Mini chocolate cupcakes decorated with over-sized dragees and fall themed fondant cut-outs literally reached new heights in my kitchen for a fall open house party this past weekend. We’ll get ‘up close and personal’ so I can show how you how I made this. It’s not as complicated as it looks. Trust me. They’re just a bunch of little ol’ chocolate cupcakes dressed up all fancy like. The number of cupcakes needed depends on the size styrofoam cone that is… [Read More]
Our power was off all morning to mid afternoon so I’m a little late in posting to wish you a happy Halloween so “Happy Halloween” at last! Late, late, late last night after we returned home from a wonderful dinner with our lovely friends I began this project- Yep, sometimes I can be a little batty when it comes to making and decorating cookies. When I’ve got an idea I’ve got to see it through. The cookies were for a… [Read More]
When making party favors for my dear friend Suzi’s birthday party hosted by her equally lovely sister, Kathi, last Saturday, I thought of what images I could capture in a cookie that reminded me of her. Specific images came to mind when thinking of her style – simple elegance, sparkle, mirrors, silver balls, purple and white. Suzi, I love having you be a sweet part of my life and the icing on my cake. (I know, corny). Wishing you many,… [Read More]
I hope you’ll allow me my ‘15 seconds, minutes or written lines of fame’ ‘cuz this is going to be one braggy blog post. It’s my story of entering the 2011 Orange County Fair Culinary Arts Division this summer. It all started with my husband who lovingly encouraged me to enter cookies I made for my niece’s wedding this past May. Those who love you are always your biggest fans. Since I had a few extra left over I thought,… [Read More]
A sweet gal emailed me after seeing my margarita cookies and wondered if I would make them for a party she was giving to honor her mom on her 50th birthday. I thought her thoughtfulness and love for her mom was so sweet that I told her I’d be happy to RSVP with my cookies. The regular and strawberry margarita cookies would be served. I wrote a post on how to decorate margarita cookies but this time I made the… [Read More]
Have you ever bought the cutest cupcake wrappers only to lose the pattern once you’ve baked the cupcake and you don’t like the gap of placing your cupcake into another wrapper once it’s baked? Me too, so I decided to test my theory. Knowing that cupcake wrappers stay together well if you don’t separate them, what about using two unseparated wrappers during the baking process? It works! The key is not to separate them otherwise they will turn out as… [Read More]
To honor and celebrate a very special recent UCLA graduate I made UCLA cupcakes for his graduation party. I started out with a new oh-so-yummy vanilla cupcake recipe, made a variation using vanilla bean paste and voila! Next, I had to lock in my colors. I fell in love with the Decco Drops I found at Williams-Sonoma (in-store) so I had to commit to using a slightly more aqua color than the true Bruin baby blue. This also meant using… [Read More]
They’re not just for Cinco de Mayo anymore. Do you like traditional margaritas or strawberry?Let’s start with the cookie garnishes for margaritas. I wanted to have a little sparkle. What better place than on the garnish?Strawberries! I used a small strawberry cutter then iced the cookies in red. While the icing was still wet I covered them with Dicso Dust in Strawberry.You must cover them completely to get this effect. The random sprinkle will look like a random sprinkle. No… [Read More]
Food photography has become a big component of blogging where recipes and techniques are shared and since I’m taking so many pictures to document my cookie making and decorating I’ve needed to find resources to help me improve.I’ve been very fortunate to find two exceptionally talented women in this field. The first is Amanda Padgett who runs Everyday Elements. She’s incredibly savvy at photography and Photo Shop Elements (PSE) and offers online workshops, tutorial videos and so much more…. [Read More]
“I have to admit it. I’ve had a little work done.””You can’t expect a girl to look this good without a little help, can you?””Sometimes I get a little, puffy, shall we say, and I need a touch of microdermabrasion.””A microplane takes care of that right away with no down time!” “I love my little round turned up nose, don’t you?” “I’ve been told my little twitch makes the boys’ ears stand straight up, but I wouldn’t know about that!”… [Read More]
Make-Ahead Frozen Buttercream Cake Decorations
Colonial Williamsburg Sweet Potato Muffins
The Best Pecan Pie and Painted Dough Cut-Outs
Decorated Ghost Cookies With Fondant
Cocktail Napkin Swap!
Staircase Decorations – Two Holidays In One
Pumpkin Spice Mini Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Pretty Pink Petal Cake – A Wilton Cake Decorating Technique
