Taco Twosday cake

My daughter turned 2 this past May and since her birthday was Cinco de Mayo weekend, we threw her a Taco Twosday party. This was a really fun cake to make. I used this tutorial, and there were some really great ideas for the toppings. The cheese is made by mixing shredded coconut with orange food dye, and I found this small package of fondant that was perfect for cutting into squares for the tomatoes. “The ground beef” is a mixture of crushed Oreo cookies and buttercream frosting.

The most challenging part of this cake was smoothing out the frosting for the taco shell.

I thought this cake wouldn’t be enough for our party, but it ended up feeding a lot of people since it is so wide. For serving, I cut the cake across so each slice contained both shells and the middle.

Someone can’t wait to dive into this cake!

This was definitely a fun addition to our taco party and months later, my daughter is still talking about it!

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Bubble Guppies tiered cake

My nephew turned 2 this past February, so this post is a LONG time coming! But I’m currently on maternity leave after having baby #2, so I can finally catch up on things. Since this was only the second cake I had made in a while, buttercream waves were not only perfect for the theme, but also quite forgiving. I crushed graham crackers in the food processor to make the sand (a trick I love because it looks great and tastes awesome). The bubbles were gumballs and chocolate pearls that I swiped from a candy buffet at a party I had attended a few weeks before (very lucky timing!). My favorite are the sugar sea shells that I also used for the Moana smash cake I made a few months prior.

The trickiest part of making this cake was the Bubble Guppies characters. I decided to make them as sugar cookies. I bought these 3D printed Bubble Guppies cookie cutters and they were very nice to use. But because they were so detailed and required so many colors of royal icing, they were very time consuming. I was a bit out of practice in icing the cookies, but overall I think they resembled the characters fairly well.

I had never made a large 2-tiered cake before, but it turned out really well. I filled the cake with banana filling, but I definitely would use more filling next time. The filling tasted great, but it wasn’t all that noticeable.


Like my Christmas trees, I always make sure to decorate the back!

Overall, I was happy with how this cake turned out. I’m looking forward to learning the theme for this year’s party so I can get started planning his cake!

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Moana Smash Cake for a Friend’s First Birthday

Now that I’m a mom and I have friends that are also moms, I have even more reason to make cakes. So after a few years, I’ve made a comeback! Seriously, the last decorated cake I made was a Christmas cake in 2014! It’s been way too long.

So when our friends Maggie and Doug asked me to make a smash cake for their daughter Elena’s first birthday, I was so happy to dive in! They wanted a Disney’s Moana cake to go with their theme, and I had never seen the movie. But after a little Googling I had some inspiration.

With my work and travel schedule, I didn’t have time to make the trimmings for the cake, so I bought them online (thank goodness for Amazon!). The Moana figure was nicely made. I didn’t think she would stand on the cake, so I opted to put her in front. I found these amazing sugar sea shells that matched the frosting color perfectly. The sand is made of crushed graham crackers. Definitely a fun addition for kids.

The cake was made with a tried and true recipe. For the frosting, I used Wilton gel coloring in Sky Blue and divided the frosting into 3 bowls. I made each bowl progressively darker to get an ombre look. I used this tutorial for making the frosting waves. The cake was 6 inches, so I had some extra batter left over and made some matching cupcakes. Believe it or not, I actually had the tropical cupcake liners leftover from another project.

Overall, I was really happy with how the cake came out, and I think the guest of honor liked it as well!

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fudge

Well, this post is about 6 months overdue…I made teenage mutant ninja turtle themed fudge for my nephew’s first birthday back in February. My original ideas was to make a pizza themed cake or cake pop. But I needed something that I could make for 100 people, and something I could make in advance since I was traveling for work prior to the party. So I settled on fudge and it turned out great!

I made white chocolate fudge, and colored it with green and yellow food coloring.  I bought assorted red, orange, purple, and blue sugar and sprinkles and sprinkled it on the fudge while it was still wet. After cutting fudge into 2″ squares, I secured a sugar TMNT face on each square with royal icing. Lastly, I placed them in baggies and tied the top with a coordinating color ribbon.

These were super fun to make, and low stress. They are also very versatile. You can change the theme easily by using different sugar toppers and changing the color scheme.

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Pizzelle cookies with old fashioned iron

Pizzelle4I can’t believe it’s been over a year since my last post!  I haven’t baked much in the past  year and a half, but that’s about to change. With my new little one, I expect to be baking for all her birthday parties! And I hope to teach her as soon as she is old enough.

For Christmas, I attempted to make Pizzelle, a wafer-thin Italian cookie that I’ve enjoyed for years when spending Christmas with my husband’s family. I inherited his grandmother’s old fashioned Pizzelle iron, that you use on the stove top. I was super scared to burn myself, but it wasn’t hard at all once I got the hang of it.

The key is get the iron super hot, then lower the flame so the cookies do not burn.  Then add a scoop of batter (I use a cookie scoop). I keep flipping the iron every 10 seconds and after about 30 seconds I open it up to check the cookie. The cookie should be golden brown, and should come off the iron easily with a fork. If it is still floppy, then close the iron and keep flipping for 10 second increments.

Pizzelle2Pizzelle5Pizzelle1Pizzelle3Then carefully lay them out over paper towels to let them dry out. They can be stored in large foil trays, and just cover with foil when you are transporting them. Otherwise they can get soggy.

Pizzelle6Pizzelle7Pizzelle8Your house will smell amazing, and it is a great way to get into the holiday spirit!

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