Beach Birthday

One of the first cakes I did was beach themed cake with a life preserver in the water. It was for a RS dinner and went along with the theme. A lady who was there called me to do a cake for her daughter's 3rd birthday. She had loved the beach decorations that I had done and asked me to do something similar. I had the idea to make an island with the #3 surfboard to make it more kiddie. It turned out pretty cute.

Bridal Shower

This is like the Sweet 16 cake I did, but in a peach/apricot color scheme. It was for a bridal shower. The bottom layer is chocolate with vanilla cream filling and the top layer is white cake with a strawberry cream filling.

Dulce de Leche Fillo Cups

Dulce de Leche Fillo Cups

2 oz. 1/3-less-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel), softened

2 tablespoons dulce de leche (caramel) syrup

1 tablespoon reduced-fat sour cream

1 package frozen mini fillo shells (15 shells)

1/3 cup sliced fresh strawberries

2 tablespoons diced mango, a blueberry or any other fruit desired

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on low speed until creamy. Beat in dulce de leche syrup and sour cream until blended.

Spoon cream cheese mixture into fillo shell. Top each with desired fruit.

Makes 15 servings at 40 calories each.

Craters of the Moon Trip 6-24-08

This week our family took a little ride to Craters of the Moon. It's been four years since I last visited there. Those who came were me and Joe, Kami, Eric, Collin, Carlee, Tina and grandma Brewer.

Craters is a national monument that is dominated by lava, rocks and caves. Since winter was so long for us, the spring flowers were all in bloom still. They were beautiful! I will post our trip in pictures, some borrowed from my son-in-law, Eric.

To learn more about Craters of the Moon, visit http://www.nps.gov/crmo

Graduation Cakes

I did two graduation cakes this year. The CHS cake was for my brother, Bo. His school's mascot was a cowboy, so I opted to just put the initials. The Skyhawk cake was for a friend's son. Both boys played volleyball, so I put volleyballs around the cakes, but the Skyhawk cake had footballs also. Congratulations to the graduates!

Raspberry Cheesecake Dessert

This is very low fat and yummy!! It is made with:

Angel Food Cake
Frozen raspberries sweetened with Splenda
Sugar-free, Fat-free Instant Cheesecake Jello Pudding
Lightly sweetened whipped cream in a spray can
Chopped Almonds


I cut two circles of angel food cake. Lay one on bottom of a small individual size trifle bowl, next raspberries, then pudding. Add another layer of each and top with whipped cream and almonds.

Easy peasy!!!

Chicken Tortellini Soup

Mmmm mmm good!!!

Chicken Tortellini Soup

12 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breasts halves
2 teaspoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 14 oz. cans reduced sodium chicken broth
1 3/4 cups water
2 medium carrots, shredded
1 cup asparagus
1 teaspoon dried tarragon, crushed
2 cups torn fresh spinach
1 9 oz. package refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini


Cut the chicken into 3/4 inch pieces. In a dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook and stir chicken and garlic in oil for 5 to 6 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Stir in chicken broth, water, carrots, asparagus and tarragon.


Bring mixture to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 2 minutes. Add tortellini. Cover and simmer for 5 to 6 minutes more or until tortellini is tender. Stir in spinach.

Halibut with Creamy Dijon Sauce

This is my first time trying Halibut! The halibut was more expensive than other fish, but I just wanted to try something different. This recipe is very low-carb and very good!! Another one I would make again!!

Halibut with Creamy Dijon Sauce

4 fresh or frozen halibut or sea bass steaks, cut 1 inch thick

1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted

1/4 teaspoon onion powder or salt

1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram, crushed

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/8 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed

1/2 cup reduced sodium chicken broth

4 cups shredded spinach

1 medium carrot, shredded

Lemon wedges (optional)

Thaw fish, if frozen. Rinse fish; pat dry with a paper towel. Set aside.

For basting sauce, combine butter or margarine, onion salt, marjoram, and the 1/4 teaspoon thyme.

Place fish steaks on the unheated rack of a broiler pan. Brush with basting sauce. Broil 4 inches from the heat for 8 to 12 minutes or just until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork, turning once with the remaining basting sauce halfway through.

Meanwhile, for the mustard sauce, in a small saucepan, stir together the sour cream, flour, mustard, salt, pepper, and the 1/8 teaspoon thyme. Add chicken broth, stirring until well mixed. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for one minute more. Keep warm.

Toss together spinach and carrot. Divide the spinach mixture among 4 dinner plates. Arrange fish on the spinach mixture. top with mustard sauce. If desired, garnish with lemon wedges.

Grandma Brewer's Birthday Cake

This is a cake that I did for Grandma Brewer. She is Tina's mom. I love her just like she is my own family!! i made her a carrot cake with cream cheese icing. It was good, but the cake was too crumbly!! Maybe I put too much pineapple in it!

I'll share my cream cheese icing because I really liked how it worked for this cake. It worked great for decorating, crusted well and tasted good!

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 8 oz. bar cream cheese at room temperature

1 tablespoon white vanilla extract (I used mexican vanilla)

1 lbs. sifted powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt (I like to use popcorn salt)

Cream together shortening, butter and cream cheese until nice and smooth. Add vanilla into the mixture and combine. Sift sugar and salt together and add slowly to shortening, butter and cream cheese mixture. Make sure that all sugar is incorporated.

If too stiff, gradually add some milk to make the perfect consistency!

Levi and Cher's Wedding!

Cute wedding announcement!

The Bridal Shower

Kami and Kaitlyn at the bridal shower.

Very clever gift giving idea!!

Cher opening the Cricut that we all went in on together. Cher loved it!!

The beautiful quilt that Cher's mom made!

The Day of the Wedding

Working on the wedding cake after the luncheon.

Kami helping out!

Collin was the most handsomest ring bearer ever!!!

Collin was scuffing his shoes out in the parking lot before the ceremony! heehee


The groom to ring bearer before wedding ceremony talk!

Eric was on a picture taking craze!


What's that you're drinking, Larry?!!!!


Justin, Matt and Thad


Violin music being played the wedding party came in.



Oh I can't help it!! He is just too cute!!



The Reception



Me and Kami.


The cute couple!!


I think she liked my cake!!

Vanilla Cake. Forgot to take a picture before it was cut.


The carrot cake I made.



Cher made these cute and yummy cookies. Don't know where she found time to do them!

Love this idea!! Pictures were put on an old door. Made by Cher's mom! Love it!!!

Anime Cakes

I have been getting asked to do cakes from anime characters. What's anime, you ask? Although the term is used in Japan to refer to animation in general, in English usage the term most popularly refers to material originating from Japan, a subset of animation.

Anime is traditionally hand drawn, but computer assisted techniques have become quite common in recent years. It is used in television series, films, video, video games, and internet-based releases, and represents all genres of fiction. I won't pretend to know anything about anime, because I don't! I just try to do the cakes like the customer specifies.

The first one I did is Gaara. I had no clue as to how to put this character on a cake. I decided to to a frozen buttercream transfer (FBCT). I studied for a long time as to how to do one. I look all over the internet and on Cake Central.com It really wasn't as hard as I thought. My transfer isn't exactly like the picture, but it was close enough that the girl that ordered it for her friend was amazed and happy with it!! YIPPEE!!!

Gaara, the picture.
Gaara, my cake.

Then the same girl asked me to do one for her own birthday! Sure!!! Another FBCT. This one if of Edward Elric.

Edward Elric, the inspiration picture.

Edward Elric, the cake.

Then my son, who is into anime, big time, asked if I would do a cake for his roommate, Duo! Sure!!! "Ummm, can you make a Urahara Kisuki hat. I bought her the real hat for her birthday. She loves the hat." Uhhhh, yeah. Okay!! I'll see what I can do.

The inspiration hat picture.

The Urahara Kisuke Hat cake for Duo!

Anyway...I heard that she loved it and had a hard time cutting it! So I guess I don't really have to know anything about anime to do an anime cake. I just need to learn a little about the character and have a picture to go by! They are fun to do!!!

Maisy's 1st Birthday

A client called me to do her 1 year old's birthday. I made 50 cupcakes and topped them with fondant flowers. Then I made a 15 serving large cupcake. I covered the bottom in fondant and used a tool to make the grooves to look like cupcake liner paper. Then I frosted the top and added flowers and polka dots. The #1 was also made of fondant and stuck in with a sucker stick. I topped it off with a fondant cherry on top.

Beth's Cake

This is a cake I made for my SIL's mom. She turned 60 and they threw her a big surprise party. It turned out kinda wedding cake looking, but it's hard to make a more elegant cake without it turning out that way. The bottom layer was white cake with strawberry cream filling and the top was chocolate with vanilla cream filling. It is frosted in buttercream with brown scroll piping. The flowers are fondant calla lilies.

My Favorite Chocolate Icing!!

This is officially my most favoritest chocolate icing!!! I've used it for icing and filling. I've tried it with chocolate, white and yellow cakes and it's all good!!! It's worth every single calorie!!!

Chocolate Hazelnut Buttercream

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 cups confectioner's sugar
1-1/3 cups Nutella
2 teaspoons vanilla
milk

Cream butter and shortening. Sift Cocoa with the sugar and add gradually to the creamed mixture. Add a tablespoon of milk at a time until desired consistency is reached. Add Nutella and vanilla and blend until smooth and creamy.

Tire Cake

I was asked by a customer to do a tire cake. The cake is chocolate with chocolate buttercream filling and frosting. I covered the cake with black fondant and used my fondant tools to make the grooves for the tread. It was actually easier than I was expecting!

Camryn's Graduation

Having taught Elementary School for 5 years, when it came time for my daughter Camryn to start preschool, I decided to teach a class in my home. My little group is now ready for kindergarten. We had a potluck to celebrate, and of course, I did a cake. The top layer and the cap are white cake and the bottom layer is chocolate. I made the little graduates out of fondant with cookie cutters, then cut out caps and gowns. The top layer has the names of my students. I am so proud of them!