WARNING: wear shoes when you bake

tonight i am making an order of 50 petit fours for a baby shower this weekend. no big deal right? wrong! everything is going great until i simply reach to get my sprinkle storage boxes down. doesn't everyone keep this on the highest shelf in the house? also, don't you keep liquor bottles next to your prized sprinkle collection?? ok, well at least i do. i am a multi-tasker. i have my brother on the phone, hands free of course and i reach for 1 of 2 boxes to browse and down comes a FULL bottle of grape pucker, the main ingredient for jello shots (another little something i can whip up well in the kitchen). YIKES, grape and glass everywhere. sorry jeff, gotta go... why?? uhhhh just broke a large glass bottle and it is everywhere. kylie wrangles the dogs out of the way, the crash and smell intrigued them, scott manages to get his wet/dry vac for me. the washing machine and dryer are now drenched in grape yummy. oh did i mention that i was ready to cover the cakes in their icing at this point? i just got the icing consistency exactly right. ahhhhhhhh. now i have to go into glass/grape pucker clean up mode. i hate sweeping and mopping and would not choose to do something like this on a baking night. this is not a normal clean up. i have the hover craft of a vacuum blaring with the dogs as my audience! ok, now for the mop. i get the water hot, get down the bleach. simple right? not for me today. i did not pay attention to how full the bucket got, just in time saved it from over flowing. i slush some of the water out on the tile and my feet and favorite pants (bleach viciously eats the color out of your clothes) as i get it out of the sink. no big deal right? not for me today. i look down and guess what?? the stupid bucket that has been my cleaning buddy for 14 years has a hole somewhere and it is now creating a small spill... it is like the monsoon just hit. (it really is raining outside right now) ahhhhhhhhhhhh. so i quickly get the bucket back to the sink and i look down again and... whaaa-laaa i have a nice size puddle on the floor, more than enough water to mop my entire kitchen 3 times. after mopping and allowing to dry 3 times and having to suck up leftover glass during each mopping excursion, the floor is finally (cross your fingers) glass free. ok now i can go sit down. nope, i forgot i have 50 naked cakes. ahhhhhhhhhhhh. the order is to split three ways, light pink, light green and chocolate icings. pink ones done, check. light green ones done, check. now to make chocolate icing. ingredients, huh? no check. am i seriously out of cocoa and powdered sugar? can't be... yep i am. ahhhhhhhhh. not tonight, i am done. i want to set down and watch the remaining american idol saga. yikes, tomorrow is my late day at work, like 10pm late. delivery of the cakes is early friday afternoon, suddenly the hours are closing in on me. i think i just felt 5 more gray hairs populate my every 4 weeks colored brown hair. stress. ahhhhhhhhhh. ok, solution... i will go now to the store. can i throw my tantrum now?? nope, i will suck it up and put on my big girl panties and deal. oh, moral of the story... always wear shoes, thank goodness i had on my thick soled flip flops... you never know when you may have to walk through a mess of grape pucker when making pound cake petit fours, LOL!

michael's legoland birthday party!!!

ok, so my little nephew (the reason why i am auntie m) is turning the big 2!! this year is a fun theme of legos. michael loves blocks, what a better theme?? tara designed an adorable invitation and we sorta designed the cakes to match! she also wanted some lego cookies for the table and the goodie bags!

so michael was diagnosed with mono on his actual birthday and the party was postponed until he got better. unc grump (yes, scott) helped with the first batch of cookies. since it was 2 weeks away the cookies would not have made it, so they were eaten... all 5 dozen of them. we went and visited michael the night the party was scheduled and still gave him a gift and brought dinner and cookies! he is too adorable... he love imagination movers from the disney channel!

ok, the party is on and this time i have a different helper, brenda. she was a vital part of the completion of this big undertaking!

we had fun BOTH times making these goodies - love auntie m

oh baby boy!

i was asked by one of my favorite customers to make a boy cake for a shower. this would be for the big sister who just turned one in august and i made her lady bug cake (check that out too!) lori knew that she wanted a similar designed used in one of her showers. we just made it to accommodate a smaller crowd. the main embellishment was to have a tag with the baby's name... mommy and daddy went back and forth and by the time the shower had approached there was not a name that they were 100% sold on. no biggie, to:baby. that works!! the cake is a triple chocolate recipe with chocolate cream cheese icing. yum! the top of the "box" is styrofoam covered in baby blue fondant icing. thanks to my friend wendy at my work for the perfectly made bow, which made this gift a real hit! the tag is also made from fondant icing. the top was nicely anchored with toothpicks for easy removal and there was wax paper sandwiched in between to keep it fresher. the ladies loved this cake and it was a perfect compliment to a fabulous italian luncheon. thanks lori for the recommendations and being a repeat customer, you are the best!!

cupid's guilty pleasure...

this year for valentine's we had a couples party. there were 7 couples and we all brought food and of course i was in charge of the sweets! i made several fun treats. mini pound cake petits fours (covered in raspberry, cream cheese & chocolate icings), chocolate cake truffles, red velvet cake cookies with cream cheese icing centers and iced sugar cookies. they are all decorated with a valentine theme. there was not much left to take home! little cupid was quite impressed!