Spring has Sprung...a Blizzard?!

The joys of living in Nebraska in the spring! Yesterday's blizzard kept us trapped indoors, so I used the opportunity to do some baking. My husband requested chocolate chip cookies. Don't they look yummy?

But I thought they were missing something so I decorated a few!

Much better! Happy Spring!

Fabulous Fudgy Frosting

Yesterday I made some waffle cookies, and if you have never had these little delights you are missing out! My family made them for years and peanut butter frosting was our favorite topping. My husband loves chocolate and so I decided to frost them with chocolate instead.

The frosting is made by melting 3 TBSP margarine, then adding 3 TBSP sugar (white or brown), and 3 TBSP of cocoa. Mix this all up and add 3 TBSP of sour cream. Stir and add 1/2 c. to 1 c. of powdered sugar depending on how thick and sweet you want it. Stir or whisk until all the lumps are gone and you are left with creamy chocolately goodness!

The finished frosted cookie. Yummo! This frosting is also very good on brownies and cake!

Cake Decorating Saves the Day!

My amazing husband gets a gold star today for his ingenuity and resourcefulness. This handy little device not only cleans the small openings of cake decorating tips, but also makes a great cleaning brush for computers! Just remember this tidbit the next time your toddler jams banana inside the internet port of your laptop.

When Irish Eyes Are Bloodshot...

This cake was made overnight...literally! The person requesting this cake wanted it delivered to a dinner party the next day! So here was my first chance to see if I could bake and decorate a cake (I did tell this person it would be a simple cake - no hand-painted fondant here!) with very short notice. I immediately went home and .... it was such a nice day .... a shame to let that good weather go to waste! So I doinked around instead of starting on the cake right away. I think I started baking around 5 p.m. and didn't get the buttercream made up until after 9. (There was a good show on that night!) I then decided I would go to bed and get the cake done in the morning; however, I ended up getting up at 1 a.m. (courtesy a wake-up call administered by a set of two-year-old lungs) and going to work on it. I don't really remember finishing the cake but I sure was tired! I felt good about how the cake turned out for such short notice, but this is definitely NOT my best work! I hope it was tasty...it was a yellow cake (dyed green on request) filled with rum buttercream. The sides were frosted green but it is hard to see in the picture. Lesson learned...make up buttercream ahead of time and freeze for short-notice cakes. Oh yeah, and don't procrastinate!

Twice as nice!

Cake decorating with a two-year old?!? Yes, my daughter is now two and presenting new challenges for me in this cake decorating endeavor. She knows what cake is all about and eagerly dug in when I presented her with this Winnie the Pooh cake for her birthday! She loved the filling the best - vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream - yummo! The cake was chocolate and I made the fondant out of marshmallows. If you hate fondant, give the marshmallows a chance! It is better (in my humble opinion) than that ready-made stuff in taste and texture. I painted the fondant with food coloring diluted with vodka. (Don't worry - the vodka evaporates. No drunken toddlers here!) I tried to make a fondant bow for the package, but it looked too big and bulky and I eventually decided on the real ribbon...it wasn't edible, but oh well. Just looking at this cake makes me want to go make another one....Mmm....cake!