Hello Kitty!

Hello Kitty, hot pink, rainbows, polka-dots and a balloon - perfect for a little girl turning four!  Hannah won this cake at a raffle that my son had at his preschool last year to benefit Race for the Cure.    Happy Birthday Hannah!

Details:  White Almond Sour Cream cake, vanilla buttercream, fondant letters, fondant Hello Kitty, buttercream rainbow on the cake, candy rainbows on the cupcakes, and edible glitter to add some extra sparkle!

 

Pirates Ahead!!!

Happy Birthday Pirate Charlie!  Charlie's 5th birthday was celebrated with lot of friends at a local park on a beautiful day!  Pirate costumes, digging for treasure in the sand, being eaten by a shark, a pirate obstacle course with a plank to walk, pirate crafts, a pirate pinata and of course, a scavenger hunt for pirate treasure and about 30 little pirate friends - what a perfect party it was for this special little pirate!  

     We made pirate costumes for all the kids and had pirate names too!  My two were Wild Charlie Swashbuckler and Silly Jack Landlubber.  

A Pirate Party wouldn't be complete without pirate sweets!  Here are the pirate cookies, cupcakes and pirate cake:

Pirate sugar cookies

Pirate Cupcakes

Four tiers of Pirate  Cake, balanced on pirate legs, standing in the sand sprinkled with treasure and jewels!
The pirate ship was made from modeling chocolate.  The water tier was chocolate fudge cake filled with vanilla buttercream.  The Octopus is fondant.  The bottom pirate body tier is white almond sour cream cake filled with vanilla buttercream.  

The cake was balanced on pirate legs standing in the sand, with jewels and gold!

 Here are some fun pics of the party:

         

 Lots of Pirates, running through the park with Treasure Map in hand, searching for clues to find their hidden treasure and gold!

 

"Look!  A Clue!  A Clue!  A Clue!"          

Happy 5th Birthday Charlie!

Purple Ombre Cake

Frozen Obsessed!

This one started out as a simple Olaf cake for my 5 year old's family party (as he already had a very elaborate pirate cake for his friend party).  Well, my 5 year old "creative director" and "character expert" kept deciding we needed more characters.  So, the end result is a not-so-simple Frozen cake.  He and I were both very happy with the result!  I may put a tutorial up on how I made this in case anyone wants to recreate it.

Details:  White Almond Sour Cream cake with vanilla buttercream.  Olaf and Sven are fondant and gumpaste, hand painted with food coloring.  Elsa and Anna are hand painted with food coloring.  The snowflakes are fondant and gumpaste.

  

Frozen! Who doesn't love Olaf?!

My almost 5 year old watched Frozen for the first time about 4 months ago and he honestly wasn't all that interested in it.  For a long time, I thought I had the only kid who wasn't Frozen-obsessed. Okay, well that changed.  I'm not sure what exactly changed, but recently he's wanted to watch Frozen every.single.day.  The kiddo doesn't get much screen time because hubby and I limit it so his brain wont turn to mush.  But, he wants to watch it now whenever I'm making dinner or when his little brother is napping.  So, I see a LOT of Olaf....and I sort of luv him!  Seriously, who doesn't love this hilarious little snowman who just can't wait to experience summer.
So, because we're sort of Olaf-obsessed in this house, here  is Olaf in sugar cookie form:

My kiddos LOVED these and their little friends were also super-excited about them.  My 2yr old is always the first one awake in the morning and when he crawled into my bed and I showed him a picture of the cookie, he clapped and said "ooooooohhh, OOooooolaf!"   When his big brother saw the cookies a bit later, his reaction was equally sweet:  "Oh mommy, those are PERFECT!!  I am SO proud of you mommy!"

These cookies got a lot of interest on my FB page and I have an order I'm making for a birthday party sometime in November.  I'll be posting the date i'm making them shortly on FB and information on how to order some if you're interested.

Buttons and bows baby shower cake

 The buttons, bow and teddy bear are fondant.  Bottom tier is alternating layers of vanilla cake and marble cake layered with cookie dough buttercream (yummy!).  Top tier is chocolate fudge cake layered with vanilla buttercream.  This is the first time I've tried the cookie dough buttercream and it was a huge hit. Leave me a comment with your email if you'd like the recipe.

Facebook page

Find Sweet Celebrations on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweet-Celebrations/200837063261358?ref=hl

Superbowl Cookies

I unfortunately didn't get any good pics of the superbowl cookies I made, but here is the one pic I have from my phone.

The recipe for the cookies and icing are below in the Valentine's Day cookie post.  Super easy if you want to re-create!

 

Valentine's Day Cookies (with recipes and tutorial)

I love any chance to bake (and decorate!!) cookies or cakes or cupcakes.  So, Valentine's Day just around the corner means cookies for my boys' preschool class and daycare.  

The best thing about decorated sugar cookies is that they have to be done in stages so the icing has time to dry....Perfect for a busy working mommy to fit into an already crammed schedule.  These cookies can be made at least two weeks ahead of time, wrapped, and frozen.

I'm no expert when it comes to cookie decorating, but I've learned that icing consistency is the key to success.  The best information I've found on the secret to perfect icing is from  Marian of  Sweetopia.  She has a great tutorial on icing sugar cookies and I've linked to it here for you.  I also decided to post links to the recipes since they were so easy to make (below).   


Happy Baking!


No Fail Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

• 6 cups flour 3 tsp. baking powder 2 cups unsalted butter 2 cups sugar (white granulated) 2 eggs 2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself) 1 tsp. salt

Instructions

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.
2. Chill for 1 to 2 hours
3. Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350 degrees F (176 C) for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe can make up to 5-dozen 3" cookies.

Antonia74 Royal Icing

Ingredients

• 6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water 5 Tablespoons meringue powder 1 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 kilogram (2.25 lbs.) powdered icing sugar

Instructions

1. In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened...about 30 seconds.
2. Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more.
3. Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer.
4. Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy.
5. Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying.
6. Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.