Home made Granola

My oldest Jordan is in love with Granola. She could eat bags and bags of granola. After paying $5.00-$7.00 for a pound of Granola at the store,I decided that there has to be a cheaper and better way to give her something that she loves to eat.

After searching the web for hours, I was able to find about 1000+ recipes for granola. Each one had some different element to it. They were all basic with a twist. I took something from the ones I loved and developed my own just for her.

My son's teacher also love granola so we shared a bag with her and she was hooked. This lead to the granola being share with other teachers and now I have a list of people wanting granola.

Funny how something so simple to make causes a such a huge stir.

Home made Granola

6 cups of oats
2 bags of shredded coconut
2 bags of unsalted sunflower seeds
2 large bags of slivered almonds
6 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
4 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoon pure maple syrup
4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 cups mixed dried fruit (raisins,cranberries,blueberries) I uses raisins,cranberries.
2 large bags of chocolate chunks
2 large bags of chocolate chips(semi-sweet or dark)
2 large containers of banana chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Mix first 4 ingredients together in large bowl;set aside.
Mix next 7 ingredients together in another bowl. Mix well.
Pour wet mixture over the first 4 ingredients. Combine until every things is covered in wet mixture. May have to use your hands for this.
On large baking sheets that have been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Spoon mixture on to cookies sheets until it is just covered. Bake in oven until Oats are lightly toasted. I always turn mine with spatula to make sure both sides are getting lightly brown. This process could take up to 10 different baking to light brown the whole batch of oat mixture.
Take the light browned oats out of oven and place on another cookie sheet to cool.
Once all the oats are cooled place in another large bowl and being adding your last 4 ingredients. MIX WELL!!
Store in air tight container for up to 4-6 weeks. (no worries it never last that long)
This makes 4 large Ice cream buckets full of Granola. You can reduce this recipe to your needs.

FIRED

Well I was officially told I was fired from Wedding cake duty. I'm not sad about it at all.

This whole thing had stressed me out and had me sweating bullets. Being let go was actually freeing and actually made me glad that the groom and bride will be getting their cake FREE.

The cake they choice was a $800.00 cake that I agreed to make for $250.00. I was saving them a large portion of money and was happy I could do it for the $250.00. In the end they wanted me to do the cake for $150.00 and I just couldn't do it. Buying the supplies + my time + delivery and set up. It was just to much. The supplies was going to cost me in the end close to $230.00, the rest was just the gas to get to the place.

I am very happy that the Bride's mother is going to make them a wedding cake for FREE!! I am happy for them and truly sorry that I couldn't meet what they could afford. I wish that I could have done the same deal for them. I can't wait to see what the cake turns out like and I hope they get the cake they were wanting.

CONGRATS to the HAPPY COUPLE!!

Should I or Shouldn't I

I have been given a great opportunity to make a wonderful cake for some wonderful people. My nephew and his fiance have asked me to make their wedding cake. I was thrilled with the prospect of making the cake and the process of being creative and getting to do what I love most. Then reality hit and well it took the wind right out of my sail.
First big down fall is when they are planning the wedding, SUMMER.. Anyone who bakes cakes in Florida can tell you the weather here during SUMMER is not ideal for cake making. HUMIDITY is a huge issue and NOT TO mention the HEAT or the chance of RAIN! July is a great month for a beach wedding. So I can't say I blame them for wanting to do it then.
Second they choose to have the reception in a hotel ball room. I am not a license baker so I am not to sure that the Hotel will allow me to bring in the cake. I have asked them to check on this but no word yet from them on what the rules are. I will for sure need a cool room to place the cake in and a place to set the cake up at for the reception. I have read the laws and know what I can and can not do here in the this state. And I for sure don't want to be fined for bring it into a hotel. I just hope they let me know something soon.
Third the task at hand is overwhelming all in it's self. I am worried about getting there, worried about the amount of stuff I will have to buy just to make this cake. And then the set up and the transporting of the cake it's self. IT'S very scary to think about but, really exciting that they would ask me to make the cake.

The bride and the groom have gone through about 60 cake ideas that I sent to them and have picked 3 that they really like.

They really like this one and the way it is set up but they want it in a square shape and they want different flavors per cake. They also want to room the shells and add ribbon and flowers.



I think they are leaning more towards this set up with the square cakes.


I am hoping it all works out and I will for sure keep everyone updated.

Happy 3rd Birthday Serenity

It's so hard to believe that she is just three years old with the year we have had. Seems has if a whole life time of stuff has happen to her in the three short years she has been with us.

We had real reason to celebrate this year and real reason to be grateful for all that has happen and all that we can slowly put behind us. Just two short days before her birthday we were told by her GI doctors that she looked great. That her labs had come back all in healthy range and that she was finally right at the correct weight for her age and height. She was no longer showing signs of flair ups and she seems for once to have her colitis and crohn's disease under control. That was like music to my ears, it had to be right up there with the day she was born and we heard her first cry.

I made a huge cake for a big BBQ and we had tons of family over for her big day. She loved every minute of the all the attention she got. She loves to be the center of the attention. She got tons of barbie's and dress up stuff, a tea party set and clothes. Everything a little girl could ever want.

The BOSTON CREAM PIE is Rob's Birthday cake. He turned 39 this past week as well.

Chocolate cake to die for

I am always looking for quick and simple recipes. Something my family can enjoy after dinner that doesn't take hours to make. While reading Melinda's Kitchen Diary I stumbled across another blog. Cookie baker lynn, the name alone was begging for me to read. I love making cookies and I was just hoping she had simple cookies to make that would work for what I had in my home already.

I never dreamed that I would find beautiful cakes and simple deserts on her site. The name of her blog it throws you off but, once you start reading and you see all the love that she puts into her deserts you can't help yourself but to try and find just one that you can make right then.

Crunch time, what one do I make first?
I decided that I would make start the with simplest desert she has on her blog.

Texas Fudge Cake
This cake was so super simple to make and the taste is to die for. It's moist and just the right amount of chocolate. There isn't to much frosting and it's not super sweet. I had intentions of posting a picture of this cake but for whatever reason my camera has decided it no longer wants to work. I am hoping that my husband can fix it so that you guys can see this cake.

Texas Fudge Cake

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
5 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup water
2 cups sifted flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Frosting (recipe below)

1- Preheat oven to 375 deg. F with rack in the center of the oven. Butter and flour a 9 x 13 metal pan.

2- In a medium saucepan combine the butter, cocoa, and water. Bring to a boil.

3- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda.

4- Pour the hot ingredients in the the dry ingredients. Stir well with a wooden spoon.

5- Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla. Stir until the batter is smooth.

6- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place it in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. (While the cake is baking, wash the saucepan and bowl. You'll use them for the frosting.)

7- Remove the cake from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool. Immediately make the frosting and pour the frosting over the warm cake. Spread the frosting evenly and let the cake cool as much as you can bear before cutting into squares and devouring.

Frosting

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
3 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp cocoa
dash salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

1- In medium saucepan combine the butter, milk, cocoa, salt, and vanilla. Bring to a boil.

2- Place the powdered sugar in a large bowl. Pour the hot ingredients over the powdered sugar and beat with a wooden spoon until the frosting is smooth.

Cake Baking crazy

Here lately I have been so busy baking cakes. I keep improving my skills and it's really starting to show in the cakes I am making. I have even started to make a little money now off of them. I never charge what they are worth but that is ok. I enjoy it and it's never been about the money anyways.

This cake was a Pirate/Princess Birthday party. It was for a great little girl name Jacalyn. Her mom is my son's Kindergarten teacher.







This is my first attempts at making roses. I can't being to tell you how many went in back in the bowl before I had some really great ones.



This is the cake that all the flowers went on. My niece need a large cake and cupcakes for her baby shower. She came to me with an idea for a black and white cake with small hints of pink. It wasn't much to go off but I knew she was counting on my to have an amazing cake for her. So I had to come through. I decided that I wanted to play around with fondant. I made a batch of Marshmallow fondant and colored it pink. I made the ribbons around the bottom of each layer in fondant. The frosting was a simple decorators frosting.

How with the old and in with the new

Seems like 2009 just drug and drug right along. I can't say I have ever been so happy to see a year over with as I was last year. It's seemed there were more things wrong with last year then there was right.

This year I am hoping to have a better year. I have never been good at making resolutions for what I want out of the new year. I have always felt those are just huge promises you make to yourself that you never really keep and then at the end of the year you are let down again. So instead of lying to myself from the get go, I just take each day as the come and embrace whatever happens and keep on moving. I can't say that I don't get down or get mad about things because that would be huge lie. I just try not to dwell on it.

I am hoping to get better at baking this year. I really want to start making better quality cakes. I also want to make more from scratch and stop using so many store bought items. I have been working on cutting our budget down at the grocery store. I don't know that I am really making head way there but I am truly trying.

I do need to work on me but I am not going to get hung up on that or worry about it if it doesn't happen. I need to loose weight. I have needed to do that for years. Sometimes I lose a little and then I stay there but for the most part I have stayed the same weight for 4 yrs. So I am pretty comfortable with the weight I am. Not that it's a healthy weight or that it's something I want to stay at. I just don't worry about it or get all hung up on exercising or eating things that taste like cardboard. We eat pretty healthy and I don't over eat and I try hard not to stress eat. I drink lots of sweet tea and diet Dr. pepper and very little water. So I am sure if I cut those things out and maybe walk a mile or two I would be fine. I'll just play by ear and see what happens.

So far this year in the baking department I am off to a busy start.

January 6th- I am making a cake for Logan's teacher. It's her birthday and she loves Chocolate,cheesecake,strawberries. So she will get my Cheesecake stuff chocolate cake with butter cream frosting and chocolate covered strawberries on top.

January 9th- I am making a ton of cupcakes for my niece's baby shower. She is doing a black and white theme for her shower. I will be adding a little pink since her baby is a girl. We are super excited for her arrival and I can't wait to make the cup cakes.

February 1st- Is Logan's birthday. I have not clue on the cake as of yet but it will be fun. Also cupcakes for his class.
February 1st- Is my mom's birthday. I want to make her a nice cake and have her over for dinner. She rarely does anything on that day and her husband doesn't push her to do stuff. So I am wanting to do something great for them.
February- My Mom and Step dad both turn 50 this year. We are having a big party for them. So that is another cake.

March 14th is my Anniversary and I will make some kind of fun cake for that.

April 4th Easter and I am hoping to host an Easter egg hunt and make a ham and cake and some other great goodies for that.
April 14th- Rob's birthday and I am going to make him a boston cream pie(cake)
April 17th- Serenity will be turning 3. So that is another cake with lots of pink.

May 9th- I will host my mom and my MIL over for a brunch. I am hoping to do a small desert of some sort for them.

June 20th- Father's day. Not to sure if anything will happen that day.

July 4th- I am sure we will cook out and I'll make a flag cake or something like that.
July 27th- Jordan's 14th birthday. WOW (tear tears and more tears) I have no clue on the type of cake or if she will even want one. Teenagers are so funny.

That is as far as I have gotten with my baking and party plans. I am sure the details and plans will all fall into place and things will work out nicely.

Hope everyone has a Happy and healthy and a blessed 2010.

Christmas has come and gone

While it has come and gone, it's not completely over for me. My oldest has taken a trip with her Nana and Papa and isn't home as of yet to celebrate with us. She left on the December 18th and won't be home until after the 1st of the year. While I have been on edge I am so happy she got to go and see parts of the world she may not get to see other wise. It's always nice when anyone things enough of your child to want to them with them on a long car ride and even nicer when a family member has open their home up to your child. So until she is home I have to look at the tree and the stockings all hung up. I am ready to see it down but I want things to be just like she was here on Christmas morning when she opens her presents.

I baked and baked and oh yeah baked. I made so many cookies this years, I can't even being to tell you all the dozens that have come and gone out of my kitchen this year. I made most of the ones I wanted to and a few that I hadn't planned on. I gave many as gifts and many we passed along to people who had stopped by to visit. I made my first ever Yule log. It turned out nicely and it was very tasty.

The little kids got everything they wanted and then some. We opened up our home to a couple who need a place to have a Christmas dinner at. It was really nice to have them in our home. They are lovely people and I hope that we get to have them over more often.

Sweet potato pie, Oh MY!!

I am not much of a baker when it comes to making pies and breads. For some reason I just can not get the hang of it. Either I over mix things or I don't mix it enough. Something always goes wrong.

While I was in Logan's class working, his teacher was reading them a story on how to make a sweet potato pie. After she was done reading she asked Logan if his mom baked pies. Logan then told her to my surprise yes. Then in a joking way she asked him to get his mom to make her a sweet potato pie. I love doing things for the teachers. They work so hard for the kids and need that little extra special thing.

Now here comes the tricky part. I had never baked a pie from scratch. Sara Lee and I are great friends when it comes to pies. But at the time I couldn't just go out and buy a pie. So off to google ville.

After searching I end up find a great and simple pie crust



EASY PIE CRUST FROM PILLSBURY BAKE OFF
Printed from COOKS.COM

2 cups Pillsbury All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup shortening
5-6 tablespoons ice cold water

Whisk or sift together flour and salt until well mixed. Rub shortening into flour with fingertips or cut in using two knives or a pastry blender until mixture has lumps the size of small peas.

Fill a small glass with ice and water. Using a tablespoon measure, spoon out 1 tablespoon of ice water at a time, stirring quickly into the flour mixture, using only enough water (5 or 6 tablespoons) for the pastry to come together (mixture will be crumbly).

Divide into two portions, with the larger half being for the bottom of the pie crust. Shape each portion into a 1/2" thick disk shape. Smooth the edges. Wrap in plastic wrap and rest for 20 minutes.

Roll out on a lightly floured work surface to a size 1 1/2 inches larger than the pie pan. Fit into pan loosely.

Bake according to directions given in the pie recipe being used.

recipe and an a simple sweet potato filling recipe.
Sweet Potato Pie I


Ingredients

* 1 (1 pound) sweet potato
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup milk
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

Directions
1. Boil sweet potato whole in skin for 40 to 50 minutes, or until done. Run cold water over the sweet potato, and remove the skin.
2. Break apart sweet potato in a bowl. Add butter, and mix well with mixer. Stir in sugar, milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Pie will puff up like a souffle, and then will sink down as it cools.


The crust was light and flaky just like every yummy pie crust should be. I missed the nice butter taste but was happy that it was easy to make and baked up nicely.
The filling was so simple and easy that I can now spout off the recipe with out think twice about it.

I didn't give myself much time to get this pie done. I had 2.5 hours to get it all put together and cooked and in the car to take to the school. If you know anything about baking, it's not a good idea to rush things or to not leave yourself plenty of time. The potatoes alone took 40-50 minutes to boil and become soft. So that didn't leave much time at all for baking which took an 50-60 minutes.

The crust mixed right up and only need to rest for a few minutes before you could work with it. I decided to roll it out and put in the baking dish and go ahead and blind bake it for half the time it called for due the filling saying put in an unbaked pie crust. Worked out amazingly, not one brunt edge and the crust was not tough at all. I took it out to cool and it was time to finish up the filling.

The potatoes were easy to peel and for the most part mashed up nicely. I did have to use a strainer to strain any parts that we not smashed. I was surprised at how easy this all came together and how it made my whole house smell of all the wonderful holiday smells you get. The nice cinnamon and nutmeg and vanilla smells filled my whole house and my car and the school hallway and Mrs Dean's classroom.

Down to the wire. It took all but 3 minutes of my time to get all of this done. I quickly took the pie from the oven found a nice towel and tray to put the pie plate on and ran out the door. The pie was still bubbling hot and smelled wonderful.

Arriving at the school and having a hot pie and a sleepy two year old was interesting to say the least. Serenity was slowly waking up from her nap and really wasn't into walking on her own. So I had to balance the pie in one hand and the sleepy Serenity in the other.

I walked into the classroom and Mrs Dean yells out "Oh no you didn't, You really didn't did you." And then as proud as she can's she turns to her wonderful class of Kindergarten's and says Mrs. Holloway made Me a sweet potato pie. They all get excited thinking they were going to get a bite or two. She let them down not so gently by saying "Oh no this is my pie, I'll bring you guys some in the morning."

New mission for the Room mom. Make some very sad children a sweet potato pie so that they could have some too.

LIGHT BULB MOMENT!!

What if the pie for the kids were mini's and they were bite size so that there wouldn't be a mess?

Off to figure out a way to do that.

MINI MUFFIN TINS.

So more pie crust making and enough pie filling to cover making the little mini's and for a pie for Thanksgiving.

The pie crust works beautifully in the muffin tins. Use a small juice cup to get the right size when cutting it out. And a tablespoon to fill each cup. I did blind bake them as well. This time I watched them closely and pulled them out after about 5 minutes. It took half the time to bake the mini pies and they were very tasty. Just the right amount of crust to filling. It was a perfect mix.

I took them into the kids on the next morning and they were so happy. I was given my container back empty.

I wish I would have taken pictures of this whole process. Being in a hurry cloudy my mind and made me forget my camera. It would have been wonderful to have pictures of it all.

To the average baker, don't be scared to bake things you never have before. Try baking things and if you fail no worries just try it again another day. I think now that I have done a pie and it has turned out wonderful I will be doing plenty more of them.

OFF TO BAKE SOMETHING NEW........

Princess Crown Cake

Made simple..

After a day of looking around on how to make a princess crown cake, I couldn't find one that I loved or even would think about making. They were either to complicated or just plain boring. (nothing against the great bakers out there) I need something that a average baker could do and one that would be perfect for a little girl. So I am making it up as I go.

Here is what I have so far.

I took 2 cake recipes for chocolate cake. Just your basic cake recipe nothing over the top or fancy.
I poured one into a 9x9 square pan.
Next I poured one a bunt pan.

I am going to make the square pan the pillow and the bunt pan will be transformed into a crown. I will place the bunt pan on top of the square pan and decorate it.

My new desert creation

I don't have a name of it as it has many things in it.
I'll list all the ingredients and maybe some of you can come up with a good name for it.
2- 8 inch chocolate round cakes
1 crust less cheese cake
4 sliced strawberries
butter cream frosting
chocolate dipped strawberries
and hard chocolate shell

So I started out with on of the chocolate rounds on the bottom. I place a little butter cream down on top of that layer. I then took the cheesecake and placed it on top of that. I then sliced the strawberries and placed them on top of the cheesecake and the place a little butter cream on the top of that.I then placed the second round on top of that,gave it a crumb coat of frosting.Placed it in the freezer for a bit and then covered with a clean coat of butter cream. I used a bakers dipping chocolate to dip the strawberries. I used the same chocolate to top the cake with. After pouring the chocolate on the cake I placed the dipped strawberries on a pillow of butter cream to hold them in place. I then placed the cake in the freezer to firm up the chocolate and to keep it all together. After about 10 minutes in the freeze I kept in the refrigerator until time to serve.


Are you hungry yet?

Here are some pictures of the finished cake


The top of the cake


The inside of the cake after being sliced


A slice of the cake

My Anniversary Part 2

The menu has been picked and I know what we are having now..I am so super excited I can't wait until next Saturday.

Appetizer:Steamed shrimp
Dinner: Bacon wrapped filet mignon
Loaded Baked Potatoes
Salad
bread sticks

Desert: Cheesecake stuffed strawberries dipped in chocolate

I changed my desert plan from my first post. I decided this would be better for us. We are going to wait and eat until the kids are in bed. We are hoping since we can't go out this year that we can eat a nice dinner and watch a movie together.

I am ready to eat that dinner right now.. WAITING IS going to be hard..

My Anniversary is coming...

I want to make a special cake this year for our Anniversary. We have been married for 13 years and we really didn't do much on our 10 yr anniversary. So now I have to start thinking of something super special to do.
Rob and I both love strawberries, so I know they will end up being apart of the cake some how. I know I want at least one layer of chocolate cake (Hey I am a woman and chocolate is a much have.) and one layer will have to be vanilla or butter based cake.(he loves that) The top will have chocolate cover strawberries and plain strawberries. I think in between the layers will be a jam or maybe cream cheese(kind cheese cake like) filling with fresh strawberries sliced thinly..

Now all I have to do is fine the recipes gather the supplies and make this yummy sounding cake..

Ben 10 Omnitrix Cake

Logan wanted an Ben 10 cake and after thinking about all the ways I could make the cake. I decided that it would be easier to make him the watch the boy wears to turn into the aliens.

So here it is start to finish.
This is a layer of milk chocolate cake and simple vanilla cake layer,iced together with plain white icing. Then I started the center of the dial for the top of the watch.



I added the black to finish the dial on the top of the cake.


Here I am frosting the outer edge of the cake. (sorry about the poor looks it was 1am)

I added to pieces of cake to make the wrist band. One is milk chocolate and the other is simple vanilla cake.


Here I am working on icing the wristband. And then what they look like before I add the details to them.



All the details are done, and I am getting ready to write on the cake. (this is the part I still need to work really hard on)


The lettering is all done and here is the finish cake.



I loved making this cake for him. It may not be my best work but it was fun. I worked on this cake until 3am and it was worth every minute of it.

OMG COOKIES (almond Joy Cookies)

This Christmas I made cookies for everyone I know and made the kids cookies to take to school for their teachers.
For the last past 2 years I have made Almond Joy Cookies . I found the recipe on the web and my family fell in love with them. Everyone who eats them tells me how great they are and that they are better than sex and they should be called OMG cookies. After making about 400 of them this year I decided that I am going to change the recipe up some to add to the OMG experience next holiday season.

This recipe came form Rachelleb.com
Almond Joy Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups flaked coconut
2 cups chopped almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until well blended. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips, coconut and almonds. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 48 cookies.

Now for the new version that I will be making along with the old one.

Hawaiian Delight cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups White chocolate chips
2 cups flaked coconut
2 cups chopped macadamia nuts toasted
1 cup of dried pineapple (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until well blended. Finally, stir in the white chocolate chips, coconut and macadamia nuts and pineapple. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 48 cookies.

Flag cake for family day

We had a huge family gathering for my mom's side of the family and I had to make a cake. I choose to make a Cake in the shape of a Flag blowing in the wind. It turned out well enough that I won a $25.00 gift card for best dish.

The fresh fruit wanted to slide right off.Mainly just the juicy strawberries.

Another yummy cupcake

So for the 4th of July I had to make cupcakes for my SIL party. I decided to make them with a yellow cake and cream cheese frosting, adding fresh blue berries and raspberries to the top of them. They were a huge hit and everyone loved them.
This month will be a busy cake month for me. I have another Cake to make on the 12 of July for a family gathering. Then on the 27th we have my oldest daughter's birthday and we will have another cake.
Here is a picture of the cupcakes

Strawberry Cake to die for

So I got inspired by another blogger whom seems to make the most yummy cakes. She made this great strawberry cake for a birthday, and my son saw it and just had to have one for his birthday. Well being that he was having a large party the cake had to be huge.
So I gathered all my supplies and I sliced strawberries until my fingers hurt and made him the best cake I could make. He loved every little minute of it. And much to my surprise so did our family that attend his party. I had to make one for my mom's birthday (which is the same day as my son's) and then my husband wanted one for his birthday just not as large. So it has turned into the big deal now that when ever some one has a party they want me to make the cake. I have 2 request for July for parties and then I have my daughters birthday that same month. It's going to be a busy time for me. But I am so excited that I get to do it. Something about decorating a cake is just so relaxing. Watching it start as just a sheet of cake and then icing it and adding all the little special touches to it, is just awesome.
Here are a couple pictures of the wonderfully yummy cake. (thanks evilcakelady for your inspiration)

THE TOP OF THE CAKE

THE SIDE OF THE CAKE


GETTING READY TO BLOW HIS VERY SMALL CANDLE OUT ON HIS HUGE CAKE!


This also makes a beautiful round cake as well. The top will look like a flower. Cupcakes works as well. The cake part is just plain white cake and the frosting is butter cream. I cheated and used store mixes and frosting. Just ran out of time to make it all from scratch.

Happy baking..