The Evolution of a Dragon

My nephew is turning 9 tomorrow (Happy Birthday Luke!) and I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and his answer was a dragon cake. Gulp! I haven't made very many sculpted cakes and I was very nervous. After searching the web looking at pictures of dragon cakes I came across a good tutorial. http://sdbytracy.com/dragoncake.htm

Dragon shaped and covered with chocolate icing.

Covered in fondant "scales".

Dragon cake after airbrushing.

The finished dragon cake. I love him!

Even more cookies!

More random cookie designs....

More Cookies

Playing around with more cookie ideas.

Fabric inspired cookies

Had leftover sugar cookie dough so I was just playing around with some designs.

Film Festival Cookies

My son is in Film this year in High School and they had their 5th annual Reel Owl Film Festival. They had a reception afterwards and so they wanted the kids to bring snacks. I wanted to take something cute so I made film related cookies. I think they turned out pretty cute.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful women in my life who are mothers! I love you all.

Red Velvet Cake

15 1/2 ounces all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1 1/4 teaspoons coco powder

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

13 ounces sugar

1 1/4 buttermilk

3 eggs

2 tablespoons red food coloring

1 1/4 teaspoons white vinegar

1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla

1/8 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder into a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a mixer-mix oil, sugar and buttermilk until combined. Add eggs, food coloring, vinegar, vanilla and water and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a little at a time on low, scraping the sides occasionally until combined.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted int the middle comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting (this recipe makes A LOT)

1 1/2 pounds cream cheese-room temp

1 pound butter-room temp

2 pounds powdered sugar-sifted

1 tablespoon vanilla

Whip the butter and cream cheese together in a mixer until creamed. Gradually add powdered sugar to the mixture and scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.

Sunrise Smoothie

I have been making this smoothie for breakfast for some time now and it's a good way to start the day.

1 6oz container of yogurt (I think Yoplait's White Chocolate Strawberry is the best)

4-5 frozen strawberries (you can use fresh too but you need to add more ice)

1 ripe banana

2 tablespoons or so of milk

ice (depends on how thick you want it-thicker add more ice)

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake

This cake was so nummy num and super easy to boot! Just take a chocolate cake mix and add 1 can of premium cherry pie filling. (The premium has more fruit) Bake the cake as usual and then make buttercream icing and for the filling I added a little bit of the pie filling. Ice the outside of the cake and then pour ganache over the top and then you've got a chocolate covered cherry cake.