birthday dessert bar

I made a bunch of desserts for my birthday and had people over to help me consume them

but before that, Chad suprised me with one of his signature marshmallow cakes

homemade coffee marshmallow, an almond paste filling, covered in chocolate

sweet potato cake w/maple glaze

mini pistachio cupcakes

coconut almond drops

oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

mini chocolate stout cupcakes made w/Guiness

oatsies - a chewy oat bar dipped in chocolate

cookie-stuffed cookies - mini oreos inside a chocolate chip cookie

s'mores whoopie pies - graham whoopies filled with marshmallow creme and chocolate ganache

coconut macadamia shortbread

samoa cookie pops

pistachio cakeballs

coffee cakepops

peanut butter & jelly pretzel balls

mint oreo truffles

thanks to everyone who helped consume these treats

after stuffing ourselves, we went to the Alibi for a few hours of karaoke

and I ended up getting lei-ed about 15 times

it was a good birthday

devil's food cake

I was asked to make the groom's cake for Emily & Justin's wedding

besides a detailed drawing of how he wanted the cake to look,

the only direction I received on flavor was he likes chocolate cake and raspberry filling

so for the bottom tier I tried a devil's food recipe from David Lebovitz

must not have greased the pans well enough, because they would not come out

so I just cut it down the middle - which explains the crater

the flavor of the cake was great, regardless of what it looked like

and in between the two layers was a raspberry filling

Chelle was coming up for her birthday, so I made it into a bingo b-day cake

chocolate cakeballs w/vanilla coating and edible black pen

 B3 and B13 because her birthday is March 13

I23 since she was turning 23 years old

still need to find the right frosting for tier one of the groom's cake

tier one cake and filling recipes were a success though - now on to the next two

happy birthday chelle!

st. patrick's day

st. paddy's day desserts...yum

cakeballs w/green-colored yellow cake inside

shamrock-shaped gingerbread and sugar cookies w/green vanilla frosting

 

used decorative bags filled with cakepops, cakeballs, and cookies as gifts

nothin' better than washing down tasty treats with

whiskey gingers, whiskey diets, and whiskey shots

valentine's day

chocolate chip cookies are Peter's favorite

so I made him a giant chocolate chip cookie for valentine's day

made an array of sweets including heart-shaped gingerbread cookies from Betty Crocker

with almond flavored frosting

along with some of my favorite sugar cookies from joy of baking

red velvet cakeballs covered in dark cocoa and white melts

pink strawberry flavored marshmallows dipped in chocolate and sprinkles

 

 

used some of the leftover melts for dipped pretzel sticks

put together some boxes as valentine's gifts

also made up some mason jars full of treats

chocolate-covered cherry stuffed cakeballs

Doug suggested that I put a Queen Anne chocolate-covered cherry into a cakeball

and that's just what I did for his birthday

it took more effort to cover the cherry with cake and the cake with chocolate

they didn't turn out very attractive, but I'm told they tasted good

merry christmas

mocha muffins for Christmas morning breakfast 

(recipe from betty crocker's 2010 holiday baking guide)

my dessert tray included a variety of treats

I made some pizzelles with Chad's pizzelle maker

these taste just like waffle cones and are absolutely delicious

pizzelles

3 eggs

3/4c. sugar

1/2c. melted butter

1TBSP vanilla

1 3/4c. flour

2tsp baking powder

beat eggs and sugar together, then add in the butter and vanilla

sift together the flour and powder and blend into mixture until smooth

drop about 1 TBSP of batter onto each side of the oiled pizzelle iron

bake for about 20-30 seconds and then remove from the iron with a fork

andes creme de menthe cookies made with andes baking chips

chocolate bark made with white and milk chocolate, and sprinkled with chopped almonds

mocha latte logs from the betty crocker 2010 holiday baking guide

my mother made a variety of cakeballs with chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter, and mint melts

Tim and I got the same size gifts Christmas morning...

 

best Christmas gift ever!

thanks mom & dad

cookie exchange

 

nicole threw her annual cookie exchange party again this year

and believe it or not, my contribution was cakeballs

devil's food cakeballs with vanilla coating

yellow cakeballs with dark cocoa coating

the melts I used for the drizzle were really thick, which made it 

difficult to get a nice looking drizzle on the cakeballs

what a mess

at least messing up the decoration doesn't compromise the flavor of the cakeball

these were a hit at the cookie exchange - people just love cakeballs

jumbo cakeball

 

my first attempt at an over-sized cakeball for Chad's birthday

I had even more leftover halloween cake that I used for this cakeball

 

jumbo cakeball - before dipping

coating a cakeball of this size was difficult and there's no good way to smooth it out

I ended up just applying the chocolate by spooning it on (more or less)

next to a regular cakeball to give you an idea of the size

added some reeses pieces and poorly-executed piping to finish of the cakeball

loved that a coffee filter looked just like the mini cupcake liners I use

mmmm...jumbo cakeball

jumbo cakeball stole Chad's mustache