Oreo Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red velvet cupcakes with oreos at the bottom. Dipped in chocolate ganache. Cream cheese frosting on top.

Silver dragees and edible glitter to top them off. Why? Why not!

What more can you ever want?

Engagement Cookies!

My friend (and suitemate!) got engaged over the summer! Naturally, I made cookies.
 

These decorated sugar cookies had to be mailed from Los Angeles to Boston, but they were definitely worth it.

The bride-to-be has the most gorgeous red hair, so of course the cookies with the stick figure proposal had to include that personalization.

 These cookies were all pretty big - about 3 inches across, and I cut them nice and thick, too.

 I love the disco dust (rainbowy-clear glitter) on the details. It made everything seem that much more special.

And, of course, the ring. The little diamonds (actually dragees coated in luster dust and disco dust) along the sides were part of the actual engagement ring, so I tried to stay true to that as much as I could.

 Lots of pretty hearts and details.

By the way, I started using meringue powder for my royal icing instead of egg whites, and it's wonderful! The icing dries super strong and I have much less of a problem with bleeding when I use deep colors.

 

Anyways, much love and congratulations to you both!

Yummy Mousse/Chocolate/Cheesecake/Raspberry Thing

I don't really have a name for this fabulous dessert, so I'll just explain what's in it, layer by later. 

At the bottom, I cut out a ring of flourless chocolate cake.
 

Above the chocolate cake layer is a tin but decadent layer of dark chocolate ganache. 

The pink layer is a tart raspberry mousse, made with raspberry and whipped cream. That was my favorite and I used the leftovers to fill a cake. So tasty and it helped lighten up this super-rich dessert quite a bit.

The chocolate layer in the middle is a mixture of mini chocolate chips and chocolate ganache. This added some nice texture with a crunch from the chips.

The light layer almost at the top is vanilla bean cheesecake. Deliciously perfect. 

It's all drenched in gooey chocolate ganache. 
 

And drizzled with homemade raspberry sauce. 

I was happy with how all the elements went together nicely. Even though this was a very rich dessert, most of us completely polished off out plates! Next I have to try this with a layer of ice cream...

Carrot Cupcakes

These super tender carrot cakes are choc full of nuts and freshly shredded carrot. 

They're flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, and get a molasses-like flavor from brown sugar.

They're covered in swirls of simple cream cheese frosting.

 Dusted with cinnamon sugar.

 And topped with a white chocolate carrot.

These were my first carrot cakes - simply delicious!

Vet Logo Cookies

These cookies were made for a new veterinary practice. They wanted a treat to bring to animals hospitals in the area to announce their presence, and I think the message came accross pretty clearly!

I was worried that the red, black, and white colors in the logo would bleed together, so I waited quite a bit of time between piping each layer. 

So that the cookies wouldn't get stale, I started by just piping all 125 cross logos in red onto wax paper. This was great because it let me fix my mistakes, but, most importantly, I had a printout of the logo under the clear wax paper, so I could trace the design. This helped me keep them consistent.

I waited a day before piping the black dogs onto the red crosses. 



 I baked the cookies, outlined them in red royal icing, and let the red dry a day. That same day, I painted the black dogs from the decals in silver luster dust to cover any imperfections and make them even more memorable.



 The next day, I flooded the centers of the cookies in white icing and while it was still wet, I carefully peeled off the decal I mad made and plopped it onto the wet icing, pressing gently.

Once they dried, my mom used an edible marker (basically food coloring in a marker with a felt tip) to write the name of the hospital on each cookie.  Finally, I boxed them up with layers of wax paper and tissue paper. Each dozen cookies got their own little box.

These cookies took days and an incredible amount of work! My kitchen was covered in cookies for days because they're HUGE and took up every available tray, tupperware, and surface. 

 But they're pretty cute, aren't they?

Jewelry Cookies

These cookies were so much fun! They were made for a jewelry company to send out to prospective clients, so they match the jewelry design. Thanks to Stephanie Fishbein for the beautiful pictures.

I made 25 of each of 6 designs. 

These quilted cookies are some of my favorites because they're simple to make (tutorial coming!) and look amazing. 

I used a new technique, brush embroidery, for these flower cookies. You use a small damp brush to pull the lines of frosting inward while the icing is still wet. 

The swirls in the middle of these were improvised, but I think they look so cute!

It'd hard to tell in the pictures, but the gold on all the cookies was brushed with luster dust to make them shimmer and give them a special touch. 

I learned that the purple cookies above are the "Om" symbol.

 The snakes were some of my favorites to pipe out because of all the zig zags

Each box of six cookies was beautifully wrapped with a big bow on top. Enjoy!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes for Strider

A few weeks ago, I made some very special cupcakes. After years with our dog, he was getting very sick and it was time for him to leave us. Because I show love through my baking, my sister and I made him these pink lemonade cupcakes as a special treat before we went to the vet. Read on - there are pictures of a dog eating a cupcake at the end of this post!

 

Pink lemonade cake mix fancied up with some sour cream, lemon pudding mix, and fresh lemon zest. 

 

Fluffy meringue frosting courtesy of Martha Stewart's 7-minute frosting recipe. 

 

Which, by the way, took much longer than 7 minutes to make.  

 

My sister and I took turns frosting the cupcakes.  I piled the frosting on high while she took a more creative approach.

In this smiley face cupcake you can see the lemon curd added to the centers to give them a nice punch.

They were very moist and tasty, super lemony, and just the right amount of fancy. We hit them with a blowtorch for the brown color and toasty flavor. For the record, blowtorch + paper cupcake liners make for a volatile situation...literally.

And of course, Strider loved them too.

After dinner we all got ready to feed him his cupcake. We took off the cupcake liner and put down the plate...

 

I rushed to my camera to take a shot. He gulped it down so quickly that this was the first picture I was able to get!

Mmm...human food!

Someone loves cupcakes!

Making sure to lick up every last drop of meringue. 

Thank you Dr. Shane for taking such good care of Strider. We love you as much as Strider loved his cupcake!