Up up and away!

I made these balloons for two of my friends birthdays.  They were so simple.  I covered a piece of cardboard with blue paper to look like the sky (you could draw clouds on them too) and then wrapped plastic wrap around it so the paper wouldn't get greasy from the cupcakes.  I tinted my cupcakes to match the ribbon.  I taped the ribbon down and set the cupcake on top.  I used the lemon cream cheese frosting with a yellow cake and also a regular cream cheese with strawberry cupcake. 

Flower Bouquet

My friends and I from church did these for Noele's baby shower.  She adopted a baby girl, which was so fun because we got to decorate with pink and brown.  The cookies were baked the day before since they took awhile to decorate.  The ones with sticks (we used the Wilton Brownie Pop Sticks, Wal-Mart has the same size as well) were made by lightly pressing the stick on the flower and adding dough to cover the stick before baking.  Once they were frosted (we used the lemon cream cheese and chocolate icings) we put the sticks in Oasis or styrofoam that we cut to fit inside the painted flower pots.  Then we covered the Oasis with crushed Oeros.

Flower power

I made this for 2 of my friends for their birthdays.  It took a long time for some crazy reason.  I don't think the cake was frozen enough when I frosted them because the crumbs were out of control.  So to do this I baked a 9x13 cake then used a cleaned out large tomato can to cut 5 circles and a smaller one for the center circle. (If I do this again I will make all circles the same size so the petals fit together better)  I also colored sugar for the accents.

Man with the Yellow Hat

Patti and I crafted this cake for her twin's Curious George 3rd birthday party. We used a white cake mix and the lemon cream cheese frosting.  We thought this would be easier than doing a George cake, but cutting out the shape took a remarkably long time. Let's just say it resembled many other things before you could tell it was the yellow hat!

My favorite frosting recipes

Cream Cheese Frosting:

6 oz. cream cheese, softened (I sometimes add all 8oz)

1/2 cup butter softened

1 tsp. vanilla

4 to 4 3/4 cups powdered sugar -depending on what consistency you want

Patti's Chocolate Frosting:

1/3 cup cocoa

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup softened butter

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter softened

1 tsp. lemon juice

4 1/2 to 4 3/4 cups powdered sugar

Finely shred 1 tsp of lemon peel; set aside.  In a medium mixing bowl combine cream cheese and lemon juice. Beat with mixer on low to medium speed until light and fluffy.  Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating well.  Gradually beat in additional powdered sugar to make frosting that is easy to spread.  (Add more powdered sugar if you will be piping)  Stir in lemon peel.

*For a plain cream cheese frosting I just omit the lemon peel and replace the lemon juice with either vanilla or almond flavoring.

Buttercream Frosting:

1 cup Crisco

1 tsp. flavoring (vanilla, almond, butter)

2 Tbsp. milk or water

1 lb. powdered sugar (sifted together with Meringue Powder)

1 Tbsp. Meringue Powder

A pinch of salt

Cream shortening, flavoring and water.  Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together.  If you don't sift Meringue Powder with sugar it will clump on you.  Mix until well blended.

*The only time I use this exact recipe is if I am doing decorating that requires stiffer icing.  Even then I usually replace crisco with butter because it tastes better.  The Meringue Powder is what makes it stiff.  

On Your Mark...

This was for my son's 3rd Birthday.  We did 2 small parties with both our playgroups which worked out because I wasn't sure how I wanted to do the cake, the figure 8 or not.  So I tried both.  I baked 2- 9" round cakes and cut a small section out of one so the other cake could fit right up against it.  I then frosted the edges and pressed green dyed coconut against it.  For the top I placed 2 cups in the middle of the circles and then sprinkled crushed oreos around them.  I removed the cups and added more coconut.  I used tic-tacs for the road lines and his favorite cars for on top.

We also made candy cars using gum, hard candy, and starbursts.

This is the best picture I could find of the cars.

Happy Birthday Ethan! 

Heart tier cake

I made this for a Relief Society birthday celebration for our church. It was my first time working with fondant and I thought that it would be easy. Maybe if my cake wasn't heart shape and I didn't have to cut most of the heart shapes out myself it would have been. The fondant was a little difficult to cover the heart but it turned out okay after my friend and I covered most of the mistakes with poka-dots. I did enjoy doing this and will probably work with fondant in the future but on a much smaller scale, (wedding cakes are not in my future.)

Sweetheart shower

We made these for a bridal shower. It was a couple weeks before Valentines Day so we used that for inspiration to do the pink heart cookies.  This was when Patti discovered the lemon cream cheese frosting from one of her magazines. We will use it in the future for sure.  This is when I discovered how much I enjoy doing desserts especially with my amazingly creative friends.  I am so blessed to have them.