Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Football Season and Giveaway Winner!

So, it's football season, and that means Sundays spent on the couch eating cookies and drinking beer. Ok, well maybe most people don't eat cookies with their beer, but if you live in my house you do. So since it is Fall I thought that football themed pumpkin cookies would be appropriate. I loved the way the cookies came out, and am very happy that the Ravens are purple and black, because if they were say red and gold, I don't think the pumpkins would look nearly as cute. I especially love the cookies with the sanding sugar on them.




Full disclosure: The Ravens are not actually my favorite team, but don't tell any Baltimore fans that! 

On to the thing you have all been waiting for...well some of you have been waiting for anyway. The cookie giveaway!  
And the winner is....

True Random Number Generator
  1 
 6 

 6 
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Congratulations!
Anonymous said... 
What I like about the fall is the weather warm during the day but cool @ night so that you can have a fire with hot apple cider. I like the changing colors of nature,pumpkin muffins, apples and Halloween. I don't think there is anything about fall that I don't like!!! Love your blog and cake ideas!! You are so creative!!!!

I will be in contact with you to get your cookies sent out! I hope you enjoy them, and thanks for entering!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Festive Fall Cookie Giveaway

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!" Sing it with me! Ok, so I know that is a winter season song, but really who likes winter? It's cold outside, all of the trees are dead, it gets dark early. Boo! Everyone knows that fall is the most wonderful time of the year. Beautiful trees, crisp air, and lets not forget the pumpkins! Mmmm pumpkins! They can be turned into so many yummy treats. So since I am in such a festive mood I decided to make cookies, and I'm going to to share some with all of you!




I made these vanilla sugar cookies with pumpkin spice icing in festive fall shapes to share my love of the season. So, now I want to share that love with you! I will give away one dozen fall cookies (2 flowers, 2 pumpkins, and an assortment of leaves) to one of you to share with your family and friends, or hoard them all for yourself. It's up to you. They will come dressed in pretty fall themed bags too!

Here's how to enter:
  • Leave a comment on the blog telling me what you like best about the fall season.
  • Become a follower of the blog and leave a comment letting me know.
  • Become a follower on FB and leave a comment letting me know.
Leave a comment for each separate entry. Comments must be left on the blog in order to be entered to win. (Comments left on the FB page will not be counted). Make sure you leave me a way to contact you. If I cannot contact you, then you cannot win. This giveaway is for the US only. Contest ends September 26th @ 12am EST.
The Giveaway is now closed!
Good Luck! Happy Fall!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Baltimore Skyline Cake

I had a request for a Baltimore themed cake for a bridal shower. The sister of the bride wanted to include Natty Boh in the cake and Baltimore as well. So I suggested a Baltimore skyline cake with Natty Boh and Natty Boh girl looking over the city. I added a bow tie to him and a veil to her to tie in the theme. I thought that a cutout of the happy couple would be better than beer bottles on the cake. I incorporated some iconic Baltimore buildings including the Baltimore aquarium, (if you have ever visited then you know we have the best aquarium) the World Trade Center, Domino Sugar, and Chase Court ( where the couple is getting married).

This was certainly a fun cake to do, and my first Baltimore skyline cake. I thought that Natty and his girl were the best part. Hope you enjoyed!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Topsy-Turvy Stand Tutorial Part 2

Ok, so since the first post I made with this stand was so popular I thought I would post more pictures of how the stand was made. I had some questions the first time, so hopefully this post will better show how to make the stand. You can find the first post here.

I start off with my pipe screwed in to my flange which is attached to my board. (Ok, so I don't have a pictue of the seperate parts so I used the old picture from my previous post). The flange is a little bulky so make sure you cover it with something so the cake will sit flat. (I covered it with left over fondant, and then placed sand on the board to make the cake sit level). You may need to cut out a portion of the bottom cake to fit over the flange.

Then slide your first tier over the pipe and onto the board.
Next, slide the PVC over the pipe, and insert it into the bottom tier of the cake. 
Ok, now you need to decide how much of a gap you want between the tiers of cake. I was making pretty large decorations to fit between the tiers so I made the gap pretty large. Then mark where you want the tier to fall and at what angle you want the next tier to sit at.
Then cut your PVC pipe to the angle you marked.
Then slide your next tier over the pipe to rest on the PVC. Remember under each tier I have acrylic plates with holes in the center. The holes are only large enough to fit the black pipe through. The PVC pipe is to large, and therefore the tier will rest on the PVC. You can also use wood plates with holes cut in them instead of acrylic. The tiers will not slide, or turn, or twist on the pole. The cake will stay in place! Trust me. Then slide your PVC into the cake and again mark how large you want the next gap.

Now at this point I had to run to Home Depot because my black pipe was not large enough to fit into the top tier. I usually like to have the black pipe inserted about halfway into the top tier in order to hold it into place. (I cover the pipe in electrical tape so it does not come in contact with the cake). I did not measure my pipe before starting this process, so I had to unstack everything and restack it on the new pipe. Since I was running low on time these are the last pictures I have.(Sorry)! I usually like to cover the PVC in matching fondant before decorating around it. I used a little piping gel to make the fondant stick to the PVC pipe.

I hope everyone had a wonderful labor day weekend. I cannot believe summer is already over. I am looking forward to my favorite time of year, and my favorite holiday coming up. I cannot wait to start decorating, and making treats for Halloween! yay! I hope that this tutotrial answered some questions for people. If not please feel free to ask and I will try to explain.