Sweet Week

This past week has been a pastry roller coaster!
I should have planned a little better for it but as good as I am at making cakes, I'm just as good at procrastinating! :)
Here's a quick overview of my week:

Cookie Monster Cake

Starting Monday, I started off the week by hitting the first domino down.
I volunteered to make my little cousins birthday cake and completely forgot!
So in efforts to not spend money I didn't have, I rummaged through my pantry and fridge to come up with something cute,clever and 5 year old friendly.
It was a long shot but I had no choice. Luckily the weekend before I donated cupcakes for a family function and had some leftover cream and stuff to whip up enough for a cake and cupcakes.
I came up with the cookie monster since I also had leftover cookies from movie night the night before hahaha the cake gods favor me;) Funniest part of the whole story is the eyeballs on the cupcakes! I didn't have enough cookies or anything else, so I found some marshmallows and started messing around with them, resulting in eyeballs hahaha. Best part is, my little cousin loved them so much, that's all he ate! all of the mallows in his belly and none of the cake. haha good thing he has 6 other siblings that finished the job.

Strawberries & Cream Sugar Cookies

 Next up, the lovely cookie from above:)
This sweet concoction was inspired by a lazy summer day.
I decided to put a twist to the traditional sugar cookie and butter cream frosting that many of us love.
I had some extra cream cheese and was craving sweet strawberries all day:)
All ingredients complimented each other better than Thelma & Louise;)
Soo good, I decided to make up 2 batches and add to a graduation party we had that Thursday.

Baby Shower Cupcakes & Chocolate Chip Cookies

The weekend began with my first request on Saturday.

As mentioned earlier, my procrastination bit me on the behind as I woke Friday morning.

I ran to the store, came home, changed for work and when I got off at around 1130pm I started baking these babies and the cakes below until 10am the next morning. Who needs sleep right?

I baked so much that night that the next morning my last batch of cupcakes and cookies, started looking funky, I had realized that my oven gave out haha. Amidst the craziness, I was still given compliments, wooo hooo!

Elmo & Friend!

Two cookie monsters in one week! That's why its been crazy!
My cousins son had his first birthday this Saturday and like every other little child, his favorite thing in the world is Elmo!!! With the help of my cousin, we brought this cute little creation to life!

Congratulations Class of 2012!!

 I completely forgot to take a pic of the other graduation cake, but imagine making full sheet cakes in a half sheet sized oven!

Pretty Pink Princess Party!

I thought that the cake craziness finished Saturday night, but it began again Sunday morning.
A distant relative had a slice of the chocolate cream and strawberry cream cakes I made for the graduation party Saturday night and to my surprise, asked me to make a full sheet, half chocolate, half strawberry cake for her daughters birthday. The cake wasn't hard to throw together, but finding the cake box was hahaa. Pastry emergencies caused me to give out my last cake box so I called EVERY local bakery to purchase a box. The ONE bakery that was kind enough to give me a box for free, didn't have a box big enough hahah. To my rescue, the bakery I work at was kind enough to save me and the day. :D

Book Worm



The last cake for the weekend was this birthday cake for one of my brothers friends.

This kid is such a book worm, hence the "book" drawing.

My dad joined in on the fun, cant you tell by the decor? hehehe

We ended the night will all of the boys at our place, just hanging out on the balcony killing the cake and laughing the night away.

Lately I have been asking myself if this is really what I want to do for the rest of my life.
After this stressful yet amazing experience filled weekend, the answer is YES, I am not the best of the best yet, but I know with hard work, determination and the love and support of amazing family members and friends, I will be one of the best.

A Lava made of Guava?!

Like I had mentioned in earlier posts, my oven was broken for about a week and a half.
The longest & most bland week and a half I have ever had [lol]
Anyways. Sunday came & I was craving something sweet.
Craving so bad in fact, that I totally got all of my ingredients, started mixing, whipping & filling without thinking. I turn around to throw my amazing guava cake in the oven & BAM, It was still broken[lol] Persistent and against wasting what I had just done, I figured, okay, maybe, just maybe, I could bake this sucker low & slow. Boy was I more wrong than the prediction of Y2K.
Total FAIL! After the oven had defeated me, (I lied to myself for 2 hours with that cake) I gave up,
I shoved in a movie and when the baker within me yelled at me, [lol] I went back to the kitchen determined to make some kind of goodie, mostly because I had already made the filling and creams!
I forced my brain to flip through memories and then it clicked! My trusty little microwave was the only appliance that still did me good [lol] I remembered that way back in the good ol adult roles classes that I had in Jr high and high school once taught me something I thought I would NEVER apply to my life:
Microwave baking! Thank goodness for Ms. Jensen in room 284 [lol]
I pulled out my ramekins, non stick spray, whipped up another cake batter and began microwaving one by one. I flopped out the mini cakes and started piping on the cream and loading on the guava.
To my surprise and everyone in the households too, It tasted just as delicious as it looks here...

Chocolate Who?!?!? Chocolate Mousse!

To Date, I believe that this is the best tasting cake I have EVER made!

The occasion was my little cousin's first birthday, the youngest of 7 children.

Time & time again I had thought of what kind of cake and of course, what it would look like.

Endless ideas flowed like lava but with my hectic schedule working both of my jobs, there was no possible way that I could find time to compile such extreme ideas.

So the idea I came up with was simple, yet fun and always delicious:)

I had purchased a set of 3 spring form pans, normally used for the baking of cheesecakes.

I thought, with my luck, making round cakes in a regular pan, would just turn out in disaster.

I then had been DYING to make a chocolate mousse cake! & with this occasion coming up, It was time to seize the opportunity [lol]

In about 4 hours, I was able to bake my cakes, throw them in the freezer, purchase a gift then come back and assemble the triple chocolate cakes, filled with chocolate mousse, closed in with white chocolate cream and carefully decorated. The cake, like I said earlier, was the BEST yet, & I must admit, my cakes taste pretty darn close to a slice of heaven! :) The guests agreed as well;)

Here are the photos of Bishops 1st Birthday Cake, 1st Birthday and 1st Pair of TOMS!:)

Pig...In A...Cupcake?!


It has been some time since I last posted a blog.
I thought I would share an interesting item I experimented with.
For quite some time, my mom has been a Cupcake Wars freak! So freakish, in fact,
that she begged me to create a Bacon Cupcake!
At first thought, I was flabbergasted [lol] because I'm not a big fan of bacon [GASP!]
I know right?! Everyone I know, LOVES bacon! But, not I.
So the very thought of putting it into a scrumptious cupcake was, beyond yummy to me.
Well, what changed my mind?
I was bored [lol] I needed to experiment because I felt like I was going through withdrawals!
My oven broke and I was unable to bake for what seems like a century! Okay, okay, a week.
The weekend was long & full of makeup, hairdo & parties [conference weekend:)]
Sunday came & I was pooped! I planned to go out but instead raided my kitchen of things to experiment with, which brings me back to the pork. I came across some bacon and syrup and caramel, put on my thinking cap and went at it. It also worked out well because I had been creating some [from scratch] recipes lately as well, so I only saw it as a sign.
So, my mom won, I made the cupcake with both vanilla cake and triple chocolate.
I was able to caramelize the bacon bits to fold into my batter and also chocolatize the strips of bacon for the garnish. I was able to also whip up an amazing caramel creme that to me, made it superb!
The end product according to the consumers, was DELISH, I on the other hand, could do without the pig in my cake :) Just doesn't tickle my fancy, but it might tickle yours;)

Banana Cake!

One day rummaging through  my pantry, I came across a HUGE can of banana puree!
Eager to experiment, other than banana bread, I came up with a banana cake & cream cheese frosting!
I hope your family can enjoy this just as much as mine!

The recipe is as follows:

1 ½ cups banana puree

2 teaspoons lemon juice

3 cups flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda 

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup butter , softened

2 ¹⁄₈; cups sugar

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 ½ cups buttermilk

 1/2 cup of sour cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 275°.
2. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.
3. In a small bowl, mix banana puree with the lemon juice; set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
5. In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Beat in eggs, one at a time, stir in 2 tsp vanilla, then fold in sour cream.
7. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
8. Stir in banana mixture.
9. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
10. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
11. For the frosting, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
12. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla
13. Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.
14. Spread on cooled cake

Rainbow fruit kabobs!

I was recently called into the Young Women Program of our church as an advisor.

The first activity to attend was a health workshop.

I was asked to bring a healthy treat and again, I found this on pinterest and decided to imitate it.

I was actually shocked at the price. I bought one bundle, bag or container of each of the fruits shown below. It costs around $20 and made 40+ kabobs. Not to mention that the youth LOVED them.

To preserve the fruit, I basted the kabobs with apricot juice to keep everything from drying out...and it worked! ENJOY!

Kit Kat Kake!

For my brother's 11th birthday on Jan 11'th, I decided to think outside of the box and do a little something with his favorites; White chocolate kit kats and chocolate covered strawberries. This kid has the craving of a woman on the rag! LOL.

So here is what I threw together. I should have taken a picture of the inside but it didn't last long enough to do so! It was a layered white cake alternated with layers of strawberry cream cheese filling, ganache and vanilla mousse, topped with whip cream, sided with kit kats and finished with chocolate covered strawberries!