Easter treats

Made this 3-layer strawberry cake with fresh strawberries & buttercream for a co-worker.

These were little mini cupcakes for my friends Nanci, Jon, Zac & Carrigan who just moved into a new house!

Over the course of about 3 days, I made about 10 dozen of these little guys. Lemon with regular buttercream and spring sprinkles! All for Easter orders.

Football Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a co-worker's son's birthday. Blue & orange are his football team's colors.

Pound Cake

I'd been dying to try a pound cake recipe that was showcased on the cover of a recent issue of Southern Living. 1/2 pound of butter and 1/2 a dozen eggs later - voila! It's quite rich, but really moist and delicious. The recipe called for Strawberry Glaze to be swirled within the batter, but I used my mom's homemade strawberry jam. Delicious! I know both of our offices will be very happy to see this coming tomorrow!

Pizza

This is all Chris - I had nothing to do with this work of art! He's taken to making homemade pizza dough with some fancy high-gluten Italian flour, brushes the crust with garlic/butter mixture & uses really good cheese. We really like a thin crust, so he's been perfecting it for a while. He's done it on the grill before, but this one was in the oven - made for dinner while Heidi (my pizza-loving best friend of 25 years) was visiting last week. Delicious! (And that's Chris's new pizza peel that just arrived - he loves it!)

Homemade Bread/Rolls

Tried a quick bread recipe for beer bread. I was a bit concerned about how wet it was when it went into the oven, but it turned out great and was really good. Although, by day 2 - it smelled very much like beer! :)

Homemade wheat rolls - using my mom's recipe.

Miss Olivia post-party pictures!

What a beautiful child - and so stylish too! :) Here's the birthday girl enjoying one of her lollipop cookies. Olivia's mom, Monika - arranged the lollipop cookies in a cute bucket and then gave them out to the kiddos as favors - super cute!

Treats for Miss O

Miss Olivia turned 2 last Friday and her mom - Monika - ordered up some red/white/black lollipop cookies, cupcakes and a small cake for her birthday festivities. It was a ladybug theme - hence the red/white/black theme. :)

Small candy ladybugs.

Actual party pictures to follow in a few days!

Morgan turns 2 - update!

Morgan's mommy - Laurel, sent me these pictures from her birthday soiree. Fabulous!

And my new favorite picture - this is awesome. Love. It.

Banana Bread

I had today off and felt like baking (shocking, I know). Hadn't made banana bread for quite a while, so I defrosted some frozen bananas and went to town. This is my mom's recipe - haven't found anything as good! I love to undercook it just a little bit, for a "squishy" top - that's my favorite part! (And yes - that's my venerable Empire Red KitchenAid mixer in the background!)

Morgan turns 2!

I had a big job last week for sweet little Morgan (daughter of my co-worker, Laurel) who was turning 2. 4 dozen frosted X and O cookies, 4 dozen cupcakes and a smash cake!

This was my biggest job so far - 6 boxes!

Super Bowl

Had a few friends over for the big game. Debuted my first-ever football cake which turned out to be surprisingly easy to bake and decorate. Not to say that I wouldn't do things a bit differently next time, I think it turned out great for a first try with a pan like this. And, very moist - considering how thick it was!

The aftermath...

Wings and burgers and hot dogs...oh my. This was all Chris's territory.

Lots of grub, including the Utz cheeseballs (which we usually can only find in eastern PA on summer vacation.)

It's been a football week...

Off course I had to 100% "bring it" for the Super Bowl, as the Steelers were playing. My first foray into the shaped-pan world. It went pretty good - I would certainly by one of those special 3-star tips so the piping would go much faster! (It's a yellow cake underneath...) Another post later with food and party pictures!

I made these cupcakes for a co-worker's son - it was his 7th birthday and he wanted Vanderbilt football colors: gold liners, chocolate cupcakes with white icing and football candies. The one with sprinkles was a test (that didn't go so well) so the rest didn't get sprinkles!

Turquoise frosting, please!

I had a co-worker order cupcakes for her sister's wedding shower - with turquoise frosting! I've not ever made that color before - but it turned out nearly perfect to the color she wanted! I'll post pictures of the shower later...

New Year's Eve

Chris & I stay in on New Year's Eve and cook something fancy - or at least attempt something we normally wouldn't make during the week. This year was a pesto pork with veggies, risotto & homemade bread.

The pile of pesto pork & veggies before it went into the oven!

The finished product - the veggies (potatoes, carrots, brussel sprouts & parsnips - yes mom, I ate parsnips!) were wonderful with all those drippings flavoring them up.

I made creme brulee for dessert. It unfortunately was not 100% set in the middle. I've made it perfectly several times before, so I'm not sure what happened. But at least it looks pretty!

Christmas Cookies

Every year at Christmas, I make cookie plates for our closest friends. I pack them full of about 5 different kinds of cookies (heavy on each family's favorites!) and also some of my famous chocolate chocolate chip mini cakes - regular and peppermint! This year's cookie plates also included the previously blogged about Peppermint Pinwheel Lollipop Cookies.

This year, I made 32 dozen cookies and about 4 dozen mini chocolate cakes. The leftovers went home with us to Pittsburgh for the Fleming family to munch on.

Lemon Coconut Cake

The Flemings love that I experiment when I'm with them (or at least that's what they say!!!). I made this towering 3-layer Lemon Coconut Cake with fresh lemon curd (which Chris helped make!) for Christmas dinner in Pittsburgh. The general consensus was...it was pretty good. :)

Gingerbread Men

I made some "blank" gingerbread men for my co-worker Marie. She took them home over the holidays and the kids in the family decorated them. They turned out so good!

And the artists!

Peppermint Pinwheel Lollipop Cookies

These yummy, fun cookies made the Christmas cookie rotation this year after a brief hiatus. And I have to say it was all because of a little boy named Matthew who kept asking his mom, "When is Aunt Melinda going to make those lollipop cookies again?"

And here's Matthew (on the right) and his twin brother Jack, enjoying their cookies yesterday. Love you boys!

Happy National Cupcake Day!

Not to be confused with National Chocolate Cupcake Day or National Vanilla Cupcake Day. :) I wish it didn't fall the week before Christmas, because I am too busy with cookie baking to devote extra time to cupcakes, just for National Cupcake Day! I wish I could, but even this crazy amateur baker has limits!

I mixed up my final cookie dough tonight. I have a triple batch of sugar cookie dough in the fridge for use on Friday night and made a double batch of Peppermint Pinwheel Lollipop cookie dough tonight - which I'll make on Saturday because they are so labor intensive. Once those are done, the cookie plates for friends will be assembled and delivered.

Oh - and I guess I have to bake one last time before we leave for Pittsburgh - a couple of co-workers need mini cupcakes for the holidays! I'll be baking in Pittsburgh too...making a gorgeous (hopefully!) Lemon-Coconut Cake for the Fleming family for Christmas dessert!

Cookie plate pictures to be posted soon!

Candy Cane Cookies!

I may bake a gazillion cookies for the holidays, but the one I don't make - just came via mail from my mom. These are my all time favorite: Candy Cane Cookies. Sounds kind of boring, but wait...they have almond extract in them. Pure. Pieces. Of. Heaven. I love them. Thanks mommy!!!

(And I do believe it is the first sighting of a WHOLE candy cane that made it via mail - ever. They are very fragile and always break, so this is noteworthy!) :)

Wyatt's 3rd birthday

Here is my mischievous little friend Wyatt, who ordered the chocolate cupcakes with blue frosting and sprinkles.

Sweetest Thing Cupcakes (Newberg, OR)

My best friend Heidi, took me to the Sweetest Thing Cupcakes in Newberg, OR while I was in town over Thanksgiving. I neglected to take a picture of my cupcake - which was chocolate pretzel with a peanut butter center. Oh my.

This was the cinnamon cupcake I brought home for Chris, it was also delicious.