Graduations Galore!

At last! June is here which means school is almost out for the summer (although summer in Washington tends to just make cameos throughout the month) and I am busy in the kitchen cooking up lots of fun graduation treats. From high school graduations and excited future freshman to mature seniors ready to take on the "real world," I think I have covered just about everyone this year! 

Washington State University Graduation and Football Cookies

Graduation cookies are one of my favorite assortments to make because I love seeing all the school colors and mascots come together like in this picture below! So much fun to make and to celebrate, and this wasn't even all of them!

Assorted Graduation Cookies

 I had some new school requests that I haven't made in the past, special shout out to Gonzaga University, Arizona State University, Mercer Island High School and University of Southern California (USC)!

Gonzaga University Graduation Cookies

 I thought these Arizona State graduation cookies turned out pretty cute! Especially the pitchfork which was a bit tricky to do in buttercream.

Arizona State University Graduation Cookies

  And yes I had to make some (more like many) graduation cookies for the University of Washington - I have to give the huskies a hard time being a coug and all (GO COUGS). But I guess they do deserve some special recognition. Good job Huskies.

University of Washington Graduation Cookies

My cookies have made their way up to the Sammamish plateau to the beautiful Skyline High School community. I am so proud of my cousin who graduated this year and decided to go to Washington State! Her brother broke my heart when we switched and decided to go to Arizona instead...but actually I don't blame him and I probably should have done the same so I could wear shorts and tank tops all year versus Ugg boots and North Face fleeces...oh well!  I am super excited to go and visit her though and she is going to rush!

Skyline High School Graduation Cookies

 University of Arizona graduation cookies! BEAR DOWN! I am really hoping to make it down to the Arizona vs. Wazzu game this year but we will see. I have never been to Tucson and some nice sunny weather in October sure doesn't hurt.

University of Arizona Graduation Cookies

 University of Colorado graduation cookies! Colorado is on my bucket list for traveling. But I can't decide if I want to go in the summer and hike or in the winter and ski more? Tough decision because I hear it is beautiful either way.

University of Colorado Boulder Graduation Cookies

 University of Southern California....again why couldn't I have picked a sunny and warm place to go to school. I haven't been to SoCal in a long time, I think the last time I was there was when I was 15 and I convinced my mom to get my belly button pierced on the Venice boardwalk...she ended up getting her's done too. hehe. Good times! Maybe a trip is in order and a little visit to Disneyland!

USC Graduation Cookies

 I love the Mercer Island High School logo with the overlapping MI. Shout out to all the MI peeps!

Mercer Island High School Graduation Cookies

Congratulations to all the graduates of 2017! If you would like to order graduation cookies please send me an email to info @ seatownsweets DOT com. 

Watercolor Fish Cake

My in laws came into town the other weekend to celebrate my father-in-laws big 66 birthday. That's the retirement age and a "big" deal. They live in Eastern Washington about 2 hours away, so it is always fun for them to come over to the "big" city and play. We lucked out weather-wise fortunately.

 My mother-in-law asked me if I would make a special cake for him for his birthday and of course I said yes! He is very much into fishing and so I started brainstorming ideas for the cake. Obviously I wanted it to be watery. I have seen a lot of techniques using fondant to make the waves or a ruffle in buttercream around the cake. I love the ruffle look but I thought maybe a bit "girlie"

Watercolor cake- Top of the cake

Naturally, I started my research on pinterest. I looked up "fish themed cake" and I saw this really cool one of a fish (made from fondant or gum paste) jumping out of the water...BINGO! That is what I wanted to do. 

The "Big" One Fish Themed Cake

 If you haven't noticed my quotations around "big" in this post then I am pointing them out now because this indeed is a "big" birthday. I loved the play on word of "big" as it relates to fishing.

For dinner we went to Ivar's on the piers to even suit the fish themed birthday even more. Unbeknownst to him as it was a bit of a surprise cake. I love the look on his face in this picture! He is thinking of his birthday wish but is just so tickled with joy at the same time! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Succulents Don't Suck

If you are like me and obsessed with succulents then this blog post is for you! I have been dying to play around with some piped buttercream techniques to make them. I did some in depth research, by first visiting my local craft store to take some pictures of the fake ones to see the shape and the coloring. I then read up on some techniques online to make them and checked out what other people have been doing and the possibilities are just endless!

Succulent Garden Cake

 What's your favorite succulent? There are just so many fun ones to choose from. And of course I don't know all the "technical" names for them. On the cake I like the spiky one that looks like a zinnia (the minty green one on the right). I also liked making the ones that stick straight up and are also spiky.

Another fun thing I got to try on this cake is playing around with gold leaf. It is SUPER delicate and has a static cling reaction when you peel it off. I got it all over me the first time. Luckily that is why I bought extra haha. I think what I love most about having it on the side of the cake is that it almost looks like the succulents are growing on top of a rock. My husband was the one who actually pointed that out to me. And I think he is right especially since it is a "Semi-naked" cake. It does look very earthy.

 The technique to make them are relatively easy. I used the petal tip, leaf tip and star tip to make most of them. The lime green spiky ones I used a #5 round tip to make them stand up straight.

Succulent Cake 

I was debating about making themed for Mother's Day and still thinking they would be a fun option. However, I just got my hands on some Russian piping tips which I am super excited to try out. (I am hopefully going to get to that this weekend.) And if all goes well then I will have a tough decision to make.

Succulent Cupcakes

Another fun little baking project I got to do was succulents on cupcakes! How cute are these?! And yes I may have added a couple cute little cactus themed ones in there too because I like them. 

Succulent Buttercream Cupcakes

Various Succulent flower cupcakes

See the little minty guy above. He's my fave

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!

Calling All Superheroes!

 Is it just me or do little girls go through the "princess" phase and little boys go through the "superhero" phase? Either one is just adorable. I was always a tomboy and never really into the barbies and princesses. I was more obsessed with Mickey Mouse and Lion King - I liked animals.

So I get a call from a Super Mom looking for some treats for her Super Hero son's birthday. His favorite superheroes are Batman, Spiderman, Captain America and Superman - all great choices. (Batman and Iron are my favorites personally)

Superhero Cake

My first initial thought was how am I going to combine all of these superheroes onto one cake? I mocked up the idea and Super Mom loved it! The night of as I am assembling the cake I realized my mock up idea was not going to work how I thought it would. Mainly I wanted the top layer to be half Captain America on one side and half Spiderman on the other with the web going down the sides.

Superman Cake

I pondered this for a little bit trying to see if I could get it to come together. I researched some other options to help visual the cake on Pinterest and I really liked the Captain America stars and stripes on the side of the cake. Then I realize this would work perfectly if I then put Spiderman's web on the top. EUREKA!

Spiderman Cake

Side note: I LOVE how the Superman Logo on the cake turned out. To make this I simply printed out the logo on printer paper and used it has my guide to cute out my fondant. First with the yellow backdrop shield shape. I then cut around the inside of the logo and laid it on top of the red fondant and sandwiched the 2 together! I wanted to do this for the fondant cupcake toppers but it was too small of a detail to work. But the toppers still turned out cute.

Superhero Cupcakes

I have to admit I was totally singing Batman themed song the whole time I was making these (duh na na na na BATMAN) and "look its a bird! it's a plane! it's....SUPERMAN! Good times! Thanks for reading my blog!

Crazy 80's Themed Party Weekend

Neon, leg warmers, spandex, perms, that giant "cell phone" that can double as an assault weapon....all things that come to mind when I think of the 80s. Now I was "made in the 80s" so I grew up listening to the "classics" Madonna, INXS, Michael Jackson, Salt N Pepper the list goes on and on.

My husband and I have been doing the Crossfit Games this year, which have been really tough but also a lot of fun. Every week our gym designates a theme for people to dress up to and for the last day of the competition it was 80s. 

Coincidentally I also had a request for some 80s themed treats for a dessert dash! Too perfect! 

Who didn't have something 80s splatter themed in their wardrobe? I know I had a white jumper with rainbow color splatter on it. Pretty sure my mom took me to the beach in it to take some pictures. 

80s Splatter Cake Pops

This cake I am sure excited about because I attempted 3 new skills into one cake! Talk about nerve wrecking! First skill is an attempt at "watercolor." I watched several videos on youtube to see how people attempted this cake. I chose to go with just the schmeer of color and then smooth it all out. I really love how the colors blend together. The second skill was attempting to do a ganache drip over the top of the cake.

80s watercolor drip cake

The ganache is a white chocolate flavor. The key is to make sure your cake is really smooth and straight because small imperfections can show through. Also you want to make sure that the ganache has cooled down quite a bit, otherwise you are going to get a melted buttercream ganache mess for a cake - YIKES! Fortunately this did not have to me. I let the ganache cool and spooned it onto the cake, little by little, carefully making sure to not pour too much on, and then risking not seeing the beautiful sides of the cake.

80s Pacman themed cake

The last new skill was my attempt at cookies on a stick. The trick to these guys is inserting the stick right after the cookies come out of the oven. DO NOT BAKE THE STICKS! That could be a fire hazard. When you put the stick in the cookie, the cookie cools around the stick and adheres to it. After the cookie is completely cooled, make sure to use a spatula to pull it off the sheet and not the stick itself, it could break. After I frosted them, I stuck them into the cake as the topper and they look adorable. I think Pacman was the original nomnomnomnomnom meme! He was just way ahead of his time.

80s Smorgasbord Cake

The second cake I made is a S'mores flavored cake and a "smorgasbord" crazy 80s design. This cake had a lot of steps just to prep for the cake toppings. I used wilton melting chocolate to make the little gemstones and stars on a stick with a melting cavity I got at Michael's. The Pacman sugar cookie on a stick which I explained above, I baked 2 little mini cupcakes from the vanilla batch I did on the other cake, and then I went to Lady Yum and got 2 french macarons to stick on the top because no one makes macs better than her! The flavors are unicorn and fruit pebbles.

80s Smorgasbord S'mores Flavored Cake

Another first for me on this cake was the vertical ruffle buttercream style. I use the 104 tip and pipe it back and forth up the cake, alternating colors for a fun texture, it reminds me of ribbon. I themed used toothpicks to stick the cupcakes into the cake. (PS: I love how it looks like Pacman is eating the cupcake from this camera angle hehe)

The top of the cake 

I forgot! I also snuck a couple yogurt covered pretzels on the cake which I did a little 80s splatter onto as well. I started to assemble the cake toppers and the top just looked boring, so I melted some more chocolate and splattered the top of it with fun neon colors and I think it really made this cake look like it came straight out of an 80s party!

80s Themed Birthday Cookies

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! - See I told you it was a crazy 80s throwback weekend for me. So as I mentioned, my gym was having an 80s themed party. I ordered some fun splatter leggings from amazon they were amazing - a little sheer hence the neon shorts over but still effective. I also have these sunglasses/glasses that I got at Claire's back in the day for an LMFAO concert and lighting bolt earrings, so those really made the outfit. 

me and the hubby 

80s wigs coming out in full force 

OK back to the cookies! As a congratulations to the members of the open, I made some Gluten Free sugar cookies for everyone! It was also the owner's birthday so I had to make some special birthday cookies for him too! In the end I am so glad that I did the crossfit open, even though I only got back into Crossfit on a regular basis since August and was terrified of the open. But it turns out I really surprised myself and I can't wait to do it next year!

80s Themed Cookies

80s Themed Cookies

Roaring 20s' Party

Pop the bubbly and dance on the tables! Never was a time so glamourous in American history than they 1920s. I think if I could go back in time and visit any era it would be the 20s. So much change during this time.

1920s Flapper Cake

When I was asked to make a roaring 20s themed cake I was very excited. I looked all over pinterest and saw some really fun and intricate designs. I've always wanted to try to paint on fondant. So I used edible glitter and a little vodka to paint the stripes up the cake. Reminds me of a flapper girl dress with the glitter and sequins. I kept the top of the cake simple and made a flapper headband using a feather and some ribbon from the craft store.

Roaring 20s Themed Cake

Next I added a strand of pearls and draped it over the cake, again thinking of a flapper girl and all the beaded necklaces they would wear. So glam. This little lady is all dressed up and ready to head to the speakeasies for a good time!

Champagne Themed Cookies

Nothing says a roaring 20s party without champagne. These were for a roaring 22's birthday party,

1920's themed cake pops

I had some extra ribbon leftover so I tied them around the tops of the cake pops to add a little flare. I think they turned out pretty dang cute!