Ever stop to look around you, and wonder where all the time has gone? Sure, I know what I've been doing every day - I've got the marked up "To-Do" lists to prove it - but, I still can hardly believe it's already December. I haven't even finished my Christmas shopping yet! I'm definitely not complaining about my full schedule, I just sometimes wish I could squeeze a few more hours into the day, and maybe even figure out how to slow time down during those moments I really want to savor...
Anyway, enough of me rambling! I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving and that you gobbled until you wobbled! The family and I certainly did, and I enjoyed making the desserts for this year's feast. I finally settled on pumpkin pies (of course), chocolate pies, mini cheesecakes, sugared cranberries, mini apple pies, and grape salad. I apologize for not having photos of any of the sweets I made, but I will be sharing the recipes for a couple of these in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for those!
I do have photos of cakes, cupcakes, and cake pops for you though. (I apologize in advance for the length of this post. My kitchen has been busy!) Let's get started!
Red, yellow, and green cake pops:
I'm always on the lookout for fun, inexpensive ways to display finished cake pops, and this cute cardboard box I picked up at Hobby Lobby for 99¢ was perfect. I did have to cut the top off of it and insert a couple of pieces of styrofoam to hold the pops, but it was still a perfect solution!
The cake pops were favors for the party these car themed cupcakes attended:
The cars were made from fondant pressed into a mold, then I added the black accents with a food color pen. The stoplights were made from fondant and miniature candy coated chocolates!
Usually when I make cupcakes, I either have to bake more cupcakes than I need or save the batter for a later use (luckily, I know it freezes perfectly well). But this works out to my advantage when I have a last minute order come in because I can defrost the batter and have freshly baked cupcakes in minutes!
These cupcakes were pumpkin spice with cream cheese icing and lemon with vanilla buttercream. The leaf accents were fondant that had been brushed with a little gold and green petal dust to give them added dimension.
This cake and pie aren't terribly fancy to look at, but they were the two most important baked goods I've made this last couple of weeks. They were the desserts for Madre's birthday party! The pie was a black-bottom banana cream pie and the cake was a from scratch coconut cake with a strawberry filling. Yum, yum!
Here's a fancy cake, too though. Complete with feathers and glitter!
No the feathers are not edible. Though I've heard some whispers that an edible feather can be made from rice/wafer paper, an interesting concept I may have to do more looking into, but delivery would be a nightmare because they would never survive our winds out here! The cake is a topsy-turvy style, so it was covered in fondant to give added support.
I'm not a gamer, but after tackling this next cake, I'm more familiar with this series of war games than I ever thought I would be! And, though I vaguely remembered hearing about the armed forces adopting a digital camouflage pattern, I'd never been curious enough to check it out...until it was requested for this cake. Turns out it's more of a "square" pattern than rounded shapes...makes sense, the pixels and all...needless to say it was knowledge expanding experience all the way around!
I hand cut all the silhouettes. I could have set-up the Silhouette cutter to do this for me, but I didn't want to take the time to do that. Oh, the irony...I spent over an hour cutting the pieces. Haha!
The force is strong in these next two cakes.
All the characters on both of these cakes are edible. I cut them from gumpaste then used food coloring to draw them. The side of the top cake reads "Come to the dark side - we have cookies." It was the perfect opportunity to use this phrase since the reciepent of the cake not only loves these movies, but is also a computer guru. And yes, the Yoda on the second cake is a Lego version. It was the best way I could decide to combine the movies, Legos, and the color blue all into one cake!
(We're nearly to the end...just two more cakes to go! Hang in there!)
I know I've asked this question before concerning a different character, but when did the ones I grow up with all get makeovers? I am, apparently, so behind the times! Regardless, the cake, which was all buttercream with fondant accents, turned out exceptionally well once it was finished.
And, here's the final cake of the post! Also, I've got good news...for sticking it out with me, you're a WINNER!
Of what, other than being a fantastic blog follower, I'm not sure. But who can argue with cake? This one was based on the honoree's fondness for the Wheel of Fortune slots, and yes, the coins are chocolate. You says you can't eat money?
Talk to you soon!
