My Precious Books and a Giveaway

My name is Kathia and I have an addiction to baking/cake decorating books. They are precious to me, I arrange them in sizes, sometimes by theme, somethings by color. When I do not have anything to do, I would moved them from one place to another.

Yes, I know, I am kind of weird, but I love my books.

And as much as I would like to have many more books, I also have a budget where diapers, wipes and milk have a priority.

I have to say that I have been lucky of getting most of these books as gifts or for reviews and I have splurge in 1 or 2 or 3!

In my collection I have a few of them that are not the best investment, I guess those where the ones that I got when I started my cake decorating phase. I still keep them because I feel that I will need them at some point.

It turns out that this Friday I am turning the big 38! I am having lots of emotions coming my way, I guess that comes with the territory in getting old. Any thoughts on that?

We, as a family, just made a life changing decision and at some point I will be sharing the news. But for now I am celebrating that I am 2 years away from turning 40, ahhhhh! with a giveaway.

The complete photo guide to cake decorating book came my way and I thought that was a very useful book.

Almost every cake decorating technique is in this book and the best part is that it has lots of pictures, which are always very helpful if you are a visual learner like me.

People always ask me where did I learn how to make certain figure with fondant, this book has the basics in modeling with chocolate and fondant. Very useful for any beginner or advance cake decorator.

GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED

So, what do you have to do to win this book:

Just leave a comment letting me know what's the best way to learn some cake decorating techniques without spending lots of money in classes.

For extra entries,post on Tweter and please leave a separate comment letting me know you did.

Winner will be announce on Monday June 4th at noon.

Good luck everyone!

AND THE WINNER IS

Melissa said...

Youtube has been awesome for me to learn how to do things without spending a lot of money. Many times I will watch a tutorial over and over. From sugar flowers to stacking cakes its amazing what is available.

Fresh Beat Band Cake

Another Fresh Beat band cake full of color and details.

This is the same design as this cake that I made before.

The only difference is that this time I am pretty proud of the guitar,it may not look like a real one but I was able to stand it up, I guess I let her dry a little longer than the other one I made.

How is your week so far? mine has been full of Pedyalite for the girls, if you know what I mean.

Spring Cookies Decorated with Fondant

Sugar cookies decorated with fondant are the best options when you need a last minute cookie gift. I know some people do not like fondant, but I can tell you that if you get the right brand or if you make your own marshmallow fondant you will not be disappointed.

My favorite brand of fondant is Satin Ice, is very easy to work with and taste really good. Another option is to use chocolate fondant, which is the one I used for the hummingbirds, it taste like a tootsie roll and has a deep chocolate smell.

Are you already making Spring treats? Around here, in Central Jersey, we were having a little bit of rain for the past few weeks, which I am not too fond of, picking up the girls from Daycare with high heels, work clothes, their bags and an umbrella does not make me happy at all.

Any way,I love Spring,even with the rain here and there. 

I made this cookies for The Cookie Cutter Company Design ideas page, visit them, there you can find new cutters with lots of fun designs.

To decorate sugar cookies with rolled fondant you will need the following cutters and supplies:

Birdhouse

Rose Flower

Tulip Flower

Caterpillar

Hummingbird

• Fondant, color of your choice. I used red, leaf green, chocolate, white and pink.
• Black food writer
• Small rolling pin and non stick board
• Shortening ( to prevent the fondant from sticking in your hands)
• Corn syrup and small brush ( to attach fondant to cookies) 
• Chocolate sprinkles (optional)
• Tooth pick
• Cornstarch
• Small knife 

How to decorate cookies with fondant:

• Sprinkle your working area with a little cornstarch
• Roll out your fondant very thin, about ¼ of an inch.
• Using the same cookie cutters that you used to cut your cookies, cut the fondant cookie shapes. Let them set for a few seconds, then use a small spatula to transfer them from the rolling mat to the cookie.
• To attach the fondant to the cookies; brush a thin coat of light corn syrup on the cookie.

Here are some pictorials for you to see how I decorated all the cookies.

To add some details to your cookies you have plenty of options, from embossing rolling pins, luster dust, stamps, disco dust to royal icing. For these cookies I only used a tooth pick to mark the leaves,stems and petals of the flowers.

The hummingbirds and the birdhouse turned out to be my favorite.

I applied a light coat of corn syrup to the roof of the birdhouse and also the“door”, I sprinkled chocolate sprinkles, let it set for a couple minutes and then you have it, a delicious sugar cookie with a hint of chocolate.

Pretty girl uh?

Do you have a favorite Spring cookie shape?

Small Elmo Cake

 This Elmo cake was made for a little girl turning 2 years old a few weeks ago. The first Elmo cake I have ever made was for my little Camilla, I like colorful cakes and Sesame Street primary colors are so cheerfull and appropriate for little ones.

I made the Elmo topper with rice crispy treats and then I piped the fur with red royal icing, the eyes, nose and mouth were made with fondant.

Last year I was at Michael's and I noticed a Cri Cut cartridge of Sesame Street on sale for $10.Knowing how expensive Cri Cut cartridges are I hurried and grabbed it. The cartridge was for the regular Cri Cut machine, not the one for cakes, I figure I was going to give it a try.

Well, I never got around it until I was asked to make the Sesame Street sign, oh boy I have to say that those $10 were worth every single penny.

I run a little test and not only I was able to make the street sign but also I can make all the other Sesame Street characters. I guess I don't have to tell you how excited I am. 

Now, not so cake related but I figure I will show you how I deliver my cakes

I buy the boxes at Walmart, prices start at $0.99. I know you can also buy them in bulk at Uline, they will be even cheaper, the problem is that I do not have space at my house or rental kitchen to keep them there.  Buying them a few at the time is my only option.

a.I start cutting the sides of the box with an exacto knife

b.I line the bottom of the box with a piece of  silicone shelf ribbed liner, they come in pre-measured rolls, you can get them really cheap at the Dollar Store. I have also found them really cheap at Walmart.

The sticky pliability of the silicone and the cake weight keeps the liner and your cake in place

c. I place the cake inside the box

d.I seal the sides and top of the box with tape.

and your cake is ready to go.

How do you transport your cakes?

If you want to see more Elmo cakes, click here, here ,here

Happy Mother's Day

Being a mom is the greatest role of my life and is also one of the most difficult ones. I find myself questioning many, many things I do as a mom. I have come to realize that all I can do is...do the best I can.
Because every sacrifice I make I do it for them.
 
This little one keeps me up all night and is the most incredible happy baby I ever seeing. No matter how sick she is, she has a smile in her face that can light up a room.

And this is mini me,a pro outlining and flooding cookies and making figures with fondant. Lover of chocolate chip cookies, gel colors and shifting flour.

I have found that this is one of the best ways to practice your Spanish writing. Write, eat cookie, write, eat cookie again.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Mother's day.

Mother's Day Wish List



Once again I like to make it easier for my husband on the gift buying department. You know, just in case he has nothing to do and decides to stop by the blog ( yea, right!)

I love Peggy Porschen cakes, they are colorfull, clean and totally adorable. I can't wait to get my hands on this book.

Boutique Baking by Peggy Porschen

I have seeing people using The Mat, it seems way to easy to use, I would like to know what's the fuss about.

The Mat

I need this alphabet cutters, as well as the DVS, I am just too cheap and refuse to pay for shipping.

Alphabet Cutter

Boxes and Bows DVDs

Frill Cutter set of 3

and then there is this bag!!!! I keep dreaming about it

If I win the lottery like tomorrow I would love this bag ( of, wait, I need to buy lottery tickets first).

I would take it everywhere, and I could fit my endless stack of things in my purse.

Kate Spade Bag

Alright, I will keep dreaming.
What do you like to get for Mother's day? any wish list,? I would love to know.



Birthday Cookies for Will

A special little boy is turning 6 years old this week. Little Will loves Power Rangers,Spider Man and the color blue.

Since I am not very talented in the Power Rangers department, I decided to make him something Spider Man related. No special cutters require!

I like these cookies because they are pretty easy to decorate and are the perfect alternative to character cookies, which sometimes are more time consuming. I do not have a Kopykake Projector and of course, I have no budget to get one any time soon, so this is my option to personalize birthday cookies.

To make this cookies, you will need the following cutters:

Gift Present 3.25" 

Party Hat 3.5"

Balloon 3.75"
Letter "I" 3"
Letter "L" 3"
Letter "W" 3"

Another option for birthday cookies is using cutters like candles, cupcakes, candy and cake. When you stop by The Cookie Cutter Company website, you can see that they have a section for “birthday” , there you can find plenty of cutters that would make birthday cookies or any other celebration unique.

You will also need the following supplies:

.Royal icing in white, red and blue (stiff for outlining and details and also flooding consistency to fill the cookies)
.Black and blue sanding sugar
.Tip #1 and #2
.Squeeze bottles
.Couplers and decorating bag
.Black food writer

Alien balloons....

This awesome balloon cookie cutter makes the perfect alien's head.

1-I used the black food writer to draw the eyes

2-Using tip #2 and stiff icing I fill the eye’s area.

3-While the icing was still wet; I sprinkled them with black sanding sugar.

4-Outline and flood cookies with blue icing and set them aside to dry.

 

Spider Man Inspired name cookies...

.Outline the letters with black icing and let them dry for a few minutes.

.Flood the cookies with red icing and let them dry overnight.

To make the spider web: Use tip #2 and black icing. Draw four lines coming out of the corner of the letter and draw some lines with a slight dip toward the center to connect them.

The spider body is just a big dot of icing and the legs are six little lines coming off the body

Party Hat pictorial...

Happy Birthday Will, I hope you like the cookies I made for you.

Have a great weekend everyone!

PS: This is a sponsored post by The Cookie Cutter Company, opinions are my own.