Martini Glass 21st Birthday Cake

I was asked to make my "famous" Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for Brandon's cousin's 21st birthday.  She also wanted it to look like a martini glass so I was excited to try it! 

I baked two 8" round cakes and then carved them to make the martini glass shape.  I then filled and crumb coated the cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.  I made the outer layer Vanilla Buttercream so I could get it smooth.  I also had extra cake pieces and frosting leftover, so I made Carrot Cake flavored Cake Truffles.

Superbowl Cake

Last Superbowl I made a rainbow cake.  You know the one where it looks like a plain cake with white buttercream.  Then you cut into it and every layer is a color of the rainbow.  It was a hit, so this year I had to do something better. 

This years Superbowl Cake I decided to color the bottom layers the team colors, and the top tier I made look like a football field. Yellow for the goal posts and green for the field. It was an almond cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

Red Velvet Black and White Birthday Cake

My brother-in-law, Blake, turned 25 this past January and he loves Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. His request every year! His favorite colors are black and white so I decided to just do a simple dot design and I think it turned out great.

Dulce de Leche Cupcakes

I had extra Dulce de Leche from my friend at Catarina.  I LOVE this stuff and I had to get it out of my house!  If not I will eat Dulce alll day long by the spoonfuls. 

 So I made Vanilla Cupcakes and filled them with Dulce de Leche. I then made Dulce Butterceam for on top of the cupcake.  The pretzels added a crunchy salty texture to the creamy Dulce de Leche.  The chocolate glaze on top was just for good measure ;).

 

These cupcakes I decided not to add pretzels and they were just as good!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream

This winter I was asked to do my famous Chocolate Cupcakes but with Peppermint Buttercream instead of Chocolate Buttercream.  As I was making them, I thought about what I could do to make them cuter!  So I made home-made Peppermint Bark. I used crushed up candy canes and Wilton candy melts.  They were yummy! 

Bowling night with the family. We decided to all wear the same coat!

Christmas Gift Baskets

This past December, my friend Mary at Catarina and I made some Christmas gift baskets for Car City Supercenter.  They needed over 100 gift baskets and a few more for some other offices!  It was a lot of fun making them. We made two different baskets filled with goodies. 

All of them had a variety of the following:  Dulce de Leche, Chocolate Cake Truffles, Ginger Molasses Cookies, Chocolate Covered Pretzels, Holiday Biscotti and Pecan Toffee. 

Ginger Molasses Cookies



Pecan Toffee

Holiday Biscotti (First Baking)

Holiday Biscotti (Second Baking and Candy Coating)

Pecan Toffee

Chocolate Cake Truffles

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap Finale

So a while ago I posted about a cookie swap I was taking part in. I kept thinking of a good cookie to send that would stay fresh and ship fairly well.  I settled on my my Molasses Ginger Spiced Cookies, since they have molasses in them I figured they would hopefully keep moist. The shipping deadline was December 5 and I would check my front porch every night to see if there was a special delivery!  Christmas is all about cookies so I was very excited to see what my secret fellow swappers had in store for me.  My recipients were Jessica at City in a Jar, Stacy at What the Cupcake and Toni at Kitchen Savvy Mom. I put them in some cute Christmas boxes I picked up at Hobby Lobby.

I received my three different kinds of cookies last week and they were delicious!

The first to arrive were Browned Butter with Cherries and Chocolate. The cookies came in a cute box with a lid and some Spicy Kettle Corn that I forgot to take a picture of.  They came from Nick at Macheesmo.

The second batch were Flour less Peanut Butter Toffee-Pretzel cookies in a red snowman cookie tub. They came from Leann at Tasting While Traveling.

My third and final cookie delivery were Pecan Balls.  They came in a cute tin from Nicole at Sweet Peony.

And now the recipe for my cookies!

Giant Ginger Spiced Molasses Cookies

Servings: 24

Ingredients:

2 ½ C AP Flour

2 ¼ Tsp Baking Soda

½ Tsp Salt

1 Tbls Ground Ginger

½ Tsp Ground Allspice

½ Tsp Ground Pepper

½ Tsp Ground Nutmeg

1 ½ Sticks Butter, Room Temperature

½ C Brown Sugar

½ C Gran. Sugar

6 Tbls Black strap Molasses

1 Egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. Cream butter and sugars together. Add the egg, mix well then and molasses and mix well.
3. Mix in flour mixture until just combined.
4. Use an ice cream scoop and make 24 balls.
5. Flatten dough balls in granulated sugar and put 3 inches apart on baking sheet.
6. Freeze dough balls for 15-20 minutes if they seem to soft. 
7. Bake  10-15 minutes.

This cookie exchange was soo fun!  The cookies were great and I hope that my recipients enjoyed theirs too :)  

If you are interested in the Great Food Blogger Cookie swap click HERE