Cake

The below cake was made for a sixth birthday party. The bottom tier is chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling and top tier is vanilla cake with lemon buttercream filling. Both tiers are covered in rolled fondant. The top tier is covered in white fondant and then painted with pink luster dust.

Faithful Friend

My faithful friend and I are celebrating ten years together this week. In fact, on this very day one decade ago, my husband presented me with my sidekick as a gift for my 21st birthday! Yes, I guess that makes me 31, but my point here is to relate that after ten years of hard work, many batches of bread and cookie dough, more cakes than I could possibly count, delectable meringues and enough garlic mashed potatoes to feed an army, my faithful aide in the kitchen is still working as beautifully as she did right out of the box:


When she first came to live in my kitchen, she was the largest on the market - the cadillac of home mixers at that time. I simply haven't had the heart to trade in my comrade....I do, however, feel that she needs a big sister....perhaps of the Professional 600 variety....

Another Cake

Cake

There is something about creating, assembling and decorating a cake that is relaxing, artful and fulfilling. Maybe the part of me that longed to be a fabulous artist is finding a resting place on this three dimensional canvas. Regardless, here is another cake that I created recently for a birthday:

Cookies

I recently served my turn in providing refreshments for my church choir. I wanted to use the leftover icing from my daughters recent birthday cake, so I opted for one of my favorites - thumbprint cookies. These are a lite and delicious cookie. They start off in small balls that have been dipped in egg white and then rolled in finely chopped nuts:


They are baked for just five minutes, pulled from the oven and a small "thumbprint" is pressed into each of one:


They are then returned to the oven and baked for another eight minutes. After cooling completely, the small thumbprints are piped full with icing.



The finished product never fails to receive "oo's" and "ah's", but the taste is the ultimate compliment! These are festive at Christmas with green and red icing, or Easter with pastel colors. One can even use chocolate icing (probably my favorite)!

Cake!

I love feeding others! How obvious, huh? My creative outlet, however, lies in cake decorating. Here's a cake I did recently for the baby shower of one of my husband's colleagues:

Coffee, Sweet Coffee

Actually, I don't really like my coffee super-sweet, but I do LOVE coffee in general and lately I've been mixing up a yummy iced coffee for these hot summer days. Here's how: Take 1 1/2 cup fresh brewed coffee (the stronger the better) in a glass measuring cup. Add 2 tsp. sugar, 1 tbs. DaVinci Gourmet Vanilla or Caramel Syrup, and about 2 tbs. half and half. Stir well. I like to pour mine over shaved ice. Simple to make - just throw some ice in your blender and here's what it will look like:


Pour the fresh-brewed coffee mixture on top:


This should make at least two drinks, depending on the size of your glass! Enjoy!

Cherries, Cherries, Cherries

Blame it on the Texas heat - I seem to be stuck on reminsicing about my northern Michigan memories this week. It would be shameful to neglect mentioning another one of the adorable shops in Glen Arbor. During our visits to Glen Arbor, a mandatory stop was Cherry Republic. Michigan is one of the nation's largest cherry producers (Click here for more on MI Cherries) and Cherry Republic is dedicated soley to cherry products: cherry salsa, cherry jam, cherry soda, cherry wine, cherry pie, chocolate covered cherries, cherry BBQ sauce - they have it all. They offer in-store samples of almost everything they make and this quickly became one of the favorite stops for my children. Just in case it all sounds to good to be true, you can check them out at: www.cherryrepublic.com - they ship nationwide!