i love old saint nick...

Kylie and I were shopping at Hobby Lobby on Saturday and looking for a few new Christmas tree ornaments. All of a sudden, "mommy look at this" she said from down the aisle (I automatically do the "uh-huh" that ALL moms do) then she appeared with the best ornament we could find that day. A nostalgic glass Santa ornament, he is wearing an apron and a chef hat and is holding up a sweet treat.

Also he is glittered which makes him even more sparkly and special. OMG... this was made for me. I love Santas (ho ho's) and oh do I love making sweet treats! I just wish there were just sweet treat ornaments, none to be found.boo :(

festive fall cookies...

Not much on the cookie front for fall... just an updated pumpkin and a turkey this year. The pumpkin is iced with fall inspired colors and well the turkey is just brown for now. They are still yummy none the less. Maybe I can find more cutters for fall. Thanksgiving just came and went so fast I thought of Christmas this entire month. Christmas goodies are coming soon!! Stay tuned!

gobble gobble... 11/26/08

i have created a... turkey! From the inspiration of a cookie cutter, he is here. I first attempted enlarging the outline of the cookie cutter and had zero luck. (I have not yet mastered the copy machine) I now attempted to just free hand this, I can do this right??!!

It is a close comparison I do say so my self. I made the cake in a jelly roll pan and traced around the wax paper and TA DA!... here he is. I now inverted him from the pan to the base. Isn't he cute??!!

Now for the spice cream cheese frosting. yum! I outlined his feathers in chopped pecans and sliced almonds. He has a chocolate chip for an eye.

He is too cute to cut! His name is Ross. After last year's almost disaster at the "in law's", his name is inspired by that catastrophe! I now have to hand him over to his owner, Kris. She ordered him for her Thanksgiving feast. I later heard he was a HIT! He does have a great personality if I do say so myself!! Next year I will make him for myself!

yummy little cakes...

tis the season for sweet treats! One very popular one I make is the cake truffle. What is this you ask?? My secret, but trust me if you like cake and icing you will fall in love with the truffle. I can make this in a variety of flavors. This is also featured/pictured in the post "autie's sunny birthday truffles" and "trick or treat". Here are some seasonal classics that will not go out of style any time soon!

triple chocolate topped with more chocolate!

butter pecan topped with pecans (of course!)

sassy spice topped with cinnamon

robynne's southern cake request... 11-13-2008

Robynne requested a very southern chocolate cake for her birthday.

Chocolate Sheet Cake with Pecans.

My mom has been making this for years and it is a favorite amongst a lot of us. I did some minor tweaking to the original recipe and drizzled some extra chocolate on top for some EXTRA pizazz! Robynne has plenty of pizazz, so should her cake!

At work we had some employees that are not exactly from the south (I will not embarrass them and list who and where where!) and they could not believe the richness this cake had. One of them kept referring to this as brownies. BIG GASP... no no no my northern friends. Robynne kept correcting them. They even tried it with some ice cream, hopefully they used Blue Bell, I cannot even imagine another brand of vanilla unless it is homemade. ....OK, back to the subject at hand! It was delicious and needless to say, they were very impressed!

autie's sunny birthday truffles... 11-10-08

Autumn (Autie) loves the color yellow. I am not normally a fan of yellow, however her birthday celebration truffles are very cheerful and sunny! Did I mention her favorite flower is the sunflower? I attempted this design with a glittered icing gel and chocolate jimmies. Oh, the gel icing doesn't dry well and the image of the sunflower seemed to sort of slide down the truffle. (note to self: use decorator icing next time!) They still tasted great and she enjoyed sharing with some of her closest co-workers. My favorite is the one covered in sugar. Why? I like the way the sugar just took over and just spread everywhere, like sunshine.

happy birthday autie (DW rocks!)

last by not least.....

this way cool cake! A friend at work bought these Halloween party plates and they inspired me to make a cake similar to the design.The cake was a sour cream vanilla white cake recipe and the icing was orange vanilla buttercream. mmmmmmmmm good!

trick or treat...

Here are some more pics of my favorite Halloween goodies I made this year. I received an "honorable mention" for our desk decorating contest at work for having such a cute set up and many sweet treats....... I attempted at sweet bribes to place, so many cool desks! All of the treats were devoured quickly!

These are my balls... cake truffles that is. The flavor is redvelvet. I made them different, they look like mini cupcakes, no wrapper! Too fun, I love this method so much I may not go back to boring balls... why? when you can have a surprise inside of a cupcake!

Mummies are yummy!I did not leave them out of the other post on the cookies, they just break easy and out of a batch of 10 yes 10 only 4 made it. I love these little mummies!!


Here are my extra spicy spice cupcakes with cream cheese vanilla icing and topped with cinnamon... delish!! Oh and here they are on my new cupcake stand.

My modest set up on my desk. A little busy I know but you get the picture!

eek... Halloween is here

I have recently been inspired to create more. That goes for ALL of the hobbies I am interested in. So with that, I havc embraced decorated cookies. I have failed so many times by burning at least one cookie sheet per batch, my cut outs grew while baking and oh the icing, I look like a 2 year old. So I did some research and found some great tips and a fool proof cookie recipe! Here goes....

ema turns one!! 09-27-08

ema's mom lori had several great ideas in mind for her first birthday. one of them being, taking a cake to have her portraits made. where was this idea when kylie was one?? this cake was inspired by one lori found on the internet (kudos to the designer). i just adjusted to the colors lori desired. ema was introduced to her cake the day before the pictures and was quite amazed! so on picture day she was ready to get into this cake with BOTH hands. she is so adorable! also, i made this cake again along with cupcakes for her birthday party which is today. i am sure she was a show stopper at her party!! she is quite the little ham! thanks lori for believing in me and allowing me to be a part of ema's big day!!

here comes the... groom... 9-22-08

at work we had a surprise "bachelor" potluck for robby vaughn and his fiance' aubrey. i made a simple 8"white fondant cake with 3 layers, made with my favorite recipe white cheesecake, and almond flavored buttercream icing. congratulations!

footballs & turf cupcakes 9-20-08

who says you cannot dress up a cupcake for a boy??? here are some triple chocolate fudge footballs and some yummy cheesecake almond turf. all for my favorite football player James, #88 for the Seminoles in Alvarado.

oh so sweet lady bug... 8-30-08

an emergency situation is the way i landed this gig. a friend of a friend called and asked if anything lady bug could be made to rescue a one year old's birthday party for the upcoming weekend. auntie m to the rescue! this lady bug is hot pink and black, her fondant spots are dark chocolate, yum!

cheerleader cake... rah rah rah 7-12-08

this is a megaphone cake and pom pom cupcakes i made for my Macie Jo, for her 6th birthday. this party even had real high school cheerleaders that came and did a mini cheer workshop! her colors are kelly green and purple. the cake matches the handmade invitation made by her mom. the pom poms are variegated and everything is covered in glitter!!