Christmas ornament... cupcakes

I know I haven't updated in a REALLY long time. Guilty as charged! I'm posting to facebook and just keep putting off the blog. I really need to get on top of that. Sorry. :(

That said I had to share my most recent creation.... Christmas ornament cupcakes. I just LOVE them! Check 'em out!!!!!

Marwood Children's Christmas party

We decided to donate a cake to my husbands company Children's Christmas party. Marwood Ltd truly stands for being a family first sort of company. They pull out all the stops for the kids, with a lunch, magician and Santa who brings gifts for every child. All of this for nothing... I couldn't help but think that we could contribute to the event by bringing a cake. One big enough to feed everyone of course. It's the least we can do to say thank you to a really great employer.

The cake certainly was a hit, in both looks and taste. There's even some leftover for Paul to share in his office on Monday. (Since those who don't have kids didn't get to have any.) Each cake is a different flavor... marble pound, vanilla pound and chocolate pound with vanilla buttercream and fondant accents.

Thanks for looking and have a VERY Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!

Merry Birthday

A very special woman in my extended family... ok maybe not really family, but she cares for my daughter 5 days/week, listens to me complain about my day nearly every night and is willing to give advice on any little question I have, so that's pretty close to family! ANYWAYS... it was her birthday. She's a lovely lady who's OBSESSED with Christmas. How obsessed, well I'm pretty sure her ringer on her phone got switched to Jingle bells in early September. I know I've arrived many evenings and heard Christmas music on in the background and my 2 year old completely understands Christmas, Christmas tree, Santa, and I'm quite sure knows a few Christmas songs. Well when her husband asked for a cake he suggested doing it in her favorite theme. Since she's also a singer we thought it would be fun to have her family caroling. I made a snowman for each member of her family. Let me tell you, I'm pretty sure she loved it. :) Wanna know how great she is? My 2 year old came with me to deliver the cake and kept asking for a piece...within 5 minutes of us arriving she had torn off a pompom from a hat for my daughter to have. Cake was a chocolate fudge pound filled with mocha buttercream and covered in vanilla buttercream. Snowmen are made from fondant.

Snowman Cake

We hosted a family social at our house. Our friends and their kids came for some munchies and holiday cheer. It was a perfect opportunity for me to make a cake that I wanted to make. My goal was to make something cute, for the kids. I came accross a few snowmen cakes and new that was the perfect idea. It was surprisingly easy to make. I made chocolate fudge cake with buttercream frosting, then chocolate fudge cake covered in chocolate ganache (his hat). His nose is an ice cream cone and the scarf and buttons are fondant.

COOKIES!

It's that time of year again. I made my first batch of sugar cookies. What's funny is that I didn't have my AWESOME Kitchenaid mixer last year, holy smokes, how did I survive without it? It was fantastic, super easy. The cookie recipe makes about 100 cookies, so it's a lot to mix, but my little helper had no troubles mixing everything up. I took a quick picture of the cookies, I put them on a tray for my husband to bring to work. :) I hear they really enjoyed them!

From my cakes

Christmas Present - to eat or not to eat

One thing I strongly believe in - at the end of the day, cake is cake...no matter how good it looks.

I made this cake for a pot luck Christmas dinner my husbands work was having. I was so excited to make it and he was excited to bring it in. BUT no one wanted to cut into it. What a waste it would be if no one ate the cake. So, finally someone cut into it and people moaned and groaned... let's not forget...the best part of cake, is eating it!!!!

Chocolate cake with candy cane frosting and fondant ribbon and bow.