Happy Halloween!

With an exciting weekend of costumes, corn maze, scary movies, etc. planned, I've decided to do my Halloween post a couple days early. So here you have it.

Simple sugar cookies in pumpkin shapes. I used food color gels like watercolors and brushed the orange, green and black onto the cookies with a paint brush prior to baking.

Still Thinking Pink!

Having just finished part of my next project (which will hopefully be posted sometime in the next week or two), I feel as if I'm coated in royal icing. Each and every one of my fingers is dyed at least one color; thanks food color gels! Oh well, I suppose one must suffer for their art.

Like my last post, this cake was inspired by the color pink and Breast Cancer Awareness month. Specifically inspired by the shirts worn on this years Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, which took place October 17th in Portland.

This incredibly moist chocolate cake has 4 layers, two on each tier. It's frosted with chocolate butter cream and decorated with pink sugar roses and icing. This was my first attempt at frosting roses; I've gotten even better at making them since.

Think Pink!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so I decided to do some pink themed things for this blog. I’m currently working on my next creation and thought I’d update while I’m waiting for it to cool.

These are chocolate lollipops with pink accents. The pink/brown combination was inspired by this years shirts for the Making Strides walk. The walk is this Sunday and it will be my 8^th year participating.

It’s a jungle out there!

This cake was a collaborative effort between me, a friend, and my boyfriend. Two friends from college were having a joint birthday party with a jungle theme. As their gift, we made them this cake.

The inside of this cake is just as fancy as the outside. The cake was made from a box mix, which we modified. We also used food color gels to make the inside rainbow colored. I cut the cake to be topsy-turvy in style, but structurally it’s quite stable.

The cake was frosted with homemade vanilla butter cream frosting, then covered in marshmallow fondant and decorated. I did both the zebra and giraffe prints, but cannot take credit for the super cute lion, monkey and elephant. The cake was a huge hit at the party. Everyone couldn’t get over how great it looked and tasted.

The wonderful things about Fall

In honor of Fall and all of the glorious things that the season brings, I decided to write a "song". Here it is: (to the tune of ‘My Favorite Things’ from the Sound of Music)

Picking ripe apples, Food flavored like pumpkin,
Giant corn mazes, And leaf piles to jump in
Wearing wool sweaters to not be freezing
Fall is about all these wonderful things

Witches and goblins and cobwebs from spiders
Knitting while drinking some hot apple cider
Giving kids candy with each doorbell ring
Fall is about all these wonderful things

Haunted hay rides, donning masks on Halloween,
Trees ranging in shades of red, orange and green
Warm roasted turkey with drumsticks and wings
Fall is about all these wonderful things

Jack-o-Lanterns
Trick-or-Treating
And the Fryeburg Fair
There are so many wonderful Fall things
I might have a love affair

My apologies for getting that tune stuck in your head. At least I spared you from actually having to hear me sing it. You’re welcome.

And now, to the food:

Mini Pumpkin-Chocolate chip whoopie pies with Maple butter cream icing

Pumpkin is one of the best flavors of Fall. In fact, so many people love it that, during the time I wanted to buy canned pumpkin, there was a pumpkin shortage. This may or may not have resulted in my driving to three different grocery stores in order to find the stuff. Because I was THAT determined to make something pumpkin flavored. Determined… stubborn….

Whatever.

The savory flavor of the cake-like cookie of the whoopie pie is balanced with the sweetness of the maple icing. The chocolate chips added a twist to the pumpkin cookie, both in texture and in flavor. Though they are small in size, these whoopie pies are so decadent that one is enough to satisfy. Eating more may put you at risk of slipping into a sugar coma or completely rotting your teeth. Just kidding. Kind of.

I love whales!





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Recently went whale watching and it was amazing. I was so inspired that I made this teeny tiny whale cake. It doesn’t look small in pictures, but it’s actually about 4 inches in diameter. Perfect for two people.



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The inside is orange in color and flavor, with vanilla butter cream icing. The outside is homemade marshmallow fondant with a hand-cut whale, waves, and blue and teal polka dots.

For your enjoyment, a few photos from my whale watching adventures

 in July off the coast of Gloucester, MA: