Bundt Cake Winter Wonderland

I’m a bit out of season, but I couldn’t resist experimenting with these ‘littles’ a friend gave me. 🙂 I have been inspired by work like “Minimian” (originally seen here) and Audrey Heller, and creative juices started flowing after the snowstorm earlier this year…

DARING SKIIER….

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ONE ICE SKATER…

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TWO ICE SKATERS…
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THREE ICE SKATERS…

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ANOTHER DARING SKI STUNT

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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! 😉

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Acorn cookies

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Toadstool mushroom cupcakes

A 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… 

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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!

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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.

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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…

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Dancing on the cookie sheet

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acorn swirl… getting packed and ready to go

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One acorn…

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Two acorns!

Thirty-ONEderful!

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These adorable mini birthday cupcakes were so fun to make, and perfectly bite-sized. I wrapped my old Architecture 101 wooden drafting board in sprinkle wrapping paper, and it made the perfect backdrop for the Thirty-ONEderful cupcakes! (Yes, there are 31 of them).

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waiting to be lit

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yellow cake minis with chocolate frosting

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chocolate minis with chocolate frosting

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My mixer makes a flower shape in powdered sugar 🙂

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!

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We sculpted the double-layer chocolate cake, and decorated accordingly….

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Beginning to take shape…

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Crumb coat complete…

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Final frosting layer complete

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Side 1 View

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Front View

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Side 2 View

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Back View

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Vrooooooom!!

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At the party, he made yet another engine switch….

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…this time with the hatch!

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Birthday Flags and Brownies

I designed a birthday brownie flag, incorporating a silly saying/nick-name that had been created the month prior… printed the designs out, wrapped the two-sided design around a toothpick, glued the halves together, and placed one in the top of each brownie slice 🙂 I made the brownies in an edge pan, similar to this one, and used a Marbled Cheesecake Brownie recipe that came with the pan.

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Heart Engagement Cake

This cake falls within one of the first handfuls that I made, and my friend Suzie and I made it together! I remember the summer was a very very hot one, and we slaved away on this cake for hours into the night so that we could take it with us the next day to our friend’s engagement party.

We baked enough chocolate cakes for a double-tier freehand heart-shape cake…

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The newly-engaged couple practicing cutting cake together 🙂