Chocolate Camera Candy Goodie Bag Favors - April 2015

I originally had planned to make these chocolate camera candies for the goodie bags at my daughter Carissa's photography themed birthday party, but unfortunately I ran out of time 😕 (you can see the cake here and some goodie bag cookies here).  We had taken pictures of my daughter with each party guest to print out and put in a homemade frame so everyone could take it home from the party, but that morning my printer decided to run out of ink. 😖 So, I decided we would just deliver the pictures to everyone at a later date (I didn't expect it to be such a later date, but better late than never, right.? 😉)  The good thing was that now I could make the camera candies and include them with the picture and frame. 😊

More details to come... 😊

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Personalized Valentine's Day Heart Cookies - February 2015

I made these personalized heart sugar cookies for my daughter Carissa to give out to her classmates and teachers at their Valentine's Day party.

💗 My Valentines 💗

More details coming soon... 😊

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Camera Sugar Cookies - November 2014

I made these camera sugar cookies to put in the goodie bags at my daughter Carissa's 10th birthday party.  To see the cake for this party you can go to this post.

I made sugar cookie dough, rolled it out, and cut out rectangles.  After they were baked and cooled I melted some chocolate almond bark and used it to pipe some simple camera details onto the cookies.

(I created my animated name at this site.)

All You Need is Faith and Trust... and a Little Bit of Birthday Cake! - November 2013

This is the Peter Pan themed cake I made for my daughter Carissa's 9th birthday.

To make this cake I baked 2 six inch cakes, 2 eight inch cakes, and 2 nine inch cakes.  I leveled them, stacked them (using bubble straws and cake boards in between for supports), and iced them.

I measured the circumference and height of each layer.  Then, I rolled out and cut to size three pieces of white fondant.  After that I wrapped the corresponding fondant around each layer of cake.

I used my airbrush food coloring drops, paint brushes (only used for cakes), and toothpicks to paint the scenes on the fondant.  I had printed out different scenes that my daughter picked out from the Peter Pan movie, and I used those to reference to as I painted.

After I was finished painting I sprinkled some gold shimmer dust on the tops of the cakes where the icing was showing to resemble pixie dust.

If I had more time I would've had more pictures on it and some of the pictures (like the mermaids) would have come out better.  Why do you ask did I not have time...?  Well, this was not the first cake I made for her birthday party.  The first cake was going to be the Big Ben clock tower with the characters on the clock hand, but that cake met an unfortunate demise. :(  So, the cake above was a starting over from scratch Plan B that began late the night before the party and finished right up until her party started.  :O

I was pleased with the way the cake turned out though, and my daughter was really happy with it.

[I may update the post with a little more details on the first cake and a few pictures, but for now it'll have to wait.  :) ]

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Pigeon Cake Pops and Light Blue Cake Balls - November 2012

So, after I made Carissa's Mo Willems themed birthday cake and her Pigeon Cupcakes to celebrate her birthday at school, I decided to use the leftover cake to make Pigeon Cake Pops and some Cake Balls for us to enjoy at home.  [I'd made cake balls before, but this was the first time I'd made cake pops, definitely a bit tricky.  These were just for fun, and good thing because some of them came out pretty funny looking, a couple aren't even pictured here.  :) ]

To make these Pigeon Cake Pops I started with the recipe found on Bakerella's website for cake pops (using light blue candy melts for my coating).

 

After the step where you dip the cake pop into the candy melts to coat it, I inserted yellow candy coated sunflower seeds into the candy coating to be the beaks.  (For the bottom half of the beak, I cut a little of the end off the sunflower seed, so it would be a little shorter than the top one.)  You have to insert the beaks quickly before the candy coating hardens.  On the cake pops with the smaller candy eyeballs (made by Wilton) I also had to put the eyes on each side before the coating hardened.  So, make sure you have everything set out and ready for each cake pop, so you can grab it and put it on quickly after you dip the cake pop.

 

For the cake pops with the larger flatter eyes I waited until the candy coating was hardened (still put your beaks on before the coating sets), and then I piped on the eyes with some white candy melts.  To get the white candy melts ready to pipe on, I heated them per the instructions on the package and put some in a piping bag with a round tip (I think it was a #3).  After the eyes hardened I used black food coloring to paint the pupils on the eyes.  On the last cake pop pictured with this type of eye, I just used one sunflower seed to make the beak.  I used a black food marker to make the line on that beak.

 

The kids enjoyed seeing the finished product.  They enjoyed eating the finished product even more, and even the funny ones still tasted good!  :)

  

 

I only ended up making about 7 Pigeon cake pops, so below are the cake balls that I made as well.

 

To make these cake balls, I just used the recipe found on Bakerella's website for cake balls.  These were chocolate cake mixed with vanilla icing, and I used light blue candy melts for the coating, topping them with white crystal sugar sprinkles before the candy coating hardened.

Yummy!  :)

(I created my animated name at this site.)

Don't Let the Pigeon Eat All the Cupcakes! - November 2012

I made these Pigeon cupcakes (the character from the Mo Willems' books) for my daughter, Carissa, to bring to school and share with her class for her birthday.  (To see Carissa's Mo Willems' themed birthday cake check out this post.)

To make these Pigeon cupcakes, I first baked chocolate cupcakes and let them cool completely before icing them with chocolate buttercream.

 

I used a light blue candy melt for the Pigeon's head. Next, I heated some white candy melts per the instructions on the package and put some into a piping bag with a round tip (I think it was a #3).  Then, I piped on the eyes and beaks.  I made some of the beaks closed and some of them opened for some fun variety.  Once the eyes and beaks had dried I used yellow food coloring to paint the beaks.  You could, of course, just use yellow candy melts for the beaks, but I had white and light blue, so I decided to just do it this way.  Then I used black food coloring to paint the pupils on the eyes and outline the head, eyes, and beaks.

 

Besides my first 2 choices of food coloring for the black on the candy melts not wanting to work :/ , these cupcakes were pretty easy and quick.  I think the finished product came out really cute!

 

Carissa really liked these cute little Pigeon cupcakes and so did her class!  :)  Yay!

(I created my animated name at this site.)