Bella's Birthday!

A little over a year ago I made a cake for a baby shower! Yesterday I made the birthday cake for that baby's first birthday! Bella's mom wanted a pink and green cake so I went with something simple and very little girlie. I love the way the number one one top of the cake turned out and how festive and fun the curly ribbons look! I made the ribbons by cutting thin strips of fondant and then wrapping them around dowel rods. I let them dry overnight and then slid them off! Very fun and so simple!

Oh, by the way, the cake flavors were a yellow pound cake on top and a very delicious chocolate chip cake on the bottom. Both had a vanilla buttercream filling!

I hope the Bella and her family have a wonderful day of celebrating!

Cookie, cookies and more cookies!

This week I had the privilege of making cookies for a local crisis pregnancy center! I took on the project with such optimism but I think that I was in a little over my head! Two hundred cookies take a lot of time to make, cut out, bake, decorate and bag. There was very little sleep during the week! I think they turned out really cute, though. I ordered my onesie cookie cutter from fancyflours. I was really impressed with their shipping time and packaging. Silly I know, but it's the little things that impress me!

Shortbread Cookies:

2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt

1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (60 grams) powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar

1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract

The shortbread recipe came from joyofbaking. I outlined them with royal icing and filled them with a vanilla glaze. I was so excited about the red heart! I found them in the bottle of Wilton Jumbo Heart Sprinkles. The bottle has red, white and pink. They were the perfect size and saved me so much time since I had planned on piping them on. Can you imagine?!?

I bagged each one and tied it with a red ribbon. My wonderful husband helped me bag them otherwise I think I might still be working on them!

My hat's off to all of you who make those wonderfully decorated cookies! You deserve every penny that you charge for them! In spite of everything, I am very grateful for the opportunity to try something new and to help such a worthwhile organization!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving I offered a cake special! It was a buttermilk spice cake filled with cream cheese frosting and covered with homemade marshmallow fondant. I decorated it with fondant leaves, vines and berries. It was so much fun to make! I had several orders from old and new customers.

I think I will try another special at Christmas! I'm thinking red velvet and cream cheese! Yum! I would love to try a cake stencil on this one. Have you checked out culinary stencils? I first saw them used by mysweetandsaucy, who by the way, is amazing!

Hope you took time to simply celebrate your blessings this Thanksgiving!