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!

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

Bow Bash for Bellah!

 

This party was so much fun! I was so excited to have the chance to make so many pretty and different things. Not that I don’t love the weekly Frozen themed cakes but this theme just had that extra something.

I made two large bow banners out of 1.5 and 1 inch satin ribbons. Tying bow after bow for hours upon hours was actually kind of relaxing. I did two layer cakes with hand painted gold fondant details. The gold luster dust is really amazing and that little tube goes a long way. One cake was vanilla with strawberry cream cheese filling the other chocolate with raspberry filling. The pink fondant bow on top of the mint cake really made it stand out. 

My Cricut got a lot of use for this party! The gold bow toppers and #1 cake topper were cut with the Cricut from gold glitter paper. I found it at Michael’s for about $3 a sheet. The pink cupcakes were a variety of chocolate, vanilla and chocolate chip with soft pink icing. I did some halal marshmallow Rice Krispie treats and dipped them in chocolate. I also made tiny chocolate bows to add that extra interest. I dusted them with gold luster and did some white chocolate details as well. 

This Momma had some cute ideas and wanted little cookie jars filled with sugar cookies for party favors. I baked about 300 mini sugar cookies to fill the little jars. They came out very cute! Overall this was tons of fun.  Working for a sweet and adorable family made it even more enjoyable. I loved doing all of this for sweet Bellah and I am so glad everyone has such a great time at the party! Happy 1’st Birthday Bellah!

Stormy seas vegan cake

  Ok, so yesterday was my birthday, I hate my birthday. I didn’t even know it was the 29th until my father sent me a “HBD” text, gee thanks dad! Anyhoo, I thought maybe I’ll bake something today…. then I …

Spring has sprung, finally!

 

For everyone celebrating the end of this terribly cold winter and seeking  more sunny days!

I made these happy cakes yesterday as a treat to take to my dentist office. I know, seems ironic taking sweets to the dentist. I had to show them my appreciation and baking is one of the only things I’m good at. I had a tooth in need of a root canal for over a year. Last week it was causing me so much pain I packed up the toddler and walked the streets to find relief. I happened upon the first open dental office and she told me it was $85 just to be seen and possibly $800-1000 for the root canal. I was prepared for that as I had been saving this last year just for said root canal. I actually started baking cupcakes for neighborhood kids birthday parties particularly to save for the procedure.  There was another office on the corner across the way so I headed there next. Luckily I was greeted my the nicest clerk. They said my son could sit and watch so I could be seen right then! The dentist basically told me what I already knew. He scolded me for waiting so long, in the nicest way possible. What does one do with no insurance, no full time job with benefits and a partner whose company won’t honor domestic partnerships between different sex couples?  I saw no other way then to scrape by with meds and a natural garlic remedy paste I made with salt. It totally works BTW but back to the point.

The dentist offered to do the root canal and put in the filling for free for me!  I was so overwhelmed I started crying in the chair. Nice people really do exist and he is one of them for sure.  I went back yesterday and the root canal  wouldn’t work unfortunately, won’t bored you with the details. I told him just to pull the sucker out VS the $1000+ dollars I don’t have for a specialist to work on it. He pulled it out, charged me $150 and told me to use the rest of the money I had saved to fix the other problems. I have a broken tooth that the filling fell out of as well, thanks to a frozen Heath bar frosty treat. I think I need to cut back on the sugar? How does one do that though when they are surrounded by cupcakes, candy and frosting all day? I guess I better attempt to find out, or start saving another $500 bucks for more dental work! All tips and advice are welcome!

 

 

Tangled/Rapunzel cake!

Ok, so anyone who knows me realizes I really don’t like Disney. That’s right, I said it. I was never into it as a child and it’s joy still escapes me as an adult. Yes, I did take my 2 year old there whilst visiting my parents in Florida. Yes, I paid 20 dollars for like french fries and a coke. Yes, I really did dislike almost every minute of it. At least I gave it another try before publicly professing my dismay for the “magic” kingdom. Of course I know that little girls love princess, and the Disney ones are the princesses of choice. I always try to take a Disney cake and turn it into my own deconstructed version. I don’t want to put character faces on my cakes. I really, really, don’t so why do it? I won’t.

Here is a Tangled inspired cake for a sweet little ones happy birthday. I’m not a Grinch, I swear, I just like to march to the beat of my own boring drum:)