Happy Early Spring

My sister-in-law had a Signature Homestyles party and I said I would bring cupcakes to bring a little spring cheer to everyone's day. These are what I made. They are a decadent triple chocolate cake with a rich but not too sweet peanut butter frosting. They were definitely a hit at the party as favors that were taken home and all 24 were gone by the time I left and people were even saying they were too pretty to eat- I'm definitely way past that in my cake decorating. Some new cake decorators say its hard for them to eat their creations- I'm ok with it because I know how amazing they taste! I hope you enjoy and come away feeling like spring is on its way!

Two lilies- each a little different but both made out of royal icing.

My collection of pink flowers

So far, these are all of the flowers that I know how to make. I'll be learning more as I finish up the second class and start the third next week, but I think they look beautiful!

I love seeing all of these lilies together- they look beautiful individually or all together!

Another trio of flowers.

This is another flower that I love to make because it starts out as some of the others, but with a small touch of the fingers it turns into this beautiful flower.

All of the flowers together!

Another look at the lilies- a wonderfully simple flower that I love to make and just seems to scream "SPRING"...now only if we can stop with the cold temperatures and snow and start to work on more of the warmer temperatures!

I hope you've enjoyed a look at my Spring Collection of flower-y cupcakes. This was my way of bringing some warm temperatures into my life while we wait for spring to arrive this year. I'm definitely done with the winter temperatures and can't wait to get outside for a good jog while watching the flowers bloom and the birds flutter after the winter break. We'll get there, but it's never fast enough for me so I guess I'll be making plenty of flowers until then!

The Latest and Greatest coming from my kitchen

The past few weeks have been pretty busy in terms of my baking "career"...I've been working on my skills and have done quite a few things that I've been pretty proud of. I'm always on the look out for more orders and there always seems to be one coming in so keep a look out for my next upcoming projects!

A cake I made in my first week of my second cake class. I love the flowers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Closer view of the flowers on the cake.

Cocoa covered chocolate and peanut butter truffles I made for our church's valentines dinner.

Chocolate Ganache covered chocolate and peanut butter truffles- sounds decadent right? These were for the valentines dinner as well at our church.

Chocolate heart cakes with a white whipped buttercream frosting, a red border and rose on top- also a part of our church's valentines dinner.

White heart cakes with a white whipped buttercream frosting, a white border and a red rose. These were the other type of cake offered at our church's valentines dinner.

Chocolate and white cupcakes with homemade  red roses on top- an alternate to the heart cakes at our church's valentines dinner.

A simple, but unique chocolate cake with buttercream icing that I made for my father-in-law's birthday...of course I included my sister in law's fiance's birthday as well. This was our "Valentines Day" celebration...spending it with our loved ones!

Valentines cupcakes made for a friend's daughter's valentines party at her school. The top is a marshmallow, cut into a small heart, decorated in icing and then dipped in sugar. Nothin' like a sugar rush right?

More of the Valentines cupcakes. I loved making the cute little heart outlines on the marshmallows on top. The pink icing on the cupcakes is dipped into sprinkles for a smooth finish and of course a festive touch!

Pretty Valentines Day Display

I love decorating cupcakes for special occasions and showing them off is even more fun- but the true enjoyment comes from eating them and seeing people's faces when they take their first bite!

Simple swirled cupcakes I made for our church's Wednesday Night Dinner last week. They always get such enjoyment from my cupcake and cake creations so I make sure to do it pretty much every week in exchange for dinner that I don't have to make!

My most recent cake based on a video game. My husband helped with some of the design features since he knows the video game more than I do!

The side of the video game cake.

Happy 9th Birthday Daniel! I know his dad was pretty excited for the cake and I was proud of my skills that I used, despite that fact that I haven't learned how to do half of these cake skills yet. I am always learning though!

I'm definitely looking forward to the next upcoming cake orders and hope to gain in my skills every day! I hope you enjoy these pictures of my creations and would love your feedback!

Cake Decorating Course #1- Graduated!

Well, the first course is done and now I'm getting ready to work on a few cakes that are to be completed over the next few weeks. I will be starting the next one in about a week and a half so I'm definitely excited- but until then, here's my final cake!

I sent this into Ryan's work, where they are always looking forward to Friday!

A close up look at the roses.

An even closer look at the roses with the leaves....amazingly beautiful! I love making these roses!

The side of the cake with a vine and leaves. I did put a vine on the top of the cake as well to connect all of the flowers, but you may not be able to see it in the pictures above. 

I hope you enjoy- I've been loving every minute of the classes and all the practice I have been getting so you will be sure to see more. Here's a quick picture of some quick cupcakes I made for a family gathering. Simple, but beautiful! I love the bright yellow pop of the colorful flowers on top of the white icing.

Have a wonderful day! See you soon, I hope and make sure to let me know what you think so far!

First Cake Completed!

I've finally done it! I've completed my first cake order and if I can toot my own horn, I think it looks pretty amazing! We'll see what Scott thinks of it tomorrow at his wife's surprise birthday party! Here's an idea of what he'll be seeing!

Getting ready to decorate....

A tree, ready for the cake

Ryan's is on the left and mine is on the right....obviously I haven't learned how to use fondant or make people yet. Maybe he will be my teacher!

Yes, this is a tree in a mug!

The cake layers- white with white frosting, ready for its crumb coat.

Cake with crumb coat

Final product

The side of the final cake.

The final product...again.

The sign to signify where all of the canoe tipping adventures happened to the birthday girl

Final product- Karen is in the water after her canoe tipped over and everything spilled out. This was for a surprise birthday party!

I hope you enjoyed my first adventure in cake decorating! I'll be starting my next class soon so look for my pictures from that soon!

New name, New trade

Ok, so I'm definitely a woman....I can change my mind right? I have been looking at the title at the top of my page for my blog and didn't really ever like it, but that is one area where I never felt creative enough. So....I'm unveiling a new name today- I've decided to focus more on my baking since I seem to be making that into my life and career right now so Katie's Tasty Treats is my new adventure.

Here's a dinner that I've made recently and of course I'll be sharing the pictures from the upcoming cakes that I'll be making over the next few weeks. I'm also making all of the desserts for two church dinners in February so I'll be a very busy girl. Hopefully by the end of March, I'll even have the option to become a Wilton instructor since I will have taken all of the cake classes by then and will be qualified. I'll still put up some dinners every now and then, but want to focus more on the cakes and baking because I feel like that is where I'm being led to go with my career right now.

I started out dinner by wanting to make a chicken and broccoli alfredo type thing, but that didn't turn out when I found I had no chicken in the freezer and didn't end up having the fettucine noodles I needed so instead I used soy crumbles for the meat, steamed broccoli with noodles and then mixed in some milk, a can of practically fat free cream of chicken soup and some reduced fat cheese. Needless to say, it was an amazing dinner even though it was on the fly. I loved it and Ryan seemed to enjoy it as well!

 

 

Well, it's time for me to move on for the night, but keep looking for more pictures- especially over the next few days and next week as I have 2-3 cakes due by Tuesday. Blessings to all!

Cake Decorating Class 2 and 3...Getting ready for my final!

The last 2 weeks have been a crazy one and here's a little of what I've been working on. I've been taking a cake decorating class and its been keeping me quite busy spending 2-3 hours to get ready for it each week- baking, making icing, cleaning the tips and bags after each use, practicing what I've done and making sure that Ryan's work eats all of the treats in time for the next week- they're keeping up so far!

Week 2 involved cutting a cake in half horizontally and then filling it with icing, covering the whole thing with icing and then transferring a design onto it so I could decorate it for a birthday at Ryan's work. Here's a little of what it looked like afterwards as well as the cupcakes that I made most recently for the third week of class. This week, we'll be learning how to make roses (which will come in handy around Valentines Day) and then decorating our final cake in time for the second class which starts the following week.

Before- This is what it looks like before I take it home and continue working on it. I did this much in class and then decided that I can do better than this!

After- This is what it looked like after I worked on it for about 20 minutes after I got home. 

What the side of the cake looks like after I worked on it at home. This encompasses most of what I learned in the second class.

My first cake EVER! I actually love this cake!

Some of the cupcakes I made in Week 3 with my flowers I learned!

A close up of the shaggy mums flowers- one of my favorites. I think they are soo beautiful and fluffy looking even though they are only made of icing!

Some of the pansies and rosettes that I learned in week 3. I think the pansies look so pretty and dainty, and of course they taste amazing!

A menagerie of what I did when I got home from my third class. I had 18 more to decorate after class so I was busy for quite some time and had tons of fun doing it!

I love these designs because they are so simple- circles, lines, etc but I love them so much! I love the bright blues and yellows as well...makes them POP!

A mixture of flowers that I've learned over the past few weeks- I am practicing for my final cake which will happen this week! I'm so excited to showcase all I've learned in 3 weeks and to move onto the next course!

I think I'll know how to make these from now on- I made 2 trays of these. I love making the leaves because they have such a wonderful look to them and give the flowers that feel to make them look real...I love doing this type of stuff!

This is something I learned in the first or second week and wanted to review before I wanted to do them on the final cake. I think these type of borders make cakes look so sophisticated and feel that it adds that little extra PUNCH to a cake to make them look professional. I truly feel like I'm a pro now and this is only the first course!