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!