Golf and Deer Cookies

Hello!

I've been a little low-key on the baking lately.  I did start working on a cake for a relative turning 90, but things took a sideways turn, grandma went in the hospital and the party was postponed, so those cake plans were put to a halt.  Grandma is fine, by the way.

This past week, one of my best friends who works at our Baltimore company branch had a male co-worker in the hospital with a scare.  My friend/co-worker B is such a good person.  She went to the hospital several times to check up on our male co-worker K, as he has no family near and was alone until his family could drive in from out of state later that day.

While speaking over emails about him, we 4 gals who talk over email daily decided to do something for him to let him know we're thinking of him.  I offered cookies, they agreed and offered money to help pay for supplies and shipping.

K likes to hunt and golf, so I went on Google Images, found some cute designs and made these cookies below.

Part of company logo on shirt.

Isabel piped the grass on the golf balls.

I'll be mailing these off to him on Monday.  He's off recovering for a couple of weeks.

Get Well Soon, K!

Happy First Birthday Ava!

My niece turned 1 last week and I was asked to make the birthday cake.  (I had already made the baby shower cake when Ava was still "baking.")

The theme for her party?  Pink and black baby skulls.  (click the pics to make them bigger if you'd like.)

The top is a bandana with hearts.  It's an Oreo cookie cake.

The middle is an almond butter cake with buttercream, covered in fondant.

The bottom is a carrot cake in pink cream cheese frosting.  I stink at frosting cakes with icing.

The skull decorations on the cakes were hand cut out of gumpaste, all hand-decorated and all edible.

The only non-edible item was the pink glitter ribbon around the zebra tier.  That was me, being super-tired after an 8-hour work day, and 3 hours of decorating that same night,  saying "I give! No More! What do I have to put around this cake!?"

Ava's Smash Cake

Happy First Cutie Patootie!

Graduation Cake and Goodies

My son graduated from high school this week.  Lots of planning went into the party, food and of course, the desserts.

Graduation cake pops

Cupcake pops

The graduation cake was three-tiered.  Everything was edible.  Starting from the top, we have a fondant graduation cap with gum paste tassels and graduation diploma roll.  These all rest atop two 6" Oreo Cookie cakes covered in vanilla frosting, covered in homemade MMF, and decorated with black fondant keys.  This represents my son's musical side, of course.  The Oreo cake was a hit with the kids/grads at the party.

The next tier is made up of two almond butter cakes, with buttercream frosting, covered in MMF that I tinted purple.  This purple MMF was draped around the cake to resemble curtains, which opened on to a black background (fondant) and the comedy/tragedy drama faces made of gum paste and sprayed with edible silver food color spray.  This is for my son's love of drama.  

The bottom tier was two 10" carrot cakes with cream cheese frosting.  Musical notes and pianos decorates its sides.   My carrot cake is THE BOMB.  A friend who could not decide between carrot and Oreo got a little bit of both.  She ate the carrot cake up, saying how amazing it was, and then stating she was mad.  Mad because she had Oreo cake to finish when she wished it were just more carrot.

Drama/Music-themed Graduation Cake

The Aftermath

Drama Party Goodies

Jacob's in the Drama Troupe at his school. For their end-of-year banquet, I was asked to make some goodies for the party.  I decided on cake pops and mini cake balls.  Then at the last minute I made a small carrot cake too, just for the heck of it.

I dropped off the goodies and went on my way.  Everyone ooooh'd and aaaah'd.

I dropped a cake pop on the carrot cake.  Nice.  

Get it?  Drama club? Get it?
(see where I messed up the icing? *sigh*)

Fun popcorn bag pops

One of the male drama students made this!  Nice!!

Out of Business?

My daughter's inventing.  Should I be worried she'll put me out of business?

Should I also worry that the machine that makes cakes and cake pops can also alter your molecular structure and make you invisible?  ;)

Popcorn and Graduation Caps

I did some more work with Bakerella's book, practicing for two separate events; the Drama troupe's end-of-year party and Jacob's graduation party.

For the drama troupe we have

Popcorn pops.  Yellow cake, chocolate frosting, vanilla candy.  SO cute!  My red food marker was just not working well enough.  Next time, I am using a paint brush and red gel food coloring.  Hopefully it will be more vivid.  The popcorn?  Mini marshmallows scored through 3 times with a knife.

For Graduation

I made the tops using a candy mold, but they're a bit too thick.  This is why I practice.  Next time, I'll fill the molds a little less.  Also, the top little blob holding the tassel is supposed to be a mini M&M but I did not have any.  I'll buy some for the ones I do make for his party.  They're cute though!

Cupcake Pops

I follow Bakerella's blog.  She's so cute and I love all the things she does.  Her most famous treats are her cake pops.

I purchased her Cake Pops book with some gift cards I got from work. Yay, work!  Then I decided to try out  one of her cake pops creations, cupcake pops.  OF COURSE I try one of the most difficult designs.  Also, the cutter I used was too big, so they did not end up right (I need to buy a smaller one) but they are still a hit in this house.