Why I need (want) a new camera:

image via Chockylit on Flickr


Howard Shooter Photography


image via Chockylit on Flickr


image via Chockylit on Flickr


Howard Shooter Photography


Image via Smitten Kitchen

These mouthwatering photos make me dream of the day when I will have a nice camera of my own!
Aren't these pictures just great???
I do the best I can with my little Kodak digital camera, but I NEEEEED one that will help me take close-ups like these!!!! Any suggestions or do you have a camera you love? Let me know!

Friday Flowers

Image - Sharnel Dollar 2009 My Life-My Loves

I have found that some of my favorite blogs post Friday Flowers: simple and pretty blooms to wish everyone a good weekend. I always look forward to these posts so I thought, why not do it myself & post the little things of beauty I come across?

Happy 4th of July!

I made cupcake pops for the first time, aren't they cute!? A little cupcake on a stick. . . of course it's cute :)
I got the idea from Bakerella, the only difference is, I used the peanut butter cup mold (like she uses for her cupcake bites) instead of molding the cake with little cookie cutters. I just put a hole in each candy cavity for the lollipop stick, filled it half way with chocolate, then secured my cake bite on top. Once dry, I pushed the stick with the cupcake bite on top out of the mold, and then dipped the top in candy melts. Finally, just top them off with sprinkles and your done!



And here they are all packaged up in cellophane bags and satin ribbon. They are off to a fourth of July BBQ!
Hope everyone has a good weekend :)

Cookie Monster Cupcakes!

I found a picture of cookie monster cupcakes online a few months back and saved it immediately! I knew the idea would be perfect for my sweet nephew Jake at his 2nd birthday party. He loves his "Cookie"...(that's what he calls his little cookie monster stuffed animal that he sleeps with :)


These are chocolate chip cupcakes with buttercream frosting. I used the piping tip # 233 (usually used to create "grass") and piped cookie monster's fur onto the cupcake. Then I used vanilla candy melts for the eyes, piping a little milk chocolate onto them for the center. And finally, I just crammed in a little cookie where his mouth goes!


And here's a candid shot of the birthday boy at his party! He was so excited to finally see his "blue cake" that he kept asking for. When I held him up to see them on the table he yelled, "COOKIE!" haha :)
I love you so much Jake, Happy 2nd Birthday!
love Aunt Ashy

Coconut Pecan Pralines

Looks kinda like the icing on the German Chocolate cake I just made, doesn't it? Well I used my leftover pecans, coconut and evaporated milk in this recipe and it turned out great! I just put it all together with a few other simple ingredients and there we have it, a quick & easy praline! It took no time at all (except for the hard part, waiting for them to harden on the wax paper!)


Here's the recipe, enjoy!
(I got it from recipezaar.com, I just added the coconut)

Coconut Pecan Pralines

Yields about 3 dozen

Ingredients

2 ½ cups sugar
½ cup evaporated milk
½ cup light corn syrup
½ cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-2 ½ cups chopped pecans
2 ½ cups grated coconut

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients except coconut, vanilla & pecans in large saucepan.
2. Bring to a rolling boil & boil for 3 minutes.
3. Remove from heat & add coconut, vanilla & nuts.
4. Stir by hand 3-4 minutes.
5. Drop by spoonful onto waxed paper and let harden.

Store pralines in an airtight container.

German Chocolate Cake

I found a delicious German Chocolate cake recipe in a book my mom bought. It's Trisha Yearwood's book called "Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen." She has lots of really yummy and pretty easy recipes in here.


Apparently this is Garth Brook's favorite German Chocolate cake recipe, or so the book says :)
I made this cake, following her instructions exactly, and the only draw back to me was, it took 4 hours start to finish! Maybe it was just my experience, who knows.
Anyway, the cake flour and rich dark chocolate made it dense and delicious!
The only change I made was adding chocolate ganache to each of the layers to lock in the moisture (along with the coconut & pecan icing) and then to make it look less like a giant cheeseball, I piped the remaining ganache around the edges.

Here's a closer look at this delectable icing; evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, butter, chopped pecans, coconut and vanilla, mmm! Everyone really enjoyed it!

Flowers

This is an 8 x 10 sketch of some random flowers I did in graphite. Once I scanned my drawing into Photoshop, I posterized it with color for this effect.

Click on it to have a better look!

Cookie Dough Brownies

These chocolate ganache topped brownies are the best I have had in a long time! I got the recipe off of Bakerella's blog. So simple to make, yet SO rich. Have a glass of milk or some ice cream nearby.

I added some chopped walnuts to mine, but they would have been great without them too.
Thanks Bakerella :)

Mickey Mouse Cupcakes

Here are some of the Mickey themed cupcakes and cookies I made for a little boy on his 2nd birthday. Half were butter recipe and the other half chocolate fudge; all were topped with fresh vanilla buttercream. The polka dots and Mickey ears are fondant.

A Present Cake!

I finally got the chance to make a present cake. I've seen them everywhere! The pink, green and polka dots were picked by a mother for her daughter's birthday. The fondant bow was a first so it took some time to get it right. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out though!

It's an 8 inch, double layer white cake with vanilla buttercream. I sliced each layer into 2 thinner layers to fill it with more buttercream. Mmmm!
Lastly, I made her a dozen carrot cake bites (carrot cake dipped into white chocolate). Then I just packaged them with ribbon that matches the cake.

I hope she enjoys them! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday William & Grace!

Two of the kids I keep had their birthday this week, William turned 3 and Grace turned 7!
They both love cake bites so that's what they got from me! Will's always playing football and baseball so I attempted to make some out of cake... except I realized too late that I had no red for the details on the baseballs so they didn't turn out :(
But here are the footballs!

And I'm sure he didn't mind eating the plain white cake bites that were supposed to be baseballs!
Gracie asked for blue cake bites with pink flowers on them... This is what I came up with:

I made the flowers out of melted white chocolate tinted pink. I just piped the flower on wax paper and once it was dry, put it on top of the cake bite with a dab of melted chocolate!
Happy Birthday Grace! You too Will! I love you both :)

Bachelorette Party!

My very best friend since 4th grade got married yesterday! She was so beautiful :)
I have been busy with that, finals, other baking orders, etc. so needless to say, I have neglected my blog a little...
I made 150 cupcakes for Midwestern's Mass Communication banquet but was so rushed that I didn't get any good photos... and I've been making cake bites for people like crazy. I'm telling you, everyone loves those things!

Anyway, here are a few pics from Jenna's bachelorette party the other weekend.

The photos aren't the best quality, but you get the idea! I made a chocolate ganache cake piped in hot pink and bra and panty sugar cookies. Oh, and of course I made cake bites too!




I love you Jenna LaRue Hobbs! (Jenna and myself)

Sweet & Simple

These red velvet cake bites and pink vanilla cupcakes are for my grandmother. She turned 78 today :) Happy Birthday Mimi!!

A Hamburger Cake!

My brother-in-law, Kyle, has turned the big 30! I had seen a cake made to look like a hamburger and I couldn't wait to make it for him for his birthday!! Anyone that knows him, knows he's always loved McDonald's hamburgers... so it was a perfect fit :)


It's simply three layers stacked, 2 butter recipe for the bun and 1 chocolate for the meat, haha!


Happy Birthday Kyle!! Love you!

Jenna's Bridal Shower

It's been a while since my last post. I apoligize for that... I have been busy with school and work!
Anyway, here is a cake I did this weekend for my best friend's bridal shower. Her colors at the shower were a soft yellow and pink. The cake is butter recipe with buttercream icing and simple fondant roses.
I also made pink cake bites to match.

UT and A&M Cookies

It is definitely wedding season! I am personally in two weddings soon and have been contacted to do cookies, cake bites, cakes and cupcakes for other weddings as well. So needless to say, I have been pretty busy!

The latest order was from The Two Clever Chicks (twocleverchicks.com) for 200 UT Longhorn and A&M Aggie cookies for a client of their's.

It took some time and steady work but here they are! Hope the bride and groom were pleased :)



This is the "Gig'em" hand for the Aggies. (I didn't know when I first saw the cookie cutter, so I thought I'd let you know... maybe you have to be more familiar with A&M :)

A Barbie Party!

My precious niece Kyleigh Brooke just turned 5! She and I are very close and I am sad to see her growing so quickly :(
I have made her cake every year (Pooh, Dora & Boots, Ariel and Bunny cakes in the last 4 years) and this year she requested something "Barbie!" I decided hot pink and purple cupcakes would be cute. Have a look...

Ocean Scene

After visiting Cancun, I had to paint the white sand and beautifully blue/turquoise water. I used many variations of blues and greens to create the shallow waters. Unfortunately, the photo I took does not do it justice.

"Shallow Water" Set of two 24 x 30 paintings, Acrylic on canvas

My Vanilla Cupcake

I have been in love with all of the "daily painters" lately (dailypainters.com). Some of these amazing artists have been doing food series (Oriana Kacicek, Debbie Miller, Jelaine Faunce, etc). From pomegranites to truffles, all of their work is just delicious.

Here is my first attempt at painting a cupcake. I want to do a food series also.

"Vanilla Cupcake" 11 x 13 Acrylic on canvas

Finally... Some Artwork!

I have been meaning to post some of my artwork but I have been busy with baking and kept putting it off! So here we go, I will add more artwork, along with posts from baking, just remember to CLICK the LABELS on the right hand side of my page to see exactly what you are looking for!

Here is an untitled 24 x 30 graphite drawing I did some time ago.

Wedding Shower

Here are the 50 butter recipe cupcakes I made for a wedding shower. I got to use my new cupcake stand for the first time! How do ya like it?
Thank you Tia for taking the photo :)




And I also got to use my new Cupcake Courier, thanks Mom!