SPECIAL!!

It's creeping on up toward Fall, which just puts me in a good mood. :-) So I felt like offering a little something to maybe put y'all in a good mood, too.

Starting Friday, August 13th and running through December 31st (2010), with the purchase of any special occasion cake (and this is any day that's an occasion to you. :-) Birthdays, Anniversaries, Baby or Wedding Showers, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or 'just because'), you get your choice of either: ONE DOZEN big cupcakes or jumbo cookies...decorated to match the theme of your cake, and in the flavor of your choice..for FREE!

These aren't your supermarket cupcakes/cookies. They're made with the same care and quality, fresh ingredients that your cake is made with, and in just about any flavor combination you can think up.

This offer is a 24 dollar value, so make sure to get your order in. Don't miss out!

This is a great idea for a special Fall dinner party...think moist cinnamon carrot cake loaded with pecans or walnuts and frosted generously with fresh, buttery cream cheese frosting, with just a hint of orange...paired with a dozen delicious matching cupcakes or melt in your mouth frosted cookies of your choice?

Or a Family Christmas gathering, with a traditional, classy red velvet cake...decorated with frosted cranberries and white chocolate holly leaves, surrounded by sweet red velvet cupcakes or my unique, scrumptious red velvet cookies...makes a gorgeous centerpiece for your dessert table. :-)

24 hour (or more) advance notice is appreciated, but if you're in a bind I can usually work with you.

I deliver to many areas in Utah for a small delivery fee, so just ask. :-)

Cocoa Puffs are evil.

They really are. Evil little puffs of chocolatey goodness. They lure you in with their seemingly harmless cuteness...and before you know it, you are stuffed, bloated, unable to breathe normally, and just plain uncomfortable.

Bad, BAD cocoa puffs. They must swell up or something once they get in your stomach. I'm seriously uncomfortable here. Whoa...

Don't ask why I'm posting this. It's almost 3 a.m., I'm tired and delirious, don't know why I'm awake, and I decided to have a bowl of cocoa puffs. Now I'm suffering the consequences. I really hope I don't dream about that stupid 'Cucoo for cocoa puffs' bird. That would just be the straw, you know? The one that broke the camel's back and all.

By the way, it was a big bowl. A big, stupid, full bowl. You'd think I would learn a lesson from this. But I won't. This isn't the first time I've witnessed the evil side of cocoa puffs. And I'm sure it won't be the last. I'm hard headed like that. By morning, I'll have forgotten all about the incident, and I'll stumble to the pantry, half asleep, reaching without even thinking for that sinister box of pain puffs.

I've got to go sleep.....

Spaced Out

No, this is not a description of me. Well, maybe. A little. Sometimes.
Anyway...I'm finally posting some pictures of the finished outer space birthday cake I made for my son.

I will say that it didn't turn out exactly as I had planned. The yellow stars on the black cake are not at all what I imagined. But, I was really tired, and I knew my son wouldn't care a whole lot about the stars. ;-)

So, here it is...the making and completion of the space cake.



Rice Krispy planets, covered in marshmallow fondant. Okay, so they don't look a whole lot like any planets *I* recognize. It's okay. I just made up some new ones. ;)













Swirly cake batter...pre-baked and post-baked.







Fondant stars that I had to free hand, dangit, because my sweet little 3 year old lost my star cutter.











Bottom layer was supposed to look something like the sun. ;-)








And finally...the finished cake.









My sweet birthday boy, blowing out his candles...








And wow...it was for sure a colorful cake. If I ever do another one, I won't go quite so crazy with the drizzling colors. It's a little messy. :-)


All in all, this was a fun cake to make. It's fun to just get creative and colorful with something and not really have any restrictions. It was cool having two different flavors of cake as well. I'm a certified chocoholic, but I have to say that the french vanilla butter cake with that vanilla maple buttercream frosting was my favorite. Sooo good. That was the first time I'd ever thought to make my vanilla buttercream with the addition of maple extract. You have to go careful, so you don't overwhelm it. You just want a subtle taste of maple. Yum! :-)

Chocolate Love...

So my friend Angie was sweet enough to feature me on her blog and say a lot of nice things about me and my cakes. And she's also been having kind of a crappy week. So I wanted to thank her, cheer her up, and give her a little comfort. So I made her this cake.
I call it 'Chocolate Decadence', because that's exactly what it is. Not your everyday, "oh, I think I'll whip up a cake" cake. This is reserved for special occasions. And for a serious chocolate fix.
I decided to take pictures as I put the cake together, so you could get an idea of what all is going on in there. ;-)

This is a chocolate fudge cake, made with buttermilk, extra vanilla, and chocolate chips.

On this first layer, I've spread on some thick chocolate ganache. (Bring heavy cream just to a boil, and pour over chopped chocolate. Stir til silky and melted, add some pure vanilla, and you've got a bowl full of sin right there.)

I covered the *bottom* of the second layer with chocolate buttercream. I gave the ganache layer a little time to firm up and then sandwiched the two together.


I then frosted the whole cake with chocolate buttercream, put dollops of frosting on the top of the cake, garnished with Lindt chocolate hazelnut truffles, and using a sandwich baggy with the end snipped off, I drizzled ganache over the whole thing.



I think I gained several pounds making this thing. It feels like it seeped through my pores. I swear, I feel heavier just thinking about it.

Space...the Final Frontier

Okay...I'm about to get started on baking the Space Cake. I'm a little excited about it. :-) I plan to take pictures and post of some of the steps I take making this cake. So it'll probably be, umm..interesting? Might be disastrous. We'll have to see.

I'll be making a batch of vanilla marshmallow fondant to cover my rice krispy planets. You know how I feel about fondant. But the homemade (and tweaked a little by me) is the lesser of the evils. ;-) It actually tastes pretty good, I'm just not a fan of chewing frosting. It's just weird.
But it should be okay for the rice krispy things.

I've decided on a dense vanilla butter cake tinted to be rainbow/tie-dyed for the bottom tier, (figured it would be a fun little surprise when it's cut) frosted with vanilla maple buttercream, and chocolate decadence for the top (6 inch) tier, frosted with dark chocolate buttercream. (And I'm thinking that I'm gonna be good and not eat any of this. Ha.)

Alright...time to get covered in powdered sugar. ;-)

Birthday Time!

Time to get to planning and baking my son's 11 year birthday cake. I think I've decided on an outer space theme. The idea is a really cool one in my head, I'm just hoping I succeed in the doing of it. :-)

I'm looking forward to it, I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. I can't wait to post pictures of the finished product.


Space themed cakes are awesome...there are so many elements and colors to work with. A cake decorator's dream. ;) While I was thinking about what kind of cake I wnted to make him, I also tossed around the idea of dragons (also VERY cool), Poke'mon (blah), Lord of the Rings (yay!), and several others. But the space theme just seemed like it'd be more fun.

One day I'll attempt a 3-D dragon cake, but only when I've got the time and money to do a lot of experimenting. :-) I've seen some pretty amazing ones, especially one done for a Dungeons & Dragons party by Mike's Amazing Cakes. Unbelievable. Wow. You should check that out if you get a chance. It's easy to find...there are pictures of it all over the internet.

Anyway...hope all have a great weekend!

Ahh...Summer

I have mixed feelings about summer. I love it because the kids are out of school (although that feeling ends after a few days of having them all home), and because we can be a lot more flexible. I love all the in season produce...fresh berries being among my favorites. I like that the days are longer. I love the beachy smells...tan lotion, salty air...unfortunately we live nowhere near a beach. ;-) I love taking my kids swimming and watching all the fun they have.
But I hate...and I do mean *hate* the heat that comes along with it. Sweat and I are not friends. When temperatures outside exceed 80º, I start to panic. And when my stupid air isn't working right, and temps on the INSIDE reach 70º...I start to freak.
(I tend to ramble, so just bear with me)
Summer is a yummy time for cakes...think fresh peaches & cream cake, summery lemon cake with fresh raspberries, orange cake with creamy orange frosting...Mmmm...this time of year, cakes should preferrably be kept on the lighter side. Nothing too terribly heavy or rich. (Even though when you're me, heavy and rich is an all year good thing.)


It's also a good season for pies. Time to trade in those wonderful spicy pumpkin and sweet potato pies (my favorites) for fresh blackberry cobbler with vanilla bean ice cream, strawberry pie, and delicious and summery raspberry cream pie.
Fresh Blueberry pie topped with a dollop of freshly whipped cream is one of the best in my opinion, and perfect for Memorial Day cookouts.

My idea of a perfect summer day cookout:

Marinated Grilled BBQ Chicken Breasts
BBQ Sausage
Homemade Potato Salad
Tangy Bacon Baked Beans
Crisp/Tender Sauteed Asparagus
Italian Pasta Salad
Fresh Fruit Salad, tossed w/lime juice, a little sugar, and some ginger
And last, but not least...
A big ol' Fresh Blueberry Pie.

This is definitely going to be my menu for the holiday. I'll post the Blueberry Pie recipe, and if you'd like any of the others, just comment and I'll post it for you. :-)

Happy Hot, Humid, Sticky Summer!!




Fresh Blueberry Pie
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I like to make my own crust, but for convenience the Pillsbury crusts that you unfold are great. You need one pkg. (2 crusts)

Filling:

2/3 cup to 1 cup sugar, depending on your taste

1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

4 cups (or more if you like) fresh blueberries

2 tablespoons butter (real butter is always best)

Press one crust into a 9 inch pie plate. Crimp edges. Do not bake. Preheat oven to 375º.

Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the blueberries in a large bowl. Toss lightly to coat well. Spoon into unbaked pie crust. Dot with butter. Moisten edges of pastry with water.

Cover pie with top crust, cut slits in top to allow steam to escape. (You can be creative and adventurous and try a lattice crust, but it's a pain.)

Beat an egg with 1 Tablespoon of water and lightly brush over the top crust. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, til filling in center is bubbly and crust is golden brown. You might need to cover the edges of the pie crust with foil to prevent overbrowning.

Cool til barely warm or room temp before serving.

♥♥ENJOY!♥♥