Cupcake Bouquet 1

Sticking with a new trend (cupcakes), I wanted to do something special and unique with them because after all, decorating is limited to a tiny space! This bouquet is my first one and I think it turned out quite well! It's a chocolate pudding cake with vanilla buttercream icing (the cupcake was so light and fluffy it almost tasted like eating chocolate air...yummm).

Christmas Cookies!

I had a request for multiple types of cookies this year. The first picture is a swirl cookie and the second and third are parts of cookie platters that I made.

Swirl Sugar Cookies. The green and white cookies are vanilla sugar cookies. The red and white cookies are a mixture of peppermint flavor and vanilla sugar cookies. Both are covered in holiday sprinkles.

Four types of cookies in the platter: Spiced gingerbread snowflakes with royal icing, Chocolate chip cookies, Chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, and lastly Red Velvet with white chocolate chips. I made two of these platters this year (and kept some of each for my house..DELICIOUS!)

Holiday sugar cookie platter with royal icing decoration: Snowman, Bows, Christmas Tree, & Stocking.

**If you need help with decorating sugar cookies, this is a very useful website!**

http://annies-eats.com/2009/12/04/how-to-decorate-with-royal-icing/

School Bus

A friend asked me to make a thank you cake for her internship at a school. We came up with the idea of making a school bus and the sides saying thank you. The pictures were taken before the clean up just in case the bus had a "crash" and fell apart (so please excuse the mess!)

While moving to a different cake base that featured the road the nose of the bus detached. I was able to repair the cake! Unfortunately didn't get a chance to take another picture. The school really loved the cake and the principle sent me (and the intern) a very lovely thank you email. It was my pleasure!

Flavor: Snickerdoodle cake covered in marshmallow fondant and decorated with fondant and royal icing.

Winter Cupcakes

With cupcakes being a growing phenomena, I decided to start baking them more often and experimenting. Below are two different types of cupcakes made for winter celebrations.

Two types of Cupcakes below:

Hot Chocolate cupcakes: Devils food cake, ganache filling with a marshmallow frosting decorated with white dragees.

Smore's cupcake: graham cracker crust, chocolate cake with marshmallow icing topped with graham cracker crumbs. A nice twist on the campfire classic!

Yellow Lightning

Along with being a baker, I also helped start a softball league for girls and was an assistant coach for the Yellow Lightning Fall Softball league. For our end of the season party we had a parent v. players game. I surprised the girls at the end of the party with this cake. The cake is a vanilla butter cake with swirls of yellow inside with a vanilla buttercream icing. The decorations which includes the backstop, the bases, and the lightning bolts are made of fondant. The "dirt" is made of graham crackers that were ground up in a food processor. The girls were very excited and everyone enjoyed the cake!

Snowman Cake

I made this snowman a couple of years ago. It is a yellow cake with a mashmallow frosting surrounded by a layer of "snow" or mini marshmallows. The hat, eyes, nose, buttons, and scarf are made from vanilla buttercream. My future mother-in-law took this cake to work for a Board of Director's meeting in January. She sent me a picture of the snowman's head which was all that was left after the first round of cake. Needless to say that didn't last too long!

Pumpkin Spice Cake Cookies

Here are some Pumpkin Spice Cake Cookies I made. They are amazing! And not to mention perfect for the fall season. I personally do not like the taste of pumpkin but I love these because it tastes more like the cinnamon and nutmeg combination than the pumpkin itself. These were made for a work party and have a cake consistency; light and fluffy and soft. They also are better when not kept in an airtight container because the pumpkin has a lot of moisture in it. The glaze is a cinnamon sugar glaze and goes perfectly with the cookies. YUMM