pinwheels

2 of my girls are in a little after-school drama program.  Today is the performance, and there is a little cast party afterwards.  I wanted to make a treat without having to go to the store, so the only topping I could come up with was paper  pinwheels.  I was surprised how easy they are to make, but I had no pins, so instead of spinning, they are hot-glued still. Still cute though....right?

Just plain ol' chocolate/vanilla cupcakes, with white chocolate cream cheese frosting.

Harry Potter!

My little girl is turning 10! Wow, how the time just whizzes by! She is completely obsessed with Harry Potter right now, and wanted to take Harry Potter cupcakes to her class. She loves anything artsy, and really wanted to help shape the fondant decorations. 

Here she is working on scarves. 

We made broomsticks.....

spell books, and wands....

the lovely scarves, made my by little artist....

...and the sorting hat. 

Ta-da! Hopefully the class likes it.  

In case you are curious, these are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate mousse filling, and chocolate frosting. (we just might like chocolate around here)

What NOT to do!

While preparing to frost some cupcakes today, I was putting my tip in my piping bag.  I pushed it through with my finger, and I guess I was a little too enthusiastic, and I pushed my finger right into the tip.  For a second, I laughed. Then the pain set in.  My finger was really stuck, and quickly started to swell.  Through tears of laughter and pain, I called to my husband to come rescue me.  He tried without success to find pliers small enough.  Then he tried wire cutters, but there was no way to do that without me cursing enough to put my kids in therapy.  Finally, genius set in, and he used a plain ol' butter knife to pull back the tines (can I call them that?).  I only had a couple of drops of blood, and a nice story to tell. 

I must admit, I find myself quite smart to have the presence of mind to have my husband take a picture.

Okay, I realize that the picture doesn't look that bad, but it really, really, REALLY hurt!

Mimi's Birthday

This Sunday we celebrated my wonderful step-mom's Birthday.  She has been a part of our lives for nearly 8 years now, and we couldn't live without her! She is one heck of a Grandma (or Mimi, as the kiddos call her), and we all love her very much!

I made her a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting, and a whipped cream cheese ganache filling. It was really rich, which hopefully was a good thing! I love you, Cathy!

The cake itself

This is the actual cake that I mentioned in yesterdays post.  The flowers are real (a cop-out, I know) but wow, that would have taken way more than I had to make sugar ones! I hope that everyone likes this baby, cuz I think it is so yummy!

white chocolate cupcakes

I was asked to do a cake of my choosing for a party, and I went with a white chocolate cake, with raspberry mousse filling, and a whipped cream cheese frosting. I had leftover batter, so made a few cupcakes.  I forgot to get pictures of the inside, but trust me- Delicious!!!

Dirty Thirty!

 I was asked to make a display for a "dirty thirty" birthday party. The birthday girl likes butterflies, so that was the basic theme, but there are also some "dirty" pops placed throughout.  My husband made the stand for me. He said he is my "master carpenter" (you know, like on Cupcake Wars)

This is the stand with only a few pops on it. 

This is the sensored picture of it with all the pops on it. It wasn't really appropriate to post the original picture!