Happy Independence Day
Category Archives: Themed
First Birthday – Yee-Haw!
To celebrate a our friend’s baby’s first birthday, I made these cowboy themed chocolate cupcakes with a Pringle chip hat and gumdrop and Twizzler band. Happy First Birthday, Odin! <3
Happy Spooky Halloween ’18
BOO! I saw this idea in a magazine and wanted to give it a try! White fudge covered pretzels, candy melts, various sprinkles and a pair of tweezers – voila! Aliens, mummies, ghosts – whatever you see, they were a fun treat to share at a party and at work!Â
On the cookie sheet, prepped and ready to go!
Little spooky creatures created!
Happy Halloween 2017
A Mummy Halloween to you! I’ve made these little guys before, but made double batches again this year both for a neighbor’s party as well as a work potluck – Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese mummy frosting and sugar eyeballs 🙂
I actually initially made two batches of the same recipe I’ve used multiple times before and was not happy at all with them! I’m not sure if I did something different, or it was the difference of our convection oven… so found a new recipe and I was much happier with how they came out.
From plastic container….
… to full on fall layout! I love the oranges and greens in this image, along with the warm walnut stained display box that my Dad made for our wedding cupcakes 🙂
Merry Cookie Christmas!
This year was my second Cookie Exchange Extravaganza, and I made sugar cookie Christmas sweaters and mittens 🙂
For the sweaters I used Sweet Sugar Belle’s royal icing recipe again and separated the icing into red, green and white. As the planning continued, my strategy got simpler and simpler… Maybe another time I can make all of them customized and silly with santas, snowmen, reindeer, presents, lights, sleighs, chimneys etc.
Since the royal icing takes a number of hours to set, I baked and created the background icing layers one day, and piped the detail in white another…
Voila!! So many….
I packaged what I had up into baggies of 6 each…
And off to the exchange I went! Look at the piles of amaaazing cookies that everyone brought!
For my NEXT three dozen (remember–strategy got simpler and simpler… eight dozen sweater cookies, ok six dozen sweater cookies, ok only two base colors and white decoration, ok actually three dozen sweater cookies and three other dozen of something else…that will be faster to bake and decorate)….. I made mitten cookies dipped in semi-sweet chocolate and garnished with little cookie stars and snowflake sprinkles! There were a few I tried edible glitter, but the glitter got away from me… :/
Just dipped!
November Bachelorette
I had fun creating these custom bachelorette themed cookies for party favors this week! I used my Grandmother’s sugar cookie recipe and SweetSugarBelle’s royal icing recipe again 🙂
I had a little extra time, so I started experimenting with some additional arrangements….
I’ve noticed some of my favorite blogs use cups and mugs of steaming hot beverages in their overhead shots. I like the warm, cozy feeling the beverage gives to the shot, and I had the perfect dish towel to go with it… I’ll work on adding more to my layouts to pump them up!
And some fun with minis <3
A Woodland Baby Shower
Boy, December sure has been a busy month!! Before December ends, I want to try and catch up on a few posts that I haven’t had time to get to because… well, partly because I have been baking! 😉
Acorn cookies
Toadstool mushroom cupcakes
AÂ college friend of mine is having a baby boy soon, so I helped bake a couple of treats for her woodland themed baby shower in early December. Among the rest of the delicious spread complete with baked stuffed mushrooms, orzo pasta salad, green salad, spiced nuts, cheese, crackers and fig spread, and an outstanding (and delicious I must say!) chocolate cake baked and decorated to look like a tree stub by another friend, were these toadstool mushroom cupcakes…Â
trays full of yellow cupcakes and tinted vanilla frosting to look like toadstools… it took a little time to get just the right orangey-red. And placing each spot took some effort too!
Home habitat…
Before packing these up for the party, I used a few items that I had to create a quick home habitat to snap a few shots of these little ‘shrooms.
Toadstool mushroom cupcakes in their “true habitat” for the party! The habitat was pretty much set when I arrived and made the perfect backdrop for these little red mushrooms. Thanks to Sheena for this picture!
And for the acorn cookies, I baked up a batch of my Grandma’s sugar cookies and dipped them in semi-sweet chocolate for the little cap. Mmmmm! I contemplated sprinkles on the chocolate part, but decided that I liked the simplicity as they were…
Dancing on the cookie sheet
acorn swirl… getting packed and ready to go
One acorn…
Two acorns!
Octobery + Halloween
What is more Octobery than pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting?!
And my nod to the Halloween holiday, just around the corner… mummy pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting wrap and candy googely eyes 🙂 These are inspired by a picture I saw in Target!
Peeking out
Such characters!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Race Car Cake… inspired by true events
My boyfriend and I made a race car birthday cake, reminiscent of our friend’s actual race car. Our friend has been working on maintaining what started out as a 1986 Chevrolet Chevette suitable for racing at events, such as the ChumpCar race that takes place at Portland International Raceway. In his first race, he won the trophy for the “Spirit of ChumpCar”! You can follow his facebook page here!
The car itself has gone through quite a series of transformations as far as paint jobs, decor, tires, other parts and engines are concerned; besides tires, he is even known for switching out engines mid-race!
We sculpted the double-layer chocolate cake, and decorated accordingly….
Beginning to take shape…
Crumb coat complete…
Final frosting layer complete
Side 1 View
Front View
Side 2 View
Back View
Vrooooooom!!
At the party, he made yet another engine switch….
…this time with the hatch!
Baby Shower Cupcakes
A friend and I planned our friend Suzie’s baby shower together… we had fun planning the custom ‘Welcome’ board, and some themed refreshments and games. I originally saw these baby face cupcakes at another baby shower the month before and am still searching for those original images since I stole the inspiration! 🙂 We also decorated with more balloons and had a framed message board for guests to write notes to welcome Baby Han.
Table display
Custom ‘Welcome’ Board
Baby face cupcakes with bonnets!
Refreshments
Mystery baby food guessing game…
Baby food taste test
Some game prizes (baby food guessing game, pregnant tummy yarn diameter guess, animal baby name match with adult animal name)
Popcorn snacks