Kyra's Carnival

Please excuse the background (it's the back of my car!) This cute cake was for a little girl celebrating her 4th birthday with a carnival themed party.

Close ups:

Fondant popcorn!!!

Butterflies and Buttercream

I found these butterfly cupcakes pictures that I hadn't posted yet and thought I'd share. Like most decorating projects they are not difficult to make--just time consuming. All you do is draw right and left wing shapes with a dark marker on a piece of paper. For each butterfly, just lay waxed paper or parchment over your template and use dark chocolate candy melts for the border and the color of your choice to fill.

These cupcakes are frosted with has become my go-to, easy buttercream recipe. It is different from most powdered sugar buttercreams in that it is not overly sweet. The taste and texture is more similar to a Swiss or Italian meringue buttercream; but it is soooo much less work.

I found the recipe here. My only modification is to add an extra cup of powdered sugar. If you really don't like sweet icing, try it with just 2 cups to start. You can always add more. Hope you enjoy!

Less Sweet More Buttery Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup warm milk (I usually use 2%)
1/4 cup cold heavy cream
salt to taste (optional)
vanilla or almond extract (optional)

Cream butter and powdered sugar until combined. With mixer running pour in the warm milk and mix to combine. The mixture may now appear curdled. With mixer still running pour in cold cream. Turn mixer up to a high setting and beat until the icing comes together. This sometimes takes several minutes. Don't worry it will eventually come together.

Dance Recital Cake

Mabry had her first dance recital on Saturday and I couldn't let the event pass without a special cake. I kind of threw this together while I was making the monkey cake in the previous post. It was inspired by one of her costumes:

Here is Mabry backstage in this costume:

The recital was so special. She danced to "Do Re Me" from The Sound of Music, a really sassy song called "Mama I'm a Big Girl Now", and "Yellow Polka Dot Bikini." Her teacher, Miss Teffany, did an amazing job. The recital was quite the production! For any one in the Corpus area: we highly recommend Teffany's Dance Studio in Calallen!

Mod Monkey

This first birthday cake was inspired by the "Mod Monkey" plates and decorations used for the party. The birthday boy's mom emailed me a link to the plate and we went from there. The top and bottom tiers were vanilla and the middle chocolate. I also delivered a little vanilla smash cake iced in buttercream so that the birthday boy could make a big mess! Happy 1st birthday Logan Gage and thank you to your sweet mama for letting me make your cake.

Frog Class Cake

Mabry volunteered me to make a cake for her Mother's Day Out end of year party. She was in the frog class so we thought a frog cake might be fun. I used Rice Krispie treats to make the head and then sculpted chocolate cake for the body. The kids screamed when they saw it!

The cake was served with lily pad sugar cookies:

I love my cut out cookie recipe. It is so easy, so good, and it makes a ton of cookies. They are shortbread like in texture with a great buttery flavor. Justin and Mabry like to eat them plain, un-iced. In fact, Justin refers to them as "the devil's cookies"! They are the type of sweet you can eat a ton of because they aren't overly sweet and rich...very dangerous.

The recipe came with a copper cookie cutter I ordered online and I am very grateful to have it. I have tried many others; but this is my favorite so far. Hope you enjoy it to!

Big Batch Sugar Cookies

2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
6 cups flour
1 t baking powder
1 t salt

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients and add to butter mixture. Stir to combine. Chill in large pancake shapes wrapped in parchment paper for 1 hour or overnight. Preheat oven to 350. Cover baking sheet with parchment. On surface dusted with powdered sugar, roll and cut dough into shapes. Bake for 8-10 minutes until just beginning to brown around edges.

Notes: I usually chill or freeze the cut out cookies on the baking sheets until they are nice and cold prior to baking. This helps the shapes stay cleaner and minimizes spreading.

When I decorate cookies, I usually pipe a border with royal icing and use a glaze made of powdered sugar and half and half or milk to fill in the border.