Christmas!!

Chris and I were asked to bring food to Christmas dinner. We decided on an appetizer and desert. So Christmas morning I baked biscuits for breakfast "biscuits and gravy," two loaves of bread for bruscetta (our appetizer) and two batches of cupcakes. Needless to say.. I shouldn't have to bake for a while!

So I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and again my butter-cream frosting. I striped the bag with red food coloring before I put the frosting in to make it swirled like a candy cane. 

Inside each cupcake I put a candy cane flavored Hershey Kiss in each cupcake. I didn't flavor the frosting but I could have with peppermint extract. 

I thought maybe that the Hershey Kiss would have melted but as you can see... still intact!

Happy Birthday Vivian!

 Our friends, Charisce and David, asked me to make a cake for their daughter Vivian. Miss Vivian loves Sponge Bob Square Pants. And she wanted a crabby patty cake


I baked two full cakes. the top bun was baked in a Pyrex bowl and the middle and bottom buns were 8" round cakes. Coloring the frosting was very difficult. I had a hard time coming up with right color for the meat. The bun was easy and I used marshmallow bits to make the seeds. Green and orange frosting was the lettuce and cheese.

Vivian was a very happy 5 year old. 

The cake was a success! 

Halloween Party for Us

My sister and brother-in-law threw a Halloween party this year. We were required to dress up. Joanna was a clown, Patrick was Bob-the-Builder, Christopher was a phone sex operator. Katie and John had just gotten back from their honeymoon so they were.. you guessed it... Honeymooners!! Mischa and Jacob were dead.. and Michael was part of the Mexican mafia.

What is better for a Halloween treat than cake pops?

I don't bake the cake in balls! Instead I make a cake and a very small batch of frosting. About 20 minutes after I have taken the cake out of the oven, I crumble it in the frosting and remix it with the beaters until the cake looks completely wet. I then roll it into balls and let it cool. While they are cooling, you have to melt chocolate and then dip your cake pop into the chocolate and sprinkles or toppings and let harden.

There are so many ways to display cake balls.. this time I just used my cake carrier. Over all it didn't matter! There were only two left at then end!

A New Baby

I love to bake. I love watching someone's expression and hearing the "yum" from them when they take the first bite. I make homemade butter-cream frosting which is milky and sweet but not too sweet!

This baking experience was for a work baby shower. One of my colleagues (actually his wife) had a baby girl and we threw him a surprise baby shower. How flipping cute are baby things!?!

 So for this cake.. I had to incorporate baby blocks.. and a pink baby buggy! We didn't know baby's name yet. All we knew was that it was a girl! What says baby better than blocks and a buggy.

I first frosted the cake with regular butter-cream and then with a toothpick, scratched the outline of the blocks and the letters. I wasn't sure how I was going to do the buggy so I didn't draw those.  With a star tip,I first frosted the blocks and then went back with a regular tip and did the letters.     

                                     

 I also created the buggy with a star tip in pink colored frosting (yellow and green too). Wilton has a great stencil for baby buggy's. I had made cookies with the same stencil and royal icing for my sister-in-law when my niece, Lucy was born. 

 This cake needed to be finished off with yellow shell border and more pink designs. So fun! 

Happy Jewish New Year 2011

 L'Shana Tova means Happy New Year. We say this for Rosh Hashana. This year, the torch has been passed by my mother for me to make the challah. This is her recipe and it is delicious. I am not partial or anything. LOL..  

                                                   

Normally, you will see a challah that is a braided loaf but for Rosh Hashanah we wrap it upon it self and twist the dough before it is cooked. This year, I used honey and an egg wash to finish the bread and it gives me a bit of sweet. 

Each batch of dough can make two loaves. I have in the past made  more than  two loaves out of one batch of dough. 

I also made an apple and pomegranate crisp. I had to double the recipe because there are so many in my family. I have 4 sisters, plus their husbands and kids and my parents, and friends.. I think there were 20 of us total to dinner. 

Anyhow, I chose pomegranates because of the Jewish symbolism. There are 613 seeds in each  pomegranate and there are 613 commandments.

Apples are, of course, in season this time of year. I decided to choose both sweet and tart apples to compliment the  taste of the pomegranate. 

 

Seeding the pomegranate isn't easy. You have to first cut it open and then, under water, break it open to pull the seeds away from the flesh. Only the seeds of a pomegranate are edible. The flesh will float to the top and the seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl of water. 

The crunch of the coating was perfect. 

                                                          

It was easy to scoop out and was delicious. The sweetness of the apple and the pomegranate were perfectly complimentary.  

This was delicious. The crust was homemade!
Flour, Sugar.. and oats....
Glued together with butter.  

                                    

For Mature Eyes Only.. Katie's Bachelorette Pary

 I got asked to make "inappropriate" cupcakes for Katie's Bachelorette Party. I decided to make vanilla cupcakes and fill them with Peanut M & M's. Now some had nuts..

The peanut M&M's sunk to the bottom. 

A muffin size cupcake for the huge Penis sucker. I made vanilla
cupcakes with homemade butter cream frosting. 

Giant cupcake for a GIANT PENIS.. sucker that is.. 

Juicy Lucy turns 1..

 Jack O'Brien has a little sister. When he started talking, he couldn't say Lucy..instead, he called her Juicy. It has stuck and her new nickname is Juicy. I didn't make her first birthday cake so there are no pictures of it here. I did want to show all the fun we had that day.                

          

Lucy's first baby. It was unwrapped and instantly
she hugged it and made nice.

These are Jack's toes. I am not sure pink is his color

Lucy trying to walk in her first pair of high heals. 

When she was born, one of her aunts bought
her first pair of high heals.

Daddy and Jack watching Lucy open her presents. 

Uncle Chris and Dad .. just lovely