Drumming Up New Ideas......

This was a fun cake that I did for a neighbors son as he graduated from High School.

This is all buttercream - no fondant. While fondant might have made it easier to create the details - I kinda enjoyed that I wasn't rolling and cutting.......especially rolling fondant for such a BIG cake! This was 3 layers of 12" cake!!

The drum sticks ARE made from fondant though.

In the end I think that it all turned out really really nice! Many folks thought the drum sticks were real.......yea!!

Henna Thank You Cake

This was another quickie cake that I did. I know - you probably look at this and think "Quickie? Is she nuts?" Really though it did not take NEARLY as long as the cakes that need all the little pieces cut out and dried and delicately placed. It was truly a Quick Cake in comparison!

The way it came about was not expected so it had to be Quick. My friend, Julie's, mom, Waiva, used to make wedding cakes. Lately as I have been asked by friends to do fun cakes for their kids she has noticed some of my things - and Julie, who is a photographer, had asked me to do some cute bride & groom cupcakes for booth at a wedding show. Her mom ate a few and then decided to give me her cake baking pans. Just because she is sweet - well and she wasn't using them anymore. Having those pans cuts my baking time in half when I am doing something with 2 layers. I soo soo soo appreciated it.

While I was using them for the first time - and it was a super busy week with tons of stuff the kids were doing and a few too many cakes to fit into that frame - I thought - these pans are AWESOMELY helpful - when it is her birthday I want to make her a cool cake. So I called Julie and said, "Hey when it is your moms birthday let me know so I can make her cake." She responded with, "Really? Because her birthday is the day after tomorrow." I responded with, "Really? Great."

So an easy cake was needed. Julie has a LOVE LOVE LOVE for fondant - I knew her moms favorite color was purple..........so the cake would be purple. In trying to figure out what easy design I could put on the fondant I remembered a cake that I saw in a Charm City Cakes book I read. So I searched it and while it wasn't easy to find I did find Henna Art - which is what was done to the cake. Another search for Henna Art Cake brought a picture up that kinda displayed the cake I was looking for - at least enough to give me a green light in my head on the idea.

So I whipped up some Royal Icing and start piping it on the cake in a Henna design. It turned out pretty cute I thought. The kids came home from school and were all in awe about the cake. Even Dave thought it was super cool. That made me realize it was a hit.

I even got to deliver it to her mom that night while they were preparing for her birthday dinner - so I thanked her personally for her gift to me by gifting her a cake. A Cake for a Cake Maker. Sweet right?

This cake was Chocolate on the bottom and and small White cake on the top. All covered in a Vanilla buttercream icing and Vanilla fondant with Vanilla Royal Icing.

Shooting Stars To You

A Star Was Born...........thanks Pennie for the idea of making Star cookies! You must be feeling all patriotic lately with your Stars and your Patriotic Apple Pie references (more on that later). But a Star was born this week.......well last week really I guess, but this week was when it was made. It was fun to see my follower numbers go from 4 to 12 in less then 3 days. And I was more then excited to make and send you all cookies!

They are in the mail by the way..........unless you live near by - then if I haven't given them to you yet (Susan should be the only one left) - They are in my van. I will drop them by after church. These cookies were pretty fun to make and I took a little extra time to try a new recipe out on you all. A lot of Stars were made. A LOT. So many cookies were sitting out as I iced them that they caught the attention of my youngest and Dawson asked, "Who are you giving these too?" and I said "My Fans" (because it is good to have an ego). He looked at me and said "Are you hot?". "Huh?" and then I realized F-A-N + 5 Year old ='s LITERAL INTERPRETATION........."Oh, not Sweets I am not hot, well......I mean I am hot (remember good to have an ego), but I am not that kind of hot. These cookies are for my friends who read my blog stuff." Generally he leaves once I try to be funny with words, but I guess I peaked his interest because he asked, "They all have fans for you?".........in his head you all were sitting somewhere (probably Chuck E Cheese) holding fans - or standing near fans - waiting for me to show up with cookies. After I told him a Fan can also mean a person who likes cookies A LOT - he cocked his head, looked at me like I had again (and I truly mean again) gone MAD and he went to jump on the trampoline.

Kids are funny like that. So anyway..........back to cookies. I made 2 sorts. And I also took some pics for my sis-in-law (even before she sent me a link as to how to flood cookies) - mainly because another friend told me that the way I was flooding looked too hard. And she was kinda right. The flooding wasn't hard, but the putting the flood icing into a piping bag was a bit idiotic - runny sugar doesn't stay in a bag with a tip hole at the end. Duh Patti. So I invested in a few bottles. Step 1.........line the cookie with the stiff (I don't know how else to describe it) Royal Icing - and let dry a bit. Most sites with instructions say hours - ahhhhhh.........I think I waited 15 minutes. Then take the remaining icing you were using (if you are staying with the same color) and add a teaspoon of water or more - until you have the desired consistency. Pour that into a bottle (unless you have a better idea - as I thought I did) - these can be found at deco stores or at Michael's/Hobby Lobby. And basically flood the inside of the lines you drew.

Simple enough. The trick - is you also need something pointy - like a tooth pick - and then you scoot the icing out to the sides or into the corners (stars have lovely corners) to make certain the cookies are evenly iced. Then you let this dry overnight. Really I would wait overnight - the flood icing has a great deal more liquid in it and it does not dry quickly. So if you are planning on adding any decorations on top wait.

Now I forgot to take pictures of the drawing of the faces..........it was a crazy week. But again - 2 types of cookies. The cookies that are Yellow Faced are Traditional Shortbread cookies. The cookies that are White Faced are Peanut Butter Shortbread cookies. I was interested in trying a Lemon Icing, but time left me. The Peanut Butter cookies are VERY YUM!!

And I would Love Feedback on the cookies please..........and on if any were broken.

Speaking of broken - how to ship them to you was a question. So I searched the deco supply store. I wanted it to be cute - I wanted it to be safe for the cookies - and I wanted it to be inexpensive. Love you all, but I also didn't want to spend $50 shipping cookies. $50 is a crazy amount I picked out of the top of my head - I never really thought........okay I did think it was possible, but since I wasn't planning same day delivery I didn't expect that type cost.

Back to this and out of my head. I picked up these cute little white candy boxes. The shop clerk and I measured them with one of their star cookie cutters. We measure I could fit 9 cookies per box. Done. Bought. Then at home I looked at them............boring...........white...........needed flair. So I added in my other favorite hobby - STAMPING!! I have some great cupcake stamps and there were this perfect saying........so I did that really quickly.

Then I packed in the cookies. My Star cutter must be different from the Star cutter they had - because I could only fit 2 cookies per level in the box when I got home. No matter how I finagled the cookies they would not fit 3 across. And I didn't want them broken when you receive them - so I had to pack less in. Still 6 cookies is a Sweet Treat!! And these shortbread's are PERFECT with a cold glass of milk - melt in your mouth perfect. Or my favorite way - with a hot cup of coffee that is hardly sweetened so that the sugar on the cookie pops.

Dang...........wish I hadn't mailed them all - I have coffee right here.

All that said........your cookies are In The Mail. Cute packages - cute cookies - for FABULOUS friends helping me get rolling!! Rolling where is still here to be seen.........but as Pennie said - listen to the Siren. So I am listening.

These cookies are Traditional Shortbread and Peanut Butter Shortbread. Both have a simple Royal Icing top. ENJOY!!

Please let me know what you thought and when you get them how they survived.

Crowning Touch

So as I have mentioned I have been dabbling in cookies. These are 2 that I used for a cake I should be able to upload off of my computer and post soon. I was wanting to mess with the cookies and decorate them, but not eat them. Okay.......I ate quite a few.......but then I just wanted to decorate some and not eat them - thought I would add them to cakes - hence the If You Give A Cake A Cookie cakes.

These cookies were the basic Shortbread cookie recipe. My favorite over a traditional cookie recipe - they melt in your mouth more and honestly they are WAY less expensive to make - no egg - just a smidge of powdered sugar - very yummy.

Another thing I have been wanting to do is mess with Royal Icing. Cookies have allowed me that as well - now I would like to find a moment to pipe some royal icing onto cakes - in a decorative pattern. Every slow week I say to myself "self I will make a small wedding cake with scrolly decorative piping"......and then either a bunch of cake requests come in (like this week - went from 40 palm tree cookies to 4 cakes, 3 doz cupcakes and the cookies that I am mailing - tomorrow hopefully - they are ALL DONE!! Just just just put the finishing touches on them not 5 minutes ago) or life gets in the way. But I really want to do some fun scroll work with royal icing.

Anyone have a wedding? Then I would HAVE to make time to do a wedding cake.

If You Give a Cake a Cookie

This week we decided it was time to do my son, Ben's, teachers Half Birthday. Why a Half Birthday? Well primarily because my friend, Stephanie - our class lead, and the rest of us helping out in the class MISSED her real birthday. That was in September. So close to the start of the school year that honestly we didn't feel terrible about missing it - because we hardly had our backpack's on straight enough to have caught it. Yet at the same time - we LOVE LOVE LOVE Mrs. Burns and didn't want her to think we weren't "thinking" of her. So we counted 6 months from the month and had a party.

Now best laid plans are sometimes better then the actual happening. Stephanie contacted our favorite student teacher - Ms. Brown - who ALL the boys have a crush on (although Ben would deny this.........his friend, Malik, called him out on it by saying, "Dude you know you crush on her because we all think she is hot" - I even think she is very cute so he was totally fibbing). Anyway - Stephanie contacted Ms. Brown who helped her send out notes to the class asking for donations for a gift. Then I made a cake.......since we were buying her a gift card to a scrapping store I thought a cute Scrapbook Replica cake. Had it all planned out to the gumpaste scissors.


Then Ms. Brown let us know that while we could still do the party........it would also be the day they do the Multiplication Ice Cream party. You earn a scoop and/or topping for every times table you complete. Ben earned both scoops and 6 toppings with whipped cream - yea Ben!! Which seems weird since they did 0 - 12........where are the other toppings? So anyway - now we were doing the Birthday at the same time as the Ice Cream - as a parent we did the responsible thing and downsized the cake to a "Take Home Gift". Cake AND Ice Cream might be a party tradition, but it makes for a giant mess in the class and we didn't want to take away from the experience of what toppings they earned.

So the cake morphed. I was still thinking gumpaste scissors - but then I thought about the fact that it was very close to St. Pat's........and we are TOTALLY lucky to have such a Great Teacher.....and I just received a delivery of cutters.....and I was COMPLETELY surprised that the shamrock I bought was GIGANTIC!! and immediately thought "well that is as big as an 8" cake round......and I wanted to try out my cookie cutters and a few cookie recipes.......so why not use cookies to border the cake and top it with a cute Shamrock with a message?

Idea born. Cake Baked (I know Mrs. Burns a chocolate fan). Cookies Baked (I didn't know she was a shortbread cookie fan - bonus!). Cake Decorated!

Turned out pretty cute. A little icing flare at the bottom and the cake only took a few more minutes to decorate. Love the cookie thing. Ben came in as I was finishing and said in an unbelieving and thinking I had lost my mind voice (you know how kids do that?)...."Why would you put cookies on a cake?"....I said, "To decorate it and tell Mrs. Burns how lucky we are to have her teaching you." Ben thought for a minute and then said, "So she gets cake AND COOKIES TOO? She is the lucky one." followed by, "Are there any cookies left?"

This cake was Chocolate Chocolate Chip with a Chocolate Buttercream icing and small Cinnamon Shortbread Cookies and one giant Traditional Sugar Cookie.

Cookie Time!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! One day late - yeah yeah, but I still posted these pretty close to the date I actually made them. So many of the cakes are going up a few weeks - sometimes months after I make the cake.............unless the person I made it for has asked me specifically to put it up here so that they can share it with friends or family.

Anyway - cookies are something new for me. I guess making and baking cookie cutter cookies would seem to be a Gimme since I am decorating cakes, but in my sometimes addled head it seemed as though decorating cookies would be tedious. Honestly........all those sprinkles and jimmies are what I am avoiding.

Then people started to ask - Can You Do Decorated Cookies? And I found myself saying - Sure.........and buying cool cookie cutters and googling Royal Iced Cookies. Although I do already have a TON of cookies cutters! At least 200 - I know this because I cataloged them to make sure that I didn't buy anymore doubles in the same size.

To mess around and for a cake I thought I would make 3 sugar cookie style recipes. 1 Traditional Sugar Cookie - 1 Shortbread Cookie and 1 Cinnamon Cookie (I just added cinnamon - not brain surgery in my kitchen). Then made a bunch of shamrocks!! Tah Dah!!