Balloon Wreath

I had a little time on my hands in the fall. That led to lot of baking a a few crafty craft things. One of the cutest things I saw was a birthday balloon wreath. I mean, how cute is this thing?? I loved it as soon as I saw it.

 

I got a straw wreath and floral pins from the craft store. Be sure and leave the plastic on the wreath or you will have quite a mess on your hands. I cleared out Walmart of their small balloons. I think that I used the 9 or 11 inch balloons. To completely cover the wreath, you will need about 300 balloons and pins. I did have some bigger balloons that I spread around on the wreath first.

Some of the balloons were pinned one at a time, and some I pinned two together.The pins go easily into the wreath. Just keep pinning them all around until you have covered the whole thing without any visible holes.

 

I love this wreath. I made it for my birthday and couldn’t wait to put it up for hubby’s birthday last week. It is super easy and too cute. Anyone would love to have this. If ya have a birthday coming up, make this for them. It will be sure to make them smile. Enjoy!!

Meg

Chocolate Buttercream

I have never really made a chocolate frosting. I almost always do a regular buttercream. I have made a chocolate swiss meringue that was unbelievable, but never a powdered sugar based frosting. I wanted something new for hub’s cupcakes, so I went a searching for a new frosting. So glad I found this one!!

I think that the key to this frosting is the whipping of the butter. I normally use the paddle attachment for frostings, but this one called for the whisk. o.m.g. It was silky and smooth and quite possibly the perfect chocolate frosting.

 

 

I was all excited that I got to use my new digital scale to weigh the chocolate—used 12 ounces that I melted in the microwave and let cool to room temp. The butter was whisked into submission until it was creamy and fluffy. The powdered sugar was added in and then in went the melted chocolate.  I kept whipping until it was completely mixed and ready to go on the cupcakes.

I am so in love with this frosting. It is creamy and smooth and has the best chocolate flavor. You might think that on the chocolate cake it would be too much, but it is such a light and whipped frosting that it would go great on anything. The folks in hubby’s office loved it and the teachers I work with raved over them. Give it a try the next time you need a delish frosting—you will want to make it everyday!! Enjoy!!

 

Chocolate Buttercream (recipe adapted from www.browneyedbaker.com)

Ingredients

3 cups (6 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
7- 7 1/2  cups powdered sugar, sifted
3teaspoon vanilla extract
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Instructions

 Using the wire whisk attachment of an electric mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, scraping the bowl if needed.

 Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar. Once all of the powdered sugar is incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and add the vanilla, mixing well.

Finally, add the melted chocolate and whip at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, or until all of the chocolate is well incorporated.

You can store any unused buttercream in the refrigerator in an airtight container; let it come to room temperature and then give it a quick whip in the mixer before using.

 

 

Meg

Pecan Rolo Bites

Whatever you are doing right now, stop it and go make these. Seriously. Go make them now.

I saw these on…you guessed it, pinterest. Really just by looking at them, you can tell how to do it. Ya need three things, about 10 minutes and an oven. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

 

Really the hardest/longest part of this treat is unwrapping all of the rolos. Line a sheet with wax paper and put all of the pretzels out. Place a rolo on each one and pop it in the oven at 275 for 4 minutes. The first time I did this, I did some kisses—they didn’t work out as well. Rolos all the way for this treat.

When they come out of the oven, push a pecan half down in the middle of each pretzel. The rolos are melted and the pecan smooshes right down. Put the whole sheet in the freezer for about five minutes so they can set up completely. You will have to let them come back to room temp before you can peel them off of the wax paper. I stored them in the fridge overnight before sending them in with hubs to work.

 

These are the perfect sweet and salty combo. They are crunchy and chewy and yum all at the same time. I liked them so much that I just made some more to go in with me to work tomorrow. They are the yummiest and easiest quick treat to make. I will so be adding these to my sweet treat rotation!! Enjoy!

 

Ingredients

2 bags of Rolo Candies

1 bag of Rold Gold tiny twists

Pecan Halves

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 275 degrees and line a cookie sheet with wax paper.  Place pretzels flat on the cookie sheet.  Place 1 Rolo on each pretzel.  Place in oven for 4 minutes.  Immediately after removing pretzels from oven, place a pecan halve on each Rolo and very lightly press down to spread chocolate/caramel over pretzel.  Let stand or place in refrigerator until chocolate/caramel hardens.

 

 

Meg

Pipe and push frosting technique

I knew that I wanted a simple cake for my birthday this past year. It was just gonna be us and the folks, so I wanted something low key. I had seen a few cakes with such a cool frosting. As soon as I saw this one, I knew that it was it. I was something different and pretty and almost too easy to do.

The cake was red velvet so it had to have cream cheese frosting—it is my fave! I have a great cream cheese frosting recipe. Most of them have milk or cream to make them good. Not this one. And the cream cheese is cold when ya mix it. I think that having everything cold makes it stand up better when frosting. It was tinted pink and then it was ready for some red velvet action.

 

 

The cake was layered and filled with frosting. It got a thin crumb coat—don’t worry if you can see the cake, it will get covered with the dots. When it was coated, it went in the fridge to set up.

To do the sides, I picked a spot and piped four dots of frosting in a line down the side of the cake. I used my spreader to gently push the frosting to the right. Don’t push down so much that you touch the cake. You want to just lightly touch and push the dots. You want the next dots to start at the edge of the row in front of it—you don’t want there to be a gap in the frosting. And that is it. Keep going around the cake until it is all covered. I decided to do the top of the cake too. I started on the outside of the cake, doing the cake technique and worked my way to the middle.

 

I was so happy with how this cake came out. I topped it with a few fondant ruffle flowers and it was ready for the party! I loved how it looked—simple, yet interesting and beautiful. I can’t wait to do more like it! Give this a try the next time you want something a little different! It will be sure to get rave reviews! Enjoy!!

 

 

Meg

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

 

Ruffled Gumpaste Flowers

This past year, I went pretty simple for my birthday cake. I did my red velvet with a new frosting technique. I did decide to top it with some ruffled gumpaste flowers. I had seen these simple, yet pretty flowers on a few cakes and figured I could do it too. Turns out it was as easy as I thought.

 

I used circle cutters to make the different sizes for the flowers. I used the pointy tool to thin out and ruffle the edges. I used the small ball tool to push down each petal. With a dent in the middle, it makes it easier to stack the petals and have them fit together. Once each one was ruffled and dented, they were set aside to dry.

 

I used a mix of shimmer dust and color powder to paint the edges of the flowers. Just brush it on and blow off the excess dust. When they are all colored, I used water to stick the petals together. You just have to find out where they will touch and paint a little water to the petals so they will stick. I let them sit overnight so that they were good and set.

 

 

Other than taking a few days to put it all together, these flowers are probably the easiest gumpaste flowers to make. I made them three days before I needed them to make sure that they were rock hard and would sit on the cake correctly. When it was cake time, I arranged the flowers on the cake. They were the perfect touch for a simple cake. I loved how these cam out and can’t wait to get my cake business going in our new home!! Enjoy!

 

 

 

     Meg

Cherry Spritz Cookies

Spritz cookies are just the best. They are the same butter cookie that I decorate with icing, but take way less time to make. Mix the dough, pop it in the cookie gun and press away. All that is left to do is the cherry topper.  Easy,peasy, lemon squeezy.

 

Once the dough cleans the side of the bowl, it is ready to go. You don’t want it too hard or it won’t go through the cookie gun. For these cookies, I used the five petal flower looking cookie. There are a ton of cookie plates that you could use—pick one that you like the best! I filled the pan with cookies—they don’t spread too much, so you can put them pretty close together.

 

Before they go in the oven, put a piece of cherry in the middle of each cookie. I use the candied cherries—you see them at the holidays, but can probably find them on the baking aisle. You won’t need many cherries since each one is cut up into eight pieces. I keep the cherries in the freezer until I need them again next year.

These are great cookies. They bake up quick and are a perfect filler in a cookie tray. I love the chewy little cherry bite in the middle. I have always made them at Christmas time because that is what my mama did. They are really too good to just have once a year. You can totally make these any day of the week—to give away or just for you! Enjoy!!

 

Cherry Spritz Cookies

4 sticks of butter

1 1/3 cups of sugar (it’s ok to heap them a little)

4-5 cups of flour (start with 4 and then add as needed)

Candied Cherries

 

Preheat oven to 350°

Whip butter and sugar with the paddle attachment until white and fluffy. Add flour gradually until you have the right mix. You don’t want them to be sticky, or too crumbly because of too much flour.

Put the dough into the cookie gun a little at t time and press the cookies onto the cookie sheet. Chop each cherry into 6-8 pieces. Top each cookie with a piece of cut up cherry. Bake for about 9-10 minutes at 350. Remove them from the sheet and let cool on the counter before packing up or just eating them in the kitchen!

 

Meg

Happy New Year

Happy 2012! Wow…I know we say this every year, but I still can’t believe another year has come and gone. 2011 was an amazing year for us and I know that this year will be even better.

It’s funny how reflective we get at the end of the year—thinking about all that happened and making predictions about the year ahead. If only we did that more often—really thinking about what we are doing and what we want to do with our life.

My new year’s hope is that your life finds you healthy, happy, and doing what you love with the ones that you love. If you are not happy about something, change it. If you want to start something new, get out there and make it happen. Don’t just wish for things to happen to you…make things happen for you.  Clean out the negative in your life and focus on the things that bring you joy.

I have so much love and happiness in my life—I feel truly blessed. I am always excited to see what the new year brings and this year is no exception. I hope that you love often and laugh much and have the best year yet! Bring it on 2012—I can’t wait!!

 

Meg