Fabulous Blog with a Great Giveaway!

So, I found an amazing blog! The Tomkat Studio is such an inspiring blog. I have really been enjoying all of the darling ideas. Not only does Tomkat Studio have incredible ideas for parties but she also has an amazing giveaway! She is giving away fabulous stationary from Icing Designs.

Icing Designs has the cutest cake themed stationary! I love the one with the Eiffel Tower! Oh, and the one with the chandelier is just too cute for words! I would love to win some of this darling stationary! Hm, if I don't win I may just have to make a purchase!

Check out her wonderful site and the great Etsy shop of Icing Designs!

Bows

The suspense, the excitement, the happiness that comes when you see a bow! It is always on top of a surprise! Maybe that is why I love to put bows on cakes...on top of a sweet surprise!

I really enjoy making bows for cakes. As much as I love bows, I am never completely satisfied with the way mine turn out. I would really love to find a great tutorial on making fondant bows. Let me know if you find one!

One of my faves!

This cake was made for a friends baby shower. I absolutely loved the way it turned out! I loved the bow on top, the dots, and the painting on the bottom layer! This is the first time that I had tried painting on a cake and was pretty pleased with the attempt.

Now, before you think that I am clever or anything like that, let me point you to the inspiration for this cake! One of my favorite sites is Pink Cake Box. Her toile cake was so fabulous, but of course everything she does is amazing! When I saw her cake I couldn't wait for a excuse to try it!

To paint the bottom layer I mixed gel coloring with a little water. I have read that vodka works really well but since I didn't have any in the house I just went with water. Now, I don't have an art background so I didn't try to put any people in my toile pattern but I love the way the trees turned out!

What was inside you ask? The most amazing white chocolate lemon cake filled with lemon curd and a white chocolate cream cheese frosting. So very yummy! This recipe is one my favorites. The top was a yellow cake with buttercream frosting and raspberry filling.

Oh, the expectant mother was given a pink toile diaper bag at the shower! Too cute!

I could get used to stencils!

I ordered two stencils from Culinary Stencils! I was so excited to get them! I decided to use one on the Christmas cake special that I offered my customers. The cake itself was red velvet with cream cheese filling and covered with marshmallow fondant.

The stencils were a little trickier to use than I thought they would be, however the results were pretty amazing! Royal icing is used to spread over the stencil once you have it placed on the cake. Then, using a bench scraper, the excess royal icing is taken off. After that, the stencil is lifted off very carefully. Overall, I really liked the results. I am pretty sure that I will order from Culinary Stencils again. I think after more practice it will become a very useful and beautiful way to decorate cakes!

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!