Archive for the ‘personal ramblings’ Category

Wow! It was a really long, but wonderful week. I’ve been part of a fabulous group of ladies, known as the Book Club Bettys for about seven years now (Sandy - I know you’ll tell me if I’m off… I just know it started pre-children. The rest is a little fuzzy!) and I hosted the gathering this month.

You can see a few of my wonderful friends, and oh yeah me, here (left to right: Amy, Sandy, me, me again, Jackie, me again, Amy again, and Raquel). There were several more in attendance, but a little camera shy.  

So as you can tell, the theme of the evening was black and yellow (and no, amazingly enough I didn’t ask everyone to wear black; it just worked out that way). And just for the event we developed a few more printable collection items to add to our so very popular Buzz collection: beverage markers (also great as straw slips), cello bag toppers and placecards. All three additions will be in the shoppe later this week.

There are two designs in the cello bag template: “Thank You” and our bumble bee. Perfect for shower or birthday party favors.

Do you love the tissue paper pom poms? I of course couldn’t find black and yellow so I made these from the Martha Stewart tutorial. It was amazingly easy and they only cost me $2 for the set. Can’t beat that! And by the way, they are hung from clear fishing line, invisible and very strong.

In the flurry I didn’t get the greatest shot of the entire table, so I thought you could appreciate a few close ups of the yummies. The yellow Peeps were perfect for my Spring theme. And for a little extra color I trimmed a piece of black and white polka dot scrapbook paper to the size of my cake plate inset. I also embellished my glass candy dishes with black and white polka dot ribbon and used Lemonhead candies as my fillers. The marshmallows and pretzel rods were dipped in yellow chocolate (you can find every color at your local craft store in the baking section) and then of course came the sprinkles. And as for the chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing in the background, the black and white filigree wrapper is part of the Buzz collection.

And here are some more shots of my girlfriends (from left to right: Lauren, me yet again… I’m usually behind the camera but I think I must have jumped in front of it that night, Sandy, Raquel and Amy; Christine, Kandace, Julie, Karen, Kristen - next year I expect to be able to share you too!)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

My youngest is turning three and he wanted a wild west cowboy bash. So as you can imagine, I gave him one. {wink} Those who read me often know that he has severe food allergies so I needed to make a cake and treats that were dairy and nut free. (He was released from the egg allergy thank goodness; cake is not cake without eggs!)

Candidly I was really unsure what I was going to do until a few days before the party. I decided on a chocolate and vanilla cupcake tier with a 4×4″ cake (for my little guy) on top. Not only does the tier give the table height, but it also made a clear separation between his cake and the guest cakes… especially since I tried my hand at chocolate transfer. {loved it!}

So for his cake, I could use dairy-free chocolate transfer (trust me you can’t tell the difference in taste), but I’ve only been able to find it in regular chocolate, no white chocolate or other colors, and I didn’t think that was very interesting so I opted for a rice crispy  (which he loves) sherrif badge. No worries, I made more as favors for his little buddies.

However, I did use chocolate transfer for my guest cupcakes. This was actually my first attempt and I was amazed at how easy it is. Here are a few tips:

1. Print out your design. If small enough put multiple designs on a single sheet.
2. Tape your template to a cutting board (so that you can turn the image if you need to).
3. Cover the image with wax paper.
4. Use melting chocolate (available at all craft and baking supply stores). I used Wilton red, yellow and dark chocolate.
5. Use a freezer weight resealable bag, heating your chocolate in 8-10 second intervals and massaging it with your hands between heating. (Make sure and insert your connector before melting your chocolate.)
6. Pipe your design backwards, meaning pipe the design you want to show on top first and then layer the rest of the design on top of it. Here’s a pictorial from the Love-Sweet-Love blog.
7. Allow the chocolate to cool, peel it off, flip it over and apply. Tah-dah!

As for the cake plate decoration, this part was a lot of fun because I got to use my glue gun! You guys know I love it! {giggle} Anyway, I embellished Martha Stewart’s square tier cake plates (8″, 10″ and 12″) with a 2″ bandana ribbon and twine. I applied the glue to the ribbon and then applied the ribbon to the cake plate. Doing it this way allows it to cool slightly before applying to the plate. As for the twine, I put it on second leaving a two inch overhang at one corner. Once the glue set, it is almost instant, I separated the twine ends and frayed them slightly.

I’ll post more ideas, including how to make the sheriff rice crispy treat, from our bash later this week. So stay tuned and happy baking!