Gingerbread Stage Coach - Yee Haw!

It all started when my husband's coworker, Jon, brought him a picture of a personalized gingerbread train.   He wrote on the side something like, "Stagecoach?"  To most people, that relationship wouldn't make sense, but both men work at Wells Fargo, kind of known for the whole stagecoach thing.

Anywho, my husband showed me the picture and I said, "I'll do that.  But!  YOU have come up with the template.  I'll make the dough, I'll bake it and decorate it, but you have to do the design work."  And that's how this started.

When I asked people to guess what this was on my Facebook page, I thought for sure I'd hear hedgehogs or something.  Nope.  People did guess turtles, nativity scene, oven mitts and salmon-flavored bagel cake.

On this one, a few guessed correctly, but I was excited to see Santa sleigh!  That's a cool idea!!

Here's the finished product.  All assembled and ready to go.  I used large marshmallows to cushion the stagecoach and level it out a bit.  I frosted some sugar cones to make trees (learned that one from my daughter's first grade teacher).

I added some candy and my own baked goods to the tray.

And Jon (center) approves.  Thanks for the idea, Jon!

I hope everyone enjoys their treats and has a very Merry Christmas!  

A Simple Cake for James

So Angie emailed me requesting a cake for her husband's birthday this last weekend.  She said that he hasn't stopped talking about Kalli's birthday cake that I made for her a few months ago.  Can I just say that I LOVE getting messages like that?  And James is SO on the right page here, because my chocolate-flecked cake IS really good!  ;)  

Angie needed a small cake to celebrate, so I decorated it simply with some vanilla buttercream and called it a day!  James' birthday, that is!

I hope he enjoyed this one and it was just as delicious as he remembers it!  Happy Birthday!!

Polka Dots!

Last year it was Hello Kitty!  This year - POLKA DOTS!!  And I can't think of a better way to decorate a cake for a 13-year old!  

Abby wanted a confetti cake with chocolate frosting.  That's on the inside.  On the outside, I used vanilla buttercream and fondant polka dots.  The border was made out of Sweet Tarts!

Happy early Birthday, Abby!  I hope you had a great party and I wish you the best birthday ever!!

Birthday Turkey

Yesterday was Sheila's birthday and this year, she was going to celebrate her birthday with a Thanksgiving meal.  Her birthday cake was to have a turkey on it and I couldn't resist.  I don't know what I love about googly-eyed turkeys, but I think they're the cutest.  And this one is wearing a Pilgrim hat!  He's all dressed up!

The cake is Sheila's favorite: Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  My little turkey is made out of gum paste and fondant.

Happy Birthday, yesterday, Sheila!  Happy Thanksgiving today!

Thanksgiving Fun

As I was prepping for my Thanksgiving meal this year, I perused my Pinterest friends and found some really cute ideas for kids.  I was excited to host a Thanksgiving meal this year!  It'd been awhile since we had done it.  Danny and I started the tradition in our first year of marriage and combined both of our families for a celebratory thankful meal the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  Then Danny's family would have plans with their respective families and my family would go their separate ways, but at least we got a good meal in before all of the holiday shuffling.  Here I am with our first turkey.  I look so happy, don't I?  LOL!  Probably the stress of working in a kitchen the size of a closet.  Ah!  Memories!

Anyway, this year, I got to think about the kiddos and wanted to plan some fun finger foods for them.  I was sure that they wouldn't be fans of the brussel sprouts or the spinach gratin, but they'd surely like apples and acorns, right?  (Gotta love Pinterest!)   And this was something  my 6-year old Josie could do.  And she did.  And it was great.

We took some mini-Nilla wafers, unwrapped a package of Hershey Kisses and poured out some butterscotch baking chips and organized them in bowls.

I melted some additional melted butterscotch baking chips to use as glue to hold the Nilla Wafer to the Hershey Kiss and the baking chip to the Nilla Wafer.

The acorns looked like this when they were done.

Josie brought little packages to school for her friends and we had a nice bowl-full on our Thanksgiving Saturday to share with friends.

I also found this little Apple Turkey idea on Pinterest and it couldn't have been easier.  I just cut up some apples, put some caramel sauce in a bowl and decorated it like a little turkey.  Josie helped with this too!

The kids loved it!

And here was the table-scape.  We ended up doing a buffet-style meal, so the plates were stored in the kitchen.  When the candles were lit and the lighting was dimmed down low, it really felt cozy in here.  

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  I wish you a very fulfilling, happy and safe holiday!!

Love,

The Cake Mama

Vanilla, Vanilla, Vanilla!

Here's what I know about Kristi.  She LOVES vanilla cake.  And she's very particular about the creaminess of vanilla frosting; it can't have any grit.  And it has to be very vanilla-y.

Challenge accepted.

Erin, Kristi's sister and one of my very best friends, ordered a cake for her sister's 30th birthday.  Her sister wanted a tiered cake because turning 30 was a pretty big deal.  I agree.  Tiered cakes are a GREAT way to celebrate a milestone.  ;)

Erin forwarded a picture of a cake she found on Pinterest and wanted something with chevron on the cake.  And it had to be pastel colors.  Sounds great!

So, the top tier of this cake is Kristi's vanilla cake.  I used two whole vanilla beans between the cake and the frosting.  And the frosting is a boiled icing recipe that I've grown to absolutely love.  It's 100% delicious and creamy like you wouldn't believe.  It's also unbelievably light, so paired with the cake, the combination became quite delicate.

The bottom tier of the cake was for the chocolate lovers in the family.  It's my chocolate cake, fudge and Oreo filling, also topped with the amazingly creamy and amazingly vanilla buttercream frosting.

Here's the birthday girl!

 

Here's that vanilla cake.  If you look closely enough, you can see all of the flecks of the vanilla beans.  Mmmmm!!!

Happiest of birthdays to you, Kristi!  I'm so happy you had such a great celebration!

Happy Birthday "deer" Ryan!

My dear friend Jessica wasn't really planning anything big for her husband, Ryan's, birthday.  They were going to have a small celebration like usual with their family.  That was, until their kids started planning a party.  What Jessica thought was going to be a small get together, turned into a party, a rented room and a huge surprise!   I was happy to help her out after I received her plea for a cake - very last minute.  

She told me that I could use whatever I had on hand and that Ryan is into deer hunting right now.  I could incorporate something about that on the cake.  

Well, I don't usually have things "on hand".  I bake all of my stuff from scratch, so it was no problem for me to make Jessica and Ryan's favorite red velvet cake for the occasion.  As for the decoration, I went with a deer theme, as you can see, and decorated accordingly.  

For a very last minute cake, I think it turned out well.  I hope Jessica was able to pull off the surprise!  Can't wait to hear all about it!

Happy Birthday, Ryan!