolate frosting! (And yes, I will share this fabulous recipe. It makes a ton, so it definitely needs to be scaled down.) The lego board and legos are made out of modeling chocolate and the little pegs are made with melted candy melts. So Logan is going to get his chocolate fix for his birthday!

And a random side note... I think I've discovered my cake decorating style- I call it modern with a hint of rustic. I really like having something that looks smooth and nice, but I also LOVE having a little bit of the messy frosting showing- that way there is proof that there's something yummy hiding underneath.

Christmas Cookies

I got asked to make two dozen Christmas cookies and I immediately thought of these crunchy, buttery cookies I saw on Pinterest.



Yes, my photography skills still haven't improved.

 And I decided I wanted to try and make these big, soft, fluffy sugar cookies and decorate them with royal icing. This was my first time ever doing royal icing, which was time consuming, but fun. My piping skills are a little rusty, so some of the lines aren't as straight as I would have liked...

My favorite ones are the argyle. I have a slight obsession with argyle.

Oh, and these are the cookies my kids decorated.

Hello Kitty Cake

Miss Ayda told me she wanted a Hello Kitty cake and I was overjoyed! Hello Kitty is SO simple!

Of course, it could have turned out better. But, I thought, instead of making black frosting, I'll just do the outlines in melted chocolate. And it worked pretty well, but the eyes are a little off. Oh well, she's turning 5. She won't even notice.



Then I had some extra melted chocolate left in my piping bag and thought I'd just play around and write things and do designs onto my wax paper. Her name turned out somewhat cute so I thought I'd try transferring them to the cake. Then I added the squiggles... I probably shouldn't have, but too late now.

That's what I like about making a cake for my family... I can try new things and if it doesn't turn out well, who cares?! :) I also tried something new with the frosting... I did the crumb coat layer in pink and the 2nd thin layer in purple. It might just turn out to be a flop. I won't find out until tomorrow... Either way, she's going to like it. And I'm done making the cake before midnight. That's always a plus!

John Deere Cake

I just finished this cake for my little boy that is turning 3 tomorrow. I am SO incredibly excited to show it to him in the morning. He is OBSESSED with John Deere.

 I wanted to go simple with the cake so I just did a 2-layer 8" round with vanilla buttercream and the logo is made out of modeling chocolate. And I must say that I love modeling chocolate! I think I prefer it over fondant... it is so much easier to work with! I got the logo done in one try and didn't have any issues with tearing- not even with the tiny antlers.

Happy Birthday, Bud! 

Treasure Chest Cake

Well... it's been a while! But I got a request for a treasure chest cake and thought I'd take a 2nd stab at making cakes with 3 little kids. And I must say, it's still a little crazy. But I had fun making this cake and trying new things. My neighbor makes AMAZING cakes and uses modeling chocolate (which I had never even heard of before) and I decided to try it out. I LOVE it! It's pretty easy to work with and tastes way better than marshmallow fondant. The chocolate flavor reminds me of tootsie rolls. Yum!

Obviously it's been a while since I've made a cake and I think my skills are a little rusty. There are a few spots on the cake that turned out way below par, but I think overall it turned out pretty good. 

This cake took me a while to make... I worked on it Saturday afternoon (baking and crumb coating, then freezing overnight), Sunday night (frosting, covering with chocolate), and Monday night (finishing touches and assembling). It's 3 layers (two for the base and one for the lid) of white cake with a rich chocolate frosting covered in the modeling chocolate. And it weighs a ton!

Coming up next month: My kids' birthdays! I'm thinking a John Deere logo cake for Toren and a Hello Kitty  cake for Ayda. We'll see.