~Sweet Dreams~

I was MIA...but now I am back...

2011-10-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

A few of the things I made in the last year!

Red Velvet Cake for Jake's 16th Birthday

Panda Cupcakes for Jake's Birthday

Go Cougars!

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

Stars and Stripes Cupcakes

Cookies on a stick for AHS Cheer

Mast 2010 Open House Bake Sale

Sour Cream Coffee Cake Cupcakes

Momona Pie

2011-10-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

I was given a challenge by my favorite co-worker about 24 hours before he needed a homemade pie. He didn't want an everyday pie, as he was attending a Pie Party. He has lived in Hawaii for several years and brought up Okinawan Sweet Potato Pie. We looked few several and couldn't find one that fit within our time restraint and seemed delicious. After much searching, we took a few recipes and combined them to make our very own Momona Pie. The crust is a macadamia nut short bread crust and the filling is infused with coconut milk to bring the tasty tropical delight through out the pie. It is not overwhelming, I typically do not eat coconut, and I loved this!

Ingredients Pie:
2 cups of mashed Okinawa (purple) sweet potatoes
1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature (not melted!)
1/4 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup of honey
2 room-temperature eggs
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup of coconut milk
1 tsp of vanilla
1/4 tsp of salt

First, peel the potato and cut it into chunks about the size of a small egg. Boil the chunks until they turn soft, then drain and mash them until they're smooth. If you don't have a mixing machine (and I don't) you can smush the potato chunks through a mesh strainer with the back of a spoon. It's a workout for the arms, but it gets the job done. However you do this, at the end you should have two cups of potato.
Preheat the oven to 325. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. If the butter is at room temperature, it'll easily be soft enough to mix up. Add the honey, mix it up, then add the eggs and mix some more. When that's smooth whip in the potatoes, Again, mix until smoothish. Finally, add the vanilla, salt, milk, and cream, and mix yet some more, until it's pretty smooth.

Ingredients for Crust
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
1/8 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a mixing bowl, combine sugar and flour. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add chopped macadamia nuts and mix well. Press lightly into a 13" x 9" baking pan. Bake at 350°F for 12-17 minutes, until lightly browned. Set aside.
Topping 1/2 cup non-sweet toasted shredded coconut.
However you've made your pie crust, put it into your pie dish. Pour the mix gently in, then bake the pie for 45 minutes. Let the pie cool to room temperature.
Serve with whipped cream, or some other cream topping if you want to get fancy...and you do. Whipped cream really brings this all together.

Welcome Baby - Puppies

2010-05-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

I made this for my favorite Barista Synthia's, sisters baby shower that was yesterday.

The puppy pattern is also the theme of the babies room.

Cake is all natural Vanilla Bean, filling is English Vanilla Butter Cream with Chocolate Butter Cream in between the 4 layers. Out side frosting is English Vanilla Butter Cream. Dark brown cut outs are chocolate fondant and the blues are black raspberry flavored fondant.

Cupcakes are all natural Vanilla Bean, filling is English Vanilla Butter Cream topped with Chocolate Butter Cream.Dark brown cut outs are chocolate fondant and the blues are black raspberry flavored fondant.

Happy Day to all you Mothers

2010-05-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

This was my second attempt at a Red Velvet cake...this time sans the food coloring. I did add about 2 tablespoons of beet powered for color but that seemed to only add a pink tint. Luckily, this cake was not for a customer, but for family. I explained to my family that I am seeking a Red Velvet recipe without food coloring, since so many people object to red dye #40. This recipe tastes the best I have ever tasted... but did not come out red in the least. My family was just as pleased NOT to have the food coloring, so it was all good.
The buttercream rose was left over from another cake, so since I was a little short of time and creativity, I plunged into my drawer of flowers I have made previously... and put together this cake. It was a huge hit...and by far, my favorite tasting from cake to frosting!

Time out for a shameless plug

2010-04-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

Check out this awesome blog...and Give A Way!
http://jadoreparisboutique.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-first-giveaway.html

Bobby Flay's Red Velvet Cake

2010-04-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

I made this cake last week for a dear cousin of mine.
I used Bobby Flay's recipe from FoodNetwork.com.
The only change I made, was I did not use red food coloring, instead I used beet powder. The cake did not taste like beets what so ever. This frosting is more difficult than a basic buttercream but is well worth it.

Cupcakes Galore (and cookies too)

2010-04-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures of cupcakes/cookies that I forgot to post.

I call the chocolate cupcakes... Mostess Cupcakes instead of Hostess. :)

Birthdays at Thanksgiving

2010-01-24T11:49:00.000-08:00

I forgot to update my pictures here... This is a Chocolate Caramel Cake with chocolate fondant. The leaves are a gumpaste/fondant mix dusted with petal dust.

Red Velvet

2009-09-08T22:03:00.000-07:00

This is a cake that I frosted and decorated in under about 30 minutes while teaching course 1! This is a Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese frosting. The roses are made of chocolate buttercream. Had I had more time I could have cleaned up the edges a bit... made it all a bit smoother, but over all I am pleased. Cream cheese frosting is very temperamental...melts very quickly! My mother in law and the family ate the cake tonight... they LOVED it. By far one of the best tasting cakes I have had! :)

Dusting & Steaming Roses...And flower Cupcakes today!

2009-08-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

These are the same roses from my earlier post. Today I brushed them with petal dust and steamed them. I love the way they look, the pictures do not do them justice.

Vanilla cup cakes frosted with Swiss Meringue Butter Cream...Yummmy!

Gumpaste Roses

2009-07-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

I bought a cool Rose petal cutter set from England a few weeks back and tried it out the last few evenings. I am pretty pleased with how the roses turned out, although I still need to brush them with luster dust and steam them a bit. I may do that tonight or tomorrow.

http://www.orchardproducts.co.uk/ref1---rose-set-in-a-petal-box-r1-r10-15-p.asp

Berry Bonanza

2009-07-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

Inspired by cousin Julie... I brought it to Nate's graduation celebration yesterday. Was a big hit.
Vanilla bean cake, chocolate butter cream and raspberry filling with an English butter cream frosting on the out side.

Relay for Life & Cupcakes

2009-06-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

FREMONT RELAY FOR LIFE 6/27- 6/28

Yummy Cupcakes

Yummy Cupcakes

Hope for a CURE

The Survivors Lap

Purple People Walkers

My son dressed as the Purple People Walker

We did it! We made it! 24 hours in the 100 degree weather was a small price to pay for all the good that comes from these relays. We arrived at 7:00am Saturday and were packed up and back home about 11:00am Sunday. We walked a lot, helped fundraise at the event and had a chance to catch up with some old friends. My team was made up of 3 of my best friends in high school and our friends and families. We never would have imagined 20 years ago that our friendship would bring us together for such a worthy cause. We will be back as a team and also as committee chair people next year. We had an amazing fun filled 24 hours. I think Jake and I actually dozed off about 3:30am and were back up and out of the tent at 7:00 am for the Lions Club pancake breakfast. Adam thankfully was at the event most of the time but stayed home over night with our dogs.

We are all mentally and physically exhausted, and also extremely over come with gratitude. Thank you all for your love, support and donations.

My son and I made 70 cupcakes with the Relay for Life Logo on them. 1/2 chocolate with a vanilla English butter cream and 1/2 natural vanilla bean cupcakes with a vanilla Swiss Meringue butter cream. The fondant logo cut outs are Satin Ice white fondant that we tinted purple and flavored with blue raspberry flavoring. They were a bit hit with all the Relayers!

My sons 8th grade graduation cake

2009-06-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

Ta Da! Finished and on the table!

Beach

Ipod

Wrestling Mat and Headgear

Baseball

Books

The top cake was a collage of Jake's favorite things over the past 9 years.
This is a lethal chocolate peppermint cake with peppermint butter cream, chocolate peppermint ganache and marbled blue fondant. A lot of fun making this cake, although it was a mess to serve because I did not have enough room in the fridge to keep it cold until serving. The butter cream under the fondant in a warm house is probably not the best! :)

Final Final Final Final! I'm done with my Wilton Courses!

2009-05-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

This cake turned out pretty much how I wanted it...give or take a hair. Lots of fun baking and making the cake and good therapy making all those flowers. This was officially my course final for my 4 months of decorating school. My teacher Dhanya is so supportive, very helpful and is an amazing decorator her self. I will miss Wednesday nights with her. I thank her for all of the patience and tips she has given me. She is a wonderful lady!
The cake design came from http://www.peggyporschen.com/

Course 2 Week 2

2009-05-13T21:39:00.001-07:00

I had a blast this week making this cake. It is a "Lethal Peppermint Chocolate Cake" All the fondant is Pettinice brand. I found it is incredibly easy to work with. The pink has some tylos mixed with it to make it dry faster. I am satisfied with this cake. My son said it tasted great!

Wilton Course 2 final

2009-04-28T07:54:00.000-07:00

Last night was our final class for course 2. The basket weave is not as hard as it looks it is just time consuming. The flowers I made ahead of time using Royal Icing.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T18:44:00.001-07:00

I made this for my son and my husband. I'm sure there will be plenty left over to take to work tomorrow if I can get it out of their hands! :)

All the fondant is home made marshmallow fondant and all the figurines and decorations are either fondant or gum paste of a combination of the two. This is a vanilla bean cake with chocolate ganche filling and vanilla butter cream under the fondant.

Happy Easter!

Fondant Bunny - first try

2009-04-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

OK... I could not find very good direction via youtube on making a fondant bunny... so I attempted to replicate a picture I saw... It turned out OK... I am not as fond of him as I am the chicks... but hey...practice makes perfect. I found a video for a different bunny today... I shall try again tonight!

Fondant Chicks

2009-03-31T11:06:00.000-07:00

I tried making chicks last night for an Easter cake I am doing this week. I think they came out pretty good for cartoony looking chicks. I found a woman in the UK that has some youtube videos on making different figures. Tonight I am going to try making sheep and maybe bunnies if I can find a good video on them. I am excited to see how they turn out.

Fondant and Gumpaste final

2009-03-26T08:05:00.001-07:00

This cake was a ton of fun to make. I made all the fondant and colored it myself, no packaged fondant used. the gumpaste daisies took about 3 hours to make ahead of time and had to dry. The box with the daisies on the top was very simple to make. My teacher Dhanya is so patient and very helpful. I clearly could not have done this without her. I can't wait until the 2nd week of April to start our next class! I think I will make some more fondant cakes in the meantime to get better at covering the cake and to try out some new ideas. So much FUN!

Gum paste flowers

2009-03-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

I think it is official... I love decorating with fondant and gumpaste.
Dhanya did a great job of showing us how to make carnations, daises and the fantasy flower (whatever flower that is) as well as some leaves. It is so much fun to do and they end up looking beautiful! I will certainly be making more for my final next week and more to just practice. :o)

Fondant Course Week 2

2009-03-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

When I signed up for this Fondant class at Michaels, the store employee failed to give me the instructions on what to bring to class on the first week. Well I apparently was not the only one this happened to as only 1 out of 10 of us had the supplies for last weeks class. So we mostly just watched our teacher, Dhanya demonstate how to roll, measure and cover a cake with fondant. We talked with us about making fondant and that kind of stuff too.

Last nights class was the Week 2 class. We came to class with our cakes already covered with fondant and ready to decorate. The cake was to be a practice cake and not a pretty finished cake because we were practicing 4 styles on 1 cake. It was pretty fun and not too hard. When I got home and looked at my cake, it looked like it wanted to be pretty...so I spent about 30 minutes adding more details and flowers. One side has 1/4 inch boarders and swag and then at home I did the other side in 1/8 inch boarders and swag... I like the 1/8 inch much better. This cake is an example of the draping technique, kerchief, 1/4 inch trim and swags and then 1/8 inch trim and swags. The flowers are just basic flower cookie cutters, nothing special. Next week we will be making gumpaste flowers! YAY not too bad for a first cake!!

Wilton Course 1

2009-03-05T09:15:00.000-08:00

I have added a photo album with just the cakes I made while taking the Wilton Course 1 at Michaels. I am having so much fun! We just started the course on Fondant last night. I think this is going to be so much fun working with fondant. I am interested to see after these 4 weeks if I will like frosting/icing decorations or fondant.