Delightful Slice

Thomas the Train Cake

2010-08-28T21:27:00.001-04:00

This precious cake was made for Zackary’s 3^rd birthday party for this past weekend. The top tier was strawberry and the bottom tier was white cake with buttercream frosting and homemade marshmallow fondant.

I found a neat little dough cutter that is similar to five pizza cutters all attached together that has an adjustable width. This really helped with the bricks considering they covered the entire cake. Then I found the cobblestone imprint mat at Michaels, made by Duff Goldman and tip number 233 was used to make the grass.

Cup O' Joe cupcakes

2010-08-28T21:12:00.002-04:00

This is a new ‘Delightful Slice’ creation I called “Cup O’ Joe cupcakes”. The cupcake is a chocolate cake made with coffee, then topped with a rich chocolate ganache, iced with an espresso whipped cream, and adorned with milk, dark and white chocolate dipped coffee beans.

These cupcakes were created for Matt G’s birthday at work, he loves coffee, so what better type of cupcake to make in celebration for this special occasion. Recipe to follow soon… stay posted.

At work I am involved in a book club that meets on a weekly basis. We’re reading a book by Joyce Meyer entitled, “The Battlefield of the Mind”. For me, I am so often consumed with the unknown. How could things be different if I would have made different choices, How long will it be before something terrible happens and I am grief stricken? It’s so easy to be filled with anxiety and forgot that God has us in the palm of His hand and nothing that happens to us takes Him by surprise. Even though I have this knowledge, putting it to practice and breaking down strongholds in the mind is a different story.

Pecan Pie Cupcakes

2010-08-07T15:10:00.001-04:00

I found this recipe in a "Taste of the South" magazine and modified it slightly. These cupcakes were so tasty, I work with all dudes, so I couldn't ask for better guinea pigs. The guys have been so kind to try all of my sugary creations, no matter how strange they may look. Thankfully, these cupcakes turned out to be fabulous and they loved them. Here is one of the guinea pigs, Josh. He was willing to try the pecan cupcake while on camera and for being such a good sport, he earned the honor being the first ever male cupcake model (or at least the first ever on my blog). I know Ashley is so proud :)

Enjoy the recipe below and happy baking!

Pecan Pie Cupcakes

1 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 c flour

1t baking powder

¼ t salt

¾ c firmly packed light brown sugar

½ c butter, softened

½ c whole milk, room temperature

2/3 c toasted chopped pecans

1 t vanilla flavoring

½ c semisweet chocolate morsels (for topping over buttercream frosting)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt together

3. In mixer, beat brown sugar and butter at medium speed for 5 minutes.

Add eggs one a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternating with milk. Begin and end with the flour mixture.

5. Fold in pecans and vanilla.

6. Fill lined cupcake pans and bake for 18 minutes.

Brown Sugar Buttercream

1 ¾ cups

Ingredients:

¼ c firmly packed light brown surgar

2 T water

¼ t salt

½ c plus 2 T butter softened

3 ½ cups powdered sugar

3 T whole milk

1. In small saucepan, combine brown sugar, water, and salt. Bring to boil and continue stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in 2 tablespoons of butter. Cool Completely.

2. In mixer, beat cooled brown sugar mixture and remaining ½ cup butter until creamy. Slowly add powdered sugar and milk.

Pecan Cookie

1 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

15 oz package of refrigerated pie dough (1/2 sheet)

1 T dark corn syrup

1T butter melted

1/8 t salt

12 pecan halves

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees.

2. Roll out dough on wax paper, using a small cookie cutter any shape, just make sure it’s a little bigger than your pecan halves (I used an oval shape). Cut 12 pieces of dough and set on baking sheet

3. Combine syrup, butter, and salt and brush over dough pieces

4. Lightly press each pecan into the dough.

5. Brush over dough with syrup/butter/salt mixture again.

6. Bake for 8 minutes, cool completely. (Store in an airtight container)

Assembling cupcakes:

1. After cake has completely cooled, using a pastry bag and a large star tip (I used tip #27). Generously cover cupcakes with icing.

2. Melt ½ cup of semisweet chocolate morsels and cool. Pour chocolate in a sandwich bag, squeeze chocolate to a corner of the bag, then twist the top and snip the end of the corner.

3. Using a zig-zag motion, lightly squeeze the chocolate over the buttercream frosted cupcakes.

4. Before serving, adorn each cupcake with the cute little pecan cookies.

Nutella Ganache Cupcakes

2010-07-12T21:52:00.000-04:00

These are some yummy cupcakes I created last night. I was inspired by all of the talented people from the Cupcake Wars show on the Food Network, they all make such creative cupcake flavors so I decided to try my hand at it. So I made a vanilla cake cupcake with a chocolate hazelnut ganache and topped with a chocolate mousse icing. They turned out to be so extremely delectable and delicious, this recipe is definitely a keeper.

Yankee Cake

2010-07-12T21:44:00.000-04:00

This cake was made for the rehearsal dinner of a friend's brother who got married this past weekend. Her brother and wife are huge Yankee fans so this cake helped make their rehearsal dinner even more special. I loved the precious little mini baseballs lining the bottom of the two tiers, so cute! The bottom tier was strawberry cake and the top tier was vanilla cake.

SpongeBob Cake

2010-07-12T21:22:00.000-04:00

This cake was made for my best friend's friend's daughter, Brooke. This was Brooke's 8 year old birthday party and this was the first party that she had invited her friends. Brooke also is involved in karate, so of course, SpongeBob had to be dressed in a karate outfit. Isn't he so cute! SpongeBob was made out of Strawberry cake and vanilla buttercream..yummy.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

2010-06-27T21:58:00.002-04:00

My sister-in-law has Celiacs disease, so in trying to limit her intake of gluten she really doesn't get to partake in many cakes that I make. We recently had a family cook-out and it was really important for me to make a dessert that Andrea could have that not only tasted good, but looked beautiful. Andrea is a new mom so this cake was also in celebration of the birth of my niece, Merci. The fondant baby on the cake is a mold I found on globalsugarart.com, then I added the cute little diaper.

Most gluten free cakes are really heavy so when I found this recipe for a light and fluffy chocolate gluten free cake, I was thrilled. Most gluten free cakes also call for really random and unique ingredients, thankfully, this recipe has ingredient that I found all at Publix. The directions in this recipe are extremely complex, but it is TOTALLY worth it.

Cake Ingredients:
12 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped  (Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate morsels 60%)
6 tablespoons water 
12 large eggs, separated, at room temperature 
1 1/3 cup sugar 
½ teaspoon salt 
2 tablespoons Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa powder (Special Dark Hershey’s cocoa powder)

For filling:
2 cups heavy cream 
6 tablespoons confectioners sugar, sifted 
4 tablespoons cocoa and 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
To Make cake layers: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease four 9-inch circular cake pans and line bottoms of circles with a piece of parchment paper. (I just "Cake Release" by Wilton, you can find this was Walmart, Michaels, etc.)
Melt chocolate with water in a small heavy saucepan over very low heat, stirring. Cool to lukewarm. Mix the 2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder.
In your stand mixer, beat yolks, 2/3 cup sugar, and salt until thick and pale for about 5 minutes. Stir in melted chocolate until combined. In a separate HUGE bowl, beat 12 egg whites until they hold stiff peaks (clean your beaters). I use hand held mixer with a very large stainless steel bowl for this-

Add remaining sugar and beat until whites just hold stiff peaks. Fold one third of whites into melted-chocolate mixture, then fold in remaining whites carefully.

Spread batter evenly over four baking pans. Bake until the cake has puffed and the top is dry to the touch, maybe 16 minutes. I rotated my cake pans once to ensure they cooked evenly. Once the cake is done, cool the cake pans on cooling racks for about 10 minutes. The layers will be very crusty at the top and they will also shrink a little.

If you wish, sift cocoa powder over top of cake layers. Then place a piece of waxed paper over the top of the cake pans. Place a cookie sheet over paper and invert cake onto it, gently peeling off wax paper lining.

In order to make the filling: In a clean large bowl, beat cream with powdered sugar and cocoa powder until it just holds stiff peaks.

Elmo Birthday Cake

2010-06-27T21:29:00.000-04:00

These cakes were made for my friend's baby boy's first birthday. The cake was chocolate flavored, the cupcakes were strawberry cake, and the smash cake was vanilla. I made a test cupcake earlier that week to determine the exact design of the cupcake, and here's a picture of Madalynne taste-testing the cupcake. She loved it and so did Cole!

Wedding Shower

2010-06-25T23:45:00.000-04:00

One of my friends was throwing a wedding shower for her future sister-in-law. She picked out a really cute pink invitation that had a cake on it and asked for me to make a similar cake. I had never made drapes out of royal icing, because it's so darn difficult to get everything symmetrical; however, I think I did a good job with this one. Although it's hard to tell in the picture, the cake is actually white with black and pink accents.

Chocolate Chocolate Anniversary

2010-06-25T23:35:00.000-04:00

One of our best couple friends was celebrating their one year anniversary and his birthday; they love chocolate so they requested that I make my signature Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate cake. It's chocolate cake with chocolate ganache, chocolate buttercream, and white and milk chocolate curls. This cake was by far my favorite presentation of this cake, it was absolutely gorgeous, I was so proud!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

2010-06-25T23:24:00.001-04:00

I made this cake for my manager's birthday. It was a yummy chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse filling and covered in Reese's peanut butter cups. Yum-o!

Seashell Cake

2010-06-25T23:15:00.000-04:00

This cake was made for my close friend, one of her friends was getting married on the beach and requested a cake representative of their upcoming special day. It turned out to be a really beautiful cake and the bride loved it.

Brittany and Brian's Wedding Shower

2010-06-25T23:05:00.000-04:00

This cake was also for a wedding shower at work, the shower was given entirely by the men that worked with Brian. The guys were so creative, they knew the couple loved hiking and outdoor activities, so they came up with the centerpiece idea of a large rock with Lego men hiking. It was actually really cool, I was so impressed. They also came up with the brilliant idea for the shower gift, the couple really wanted some money for their honeymoon, so instead of giving the typical cash in envelope they went to the bank and exchanged all the cash for one dollar coins. On each table the guys placed one coin per guest, they requested that each guest use the provided paper to jot down some words of wisdom for the soon to be married couple. After each guest prepared their words of wisdom they were asked to take their coin and their word of wisdom and place in the treasure chest, which would be given to the couple.

Meg and Spencer's Wedding Shower

2010-06-25T22:46:00.000-04:00

This cake was for some of my really good friends at work that were getting married soon. We had a wedding shower for the precious couple at work and I was honored to make their cake. The top layer was chocolate, the middle layer was strawberry and the bottom layer was vanilla. They loved the mix of different flavors and so did all of the guests. The cake was devoired, I was so excited that everyone loved it.

Key Lime Cake

2010-06-25T22:38:00.000-04:00

This cake has become a really yummy addition to our toolkit, typically I ice this cake in cream cheese icing, but I decided to try something new with this one. The icing is a mixture of cool whip, pudding mix, milk, lemon flavoring and a little powdered sugar, it turned it great and it was very light and fluffy.

Chocolate Chocolate Cake

2010-06-25T22:29:00.000-04:00

This cake was made entirely by my sweet husband, Mitchell. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling and then iced with chocolate buttercream; he even used the left over ganache to make the decorative border. Then he took white and milk chocolate bark, melted and swirled it together, then froze it to create one large piece of chocolate so he could make those cool tie-dye chocolate curls. Wasn't he so creative, I was extremely impressed and so were our friends who ate it!

Memories from Our Wedding

2010-05-26T21:35:00.001-04:00

How yummy does this look? I made this for my sweet, darling husband to celebrate our 5-year anniversary. My grandmother made our wedding cake, which was strawberry flavored and iced in pink icing with white scroll accents; it was gorgeous! My grandmother passed away soon after our wedding so it was very special for her to have made our wedding cake. Our cake was actually the last wedding cake she ever made. The anniversary cake tasted so much like our wedding cake, it was fantastic! This has been the most fun anniversary; we went to a 5 star restaurant in Atlanta called Bacchanalia. It was the most delicious food and best experience we've ever had, this was anniversary that I will never forget. Here is a picture of us at the restaurant and flowers that my husband arranged himself, I'm so proud. Later this year we will be taking our anniversary trip to Kauai and we are thrilled about the opportunity to visit such an amazing place.

Icebox Chocolate Cake

2010-05-26T21:13:00.001-04:00

So I had some extra batter from one of my recent cakes so I baked it and froze it. I had this awesome stand up freezer from the 70s, it was that retro pale yellow color and pressed wood skinny handle; I loved it! Anyway, the poor thing died last week and I was so bummed because all my stuff was starting to de-thaw. Thankfully Mitchell caught it soon and saved all my cake leftovers. This is the same color fondant as the Shabby Chic wedding cake, even though it doesn't look the same, I promise it is. I think my flash was messed up on those pictures of the Shabby Chic wedding cake, but anyway, look how pretty this one was. Everyone at work loved it!

Apple Cinnamon Madalynne Cakes

2010-02-28T20:11:00.001-05:00

Recently my baby has experienced some tummy troubles and like most two year olds, it's hard to get entice them to eat healthy. My mother in law bought me a new cookbook called, Deceptively Delicious, for Christmas. This master cookbook contains sacred recipes of where mommies and daddies can cook yummy foods while hiding healthy veggies inside. As much as I love this cookbook, I can't seem to find healthier dessert foods. Well my friend recently told me about Fiber One muffin mix, so I found the Apple Cinnamon mix and then added a few extra ingredients as well as cream cheese icing. I know the icing isn't healthy, but it was the only way I could get her anywhere near those muffins. She ended up loving the muffins and calls them "Madalynne Cakes".

Shabby Chic Wedding Cake

2010-02-26T22:26:00.000-05:00

I once again was blessed to make a cake for my friend and his precious wife! They were married two weeks ago in Savannah and this past weekend we celebrated their marriage with a beautiful outdoor reception. Typically, February still has pretty cold temperatures, but the day of the reception turned out to be the warmest day we have had all year. The warmth of the sun was rejuvenating and the skies were gorgeously blue with no cloud in sight. The reception was held in a white tent in a grassy field at his parents farm. After dinner the new Mr and Mrs cut their cake and they loved it. When the sun had set we walked outside the tent to have a bonfire. We all enjoyed talking around the fire and roasting marshmallows.

The cake was chocolate in the bottom and top layer and the middle layer was vanilla cake. The cake was filled with our light and fluffy almond buttercream and covered in our homemade marshmallow fondant. I modified both the icing and fondant recipes to make them less sweet so that the cake would contain the most dominate sweetness flavor. I have to say, it was by far, the best tasting cake, which I think was because of the slight adjustments in the recipes. Crazy how tiny adjustments can make recipes so much better.

Wonder Pets Cake

2010-02-10T21:51:00.000-05:00

This is a Wonder Pets cake that I made for my girlfriend's daughter turning 4. Wonder Pets is her favorite cartoon and the pink fondant made it very girly. The top layer is one chocolate cake layer between two vanilla cake layers, filled with chocolate buttercream icing... can you say yummy!

Fondant Rose

2010-02-06T14:14:00.008-05:00

The "fondant rose", oh how those two words make my stomach churn. For some reason, I have always failed miserably at making it, I think I'm probably the only cake decorator in the world who couldn't make one. Well, now I can say, I am officially part of the cake decorator community, because I can make a fondant rose, and a pretty good one too. I took the Wilton classes and they taught the Wilton fondant rose with the pink little rose cutter. I tried really hard to make that rose, but for some reason my petals kept breaking or the fondant was too sticky or I thinned the fondant too much. Needless to say, the cake I was instructed to decorate with fondant roses (the Final Cake on my blog) was not decorated with roses, but the royal icing lilies, which were so much easier. So the key to my success in the fondant rose was this website that I found today. It had such a simple tutorial for the rose and the best part, no cookie cutter or ball fondant tool needed (whatever that thing is called). It took about 20 minutes to make the rose, but I bet next time will be faster since I know what to do. For those of you like me, who struggle with this staple of cake decorating, here is a little tutorial so I hope this helps ease your fears. Now this rose is not nearly as beautiful as the ones we were blessed with from our Creator, but this will help you make a really gorgeous fondant one.

Step One: The Center

Knead food coloring into fondant to achieve the desired shade. Pinch off a small amount (diameter approximately the size of a quarter) and roll into a ball in the palm of the hands. Pinch the ball until it forms a teardrop shape. Set teardrop aside.

Step Two: Create Petals

Pinch off another similarly sized chunk of fondant and again roll into a ball between the palms. Place the ball on a lightly greased surface, and use fingers to pat the ball into a flat disk. Use fingers to flatten and thin the edge on one half of the disk. Don't worry about getting the edges thin the entire way around, only the top half needs to be thinned. Don't worry about making the edge of the petal paper thin and completely realistic. Fondant needs to be a little thicker than a real rose petal. It still looks very realistic and beautiful, but if a perfectly realistic rose is desired, make a gumpaste rose.

Step Three: Apply the First Petal

Wrap the first petal around the teardrop shaped center, pressing lightly at the base so the petal stays in place. Don't worry about attaching it perfectly at this point, just get it to stay in place reasonably well.

Step Four: The Next Petal

Make a second petal and add it to the rosebud. Place it opposite of the first petal. Only make and then add one petal at a time. If more than one petal is made at a time, the petals may dry out too much and crack before they can be applied.

Wedding Cake

2010-02-04T21:17:00.000-05:00

This was our first wedding cake and I was so honored to make it. This was for one of my close friends at work, they are getting married in Savannah this weekend at this gorgeous bed and breakfast overlooking a romantic park. They are such a precious couple who just adore each other, I am so happy for them.

It took trial and error to get the cake color to be the perfect shade of champagne, but I finally did it. I used 20 part ivory and 1/2 part black. I also had never attempted fondant draping until now, but it really wasn't too difficult. You cut your fondant in a rectangle, this was about 10 x 5 inches. I cut one edge diagonally, then I used 4 wooden skewers and laid the fondant on top to create the ripples. After it set for a few minutes then I lifted it and pinched the edges a little, then glued to the cake with water. I was so proud of this cake, it was so incredibly beautiful and the couple loved it.

It was such a blessing because this cake only took a total of 3 days, which was a record for us since we only get to work on cakes after I put my daughter down for bed.

Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

2010-01-27T22:44:00.000-05:00

This cake I made tonight for a friend at work who is getting married next week. I am so honored because I am actually making their wedding cake for their nuptials in Savannah and then two weeks later I'm making their reception cake. They are such a sweet couple and I am so honored to make their wedding and reception cakes.

This cake is the standard chocolate cake, but the filling is peanut butter mousse and then covered in chocolate buttercream. Around the bottom edge I cut Reese's in half and the top is covered in milk chocolate curls. I've been working on this cake for a while this evening and I was so exhausted from such a busy day and week. The very last thing I did was make the chocolate curls, which is a time consuming process. I was just praying that they would turn out good, because if the chocolate gets too cold it will crack and not curl. If the chocolate gets too hot, then it will just be a straight line of chocolate. Well God gave me a little surprise tonight because the chocolate curls I made turned out perfectly, not just most of them, but every single curl was picture perfect. The whole time I couldn't help but smile and thank Him because He is so good! He even cares about my puney, insignificant, little chocolate curls. This week has been emotionally draining and tonight He showed me that if He cares to make my chocolate curls perfect, how much more does He care about me! The Holy Spirit gave me peace and comfort tonight, He brought my memory back to His Word, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. How difficult is it sometimes to "lean not on my understanding" or my hopes and dreams. I want to be completely and utterly immersed in His will and I know ultimately His Will will be accomplished. But do you ever wonder if we may have missed out on any blessings in life because we tried so hard to hold the reins on our future?

Strawberry Cake

2010-01-27T22:11:00.002-05:00

My dad loves strawberries so for his birthday I made him a strawberry cake. For some reason this is the one flavor I have never attempted, but I found a recipe online at cakecentral.com and it turned out fabulous! I iced it with cream cheese icing and then made white chocolate curls to top it off. It turned out to be so beautiful I was so proud. It brought me so much joy to know that my dad loved his cake, especially since he doesn't have a sweet tooth like I do.

The Best Ever Strawberry Cake Recipe:

1 box (18.25 oz.) Duncan Hines Classic White Cake mix

1 box (3oz.) Strawberry gelatin

3/4 c. vegetable oil

1/2 c. water

4 eggs

1/2 pt. frozen whole strawberries, thawed

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Combine cake mix and gelatin together until mixed well. Add oil, water, and eggs and mix on low for low speed until moistened (about 30 seconds). Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. While mixture is beating, puree thawed strawberries in a blender (if you don’t have a blender just mash them really well). Combine strawberries and cake batter on low speed until strawberries are incorporated. Pour into greased/floured cake pans. Turn oven down to 325. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until done.

Cream Cheese Icing Recipe:

1 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all together using electric mixer, refrigerate to make icing stiffer.

Beach Wedding Shower Cake

2010-01-04T21:14:00.000-05:00

One of my friends at work is getting married in St. Thomas and today was his wedding shower at work. This was a very exciting and special occasion. This couple is not planning to have a wedding cake so I made this cake three layers and they could save the top layer for their one year anniversary.

This cake is entirely eatable including the seashells. This was a yellow cake with almond buttercream and homemade marshmallow fondant.

Christmas Cookies

2010-01-04T20:54:00.001-05:00

This year we started our new annual tradition of making Christmas cookies with my daughter, Madalynne. We had so much fun making cookies, I couldn't help but add pictures of us and the cookies! We made traditional shortbread cookies with white and milk chocolate icing with sprinkles.

Shortbread Cookie Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In a separate bowl whisk the flour with the salt.

2. In the bowl of your electric mixer cream the butter until smooth (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated. Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least an hour.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the middle of the oven.

4. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into rounds or whatever shapes you wish using lightly floured cookie cutter. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until cookies are lightly brown. Cool on rack.

Makes about 20 shortbread cookies.

Recipe from joyofbaking.com

Baby Shower Cake

2010-01-04T20:38:00.001-05:00

This cake was made for one of my dear friends at work, he was having a precious baby girl named Maya. He doesn't normally eat sweets, but the cake was almost entirely devoured, he loved it!

Thanksgiving Upside Down Apple Pie?

2010-01-04T20:30:00.000-05:00

I know, sounds crazy right? Apple pies are good enough like they are, but how can they be any better upside down?... Well this one is better upside down, you decide.

(Instructions: Place a serving plate over the top of the pie; invert pie onto serving plate. Remove pie plate and let cool completely.)

Yea Right, I can't wait for this delicious goodness to "cool completely". Thanks to Southern Living my Thanksgiving dessert was off the charts!

Makes 8 servings or 4 if you were at my house that day :)

Prep: 25 mins

Bake: 1 hr

Cool: 1 hr 10 mins (if you can wait that long)

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 (15 oz) package refrigerated piecrusts, divided

4 medium-size Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut

2 large Golden Delicious apples, peeled and cut

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 Tbsp all purpose flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven 375 degrees. Stir together first 3 ingredients and spread onto bottom of 9 inch pie plate. Fit 1 piecrust over pecan mixture in pie plate.

2. Stir together apples and next 3 ingredients. Spoon mixture into crust, packing tightly and mounding in center. Place remaining piecrust over filling; press both crusts together, fold edges under and crimp. Place pie onto an aluminum foil-lined pan. Cut 4-5 slits in the top of piecrust for steam to escape.

3. Bake at 375 on lower oven rack 1 hr to 1 hr and 5 minutes or until juices are think and bubbly and crust is golden brown.

4. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Place a serving plate over the top of the pie; invert pie onto serving plate. Remove pie plate and let cool completely (about an hour).

Pink and Brown Birthday

2009-11-21T22:42:00.001-05:00

This was a birthday cake for one of my best friend's birthday. She picked out a picture of a cake and then I attempted to duplicate it, but modified it a little. She absolutely loved the cake and I know it must have tasted fabulous. The cake was our moist yellow cake, filled with fluffy buttercream, and covered in marshmallow fondant. This turned out to be such a beautiful cake and I am so honored to have made this fantastic creation for my friend's birthday.

I used the Wilton colors (rose pink and brown) to color the fondant and gum paste. For the stars I used gum paste, which I was able to find at Walmart. I bought a set of star cutouts from Michaels and used the middle size star, which was the perfect size for this cake. So I just cut them, used some thin stainless steel wire (can be purchased from a hardware store), and then set them our for 24 hours to harden. The circle cookie cutter was also purchased in a set at Michaels; the pearls around the base of each tier were fondant that I just rolled into a little balls. The stripes on the top layer were measured at 1 inch for the light pink, 1/2 inch for the bright pink, and 1 cm for the brown. There was approximately 1 1/2 inches of space between the brown the pink stripes, which turned out to be the perfect amount of spacing for a 6 inch round cake.

Gymnastics Cake

2009-11-20T21:11:00.007-05:00

This cake was made for a friend at work for his friend's daughter. The cake was our yummy moist chocolate cake with our light fluffy buttercream. The cake was covered in our homemade marshmallow fondant and the stars and gymnast were made of gum paste.

I purchased gumpaste at Michaels and then used basic Wilton coloring (purple, golden yellow for her hair, and copper for the skin). I first started molding the legs because I wanted them to look exactly correct. I then let them dry for several days to harden, then I started molding the body separately. To support the body, I tapes three pieces of thin wire together. Before the body hardened, I slid it on the wire and let it stand up to harden properly using a floral block. The arms and head were also made separately; to make the hair, I rolled out yellow gum paste, cut it into thin strips, and then rolled them between my fingertips. To glue the head together I used a small paint brush and water. You can even mix equal parts water and meringue powder. After everything hardened it was easy to glue the body pieces together. To hide the seams I rolled small pieces of purple gum paste around the arms and neck.

Mickey Mouse Cake

2009-10-26T21:17:00.001-04:00

These cakes were made for my cousin's son who was turning one. He loves Mickey Mouse so we made him the Mickey Mouse character cake made out of yellow cake. The sheet cake and smash cake were made out of chocolate cake. He was so cute eating his smash cake, it was ALL over him by the time it was over.

Couples Wedding Shower

2009-10-26T21:08:00.006-04:00

This delicious cake was made for my friend at work, he requested this cake for couples wedding shower he was attending. The cake said "To a Wonderful Life Amanda and Stephen". Marriage is such a gift from God and should be treasured; we were so honored to make this cake for this precious young couple.

This was our yellow cake layered between two chocolate layers, included a filling of chocolate ganache, then iced in chocolate buttercream and covered in white and chocolate curls. Delightfully delicious!

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Cake

2009-10-11T20:21:00.010-04:00

This precious Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake was made for my daughter's 2nd birthday. This cake was layered in yellow and chocolate cake. The hand, slide, foot were sculpted out of rice krispie treats, then covered in buttercream and fondant. The trees were balls of rice krispie treats dipped in green chocolates and then we quickly took them to the freezer. The heat from the melted chocolate started warming the marshmallows in the krispie treats and they started falling apart. The freezer helped cool everything so that they would stay in one piece.

The rest of the accent pieces were made from fondant. The head of the clubhouse was our only inedible piece, not because of a lack of trying. We made 2 different heads in rice krispie treats but they kept cracking and falling apart, because a combination of the heat from our hands (from sculpting) and then the weight of the head itself. I think our struggle payed off because it turned out the be the best Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake I've ever seen.

Welcome to Motherhood

2009-07-18T11:56:00.001-04:00

This cake was made for a very dear friend and colleague. She was leaving to have her first child so we had a little celebration to wish her well in motherhood. This cake consisted of two layers of chocolate cake and one layer of vanilla, filled with rich creamy chocolate ganache. Iced with fluffy chocolate buttercream and garnished with milk and while chocolate curls.

Brother's Birthday

2009-07-18T11:47:00.004-04:00

My little brother turned 17 this year and we made him a little cake to enjoy. It was a chocolate and vanilla cake with cream cheese icing, topped with our yummy milk and white chocolate shavings.

Elegant Birthday cake

2009-05-21T20:50:00.005-04:00

This is our chocolate cake recipe layered in between two vanilla cake layers.

The mother of my colleague at work turned 60 and she wanted to surprise her mom with a special cake in her mom's favorite color. This was our second attempt at the fondant bow and it looks so much better than the last. This is definitely the most elegant birthday cake we've ever made, I hope she loves it.

30th Birthday

2009-05-21T20:37:00.007-04:00

My new favorite cake... In case you were wondering...yes, the golf figure it eatable. My mom and I had so much fun making this cake. I've never made a fondant figure, so it was very interesting making this little guy. Thankfully youtube had a great tutorial for me, however making the clothes for him was not as easy as it looks on Ace of Cakes. I actually had to make him twice because the first one I made kept falling apart; however it was nice to have an accidental trial run. It was super easy cutting out the cake shapes. I just printed out a big 3 and 0 on computer paper and then cut it out. It was so easy to cut the cake after we placed the cutouts on top of the cake. Then just covered in buttercream and fondant, then started to decorate. This was made for my boss at work; he and all of my colleagues loved it.

Baby Shower

2009-04-28T20:58:00.004-04:00

My new favorite cake; it was our first attempt on the fondant bow, I think it turned out good. I'll let you be the judge. And I do have to say, the cake was very tasty. We also tried something new... we layered in chocolate and vanilla cake in each tier.

Star Wars Birthday Cake and Light Saber Cupcakes

2009-02-20T17:02:00.006-05:00

This cake was one of the most fun, so far. This was made for a special 8th birthday for my friend's son. He loves star wars and wanted a storm trooper cake. My mom and I found a picture of the storm trooper mask and went off of it for the shape. Then we cut different size pieces for making the mask 2 dimensional. There is a fabulous tutorial on www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com. The cake turned out more amazing than I had hoped. This cake was made with our chocolate cake recipe with white chocolate mousse filling. The cake was covered and decorated in our homemade Marshmallow fondant. The white chocolate mousse is one of my favorites, so light and fluffy, but not weight watcher friendly :)

The cupcakes were made for his classmates. I'm sure the kids loved the eatable Light Sabers. Isn't it any little boys' dream to have an eatable Light Saber? They were made in our yummy chocolate cake recipe and the Light Sabers were crafted in fondant.

Retirement and Birthday cake

2009-02-20T16:55:00.005-05:00

One of my close friends at work was retiring so I made him our version of "death by chocolate cake". Another one of my co-workers had a birthday and she wanted the same, but with Peanutbutter M&Ms. *Yummy*

We enjoyed the cakes at work and they were amazing, to say the least.

Baby Girl Shower

2009-02-11T11:45:00.004-05:00

Our most recent sugary creation was for a baby shower in honor of Alyssia and her new baby girl Kensley. It was our yummy vanilla cake recipe with Buttercream icing.

1st Birthday

2009-02-11T11:37:00.007-05:00

My sweet little baby girl has turned one and we had a Baby Einstein themed party. She loves the caterpillar on the Baby Einstein DVDs so I decided we were going to make it into her birthday cake. We made each cake a different flavor; one was our chocolate Ccake, two were our delightful red velvet, then last was our signature vanilla cake recipe. This cake was devoured by my little princess while our guest enjoyed red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter mousse filling and topped with Reese's Cups. Needless to say all of these delights disappeared faster than Wii's on Black Friday.

Tami's birthday cake

2009-02-11T11:20:00.004-05:00

At my office we have started a birthday cake tradition. Anytime someone has a birthday they get to pick the cake flavor of their choice. This cake was for my co-worker, Tami. She loves our Fondant recipe and our Sugar Flower Daisies. We made a Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Buttercream filling. Tami had a massive sugar rush by the time it was all over.

Neutral Baby Shower

2009-02-11T10:46:00.005-05:00

Carol, my mother-in-law, was throwing a surprise baby shower for one of her friends. They did not know the gender of the baby so she requested a gender-neutral cake. My mom and I created this delectable treat for everyone to enjoy. The flavor of this cake was our moist yellow cake with Buttercream icing. The pastel colored daisies were completely eatable.

Baby Boy Shower

2009-02-11T10:35:00.002-05:00

This cake was made for Kaci, one of my best friends, who was throwing a baby shower. It was our Divine Chocolate Cake recipe with buttercream filling, and homemade Marshmallow fondant icing and bow. The tissue paper in the ribbon was used to help support the bow until the baby shower began. Kaci said that the cake was admired and then devoured by all the guests.

Final Cake

2009-02-11T09:31:00.003-05:00

This was our final cake and our instructor complimented us greatly on our sugary artwork. This cake was a scrumptious Sour Cream Pound Cake with buttercream filling and our homemade Marshmallow Fondant. Each of the lilies was handmade using Royal Icing. This cake could fulfill any bride’s dreams of the perfect Wedding Cake.

Class cake

2009-02-11T09:21:00.006-05:00

My mom and I decided to take a cake decorating class at Michael's. We were inspired by my grandmother, Joyce Smith to continue her legacy in cake baking. We started taking our class in June of 08 and finished up in August. This was one of our first cakes. We used our White Cake recipe and buttercream icing. The flowers and bird are completely eatable and made from Royal Icing.

50th Anniversary Cake

2009-02-10T20:09:00.003-05:00

Our first cake was for a sweet couple's 50th Anniversary party in Lavonia, GA. It was our delicious White Cake recipe created by the best baker ever, my Nanny, Joyce Smith.