Family Picture

I cannot emphasize enough about the importance of my family in my daily life, they are the real reason I do what I do, including getting up 4 times a night, sometimes to feed the baby ( I refuse to take her bottle away) or just to check if she is breathing ( she doesn't have any health issues, it is me that get panic). I don't get to spend a lot of time with my husband, he works a lot, but what ever time we have together we make the most out of it. For me it is not about the quantity, but the quality of our time. I love my dog Lucas, he is so crazy and it is a perfect fit for the baby, they love to play together and Camilla enjoys giving him all her snacks, it is like having to kids.My baby is the best thing that ever happen to me, I just can't imagine my life before her. My family is a constant source of joy and pleasure and a grounding force in my chaotic and very busy life. I also love all my friends and I miss the ones that are abroad, I try to talk to them as often as I can. I miss my family, my mom, brother and sister, all of them, but I know I carry them in my heart everyday.
I hope you all have a wonderful New Years, and best wishes, health,peace and lots of work for the year to came.

My Best Christmas Presents

My little girl with her new winter boots. Above is my precious Lucas, I just adore him.
Here is Camilla playing with this big bear at the photo place.

Beautiful holiday dress , a gift from my good friend Lauretta.

Green Birthday Cake

This is my work in progress.. I wanted to take more pictures but I was afraid the fondant was going to get hard, so I decided to play safe. This is the second cake that I make with fondant, the first one was a dummy cake that I made at my class with Collete Peters.

Light green fondant, the laze is made with gum paste ( I made it 2 days in advance, it is hard as a rock) and painted with blue shimmering luster dust.

Party Favors

Well here are my cookies, they look delicious and they are.. while I was decorating them I really needed a sugar rush, so I ate 3. Yummy!!! If you are wondering why the flowers are green and light blue is because the birthday girl asked for those colors, I don't like them a lot but it is not my celebration. I just follow orders ( yes, of course). I wanted to use green ribbon for the party favors but it was so cold out that I just use some left over Christmas silver ribbon.



These are cupcakes!! at least the idea.

Easy and Fast Christmas Cupcakes

Buttercream process...so easy!! Getting sprinkles and sugar ready

Decorating process, I spread the buttercream with a small spatula because my clock was ticking

Cupcakes are ready

Eat and enjoy !!!I can't believe Christmas is just a few days away. I won't be baking since my husband and I will be spending our Christmas day alone with our baby,which I think will be great since he has been working without a day off for the past 2 weeks.I decided to make some cupcakes for my him to bring to his work. I didn't have to much time, so I use a cake mix ( believe it or not, because I like to bake from scratch), basic vanilla buttercream icing, red sanding sugar and some Christmas sprinkles that I bought at Michael's. So here are just some quick pics.

'Tis the Season

I have to say that this week my oven has been quite busy. But now it is gift wrapping time.. I decided to wrap my friend's cookies in a really unique way. I found at Michael's ( I love the store and the 40 % off coupons) lovely containers and great little paper bags for my sweets,they were cheap, like $0.70 each and they are adorable. I also bought wax paper to put inside the boxes with the cookies. I had ribbon from last year Chritsmas, so I din't spend a lot of money.

Since most of my time is consumed by my baby, school and work,in the little spare time I have I love to enjoy the sweet experiments in my little kitchen. I hope you all like my pics ( well, nobody really see my blog, anyway)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Ready for the oven. So, this is my working area, pretty small but it is ok. I prepared the dough in the afternoon and left it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Got the cookies ready to bake and I already have tons of ideas.

Sweet Christmas Gifts

Well Christmas is around the corner and I have to start getting ready with some sweet gifts for some of my friends and coworkers. I think it is important to give the ones you love a little something, it doesn't have to be an expensive gift, specially now with the economy so bad we really have to think twice before we spend the money, at least in my case. So, this year I decided to bake delicious cookies wich is something that everyone enjoy. I found this great idea at http://www.marthastewart.com/ where I can make four different kinds of cookies using the same basic sugar-cookie dough, I just have to ad orange zest, use some bittersweet chocolate or ad nuts and I will have different cookies. I didn't choose the 4 options, it is a little hard to bake with a 16 month old baby hanging in your arm or pulling your leg to get some atention. I will be baking Orange Spritz, Hawaiian Snowballs and Sugar cookies, which I am going to decorate with royal icing and sugar sprinkles. And last but not least I will bake chocolate chip cookies. I already looked at my inspiration books and picked the designs, today I will leave all the ingredients out because everything needs to be at room temperature. Tomorrow I will start baking as soon as I get home from work, the dought needs to chill for 2 hours, so it is kind of a long process.

Colette Peter's cake decorating classes

Colette Peter is one of the top cake designers today.She has delivered cakes throughout America, Europe, and the Caribbean and has created cakes for many celebrities, including Sting, Natasha Richardson, Bette Midler, Whoopi Goldberg, ÊJann Wenner, Russell Simmons, Tommy Tune, Al Pacino, Ertha Kitte, Robert Altman, and the Rolling Stones, just to name a few. She created cakes for the weddings of Marie-Chantal Miller and Prince Pavlos of Greece and Alexandra Miller and Alexander Von Furstenburg. I took the opportunity to improve on my decorating skills and learn new techniques. I hope to be able to take her tips and advice to create my own signature cakes.

My first client

This cake was made for one of my coworker's daughters. She wanted a 3 tier cake with teal and brown colors. Cake was vanilla and buttercream icing. I also made 50 cupcakes chocolate and vanilla. She wanted each tier in a different shade of teal. Each cupcake had her initial.
This cake was really hard to make because it was my first time with a tier cake, I just guess how to do it because i haven't taken a class yet where I can learn the right way to asemble the cakes. Well , I am sure next time will be easier.
( Border won't look so big hidding my mistakes)

Lion Birthday Cake

Delicious Vanilla Cake made without eggs since my friend's son is allergic to them. Cake is frosted with vanilla buttercream icing using the star tip . My friend and her family where so happy.

Halloween cupcakes

Chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with buttercream icing.

Baking Sources

SOME COOKIE AND CAKE WEBSITES FOR INSPIRATION:

Bake at 350
The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle
The Decorated Cookie
Sweetopia
Sweetapolita
Confetti Cakes
Pink Cake Box
Sweet and Saucy Shop
Cakelava




I have used the following sites to buy supplies for baking and cake decorating. I have had wonderful costumer service and fast shipping with all of them.

COOKIE CUTTERS

The Cookie Cutter Company

Affordable Cookie Cutters

CUPCAKE TOPPERS, BAKING AND CAKE DECORATING SUPPLIES :   

Bake it Pretty: Unique and beautiful items for cakes and cupcakes.
Clear Bags: Big selection of clear packaging
Global Sugar Art: Fondant, gumpaste, cake supplies, gumpaste cutters, veiners, cake decorating tools,etc
King Arthur Flour: Specialty baking & decorating supplies
William’s Sonoma: Specialty baking supplies
Wilton: Cake pans, cake decorating and baking supplies
Michael's: Cake decorating supplies, cake boards, cake pans, etc

PACKAGING SUPPLIES :

ThinkGarnish: Specialty packaging for food
Big River Packaging : They have a large selection of cake and cupcake holders and boxes.
The Box Depot: Big selection of cake boxes

Cake Decorating

Words of Wisdom for the Cake decorators


Fondant vs Gum Paste

More Sweets

Phyllo Cups with Cinnamon and Condensed milk cream

Coconut Milk- Cream Cheese Flan

Heart of Darkness Brownies

MY COOKIES

BABY SHOWER

Baby Boy

Baby Girl

Purple Baby Boy Cookies
Green and White Baby Boy Cookies

Gender Neutral Baby Cookies

Pink and Brown baby Girl Cookies
Pink and White Baby Girl Cookies

VALENTINE'S DAY

Hearts and Sea horses
Bird Cage and Hearts

SPRING

Butterflies
Garden Critters

EASTER

Lambs and crosses

Easy Bunnies

Easter Cookie Favors

Carrots and Bunny Cookies

WINTER HOLIDAYS

Christmas

Easy Christmas Cookies
Snow Flake Cookies

Sleigh and little reindeer cookies

Winter Polar Bear Cookies



Reindeer Cookies               

 

Snowflake Cookies

HALLOWEEN

Cat and Ghost Cookie Pops

Using my Kopykake for the firs time

BAPTISM

White and Blue Crosses
White and Pink Crosses 

THANKSGIVING

Pumpkins and Autumn Leaves

COOKIE FAVORS FOR CHILDREN PARTIES

Elmo

Tiara and Ice Cream Cones
Hello Kitty Cookies
Space Ship Cookies
Hello Kitty Cookie Pops
Hot Pink Zebra Cookies
Oscar The Grouch and Big Bird Cookies
Hello Kitty Cookies with Purple Bow

Milk Bottle Cookies

WEDDING

White Dress Cookies
Beach Theme bridal shower cookies
Wedding Cake Cookies
Bridesmaid Dress Cookies
Engagement Ring Cookies


OTHERS

Cupcakes Cookies
Dress and Purse cookies
Tea Time Cookies
Ice Cream Cookies
Lemon and Mango Color Cookies

Tea cookies-Using Luster Dust and Fondant

Football cookies