I’m back!

Ok, so I got a little side tracked the last year and a 1/2 doing this …

 

Our 1925 bungalow home in sunny St Pete, Fl before and after!

 

Now… I’ve got a new project in Lynchburg Va! Acquired this big ole’ 1907 Georgian revival home in the Historic Rivermont district last month.

 

The renovation work is starting as well as the new adventures here in our grand old home. We had the pleasure of meeting out great neighbors and I invited them for dinner. I love any reason to throw a party and hey it has been a while since I got to bake something for us to enjoy. So here you go, a natural chocolate berry cake with chocolate cherry mousse filling. The cake is vegan, the mousse is so simple and delicious anyone can do it. I’ll drop the recipe below. Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastical day!

• 1pint heavy whipping cream
• 1(3 1/2 ounce) box instant pudding mix, any flavor

1. In a chilled metal bowl, beat whipping cream on medium-high speed until it begins to thicken.
2. Gradually add in the instant pudding mix and continue to beat, just until thick. If it gets too thick you can always add a little extra cream to smooth it out.
3. If you’d like to add fruit filling, fold it into the cream after it’s thickened.

Makes enough for one 6 inch layer cake, about 6 servings.

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Happy Halloween treats and eats!

 Fall is upon us! Cupcakes, caramel apples and pumpkin cakes abound.   These ghost cupcakes were pretty simple to make. I just used a marshmallow style icing or 7 minute frosting as it’s commonly known and piped out some icing …

Frozen themed party fun!

  I’ve had tons of fun making all sorts of Frozen themed goodies for parties these last few months. Here are a few of my favorites for those seeking inspiration. Elsa and Anna paper doll links below for some DIY …

Whipped cream cheese icing recipe!

whipped cream cheese icing

I have been searching for a nice cream cheese icing recipe for ages now. After many trial and era baking bouts, I’ve finally come across a great combo. This will ice a dozen cupcakes and can be doubled for 2 dozen.

INGREDIENTS:
4 ounces of reduced-fat cream
cheese, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
DIRECTIONS:

1.Combine the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract in mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment and mix on medium speed until smooth. While the mixture is still whipping, slowly pour in the heavy cream. Stop and scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl a couple of times while you continue whipping until stiff peaks form.

Ice cakes and then enjoy!

Iron Man cake

I got a request for an Iron Man themed cake! I was excited, I don’t have many superhero cakes in my portfolio at the moment so this was great. The client wanted a mask for the cake top so I figured I’d try my hand at making it. I used sugar sheets instead of fondant which worked out really well. I just found and Iron man mask template on the interweb, cut it out and then traced it with a sharp knife over the sugar sheets. Totally easy, super fun and I think it came out okay. I used fondant for the “pow” stars and an edible marker pen. It was a chocolate cake with cream cheese and strawberry filling. I made buttercream icing and did a hand smoothing technique over the cake. Thanks for reading and happy Monday!

Squid party fun!

 Squid Party!!!

 

Squid party time, EXCELLENT! So I had the pleasure of making marshmallow pops with a squid theme this week. They were tedious to assemble but so cute, how could I stay mad at them? I piped the chocolate from a squeeze bottle into a solid circle then had the arms sprout from there. I had to make them pretty thick since my 1st batch were a bit thin and they broke very quickly. I used the broken arms to top the party cupcakes for added squid magic!

 

Recipe-Sea salt brownies from scratch

  

sea salt brownies!

Okay, so since the oven was already on from another order of Disney Frozen cupcakes, I figured what the heck. I really wanted something chocolatey and salty so I set out to bake some brownies from scratch. I have never made these before and I was feeling adventurous so I went for it. This is a modified recipe found on allrecipes.com. I figured adding the sea salt would satisfy my cravings and give the brownies an extra kick. They turned out pretty yummy. I hope you enjoy them and it’s really so easy! I doubt I’ll ever buy a box of brownie mix again.

Brownie ingredients

Original recipe makes 16 brownies-

1/2 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

sprinkling of coarse sea salt to top

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8-inch square pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.
4. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt to top

Reptile and Amphibian Party!

 

Chocolate cake with reptiles and amphibians!

Yay, another fun cake theme! This reptile and amphibian party was super neat. They even had live creatures at the party! I used Oreo cookies to make the “dirt” and cut some fondant leaves and flowers. I found the cute little toy animals at the Dollar store and they worked perfectly to tie it all together. I had some scrap paper that was a grass print so I used some contact paper to adhere it to the cake board base.  It’s an easy solution to dress up a inexpensive cardboard base.  Also stops the grease stains from getting on the cardboard or paper base.  Well,  Happy Birthday Rhianna looks like you had a lot of fun!

Suitcase cake, off to Egypt!

I had the joy of making this super fun Bon Voyage cake last week! In case you haven’t guessed the person of honor was heading off to a new life in Egypt! I didn’t want to do something with only an Egyptian theme so I tried to incorporate travel into the mix with the suitcase shape. I just used fondant to make the handle, palm trees and pyramid details.  I crushed up animal cookies to make the sand and dusted the pyramids with some edible gold dust.  Overall, this was a ton of fun to make.  Best of luck to Zuzana on her journey and I hope everyone enjoyed the cake!!

Suitcase cake

Egypt tag detail

Suitcase cake