Baking for the cause

Meet Erin and her furbaby Hillary.

Erin is a wonderful friend and all-around ecotastic girl. She hates cancer as much as I do, and in an effort to help me kick some cancer ass, she is hosting an e-bake sale & auction on her awesome blog, I Walk in this World. So stop by, bid on some treats, kick a little butt, rock my world - but be sure to stay, because Erin is definitely a daily must-read.

Oh, and I'm baking to help!

DELICIOUS Chocolate Chip Blondies (2-dozen) and as a bonus, they are Weight Watchers-friendly and only 3 Points per bar! They also freeze well and will make a yummy warm-weather frozen treat.

Bid early and bid often! The auction closes tomorrow at 5 PM!

What do you call rabbits that live in the North Pole?

Cold.

*crickets*

Okay, that was in honor of my friend Bill, who loves crappy jokes.

This Easter I was tasked with - of course - desserts. Since my cousin's (way too pretty for him) girlfriend Jules told me she was bringing TWO chocolate pudding pies, I tried to stay away from chocolate. (I did sneak in oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but they don't count, right?)

I've been itching to do some cute cupcakes, and I couldn't decide on just one decorating theme. So what the hell - I did two. All cupcakes were yellow cake with buttercream frosting.



The first batch:
Covered with white fondant daisies. I made these little guys earlier in the week so they would harden in time. And then I demanded of everyone who came into the kitchen to tell me just how CUTE they were...

The second batch:

Peeps! Cupcakes and Peeps?! You got it. The idea came from one of the many baking blogs I follow. Buttercream was dusted with granulated sugar, then topped with a Peep. So easy! So fun! The question was, do you eat the Peep first, or try to get a little Peep with each bite? ;) (The answer? I tried both!)

Miz Keely was my trusty assistant for this special project -

And the godbaby (at 10.5 months old) got to have his first cuppie on Easter Sunday!

"You've been holding out on me, people. This is MUCH better than pureed peas."

Maura's havin' a baby ♥

My pretty little coworker Maura (she has the most enviable, gorgeous red hair) is pregnant with her first - little Logan is due within the month. To celebrate, we are throwing her a "first floor shower" in the training room.

A couple of months ago, long before the surprise shower was planned, after my "cake class graduation," we joked that I would have to make her cake. Given the number of people who will be attending (and the state of my life at the moment), I didn't have time to make a big rockin' cake, but I did want to surprise her with a little something. After all, the girl sampled every single one of my concoctions on Tuesday mornings, after 4 straight months of Monday night classes.

My idea for this cake took many, many turns. In the end, it was a two-layer 8" square chocolate fudge cake with cookies and cream filling and whipped cream frosting, covered and decorated with fondant (my favorite). I was able to bake the cake and prepare the frosting on Tuesday. Decorating took place during the Idol results show on Thursday. (Poor Michael...)

Congratulations, Maura - may motherhood be all you hope for and more.

Congratulations, Kel & Mike Glass!

My wonderful nutmegger friend Kelly got engaged back in January. Her boyfriend Mike (forever dubbed Mr. Glass since she moved to CT to be near him before any of us had even met him!) popped the question atop the Empire State Building in NYC, thereby making an honest woman out of her. ;)

Kel and I, along with the rest of our fearsome foursome Lisa and Michele, used to work together at an advertising agency in Boston. (Kel and I even started on the same day! We used to meet in the ladies room lounge to dish about everyone else. The "photographer," anyone? Wooden beds?) Since she moved eleventy billion years ago, she has come back up to MA to visit us (and, um, her family) but we have never made the trip down to see her. Until now!

What says "Happy Engagement!" more than Tiffany-blue? (The answer: Not much.)

This was my first fondant cake outside of cake class. (Hi Courtney! Hi Cheryl! Miss you guys!) I used a 6" pan, since only 4 of us would be eating it. White cake with strawberry buttercream. The week leading up to our CT mini road trip was kind of a disaster, so I baked on Wednesday night, frosted and made the bow on Thursday, tinted the fondant on Friday, and woke up early Saturday (thanks to Miz Keely) to finish the decorating. Clearly I'm going to have to come up with a better system!

The snowflake cake plate was a Christmas prezzie from my lovey, Kim, and came in really handy for the drive. A regular (rounded) plate would have wobbled too much, and as we (read: Cheryl) learned in cake class, you can't put fondant bows in airtight cake carriers!

Congrats again, Kel! Mad Phat Girliez 4-eva. ♥

Preheating the Blogging Oven

So here I am, 4 Wilton decorating class certificates in my Crisco-greased hands and a wish to share my love of cake with the masses. My goal is to post each time I create a new cake, so we can all laugh at (and marvel over) my progress... So far I'm only doing cakes for my own amusement, for family and friends' special occasions, holidays and because my coworkers ask nicely. Maybe someday I'll bake for profit, but until then I'm just starting to flex my carved-from-fondant muscles.