Pink & White Polkadot Cake

I met a wonderful lady through some unfortunate circumstances. I am so glad that we happened to run into each other. Her first granddaughter is almost here. She asked me to make a pink & white cake for her daughters baby shower. 

The cake is red velvet with cream cheese filling, covered in vanilla buttercream and decorated with vanilla fondant. The flower is silk.

Piggy Mud Bath

Bottoms up!

A friend of mine, who has moved to the west like me, had a good old Virginia BBQ birthday party for her dirty thirtieth. The invites had pigs, the tables had pigs and of course we ate some real BBQ pig sandwiches. The tables were covered in red checkered cloth with piggy banks and jars of Virginia peanuts. Good company, good food. The whole party was a blast!

The cake is traditional yellow cake with chocolate frosting ( a Ukrop's fav).

The pigs are made of sculpted pink vanilla fondant. The outer "fence" is Kit-Kat bars stuck on the frosting. The gingham ribbon keeps the "fence" from falling off the cake. 

Classy Black Tie Birthday Cake

This was a classy delicious marbled cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. 

They wanted traditional scroll piping on the sides. They had a red flower to put on the top to match their decorations.

Mint Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies

 I made these with my son for St. Patrick's Day. 

They would also be perfect for Christmas and Halloween!

Mint Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies

2 C sugar

1 C shortening

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla 

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

1 C sour cream

3 1/2 C flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 package Guittard milk chocolate chips

Cream sugar and shortening together. Add egg. Then sour cream. Mix in vanilla & peppermint. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Then add in chocolate chips. I use a 1 1/2" cookie scoop to place even amounts of dough on parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake @ 375* for about 7 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE! They will not look done when they are done. Take them out when they look dry. Golden around the edges means they are overdone. Let them cool completely. You will have chewy, moist, delicious cookies!

Mint Brownie Cookie Pizza

 Ingredients:

1 box brownie mix

3/4 C shortening

2 eggs

1 package mint chocolate chips 

1 package andes mint pieces (or just chop some bars up)

2 Tbls coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix brownie mix, shortening and eggs until it forms a soft dough. It will be very dry at first, keep mixing! Now, I baked mine on a pizza stone because I wanted a crispy crust. A regular cookie sheet will do just fine. Roll dough into one big ball. Cover stone/cookie sheet with parchment. Shape dough into a flat round circle on parchment about 1/2-2/3 of the size you want it to be. It will spread while baking. Bake for about 15 minutes, give or take due to size of cookie. You want the top to look dry and barely begin to crack, then it's done!

While your brownie pizza is baking, melt your mint chips with the coconut oil over double boiler until melted, then set aside. When pizza is done and mostly cooled spread your melted chips all over like pizza sauce. Sprinkle with Andes bits. Let cool until set. Slice & Serve! This is a very easy, fun, rich dessert for St. Patricks Day or even Christmas.