4th of July Birthday

Posted on September 12th, 2013 in Cakes, Cookies, Cupcakes, News

I am super excited to share with you the very special treats I made for my lovely daughter Lillie as she celebrated her 7th birthday this year.

I don’t really struggle much when it comes to the color scheme that I plan to use for her birthday treats. As a 4th of July baby, I always know that I MUST incorporate Red, White & Blue. I do freak about making something that will be much better than the previous year. Now that she is a little bit older and realized what I can do, the challenge can be making a cake that she ‘approves’ and ‘loves’ (if I’m lucky).

This year was a tricky one since I asked her ideas of what she wanted the theme to be or a main design of the cake.  Well… bad questions. She wanted everything and it all sounded so complicated !!!! My dear Lillie asked for a beach cake (and she’s never been to the one) and wanted me to incorporate summer items. At the same time, she mentioned how much she loved the zebra pattern and reminded me that it it would be Independence day.

Oh boy…. After many sleepless nights thinking about how to incorporate ALL those ideas into ONE cake, here’s the end result.

 

ID47 Cake IMG_3325

ZEBRA: You typically see thick zebra lines/pattern on cakes  added using fondant and ‘glued’ on the cakes. I decided to try a different technique and painted the top and bottom layers of the cakes. I painted the zebra lines on the cake horizontally and diagonally as opposed to many cakes out there where you see them vertically instead. They are also more on the thin side.

4th of July Birthday Collage

Lillie absolutely loves Chocolate cake so there was no other choice. The additional cupcakes were vanilla and a few chocolate. I wish I could have taken a picture of a cut cupcake because the vanilla batter was actually red, white and blue to create multicolor cupcakes! A chocolate star was added as the topper.

ID47 Cake IMG_3315

BOW: I made the bow at the very last minute with fabric ribbon that I found at Michaels. I have always loved this type of bow so I wanted to incorporate it into the cake.

OTHER FOOD: With her birthday falling on such a special day for all of us, I am always very fortunate to find all sorts of goodies out there related to Independence Day. I found  m&m’s, fish crackers, twizzlers and all the silverware and decoration. Yeah!

4 July Treats  Collage

COOKIES: The cookie platter included all sorts of playful items related to the beach and hot summers not to mention that odd request of adding zebra patter to the theme.

Going clockwise starting at the top right: Ice Cream Cones, Sunglasses, Swimsuits and Bikinis, playful Kites, and Beachballs.

Cookies Collage

sunglasses IMG_3275

Definitely some of my favorites were the bikinis and the sandals, the sunglasses too. All the sugar cookies were decorated with the same theme in mind. No chocolate designs this time, it was all royal icing.

Clothing Collage

swimsuits IMG_3297

sandals IMG_3269

In the end, I have NO idea what the 4th of July, Zebras and The Beach have to do with each other, but I got it done. Somehow, I think it all worked out.

Lillie's Party 2013

 

All the girls (and my boy Noah) had a lot of fun.  We celebrated Lillie at a nearby YMCA so the girls (and some adults) were able to get into the pool for a long time.

Lillie IMG_5784

Happy Birthday sweetheart!! I hope you had a wonderful birthday.

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Dr. Seuss Cookies

Posted on January 17th, 2013 in Cookies

First of all, Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas/Holidays and a fun New Year celebration. I still have have to get used to writing and typing 2013.

The first One Sweet Treat of 2013 will be…

The famous Dr. Seuss.

No. I will not even attempt to make a rhyme.  My 6 year old daughter is much better at this than me. I’m ashamed to say that even my 4 year old son can rhyme! Sad uh?

Just because I don’t know how to rhyme doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy Dr. Seuss books. What’s not to love about Dr. Seuss. The stories, the rhymes, the characters. The colorful pictures and the artistic sketchy and very particular lines are all simply wonderful cookie inspiration for a cookies like me.

Well, Dr. Seuss is perfect for any children events. In this case, the following cookies were designed for a baby shower.

First we have Thing1 & Thing2. I loved the side by side design.

dr seuss t1t2 1

Next we have another popular drawing (s).  We actually have this particular book in the house. It really came in handy when drawing the lines on the fish.

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish….

dr seuss fish4

dr seuss fish 3

I cannot make Dr. Seuss themed cookies without making the only and only Cat in the Hat right?  Here we have the mischievous cat and the very distinctive and recognizable red and white hat.

dr seuss 5

dr seuss hats3

Although the cookies were wrapped individually for cookie favors, I decided to gather all of them and show you a colorful patter of cookies

dr seuss 1

Just a final look  of these Dr. Seuss cookies in a collage.

dr seuss Collage

This  is in fact my second set of Dr. Seuss cookies I make. You can see the first set that we (my mom and I) made a few years back. Click here for the Cat in the Hat cookie set from 2011.

What do you think? Good theme to start off the new year uh?

Lalaloopsy Cookies for Sadie

Posted on March 21st, 2012 in Cookies

This is a very special post because the following cookies were made for my niece Sadie who turned 8 years old back on March 4th. I know, I know… I’m so far behind on lots of things. At least the post is here!

Last year Sadie was absolutely in loved with the Littlest Pet Shop dolls. You can check out the cookies we made for her here. This year, she is a big fan of the beautiful Lalaloopsy dolls.

If you are not familiar with those dolls, let me tell you… they so stinking adorable!!! They are supposed to be rag dolls that magically came to life. So you’ll see lots of stitching and sewing decorations on the cookies. I actually think that the Lalaloopsy dolls were one of the top toys for girls last year.

My sister Lizi asked me to make Sadie’s birthday cookies this year. She had one particular doll in mind. My niece’s favorite doll was Mittens Fluff “N” Snuff and the cute pillow.

I’m not going to lie to you, I was scared. They are beautiful dolls, but they are also VeRy detailed. I spent many sleepless nights just thinking how would I even start the cookies and whether I should go with chocolate or RI (royal icing) designs. Both chocolate and RI have their advantages and disadvantages you know. Chocolate melts… RI breaks.

Anyway, Mittens Fluff “N” Snuff couldn’t travel to El Paso, TX by herself so we also made Pillow Featherbed and her adorable lamb.

If you follow my blog you know that I specialize in chocolate designs.  Last year I made the designs with RI and because they were shipped (and we all know that the Postal office, although thank you for your service, don’t really take good care of fragile packages). I hate to admit that some of them broke. I took the risk and went with my specialty… chocolate designs and hoped for the best.

So after many sleepless night (I’m not lying to you), Lalaloopsy nightmares, and 50 bags of icing (both RI and chocolate), here are the cookies.

First, Mitten’s Fluff “N” Snuff and her lovely pillow. I think I could have done a better job with the pillow now that I look back and think about them. They could have been more fluffier, but I still liked them.

Here’s a collage of most of the cookie designs. Do you see the stitching and sewing details? That’s what the Lalaloopsy dolls are all about.

Here’s a closeup of their logo.

Then we have Pillow Featherbed and her sidekick the lamb (sorry, I don’t know it’s name).

And a closer shot of their cute partners.

I’ve only been to one of my niece’s parties because we live so far away. I think she had turned 2 years old then. It was a big party so I know that my sister goes totally out for Sadie’s parties (I would too!). I’m not kidding, here’s my niece…

See the resemblance! She looks very pretty!!!

I hope you had a wonderful birthday Sadie and that you enjoyed your treats. We wish we could have been there!

Cute Critters – Gabbie’s Birthday

Posted on February 4th, 2012 in Cookies, Cupcakes

Dessie is one of my super duper best friends and her lovely daughter Gabbie (Lillie’s super duper best friend) celebrated her 6th birthday at the Des Moines’ zoo last weekend.

Part of the party package includes having the children learn and interact with two animals from the zoo, of course some of the friendly critters. They actually bring them to the room for the kids to see and touch. Gabbie choose to have a turtle and a hedgehog at her party and I decided to add another cute critter to the pack.

When Dessie asked me to take care of her treats this year, I absolutely agreed.

The hedgehog cupcakes are chocolate with buttercream icing.

Then we have some turtles on strawberry cupcakes (Gabbie’s favorite flavor). sitting on a combination of soft yellow and white buttercream icing.

And my addition to the critter set, a sweet fox. Maybe I should have made a red panda since they have one at the zoo. She looks cute (I think).

We also made sugar and brown sugar cookies for party edible favors.

After making these cookies I thought that maybe the fox should have been smelling some pretty flowers instead of a tree with barely any leaves left on the branches. Opps…

The hedgehog walking on grass…

And the turtle swimming in water, sort of… yes, no?

I think I made over 60 chocolate decorations and used them on both the cupcakes and the cookies as you could see.

Gabbie was very happy with her treats and I was delighted to hear to see her pretty happy birthday face.

We love you sweetheart… Happy Birthday!

Apples for KindergartenTeachers

Posted on September 28th, 2011 in Cookies

I should have done the following cookies about a month ago, but something always got in the way. No, I wasn’t being lazy….

My daughter Lillie just started Kindergarten this year (sniff) and she’s in the hands of a couple of wonderful teaches. I wanted to bake something special for them. Apples for teachers, appropriate right?

Granny Smith Apples

Red Delicious Apples

 I had so many ideas and plans but because I wasted so much time, I ended up with some very simple treats for them… apples!. I placed about 5 of them them in a very cute plate that I found at Target and wrapped them with clear plastic.

I know I could have done better (maybe some pencils, notebooks, erasers, etc.), but I’ll do better for them for the Holidays.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m planning on a couple of shows at the end of October so many sweet treats are coming.

The Cat in the Hat -Thing 1 & Thing 2

Posted on May 12th, 2011 in Cakes, Cookies, Other Sweet Treats

I almost forgot to post this cake and I think you’ll enjoy looking at it.I think most people are familiar with The Cat in the Hat books by Dr. Seuss. Well, this cake is about Thing 1 & Thing 2 and in case you don’t know them here they are.

 

I don’t really remember reading the books when I was a little girl, but now that I have my children I’m finally familiar with them. They even have the books in Spanish!

The story on the cake is about a couple of little ones celebrating their birthday, I believe on the same day (if not only days close). My client liked a pair of matching cakes I had made in the past on Monster’s Inc. where one is bigger than the other one. So this Dr. Seuss cake is bases on that idea.

Here’s the cake for 2 boys, one turning 5 years old and the other one celebrating his 1st birthday.

Thing 1 & Thing 2

There’s a lot of details to show on the cakes. Here’s Thing 2 designed for Drake, the little brother.

Thing 2 and the always looking frightened fish

Thing 1 went to Quinn, the older brother.

Thing 1 with a flying kite

 Here are some of the details on the cakes. You have balloons, popular faces and that always worried looking fish.

We also prepared sugar cookies for them. The images are made out of chocolate and placed on top of the cookie to give them a ‘dimensional’ look.

Dr Seuss 1

Dr Seuss 4

Some of the details on the cookies such as the black lines are made with an edible marker. These marks are very typical of the cartoons.

Dr Seuss 1

These cookies were designed to be party favors.

Dr Seuss 2

 I’m sad to report that I forgot to take a picture of the actual Dr. Seuss cookie, I did actually make one or two.

I think this set of cakes and cookies are some of my favorite ones ever. I love the fact that the chocolate pieces on the cookies look actually alive (! ? !).

Kindermusik Family Night

Posted on April 8th, 2011 in Cakes, Cookies, Cupcakes, News, Other Sweet Treats

I have been participating on this event for the past couple of years. I’m talking about the Family Music Night offered by Kindermusik.

This event is always open to families of all ages that are interested in having an amazing time around music, fun activities, crafts, and much more.

Anyway, back to the treats right? My mom and I made lots of treats for the event. I always try to bake something different to the event, but our cookies have to be there. Here are some of the pictures.

Easter Cookie Tray

 Cookies inpired by candy & chocolate.

Eggs and Peeps

Have you seen those candies/chocolates shaped like eggs that are kind of ‘splashed’ with color? I think they are called Robin eggs. Well, here are some of them in Cookies!

Robin Eggs' Cookies

Who doesn’t love Peeps? Well, here are Cookie Peeps!

Pink and Yellow Peeps

Yellow & Blue Peeps

We always bring cake to the events and that day was  no exception. Here we have Lemon Cake soaked in lemon syrup and frosted with a simple lemon frosting. We made cookies looking like limes, lemons, oranges, kiwis and my favorite fruit… watermelons. 

Spring Fruit Cookies

 

Mini Chocolate Cake cupcakes.

Chocolate mini cupcakes with ganache

Mini cupcakes with chocolate frosting

We made our Cake Balls in Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream, Caramel cake with Dulce de Leche buttercream & White Butter cake with vanilla frosting. They are all covered in a light sugar glaze.

Easter Cake Balls

Personally, having my children enrolled in Kindermusik since they were babies has been one of the most wonderful experiences I can give them. They have gained so many skills not only music, but developmental skills.

If you are interested in learning more about Kindermusik, you can email at info@piedpiperstudios.org  or call 515-221-2948.

Littlest Pet Shop Birthday

Posted on March 4th, 2011 in Cookies

Today is my niece’s 7th birthday! Her name is Sadie and she lives in  El Paso, TX where the weather is much warmer and dry (especially now during winter is when I miss being there again).

Sadie's 7th birthday

Anyway, and we made 60 special cookies over the weekend to be sent to El Paso, TX where she lives. Sadie loooooves the Littlest Pet Shop toys and it didn’t suprise me when her mom asked me to make those type of cookies.

Here are the LPS in case you don’t know them. They are the most adorable looking toys (with huge eyes).

To be honest, these cookies are some of the most difficult ones we have ever made. There are no special molds for them, so everything had to be made free-hand and I had to be creative to find ways to have their images on the cookie.

LPS Butterfly

LPS Frogs

 LPS Green FrogWe had blue, green and orange frogs. Green won. Some are on grass and some on the water.

LPS HorseLPS Horses

 

I couldn’t resist and I bought my daughter Lillie the Butterfly and the Horse so I could make the cookies.

LPS Butterflies & Horses

 It took us two entire days days to make only 30 Littlest Pet Shop cookies and I couldn’t make more! So we decided to make the other 30 cookies into Party cookies.

Birthday Presents

Birthday Cupcakes

Cakes, Presents & Party Hats

Sadie’s party will be on Sunday and I hope the cookies make it ok and that they all like them. The frogs were made out of sugar and just ‘glued’ on top so they were very fragile.

My family grew up on the border city of Juarez, Chihuahua on the Mexico’s side and I went to collage in El Paso. My sister and her family still lives there and they do visit us once a year on Christmas. The kids have a blast here when they get together and I know they miss each other a lot.

I wish we could be there this weekend for her huge party.

Happy Birthday Sadie !!!

Birthday Cookies

Posted on February 23rd, 2011 in Cookies

I had the opportunity to make cookies for a wonderful lady who could be an inspiration to a lot of people (including me). Sarah, has lost over 50 lbs by exercising and eating right and she looks amazing!

I see her super early in the morning at the gym with a big smile on her face and really enjoying her workout. Me? I’m dragging my body trying to make it though another morning’s workout. Nobody says it easy, but when you have the determination like Sarah, you can achieve your goals.

Anyway, it was Sarah’s birthday and she wanted to give her friends a small treat to share the special day. This is where I come in….

I prepared cookies following a birthday theme such as presents, party hats, balloons and cupcakes. Here are the pictures.

Party Balloons

Zebra Pattern Presents

Blue and Green Candy

Party Hats

Birthday Cupcakes

I think the cupcakes are my favorites

 Did I mention that her favorite color is blue? That’s why most of the cookies have blue in them and the glitter on some of them to make them shine.

One of my cycling instructors always comes prepared with a water gun and he uses it on us! Whenever he shoots water on us he says “it easier if you smile”. Sarah definitely makes working out look sooo darn easy because she is always smiling.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Valentine Cookies

Posted on February 1st, 2011 in Cookies

I have a few Valentine’s Day cookies to show you. I really didn’t have any order, but I was in the cookie ‘mood’ so I decided to bake, go to sleep late and work on them. Why no uh? Not like sleeping is important right?

Since these cookies were small and medium, I decided not to decorate them too much.  I believe the little ones look better with simple decorations.

 Once they were ready, they were wrapped with a pretty ribbon.

Valentine Cookie Tray

How would you like to get this for Valentine’s Day. It would be a nice change to chocolate. Well maybe both because chocolate is always good.

Happy Valentine’s Day

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