Who Loves Wedding Cake?

How many of you love wedding's? How about wedding cake? There is just something that is so delicious about a wedding cake. What makes it so good? Is it the whole day with all of the beauty, excitement, joy, romance, and love that is in the air? Possibly. Yes. I think it does play a big part in what makes the cake and all of the other delightful treats taste so much more yummy.
So, how would you like a recipe for such a cake? I have one you know and it is so wonderful that you can make it for a wedding cake, birthday cake or anytime cake when you just get a craving. It is pretty durable for stacking too. The best part....it's versatile, quick and easy. I used it for the two cakes that you see below. A BIG hit!

Chocolate Groom's Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting and Fondant UGA G.

Bride's cake with yellow layers and traditional butter cream frosting.

Enjoy playing around with the recipe. I think you will like it.

Easy Cake Layers

1 box cake mix white, chocolate, etc...

1 box instant pudding mix (I use the same flavor as the cake mix)

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup oil

Mix all ingredients together until blended. Mix 2 more minutes on medium speed.

Pour into 2 greased and floured 9" cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.

Use your favorite frosting and dig in. Don't forget the milk on the side!

Living it up Easter Style

I told you I'd be back! And boy do I have a lot to show you. I have been knee deep in Easter this week. Making candy, finding a dress, taking pictures and putting baskets together. This doesn't even include my regular domestic duties. :)

I decided, on very short notice to make a large Easter basket to raffle off at our Easter dinner at church Sunday. I wanted to do something to raise extra money for VBS this year and this just kinda' popped into my head. So I gathered all of my supplies and got to work making yummy candies and gourmet apples and stuff. I even included my Peanut Butter Balls from last weeks Cookie Club recipe. I also made peanut butter fudge with a white chocolate cream cheese fudge on top as well as Coconut Lemon Crunch Candy and Dark Chocolate bunny pops with coconut cream filling. (just like a mounds) YUMMMMMMMMY! Here are some pics for you to drool over. heeheee

I have also been searching for an Easter dress for ME. Finally I found one and it actually matches Chloe's dress. I am so happy we are doing the Mommy Daughter match this year. I don't have pics of mine yet but I did take some fabulous shots of Chloe' in her dress. Wanna see?

Here you go Bloggy friends....my beautiful girl!

I still have so much more to accomplish tonight and now I'm wondering why in the world I am on this darn computer again.
So as I begin baking a Hawaiian Sunset Cake for our family dinner tomorrow I will be thinking of each of you. Then I will iron ALL of our clothes for church in the morning, put Chloe' to bed,take a shower and then watch a movie with Mr. Cookie before crashing into bed.

Wish me luck and I promise to post my Hawaiian Sunset Cake pictures too.

Lots of Cookie Love and a Happy Easter to you all.

My Cake Creations

As I was talking with friends last night, I was encouraged to display some of my cake creations. They seem to like them very much so I went through my pictures today and pulled some of my favorites to share with you.

This is one of my favorite birthday cakes I did for a friend when he turned 30. The Hear No, See No, Speak No evil Monkeys were so fun to create with Fondant. The cake flavor was chocolate with peanut butter frosting.

I made this traditional birthday cake with a political flair. I call it my Political Clown Cake. The two guys that I made it for have the same birthday and worked together. Pretty neat I thought.

Last but not least, this was a wedding shower cake for a couple that worked with my Mother In Law. It was the second time I had ever used fondant. Everything turned out great and the shimmer dust I used really set off the bow. It was so much fun to work with.

So there you have it! A few of my favorite creations. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. I hope to add more soon as well as some delectable cookie treats that you will be able to purchase for the Holidays!

Rockin' Birthday Shrimp Boil

My husband, daughter and I traveled to my parents home over the weekend to celebrate my Dad's birthday. It was such a beautiful weekend to celebrate him and a great excuse for good food too.

My 12 year old niece Audrey wanted to plan the shindig so we were eager to see what she would come up with. She decided that we would have a shrimp boil with all the works, Karaoke for entertainment and of course a birthday cake made by her. Now being the entertainer and baker that I am I was so happy that Audrey wanted to do all of this. She seems to take it after her Aunt and that makes me smile. :)

The menu went like this; Shrimp, potatoes and corn, cabbage kielbasa, salad, garlic bread and all the sweet tea this southern gal could handle. I was able to grab a picture before it was all consumed.

I just have to share a picture of the cake too. Audrey was so proud of her accomplishment and I think she did such a fine job. She used the karaoke CD container for part of the decorations which was a great idea.

We all had a great time singing and goofing off with the karaoke music and even my Dad did a little singing of his own. Sorry, no pictures or recordings of that. :)

So here's to great family time, creative celebrations and life! Maybe this will inspire you to have a family celebration this weekend!

Fancy cake and flowers

This Summer has been full of weddings for me as well as our family. We had two back to back in July and they were both very beautiful.

My husbands niece was married on July 17th and she requested that I make her wedding cake and flowers for her. I wanted this to be so pretty for her so I set out weeks ahead designing her cake.

I have to admit that this is the biggest wedding cake I have ever made and was scared to death it was going to go all wrong. Nonetheless I put on my Cookie girl cape, rolled up my sleeves and licked my fingers through 30 pounds of cake frosting. It was so much fun and tasty too!

Each tier of the cake was a different flavor. I did a traditional wedding cake, a Hawaiian sunset with coconut and pineapple filling, and a Lemon cream cake with a lemon and strawberry filling.

Each moist and flavorful cake was such a big hit with the guests. My favorite has to be the traditional wedding cake. You just can't beat a classic.

The flowers were a mix of colorful blooms including pink and white roses. Yes they were absolutely fake but turned out to be very pretty. They complimented the fuchsia bridesmaid dresses perfectly.

All in all I was pleased with how things turned out and the Bride was so happy with it too. Especially the fact that the cake was black and white. She had wanted that so bad and I surprised her with it.

Her expression when she first saw the cake

is what made it for me.