Firetruck

‘lil Hobbit Hole

My Gingerbread Cottage

TaDa! All my research had to lead up to something, right? So here is my little gingerbread house.

And here’s the back:

My main elements were clearly the marshmallow snow, mini m’n’ms for the wreath and tree lights, a chocolate chip pathway, candy cane sides, but my favorite is the roof! I made the shingles out of Big Red Wrigley’s gum. I made the tiles round with a melon baller.

I had a lot of fun making this! If you want to do your own, I used the recipe from Sweetopia that was featured in my last post. I was surprised how well the gingerbread kept it’s shape. I definitely recommend it.

If I were to do this over, I’d pay more attention to the seams. If you notice in the photos I posted in my last post, most of the gingerbread wall seams were covered by something decorative, like shell piping, or decorative candies. I not only didn’t think about thickness and seams when deciding on my template, but didn’t hide them once the house was constructed. Tips for the future!

Merry Christmas, all!

I’m going to be taking a brief hiatus, as I am moving to Austin, TX in the next few weeks. I am shocked how much there is to do yet! But never fear, I will be back.

First Snow = Whiskey Cheesecake

First snow of the season here in good ol’ Colorado! Know what I thought the chilly weather needed? Some whiskey cheesecake of course!

This little sucker is a brown sugar cheesecake made with a generous helping of whiskey, a pecan crust, and a hard caramel overlay. Some silky, some crunchy. This lil’ dude knows what’s goin’ down.

Thank you, snow, for letting me relish your coldness so I can go and enjoy Mexico that much more.

Bet you can’t wait for some awesome pictures of confections for Dia de Los Muertos, can you? ‘Cause that’s happening when I get back.

Till then!

A Slice of Tree Cakes

Look at what I’ve been working on! I did these tree cakes for a Rotary event this past Saturday. It was held at Arrowhead Golf Club, which is just a beautiful setting.

I handmade the mushrooms and leaves out of fondant. The toadstool mushrooms’ spots I hand piped with royal icing. I also hand piped the tree rings and the bark.

I made nine of these cakes, though I’m only showing one. Each one had it’s own mushrooms and leaves. I did different kinds of leaves, though you can’t see them in this picture. Sorry! I’ll have to do some more.

The cakes were pumpkin with chocolate frosting.

Enjoy!

A Very Hungry Caterpillar

More birthdays! I just love birthdays. This is for my friends’ son’s first birthday and the theme is from one of my favorite books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

And I had a very hungry caterpillar on my hands, indeed. Okay, maybe not a caterpillar but cute enough to be one.

It was a cinnamon cake with buttercream frosting and an edible fondant caterpillar.

I had a lot of fun doing this one! Happy Birthday Hansy!

A Chocolaty Birthday

Happy Birthday to my dear friend Kyle.

This is a dense chocolate cake with a light chocolate frosting and lots o’ little chocolate curls that were made with love. I also really enjoyed spreading chocolate all over my counter. Somehow, it’s very satisfying.

If you are looking for a really good chocolate cake recipe, I found mine at Poires au Chocolat. Her cake is quite beautiful. And she tells you how to make it that beautiful. I have made a whiskey cake like hers is, but I find that instead of making the whiskey simple syrup, drizzling just straight whiskey on the cake has a more awesome (and boozy) effect.

A Tea Party To Remember!

This past week my Great Grandmother turned 95! I know, impressive, right?

Anyway, to celebrate her graceful, elegant, beautiful self, my mom put on a tea party and I baked some goodies.

Awhile ago my sisters and I dug through countless antique stores for a mix-matching of tea cups and saucers. We also found that yellow tea stand in the middle on our hunt.

Along with our tea sandwiches we had shortbread cookies and raspberry mini muffins (shown on the top and second level), as well as blueberry scones and cream puffs (on the bottom). I also made lemon curd for whatever you wanted to slab it on. Which, for me, was everything.

Happy Birthday Grandma!