It's been a while..

I have taken time off from uploading more pictures of my baking and parties. Well I didn't exactly take time off but rather life got in the way. I will update my blog soon. I have lots of new treats that I am excited to share with you all. =). Happy Eating!

Easter Cake Pops and Treats

Easter is always such fun! Its a perfect excuse to go crazy with pastels. I was in a baking mood and felt like experimenting and challenging myself to something new. A friend of mine introduced me to Bakerella (the queen of cake pops) website. I was in love, to say the least! 

Easter Bunnies and Duckies

I adopted the bunny and ducky cake pop idea from bakerella's tutorial on bakerella.com. And I am so glad I did! That woman is a genius and so talented. 


 The chocolate and strawberry cake pops were a hit. The extra cake balls were made in form of an egg and dipped them in different chocolate colors. The cake pops and cake balls stood on chocolate dipped rice krispies. The rice krispy treats were covered in green coconut flakes to give off a garden impression. 

These were my favorite. Carrot cake cupcakes with walnuts and cream cheese frosting!

Elmo Cupcakes

Bella's 2nd Birthday

So I attempted to make Elmo's face with pull apart cupcakes. It wasn't one of my greatest accomplishments. I asked Bella if it looked like Elmo, which was her favorite character at the time, and she politely replied "NO". I guess there is a lot of room for growth with these cupcakes, but nonetheless, I had a great time baking them and everyone thought they were delicious!

Next time, I will use a frosting tube - open star shape- to give off the appearance of Elmo's messy hair. Instead of vanilla cupcakes, i will do red velvet. Or I can always just change the cupcake wrapper to another color.
***Maybe this way, Bella will recognize her favorite character! =)

Cupcake Birthday Party

For Bella's first birthday I decided to go for a cupcake themed party. I purchased the giant cupcake mold at Michaels using the 40% coupon which was seriously inexpensive and yet adorable.

Two dozen regular sized chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese filling were made for everyone. However, I chose to let the kids do the decorating on the cupcakes (although it appeared that majority of adults also had fun decorating). Several different colored icing bags were placed on the table for decoration usage. Little bowls with different cupcake toppers, such as sprinkles, coconut and such, were also displayed at the table for everyone' s enjoyment.

***

 I have to admit, the first time using the giant cupcake mold had its challenges. At least in my experience, I had a hard time figuring out how much cake mix went in what. But nevertheless, her cake was a success, despite the fact the cake knife broke half way through cutting the cake..

I blame the knife not my baking skills. (haha)

Lady Bug Cupcakes

Gaby, a close friend, and I got together to bake some yummy cupcakes for our dear friend Gavina's baby shower (2009). Gavina has a love for sweets and ladybugs.

We decided on 3 different flavors: vanilla, chocolate and red velvet. We made the frosting from scratch using my personal favorite: cream cheese.

Grass, Flower and Ladybug cupcakes

Congratulations Gavina with your beautiful baby girl, Katarina (which means ladybug in Spanish).

Halloween Party 2008

I had so much fun planning this spooky halloween bash with my roommate Alex. We purchased majority of our decor at the Dollar Tree, Goodwill and some from Party City. For instance, the candle holder and the red dress were purchased at the Goodwill, a total of $7.98.  The spider webs, black roll to cover up the walls, skeletons and some of the party trays were purchased at the Dollar Tree. The ugly lady bride, tombstone, forest wall decor and frame at Party City. We converted the entire living room, our garage and restroom into a fright fest. In the garage, where most of the party took place, we had the cemetery, dancing, drinks and food.

The Living Room

Scary Lady 

Cemetery

I think the most fun was planning and labeling our menu. For drinks we did wine with spooky labels purchased at Walmart and spiked punch in a cauldron. For dinner we had chicken wings, pasta salad, deviled eggs, veggie platter. For dessert, I made brownies with walnuts and almond cookies shaped in fingers with sliced almonds as nails. For extra fun we gave each platter a fun halloween name.

Poision Ivy, Pumpkin Fingers, Witches Saliva

Bat Wings 

                                                                                                            

Deviled Eggs

Lil' Johnny's Guts

Bat Droppings

Witch's Fingers

For the restroom, we took out the light bulb and had flickering battery operated candles illuminating the room. A screeching scream followed by psycho theme song played along every time door swung open. Behind the door, on a towel hook, hung a scary little clown which faced directly to the toilet. The shower curtain was clear covered in fake blood stains. On one end of the tub we had part of a wig hanging out and on the other end of the tub we had a severed leg. Guest either ran out of their scared, or quickly peed in the dark. 

I enjoyed every minute of planning each and every detail of this party.

My Monster & Me

Fourth of July Dessert

Got the recipe from Kraftrecipes.com for a fourth of July dessert. Its a simple delicious pound cake and jello concoction.  Super easy:


SLICE 1 cup strawberries; cut remaining strawberries in half.

ADD boiling water to gelatin mix in large bowl; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Add enough ice cubes to cold water to measure 2 cups. Add to gelatin; stir until ice is melted. Refrigerate 5 min. or until slightly thickened. Meanwhile, cover bottom of 13x9-inch dish with cake slices. Add sliced strawberries and 1 cup blueberries to thickened gelatin; stir gently. Spoon over cake.

REFRIGERATE 4 hours or until firm. Cover with COOL WHIP. Arrange strawberry halves on COOL WHIP for stripes of flag and remaining blueberries for stars.

My daughter Isabella showing love for her country

Fathers Day Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Blueberry Cheesecake

I made this for my hubby's first father's day a couple years ago (2008). He really loves cheesecake so I wanted to bake something simple and yet special for him...

I made the crust from scratch using, crushed graham crackers and melted butter.

The blue cheesecake consisted of two packages of Philadelphia cream cheese, sugar, an egg, tbsp lemon,  and fresh blueberries. For the tie, I used blueberries to form the outline of tie and strawberries to give it color.

It was scrumptious!

Once upon a bakers time...

I'd like to kick this site off with this silly image of myself attempting to bake from a box.