Happy Spring!

Our Wisteria had lovely blooms on it for about 2 weeks.

Happy Spring!  I realize there are some parts of the country that have recently gotten snow, so they might not be feeling too Spring-y......but here in So Cal we've gone head first into summer weather!  It's been in the mid-80's the last few days.....it's beautiful, I gotta say.......

I've been so busy with the monkeys this year (between school, birthdays, activities, holidays), that I realized I completely forgot to blog about Easter.  The first Easter we got to host for our family!  Easter in our family involves all of the cousins (9 kiddos in all) and it's a sugar-fueled day of fun.

Adding into the fun, was the fact that the day after Easter was the hubby's birthday, and the day after that was my nephew James' 7th birthday.  So, on top of doing an Easter dessert, I needed to do something that could also double as a birthday cake.  I had seen a couple of people do Peeps cakes on Pinterest, so I took that idea and ran with it.

I made a white cake (any recipe, or white box cake mix will do), and tinted the 3 layers to match the colors of the Peeps that I found (pink, yellow, and purple).  For frosting I used my go-to Dulce de Leche buttercream frosting from Bakers Royale.

Once the cake was frosted I added my Peeps to the sides of the cake and topped the whole thing off with a bag of Easter colored M&Ms.  Completely over the top and loaded with sugar, but so much fun.  And check out the adorable Happy Birthday candles I found at Target......perfect for having the two guys blowing out the candles!

But it's the inside of the cake that surprises everyone.......

It's colored to match the Peeps on the outside!

I also decided to make an edible centerpiece for the dining room table.....check out my little lambs!

These are straight off the cover of Cupcakes, Cookies, and Pies, Oh, My!  They were a cute and fun little addition to the table (their bodies are pound cake, the head is a Milano cookie), but kind of time consuming considering all of the other things I was making for the day.  If you'd like to give these bad boys a try, here are the instructions.

Well, that's it for now..........off to go make some dessert for a dinner party we're going to tonight (adults only....yeah!).  Enjoy!

All of the cousins on Easter!

My little monkeys

The birthday boys!

Easter Chick-a-dees

I had been waiting for Easter to try out the cute little Easter chicks from Bakerella. If you haven't check out her blog yet, you have to get over there and immediately get insanely jealous at the things she can make!! You can also find her book, Cake Pops, just about everywhere these days!!

I was initially going to make these little guys in yellow....but for some reason I had a major gloppy disaster on my hands once I started trying to melt my yellow candy melts. I think that maybe the temperature got a little too high for them (I was melting in the microwave), and instead of becoming beautifully glossy and melty, instead they turned into bumpy, yucky looking mess. And these were Merckens candy melts, not Wiltons, and I have never had any trouble with them before. I suppose I should have documented the mess....but being new to this blog thing, it didn't really occur to me until after I had cleaned it up!

Since that was my last bag of yellow, I decided to try some neon pink birds......a shade that you always see in nature, right?? I also tried to do some orange chicks, but once I melted the chocolate, realized they were more peachy or flesh-toned. So, they were my naked birdies.....kind of weird, but cute enough to display.

One last thing.....I decided to use white cake with vanilla frosting inside these. I normally use red velvet and cream cheese frosting when I make cake balls or cake pops, but I thought it might be a little creepy biting into a bird and having it be red. Thinking too much? You decide....

For a tutorial on these cute little guys, as well as a ton of other ideas, check out Bakerella's blog!

Back to School

I decided to take a cupcake decorating store to learn more decorating techniques. When I normally make cupcakes, I end up just throwing on a blob of frosting, add a dash of sprinkles or sanding sugar, and call it a day. But sometimes you want something a little more special, right?

I decided to take the Cupcake Crazy class at our local baking supply store, Clarice's. Three hours and a dozen different cupcakes.....sign me up!

I particularly like the flower cupcake (using a rose tip), while the hubby was more partial to the bird's nest and the cherry pie, and my sister-in-law voted for the carrot patch (candy corns and green frosting). Although it's too late to do the Easter cupcakes, I do plan on trying some of the others this summer.

A Peep at the Peeps

I had been planning on making some more cake pops for Lukas' class for Easter.....but then I found this cookie cutter that is in the shape of bunny peeps.....and I had to make them!! I had some beautiful sanding sugars from Williams-Sonoma......their colors are so much more vibrant than ones I've found other places....I am especially in love with the pink! And no, I didn't make the googly eyes. I have a ton of them that I bought online......I put them on everything......googly eyes make everything cuter!

I found the cookie cutter at Copper Gifts.....check them out for beautiful handmade copper cookies cutters. The sugar cookie recipe that I always use is from Cookie Craft......there are also tons of great decorating ideas in there.