Pina Colada Cookies!

By: Christine

I have always loved coconut and pineapple. I love the scent of these two fruits and, more importantly, the taste. I also enjoy these two flavors when they combine! I must have been in a tropical/Caribbean mood when I decided to baked these cookies because they tasted exactly like a refreshing Pina Colada!

This recipe was an experiment so I started with a basic sugar cookie dough and added: crushed pineapple, coconut flakes & rum extract.

I created a glaze for these cookies that consisted of: pineapple juice, rum extract & powdered sugar.

After the cookies cooled, I drizzled the glaze on top and added some coconut flakes to complete the cookie!

Rehearsal Dinner Cake & Cupcakes!

By: Christine

After receiving some great feedback on the bachelor party cake that I had made in July for my friend Julie, she asked if I would be able make a cake for the wedding rehearsal dinner for her and her fiancé. I was very excited and honored to be asked to make a cake for such an important event.

 After getting an idea of what Julie wanted for the shape, flavor, color & size of the cake, we both agreed that a small cake and a bunch of mini cupcakes would work best. She had asked for some of the cupcakes to be chocolate and some to be vanilla. The cake was going to be a bit of both too, with one layer of chocolate and one of vanilla.

The color/decorating idea for this cake was to create a cake that resembled a Tiffany gift box complete with beautiful white ribbon and a bow!

After baking the cupcakes, I decided that the plain white baking liners didn't seem elegant enough so I created mini cupcake wrappers with lace doilies.  I piped the Tiffany blue frosting on top of the cupcakes in with a star tip creating a swirl on top!

I covered the 2 layer cake in Tiffany blue colored frosting and piped in small round white beading along the bottom of the cake. I attached strips of white gum paste to create the ribbon and painted the gum paste with edible pearl dust to create a more realistic looking ribbon! I attached the bow that was also formed with gum paste to finalize the Tiffany box cake!

I placed the cake on a glass pedestal so that it would sit above the cupcakes and allow the couple to cut the cake without the cupcakes being in the way.

I delivered this cake to the location of the rehearsal dinner. As soon as I got the the restaurant, I arranged the cupcakes on the platter.

With the cake on the glass pedestal, I placed it in the center of the platter.

Congratulations to Julie & Pasquale, who were married on August 21, 2010!

Lovely Lemon Treats

By Christine

Lemons are a delicious and versatile fruit that can create many wonderful treats!

I wanted to make cupcakes for a small get together and instead of making chocolate or vanilla I wanted to try something different. I chose to make lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting. The flavor of these cupcakes & frosting was incredible. I used the fresh lemons (juiced & zested) which added a delicious flavor. I also added a bit of yellow coloring into the frosting bag to create the two toned swirl of frosting on top.

The Pioneer Woman posted this recipe for Creamy Lemon Crumb Squares and, since I have a small obsession with using my mini muffin tins, I decided to make cream lemon crumb circles! These little lemon bites were wonderful; creamy inside and crunchy from the crust and the topping. 

Lemons can create many different tasty desserts, these are just two examples, and I will be experimenting, in the future, with more lemon-y goodies!

Christening Cake!

We were asked, by Jill's sister-in-law, to make a Christening cake for her son. She wanted a two layer, 1/4 sheet cake, marble cake with buttercream frosting. We used our favorite yellow cake and chocolate cake recipes and marbled them together.

We covered the cake in vanilla buttercream frosting that we tinted a light blue color.

We piped on small swirled flowers, in white, to created a beautiful border and added small blue edible pearls into the middle of the swirl flowers.

These blue pearls we also used as an outline of the cross on this cake.

We made a dozen flowers out of gum paste arranged them around the corners of the cake.

This was a fun cake to make since we were able to work on it together. We also used many of the techniques we learned in our cake decorating classes by trying out a new type of border and making gum paste flowers!

Bachelor Party!

By Christine

Theme cakes are a great way display someone’s likes and interests and give them a personalized cake full of all of the things they love!

I was asked, by my friend Julie, to make a cake for her fiancé’s bachelor party. We talked about whether or not she wanted a theme for this cake and after going back and forth on a few ideas, we came up with one idea that combined two of her fiancé’s favorite activities: golf with a little bit of hunting mixed in!

There were going to be around 20 people at this party so I decided that a two layer half sheet cake would be a perfect size. I used The Pioneer Woman’s “The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever” recipe & Wilton’s Buttercream Frosting recipe for this cake.

I frosted the entire cake in a grass green color.

I dug out three areas on the cake to create the sand traps & pond for the golf course. I crushed up a few graham crackers to create the sand traps & I tinted buttercream frosting blue to make the pond water. After shaping the “green,” I added some grass, using a darker colored green frosting and a grass tip, to create the “rough.”

I added some plastic trees & a deer (for the hunting portion of the theme.) I also added some bubble gum rock candy around the pond.

I also added a golf hole with black frosting. I used a toothpick to make the flag pole and a white taffy candy to create the flag. I also used the taffy to create the golf balls that were scattered around.

This cake was my first theme cake and it was very fun to make! It was also enjoyed by all of the guests at the bachelor party!