Merry Christmas!

All Natural Cake Color

My daughter turned one today. 

We celebrated this past weekend with family. In our home we try to avoid artificial flavors and colors as much as possible. Usually I make exceptions for holidays and birthdays, but this year I didn't want to subject my 1 year old to so much dye just for a birthday cake.

So I did a little experimenting. And adjusted my buttercream to allow for a more natural way of coloring. 

The Princess' dress is made with pureed strawberry added to the icing. Her brown castle has just a touch of cocoa. The green grass has mashed avocado added in. 

The same colors were used in the cookie for the door and princess. Her yellow hair is royal icing with lemon curd stirred in.

She enjoyed her cookie and cake and I felt much better about her, and her brothers, eating it!

Ross and Jessica's Wedding

The daughter of a friend got married last month and I had the pleasure of making cookies for her reception and cupcakes for her rehearsal dinner.

I made 4 different types- monogrammed hearts, wedding dresses, tuxedos and cakes.

Here is the finished product before packaging.

 

And all 150 tagged and bagged and ready to go. 

And finally the cupcake bouquets for the rehearsal.

Vanilla Mocha Rose Cake

It Runs in the Family

 I just have to share my kids' creations for the Junior Bakers competition at the county fair this year.

 These is my 6 yr old with his cookies. He also made the turkey cupcakes.

 My 8 yr old with his cookies. He made the monster cupcakes.

 And my 10  yr old with his leaves. His cupcakes were the marshmallow dahlias.

 Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

 Hot Chocolate Krispies

 Fall Trail Mix

 Mint Brownies

 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

And last but not least...Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies.

I am so proud of my boys and all their baked goods!

Click here to see how they placed!

Garden Inspiration

Peacock Parade

I've loved peacocks for as long as I can remember. Getting a pair is on my list of things I want when we move to more land.


So here is my cookie version of the peacock and feathers

I had trouble deciding on one design so I tried a bunch of different ones

I think this one is my favorite.

Zucchini Garlic Herb Bread

We picked our first zucchinis from the garden yesterday, so for dinner we made my favorite bread.



Zucchini Garlic Herb Bread

1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
2-3 T honey
2 1/4 tsp yeast
4-5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup (or 1 small/medium) zucchini- grated
3-4 T chopped herbs
2-4 cloves minced garlic (I use more than this since I like garlic)

Combine the milk, honey and butter and warm until the butter is almost melted. In your mixer bowl, combine salt, yeast and 1 cup flour. Add in the milk mixture and mix well.

Add 2 more cups of flour, zucchini, garlic and herbs. I use whatever I have on hand- sage, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, though this time it was just oregano and thyme.

Knead using the dough hook, adding additional flour as needed. Knead for 5-10 min. Allow the dough to rest covered for 15 minutes.


Grease a large pizza pan and using oiled hands press the dough on to the pan. Cover and allow to rest another 15 minutes. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, until slightly golden. You can brush with butter before or after baking if you wish. This also makes a great pizza dough.

Another Cupcake Bouquet Creation

This one was for a 6 yr old's birthday party


I absolutely love how the colors turned out!

Waterfall Birthday Cake

My youngest son turned 4 last week. We had a backyard BBQ party for him this weekend. His cake request?

A waterfall

I started with 3 layers and realized it would be way too small for the 30 people coming, so I upped it to 5 layers. A 12in, a 9 in and three 6 in rounds.

It was big hit and the birthday boy loved it!