Chocolate for the mom to be

It was fun to make this tasty cake for a baby shower.  I mean, what expectant mom doesn't want a triple chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling topped with fudge frosting and chocolate dipped strawberries.  Can we say yum?

Summer fun cupcakes

 Perfect cupcakes for a summer party.  Love the treat inserts to go in these tasty treats!

Nautical Baby Shower

 It was fun to put together this nautical baby shower.  We did a cupcake tower cake.  It had both mini and regular cupcakes so people could try multiple flavors of cupcakes if they wanted to.  The stars and anchors used to decorate the cupcakes and cakes I made with white chocolate colored navy blue.

 The cupcakes were triple chocolate with chocolate whip cream frosting, lemon-lime cupcakes with lime butter cream frosting, orange dreamsicle cupcakes with butter cream frosting, and white chocolate with butter cream frosting.

 Saw the cute boat ideas on pintrist and had to add those for a little fun height.

 Along the bottom of the ckae are edible chocolate seashells and blue chocolate candies.  Ignore the messed up top border.  By the time I took this picture a little finger had adjusted the top border and I had yet to notice it to fix it.  It was fixed by the time the party started.

 I also was very happy with how the decorations I threw together turned out along with the diaper cake my daughter helped me to make. 

 All in all it turned out great with a few left over cupcakes to give to some great neighbors who helped out with the supplies for decorations that I didn't have.

Swimming cupcakes

Cupcakes to celebrate doing great on a swim team.  Fun treats for the great 7 year old swimmer!

Baby Shower for a little boy

 I was given a picture of the bedding, which was blue quilt with airplanes on it.  This was the cake I made to match the theme. 

Flash Back Friday

Here is a flashback to some cookies I made years ago when I taught at Michael's.  I had to sit and demonstrate in the store lots of different techniques.  Here are a few different ones.  I still love the hat.

Sonic the Dog has a birthday

 I made this cake above for the family of sonic the dog.  They celebrate the family dog's birthday every year and I made the cake this year for it.  They love almonds so I did a white chocolate almond cake with an almond butter cream frosting.  It was a last minute order so it was fun to come up with the decoration while the cake was in the oven. 

 I also made this cake for Sonic the dog.  It is a peanut butter banana cake with sliced bananas in between the layers.  Frosted with a cream cheese frosting.  My husband helped find the dog friendly recipes online.  Can't wait to get to try another recipe. 

 The family sent me a picture of Sonic enjoying his cake.  He ate it in one bite!  Go sonic!

Beautiful Baby Shower

Love this beautiful baby shower cake I made.  Each tier was a different flavor, some spice, some chocolate and some strawberry banana.  All frosted with wedding white.  Flowers were made a few weeks in advance.  Simple and beautiful.

A little leopard fun

Perfect for a birthday for a fun lady.  Loved doing this cupcake for a special birthday treat.

Monsters University

With the new movie Monsters University this cake is perfect for the occasion.

Summer Swim party fish

I had fun making this cute fish for a summer birthday party.  The mom always calls her boy her little fish since he loves to swim so much.  It was perfect for him.

Summer fun cupcakes

 Its fun to do an order of cupcakes that are just bright and fun with some cute polka dots.  Loved the teal and yellow together. 

Pink and Black Zebra

Animal prints are all the rage right now  For these ones, I turned the chocolate batter black and the white batter pink and then played around with doing a zebra type stripe through it.  When you bite in it has a real zebra stripe to it.  When you cut it down the middle you can see how it was accomplished better. 

 It works better in cakes than cupcakes as you need to do so many tiny layers of both colors and you can accomplish that easier in a cake, but it is a fun cupcake too.

High School Graduation cake

 This graduation cake didn't get posted when it was done as it came about a week after all the graduation craziness.  And by that time, my mind wasn't thinking about graduation cakes anymore.   But I wanted to get it out here even late. 

 These two cousins got together a week after they both graduated High School.  Ironically they had the same High School colors so it made it easy to decorate the cake.  Bottom cake is triple chocolate, top two are strawberry lemonade.  Frosted with butter cream and accents with fondant.

Flash Back Friday

 Here's a flashback to my first wedding cake when I was taking lessons.  We had a friend who was having a tiny reception with no money so she got this free cake.  I was so proud of myself.  Looking at it now, well I'm just glad she didn't have to pay for her wedding cake.  I made the topper and everything.  This was back 15 years ago.  Styles sure have changed.

Teaching kids to decorate

Over this summer I have had several opportunities to "teach" kids of varying ages how to decorate. 

I have learned a few things...No matter how cute your ideas for them to accomplish, they will over embellish it all.  So the simpler you make it for them the closer to what you want it to look like it will. 

 Age makes a HUGE difference in what you can accomplish.  Really shouldn't try to have any expectations under the age of 8 or 9 and 11 to 12 is a more realistic age to teach. 

Make sure NO ONE will be eating anything they make that isn't related to them due to the number of finger licking clean-ups you watch.

And no matter what....no matter the age...no matter how unappetizing the finished project it...they are always super proud of themselves and can't wait to show off their talents!

zebra cupcakes

I did these cute girly zebra cupcakes for a birthday party. 

 I did half of them white chocolate, and the other half triple chocolate all with a butter cream frosting.  Black accents were in fondant.