OK, I had so much fun making this one. I think I say that every time. But this one is my new favorite.
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Cookie Balls
These little guys were so easy and they were a hit!!
Here is the recipe
Crush 1 package of oreo or other sandwich cookies in a food processor
Mix in 1 package of softened cream cheese
Use a cookie scoop to measure out portions and roll into balls
Freeze for about 1 hour
Dip in melted chocolate or almond bark (they may need to be dipped twice)
Drizzle with colored chocolate
EAT and Enjoy! I do warn you though, they are very rich.
I'm a little tea pot
I made this little tea pot for a friends daughter's tea party. The spout and handle are made from fondant. The cake is iced in butter cream with fondant decorations. I used my Pampered Chef large batter bowl to bake the cake in. It was the perfect shape for a tea pot.
Smaller Black and White Topsy Turvy
I made this smaller version of the black and white topsy turvy for one of my friends husband. It is an 8" and 6" cake. I liked this size. It's great for a smaller party.
Pumpkin Spice Cake Recipe
Heavenly Pumpkin Spice Cake
Ingredients:
1 package spice cake mix 18.25 0z
1 cup white flour
1 4oz instant vanilla pudding mix
1/3 tsp of salt
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup sour cream
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup water
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350
Combine all ingredients and beat on medium speed for 5-6 minutes. Pour into prepared pans. It will easily make a 9x13, 2 8” round cakes, or about 40 cupcakes.
Baking time will be increased because of all of the added ingredients. I baked my cupcakes for about 25 minutes. For cakes about 40-55 minutes. It is done when you touch the cake and it bounces back in the center.
Whipped Pumpkin Filling:
4oz softened cream cheese
½ cup powdered sugar
½ cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp vanilla
½ cup whipping cream
mix cream cheese and powder sugar until well blended. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, mix until well blended. Slowly add whipping cream beat for 1-2 minutes. Chill for 1-2 hours before using.
Tip: to fill cupcakes use a bismarck tip (Wilton #230) and piping bag.
Cream Cheese Icing:
1 stick butter softened
8oz cream cheese softened
1 lb powder sugar (4 cups)
1 tsp vanilla
Cream butter, cream cheese and vanilla, slowly add powderd sugar. Mix until well blended.
Ingredients:
1 package spice cake mix 18.25 0z
1 cup white flour
1 4oz instant vanilla pudding mix
1/3 tsp of salt
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup sour cream
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup water
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350
Combine all ingredients and beat on medium speed for 5-6 minutes. Pour into prepared pans. It will easily make a 9x13, 2 8” round cakes, or about 40 cupcakes.
Baking time will be increased because of all of the added ingredients. I baked my cupcakes for about 25 minutes. For cakes about 40-55 minutes. It is done when you touch the cake and it bounces back in the center.
Whipped Pumpkin Filling:
4oz softened cream cheese
½ cup powdered sugar
½ cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp vanilla
½ cup whipping cream
mix cream cheese and powder sugar until well blended. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, mix until well blended. Slowly add whipping cream beat for 1-2 minutes. Chill for 1-2 hours before using.
Tip: to fill cupcakes use a bismarck tip (Wilton #230) and piping bag.
Cream Cheese Icing:
1 stick butter softened
8oz cream cheese softened
1 lb powder sugar (4 cups)
1 tsp vanilla
Cream butter, cream cheese and vanilla, slowly add powderd sugar. Mix until well blended.
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
These cupcakes were so delicious! They are pumpkin spice cupcakes with a whipped pumpkin filling and cream cheese icing. Click here for the recipe!! Yum, Yum, Yum!
Click here for a tutorial on how I made the chocolate leaves.
To fill cupcakes you use a bismarck tip, Wilton #230. To make the swirl of icing on top I used Wilton tip 1A. Oh, so yummy!
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
I made the cake for my son's 5th birthday. He wanted a Spongebob castle cake. I cheated on this cake. Since I don't have an edible image printer I printed the from my regular printer and laid them onto a piece of fondant I cut to match the image. The castle parts are from the Wilton Castle set. It is the first time I used it. They were kind of a pain to cover in fondant. I ran short on time so I didn't have time to add his name to the cake :(
OH! I used cinnamon toast crunch cereal for the dirt. I crushed it in my food processor. It tasted so good!! Much better than anything else I have ever used for dirt.
Making Chocolate Leaves
This is the first time I have tried making chocolate leaves, it was actually very simple. First you pick some leaves that you want to duplicate. I had a nice maple tree out front that I just picked leaves from. I washed and dried them completely. You don't want any water getting around your chocolate, it will seize it up and that is not good.
Next I melted chocolate. I used chocolate almond bark because that is what I had on hand. I have noticed with almond bark it takes longer to dry. Once melted, I used a paint brush to "paint" the chocolate onto the leaves.
I set the leaves on a baking sheet covered with parchment and placed them in the freezer just for a few minutes to get the chocolate to dry nice and hard.
After the chocolate has frozen, carefully peel the leaf from the chocolate. It is very fragile, so be careful. For a finishing touch I dusted the chocolate leaves with gold luster dust.
Baking with a Flower Nail
This is a flower nail, it is used to make flowers but it has another function! If you take it and turn it upside down in your baking pan like in the picture below it will help bake your cake so your cake is more likely to come out nice and rounded on top instead of having sinkage in the middle. It will conduct heat to the center of your cake. It kind of works like a heating core without leaving a big hole in your cake. I put 1 nail in an 8-10 inch pan and 2 nails in 12 inch or larger. Make sure and "paint" them with your homemade cake release so they don't stick to your cake. Did I mention how great the cake release works? I forgot to take a pic of the cake when it came out. I guess you'll have to take my work for it, the cake came out beautifully! 
40th Black and White
I did this cake for my friends 40th birthday. I absolutly love to do topsy turvy cake. They are my favorite. The top tier has swirls made from a chocolate mold. The topper on the cake was cut out with a paper template. I made little fondant balls and placed them on the end of floral wire. When I placed the wire in the cake it was taped and put in a straw, making sure that none of the wire was touching the cake.
Making marshmallow fondant
Directions for Marshmallow Fondant
Ingredients:
1 - 16 oz bag regular or miniature marshmallows
1 – 2 lb bag confectioner's sugar
2 Tablespoons water
2 teaspoons flavoring, I use vanilla
Shortening
cornstarch
1. Grease your mixing bowl and a Pyrex or glass bowl that can be used to melt marshmallows in the microwave
2. Place 16 oz bag of marshmallows, 2 Tablespoons of water and 2 teaspoons of flavoring of your choice in Pyrex/glass bowl coated with shortening and microwave on high for 60 seconds. Stir. If all the marshmallows are not melted, return to microwave for approximately 30 seconds. Stir. Continue this procedure until all marshmallows are melted
3. Sift one half of the 2 pound bag of confectioner's sugar in a mixing bowl which has also been greased with shortening. Make a well in the center of the confectioner's sugar and pour the melted marshmallows
4. I use the dough hook attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. Mix until all the melted marshmallows are incorporated in the confectioner's sugar. Mixture will be thick but still a runny.
Sift the remaining half bag of confectioner's sugar into the mixing bowl with the melted marshmallows.
Do not use the entire 2 pounds of sugar. It only takes about 1 ¾ pounds.
**Note: If you do not have a Kitchen Aid mixer or heavy duty mixer similar to a Kitchen Aid, mix this by hand. This is a very thick mixture and very hard even for a Kitchen Aid to mix. Sift the remaining confectioner's sugar into the marshmallows/confectioner's sugar in bowl and mix. Fondant will be very thick and have dough like consistency
5. Wrap fondant in saran and make sure no air gets to it.
It really needs to sit about an hour or so to cool down completely from the melted marshmallows. It needs to be air tight so it will not dry out.
6. Your cake needs to be as smooth as possible as fondant tends to show imperfections
7. Take approximately two-thirds of marshmallow fondant and place in the middle of a measuring wheel (I use the Wilton measuring circle) or on a very smooth surface that has been thoroughly coated with cornstarch
8. Roll fondant out until approximately 1/16 inch thick.
Make sure you keep you surfaces coated with crisco so your fondant doesn't stick.
Lift the fondant while rolling to make sure it's not sticking. There is nothing worse than rolling out the size you need, lifting and finding your fondant has stuck to the surface, so use plenty of Crisco or cornstarch.
9. After you get your MMF on your cake, lightly smooth the top with your hands. For the sides of the cake, I use a pizza cutter to remove the extra MMF.
10. Be careful not to stretch your MMF as this will cause you to have too much fondant on the sides and will make creases when you try to smooth.
11. Smooth from the top on the sides down to the bottom edge of the cake working around it trimming off the excess
Tips:
Grease everything with Crisco your hands, the bowl and utensils. Let the mmf rest overnight before using.
TO USE If fondant is too hard, place in microwave a few seconds at a time. Dust work table with cornstarch, and knead for a couple of minutes. Then roll as thin as you want with rolling pin dusted in cornstarch.
To color: Separate small amounts of fondant & color with paste food colors to the desired tone. Knead until color is smooth and completely uniform. This fondant does not set fast at all.
*www.cakecentral.com
Ingredients:
1 - 16 oz bag regular or miniature marshmallows
1 – 2 lb bag confectioner's sugar
2 Tablespoons water
2 teaspoons flavoring, I use vanilla
Shortening
cornstarch
1. Grease your mixing bowl and a Pyrex or glass bowl that can be used to melt marshmallows in the microwave
2. Place 16 oz bag of marshmallows, 2 Tablespoons of water and 2 teaspoons of flavoring of your choice in Pyrex/glass bowl coated with shortening and microwave on high for 60 seconds. Stir. If all the marshmallows are not melted, return to microwave for approximately 30 seconds. Stir. Continue this procedure until all marshmallows are melted
3. Sift one half of the 2 pound bag of confectioner's sugar in a mixing bowl which has also been greased with shortening. Make a well in the center of the confectioner's sugar and pour the melted marshmallows
4. I use the dough hook attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. Mix until all the melted marshmallows are incorporated in the confectioner's sugar. Mixture will be thick but still a runny.
Sift the remaining half bag of confectioner's sugar into the mixing bowl with the melted marshmallows.
Do not use the entire 2 pounds of sugar. It only takes about 1 ¾ pounds.
**Note: If you do not have a Kitchen Aid mixer or heavy duty mixer similar to a Kitchen Aid, mix this by hand. This is a very thick mixture and very hard even for a Kitchen Aid to mix. Sift the remaining confectioner's sugar into the marshmallows/confectioner's sugar in bowl and mix. Fondant will be very thick and have dough like consistency
5. Wrap fondant in saran and make sure no air gets to it.
It really needs to sit about an hour or so to cool down completely from the melted marshmallows. It needs to be air tight so it will not dry out.
6. Your cake needs to be as smooth as possible as fondant tends to show imperfections
7. Take approximately two-thirds of marshmallow fondant and place in the middle of a measuring wheel (I use the Wilton measuring circle) or on a very smooth surface that has been thoroughly coated with cornstarch
8. Roll fondant out until approximately 1/16 inch thick.
Make sure you keep you surfaces coated with crisco so your fondant doesn't stick.
Lift the fondant while rolling to make sure it's not sticking. There is nothing worse than rolling out the size you need, lifting and finding your fondant has stuck to the surface, so use plenty of Crisco or cornstarch.
9. After you get your MMF on your cake, lightly smooth the top with your hands. For the sides of the cake, I use a pizza cutter to remove the extra MMF.
10. Be careful not to stretch your MMF as this will cause you to have too much fondant on the sides and will make creases when you try to smooth.
11. Smooth from the top on the sides down to the bottom edge of the cake working around it trimming off the excess
Tips:
Grease everything with Crisco your hands, the bowl and utensils. Let the mmf rest overnight before using.
TO USE If fondant is too hard, place in microwave a few seconds at a time. Dust work table with cornstarch, and knead for a couple of minutes. Then roll as thin as you want with rolling pin dusted in cornstarch.
To color: Separate small amounts of fondant & color with paste food colors to the desired tone. Knead until color is smooth and completely uniform. This fondant does not set fast at all.
*www.cakecentral.com
Bratz Cake, Chocolate Transfer
The Bratz logo is a choco transfer and the stars are made from fondant cut-outs and airbrushed in pink shimmer, gold and silver.
Lightening McQueen cake, Chocolate Transfer
I am becoming a big fan of the chocolate transefer method. Mcqueen was made using this method. I will post a couple of more cakes using this method.
Cookie Bouquets
I made these guys for Mother's Day. I baked round cookies on lollipop sticks, decorated them with royal icing. I think next time I will use butter cream. The royal icing dried to hard. It makes for good decorating, just not to nice to eat in my opinion. Once the icing was dry I placed them in a flower pot. Inside the flower pot was a piece of floral styrofoam, I just stuck the stick directly into the foam. I put some beans in the pot to give it weight so they wouldn't tip over. To finish it off I put the green crumpled paper on top.One Tier Topsy Turvy Zebra cake
I thought this turned out really cute. The twelve was also made using the chocolate transfer method. The little balls are made from fondant and then the whole cake was airbrushed with pearly stuff to make it shine.
Bobby Jack Monkey
The Bobby Jack Monkey is made using the chocolate transfer method. I love using that method because you can make just about anything you want. Here is a great link that shows a tutorial on how to do the chocolate transfer method, it is fun and easy. Sadie was made using fondant cutout called Tappits, love these guys! The colored sprinkles on this cake were a complete accident. I had a bowl of them sitting next to the cake and I knocked the bowl so the sprinkles flew all over the kitchen, and on the cake. But I thought they added a nice touch.
Four prong bow for baby shower
This is a cake I did for a baby shower. The cake is iced in butter cream icing. The bow is made from fondant. I put it through my pasta machine, which I love. It gets the fondant so thin that the finished bow looks more like real fabric. I used a textured rolling pin to give the fondant texture. This is the first one of these that I made. I really like it. The cake board is also covered in the textured fondant.
Whimsical cake
I was asked to make a fun birthday cake. This is what I came up with. I had so much fun with this cake. I love the colors and the whimsical look. The two tiers were carved by my husband (because I can't carve!) to have a tappered look.
Wedding Cake
This is a 3 tier butter cream wedding cake. The top tier is a 6" round, middle is an 8" square and the bottom is a 14" round. I made 300 royal icing flowers for the cake I ended up using about 100, so I have a ton left over. Each tier is wrapped with satin ribbon.
Mini Cakes
These are mini cakes I made for a friends baby shower. I made a large sheet cake, filled it, froze it, then cut them up into 2x2 slices. I covered them in poured fondant that I made (if I can remember the recipe I used, I will post it).
They aren't perfect, you can really see through the icing. They were my first ones. I'll have to practice some more.
I cut out some little fondant daisy flowers and placed them on top.
Elmo Slice Cake
I did this cake for my niece Sammie. She wanted an Elmo cake. So I decided to make a "slice" cake. It was my first one. As you can see the slice of cake is a little tilted.
Shrek
I made this cake for Gavyn's 4th birthday. He requested a Shrek cake. I had fun with this one. My husband really helped with the idea. Shrek is made from fondant it is a flat fondant figure, motiff I think it is called. Froggie
I think this frog is so cute! I made if from fondant to go on top of a cake for a little girl who likes frogs. I was told after the party that she carried it around in her hand like it was real. How cute!! Hot Pink, Black and White
This cake was done for as display cake at a really cool party place in Texas. It's still there. It is not really cake, it is styrofoam covered in fondant and decorated in fondant. It has crystals all over it. I really like this one.
Chinese New Year Cake
I did this cake for the cub scout Blue and Gold Banquet. The theme was Chinese New Year. The cake is iced in butter cream and airbrushed red. I piped the Chinese characters and molded the dragon out of fondant. 
Christmas package cake
I did this cake for my husbands work party. I know the bottom right corner is lopsided. I think I shaved to much cake off before icing it. It is actually sparkly but you can't tell in the pic. Overall, I like the way this cake turned out. And it did turn some heads at the party. My husband picked the colors, they were inspired by one of Duffs cakes from Charm City Cakes. I am sure you know the show as Ace of Cakes. Great show, and very talented artists.