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!

New Posts Coming!

I have once again fallen behind on my posts and I also have found some cakes on my Mom's camera that I had completely forgotten about. Over the next few days I will be posting quite a few cakes on here.....lets hope you enjoy the cakes as much as I enjoyed making them!

Happy 40th Birthday Dustin!

On Feb. 16th we had a surprise 40th birthday party for my Uncle Dustin. I made a cake, cupcakes and brownies for this event. I sculpted the cake to look like a football jersey (his favorite team...The Cowboys). I made it look like the jersey had shoulder pads....I think it came out great! The cake was two layers of chocolate cake with a vanilla buttercream in between the layers and on the outside of the cake as well.

I made yellow cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream frosting and I also made funfetti cupcakes with funfetti frosting. 

I really enjoy making brownies (as you can tell....I always make them!)

 Here is the complete set up at the birthday party...with a decorative cake board (wrapped in wrapping paper and cellophane like I mentioned in a previous post) and a cupcake stand, this set up makes for a beautiful spread!

Storm Nemo

Storm Nemo (or as it is known in Connecticut, Storm Charlotte)

Staying inside today because of the snow (got between 27 to 30 inches here). I was getting antsy so I decided to make some brownies! These are just regular brownies but I decided to make them in one of my special brownie pans rather than just a cake pan like usual. This brownie pan is great because it makes every square have sides. If your favorite part is the edges (which mine are) this is a great pan!

Below is a picture of the brownie pan....It has a false bottom and the brownie separator insert. What you do is: put the bottom in the pan and spray the pan. Then, pour the brownie batter into the pan and insert the sprayed separator into the batter. They will bake separately and every side of the brownie is an edge! This is also great if you want to add nuts or other things into a few of the brownies but not all of them (I don't recommend doing that if someone is allergic to the nuts or whatever else you put into just a few of the brownies as they would not be 100% separate.) 

What's your storm activity?

Fundraiser Cookies

My very best friend Catherine Marino is going to Africa (specifically Namibia) in the beginning of December. She will be doing a fellowship there teaching children music. To help raise funds for her trip, we made these giraffe and elephant sugar cookies. These are a quick and cute fundraising idea. You can cut out any shape you want and decorate them any way you want. Below is a link you can use to donate towards Catherine's trip. Thank you in advance for donating. Kids in Africa need teachers like Catherine to educate them.  

 The best way to help is to donate by visiting the WorldTeach website: www.worldteach.org . Click Donate/Pay in the top right corner, and where it says "Donor Specified for" - click "Other" in the drop-down menu, and then add her name (Catherine Marino) so WorldTeach puts the funds towards her trip. *Remember, ANY amount helps!* Thank you so much!

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

My triple chocolate chip cookies have become a family favorite. I recently made these for a meeting that my high school culinary teacher had. I was asked to help out at the meeting and decided to bring treats with me as well. These are triple chocolate chip cookies because they have white chocolate chips, chocolate chips (sometimes chocolate morsels too) and cocoa powder. Even though I am not a big chocolate fan, I still love these cookies. Surprisingly, with all the chocolate, it is not too overpowering. These are great to dip in coffee or hot chocolate and they are also great with ice-cream. I personally just like them plain. I highly recommending ordering these some day!

God Bless Vincent & Rebecca

On October 6th, my two cousins made their Confirmation. To celebrate, they had this cake. It is three layers of chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. It was simple to make and delicious to eat. Congratulations Vinny and Rebecca!

Happy 50th Birthday Kathy, Tracey, Bob & Kenny!

I made this birthday cake for the 6th of October. We celebrated four 50th birthday parties. This is a yellow cake with fresh fruit (strawberries, raspberries & blackberries) and my specialty, real whipped cream. This cake was three layers tall and almost every slice was gone by the end of the night. I'd say it was a hit!

Happy 1st Birthday Adam!

A few weeks ago I created a six inch cake and 24 cupcakes for a first birthday party. It was a monkey theme. The cake and cupcakes were both yellow cake with vanilla pudding and vanilla buttercream frosting. The dots were made from gum paste which is very similar to fondant. They were a huge hit! 

Endless Summer Party

For this past Saturday I made a cake. It was a white cake with three layers, a lemon curd filling, buttercream frosting and coated in coconut. To quote "this cake is fabulous!". I am so happy it was loved and it was so easy to make! I made the cake Friday morning and while it was cooling I made the curd and buttercream frosting. The lemon curd had to cool too so I had to wait a while. It was a good little break, watched some t.v. and did the dishes. Then, I cut the cake into three layers and filled it so the cake would set. I had to make a dam in order to hold the loose filling in. After the cake was set up, I frosted it, put the coconut on the outside and made the bottom shell border. If you have any questions or want any of the recipes, I will be happy to share.

Just a tip: I made the cake board with a piece of cardboard, covered in wrapping paper and cellophane. I covered the wrapping paper with cellophane so the paper doesn't absorb moisture or anything else from the grease. That way, you can set your own theme with the wrapping paper and have an inexpensive cake board! 

Sfogliatelle....Part Two

Okay so I had some trouble uploading the picture but here they are!

If you have a pasta machine and can count then you can make these too! The dough was simply made with flour and sugar (Yep! It was that easy). I needed some muscle to run the pasta machine so I did have a helper for this. I found these to be good but not great....I am on a lookout for a new recipe for these. They did taste good but I know these could be better! I hope you enjoy how they look!

My business card

So I can't believe I haven't actually posted this to here yet. But here is a copy of my business card. Everything is priced to order and will be ready for when you need it! Place orders now! I need at least a days notice but sooner would be better :)

Sfogliatelle

Sfogliatelle......if you can say it, you can have it.

I am making three dozen Sfogliatelle for Thursday. I will post pictures as soon as I can. I am so happy to get back in the kitchen and roll up my sleeves! Sfogliatelle is basically a shell shaped pastry with filling. They are Italian. Sfogliatelle means "many leaves or layers" because the pastries texture resembles leaves stacked on each other. I hope you enjoy the pictures when I post them! 

Kelly and Greg's Wedding!!!!!

The Big Day!!! Kelly and Greg got married! I am so happy for my sister and new brother-in-law! Even though this was last year, I am still so happy for the both of them. This was a simple cake. The bottom tier was a marble cake and the top two tiers were cherry nut cake. The whole thing is frosted in buttercream frosting that i made to match the bridal parties dresses.