Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

A beautiful little girl in our playgroup was turning 3, and we were invited to her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday party to celebrate with her. The cake I made was rich chocolate cake layered with cherry filling and vanilla buttercream icing YUM! Happy Birthday Kenzie!

Oh Baby!

My neighbor is about to have a new grandbaby, and for her daughter in law's shower they were going with a modern look to match the invitations. This was a fun cake to make, and I really love the color scheme they picked! The cake was Italian Cream cake (buttermilk cake with pecans and coconut) with Raspberry filling and cream cheese icing. What a delicious combo!

Fiesta

My son's school had their annual fundraiser this past week and the theme was Fiesta! I donated a spread of desserts including chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese, raspberry buttercream and vanilla icings, key lime cupcakes with cream cheese icing, chocolate peanut butter truffle pops, red velvet cake truffles, and lemon cream truffles. It was a fun event for a great school!

Chocolate Cupcakes with chocolate butterfly wings and Vanilla Buttercream

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Cream Cheese Icing

Cake Truffles

Buttermilk Cake, homemade Lemon Curd and Whipped Cream covered in white chocolate

Milk Chocolate covered Peanut Butter Truffle Pops

Birthdays

I have been lucky enough to have made wonderful friends here in Austin. One friend in particular has been spreading the word about my dinners and cakes like wildfire. I have gotten so many referrals from her and I truly appreciate it. Becca, you're the best!! So when she called with a last minute request I was more than happy to help. It was for her friend's birthday and she requested a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and she asked for blue and pink to be incorporated into the design. To be sure it didn't look like a baby shower cake I went with fuchsia gum paste flowers that I painted with gold luster dust and a modern looking blue and white ribbon at the base.

Easter Weekend

Last weekend was full of fun. We had family in town visiting for Easter, Saturday was my birthday and I got to choose exactly what kind of cake I wanted. I went with a yellow butter cake with homemade lemon curd and raspberries in the middle layer with a raspberry cream cheese icing. It was delicious and perfect for spring! If you have never tried lemon curd before give it a try. The name doesn't do it justice, it's absolutely delicious!

Bunnies and Babies

It has been a busy week around here! I hosted our neighborhood bunco and decided to do an Easter-y dessert. At Michaels a couple weeks ago I saw these adorable eddible bunnies, and just had to get them. They went perfectly on these peanut butter cream cheese truffles with a white chocolate bottom and milk chocolate top. They were perfectly bite sized to eat while we played.
Today my mom's group got together for a baby shower playdate. Knowing that our friend is having a girl I went with a pink raspberry cream cheese buttercream on my favorite chocolate cake. My favorite flavor combo is chocolate and raspberries, and these were divine! Good luck Erin, we can't wait to meet our newest "sprout"!!

Mango, Avocado and Black Bean Salsa

Mango used to be one of the things on my "I wont eat it" list along with pears, organ meats and Spam. For some reason I thought I hated them and now I'm wondering why I ever thought that. Luckily on a Mexican cruise with the husband a few years ago I got a mango margarita and it was absolutely delicious. I guess if you mix anything with enough tequila it will make it taste great right?


Mango, Avocado and Black Bean Salsa

I love the sweet and salty combo of this. Guajillo chili powder is pretty spicy, so if you don't like too much heat you can omit it or use your favorite milder chili powder.

1 large clove garlic, minced
1/4 c cilantro
1/4 c lime juice
1/8 c olive oil
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp guajillo chili powder
black pepper to taste
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 mango, peeled and diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/4 c minced red onion

2 avocados, diced

Whisk together garlic, cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, salt, cumin, chili powder and pepper in a large bowl. Add black beans, mango, bell pepper and onion and toss until coated with the dressing. Cover and chill at least 30 minutes. when ready to serve add avocado being sure not to over stir and break up the avocado pieces. Serve with chips, on tacos or as a topping for grilled meat or fish.

50th Wedding Anniversary

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to do a cake for a couple that was celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. I was so happy to be able to do it, and it was fun to do an adult cake for a change. The cake was Italian Cream Cake with Cream Cheese icing. Italian Cream cakes can be a rather heavy cake sometimes but the recipe I used really lightened it by dividing the egg whites and beating them to stiff peaks and then folding that into the buttermilk cake batter with toasted pecans and coconut. I was so happy with the flavor of this cake mixed with the rich cream cheese icing. The 50 topper was found at Michael's and I handmade the carnations with white gumpaste and painted the tips with gold luster dust to give it a really pretty gold shine.

Cake Truffles

Cake truffles or cake balls are popping up everywhere I look lately and I really love them. They are bite sized, delicious, and when I make them I love to make a variety of flavors for people to try. Red Velvet with cream cheese, Strawberry Shortcake, Chocolate with Vanilla Buttercream, Mint Chocolate, Tiramisu.........the possibilities are endless!


This Monday was The Bachelor finale and I was going to a "Sweet and Spicy" (Tenley being sweet and Vienna being spicy) party for us all to watch the big proposal. When the invite said to bring something sweet or spicy I knew these truffles would be perfect for my something sweet. Too bad Jake picked the "spicy" one!

I went with chocolate cream cheese and strawberry shortcake flavors this time. I hope the girls enjoyed them as much as I did!

Bunches of Basil

A couple weeks ago I went to Costco for three things. Of course I left with a whole lot more than just three measly things, as always. Costco seems to be impulse buy central, and this trip was no exception. They always seem to have something that you've never seen there before and you just can't pass it up. This trip's indulgence was an insanely large pack of fresh basil. I love fresh pesto and freeze batches of it in small containers to use for a quick pasta or sandwich spread whenever I need it. After I made a large batch of it the pack of basil looked like it was still full, so I decided to try to find something new to do with it.

I found a recipe for a tomato basil vinaigrette on epicurius that sounded great so I decided to try it. This is absolutely the best dressing I have ever made. I made four batches of it, and it is already all gone! I used it as a marinade for grilled chicken, which was fabulous and I used it warm on pasta and grilled vegetables instead of spaghetti sauce and as dressing for a pasta salad with Israeli cous-cous. I made a couple changes to the original recipe, so here's my version:

Tomato Basil Vinaigrette
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup (packed) fresh basil
1/4 cup oil packed sun dried tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup oil from sun-dried tomatoes
black pepper

Process all ingredients in a food processor until smooth

Apple of my Eye

My son loves apples. For a while, when he was younger, he thought they were balls to throw around the house or roll on the ground. Frequently we would find petrified apples in the toy basket, behind the couch or under the TV stand. Now that he's older he realizes that they are actually there to eat, not practice in the backyard with. For some reason he really likes the first bite or two of an apple. After that he loses interest and leaves it wherever he is to go on to more exciting things. I really hate wasting food, so when I saw a bag of baby apples at the store I thought it would be perfect for him. They were only big enough for a couple bites each and I wouldn't be stuck eating half chewed apples or finding them in strange places weeks later. Well, as you could guess, of course he is not interested at all in the baby apples and has not touched one since I bought them. In trying to come up with something to do with all these apples before they went bad I remembered a crock pot recipe for apple butter I had seen a long time ago. I looked up a couple different recipes and went my own direction with it to fit what I already had on hand at home. This recipe was so easy and I loved the way it made the house smell all day! It is great on toast, english muffins and I even used it on waffles this morning instead of syrup.


Crock Pot Apple Butter

12 baby apples, cored and quartered
2 pears, cored and quartered
1 c canned apple pie filling
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 c brown sugar
cooking spray

Coat crock pot with cooking spray. Place all ingredients in pot and turn on lowest setting. Stir occasionally and allow to cook for 10-15 hours. Mash with a potato masher, or use an immersion blender to puree for a smoother consistency. Makes about 4 cups.