Meringue Mushrooms and Ghosties!

Ok, this is an INCREDIBLY late post, but whatever. I made these beautiful, LIGHT, crispy meringue ghosts and mushrooms for fun, and to go atop my Halloween B-Day cake last October (my b-day cake was not really anything to really show off, so I'm not, except these first two pics are the top of the cake which was fun). I love meringue. I also love the warm light from lit candles on top of a birthday cake!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Yowza! Many sweet things have been made, but not documented. I made some beautiful cut-out sugar cookies last weekend (two batches) that have almost all but disappeared. Some went to neighbors to spread a little Christmas cheer, but most went down Aaron's belly. Anyway, I made this lovely cake for my lovely friend Joyce for her birthday. Coconut cake with coconut-cream-cheese icing.

Happy Mother's Day!

Lemon cake for my mom! The icing was a light lemon buttercream, filled with luxurious tart lemon curd. I made all the little flowers, the butterfly, and leaves too. 'Twas delicious. Click on the pics to get a detailed look!

Happy Birthday Mike!!!

This is the 2nd birthday cake for Mike that I have made! These cake designs happen organically; I always tell myself I need to plan the design, but I find it much more fun to just start and see where I end up. Anyway- I was thinking stars for Mike. I had original plans for the cupcakes on top, but ended up carving them into stars. And somehow the whole "happy birthday Mike" thing turned into a moon. And I put sparkle dust on the stars, and the top of the cake (don't know if you can tell, but it shimmered!)

Psych

This was a fun, new cake to make! Inside is a carrot cake, iced with a white chocolate cream cheese icing. Mmmmmmm- white chocolate cream cheese.....

Argyle

Love Nancy for always ordering from me! This is a chocolate 10" cake with vanilla buttercream, for three birthdays. Since they're all men, I thought of my dad and the argyle socks we always got him for Christmas, which inspired the pattern. Remember, you can always click on these pictures to get the large, detailed pic.

Cake for Nancy!

Same order- a 10" chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing. I gave her a piece of Aaron's lemon cake to maybe change her mind... :) I decided to decorate it more elaborately than usual, with all this time on my hands...

Happy Birthday Aaron!

This was a delicious vanilla-lemon cake I made for Aaron's birthday! In the center, there's a tart lemon curd filling, the frosting is a light, fluffy lemon butter cream (soooooo good, and I don't even like lemon)all intersected by a vanilla cake. It's finished and decorated elegantly with the French "sotas" (French lace) technique.

What dry spell?

Here's a cake I created for myself and my wonderful birthday which falls on Halloween. My intentions were to create flowers in a Halloween palate (yes, those are green roses), but as fondant tends to mess with colors, especially after drying, they didn't quite come out the way I saw in my head. Nevertheless, I think the whole thing turned out spectacular, and personally, I'd rather shellac it and put in on the shelf than eat it... but no one else feels that way :) So- to get to the specs on the cake, it's a chocolate cake with a chocolate filling, iced in smooth, marvelous buttercream with chocolate accents.

Congratulations Izzy and E!

I was asked to cater my close friends’ wedding reception. I love to cook, and I specialize in special diet/ dietary restrictions (such as gluten-free in this case), and cook (and eat) vegetarian foods exclusively. I was SO thankful for this opportunity and had so much fun with every aspect of the catering- from planning the menu, to shopping for food, to making everything from scratch (except the polenta and bread-bread was for those fortunate enough to eat gluten) to pitting and stuffing over 100 cherry tomatoes only two hours before the event (still had to get ready!) to insure freshness. My philosophy behind the dishes I prepared was to introduce people to exciting, flavorful gluten-free vegetarian foods, that aren't boring, or bland. The party turnout was around 50(?) people and I received many compliments, each person seemed to have a different favorite. Here are some pictures I took of the dishes; better pictures are coming soon (as I was a little shaky while taking these…)

Polenta topped with sun-dried tomato jam and herbed goat cheese- this also shows the crostini topped with sun-dried tomato jam and herbed goat cheese

Roasted red pepper and feta topped zucchini cups

Walnut-pesto stuffed cherry tomatoes

Tropical fruit salad

Chocolate hazelnut meringue mushrooms