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!)