Here are the recipes:

Raspberry Buttercream
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup Raspberry jelly
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-4 oz. whipping cream

Whip the butter until pale yellow and fluffy. Add salt, vanilla, and raspberry jelly and combine for 1 minute until incorporated into the butter. On low speed, add the powdered sugar until mixed in thoroughly. Add the whipping cream, 1 oz. at a time,  and return to high speed when mixed in. Whip until light and fluffy.

Raspberry Jelly
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon water

Heat and mash the raspberries and sugar over medium heat in a sauce pan. When bubbling, incorporate the lemon juice.  While it’s still hot, pour the mixture through a strainer into a second bowl separate out the seeds.  Pour the seedless raspberry mixture to the sauce pan and set heat to low. Combine the cornstarch and water and mix  into a smooth paste, then add it to the raspberry mixture. Cook over low heat until thickened and let it cool completely.

Toba Garret’s Devil’s Food Cake
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (287 grams)
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (285 grams)
3/4 cups dark brown sugar (170 grams)
1 cup dutch process cocoa (110 grams)
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
6 oz. melted semisweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and line 2 9-inch baking dishes with parchment paper covering the bottoms. Measure and add all ingredients (except the melted chocolate chocolate) into a large mixing bowl. Blend 30 seconds at low speed. Blend in the melted chocolate slowly, scraping the bowl constantly. Beat for three minutes on high speed, scraping the bowl. Spoon into pans and level with a spatula. Bake layers for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean

Colors are the key to making a simple cake really pop. Here is a close-up of the green beaded buttercream border. You can see where I used a damp fingertip to flatten the points that were left from application with the piping tip. The white polka dots are finger-flattened buttercream as well. The flowers and cake board covering are all done out of fondant.  I always like to add a finishing splash of color and polish by wrapping the cake board in ribbon. The red mirrors the top of the cake and balances the colors out a bit.

To keep things simple for this birthday cake, I used a toy doll and embellished it with some fondant decoration. The stem shooting out the top is floral wire with fondant rolled around it. I left 3″ at the bottom to insert to the cake.

To accompany the cake and develop the Strawberry Shortcake theme, I also made a few cake pops out of Rice Krispy Treats and dipped them in red chocolate with some sprinkles. They  added a little of a wow factor to the party without taking up so many hours of preparation as an ornate cake design. The packaging and display of these goodies is really what makes them something special.

It all started when my  niece told me about “the cutest” clothing line she ran into at Target with little monkeys.  I knew that she loved them for her babies, so why not use them as the theme for her shower? I took a quick trip to Target and snapped a few pictures of the clothes to get started.

I loaded the photos  onto my computer and traced them using Adobe Illustrator and made print-outs as my patterns. After that, it was a matter of cutting, tracing, more cutting and gluing. I’ll admit it, it was a couple of nights of work, but so much fun to make these little guys.

I also wanted to add a bunch of color without having to resort to crate paper streamers. By cutting large triangles out of 12″ square paper I bought at the craft store, I was able to string them together and make some really adorable pendant banners to hang all over the house.  Each sheet of paper made 6 triangles about 6″ tall and 4″ wide. I used regular old sewing thread and a needle to string them together. When the party was done, they folded into nice little bundles that I can save for use at another party.

There are a host of other ways that I applied the monkey design in preparing for the party. Once the design was set, it was really easy to copy and paste the images onto all sorts of things.

Here is a picture of all things monkey for the shower. I printed and assembled the invitations at home. I also printed my own monkey stickers and used them on the envelopes.  All of the prizes for games and favors were also labeled and tagged with matching monkey labels.

Here is a close-up of the favors. To celebrate her boy and girl twins, I carried a pink and blue theme through almost everything. The blue candies are Nutella-filled chocolate cups, and the pink ones are peanut butter filled chocolate cups. I could have left them out on a plate, but wrapping them up and putting a little tag on really made them feel like something special.

Balloons were an easy and very affordable way to get a lot of impact for little effort. I set a few bouquets around the house to really make the pink and blue effect pop.

Here’s where creativity in the kitchen set in. Wherever possible, the foods were colored to match the theme too.

I chose to make my own brunch muffins for use of the pink and blue liners, and, well…. it was just another good reason to make macarons too!

Here are the macarons how they were served at the party – all sorted by color. I made one big batch of batter and split into two before adding the food coloring.

All in all, it turned out to be a great shower. I feel a little spoiled because I got to have all the fun planning and putting things together.  Best of all, my niece was very happy with her special day and even asked to take some of the decorations home to use in her nursery. That made it worth every ounce of effort!

With a crunchy exterior and softy chewy interior, macaroons are notoriously difficult to bake. At first read the recipe seemed intimidating, but a second review gave me confidence. The original author piped her macaroons into  adorable heart shapes, but I played it safe and stuck to a simple drop-cookie shape.  I think I will try the hearts my next go around.

A Tribute to Macaroons
If you are new to macaroons, they can me made in any color and flavor combination the imagination can dream of. They are beautiful, each one having it’s own unique personality, but all sharing the same qualities of that amazing crunchy, fluffy, chewy texture. They are worth trying!

Back to the Valentines recipe
This recipe called for  an almond-flour dough combined with an Italian meringue mixture (hot sugar syrup and fluffy egg whites) to form the cookies. The filling is a cinnamon buttercream frosting that is delicious in its own right. As the author noted, the little amount of  cocoa added for a red velvet flavor in the cookies didn’t really come through. The end result tasted more of almonds and cinnamon – a very tasty combination! We served these chewy and creamy treats to our guests the day of baking and let them sit out overnight. The cookies got even more fluffy and tender the next day.

Here is the recipe from Delectable Delicousness. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Valentine Macarons
adapted from Kitchen Musings

for the TPT (tant pour tant)
300 grams almond flour
300 grams confectioner’s sugar
110 grams aged egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder
red food coloring (I used a gel coloring)

Sift together the almond flour and confectioner’s sugar. Mix in the egg whites to create the “mass” (mixture will be very thick). Add in your desired amount of red food coloring and mix well. Note: I didn’t measure the amount I used, I just kept adding until I had a bright red color, keeping in mind that the color will be diffused a bit when the Italian meringue is added.

for the Italian meringue
300 grams granulated sugar
75 grams water
110 grams aged egg whites

Bring water and sugar to a boil until it reaches 239F on a candy thermometer. Start whipping your egg whites in a stand mixer to soft peaks once your sugar/water mixture reaches 239F. Continue boiling your sugar/water mixture while simultaneously whipping your egg whites.

Once the sugar/water mixture reaches 245F, remove from the stove and let bubbles settle. Turn your mixer to low-medium speed and slowly pour in your sugar syrup mixture while continuing to beat the whites. Beat until you get soft peaks that gently food over when you turn the whisk upside down.

Preheat your oven to 350F

Fold in 1/4 of your meringue mixture into the TPT “mass” to lighten the mixture. Gently fold in the remaining meringue until the mixture “flows like magma”. Transfer to two pastry bags with a plain tip. Pipe cookies onto parchment-lined baking sheets and bake at 350F for 12-20 minutes.

Cinnamon Buttercream
adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

3/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
1/8 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, soft but cool, cut into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a saucepan, whisk the sugar and flour together. Add the milk and cream and cook, whisking occasionally, until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. (recipe states “about 20 minutes” but my mixture thickened in under 10)

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of stand mixer and beat on high, using the paddle attachment, until cool. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the butter, piece by piece, beating until thoroughly incorporated. Add the vanilla and cinnamon. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is light and fluffy. If frosting is too soft, chill in the refrigerator and then beat again until proper consistency.

These low fat bran muffins not only have two types of bran, they also have  zucchini, pumpkin, carrots and applesauce among other healthy ingredients. At 190 calories per muffin, they make for a very satisfying breakfast or morning snack paired with a piece of fruit and a nice hot cup of coffee.

A Few Baking Tips
The recipe makes 24 regular cupcake-sized bran muffins. I like to separate my batter out into 6 storage containers with enough to bake up 4 at a time and keep them in the freezer. Because these muffins are so full of fresh ingredients, the batter will spoil and deteriorate in a matter of days. Just move the container out of the freezer and over to your fridge the night before you want to bake a fresh batch.

Do not be tempted to pull these guys out of the oven too quickly. Because of the vegetables, the batter carries a LOT of moisture that has to be cooked out. I use the toothpick method to test for doneness. When it comes out clean from the center, I bake them another 5 minutes. I assure you, these muffins always manage to come out very moist and rich.

The Recipe

Makes 24 servings. 190 calories per serving.
This makes a LOT of batter and will nearly fill the bowl of an electric mixer.

1 1/2 cups All-Bran Cereal Buds
2 cups Fiber One Cereal
1 cup whole grain oatmeal
1 cup boiling water
1 cup finely shredded zucchini
1/2 cup finely shredded carrot
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 can pumpkin
3 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice
3 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
2 tablespoons molasses
3 cups flour
2 cups low-fat buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix bran cereals in a large bowl with the boiling water and let sit (it should turn thick and mushy after a few minutes). Meanwhile beat the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Except for the bran mixture, carrots and zucchini, beat in all other ingredients. Next add the bran mixture. Incorporate the shredded carrots and zucchini until just mixed in evenly.  Divide evenly into 24 muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin center comes out clean. Bake an additional 2-5 minutes to make sure muffin centers are not too moist.  Enjoy!

Each box is labeled with a different month to tell  the bride which box to open. There is also one additional box for the day before the wedding with something a little extra special.  I printed these labels on my computer, cut them into long strips, and wrapped them around the boxes. The hardest part is choosing the right colors and design. The assembly is a snap.

The wreath is made from a wood base, bought from a local craft store, and wrapped tightly in satin ribbon. The boxes are individually decorated then attached with a hot glue gun. It is held up by a small loop of sturdy fishing string tied around the base.

The best part of making this wedding wreath was assembling the boxes and deciding what to put into each one. Here you can see a sample of a note that I included to accompany a gift in each box. Not every box has a gift per se;  some are merely notes from the heart, bits of advice, even poetry and comical notes about weddings.  I also tried to stuff a tasty piece of chocolate into each box that afforded me the space. Who doesn’t like to get come chocolate every now and then?

The first month of this calendar has a one-year subscription to a bridal magazine to help her get started with the planning process. If you want make your own wreath, the options are limitless. Include notes from other family members. Give her something old, something new, something borrowed and something new.  Collect items of historic value from your family to hand down to the bride. Think of her favorite activities and things and include gift certificates.

In designing the wreath, I chose colors and a style that matched what my sister had chosen for the wedding. This way I knew it would be something that was in line with what she would like and treasure in connection with the whole experience of planning the wedding. If make a wreath, be sure to consider the bride’s choice of colors  and wedding style.

Here is a photo of Martha Stewart’s Christmas gift-box wreath that first inspired my wedding “advent” wreath for my sister. It gives you another idea of how it might come together with different colors and a different number of boxes.

In fairness, the preparation to make these guys was quite a bit of detailed work that didn’t  lend itself to kid craft time. The tracing and cutting of the pieces required a bit of concentration.

If you want to give this a try at home, you can download the pattern here!

For adding a whimsical touch to at Thanksgiving table, these turkeys are the perfect touch.  Each turkey takes on its own personality as the pieces and colors come together a bit differently for each one. The name cards are not glued on, so they are interchangeable if using for multiple events.  They have been a great hit with my family so far this season.

Here is the back side of the turkeys. I cut a second body shape to glue on the  back side and cover up the base of the feathers that were glued all around the belly. I also chose to leave the toilet paper ring as-is for time’s sake. You could easily cover it or make the rings out of another color. They are simply glued on.

If you missed it above and want to make these at home, I put together a pattern that you can print out and use a guide. Download it here. I would LOVE to hear your feedback if you find it helpful.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The design process was really fun. The bride wanted a simple and elegant cake that had a modern style. Twisting the layers and adding a few glam decorations like the gum paste lilies and a silver glitter letter “L” as the topper  kept the design both sleek and interesting. The “L” was made from gum paste that I cut with a sharp blade and let dry overnight and covered with edible Disco Dust. You can buy it in almost any color at your local bakery supply store.

Here’s how it came together:

Days before the cake was started, I made the gum paste lilies.  If you’ve read my past entries about cake decorating, you know what a huge fan I am of gum paste. It handles very easily and dries rock hard. I’ve found so many uses for it. This time, however, I stuck to traditional flower making. I followed the directions from a book and made these in one night.

Here you can see a bit of the process. A ball of gum paste is attached to a piece of floral wire and shaped into the stem. I painted it with brown food coloring and sprinkled it with corn meal to recreate the look of pollen. The petal itself was cut from a cookie cutter and ruffled on the edges by rolling a metal ball gum paste tool along the edges.

Here are the lilies all assembled and hung to dry overnight. I made all of these in one evening.

Here’s a tip when it comes to baking large-scale cakes. Place a rose nail in the center of the pan to conduct heat through the middle of the batter. This helps the cake to bake more evenly and avoid any raw centers or overdone edges. It also helps it to bake with a nice flat top as opposed to a domed center.

When assembling square cakes, the trimming and layering process must be done meticulously.  Getting each cake level and square proved to be very difficult, but worth it in the end. In this photo, the filling was applied by first piping the border with buttercream. This prevents the filling from oozing out the sides of the cake later on.

Once stacked, each cake is sealed with a very thin application of buttercream frosting and refrigerated to set up for a second coat followed by fondant.  I love doing this thin layer first because you don’t have to worry if crumbs get mixed in. Once refrigerated to harden a bit, this thin layer  gets covered with a second layer of buttercream that stays clean and smooth. This first buttercream coat is also a great time to refine the shape of the cake and smooth out anything that is not level and square.

Once each cake was frosted and covered with a nice white layer of fondant, it was time to work on the details. Here are a few tools that I used to apply edible pearl dots to each side of the cake. I created and printed out a few templates and held the paper to the side of each cake as a guide. Making a small poke with a tooth pick left a small mark on the fondant that I could could cover up as I applied the pearl dots.

Here is one last shotof the finished cake. As usual, the cake had its imperfections, but I was really pleased with the results.  The best part was sharing it with the bride and groom!

I started by sketching some different leaf shapes inspired by the trees around our neighborhood. You can also look up some clipart and use those as a template. I like to trace a full sheet of leaves and cut 3-4 sheets at a time.

The next step is cutting the butcher paper in to a long and wide strip for the trunk and several small strips for the branches. Rather than rectangular strips, they should be cut more like long triangles. This will help to create a branch effect that gets smaller as it grows out from the tree trunk. You can hold up the paper to your wall to measure and get an idea of how long to cut the paper. Once cut, crunch and wrumple the paper pieces  to create a rough texture that simulates tree bark.

To build the tree, start with the trunk. You’ll use lots of masking tape to adhere it to the wall.  I generally form the trunk with my hands, scrunching and twisting it to make it get smaller as it reaches the top of the tree. As a general rule of thumb, give it a few twists and turns to change the angle, rather than making a straight line. Very few trees grow perfectly straight.  Follow by building out branches from the trunk, starting with the largest pieces first and using short little pieces to branch out from those. Tree branches grow just like our our arms that connect to smaller hands and on out to even smaller fingers at the ends.

Special Note on Masking Tape:
I discovered that masking tape comes in a a variety of  ”stickiness”  levels. If your tape is not particularly strong, you may find as I did that the branches will be a constant problem falling off the wall. This is no fun, so be sure to buy some really sticky tape.

Once your tree trunk has been built, its time to attach the leaves. I like to mimic how a real tree turns its color from the outside in. The core has a few green leaves that transition to the bright oranges and reds on the tips. Have fun experimenting with the colors! I think it would be really fun to do a whimsical tree in a girls room that is done in shades of pink and purple, maybe even with a white tree trunk. If anyone comes up with their own variation, I’d love to see photos!

Waiting eagerly outside the store, each of us snuggled with our newly purchased copies of her book. The crowd was a buzz with excitement as we swapped baking stories and flipped through the book’s pages of advice and inspirations.  It was the most enjoyable line-waiting experience I’ve ever had!

Anticipation brewed as the time drew near.

The time came to meet Bakerella, and we were all invited to cram into the store and share a short Q&A time. I, along with every other person there, was busy juggling my cell phone between taking pictures and typing text notes as questions were answered from the Cake Pop fountain of knowledge. Who better to get advice from!

Books signed and stored safely away under our arms, most of us fell victim to the whimsical displays of Cake Pop candies, books and baking supplies that were scattered throughout the store.  These rainbow candies were almost more than I could resist.

I could spend hours pouring over the baking supplies at Williams Sonoma. These were just a few items from their cupcake supply displays.

Here’s a shot of the book. You’ve got to take a look and get a copy for yourself!