Births & Birthdays [Featuring the Ribbon Cake]

This weekend's baked goods revolved around new birth and birthdays! 

One of the best things about food is that it unites people.  People come together to celebrate milestones such as birthdays, baby showers, weddings... and food is always involved.  That's why when someone asks me if I can make a personalized dessert for them to present at their event, I am so extremely flattered because I know the intimate role food plays at gatherings. 

My first project was for a friend from high school, Kristine, who is expecting her first baby girl!  She asked for cake pops and baby heads, but gave me the creative freedom to come up with the rest! I felt like with spring on the way, flower and pastels would be the perfect mix! 

I love putting little flower headbands on them! And the crying babies are always my favorite.. Just trying to keep it real, right? They aren't angelic all the time!

My second project of the weekend came on Sunday when my family and I celebrated my Yia Yia's 87th birthday! My Dad asked me if I could make a cake, so I decided on a tall, three layer chocolate-peanut butter cake with a butter pecan butter cream.  I absolutely love chocolate peanut butter and I've made this cake before, knowing how moist and decadent it always comes out! 

 I chose butter pecan as the butter cream flavor because I wanted the taste to be rich, and bring out the peanut butter flavor in the cake, which it did! I found a new butter cream recipe that said to add 1 tbsp of light corn syrup for every cup of frosting, and wow what a difference! This butter cream was soft, smooth and creamy while still holding it's shape for piping.

I had wanted to try vertical butter cream ruffles for a while, and decided that this would be the cake I could experiment on, it being a family cake and all.  I used a Wilton 125 flower petal tip, keeping the fat end dug into the cake as I piped back and forth to create a ribbon pattern.

It did not come out perfect, and not as straight up as I wanted, but I have to admit I think this is pretty good for my first attempt! 

For the top, I decided to pipe flower petals to make one giant flower-like pattern!  I then created a flower out of fondant that I kept folding and pieced together. I thought the design was very simple but elegant.  I chose pink butter cream only because I had this cake plate tucked away and have been dying to use it!  

My Yia Yia loved it!

I really love this picture because it represents me and the relationship I have with my Yia Yia. Growing up I'd sit in this kitchen with her and she would teach me how to make all types of food and mostly desserts, from sugar cookies to greek pastries, and even how to steam milk for hot chocolate! She never cared if I made a mess... that was half the fun! And even if the cookies were ugly, she said they were beautiful!  Her skills in the kitchen are amazing, and at 87 she still cooks every single day for her and my Papou.  I hope to still be cooking at her age! I know her love for food has been instilled in me, and I am forever grateful! 

Yes, I consumed this whole piece, ice cream and all.. how can you not!? Worked out all week, ate healthy, and avoided every drop of alcohol all week, knowing I was going to consume this baby!! 

-Elena

Peanut Butter Babies

I started this lovely week off with some baby heads!  My mom’s coworker is having a baby girl and what better way to celebrate than with some bright, cheery little girls mixed with spring flowers!

  

Aren’t these baby girls just the sweetest with their little flower headbands?

I found this scrapbook paper over the weekend in my travels and fell in love.  The brightness of the pattern just evokes the feeling of happiness!

For these little girls, I did two types of cake – classic chocolate, and peanut butter!  I have recently tried a few recipes with PB, however this one just knocked it out of the park for me.  Baking with peanut butter will leave you with a very heavy, thick end result.  This cake is NOT fluffy and soft like a vanilla meringue would be… it’s dense, but moist at the same time! And the creaminess of the PB makes the cake roll beautifully and my secret when making cake balls--- mix the cake with half buttercream, and half peanut butter to get even more of a peanut butter taste!

Everyone has their own preference when it comes to PB—Skippy, Jiff, the natural stuff, chunky, creamy… I grew up on Skippy and don’t mind it (yea I know it’s “fake” pb), however I have grown to love fresh ground peanut butter from Big Y or Whole Foods.  I like the chalkier, crunchy consistency with less of a sugar taste! That is what I used for this recipe but really you can use whatever you’d like.  I also cut down on the fat a bit and subbed almond milk for milk, and coconut oil for vegetable oil but if you don’t care about these things, go for the original recipe!

Creamy Peanut Butter Cake

2 Cups All Purpose Flour

2 Cups White Sugar

1 Tsp Baking Powder

½ Cup Milk

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract (I use vanilla paste, find it a Homegoods!)

½ Cup Butter

1 Cup Water

½ Cup Vegetable Oil

½ Cup Peanut Butter

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a baking 9X11inch baking pan. (This cake is thick, don’t use anything smaller than this).

2.       Whisk flour, white sugar and baking soda together in a bowl.

3.       In an electric mixer, beat eggs, milk and vanilla into flour mixture on low until smooth.

4.       In a sauce pan, combine water, butter, vegetable oil and peanut butter and heat over medium heat until mixture is smooth (not boiling!). Should take about 5 minutes.

5.       Stir peanut butter mixture into flour mixture and mix until combined.  Pour into baking pan.

6.       Bake until a toothpick insterted in the middle comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on it!

Pair this cake with a peanut butter or chocolate buttercream and YUM!

Now for a 4 day work week which means I get an extra day to work on all the Easter goodies I have planned! 

Enjoy the sunshine! 

-Elena

Mama and Baby

This weekend I put together a baby shower display for an old childhood friend.  Brittany and I grew up together, loving Britney Spears and Spice Girls, playing soccer and having sleepovers.  We spent hours singing into hairbrushes and dancing around her kitchen, doing our hair and make up and having an absolute blast. Here we are below--pre braces.  Check out the tattoo necklace.. soo hilarious!

Her and her fiancee are expecting a little girl, and I was so happy to create a display for her shower!

Brittany's shower was elegantly put together by her sisters and family, and had a "spring" theme with fresh flowers and vintage chalkboards, mason jars and white lanterns.  For the display, I went with the colors of the invitation -- tiffany blue, lavender, pale pink and mint green.  I wanted the display to be vintage, girly, and ultimately evoke the feeling of spring (I know we're all itching for it!)

I also recently picked up two new cookie cutters, a mama bird and baby bird, which I thought would be perfect for a baby shower (and I've been secretly dying to use them!!)  Definitely my favorite aspect of the display and was a perfect way to mix baby shower with spring! 

I actually use cookie cutters often when I create cake pops.  It's an easy way to get the perfect shape with cleaner lines as opposed to hand shaping them.


These paper flowers I picked up were so perfect, I swear they were made specifically for me, for this shower! I love when it all comes together perfectly!  I went with the round plates for this one, as the ribbon colors really pulled it together and I think they're nice and girly.

Finished product!

I had picked up this bird cage candle holder a few years ago, and it went with this theme perfectly!  It was like the mama was watching over her baby, waiting for it to come out of its cage! 

I wanted to stick to their mason jar theme as well, and adding another baby and mama bird in with the taste card was a nice accent.

I just loved the paper flowers!  

These were the little jars given to the guests to drink from with a candy binky! Such a creative idea!

Pretty table settings!

It was lovely seeing Brittany and I am happy everyone enjoyed the cakes!

On to the next project!! Busy Busy is the best way to be! :)

-Elena

Throwback Thursday: Sweet Baby Boys

I love baby showers, there is just so much joy in them. Everyone, especially the expectant mother is glowing with the excitement of adding a new little human to the crowd.  It is a nice time to spend with loved ones and close friends, sharing stories and celebrating love and life.

I have posted some baby girls, but I think it is time to give my boys some attention! I have done a few showers for baby boys, each one a little different.  They make me laugh every time, just because they are so darn cute!

 I like the little crying baby boy in the back there... a little taste of a real new born, right!?

Little details really add to the presentation..

You always need taste cards! I like to give people the options instead of leaving the flavors a mystery.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Thursday! Let's go RED SOX!

-Elena

The Floodgates Have Been Opened...

This week I finally completed something I have wanted to do for a very long time-- flooding cookies!

I have read so much about cookie flooding and royal icing and watched so many youtube videos and I am absolutely fascinated with these cookies! The possibilities are limited to the cookie cutters you have but after that, they are endless! So many colors, shapes, flavors... I was asked by a neighbor if I could make some sugar cookies for her son and daughter-in-law's "Gender Reveal" party this weekend, and of course I said "Sure I can do those!" No, Elena. You can't possibly know you can do them, you've never done them! BUT, I am an experimenter and my skills are becoming more refined so I went for it!

First, I had to create the dough. I used a recipe for a thicker sugar cookie, one that could withstand heavy royal icing.  Three cups of flour, 2 sticks of butter, some sugar, an egg and some extract is all it takes to get a nice crumbly dough. I decided on pure almond extract for a flavoring, as I think it is a more mature flavoring than the boring, old vanilla.  I wanted these things to smell mouthwatering.. and the dough was just that. Smelled SO GOOD. So I kneaded the dough and rolled it out and cut out some adorable shapes...

How cute are the onesies!!??! Then, I mentally tied my hands behing my back (for no other reason than to stop myself from shoving all this delicious, almondy, buttery dough into my mouth) and threw these suckers in the oven. 350 degrees for 9 minutes.

Boom. Done. Beautiful little rattles and bibs!

Now it was time for some royal icing. Royal icing is very heavy and thick, but it contains NO oil like a buttercream icing does, so it hardens like candy and is used for piping decorations and when watered down, for flooding! So I whipped some up. Meringue powder, some water, corn syrup (for shine) and some almond extract.

I used this to outline each cookie.  You need the heavy icing to keep the "flood" in the cookie! So you outline the cookie first, then take the rest of the icing and water it down to the consistency of Elmer's school glue.  Then I had to color it with my beautiful Atecco, water based icing colors.  So gorgeous.

 AAAAAANDDDD the flooding began! I flooded onesies.

I flooded rattles... baby elephants... I flooded bibs.. I flooded everything.

Flood Flood Flood. It's like playing with glue as a child in kindergarten. The onesies were just my favorite. In case you are wondering how I got the designs.. Once you flood the cookie, while it is still wet you drop in another color, then you can use a toothpick to swirl it or cut it to makes tye-dye or hearts!  I added some cute sugar pearls as buttons and some candy hearts as bows. It is always the fine details that really get people's attention.

And.. finished product! 

 

My lines are not perfect on the edge.. but other than that I am super happy with how they came out, especially being that this is my first time ever flooding. I will definitely do it again soon... I think I have created a monster here... the floodgates are open... let the cookie flooding obsession begin. 

-Elena

Baby Girls, So Cute You Want to Take a Bite!

I love when I get asked to do baby shower treats. I always envision how the couple's baby will turn out based on how I know them! The possibilities are endless! Recently I did a shower for my best friend's sister Megan who is having a baby girl! She is going to be such a blessing and I was so happy to share their special day.

Finished display was too precious..

And there had to be baby chicks!

And the gorgeous mom to be!

Remember, take each day one sweet bite at a time!