Heather’s Devine Creations aka: Cakes and Desserts!

Christmas Desserts

2011-12-30T11:34:00.011-06:00

I made a few desserts for Christmas Eve dinner at my house. Here they are:

Chocolate mouse, my dads ultimate favorite and any chocolate lovers dream. :)This one is a new one that I tried. It turned out pretty good. It is a Ginger, Chocolate Toffee Cake.

This one is also a new recipe. My husband really liked this one the next day after all the flavors married. :) It is a banana fosters upside down cake.

This one is my sister-is-laws favorite it is a sugar free strawberry cool pie.

This is the counter with all the candies on it. We made chocolate covered cherries, caramels with pecans and chocolate, chocolate mints and some others.This was a new one as well. We had Mexican food for dinner so I thought I should throw in a sopapilla cheesecake. It was okay, but by far not my favorite.

This was something new I tried. I made peppermint with chocolate drizzle. It turned out pretty good. Here are some of the cookies we made. Chocolate chip, chocolate mint, peppermint, chocolate pecan pinwheels. peanut butter, and sugar cookies

That's all the desserts for Christmas eve I think, there were a lot left over. :)

These are the cupcakes I took to my sons Pre-K class party. They were almond cake with buttercream frosting. I think the kids liked them!

Barbie Cake

2011-12-11T08:45:00.001-06:00

This is a Barbie cake I did for a neighbor as a surprise to her daughter turning 18. She said her favorite cake growing up was a barbie cake so we thought why not do a grown up barbie cake for her 18th birthday. She seemed to love it. The base of the cake was chocolate with buttercream and the barbie was almond cake with buttercream. Hope they thought it tasted great!

Shark Cake

2011-10-16T17:26:00.002-05:00

Finally I am posting again, I made a shark cake for one of my neighbors. The cake and shark are made of chocolate cake, buttercream frosting and the shark is covered in fondant. The birthday boy had a swim party and loved the shark, all the kids wanted a piece of the shark. Glad he liked it.

Pirate Birthday

2011-05-17T08:06:00.003-05:00

This is my sons 4th birthday cake. He wanted a pirate party so this is what I came up with. I think it turned out really cute! The ship is strawberry cake and the island is banana cake with pecan and coconut frosting then the water is yellow cake with chocolate and cream cheese frosting. Then I also made chocolate cupcakes filled with chocolate mousse and strawberry cupcakes topped with chocolate mousse which I forgot to take pictures of. :( It was a great party!

Coconut cake

2011-05-02T13:33:00.003-05:00

So this is a fresh coconut cake. I mean I used fresh coconuts for the coconut, used the coconut water, made fresh coconut milk and cream. It was kind of a lot of work, all for my husband. His grandmother would make a coconut cake that looked like this every Easter and he was wanting one so I thought I would carry on the tradition. His grandmother only used a box white cake, but always made the 7 minute frosting, I thought I would kick it up a bit and make it homemade with all fresh ingredients. He was in love with it and thought it was the best cake ever. I guess I am not a big fan of fresh coconut, I like the store bought sweetened kind myself. :) I will make something that looks like this next year, but maybe change it up a bit so we both like it.:)

The recipe was from food network and Alton Brown if your interested, here it is:
Coconut Cake with 7-Minute Frosting
Ingredients
1 coconut, see Cook's Note
For the cake:
Vegetable oil, for cake pan
14 1/4 ounces cake flour, plus extra for pans, approximately 3 cups
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup fresh coconut milk
1/2 cup fresh coconut cream
8 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
16 ounces sugar, approximately 2 1/4 cups
1 teaspoon coconut extract
4 egg whites
1/3 cup coconut water
For the 7-Minute Frosting:
3 large egg whites
12 ounces sugar, approximately 1 3/4 cups
1/3 cup coconut water
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Grated coconut from 1 coconut, approximately 8 to 10 ounces
Directions
Cook's Note: To open a coconut: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the coconut onto a folded towel set down in a large bowl. Find the 3 eyes on 1 end of the coconut and using a nail or screwdriver and hammer or meat mallet, hammer holes into 2 of the eyes. Turn the coconut upside down over a container and drain the water from the coconut. Store the water in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. Place the coconut onto a 1/2 sheet pan and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. The coconut should have cracked in several places. Using an oyster knife or other dull blade, separate the hard shell from the brown husk. Using a serrated vegetable peeler, peel the brown husk from the coconut meat. Rinse the coconut meat under cool water and pat dry. Break the meat into 2 to 3-inch pieces. With the grater disk attached to a food processor, grate the coconut.
For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil 2 (9-inch) cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper. Oil the parchment paper and then flour the pan. Set aside.
Place the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
Combine the coconut milk and coconut cream in small bowl and set aside.
Place the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and using the paddle attachment, cream on medium speed until fluffy, approximately 1 minute. Decrease the speed to low and gradually add the sugar slowly over 1 to 2 minutes. Once all of the sugar has been added, stop the mixer and scrape down the sides. Turn the mixer back on to medium speed and continue creaming until the mixture noticeably lightens in texture and increases slightly in volume, approximately 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the coconut extract.
With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the milk mixture to the butter and sugar in 3 batches, ending with the milk mixture. Do not over mix.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the batter, just until combined. Divide the batter evenly between the pans and bang the pans on the counter top several times to remove any air and to distribute the batter evenly in the pan. Place in the oven on the middle rack. Bake for 40 minutes or until the cake is light golden in color and reaches an internal temperature of 200 degrees F.
Cool the cake in the pans for 10 minutes then remove and transfer to a cooling rack. Once the cakes have cooled completely cut across the equator of each to form 4 layers. Place the 1/3 cup coconut water into a small spritz bottle and spray evenly onto the cut side of the 4 layers. If you do not have a spritz bottle you may brush the coconut water on with a silicone pastry brush. Allow to sit while preparing the frosting.
Frosting:
Bring 1 quart of water to a boil in a 4-quart saucepan over high heat. Decrease the heat to medium to maintain a steady simmer. In the meantime, place the egg whites, sugar, coconut water, cream of tartar and salt into a medium size-mixing bowl. Place the bowl over the simmering water and immediately begin beating with an electric hand mixer set to low speed. Beat for 1 minute and then increase the speed to high and continue to beat for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and beat in the coconut and vanilla extracts for 1 minute. Allow the frosting to sit for 5 minutes before using.
Place approximately 3/4 cup of the frosting on the first layer of cake, sprinkle with 1/2 cup coconut and top with the next layer. Repeat until you reach the top layer. Frost the top and sides of the cake and sprinkle with the remaining coconut. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Daughters 7th Birthday

2011-04-18T10:06:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we had my daughters 7th Birthday party. It was a swim party at our local aquatic center. The kids had fun. This was her cake. The bottom layered matched her swim suit, the middle layer matched her swim cover up and the top layer was for the pool water and the flip flops I made like the ones we gave away as favors. I think it turned out really cute. Bottom layer is almond, middle is chocolate and top is strawberry. Should have made more strawberry because it was all gone really fast!

Easter Cupcakes

2011-04-18T10:03:00.003-05:00

These are bunny cupcakes, strawberry flavor with a sugar cookie for the bunnies head. I think they turned out very cute!

These cupcakes are almond flavored and decorated by my daughter. They were a lot of fun and something we will probably start making each year.

Birthday Cake

2011-04-18T10:02:00.003-05:00

Here is a cake I made for a neighbor friend. He sales cars and a viper is his favorite. This is a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

Chocolate Birthday cake

2011-02-11T12:39:00.001-06:00

Today I made a Chocolate cake with chocolate icing. The letters were done in white chocolate. So this is a really chocolaty cake, which is the birthday boys favorite. Hope he likes it and hope you have a great birthday!

Valentine Cookies

2011-02-09T15:45:00.003-06:00

My daughter and I are entering a heart cookie contest. You had to make chocolate chip cookies in a heart shape and decorate them. So today on a snowy cold day we finished them up. I think they turned out cute, mine is the first one and I imagined a little more perfect in my head, but came out pretty cute? Then my daughter did a great kitty cat one which I think turned out pretty cut? I guess we will enter and see how it goes. :)

Christmas cupcakes

2011-02-09T15:43:00.003-06:00

Okay, so its been a long time since I posted. Here are the snowman Christmas cupcakes I took to my daughters Christmas party at school. They were cute and pretty easy, decorated with lots of different candies. They were almond cake flavored with buttercream frosting.

Birthday Cake

2010-08-11T15:03:00.004-05:00

Today is a good friend and neighbors birthday so I made her a cake. Her favorite is almond cake with buttercream frosting so that is what I made her. Hope she likes it. :)

Birthday Cake

2010-07-30T15:59:00.001-05:00

Today is a good friend and neighbors birthday so I made her favorite strawberry cake with buttercream frosting. Then I melted some chocolate and made some decorations on the top with a fondant bow and tag. The picture for some reason came in side ways, sorry!

mom's birthday cake

2010-07-16T21:26:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday so today my daughter and I made her a cake. She actually has two because she requested strawberry cake and one recipe makes so much and it's easier to make it all than half it. So the first cake is strawberry cake with buttercream frosting. Haley helped decorate it and did the bottom boarder and placed all the flowers. Then the next cake is strawberry cake filled with chocolate mousse topped in buttercream frosting and drizzled with chocolate gnash. Hope everyone likes it tomorrow at dinner. Also hope someone takes it all home so it won't be here for me to eat. :)

Fear No Fish Cupcakes

2010-07-15T14:38:00.001-05:00

Today is my neighbors birthday and he really loves to fish. The other day he came over and told my husband he found a sticker for his boat and it said "Fear No Fish". So I thought it was appropriate I make his birthday cake have that design. So here it is. Yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Hope he likes it!

End of school year cupcakes

2010-06-04T13:18:00.002-05:00

Here are some easy end of the year cupcakes I made for my daughters Kindergarten class. They are almond flavor cake with buttercream frosting. The kids loved them and my daughter liked putting the swimsuits on the bears with edible writing markers. Can't believe it is summer already!

Slumber Party Cake

2010-05-16T20:40:00.001-05:00

One of my daughters friends had a slumber party birthday and this is the cake I made for her. There were lots of little girls there! This cake is chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. It was really simple!

Disney Cars Birthday

2010-05-08T15:45:00.004-05:00

Well, this morning we had a brunch for my son's 3rd birthday. I can't believe my baby is already three. We had a cars theme birthday featuring lightening McQueen and Tow Mater. He had two cakes. Lightening McQueen was strawberry cake with buttercream frosting and Mater was Chocolate two later on the bottom and almond on the top for the cab part then all buttercream frosting. They turned out okay since I made them covered in buttercream they are not as perfect as I would have liked them, however you can tell who they are and they tasted good so that is all the mattered. :) The party was nice and small with family and close friends and it turned out great!

6th Birthday for my daughter

2010-04-12T13:55:00.005-05:00

Well, another birthday has come and gone, it took a week to create all the pieces and less than 10 minutes to destroy it! :) But I think it turned out great, although at the end of the evening laying in bed I realized I forgot a piping detail that was supposed to go all around the bottom layer, kind of lace like. Also I made a fondant bow to go on the center layer, but then did not think it looked right and took it off. Oh well I don't think anyone thought anything was missing. The top two layers were cherry cake with chocolate frosting in the middle and covered in buttercream. Then the bottom layer was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting in the middle covered in buttercream. The decorations were made of gum paste, fondant, and royal icing. I even had some fiber optic lights fanning around the back and through the tiara on top, though you really can't tell in the pictures. Then my daughters cake was cherry also, her choice! All 24 kids seemed to have a blast. We did all the girls hair, makeup, and nails, played games and played in the bounce slide and playground. It was a huge success!

Lamb Cake

2010-04-02T20:43:00.002-05:00

Today I made a lamb cake for a friend. It is a yellow pound cake with buttercream frosting. It was always a tradition in her family to get a lamb cake for Easter so she is starting the tradition at her house. Hope they like it!

Birthday cupcakes

2010-03-04T10:18:00.004-06:00

Here are some chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting. All the decorations are made from chocolate. Hope they like them!

Bug cupcake cake

2010-02-19T13:26:00.003-06:00

Today I decorated these bug cupcakes. One bug is chocolate cake and one bug is white cake. Then I made the extra cupcakes into bug faces. All the writing, legs and antenna's are made from chocolate. Hope they like them!

Valentine Cupcakes

2010-02-16T19:24:00.005-06:00

So I made lots of Valentine cupcakes but I forgot to take pictures so these are courteous of my good neighbor. I made some for my family and made them into a heart shape and put cute little valentine picks on the top, but did not get a picture. These are yummy strawberry with buttercream frosting. They were really good, I had at least two a day, thank goodness they are all gone now. :) Hope everyone that got one liked it!

Martini cupcakes cake

2010-02-07T17:55:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I did a martini cupcake (all cupcakes made into one cake) cake for a friend. It is strawberry flavor with buttercream frosting. It is not a very good picture, but I hope they liked it!

Quick Birthday Cake

2010-02-01T13:06:00.002-06:00

I made this cake for a neighbor's friend. If I had to make a really fast simple birthday cake for a girl/lady I would make this design. It is easy to make, yet looks really cute (or I think so anyway). :) This cake is almond flavor with buttercream frosting. Seems like I am making a lot of almond flavor lately. :) Hope the birthday girl liked it!

Princess Cake with a few frog cupcakes

2010-01-15T14:05:00.004-06:00

Today I made this cute princess cake for a little princess turning 2. The wand and tiara are made of fondant. The cake flavor is almond with buttercream frosting. Then I also made some cupcakes, some for girls princess pink of course and some for the boys in green with spots kind of like frogs. Hope they like it!

Animal theme cake

2010-01-08T16:16:00.001-06:00

Today's cake is an animal theme cake, it is chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. I made all the animals out of fondant. It is for a 2nd birthday and until right at the moment did not realize I left off 2nd. Oh well, maybe they won't notice. :) Hope they like it!

Pink Birthday Cake

2010-01-05T14:13:00.002-06:00

Today I did a cake for my neighbor. I think it turned out really cute, hope she likes it!

Cars Birthday Cake

2009-12-30T21:09:00.002-06:00

Today I made my neighbors son his 2nd birthday cake. He is really into the Disney "Cars" and especially Lightening McQueen so I made this birthday cake. The road is supposed to look like the number 2. Hope everyone can tell that instead of it just being a curved road. :) It was pretty easy. It is a layer of almond and a layer of Chocolate with buttercream frosting. Hope they like it!

Guitar cake

2009-12-05T22:01:00.004-06:00

Well, I was really excited on how this cake turned out, I think it looks pretty cool. It started out a rectangle and turned out like this. It was to match the guitar on the invitation. Hope they liked it!

Quick Birthday Cake

2009-11-24T21:26:00.002-06:00

Well I whipped up a quick little birthday cake for my daughters teacher. It is three tiered and strawberry flavored. Hope she liked it!

Birthday cake

2009-11-20T15:32:00.003-06:00

This is a cake I did for a neighbor's mother. It was supposed to be very simple so I came up with this. I think it is pretty cute and not too hard since I could make the flowers and letters in advance. I hope they like it!

More Turkey Cookies

2009-11-20T15:30:00.003-06:00

Well, here are some more Turkey cookies. These are my yummy chocolate chip cookies and I had a little buttercream icing left over from a cake and I made these. They are cute, but better yet really YUMMY! :)

Turkey Cookies

2009-11-19T20:48:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow is my daughters Thanksgiving feast at school. She was asked to bring 12 cookies. We made some homemade chocolate chip cookies, but could not resist making these cut Turkey Cookies. They are not the neatest work we have done, but we all worked together which made it fun.:) Hope her class likes them!

They were a huge hit, all the parents thought they were so cute and some took pictures so they could make them. The kids just ate them up! Yeah!!

Fall Cupcakes

2009-11-06T13:18:00.003-06:00

This morning I baked 66 cupcakes for my daughters fall carnival tomorrow. Some are pumpkin's and some are just fall looking but all of them are yummy almond cake with buttercream frosting! I hope everyone likes them!

Skateboard cake

2009-10-23T12:55:00.001-05:00

This was an easy cake to do today because my good neighbor bought an edible image of the skateboard figure in the middle for her son's birthday.

Pumpkin Cookies

2009-10-23T12:53:00.003-05:00

Here are some of the pumpkin cookies I made for a Halloween playdate we are going to tonight.

Papa's 99th Birthday

2009-10-23T12:51:00.003-05:00

Here is my husbands Papa's 99th birthday cake. He thinks he is 100 so I left out how old he really is :) and it is nothing fancy. But it is a yummy almond flavor cake!

Bounce House cake

2009-10-23T12:50:00.001-05:00

This one I love, it is a bounce house cake for a good neighbor. I think it turned out great!

Barbie Cake

2009-10-23T12:41:00.002-05:00

So it has been awhile since I have posted so I will catch up with all my Oct. cakes.

This one is a barbie cake for twin 5 year olds.

Army Birthday and two others

2009-08-24T12:46:00.006-05:00

Well last Friday was a busy cake day. It was my husbands birthday which he requested my daughters newest creation of a chocolate chip pie, which is a yummy chocolate chip cookie crust, chocolate mousse filling, layer of chocolate gnash, whipped cream on top and decorated with chocolate chips. So we made two for him and took them up to his work. One we did make happy birthday out of chocolate chips but of course I forgot to take a picture. They were a huge success at work!

Then last week was a neighbors birthday so I wanted to give her a birthday cake so I made this yummy looking cake. It was chocolate cake with a really large layer of chocolate mousse (I love the stuff!) in the middle, then covered in butter cream icing drizzled in chocolate gnash and decorated in chocolate shavings which started out trying to say Happy Birthday but gave up and just covered the top. :)

Then to finish up a great birthday cake day I made this army cake. I made the cake and the mom put on all the figures which you could also use trucks and things. I think it turned out really cute for a neat army birthday! The little boy loves the color orange so I tinted the white cake which is the bottom layer a light orange. Hopefully he realized it was orange?

2009-08-03T09:37:00.002-05:00

Well, it has been awhile so here is a cake for my good neighbor friend. It looks pretty cute and super easy! It was a yummy strawberry flavor. eal birthday I made her this raspberry gnash pie. It was kind of like a raspberry truffle with a crust. She really likes raspberry and chocolate together so I thought this was perfect for her. I think I will try it with strawberries next time for me. :)

Breast Cancer Cake

2009-06-18T18:53:00.006-05:00

Well, with some thought and debate I went ahead a posted this cake on my blog, since I think it is exactly what they wanted for this surprise party to celebrate a friend surviving breast cancer. She is done with chemo and radiation and it will be a festive party with pink food & cocktails. Also to make it a fun evening.. you MUST wear a wig.. the crazier the better! Sadly we won't make it due to my daughter dance recital, but I am sending this yummy strawberry cake! I hope they like it!

Lion King Birthday

2009-05-16T18:56:00.004-05:00

Well, today finished out my week worth of cakes. It was my daughters friends birthday and they had a Lion King Birthday so I did this cake for them. I think it turned out great!

Pink and White Birthday cake

2009-05-15T15:54:00.001-05:00

Today I made a pink and white birthday cake. She fell in love with one I had done in the past and thought she had to have it just the same. :) It is cute, hope they enjoy it!

Teacher Appreciation Cake

2009-05-13T21:22:00.004-05:00

Well this week is a week of cakes. This is my third cake to make although I forgot to take pictures of the first two. :( One was for my sons birthday party play date which was just a baseball and the other was a banana nut cake for my friend that moved away. :( (We already miss you!) Then I have two more to go which you will see in the next couple days.

This is a cake I made to take to my daughters school for teacher appreciation day. The teachers get a half day off and get to gather together to visit and eat desserts and appetizers that parents make. So this is what I will take. Hope they like it!

2nd Ball Birthday Party

2009-05-04T12:07:00.003-05:00

Well, yesterday was my sons second birthday party. :( It is sad to think my baby boy is already two and I will never have another little baby, but he sure is cute! We had a great outdoor ball birthday party for him. Not everyone wanted to play all the fun games I had planned but they had fun bouncing and riding on outdoor toys in the driveway since the backyard was wet from all the rain.

I made several different balls for cake. Italian cream cake for the baseball in the upper left, chocolate sheet cake for the football half with nuts and half without in the upper right, then lots of little balls, golf balls in grass, bowling ball, basketball, and baseball were lemon flavored. It was a great party!

Mickey Mouse

2009-04-29T15:45:00.001-05:00

Well, I had a Mickey Mouse cake planned for Friday, but the party got canceled today so I thought I would go ahead and post the Mickey Mouse I made for the top since I already finished him. Then if I do the cake later I will update the picture. But I thought I should share Mickey, he is pretty cute!

Going Away Cake

2009-04-28T10:48:00.004-05:00

Well, a very sweet friend is moving away so I made her a going away cake. It was a little fancier than I had planned, but I think it was nice!

For some reason the cake came in side ways??

5th Birthday

2009-04-20T10:58:00.003-05:00

Well, yesterday was my daughters 5th birthday party and despite all the wind we had a great time bouncing, playing games, hitting a pinata and most of all eating cake. :)

So here is this years birthday creation:

and her personal cake:

Flower Birthday Cupcakes!

2009-04-13T15:18:00.002-05:00

Well, five years ago today I went into the hospital at 6 a.m. expecting to meet my little girl, so it's fitting I made her birthday cupcakes to take to school today for tomorrow. Tomorrow the 14th is her birthday, she wanted me to wait to meet her until 4-14-04! She is a great blessing and I can't believe she will be five tomorrow :(!
I had a hard time trying to decide what type of cupcake design to make for her, then a friend gave me this awesome flower cupcake pan and I knew when I saw it, it was what she had to have for her birthday!
Stay tuned for the big birthday party cake later in the week. :)

I hope her school friends like them! I am sure her teachers will love me, there is lots of frosting on top! :)

Belle Princess Cake

2009-03-11T15:58:00.003-05:00

Today I got to make a Belle Princess cake for a friend of Bryson's. It is a yummy strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream frosting. Then I made Belle out of royal icing and some tiny hearts for accents. I think Belle looks beautiful! I hope they like it!

Tasty Chocolate cake

2009-03-10T13:00:00.005-05:00

This was a tasty chocolate cake I made for dessert when some friends came over. It is not the pretties cake, but it tastes really good!.

You take your favorite chocolate cake recipe or even a box and when it calls for water add chocolate milk instead, you can do this for any chocolate cake and stop here or proceed for an even more delicious gooey cake:) Then put in two pans and bake, then when it comes out of the oven, put carmel sauce (maybe a cup) in a bowl and mix with sweetened condensed milk (maybe a 1/2 can) you might want to heat this slightly in the microwave so it blends well. Then take a fork and poke lots of holes in your cake and pore the caramel mixture on top until in sinks in the cake. Use all your mixture it makes it yummy.

Then you can use cool whip or whipped cream for the center of the cake and frost it with your favorite chocolate frosting. I used cocoa frosting. It is rich and yummy!!

Basic Birthday Cake

2009-03-10T12:58:00.001-05:00

I made a basic birthday cake for my good neighbors birthday last Thursday. He requested chocolate with buttercream frosting, it was tasty! Happy Birthday!

Train Cake

2009-02-20T21:59:00.003-06:00

Well today I got to make a cake for a train birthday, I think it turned out pretty cute! I used a lot of different types of candy to help with the decorations. My husband bought the kids a pez dispenser for Valentines (and a lot of refill packets I hid away :)) and my daughter had the idea to use yellow ones for windows, unfortunately for me she already ate hers, but luckily I had the stashed away extras:) It was very nice of her to offer to share if she had the ones I needed and she had a great idea (she is a great helper)! Hope they have a fun party!

Valentine's cake

2009-02-13T11:07:00.004-06:00

Well, today I made a banana nut cake for a friend of mine for a Valentines Day Cake. I wanted to eat some of it, it is the yummiest recipe! The decorations are done in fondant.

At the last minute I did add her son's name and baby, for the arrival next week on the two hearts at the bottom. Hope she liked it:

25th Anniversary Cake

2009-02-07T22:21:00.004-06:00

I just finished this 25th Anniversary cake. It is for my mother-in-laws best friend. It is a pretty large cake, the flavor is Italian Cream. I hope they like it!

Stripe Birthday Cakes for Twins

2009-01-23T13:00:00.004-06:00

Today I made two cakes for a set of twins (girl and boy) that are in my sons playgroup. She wanted stripes and in certain shades of color, I tried hard to get them right, I sure hope they are close enough. The cake flavor is also butterscotch which is not made often so I hope they love it! I also added the little bow and the name tag so I hope she likes that part, if not she cake take it off pretty easy. The girl cake:

The Boy cake:

Sid the Science Kid and Friends

2009-01-21T21:52:00.005-06:00

Today I did a cake for my neighbor and friend. Her son wanted a Sid the Science Kid birthday (a show on PBS kids). So I took the invitation picture and made the characters out of royal icing. It was lots of colors and details but I think it turned out cute! I hope they like it and he can tell who is who :), the party is this evening and my daughter can't wait!

Here is the picture I was going off of, what do you think?

Pink 1st Birthday cake

2009-01-16T16:55:00.001-06:00

This is a cake I did today for a little girls first birthday, I think it turned out pretty cute! I hope this was the pink they were going for. :)

Simple Birthday cake

2009-01-12T12:26:00.000-06:00

Here is a simple Monday Morning Birthday cake :)

Elmo

2009-01-09T14:44:00.007-06:00

Well, this morning I worked on an Elmo cake. The large cake is a three layer cake made to look like a drum. It is a Sesame Street Instruments party. I also did some cupcakes to look like Elmo. It is for a 1st birthday.

Sorry this picture came in sideways??

Spur of the moment Birthday Cake

2009-01-01T15:13:00.003-06:00

Spur of the moment Birthday Cake

Well yesterday was my neighbors little boy's 1st birthday and we are going to dinner to their house tonight (a good luck New Years dinner :)) so I thought I would make a spur of the moment Birthday cake for the little guy. They have been out of town for the holidays and just got back so they are not having an official party here for him, he has had several small parties with his family. So here is what I came up with, it was really fast:

Christmas Eve

2008-12-26T13:16:00.008-06:00

On Christmas Eve we do Christmas with my family and do a progressive dinner. We started out at my sisters house for dinner then we come to my house for dessert. This year I had plenty of desserts and we had lots for Christmas Day. At my house we also have a game tournament which I started as a surprise last year. We play round one connect four, round two checkers, round three battleship, and round four is operation. It is a lot of fun, my sister won this year, I beat out my brother who was last years champion in the first round. :) So next year hopefully someone in my family will win!! If you win you get the trophy I made up and have to return it the next year.

So for dessert we had:
Chocolate Mousse cheesecake, this time the cheesecake was not sugar free :)
Here is the cheesecake recipe I used, I just did not make it with a crust and left out the raspberries: http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-K45SS-Classic-250-Watt-2-Quart/dp/B00004SGFW Then I put a thin layer of chocolate cake for the crust, then cheesecake, then a double batch of chocolate mousse :
Mousse layer:
8 ounces milk chocolate chips
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup water divided
4 Tablespoons butter
6 egg yolks
6 Tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped

Have your cream whipped and chilling in the fridge.
1. Melt chocolate with 1/2 cup water and butter on low, stirring until smooth.
2. Cool for 10 minutes.
3. In heavy saucepan, whisk yolks, sugar and remaining water.
4. Cook and stir on med heat until mixture reaches 160*, about 2 minutes or I do it until it starts to bubble.
5. Remove from heat; whisk in chocolate.
6. Set saucepan in ice and stir until cooled.
7. Fold in whipped cream.
8. Spoon on top of cake.
9. Chill.
10. After it has chilled then you can form it better into something that looks like a cake
11. Then add chocolate layer
12. Then add decoration chocolate and icing if desired
Chocolate top layer:
This is approximate, I never have measured. Mix maybe 1/4 cup milk chocolate and 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips with maybe 1/4 cup heavy cream or just enough to almost cover the chocolate. Melt all together. Should not have too much cream or it will be runny and really soft, but it needs enough so the chocolate is not hard hard when it dries. Pour over top of mousse and cake and spread around.
Then shave chocolate for top decoration and chocolate chunk pieces for border or you could make cocoa frosting for pipping around edges.

My dad does not really care for cheesecake so these were just mini chocolate mousse cakes. See recipe above for mousse. Then I used a new pan where it makes little cake bowls and I filled them with the mousse.
My sister requested cake balls which is what these are. They are red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, smashed together then rolled into balls. Then covered in chocolate. Mine are not as pretty as I would have liked, but I guess it's the taste that matters and they said they were great. Here is how to make them a bit more cute, I just did them in a hurry: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/08/hope-these-put-smile-on-your-face.html

This is a sugar free cheesecake. I tried to make it like a turtle cheesecake. It has a pecan crust, then I made a caramel sauce and put on top of the pecans but I think most of it cooked out since it was in a spring form pan. Then my sugar free cheesecake and then a sugar free chocolate gnash for the top. Here is the cheesecake recipe: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/31/Basic_Low_Carb_Cheesecake53166.shtml Then I used a pureed pecan and butter crust and melted sugar free chocolate chips with cream for the topping

This is a sugar free Strawberry dessert. It is pretty good. It has a meringue type crust, then strawberries, whipped cream, and sugar free jello. Here is the recipe: http://recipegal.com/lowcarbdesserts/Cool-Strawberry-Cream-Pie.htm

Then I had lots of candy, I made the pumpkin dip that I mentioned from Thanksgiving and everyone loved that. I had lots of cookies which barely got touched. Homemade hot chocolate and just way too much stuff to eat in one night! :) It was a great Christmas this year, I hope everyone else had a great one also!

Pumpkin dip:

http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/philadelphia-pumpkin-dessert-dip-52069.aspx

Buckeye bars:

http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/buckeye-bars-111450.aspx

Hot Cocoa: Here is the main recipe. I tested this many times and I think it is best with 1/2 good dutch cocoa and 1/2 Ghirardelli cocoa that has ground chocolate in it. Then my family also likes it with peppermint so I take 7 regular size candy canes and grind them into powder and add the to mixture for a great peppermint cocoa.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/hot-cocoa-recipe/index.html

Christmas 1st Celebration

2008-12-23T22:12:00.005-06:00

Well last Saturday started the 1st Christmas celebration with my husbands family. I baked away all day Friday and this is all I came up with:

It is not my pretties cake, but when it come to taste it is amazing! Is is a layer of chocolate cake, a small layer of strawberry frosting, then a layer of cheesecake with some strawberries in it. Then a thick layer of chocolate mousse and covered in all chocolate gnash. Then the decorations are in white chocolate. It is delicious. I do have to say that the cheesecake I made was sugar free :) can't say anything else was. :) Here is a picture of the inside of the cake after a few people got a piece. It actually got put in the fridge and forgotten about later so I think my husbands work will get to enjoy it tomorrow.

Then I made a pecan pie. This one is made with brown sugar and white Karo, it was really good! I forgot to cover the edges of the pie crust so it got a little dark but still tasted great!

Then I did an array of cookies. Sugar cookies my daughter helped decorate, then a new creation of pumpkin pinwheels, then ranger cookies, the best chocolate chip cookies ever and finally white chocolate chip cocoa cookies. All great cookies.

Then I did take some buckeye bars, peanut butter balls, chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate covered cherries.

All were a hit. Now I get to do it again Christmas Eve, stay tuned for what I will come up with for that! :)

Christmas Cookies and Rice Krispie Treats

2008-12-18T15:54:00.007-06:00

Well, today was my daughters Christmas party at school and we could not go empty handed so this is what we brought?

Rice Crispy treats shaped like Christmas ornaments. It was fun and easy. Just make normal Rice Krispie treats and add some red food coloring to the marshmallow part after cooked them mix in your rice Krispies. Then I put on some gloves, sprayed them with a little pam and then rolled the rice Krispies up into balls. They do not stick to the gloves and pam. Then I let them dry a bit and melt some green chocolate. I put it in a Ziploc bag, cut a small slit at the corner and drew the design on the side. Then melted milk chocolate and made little u's in waxed paper and let them harden, then put a small circle of chocolate on the top of the ball, let dry and repeat, then when your second layer is still wet take your dried u's from your waxed paper and stick it on top of the wet chocolate to make your hook holder. Then you have an ornament! :) It was a huge hit, everyone thought they were so cute!

Then of course some Christmas sugar cookies. I had made some of these previously and had them cut and baked and put into the freezer so today I could just pop them out, ice them and they taste like they were just made. The icing I put on these is simple it is about 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 tsp karo syrup, and enough milk to make it spreadable. Very yummy!

Then of course over the last couple weeks we have made some other candies. My daughter and husband made chocolate covered peanut butter balls (his granny's favorite). We all made white chocolate covered pretzels (his dad's favorite), our cherries (his 98 yr old papa's favorite and everyone else) should have some juice in the middle now and be delicious. If you leave them out of the fridge awhile they get softer. Then we made some Buckeye Bars (http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/buckeye-bars-111450.aspx except I used a real chocolate for the top not the cool whip type. I like it better and you use chocolate and add some cream to make it softer and that will be delicious), which is a peanut butter bar similar taste to the balls, just easier to make :) I have not made as much candy as normal this year so maybe I will make more? Tomorrow will be a baking and making day so we will see what is created. I think a chocolate mouse cheese cake, pecan pie and ???? If you have any suggestions or recommendations please feel free to share and maybe I will make it! Saturday starts Christmas celebrations with my husbands family.

Crazy Socks and Cupcakes

2008-12-04T20:54:00.006-06:00

Today I kept busy baking cakes.

The first one I started with was a crazy sock cake. It is to match the invitations for a crazy sock bounce party. I think it was a pretty creative theme. (She designed the invitations and has her own business, here is her link, you should check her out! www.MelsDesign.com) The socks made the cake look really cute. They defiantly took some time to create but well worth it in the end. This cake is chocolate on the bottom layer and strawberry on the top layer and then covered all in cream cheese frosting. This is one of the few cakes I have covered in cream cheese frosting it is a little harder to work with because it is so soft. But it turned out great! I did have to bake the strawberry top layer twice due to it not baking fast enough before I had to go pick up my daughter. So I turned down the temperature and let it bake an hour extra. :) It seemed to be fine, but since it was for someones special day I thought I better bake another one. So the good news is we all got to eat strawberry cake (which by the way tasted just fine). Then I let my daughter decorate the leftovers to take to daddy's' work. She had a blast! They will be eating icing with strawberry cake. :) (there is a lot of icing on the cake)

So here is the crazy sock cake:There are socks all the way around Then I got to make some cupcakes. These are chocolate with buttercream icing and they really like my icing so I made sure to swirl lots on each cupcake. :) They are just generic cupcakes for a boy's party. I hope they will love them!

Chocolate Covered Cherries

2008-12-01T17:00:00.005-06:00

Well, today being December 1st started the Christmas candy making season. If you are interested in making homemade chocolate covered cherries it is best to start now so that by Christmas the centers have plenty of yummy juice. I can’t say I love making them, but the family sure does love eating them. They are a long process and a little messy. The first year I made them I said I would never do this again, but of course when everyone loved them now I seem to make them every year.

So here is what I do:

(I did four of these recipes and made over 100 cherries)
I used four bottles of Maraschino cherries – took the stems off and drained them on a paper towel so I guess it comes out to about a bottle of cherries per recipe, although I do put a lot of filling per cherry.

First mix the white part for the middles:
3 TBSP butter
3 TBSP corn syrup
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Mix all the ingredients until smooth, then put in refrigerator to firm up while you get everything else ready.

Then I take small muffin/cupcake papers/liners and put a thin layer of chocolate on the bottom so when you put the chocolate covered cherry in it has a bottom and nothing can leak out.

Now it is time to make the middles:
You can spray your hands with pam cooking spray to help the white center not stick as bad to your hands.
Take a small amount of the filling and put in your hand, make flat, put cherry in and then roll in ball.
Then put them on a lined waxed paper cookie sheet and continue this process until finished. If your white filling gets sticky you can put it back in the refrigerator to firm up. As you can see from my picture, they are not all pretty, but it gets the job done. You can also repeat the pam cooking spray to help with the stickiness.
Then put in refrigerator about an hour to let them firm upAfter firm you can melt your dipping chocolate, any kind either the disks or the almond bark will work great. Melt until smooth.
Then take one cherry and dip in chocolate try to drain off excess chocolate and then put into your chocolate lined cupcake liners. Make sure you can’t see any white or filling liquid or your juice will flow out in the coming weeks. After your chocolate has firmed go back and look to make sure you can’t see any liquid or white, if so lightly cover with more chocolate. You want them solid so nothing leaks out.
Then put in an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks so the centers can become liquefied.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Madness

2008-11-26T20:42:00.009-06:00

Well it all started at the beginning of the fall/pumpkin season when I went and bought a pretty large pumpkin and came home to cook it. My sister-is-laws mother told me how.

This is what I do: Cut pumpkin in half, clean out all the inside, put some foil on a baking pan (hoping half the pumpkin will fit on it), put a little oil on the pan so the pumpkin will not stick. Put pumpkin cut side down on the pan, then bake at 325 degrees until a fork can easily go into the pumpkin (an hour or so). Then you peel the pumpkin and then puree it. Then I always separate in two cup baggies and freeze it. They say it should last about 6 months in the freezer. One pumpkin usually gives me plenty of pumpkin to use, share and usually throw away the next year. :)

So this Thanksgiving I chose a pumpkin theme for all my desserts.

First of course a traditional pumpkin pie. Well three one for us, my parents and husbands parents. Actually I did make one with splenda for my sister-in-law (the one for my parents house) who is a diabetic. Could anybody tell? I guess we will see :) (Well even with Splenda in one pie I don't think anyone could tell) Here is the recipe link: (one in which I replaced the sugar with Splenda. However she still will not be able to eat the crust, I did buy sugar free cool whip) http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=18470

Then a yummy pumpkin torte: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Praline-Pumpkin-Torte I have made this before and it is always a hit, it is delicious (and was a hit)!! I made it in a rectangle plan this time because I am splitting everything for two houses. It still turned out great. The circle one is much prettier!

Pumpkin roll (this was a favorite!): recipe link: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=32372

Carrot and pumpkin bars: I took another recipe and made it my own my by making it whole wheat and sugar free. Again for my diabetic sister-in-law. You have to watch out for white flour also, not just sugar so I changed white flour to wheat flour and small amount of oatmeal, then replaced all sugar products to splenda products. I also added a little extra cinnamon and I did double the cream cheese part, so I used and entire pkg of cream cheese. We will see how everyone likes them? They are actually not that bad. (Everyone that tried them actually liked them!!) :)) Recipe link: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=28459

Sugar free Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake. It might be sugar free but I know nobody will be able to tell :). It looks delicious and can’t wait to eat some! recipe link: I used the pumpkin torte pecan praline mixture (the 1st step in the recipe) and made in with splenda brown sugar and poured it on top of this recipe (This was a really big hit, it did not taste sugar free at all!): http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/31/PumpkinMarbleCheesecake63802.shtml
Here is an non-sugar free one that looks pretty yummy: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=140531

Here is a platter I will be taking with some of the yummies I made on it. Hope everyone likes it!

Pumpkin dip: Well I actually did not make this one, I ran out of thawed pumpkin and chose to be lazy, but I went ahead and left it on here so you might try it. This recipe I did not have to try out first because my good friend/neighbor made this for a party she had and I got to taste it. It was pretty yummy on cookies and it says for fruits also. Maybe I will try it for Christmas? Recipe link: http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/philadelphia-pumpkin-dessert-dip-52069.aspx

I also previously made some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and they were pretty good. Here is that link?: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=128665 although I am sure I added more chocolate chips than called for. :) My daughter did eat them and she is pretty picky, it must have been all the chocolate!

I also made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, I did not like them that much, but when made into a cake (I added some baking soda) instead of cookies they were a bigger hit at my husband’s work. But also a note I used regular all purpose flour and it called for self rising flour so maybe that was the problem? Here is that link: http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/10/pumpkin-pecan-chocolate-chunk-cookies.html I also did not make the icing, I am sure that adds loads of goodness also.

Hope you have fun trying out some pumpkin recipes and have a Happy Thanksgiving! Please feel free to share your favorite recipe anytime!

Turkey's

2008-11-20T15:14:00.001-06:00

Well, I am finally finished posting all my old cake pictures so now I will just be posting things as I do them.

Today was my daughter's Thanksgiving feast at Pre. School so I thought I would make some Turkey cupcakes. They were fun and a challenge all at the same time. The most time consuming thing was making the wings and heads out of sugar cookies.

So this is an all in one dessert. Sugar cookies, white chocolate, milk chocolate, icing and cake.

These were the flock that made it to the Feast, but sadly none made it home :(
Here are some Turkey's that got away and made it through the school cut, but I don't think they will last long, they already look like they are running for it :)

Other Cakes Misc.

2008-11-20T10:16:00.000-06:00

Well, here are just some random cakes I have done over the years:

This one was my grooms cake, my husband rode motorcycles and this was a surprise cake I did for him. He was sure there would be no motorcycles at our wedding. :) An easy winter cake:

Strawberry

A simple no theme birthday cake:

A simple birthday cake in spanish, I did have to look up how to spell it :)

We went to the beach this summer for vacation with some friends so I had to bring some cupcakes that look like the beach: (not sure why some pictures are coming in sideways?)

An anniversary cake:

A simple cake, but complex insides. This was a yummy chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling with buttercream and chocolate gnash drizzled on the outside with chocolate flakes. That made me want to go make one. :)

Baby Cakes (Showers and Baptism)

2008-11-20T10:03:00.000-06:00

So here are some of my baby shower cakes and one baptism cake:

This is my baptism cake:
This was a baby shower cake I made for my good friends shower. I got inspiration from a wall hanging that matches the baby's room.

This was for an old neighbors sip-n-see / baby shower

This was another cake for a good friends baby shower, she was decorating everything in pink and brown

This was for a neighbor that was throwing a baby shower and the baby room was done in blue and brown and this monkey

This is a bad picture but it is supposed to be like a baby blanket

This was one of my first attempts at fondant, I have come a long way but this is still pretty good. This was for a coworkers baby shower.

This was an easy baby cake to make:

All kinds of Birthday's

2008-11-19T21:24:00.000-06:00

I hand drew this elephant on this cake A fish cake for my father-in-law, he likes to fish! I drew it:

Hand drew this one also:

Cookie monster:

Batman cake for my husband, he likes batman :)

Another husband cake, he likes motorcycles also:

A care bear cake for a friends daughter's 1st birthday:

Strawberry shortcake cake for a friends daughter that is good friends with my daughter

A surprise cake for a friend from her husband, she likes Wisconsin

I got the privilege of making my husband’s papa’s 98th birthday cake. He likes to fish so I came up with this:

A friends daughters birthday cake, I tried making it look like her invitation:

Tinkerbell

Skateboard cake for our neighbor, he likes skateboarders. I think it was only appropriate we got him a skateboard as a present:

Friend of my daughters from dance birthday cake:

Friends daughters first birthday cake, they had a cool circus theme:

Neighbors twins birthday cake:

Mater from the movie cars:

Firetruck cake:

Spongebob for a friend of my daughters from dance:

Farm cake:

Craziest cake day

2008-11-19T21:09:00.000-06:00

Well November 15th was a very busy day for cakes. I had three pretty tall orders to fulfill. Happily I made it through and got them all finished on time and I think they look awesome!

My most important cake for the day was my first wedding cake, I think it looks great!
The bottom layer was Italian Cream, it had 40 eggs in it and 16 cups of flour and sugar, it was a very heavy layer! Then I had a first birthday airplane cake to do so here is the little birthday boys personal cake

and here is what everyone else got to eat

Then my final cake was a baby shower cake:

Star Wars Birthday

2008-11-19T17:09:00.003-06:00

Here is my son's 1st Birthday cake, we did a Star Wars Party since my husband likes that and the guests had a R2D2 cake. He was a bit challenging, but turned out okay.Here is his personal Yoda cake, he was yoda for Halloween so I thought he needed a Yoda cake. Not the best, but everyone knew who he was.

A friend has some awsome costumes we got to use for his party, can't say the birthday boy liked it that much but his daddy and his friend had fun playing dress up!Here I made some Skywalker light sabers from red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting then dipped in chocolate Here I made some Darth Vader light sabers from red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting then dipped in chocolateHere are some imperial popsAnd it's not a party without Yoda soda :)

My Daughter's Birthday's

2008-11-19T16:28:00.003-06:00

My daughters cakes through the years:

This is her 1st birthday cake, I of course chose Strawberry Shortcake and I made the vintage strawberry shortcake for the guest cake and made her very own up to date strawberry shortcake for her own cake.

This is her second birthday, she loves cats:

And this was her personal cake:

This is her 3rd birthday cake, she is into princess stuff so I thought I would try a castle:This is her personal cake, her own little princess: Then we progress to her 4th birthday where I go all out in cakes. I made her own personal cinderella cake, which cinderella is her favorite princess. Then I make a pillow cake with a royal icing shoe on top for the guests and I also made a chocolate moouse cake like a crown. We had lots of cake this year. :)Here is the main cake up close, it took me weeks to finally get the shoe right and it not break. I am not sure how I am going to top this cake next year?

Here are some cupcakes I put together to take to dance class which she had on her birthday:

So here is her 5th birthday cake:

Her personal cake: And her cupcakes she took to pre K class. I think it was a grea birthday this year!

Daughter's sixth birthday:

Well, another birthday has come and gone, it took a week to create all the pieces and less than 10 minutes to destroy it! :) But I think it turned out great, although at the end of the evening laying in bed I realized I forgot a piping detail that was supposed to go all around the bottom layer, kind of lace like. Also I made a fondant bow to go on the center layer, but then did not think it looked right and took it off. Oh well I don't think anyone thought anything was missing. The top two layers were cherry cake with chocolate frosting in the middle and covered in buttercream. Then the bottom layer was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting in the middle covered in buttercream. The decorations were made of gum paste, fondant, and royal icing. Then my daughters cake was cherry also, her choice! All 24 kids seemed to have a blast. We did all the girls hair, makeup, and nails, played games and played in the bounce slide and playground. It was a huge success!