Cake and Cookie Decorating Birthday Party

I got asked to teach cake decorating at a birthday party last night!  I was totally in my element, not only with the cake decorating, but I love to hang out with the young girls. They are always so much fun to be around.  I guess it makes me feel young again.  My daughter was invited to this party and came home saying it was one of the best parties she had ever been to, so that was great to hear.  I think everyone had a good time.  I know I did.

At the beginning of the party, each girl got to paint a pot in bright Spring colors (since it was the first day of spring).  They got pretty creative, and the pots were all very cute and unique.  It was fun to see their personalities come out while painting.

While the adorable pots were drying, the girls were given aprons to decorate.  All cake decorators need a good apron!

The girls even posed for a picture sporting their new aprons.

Next, I showed them a few cake decorating techniques using a delicious buttercream frosting, and various tips.  I taught them a lot of the basics.

I had sugar cookies on sticks for them to decorate.  They all did an AWESOME job.  It was fun to see how different all of the cookies were.  There sure was a lot of giggling going on.

The end result was phenomenal!  The cookie bouquets turned out really well, and everyone had a great time.

Banana Split Cake

Last weekend I took a trip to Denver to spend some time with my sister. We always have so much fun together. One of the things that we like to do when we get together is shop. So, we went to a couple hobby and home décor stores, and I came across a set of mini cake pans that I couldn’t pass up. I know, I know….I’m starting to wonder why I get so excited about such things. But I HAD to have this set. It is the Wilton Tasty-Fill Mini Cake Pan Set.

The set has 4 mini pans, and a recipe booklet. I immediately went to the recipe book to see what I could make, and this is what I came up with…….

A DELICIOUS BANANA SPLIT CAKE!!! Now if I have you drooling over your computer screen, keep in mind that you (YES YOU!) can also make this cake. I will tell you step by step how to make it.

I started out with a basic banana cake recipe:

½ Cup Butter (softened)

1 Cup Sugar

1 egg

½ Cup Butter Milk

1 Cup Mashed Bananas

1 t. Soda

2 Cups Flour

¼ t. Salt

**Cream sugar, egg, and butter. Add bananas and soda. Add balance of ingredients. Mix well. Next put ½ cup of batter into each mini cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Let cool before taking cakes out of pans.

Wrap the cakes in plastic wrap and put them in the freezer for a couple hours. Then pull them out to put the filling in, which is softened strawberry ice cream. Mmmmm….. After filling with strawberry ice cream, stack 2 cakes together (so the filling is inside). Return them to the freezer so the ice cream can set back up. Just before you are ready to serve these delicious little delicacies, pull them out of the freezer and frost with whipping cream. The only thing that could make this any better would be chocolate, but….. You are in luck! You pour ice cream toppings on top of the whipping cream. On this particular cake I used chocolate, strawberry, and caramel toppings. I also chopped up some peanuts, and topped it off with a cute little cherry. DELICIOUS!!!

Now, if you would like to give this cake a try, you can click on the link over to the left of my blog to purchase these fun pans. I imagine I will be using mine a lot!

Raspberry Lemon Gem Cookies

DON'T THESE LOOK DELICIOUS?

Most of us have made cookies before using a cake mix. Well, that's what I did this time around, but I put my own twist on things. I have always liked lemon cakes with raspberry filling, so I thought I would try a lemon COOKIE with a raspberry filling. I started with a lemon cake mix. Next I added 2 eggs, 2 Tablespoons Canola Oil, 2 Tablespoons water, and a teaspoon of Vanilla Flavoring. After mixing all the ingredients together, I dropped the dough by the teaspoonful on a lightly greased cookie sheet. I made a well in the center of each cookie, which I did by pressing in a greased melon baller. I'm sure there are other ways to do it. Then I put seedless raspberry preserves in the center of each one.

I baked them at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. After they cooled completely, I melted white chocolate and drizzled it on top of the cookies. What an AWESOME finish to an AWESOME cookie! These cookies were a perfect Family Home Evening treat. Definitely give them a try, and let me know what you think. MMMMMM......