Special Agent Oso Birthday Cake

We had a Special Agent Oso themed birthday party.  I made a pinata, a poster for pin the "paw pilot" on Oso and we also had a station for the kids to make their own party hats.  I have pictures of all this after the cake.

Here is the cake.  This was not the original design.  I originally wanted to use the Wilton Bear Stand Up pan but after 2 thwarted attempts I gave up and decided to just hand pipe Oso's face onto the cake.  I will try my hand at that Stand Up pan again.  I have not given up completely yet!  :-)

This is the pinata that I made.  After 11 kids tried to destroy it and only the arms fell off, I had to pull in my 9 year old nephew to the rescue to get all the candy out.  Guess I made it too good!

This was the party hat making station.  I just found a simple party hat template online, added the three main characters from Disney's Oso cartoon and then left out ribbon to attach to the hat for the kids to be able to wear the hats.

This was the special birthday boy's hat!

And here is the poster that I made with some of the "Paw Pilots" already in place.  It was a great time!  Now what are we going to do next year, I'll worry about that come November!

Birthday Cupcakes

I made 4 dozen cupcakes to go along with the main cake for my son's birthday party.  I made Oreo cupcakes and Vanilla with vanilla pudding filled cupcakes.

These Oreo cupcakes are slightly different from the ones I previously posted.  I kept them in their original wrapper and I cored out the center to add the cream cheese whipped Oreo filling.  Then I put a swirl of Espresso Chocolate frosting around and topped it with a mini Oreo cookie.

The Vanilla cupcakes here were a 1-2-3-4 Cake recipe off of the Swan's Down Cake Flour box.  I took some dream whip and vanilla pudding and followed the directions on the Dream Whip box to make a Mousse like consistency for my vanilla filling.  I piped it into the center of all the cupcakes.  Then I made a Vanilla Buttercream frosting to top them all off.  I added a few stars for color.

Football Birthday Cake

I haven't baked for a while until last week when I made 4 dozen cupcakes and 3 cakes.  It was my son's 1st birthday party.  Here is one of the cakes I made.  My brother-in-law's birthday was the very next day after our birthday celebration so I wanted to honor his birthday as well.

My BIL is a big football fan so I felt it was only appropriate to have a football shaped cake for him.  I made a chocolate cake for some of my cupcakes and used the leftover batter to pour into a bread pan.  Then I carved the cake into a football shape.  I layered it with just a layer of vanilla buttercream frosting.  The whole cake is covered in an Espresso Chocolate frosting.  Then I added my simple decorations with some more vanilla buttercream frosting.  Mmmmmm Yummy!!!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I made this last week for work.  I had to do some training as I've been looking for an excuse to make this coffee cake again.  The recipe was given to me almost 8 years ago at my wedding shower.

 This is a view straight from the oven.

 A close up of the top!  Yum!  That wonderful cinnamon sugary goodness.

 Here is the final look.  The recipe doesn't call for any kind of frosting or drizzle but I added a simple powdered sugar, vanilla and milk glaze.

This is what the cake looks like when you cut in to it.  I think next time I'll put one layer of batter, then the cinnamon sugar another layer of batter, more cinnamon sugar then more batter and finally more cinnamon sugar.  I think that would look prettier and taste even more cinnamony!

Merry Christmas Cake Pops

Cake Pops have been all the rage lately.  After making my Turkey Cake Pops I thought it would be fitting to make cake pops for Christmas.  I did some Googling to see what everyone else has been making and found Christmas Trees, Snowmen, Santa Hats and Reindeer.  So I couldn't pick just one and decided to try them all out.  The Christmas Trees & Santa Hats were made with carrot cake.  The Snowmen and Reindeer were made with white cake.

 I made my own stars by melting some yellow candy discs with oil.  Then I put them in a piping bag with a cake decorating tip - #5 I think it was.  Then I let them harden.  I got my candy cane sprinkles at Michaels and my "snowflake" sprinkles at Jewel-Osco.  I dipped my trees in green then added my star followed by my sprinkles.  I loved how they turned out.

 The snowmen I made are different from the ones I had seen.  I went down a few aisles of cookies and candy to figure out what items I could use to help me make my snowmen.  The hats are Rolo candies dipped in red chocolate candy and then placed on a Keebler Grasshopper cookie.  I added a snowflake sprinkle that I got from Michaels.  The eyes and mouth are made with mini chocolate chips.  The nose is part of an orange Mike and Ike candy.

 Here is a close up.

 Another view of the hats.

 The Santa Hats were super simple.  I dipped them in red and let them harden.  Then I dipped the top and the edges of the bottom in white chocolate to give them the appearance of fur.

 Another view of the hats.

 And finally, the reindeer cake pops.  I used white cake for these and the snowmen.  I dipped the reindeer in chocolate and added a pretzel, red M&M candy and 2 mini chocolate chips for eyes.  The pretzel was the hardest part because when I tried to cut them they kept breaking oddly.

 A close up.

 And all 41 cake pops that I made initially.  I made 95 more a day later.  So 136 cake pops in all were made.

 Another view.

 Here are the cake pops bagged and ready to be eaten.

I made these for my husband's family and my family for Christmas.  I also have plenty left for sending to family and friends and for our neighbors.  Not sure what I'm going to do next year. I might have to return to my cookie baking.  I was a little disappointed in not being able to bake cookies but these turned out great!  I just didn't have enough time to make cookies too.  Oh well.  Merry Christmas!!

Good Night Moon Dipped Pretzels

To go along with the Good Night Moon Cake Pops I also make Dipped Pretzels.  I made White Chocolate and Regular Chocolate ones.  The sprinkles are blue stars with yellow moons.  I was very happy with how they turned out.  

I don't have photos of them individually bagged but I did do that and used a silver tie band to seal them up.  Who doesn't love chocolate and pretzels?!?  Oh so yummy!

I Passed!!!!

So I get home yesterday and am going through the mail and I see this envelope marked Health Department.  I'm thinking to myself why on earth would I be getting something from the Health Department.  Did they know my entire family was sick last week?!?!  Are they telling me that we are being quarantined for some weird disease?!?  Clearly the quarantine thought was just for fun.  But I open the envelope and see Congratulations you passed.  And I'm still like, passed what?!?  Then it hits me - the results for my Food Safety & Sanitation exam I took 4 weeks ago - it feels like it was months ago - has finally arrived.  Phew!  And I didn't just pass - I totally passed with flying colors!  Gotta love when you work so hard for something and the results show themselves!  Ahhh!!!  Now the relief has really settled over me. 

I just wish I had more time to bake.  I will be posting the dipped pretzels I made 2 weeks ago.  I just keep forgetting to get my photos.  Christmas is in full force.  I'm finally finishing up my Christmas Cards to get in the mail tomorrow and then I have a few Christmas gifts to make for my brother's kids.  Busy busy busy!  Hopefully I can start cookie baking this weekend!  I gotta get some fun Christmas cookies made before the holiday has come and gone!

Off to do some planning...