Happy Birthday Dad!

My dad's birthday was on June 3rd. We didn't do anything special on his birthday because it was on a Monday but I did make him brownies to celebrate the day.

I cut the brownies warm and they didn't cut easily. If you are preparing for a party or an event, cut your brownies when cool. They will cut so much easier and look more presentable.

Happy Birthday Ben!

May 31st was my brother-in-law's 29th birthday. I made him a cake that resembles an Oreo cookie. The first picture below is the cake when it first came out of the oven. It's basically a white cake with crushed Oreos throughout it.

My two-year old niece helped me decorate the cake with the leftover Oreos. Since the cake was just for her father, I let her place the Oreos wherever she wanted too. She had a lot of fun putting the cookies into the cake.

The picture above is what the frosting looked like. It was a mixture of whipped cream, cool whip, crushed Oreos and a few other things.

Happy Memorial Day

I made these cookies for two reasons. I made them because it was Memorial day and I also made them because I was meeting some of my boyfriends family for the first time (his cousin and his cousin's son). I love the sticker that I put on the top of the plastic wrap. It says Baked With Love by Colleen With Love For _____. Then you fill in who the baked goods are for. It's things like this sticker (or a bow, ribbon, etc) that make these cookies (and other baked goods) stick out from the rest. It adds a personal and decorative touch that anyone could appreciate.

I made peanut butter cookies, chocolate chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies. I rolled out the sugar cookie dough and cut them into stars with a cookie cutter. Before they went into the oven to bake, I put green sugar on top. Tip: By putting the decorative sugar on the dough when raw, by the time it is fully cooked, the sugar will stay on the cookie and not fall off. You will be able to tell when sugar cookies are done when they are slightly golden brown on the sides (and bottoms) of the cookies. 

These cookies did not last too many days in that household. They were a big hit and perfect for the occasion!

Hoppy Easter

Having not made a cake in a while, I decided to make a bunny rabbit cake for Easter. 

This cake is a fun task to do with children. I have already made a carved bunny cake before so I decided to go simple with this one. I made two nine-inch round carrot cakes (one with nuts and one without). One of the cakes I left whole to make the head and the other cake I cut out two ear shaped pieces and left the rest to make the giant bow tie. Below is a rough template you can use.

This idea of using two cakes to make a bunny has been used for many years in my family (we normally make a cat cake rather than a bunny though). I wanted to make a cake but I also wanted to have fun with it....Here is it! I hope everyone had a very happy Easter. 

What Easter desserts did you make this year?

A very Suessical birthday!

For those of you who don't know, I share my birthday with my Uncle Tom and Dr. Suess (March 2nd). This year, I decided to make a Dr. Suess themed birthday cake for my uncle. Soooo......without further ado, here it is!

The picture above is the cake with a base coat on it....It is The Cat in the Hat's hat :) It has two layers of yellow cake, six layers of chocolate cake and one layer (the biggest layer/rim of the hat) marble cake.

I decorated the cake to look the way Dr. Suess's books are drawn. If you are a fan of his books like I am, you can surely appreciate this cake.  

Here is the final product....the whole thing was frosted and layered with buttercream frosting, just colored to match the theme. The cake was a hit and really delicious! 

Happy House-Warming Kelly and Greg!

Kelly and Greg (my sister and brother-in-law) had a house-warming party on December 7th. I made some desserts for the party....of course. I made chocolate chocolate chip cookies and regular chocolate chip cookies. I also made brownies and banana bread (some with nuts and some without). I have more pictures somewhere.....in the process of looking for them and will post as soon as I find them. 

Ladies of Eighties!

My mom graduated high school in 1980. About a year ago or so, women from that graduation year decided to get together once a month and go out to dinner and catch up on each others lives and reminisce about high school. On July 27th I made this cake for one of their dinners. It was a chocolate cake with a vanilla buttercream frosting. It was a simple cake and since it wasn't for a specific occasion (just for one of their get-togethers) I got to design it any way I wanted. I kept the eighties theme (and even added Pac Man!) The ladies enjoyed this cake and I hope you do too!