Category Archives: Cookies

Graduation Cake and Cookie Ideas

25 Tuesday Apr 2017

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It’s almost graduation season, so start planning those parties!  I really can’t believe how huge graduation parties are here in Ohio…much bigger than celebrations where I grew up.

These are some examples of half-sheet cakes that are a good party-size and can serve a bunch when made with 2 layers.

These 2 graduation cakes I did for a Poland Seminary High School graduate last year who was going to Ohio State in the fall.

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This Cardinal Mooney cake I did a few years ago (before I discovered how cutting letters out of fondant is much cleaner … and straighter :)).  The graduate was going to the University of Dayton…

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These are full sheet cakes, which I don’t make often as they are difficult to manage in my regular-sized fridge.  I love this black and yellow theme with swirls and stars.  It really says “Let’s CELEBRATE…you’ve done it!!”

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For this one I made a 3-d mortar board and decorated it with stars, sprinkles and fondant twists. Here’s the post that describes it in more detail.

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This cake is for a smaller celebration…followed by a group of specialty cakes.

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And you always need cookies, right?

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Post-Holiday Purple Birthday Cake and Cookies for Maddie!

13 Friday Jan 2017

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I made this cake for a young girl who’s birthday falls right after the holidays…must be hard to make a color statement with all that red and green.

So this adorable 14-yr-old asked for her birthday cake to be purple. That’s it. Purple.  And chocolate.

Surprisingly easy to please for a teenager, huh?!

 

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Her mom threw in a few dozen cookies for fun…

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The cake is a 9″ chocolate mocha cake with chocolate mousse filling and iced with vanilla-bean buttercream.The pics turned out more pink-looking, but the icing color was a mix of Americolor royal purple and electric purple. I added the green and blue sequin/sprinkle mix to add some contrast.

The name plaque, number, and stars are all made from homemade marshmallow fondant.

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Loved this one, so much freedom…

Hope you had a great birthday, Maddie!  I really enjoyed making your purple cake and cookies!

 

Emoji Cake and Cookies

30 Friday Dec 2016

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2016 is nearly behind us…And my feelings for the year that’s quickly slipping away are mixed.

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So what better way than to celebrate with an emoji cake and cookies to express all those emotions!

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I did this order a few months ago for a cutie-patootie 6-yr-old who loves her wacky, zany, tongue-out-wink emoji (who doesn’t, right?).  So that’s the emoji we used for the cake.

It was a 9″ round 2-layer sour cream vanilla cake with smooth vanilla buttercream icing tinted yellow.  The emoji details and font were made from fondant (I used round cutters for the eye and letter cutters for the font, the rest was hand-cut).

 

The cookies were assorted emoji faces iced and decorated with fresh lemon royal icing. Jayde’s mom had me bag them with a ribbon to be given out as favors at the party.

 

The cake and cookies were really a blast to make and ring true for me this last week of the year.  Our family has had so many ups and downs this year with the deaths of 2 dear matriarchs (Grandma at 101 last April and Aunt Tata at 100 just yesterday), the destruction of our cherished Spencer cabin in Wyoming by wildfires last July, and the demise of numerous family pets…But we had great times, too.  It’s difficult to say which won out, the good times or the bad.

That said, I’m resigned to enter 2017 on an upbeat note, so here’s a toast and great big hurrah for the year ahead!

 

Sports-Themed Cakes, Cookies and Cupcakes…

17 Monday Oct 2016

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Whew!  It’s been a busy month and I haven’t had time to post much of what I’ve been up to.  So I’ve decided to lump a few of my sports-themed creations into one post…Seems like there are lots of sports enthusiasts out there!

These cakes were for twins turning 8 who both wanted a sports birthday, but liked different sports and wanted separate cakes…


Delaney’s cake is a 9″ round vanilla cake with a 6″ball on top (brown sugar caramel cake with caramel cream filling). The base cake is iced with vanilla-bean buttercream.  and the grass is piped with a grass tip.  The flowers are made from homemade marshmallow fondant as are the letters.

To get the look of the soccer ball, I  covered the half round cake with white fondant and added the pentagon shapes cut from black fondant.  I used a seam tool to make the markings and indents like a real soccer ball.  I thought it came out great and  it wasn’t too difficult to get the look I was going for .

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Cooper’s cake was a 10″ square double chocolate cake with marshmallow cream filling and vanilla-bean buttercream.  The sports details were all made from fondant.

I used a small ball pan to make the ball cake and covered it with different colors of fondant to look like the 4 sports balls (a bit tedious, but I like the final product).

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All in all, 2 really fun (and challenging) cakes to make :0)

Happy birthday, Delany and Cooper!  I really enjoyed making your cakes!

 

And speaking of multi-sports, here are some small 6″ cakes I made for a sports-themed birthday earlier this summer…

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The 6″cakes are chocolate, red velvet, and banana. They are frosted with vanilla-bean/chocolate buttercream with fondant details.

 

And one more…check out these cute softball cupcakes I made for my daughter’s team party this past June.

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The cupcakes are a mix of vanilla and chocolate with an Oreo cookie baked into each.  They are smooth-iced with green buttercream and the edges are “rolled” in crushed Oreo cookies.

I then piped green grass on half of them and added a bat and ball made of fondant; the others have large fondant softballs.  The stitching is drawn with edible red pen.

 

Ok, just one-more-one-more!  Football cookies made for a sweet girl who’s flag football team won the Flag Football Super Bowl this past weekend (congrats, Sophia!).

 

Sports treats, always fun!!

 

Back to School/Get Well Cookie Bouquet

14 Friday Oct 2016

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It’s been a long time since I posted a cookie bouquet…so here’s a cute one!

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A sweet grandma who lives out of state called and asked me to make this for her dear granddaughter, Claire, who was recovering from surgery.  Claire was also getting ready to start her first day of preschool, so we combined these two events to create this cookie bouquet.

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The cute, whimsical faces on these cookies were sure to get a smile.  And grandma especially liked the personalization–just like a warm hug being sent to a little girl from so far away.

I hope you feel better and enjoyed your first day of school, Claire!