Pink Little Cake

This is what I've been doing all week!

On of my coworkers decided to head out of town and go to the "BIG CITY." BORING! Why would you want to do that when there are such cool people around here? Well, we tried to change her mind at a little party, but it was no go. I brought the cake.

Just to explain what you see, Marshmallow fondant covers this chocolate fudge cake. Pink buttercream is covered by pink fondant. Originally my thought for the cake was to make a three tier cake to display shoe cookies (that's the type of girl.. more shoes than the queen I imagine). While I decided to change the idea half way through, but it was more for lack of time. I did have the shoes prepped, but just thought that the cake was too darn pretty as it was!

A smiling Jess next to the cake. You can see, it was a Pink Little Cake. I kept thinking about Kathia at the blog Pink Little Cake as I was making it. It was totally sweet site. You should check her out!

Of course, everyone wonders what the inside looks like, but rarely get to see. So, I took a few pictures. Look at the perfection! It was sooo moist! (notice the filleting knife we used to cut the cake? Small towns :)

Had I added the shoes, it would have been something like this... the cake just keeps getting eaten... Each shoe has a little sucker stick in them, then they are poked into the cake to stick upwards. It was a great design. I was just not too crazy about the possibility of ruining the cake. Some of the shoes did make it into the flower arrangement.

Enjoying the cake, Wendy, Me, and Jess. It was a fun night!

Bruschetta!

Did you know that Bruschetta dates back to 15th century Italy? In Italian, Bruschetta is pronounced as ‘brusketta’, where ‘bruscare’ means ‘to roast over coals.’ But enough trivia! On to the real deal!

I decided to make some Bruschetta this weekend because the weather has not let up at all. Right now, we've topped 30 degrees... Celsius.. that's 86 Fahrenheit! Bottom line, WAY TOO HOT TO COOK! So, I whisked up a batch for lunch and supper!

You can do it too! Making bruschetta is quite simple: Here's what you need:

Easy Bruschetta.

-Tomatoes (about 5 Roma and 2 hot house)
- 1/4 cup sundried Tomatoes (that's about 4-5) I use the type in oil.
- 2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
- 2 tbsp Basil Pesto (unless you have fresh Basal, which is best!)
- 1 sprig green onion
- 2 medium cloves of garlic
-1/4 cup olive oil (not in the picture)
- salt/pepper to taste
- Feta for garnish

Start by cutting up the tomatoes into little cubes, about the size of a sugar cube. Place these in a dish with a lid (one that can be stored. I use Corning ware).

Next, add the onion, salt, pepper, garlic and pesto to the mix. Go ahead and process or chop your sundried tomatoes and add them as well. That's it .. Go ahead.

Finally, stir up the mix and add in the Balsamic Vinegar. Stir that a little, place a lid on the container, and let sit over night. It will maranade to a perfect taste.

The next day, you should be ready to enjoy a nice little treat! You can put this on pizza or stick it in a pita. I love to give this as a gift. Just make or buy a little French bread to go with it, and the hostess/host will always feel appreciated!

À la prochainne, bon appetit!

My Little Pony Cuppies!

Cuppies! Gotta love'em. I went to a birthday party this week, and decided to bring some snacks. The wonderful thing about little girls' birthday parties is that they are always themed. These days, you get Star Wars parties, Mickey Mouse Parties, Lego Parties, Dora the Explorer parties... the works! Well, this one was a My Little Pony party... so the cupcakes i made, had to be just right!

I started with a classy little pink cupcake, decorated in pink butter cream, and topped with sprinkles. I thought that would be perfect, but the more I looked at them, the more I realized that something was missing.


I guess what I am trying to say is that I'm a perfectionist! I like things to look PERFECT. What I wanted more than anything else is for the little girl to have a HUGE smile on her face when she saw the cuppies.


Honestly, I had NO IDEA what they would look like. My friend Michelle and I actually went to Starbucks and went though some cupcake books looking for ideas. We didn't find any, but I did come up with my idea. So, marshmallow fondant later (I'll post the recipe one day), I hand cut out and painted 24 My Little Pony figures. I ended up tracing the figure then drawing in the rest. This was another excellent example of why I like cookie writers. The best part is that they tasted delicious, and looked super cute. Here's the first 12 that I completed:

It was a wonderful party. Thank you Cathy for the inspiration, and thank you Michelle for the ideas!

Coconut-Lime Cuppies

Let's get down to business. It's 27 degrees outside, the sun in shining, it is hot! Time for some cuppies. Okay, maybe I'm a little crazy cooking in this heat, but the idea of coconut-lime cupcakes had my hubbie drooling, so I was asked for this one little favor.

This cuppie was not hard, just a little adaptation from a vanilla cake recipe. Add some lime zest, and coconut into the mix, then top with butter cream (with lime zest) and you have a crazy good thing going!

I love the little flower-bowls (below), they hold one cuppie. Can you imagine some vanilla ice cream with these? I can! Oh man!

Two, one for ♥, and one for me!

Blooming by the window

I love flowers. Living in an apartment does not give you much room to grow big plants, so I keep happy with a, rather large now, Pothos, an Ivy, and a polka-dot plant (in PINK♥). One might even go as far as to say I do have a green thumb. When I lived with my parents, I redid their entire front yard, fixed the thatch on their lawn, and cleaned up and re-planted their garden. It looked amazing. So, now I've taken a fancy to the colours in my house. Enter my newest cookie creation:


This little pot I did right before mother's day. It was supposed to be a surprise, so I didn't post it up right away. I chose to do it in the favorite colours: Pink, Purple, and Yellow. My mom went nuts! She took some of the cookies with her to the park, and accidentally broke them in her purse. It turned out all right though, Abby, my niece, got to eat some cookie pieces; she was pleased!



So, on the sill they sit with... my oops I forgot ... spider plant. I don't think these cookies need any sun though.

Until next time!

Fun in the Sun... kinda

I would like to say the weather here in Fort has been getting nicer, but that's just not true. We needed rain badly, and after hoping and praying, we got it... in spades! Two weeks of rain or rainy weather later, we are finally going to get some sun, and just in time for the weekend. There is a reason Fort Frances is on Rainy Lake!

To celebrate, and maybe coax the sun out, I made SUN COOKIES! Let's hope I can spread a little sunshine in Fort Frances.

My friend made the comment that the face on the right looks like Lisa Simpson.... from the Simpsons? I agreed. Can you imagine Simpsons cookies?

Bag'em, and bring them to school. These are some cool cookies!

What more could a teacher ask for!?

I'm super lucky to have had a bunch of great students throughout my career. Lately, a couple of the girls came by with a present. They had gotten a hold of the Hello Cupcake book, and had tried out a few of the types. They came up with this awesome little gem:


It is a ZOMBIE CUPCAKE! They used the alien design from the book and came up with him.

Scary huh? I am in LOVE! ♥

He'll just sit by my computer and keep me company. Thanks Dom and Kristina, this is amazing!

Sassy Monkey

The Advanced Placement students at Fort High recently graduated. In addition to earning a full university credit in high school, these student gained some great life experience. The AP kids, or APS celebrated on Friday, and I bought the cookies. These APES celebrate their AP success!


I've recently taken to using Wilton cookie writers. They are amazing. I love the detail I can get... Check out the sassy monkeys:

I like the fact that they are simpler than using all royal icing. Even though it is not classic, as in using all icing, it is nice to have an easier way of getting a great look. I do like the look of the markers, what do you all think?

Hey Lady!

This plate has long been an inspiration to cookie-makers. Maybe it is because the simle is so darn cute.... No surprise when I got a request for those ladybugs:

Little buggies drying on the pan..

Hopefully they make you smile too. I would love to try this one again! You know how you get ideas AFTER you've had a chance to play, well, one dozen cookies was not enough to get the idea perfect. I hope I get time to make these again!

And They Lived...

You know how a project can sound so good, and you think it will all work out given time, but when you take, play with it, you find everything goes wrong. That was this cake! What a week I've had! It was worth it for these shots, but still, the feelings of panic for three days straight, lack of food and sleep, and then utter joy and relief at the end cause a ruckus in my house!

But it was all worth it for this~

The cake itself was three layers of pain. The bottom (8 inches high) was made of chocolate, while the top two layers were made of white spongecake.
The cake itself was decorated in bight flowers (in red and blue) with larger white flowers around the base and up the towers.

As you can see, the cake was not perfect, but it was beautiful!

I loved the door the best. Originally, there was supposed to be a drapery going up the front which was going to be like a waterfall, but after having my fondant crack over and over, I gave up on it, and decided that stars would be simpler. They are not as classy, but the cake is whimsical, so it fit.

The bride requested minnow cookies to symbolize a baby on the way. Since the sex was not known, I made yellow Minnow cookies with little hearts in the belly. A friend called the baby "Little Minnow," so that caption was added to the back with Wilton Cookie writers.

So, some twenty hours after I started, the cake and cookies are finished. Congratulations to the bride and groom. I hope your the night was magical! And good luck in the future with the family!