Scooby, Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

I had the pleasure of helping my good friend Joanna Park of Floral Sense plan a a little boys' Scooby-Doo birthday party. Her vision of bright blues and greens are so fun to work with, especially when it comes to decorations and the dessert table.

Joanna was super creative when planning this event and came with clever treats for the dessert table.

I created mini chocolate cupcakes... perfect size for snacking!

Joanna had some delicious meaty treats, but this beef jerky are for humans, not dogs!

I created simple white-chocolate covered Oreo cookie pops in blue to match the theme. Joanna came up with the clever idea of presenting them in delicate white tins filled with blue and green Fruit Loop cereals!

Also available were these deliciously cute mini donuts by Dough-a-Deer.

Scooby Snacks!

I experimented by adding a little twist with chocolate-covered Rice Krispies pops!

So happy these turned out well... and they taste great too!

And the centerpiece of it all.... the birthday boy's Scooby-Doo cake!

Joanna provided more pictures and details from this adorable and creative event on her Floral Sense blog.

Photos courtesy of the fabulous D.Park Photography team

Mini cupcakes: chocolate cake with whipped vanilla frosting and blue and green sanding sugars

Chocolate Rice Krispies pops: tinted white chocolate covered Rice Krispies cereal in melted marshmallows; covered with blue and green sanding sugars

Chocolate Oreo cookie pops: tinted white chocolate over double-stuffed Oreo cookies

Cake: top tier- chocolate cake with whipped vanilla frosting and covered in tinted fondant; bottom tier- yellow cake with whipped vanilla frosting and covered in tinted fondant; cake decor are made from fondant and piped with whipped vanilla frosting; Scooby-Doo candle was store bought

Thanksgiving-- Pies All Around!

Apparently I'm known as the "dessert" queen at my "in-laws" house and have unofficially been giving the job of bringing dessert during holiday gatherings. I need to declare something: I am learning as I go. There is no way am I a baker or a decorator-- this is just all fun and new to me!

So Thanksgiving comes along and I was giving the job to "pies" for my boyfriend's Thanksgiving feast. Instead of being adventurous, I opted for a simple apple pie (because I've made that one before) and pumpkin pie (because the recipe seemed easy to follow). I also made some pumpkin spice cupcakes too, but I'll go into more details about that later.

Apple and Pumpkin Pie (recipes are linked)

I should have written this post right after Thanksgiving because my memory is fading and I can't think back to what I did! The apple pie I created was exactly the same as the one I created last year for Christmas so that was simple enough. The pumpkin pie was a bit harder because it was a first time for me! I think I copied this recipe and everything turned out okay! Sorry, if I am being lazy with my post, but I really cannot remember much from that day. I just remember baking ALL DAY LONG and being covered in ingredients and smelling like pumpkin.

Pumpkin Spice with Pecans Cupcakes (see recipe below)

I got the idea of creating cupcakes that are designed like pies from this nifty book I have:

I also stole the pumpkin spice cupcake recipe from my awesome Betty Crocker cupcake cook cook.

I added my own little twist to the cupcakes though: instead of using colored candies to create the image of a blueberry or cherry cupcake, I sugar-coated and roasted from pecans and topped them off on the cupcakes! Now, my cupcakes resembles pecan pies! The sweet roasted pecans added a great taste to the pumpkin spice cupcakes! Yum!

Blueberry Cobbler, Apple Pie, and Derby Pie

My sister and her boyfriend were a bit more adventurous in their baking and decided to try make some new pies! By the end of the night, my kitchen was filled with delicious smells and covered in used bake ware, sugar, and random ingredients. The clean up was NOT fun, but luckily we were smart and wash/clean along the way.

I only got to taste the apple pie and blueberry cobbler, which tastes delicious! The blueberry cobbler was very yummy and the apple pie was perfect with French vanilla ice cream. I didn't even touch my pumpkin pie or pumpkin spice cupcakes because I was tired of the pumpkin smell from baking it all day and night.

Baking can get really tiring! I/We made four pies, a cobbler, and a batch of cupcakes in one long day. Whew! I think I'll hold off on the Christmas baking for awhile!

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes (from Betty Crocker "Just Cupcakes")

-Ingredients: 1box yellow cake mix, one 15oz can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix), 1/2cup water, 1/3cup vegetable oil, 4 eggs, and 1 1/2tsp pumpkin spice

-Heat oven to 350degrees; place baking cups

-Large bowl, beat eggs, cake mix, pumpkin, water, oil, ad pumpkin pie spice together; divide batter evenly into baking cups

-Bake 20-25mins

*Again, I added chopped pecans, which I roasted on a nonstick skillet with sugar and used tinted (brown gel) buttercream frosting for the pie-like details

Soccer Fun

First off, a birthday-shout out to my sister's boyfriend Jack!

To surprise him on his birthday, I decided to create a soccer ball cake because Jack is British and loves to watch and to play soccer. (He is actually currently on his college's team.) Because I have never created a spherical cake before, this should be interesting. I did a lot of research and decided I did not want to buy a special pan. Instead I went searching for a Pyrex glass mixing bowl, which is round enough. Due to lack of time, I was not able to find a mixing bowl and had to settle for a rounded glass Tupperware container by Pyrex.

Jack likes carrot cake and since I've never made carrot cake before, this would be a fun time to try! I loved how the carrot cake's texture and density came out! It was so yummy... like a muffin! Because it was dense, I was able to carve and shape the cake into a half-sphere without any crumbs. First, I covered the cake with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting (just because carrot cake and cream cheese HAS to go together... yum!). Once that was settled, I outlined the pentagon and hexagon patterns onto the cake. The soccer ball pattern was surprisingly hard to figure out. Then I finished by piping the black spots on the cake.

Hmmm... something is missing. I decided overcome my laziness and also pipe in the white area of the soccer ball. I was glad Miss Amy was available via text/gchat to help me decide what looks best.

The soccer ball cake looks better already! By this time, my arm is ready to fall off from all the piping. But I needed to add the grass....

And a birthday message (I was too lazy by now to pipe the words on so handwritten Sharpie will do).... and voila!

I am pretty please with my soccer ball cake. I hope Jack likes it! Shhh! It's a surprise... his birthday isn't until Thursday, April 29th.

One big downside of using buttercream... the clean-up. Such a big mess.

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I've also been meaning to post some of my other (non-edible) creations on here, but haven't found the time (or energy) yet.

This is a quick birthday card I made for Jack to go along with his cake.

I love DJ Inker. As a teacher, I think I have all of their cute fonts and a bunch of their clip-art collections. For the soccer ball in front, I wanted a 3-D sticker, but I didn't find one that I like during my one trip to Michael's Arts & Crafts this week. (I am kind of glad I don't live by a Michael's because I would be spending money there all the time!)

Cake: carrot cake with carrot-flavors bits, thick layer of whipped cream cheese frosting, and black and white buttercream icing on the outside of the cake

Card: blue, yellow, and green scrapbooking paper, mini colored brads, cotton balls, and DJ Inkers fonts and clip-art images

Bringin' Back the 1980s

I had the pleasure to help Miss Amy decorate a 3-tier (well, actually 4-tier) cake she made for her brother's wedding rehearsal dinner. The baking aspect of this cake was a ton of work! Each tier consists of 3-layers.

The decorating aspect was fun! I learned a lot about stacking multi-tiered cakes and coloring fondant. I also had a chance to play some more with fondant.

Her wedding rehearsal follows a 80s theme, which sounds so fun! Not only is the wedding party decked out in their 80s gear, they will have a rad cake to add to the celebration!

The top tier(s) is a multi-colored Rubric's cube that is in mid-twist. The second tier captures the neon bright colors that the 80s (and it is shown through their unforgettable clothing) is known for. The bottom tier features the all-time popular arcade game, Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man, with a special twist-- we made the two characters of the game dress up in wedding formal outfits to fit the occasion. Creative, huh? I liked the idea too! Also on the cake is a special fondant-cassette, which reads, "Joe & Esther's Rad Wedding". (Thank you Jon for helping us!)

I am a bit sad that my camera was not able to capture how incredible this cake looks! Also, you can barely see the Rubric's cube in this picture. Look at all the details... this is the biggest creation for me!

Everything on this cake is edible.

Boy, what a learning experience!

Cake (I need to double check with Amy for the exact details): fondant-covered white cake with special strawberries & cream filling and fondant details

Ladybug Baby Shower

One of my good friends Nicole was expecting her first baby. To help with the baby shower, I volunteered to make the edible cupcakes and non-edible diaper cake.

The diaper cake was fun to make. I enjoyed designing the cake and traveling everywhere looking for the perfect materials to decorate the cake. I was very pleased with how it turned out in the end!

I designed three different cupcakes for Nicole's baby shower. With these cupcakes, I learned how to fill cupcakes with special frosting so that there is a little treat inside each one! Each cupcake design will be part of the ladybug theme, but unique in its own way. With Amy's careful hands, we were able to make sure each cupcake were as close to perfection as possible.

The first design looks like an actual ladybug with bug eyes and cute little dots.

The second design features a tiny non-edible ladybug on a patch of beautiful green grass with green sparkles.

The last design was a simple traditional red cupcake swirl with pink sparkles for some extra oomph.

They turned out soooo adorable! And they are equally as yummy!

Diaper cake: tons of rolled up diapers, rubber bands, double-sided tape, ribbons, and decor

Cupcakes: red velvet cake with cream cheese filling, buttercream frosting, and/or sparkles, fondant, cookie icing, and plastic ladybug buttons.