Lemon birthday cake

my sister in law's birthday was yesterday, so I made this cake for her. i'm still terrible at smoothing the icing on the cake, but these swirlies masked the imperfections. The swirlies were time consuming, but i think worth it to hide the flaws in the cake. I'll try to think of another design that might be easier to try for next time.

My baby shower favors

I wanted to make the favors for my baby shower (which was last Sunday). The shower was a luau and I made the favors to match.

I borrowed my friend's Sizzix die cut. I've never used one of these, but I would love one!!! My friend also has a computerized one that makes the die cuts in any size you want and automatically cuts the number of die cuts you need. Someday after saving up, i'll get one of these because they are expensive!!

I glued the 2 pieces together to make the hibiscus. And i used regular paper and cut them in strips on my Fiskars paper cutter with a squiggly blade.

I made little thank you notes to put into the box with the chocolates.

I bought the chocolate from Costco.

mmmm yum. there were 4 flavors: milk, hazelnut, almond and crisp.

I put in 3 pieces of chocolate in the box with the note.

I made 50 favors

Lion birthday cake

My nephew requested that I make a lion cake for his 5th birthday party. He wanted it orange because his favorite color is orange. I used prepared icing from the store but to make sure the icing didn't melt (like it has for me in the past when i pipe different designs) i added 1 t corn startch per container of icing. it worked perfectly, it was the perfect consistency!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts....I have been making and baking lots of stuff recently but nothing new so I didn't want to bother posting something you've already seen.

Butterfly Themed Baby Shower

This weekend was my good friend's baby shower. I made the favors and two of my friends and I made the desserts for the dessert buffet. I made the chocolate covered strawberries, mini chocolate cupcakes and square cake balls. Here are a few pictures:

the favors had an assortment of Hershey Nuggets in them. I just used regular pink and purple paper. I cut the butterflies freehand and the flower was made from a punch.

I made mini chocolate cupcakes with Valhrona chocolate on top

square cake balls

Mini Pecan Pies

I have been craving pecan pie for a while now. I decided to make some mini pies.

I still haven't perfected pie crust, actually I haven't even tried yet. Too busy or too lazy. But this is my favorite pie crust that I always use when I need pie crust. The box has 2 crusts.

I was able to make 4 doz little dough balls, about an inch in diameter

I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com, i only used the filling recipe since I already had pre-made crust.

I doubled this recipe:

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup chopped pecans
  

25 minutes at 325 degrees in the oven, and they popped right out of the pan. AND so delicious!!

I have to get my sugar fix from things other than chocolate, because for some strange reason now that I am pregnant, I don't crave for chocolate anymore...sad, I know. It's ok, and I'll still eat it, but before pregnancy, I had to fight myself to not eat it with every meal and snack.