Christmas of 2008, I received these plastic Jell-O Jiggler letter cut-outs. I use them primarily for cookie cutters, and have way too much fun. 🙂
I remember making cookie names for all of my neighbors and friends, and I am sure many more than I have thought to capture digitally, but here are some examples…
But I also love it when I send or give these customized cookie letter messages to people, and they send me back photos of their new word combinations….. 🙂
Good old black-bottom cupcakes.. Mmmm! For the most part, I chose to keep the cupcake wrapper colors simple–>solid colors since the black and white with mini chocolate chips already have a lot going on.
I was baking my regular pecan tassies per the recipe, but ended up with extra dough for the actual shells, so I decided to throw some different ingredients in them just for the heck of it. In addition to the pecans, I made one version with ham and parmesan cheese, one with lemon curd, and one with chopped kalamata olives and feta. Mmmm… I’d say my favorite after the pecan was the lemon curd. The ham and cheese came out a little dry, and I didn’t realized the feta wouldn’t melt and become gooey. But all-in-all, these were fun to try, taste, and of course photograph 🙂
Party time!
Thank you, Sweetapolita, for this lovely Orange Party Cake Recipe! I was intrigued by the summery theme for a good, light dessert for a joint birthday party. And I am a big fan of your Pastel Swirl Technique Video Tutorial! I still have a lot of practice ahead of me; Mine don’t turn out nearly as beautiful and perfect as yours, but celebrations make the perfect excuse to practice.
First layer down with filling on top
All layers and fillings ready for crumb coat
Voila! frosted, complete with flower on top. I picked up these adorable flowers at Miette in San Francisco.
I need to start working on my piping technique as far as piping frosting goes… so here was one practice session with some fun photos 🙂
They remind me of ice cream cones….
I have more fun with my letter sugar cookie cutters than just about anything else I think! I wanted to make something personalized and special for Lindsey’s birthday, so I made these cupcakes with chocolate-dipped letter/candle toppers 🙂
Birthday Box of cupcakes
Friends!
I got a beautiful Kitchen Aid stand mixer for Christmas!! I’d worn my second hand-mixer out and figured I’d have to just buy another one. Everything I’d done up to this point was with that mixer. Quite frankly, it has taken me a little bit of getting used to trusting this machine to do much of the work for me! But it is quite lovely, and so freeing to have my hands available to prepare the next step of ingredients while it mixes away 🙂 I also received two new baking sheets and Silpats earlier in the month for my birthday! <3 <3 <3
Rolling and Cutting Station
Love my new Silpat mat!
Decorating under way 🙂
I always love seeing peoples’ individual ideas and creations…
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!
The setting before the decoration began!
Some of the lovely creations!
