Easter and Spring Celebrations

Finally!!! The rain in Seattle has let up and we are actually starting to get some nice weather after literally 6 months of nothing but straight rain, snow and freezing cold temps. I literally thought spring would never come but sure enough the leaves on the trees are starting to bud up again, the tulips and daffodils are blooming and the air has a sweet smell to it. Ahhhh.

Spring Flower Cupcakes for Easter

I was really excited to try out some new buttercream techniques on cupcakes. Cupcakes aren't usually something I get requests for...I think they are a bit overdone now, but every now and then I get some requests and buttercream flowers are my favorite!

Easter Eggs in Grass Cupcakes

Ok but let's get cereal for a minute. While some might call me a buttercream artist, but every now and then an artist struggles with a technique. For me, that was the dahlia flower, ya that little white flower in the picture below in the front. That little guy gave me HECK to frost. I had to scrape it off 3 times and redo it. I watched a bunch of youtube videos prior but there is just something in the video that wasn't being communicated because a lot of time the technique is in the way you squeeze and angle the piping tip. ARG but the good news is I did it and I still have to "warm up" that flower when I make it.

Pastel Buttercream Flower Cupcakes

So I have contemplated trying to make a cookie on a stick for a long time and just got around to attempting it. I always wondering if you bake the stick into the cookie or not? The answer is YOU DO NOT. I looked it up before I made them so there was no house fires - thank gawd for the internet. Ok so how do I do it?

Easter Egg Sugar Cookies on a Stick

I roll my normal cookie dough out to about double the normal thickness of my cookies. This will allow the dough to rise more and make room for the stick. After they are done baking I pull the hot tray of cookies out of the oven and immediate shove the stick in them. I use the white wilton 6" candy sticks. As the cookie cools down it will settle around the stick. Now you dont want to pick them up a lot by the stick, they are still delicate. These were a lot of fun to make and perfect for Easter baskets. I always see really cute cookie cutters but they are so BIG I have no idea what I would do with them...until now!

Spring Pastel Themed Cake Pops

Cake pops are always a crowd favorite! I had a request for some pretty flower cake pops and some Easter cake pops which both went together great. My favorite are the ones below, they are just so delicate and feminine. I went to Michael's craft store and found these sugar flowers and HAD to have them because they were just too perfect.

Flower and Pastel Cake Pops

 And of course it wouldn't be easter without my signature sugar cookies! Easter bunnies hopping around, tulips and flowers in bloom! oh la la I love spring! Somehow I even managed to get out into my yard on the weekend and plant some new flowers. It's still a little too early in the year to plant my patio planters, being in Seattle and all, you really have to wait until May. But soon the day will come!

Assorted Easter Sugar Cookies

What are your favorite Easter treats? Tell me! I want to know and it will give me ideas for next year!

Princess Party Themes

What little girl doesn't think she is a princess? That precious age where they run around in play dresses and singing songs like the princess in the movie. My favorite Disney Princess was Belle mainly I think because she looked like me - brown hair and up in a pony tail.

This blog post is dedicated to all the princesses out there from pink, purple and sparkly to frozen elsa's. Let me wave my magic wand and "bippity boppity BOO"

Never has a Disney theme been more popular than the hit movie Frozen. I love watching all the latest Disney movies. I loved Tangled and Brave. Frozen was just o.k to me. It had some weird "Barbie" dialogue as I call it...you know what I mean? That prissy, sissy comment...I don't know maybe it was just me, Olaf is adorable though and I have to admit the plot was not what I was expecting it to end up.

2 tier Frozen Themed Cake

 I have been getting better at my cake styles. I will have to say that fondant can be such a pain but man did I have fun making this cake. I used fondant snowflake plungers to make the accent snowflakes as well as alphabet cutters to make the name - so much easy. Then I laid extra white fondant over the top of the layers to give it the "snow drift" effect. This part was actually tricky that I thought it was going to be. .

Frozen Themed Crown and Snowflake Cookies

Pink and Purple Princess Cake Pops

Nothing says "girlie" more than a pink and purple princess themed party. I am so lucky to have a Michael's craft store about 5 minutes from my house. I made a venture there and found these adorable Wilton Princess cupcake toppers that would be perfect with the theme. These cake pops might just be my favorite. I dipped them in Wilton Melting Chocolate and then covered them in clear sprinkles (also by wilton) to give them that sparkly look. Next I dabbed a little more chocolate on top to get the crowns to adhere and voila! They turned out perfectly.

Pink and Purple Princess Crown and Wand Cookies

Now with the below cake pops, I was curious to see if I could get a little crazy and shape my cake pops. Normally I just so a ball shape because they are easy, but I got to thinking that maybe I could use a small cookie cutter and CUT them into a star shape instead of molding them into a star by hand. It was a little tricky to do and they were a little finicky to dip BUT they WORKED. And again I dipped them in chocolate and covered them in clear sprinkles.

Princess Wand Cake Pops

Tips with doing this though, have a knife hand. I found the star shape to be too fragile to tap the excess chocolate off. So I used my straight metal spatula (the kind for cakes) and scrapped off the extra chocolate, it took a little bit more time, but it seemed to work well to accentuate the shape. Otherwise they would have been a big blog.

So what little princess do you have at home? What is her favorite princess theme? Oops looks like the clock is striking midnight! Got to go!

Merry Christmas 2015

HO HO HO! It's that crazy time of year again where we drive ourselves a little mad with all the holiday hustle and bustle. Christmas time is especially busy in my kitchen. This year I almost didn't have enough time to bake for myself and gifts for friends and family! I found time and luckily got it done though! *phew* 

I watched a bunch of TV baking specials this year which is something I typically don't do but I was really inspired and learns A LOT from these fellow bakers. I had no idea what "pate a choux" was ( I do now) or how to make petit fours. 

Tacky Sweater Cookies

So my New Year's Resolution is to branch out and explore more baking recipes and styles. I also want to concur my free and resistant of cakes so I have signed up for the Wilton Method classes at my local craft store and I actually could not be more excited! 

This year I baked many shapes and designs but probably one of the biggest crowd pleasers are the Tacky Sweater cookies. These cookies are always a big party hit! Especially since ugly sweater parties have become more and more popular every year. 

The hardest part of making these cookies is coming up with all the different designs. I try to channel my inner "tackiness" to come up different ideas for the sweaters. These featured above are just a few of the ones I did. Check my other blog posts for other designs. 

Holiday Cookie Dessert Platter

 Here are some other holiday cookies I made this year. I did a variety of Santa Claus faces, mittens and stockings, snow flakes, snowman and wreaths just to name a few. I have a whole drawer full of cookie cutters dedicated to holidays and christmas is about half of them! 

Holiday Cookie Dessert Platter

Another treat I made for the first time this year was Red Velvet Whoopie Pies! Nothing says "holidays" more than red velvet! I made it from scratch too. Did you know that red velvet has cocoa powder in it? That is what gives it that distinct taste...I did't know that until I made it. These were a party hit too this year. They are small and easy to eat and a perfect mix between cookie and cake. 

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

And lastly, the dessert I have really been working on this year and trying to perfect are my French Macarons. Man those buggers are little stinkers! They are so delicate and easy to mess up. Luckily I discovered earlier this year the right cookie time for my oven - we bought a house this year which means learning curve with the oven. 

Mini "Mac"

One thing I still struggle with these guys is their size. I for some reason can't get mine to be bigger than a quarter and I would like them to be more like a silver dollar size. Because they are so small, filling them can be quite tricky especially if you want to combined flavors like a chocolate ganache with a raspberry fruit filling.

French Macaron Tower

For this holiday season I made Chocolate Peppermint which I made with the red dye on top of the tower. In the middle a Chocolate Spiked Eggnog which ended up tasting more like straight gingerbread according to my professional taste tester aka my husband - lol. I kind of agree with him though. It was eggnog spiked with rum, anyways that is the flavor in the middle. And lastly I made a apple pie which was my favorite. It had really bits of apple in it and lots of cinnamon yum yum. 

Some other usual suspects made it to the party too. Those were my chocolate and vanilla cake pops and cupcakes. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! See you next year... as they say in show biz...THAT'S A WRAP! 

Halloween 2015

Halloween was one of my favorite holidays growing up. It is so sad that many people don't go around the neighborhood trick or treating with their kids. I remember my mom and I doing the "mall thing" one year and afterwards she was like "never again..." it was PACKED with people and kids, impossible to get to the lady in the store passing out the candy and when you DID make it to the front all I got was a lousy Tootsie Roll or Dum Dum. 

My husband and I just bought our first house this summer. So when October rolled around I was excited beyond belief for Halloween however no one else in the neighborhood seemed to be. I guess it is just a Washington thing that we don't take part in all the decorating like some other states. 

Since we are in a new neighborhood I had no idea how many kids even lived in the neighborhood let alone how many would make it up to our street. But just in case I bought a costco sized bag of candy. Most of the trick or treaters came later in the even around 630 or 7. 

Unfortunately, we were only able to hand out candy to 2 groups of trick or treaters before we had to go to our own festivities. They were so cute though! The second group had some little guys, maybe 5 or 6 years old, they of course were superheroes. The WSU Cougars were playing #8 Stanford and it was a big deal. So I set a bowl of candy out for the kids so they would come back to us next year. 

Here are some new desserts I made for halloween. I really loved the way the cake pops turned out. Halloween colors are just so fun. I also made rice krispy treats and to spice up the design a little bit, I decided to try my luck at writing and it turned out pretty good in my opinion. Not quite as good as when I do buttercream frosting, but still legible right?

Hope all you ghosts and gobblins had a fun night! Until next year!

Hippity Hoppity Easter

Spring has sprung finally in Seattle and I could be more excited! We have had a warm winter this year and an early spring!

The Easter bunny was making his rounds in my kitchen helping me cook up some yummy treats for good little boys and girls!

Hopping Sparkly Easter Bunny

So cute I can't decide which face I like more?!

Quack Quack Cheep Cheep

Easter Crosses

New to the Easter celebration line up this year were crosses which are an important part of the reason we celebrate this joyous holiday. I was actually raised Catholic. What did you give up for Lent? I hope it wasn't cookies!

Colorful Daisy Cookies

My daisy cookie cutter is one of my favorites. The possibilities are endless and I love to add them in to my assortments for a pop of color.

Hopping Easter Bunnies Everywhere!

Hopping Easter bunnies waiting to HOP into a special easter basket. And more bunny faces too!

Easter Themed Cake Pops

Of course Easter wouldn't be complete without fun and festive cake pops. These remind me of died easter eggs which I used for my inspiration. 

Mini Cookies

I forget what store I was at but I stumbled across a set of mini Easter cookie cutters and I thought they were just so cute! I had to have them. They were identical to some of the "BIG" easter cookies I had. I was hoping to make cupcakes and use them as cupcake toppers but that plan fell through this year because Easter fell during Spring Break and a lot of my family was out of town. Instead I put them in tiny cake pop bags and stuck them inside the easter eggs which worked out perfect and was a fun surprise for the kids. I am definitely going to remember to do that next year. 

Easter Egg Cookies

And last but certainly not least, it just wouldn't be Easter without some Easter eggs now would it?! These too were my favorite.

Thank you for stopping by my blog and I hope everyone had a wonderful and Happy Easter!

Ready to Pop Baby Shower

I am getting to "that age" where some of my friends are getting married but even more are on the brink of having babies... *sigh* now that I am in my late twenties. Well this baby shower wasn't exactly for me or anyone I know. But the them was ready to pop! And all things that go POP were just about represented...but lets focus on the fun dessert...

Yellow and Blue Cake Pops

Cake POPs are the perfect little pop for this shower. A bouncing baby boy P is on the way!

Baby Shower Dessert & Treat Table

Of course it wouldn't be a Ready to Pop party with out POPcorn! 

Chocolate Dipped Rice Krispy Treats

POPsicles...well not quite but chocolate dipped rice krispy treats are sure to delight! 

Custom Baby Shower Cookies

And I guess cookies don't really go POP but there are cute anyways and look great on the dessert table. 

Carnival Cake Pops!

A child's imagination is truly a remarkable thing and it is so sad that it is something that [most] of us lose as we "grow up." I remember that picking my birthday theme was one of my FAVORITE things to do. Since I am a summer baby, I always had ice cream cakes - from DQ duh! - and a swimming pool was always involved. 

Rainbow Carnival Themed Cake Pops

 Some of the kids birthday treat requests I have gotten are just to cute. From penguin and goldendoodle cookies to carnival/circus cake pops!

Funfetti Filled Cake Pops

 Now I am still working on perfecting the craft of making cake pops into other shapes like faces and that sort of thing. I kind of like the simplistic look with some cute washi tape on the top or "cupcake toppers."

 For this little soon to be 9 year old, she was having a carnival and circus themed party so I made funfetti  cake pop balls and dipped them into blue and white chocolate to create the shells. Kids love sprinkles! So I did my "signature" swirl design on them and topped them of with the "cupcake topper" that I found on Google.

white and blue swirled rainbow cake pops

TIP: Not going to lie, getting them to stand up straight is the tricky part. Before you dip them I recommend setting them on a flat surface like your baking sheet and see what side it rolls on to. When it stops tap it down to create a little flat surface. From there, dip your cake pop stick in the chocolate and take it over to the cake ball on the baking tray and eyeball where the "perfect center" is so it will stand straight up after you are down dipping it. Also after dipping it when you set it carefully down on the tray, pick it back up a little bit so chocolate can seep under the cake pop and not exposing the cake ball underneath.

All boxed up and ready to go!

Transporting them was going to be another question. Luckily I happened to have the PERFECT size box in my house. Weird that never happens right?! So I was able to get all these little cake pop guys over to the birthday girl in one piece! 

Thanks for stopping by!