Archive for Cake Balls

Valentine’s Day Cookies 2015

The first hearts I call “Abstract Hearts”. They are hand painted and they were an ‘experiment’. That means that I messed up a lot of cookies before I was happy with the finished hearts.

I fell in love with an image I saw online while searching for ideas. A set of hearts full of coordinating colors, but no pattern at all. The colors looked brushed and spotted at the same time, if this makes sense. I took the brushing idea and the result is what you see below. They looked very dull and opaque after they dried so I sprayed them with edible glitter to make them shine.

Are you familiar with Burlap fabric?  Burlap is a fabric material used for sewing and creating home decorations. The next hearts are decorated with the idea of trying to recreate the texture. Let me tell you… decorating these puppies was so time consuming and my hand was cramping after working on just a couple of them. The lines are meant to be really tight and close. I might have achieved the burlap look in one or two cookies, but my hand was numb with all the piping. The red hearts were some of the first ones and the brown ones… some of the last. I’m sure you see the difference.

The flying hearts are next. I worked on these cookies last year, you can see them here.

Burlap was one type of fabric design. This next hearts are decorated with a style called Filigree. Filigree consists of curved lines connected to each other and because it is typically used in jewelry or metal pieces in either gold or silver.

You may wonder why there is a musical theme to this year’s cookies. I worked on this set for a musical Valentines piano recital offered by children taking piano lessons from Pied Piper Studios (Kindermusik). My daughter participated this year so it was a very special Valentine’s event for our family.

Musical notes, symbols and pianos were some of the designs. You can see last years music Valentine’s Day cookies here.

Two more designs to show you. I love birds and this year I wanted to incorporate some sweetness inspired by these beautiful creatures. These cookies were some of my favorites.

Here are some teddy bears that may require a little bit more attention next time. there’s no connection between the heart and the arms, but they are still cute.  What I like about them is that they have texture to them, like fur. It might be hard to see it though in this picture. I do like the pandas, they are super cute. They can always get cuter!

Here is the treat table. Besides the Valentine’s Day cookies, I also made rich chocolate cupcakes topped with a dark chocolate buttercream and pink vanilla cupcakes with vanilla bean buttercream.

Another sweet treat I made for them were Cake Balls. Flavors included chocolate and chocolate ganache buttercream and vanilla with dulce de leche buttercream. Those are delicious!

My daughter Lillie did a wonderful job playing her piano pieces and she delighted the seniors with a couple of songs as well as the other children.

The next cake was designed to celebrate my niece’s 3rd birthday, Layla.

Ice Cream Cone sugar cookies.

And Cake Balls of course. I made them look like sundaes also with their icing on top and dripping to the sides. The sprinkles finished the lovely treats.

This is a look of the party table. Amy did a wonderful job setting it up as always.

A final look of the cake.

Happy Birthday pretty girl!!