First Communion Part II…cakes, cookies, and lovely memories

11 Wednesday May 2016

Posted by Laurie in Cakes, Cookies, Cupcakes

Tags

blue velvet cake, chocolate mousse filling, cookies, cross cake, cross-shaped cookies, double chocolate cake, marshmallow fondant, religious cakes and cookies, rosette, royal icing, vanilla buttercream

I’m still trying to recover from the past 2 weeks and all of the First Holy Communion cakes and cookies I baked…not to mention helping to prepare my own sweet 8-yr-old Hannah for receiving this special sacrament.

We didn’t do the traditional first communion religious portraits that are popular in this area. But I loved the shots my husband got of her before and during the ceremony on this beautiful spring day.

Y11_3116

Isn’t she lovely…?

Absolutely the apple of my eye….

Y11_3064 Y11_3054 Y11_3028

Anyway, I digress….I did do a number of cakes, cookies and cupcakes that I’ll share briefly with you all.

LOVED this sweet dress cupcake cake I did for my daughter’s dear friend, Katie. Her mom had about 50 guests and wanted all white-iced rosette cupcakes with pink beads as details. I was able to fit about 40 marbled chocolate and vanilla cupcakes on the 18″x24″ board, the rest were displayed on a cupcake stand. They were filled with chocolate mousse and iced with vanilla buttercream.

Her mom had a neat Celtic cross that we added to the pink bead belt, but I didn’t get a picture with it :0(

Y11_2853

This cake was SO KATIE–absolutely sweet and lovely, just like her. Love this girl so much!

I just adore the rosette style cakes popular right now….they are so versatile and even works for boys’ cakes.

Speaking of, I did a rosette cross with blue fondant details for Carson’s 1st communion, along with personalized cross cookies…The cake was a 9’X13″ double-chocolate cake cut into a cross and filled with chocolate mousse filling. The banner was made of homemade marshmallow fondant hand-cut into a banner shape that I let dry for a day to keep its billowy shape. The letters were made with my tap-it letter cutters.

Y11_2843

Y11_2829

I also did a few more cross cookies in pink and blue for Tessa and Gabriella.

Y11_2919

I made a larger version of Carson’s cross cake in blue velvet for Gabriella, but didn’t get a good picture before I sent it out the door. Things were pretty crazy around here for a few days…But here is a lovely picture of Gabriella and her half-sheet rosette cross cake at the celebration party.

Congratulations to all of these wonderfully blessed children for making their First Holy Communion! What a big day for them!

Believe it or not, I made cookies and a cake for Hannah and our small family celebration, but didn’t get a single picture. However, she didn’t seem to mind…the day was hers and she shined!!

Love you my sweet, gentle girl, so very proud of you….you’re growing up way too fast.

Y11_2992

Poland Graduation Cake

07 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Laurie in Cakes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

cream cheese frosting, graduation cake, marshmallow fondant, raspberry mousse, sour cream almond cake

Another graduation cake, this one for a small gathering celebrating a PSHS grad.

This is a 3-layer 8-inch round with chocolate and sour cream almond cake, filled with raspberry mousse and iced with vanilla cream cheese buttercream. I added a fondant cap, stars, and twists in Poland blue and white. The musical notes were made from melting chocolate piped onto waxed paper ahead of time and left to harden before adding to the cake. The letters were also cut from homemade marshmallow fondant.

Barnyard-Themed Second Birthday Cake

07 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by Laurie in Cakes

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Barnyard-theme, fondant animals, fondant tractor, marshmallow fondant, Sour cream vanilla cake, vanilla-bean frosting

I was asked to do a birthday cake with a barnyard theme for a little boy turning 2. The mother wasn’t sure what she wanted, so I reasearched some different styles and came up with this design for the cake. It’s a 3-layer 10-inch vanilla-bean cake with strawberry filling and vanilla-bean buttercream icing. The mom didn’t want it covered with fondant, but I did add homemade marshmallow fondant details. The little boy (Carter) loves tractors and his favorite animals are cows and horses. The mom was also using some adorable Etsy decorations from Lulubella Creations, so I styled the animals to be similar with that cute little sideways smile. I used this great Craftsy class as a starting point for the cow because I loved fact that he was standing up and holding a balloon.

The horse had a similar body, only sitting down to add some different height elements and character to the top of the cake. The Rose Bakes tractor on one of her farm cakes was the inspiration for the tractor with a few other details from numerous tractor cakes. I looked at a lot of barnyard cake fences and opted for a kind of “wonky” style, just ’cause that’s how I roll…matchy-matchy doesn’t work for me. I used a woodgrain stencil on the chocolate fondant to add some detail to the fenceposts and threw in some little bees, ladybugs, and flowering vines for interest. I was hoping to put the name banner on the side of the cake, but the day was very warm and I knew the cake had to travel over an hour to its destination. Since I was worried about the banner slipping down the buttercream, I opted at the last minute to put it on the cake board. Isn’t that what cake design is all about, adjusting at the last minute to your conditions??

All in all, it was a really fun cake with lots of interesting fondant work. Happy birthday, Little Carter Man! I sure hope you enjoyed it!

It’s Vegas Baby! Casino Party Cookies, Cake Pops, and Cupcakes

08 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by Laurie in Cookies, Cupcakes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Cake pops, Casino, double chocolate cake, marshmallow fondant, royal icing, salted caramel filling, Sugar cookie, vanilla-bean frosting, Vegas party

I did these back in April and never had time to write a post. I was asked to come up with a dessert for my school’s annual fundraiser, the theme was “Night in Vegas.” We initially considered doing cookies made to look like poker chips and playing cards along with cake pops, but finally decided on poker chip cookies and cupcakes with a red/white/black color scheme (see pictures at the end taken at the event).

The cupcakes were double chocolate cake filled with salted caramel and iced with a vanilla-bean buttercream swirl with red/white sprinkles. The sugar cookies were iced with fresh lemon royal icing and a fondant circle in the center.

It was a terrific party and a great fundraiser for the school. Many kudos to the committee who worked tirelessly to organize it all…great job, HFS Reverse Raffle team!! I was proud to be a part of it!