Baby Shower! (Whale Theme)...

 As much as I love the baking and decorating aspect of this job...

Another thing I adore about this job is...

Getting to be a part of people's celebration.

Even if I'm not physically there...I enjoy that I get to contribute to their celebration.

Be it birthdays, reunions, holidays, wedding, or babies!

It's a wonderful feeling knowing that I can help people celebrate!

 Sometimes I know the customer...sometimes they are a referral from a friend or family member and I only know "of" them...regardless...helping them celebrate is a blessing to me!

With this order, we are celebrating a new life!

A precious baby boy will be joining a family soon!

 As I've mentioned before, I love when I'm pretty much given free reign to create what I want.  I asked for a napkin or invitation so that I'd have something to go by...

And...

IS THIS EVER CUTE OR WHAT?!?

 What a fun theme for a baby shower!

Whales!

Sometimes we see the "same 'ol, same 'ol" on Pinterest party ideas.

But I had never seen a whale theme.

A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!

 I had so much fun designing/planning these cookies!

They are actually a "cookies on a cookie".

I had a whale cookie cutter, but I didn't like the shape...plus it didn't match the one on the napkin well.  So I got a little creative.  I grabbed one of my tools...did a little bending and crimping...and...VOILA!  He turned out just like the little whale on the napkin!

I decided just a plain whale would be a little...meh...

So I wanted to really tackle the design on the napkin.

I used an oblong plaque cutter, added the whale shape on top, then piped a border and mini whale silhouettes around the edge.

How fun is that!

 Cake pops are on the menu too!

I don't do the traditional "cake/frosting" mixture...I find it overly sweet/rich.

I simply offer a cake "truffle".

A bite-sized morsel of moist cake dipped in either white or milk chocolate.

This cake pop is a "confetti cake" dipped in white chocolate and I added some blue and green sanding sugar to match the color scheme.

 Sometimes...

When I have a smaller order, I like to do a little something extra special.

I add extra ribbon and fun little tags to the cake pops.

I don't normally do this with larger orders...as you can imagine...it's quite time consuming.

But this was a smaller order, so I had a little fun with it.

Sweet Ivy would like to say CONGRATULATIONS to the mommy-to-be!

Good luck and God bless your sweet new bundle of joy!

Happy 1st Birthday! (Mickey Mouse)

 When my friend asked me to make cookies for her grandson's first birthday, I was so honored!

I love to help people celebrate!

 It was a really fun theme...one that I'd never done.

My friend's grandson is a cutie-pie!

 She shared pictures of the party with me and it looks like he enjoyed his cookies!

 I sure did have fun making them for him!

 Happy birthday Owen!

♪♪♪What Does The Fox Say?♪♪♪

 I made these cookies for one of my best friend's daughter's birthday recently.

I'm sure you are acquainted with, what most people consider, the most "annoying" or "catchy" YouTube video/song of the year.  People either love it or hate it.  But either way, once you hear it...it gets stuck in your head.

 I had fun doing this set.

 I love when people give my creativity free reign.

I was given the theme, but allowed to just run with it!

Now that you've read this blog post and seen these cookies...what are the chances you have this song running through your head?  Probably a good 99%, haha!

"Dog goes woof, cat goes meow..."

♪♪♪

"What does the fox say..."

Happy birthday Jenni!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cake...

I did this cake for the 5th birthday of a little guy last week.

My son's are teenagers now, so it's been a long time since I've been around TMNTs.

I had to do some research and ask a lot of questions regarding colors, names, weapons of each turtle, LOL!  But it was a really fun cake to do.  

I created a frozen buttercream transfer for the turtle.  I don't know why, but FBT always scare me.  Maybe it stems from the first time I ever attempted one.  Years ago, I decided to try my first FBT.  I was making my husband's birthday cake and because he is a Detroit Lions fan, I decided to create a FBT of the logo for his cake.  Well, it LOOKED awesome...ON THE WAX PAPER.  However, when I went to peel it OFF the wax paper and place it on the cake, it became a crumbled mess.  After speaking with a friend and fellow baker, she explained that I made it way too thin.  That was the problem.  I have since learned just how thick they have to be (VERY).  Ever since I started creating them thicker (and adding a layer of plain icing over the back), I have had nothing but success with them!  Yay!  The reveal is always so much fun (and a little nerve-wracking).  But when you see your image come off that wax paper and come alive...it's such a neat feeling!

I did this cake in french vanilla cake and a classic butterceam icing.

I enjoy doing sheet cakes.  I know sculpted cakes and huge tiered cakes are all the rage right now.  But when I'm "eating" cake, there's nothing better than a great moist sheet cake with some good 'ol fashion homemade buttercream.  

Yum-O!
Happy birthday Corbin!

I hope you enjoyed your cake!

"Cute As A Button"...A First Birthday Party...

 Could there be anything more cute than "Cute As A Button" for a first birthday party?

I think not.

 I was asked to do these button cookies for the button themed party for little Ellie's birthday.

I couldn't resist including a surprise birthday cupcake cookie for the birthday girl!

 I love this color scheme.

I was given a sample invitation to go on and I think this color palette is absolutely adorable for a little one's birthday party!

 You know that I just "have" to pick at least one thing on all of my creations that bother me...

And with this one, I was disappointed that all of the cookies didn't turn out perfectly round and that all of the button holes weren't uniform.

Until...

 A friend told me, "I think their lack of uniformity is what makes them look whimsical and cute! I thought you did that on purpose!"

 Ok...now I feel better, haha!

Yes, I have to agree with her.

It DOES make them look rather whimsical and cute not being perfectly uniform!

 I love doing themes like these.

When someone gives a request for "character" cookies...there is such pressure to make the character look EXACTLY a certain way.  When given a theme like this, it gives me more freedom to be creative!

I had a blast doing this project and think they turned out really cute.

It was a pleasure to work with my customer Cindy.

Happy birthday little Ellie!



A "Toy Story/Buzz Lightyear" Birthday Theme...

I was super excited when one of my daycare clients asked me to do the desserts for her daughter's birthday party.  However, a little apprehensive when I found out it was "character" cookies and cake.  It's not that I dislike character cakes/cookies...I really love them and they're a lot of fun.  However...there is a lot of pressure to make the end result look identical to the character.  People have expectations as to what the character should look like...as do I.  This means that I am VERY critical of my work.  I am constantly critiquing my work.  It's a tough balance.  But I have to say, in the end, for an amateur...I was happy with the results of this cake and cookies.

 

 This was a chocolate cake with homemade classic buttercream icing.

 

 I made a frozen buttercream transfer for Buzz.  I have to admit, I was terrified.  I have only done 3 or 4 FBTs since I started cake decorating.  The first was a total flop (if you remember the Detroit Lions story).  But I have since learned the tricks of the trade thanks to several of my baking buddies and the last several I've done have turned out great!  As I peeled the wax paper off of Buzz, my heart was pounding...my stomach was in knots...but alas...SUCCESS!

 This was the transfer I piped before freezing it.

Next came the cookies!  I am never satisfied with my character cookies.

And although I got loads of compliments on them when I posted the pictures on Facebook, I still am my own worst critic.

Jessie gave me the most trouble.  Her mouth was very difficult to master for me.

And then of course, my husband had to point out, that I gave her blue eyes instead of green!  Oh my gosh...how in the world did I screw that one up!?!

Hopefully no one else noticed...except that I just told everyone on the world wide web now, LOL!

Hopefully the birthday girl enjoyed her treats.
I had a blast making them.
Happy birthday Addison!

Ninja Bread Men

 

This was a fun batch of cookies.

I did these for my nephew's birthday.

He loves Ninjago (did I spell that right?)...

So I decided to haul out the Ninja Bread cookie cutters that I won in a giveaway and had never used yet!

I won these cutters about a year ago or so and I can't believe I hadn't used them yet!

They were so much fun!

I looked up Chinese characters on Google to find some words I wanted to pipe on the cookies.

I hope I got them right!

The red circle cookie on the left is the number "9".

The white circle cookie in the center says, "Happy Birthday".

And the red circle cookie on the right says, "Logan".

...or at least I "HOPE" that's what they say, LOL!

Hope you enjoyed these Logan!

Lego Love....

At my son's school, if you have a birthday in the summer months, you get to celebrate your "half birthday"...which is six months to the day from your actual birthday.

And so, February 25 is his "half birthday" (August 25 is his actual birthday).

As (un)luck would have it...even his "half birthday" fell on a SATURDAY...of all days!

Still no school!  LOL!

So, he celebrated his half birthday on the Monday following.

He saw the amazing SugarBelle's Lego cookies and immediately knew what he wanted dear old mom to make for his class.

And so you have it...

Lego cookies!

As I've probably mentioned before, my youngest son is not a fan of sugar cookies, so I used the wonderful SugarBaker's Chocolate Chip Cut-Out Cookie recipe.

I had a "triple" rectangle Wilton cookie cutter (it cuts three rectangles at once) so it was perfect for Lego bricks! 
I also used it to make the square ones too, simply by cutting some of the rectangles in half.

The heads, however...I was not so lucky.

Those were all hand cut.

Not my favorite chore...especially with chocolate chips in the mix...but as all we moms know...we do anything for our babies!

Am I right?

Teehee!

So I printed out the template from SugarBelle.

In order to make it sturdier, I traced it onto a margarine tub lid and then cut it out from there.

The plastic made it much more sturdy to cut around when working with the dough.

Alas...

Lego Love.

First Go At Camo Cookies...

If you are not familiar with Wonderland Cookie Company...

FAMILIARIZE yourself with them!

She makes beautiful cookies.

You can find her page HERE.

Wonderland Cookie Company is where I first saw camo cookies.

It's ok...you can laugh.

I know.

Mine look like little turtles...hahaha!

The ones I saw were done in heart shapes.

Simply beautiful and adorable.

But hey...I tried.

At least I can laugh at myself and my silly little turles, LOL!