Cheesecake time!

Cheesecake happens to be one of my favorite items to bake!  I've had some who think I'm crazy for that comment.... but there's something about the smell mixing melted butter into graham cracker crumbs, pressing it into the spring-form pan, and then pouring in a yummy creamy mixture of cream cheese, sour cream and vanilla (amongst other ingredients) into the pan and baking it!  Yumm-O!

Well, I wish I was able to sample this one and tell you just how scrumptious it is...but I can't!  I should find out tomorrow when it's sampled by some of my co-workers.  I put a different spin on my ordinary cheesecake and turned it into a turtle cheesecake.  

Now....don't get me wrong, I make a fabulous (or at least I've been told) turtle cheesecake with an oreo crust and the whole thing but this time I wanted to use my good ole stand by cheesecake recipe and doctor it up!  From the looks of it.... I think it turned out fabulous!  AND.... anyone who has ever taken the time to bake a real cheesecake, you can appreciate my excitement when I opened the oven after allowing it to set for 3 hours (I got a little antsy...it's supposed to set for 5) and NO CRACKS!

So here are a few pictures of my turtle cheesecake, complete with mini chocolate chips sprinkled throughout the cheesecake itself.  The top is drizzled with caramel, melted chocolate and sprinkled with pecan pieces and mini chocolate chips!

MMMMmmmm.....!  And yes....I do sell these also!

Three Birthdays!

I'm going to make this one blog entry.  Over the last two weeks I have been one busy little baker!  I have made three different birthday cakes (all for different people....all of different ages) and another decadent dessert (which will be featured in my next post).

Baking is one of my favorite things to do but I find myself getting stressed, hoping the customers like what I've created for them.  These three cakes that I made were fairly easy.  Two of my customers didn't have any particular requests and the other wanted a very simplistic design.

Here are some pictures of my creations!

This first cake is a very simple white cake with vanilla butter cream frosting.

This is a delicious chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting! Yumm... this is one of my favorite flavors.  I'm told that Raegan loves chocolate and loves the color pink so this was the creation I came up with!

The next two pictures are for little Tyson who turned a year old this weekend.  Complete with a cake for the party-goers and one for the little man himself!  I was actually super excited I was asked to make a cake for his first birthday party because I baked some super cute cupcakes with little rubber ducky cookies on top for a baby shower we hosted at work for him when he was a "wee" little guy!

The "1" shaped cake is a devil's food cake with vanilla butter cream frosting, while the smash cake is a white cake with vanilla butter cream frosting!

So.... to all of my customers from these cakes... I hope you enjoyed!

Not a cake blog tonight.... It's a Craft Blog!

As much as I love to bake, I also love to try out lots of fun "craft" projects.  A little over a year ago now, I decided to make a cute little blanket for a special little girl named Murphy.  The first blanket I made, did require a little help from my grandma and mom to figure out how to sew it together.  My first problem was that I had owned my sewing machine for over a year and hadn't actually used it. I needed a quick lesson on getting it started. On top of that, I was also baking (surprise, surprise) and running out of time! Grandma stepped in and offered to help out a little. 

Since then, I have made three more of these fun little blankets. Everyone who I have given them to, seems to really love them! I thought I would share a few pictures with you....unfortunately I don't think I took any pictures of the two boy blankets that I have made.  So for now you get to see the girl ones!

...Cupcakes & Cookies...

I know it's been quite some time since I've posted but with the holidays, I wasn't able to take very many orders in November or December.  Now, February is turning out to be quite the busy month! I should be posting more through the month.

A couple of weeks ago I made some sugar cookies and cupcakes for a baby shower.  The host of the shower actually didn't want anything that was too baby-ish for the shower so we went for brown and lime green.  How fun, right?  Take a look at these adorable little sugar cookies and cupcakes.  On top of it, I used a new royal icing recipe for the sugar cookies that turned out to be fantastic.

Today I also just finished some other cupcakes for another little girl's birthday party.  They are pretty simple but fun colors!