CookieD-oh

We recently moved into an old farmhouse and we thought it would be fun to go retro with the kitchen decor. We inherited a 1940's kitchen cabinet from Mr. D-oh's Grandma May when she passed a few years back. We love it and it reminds us of Grandma, so why not decorate the kitchen around it? Craig’s List has been good to us thus far. I found an old chrome and Formica table and chairs (in yellow and green Moonglo) as well as a remarkable old stove. I’m still hunting for a refrigerator, but I’m in no hurry. Anyhoo, I made a chocolate cake for a family get-together. Mint chocolate frosting with roses. Added some blue because I read somewhere a long time ago that you should use at least three colors when decorating. So red, blue, and green for this one. I don’t know if that’s really a thing, but it stuck with me. And here’s a bit of the kitchen with the amazing stove. It’s purported to be a 1948 Western Holly. Works like a champ and kind of looks like we have a laund...

Welcome back to the blog! I know it's been a while, but that just seems to be how it is these days. :-) I'm going to be teaching a baking class at my church in October, and I needed to decide early what I want to bake. We wanted something Christmas-y, since October is now (according to most American retailers) the beginning of the holiday season. After much vacillating, waffling, hemming and hawing, I decided on a chocolate cake with peppermint frosting. Because cake. I tried really hard to take better pictures this time. I'm pretty sure I failed, but the effort was there, I promise! I even went on the internet to see how other bloggers staged their cakes for photos. I went down to my basement and found a white plate! THAT is dedication right there. This is the same chocolate cake I always make because, really, it's the best. Start out by gathering your stuff. Here's some of the stuff you'll need. The first thing you'll do is to mix some boil...

My friend's daughter got accepted into medical school! She's going to be an Ob-Gyn, so my friend asked for a themed graduation cake. I was fighting humidity again...I'm going to stop doing graduation cakes because I can't deal with the melting fondant. :-( Anyhoo, strawberry cake with hand-sculpted fondant decorations. That's all for now. Enjoy!

The boy is mildly obsessed with penguins, what can I say? About half the time he wants a penguin on his birthday cake. And since he's my boy, I humor him. So we saw the penguin cake on Pinterest and copied it, only he wanted it to be blue instead of black. I still don't know why. Then he couldn't think of anything to put on the bottom cake, and he really wanted there to be a bottom cake. Since the day of his party was getting close, I suggested an angry polar bear face. He agreed (though he had his doubts) and I think it came out ok. It was definitely unique! We had a combined party for both kids this year and the girl wanted a cat cake. First she wanted a cheetah, because she loves cheetahs, but then she saw a cat cake on Pinterest (I know, I know) and changed her mind. Which was good for me because it was the easiest cake ever. And here they are together: Not a bad day's work if I do say so myself. The penguin was coconut cake, the polar bear was le...

Actually, it was my church's 50th Anniversary. And how better to celebrate than with cake! And lots of it! Ok, I'll start from the top: 6" Coconut, 8" Lemon, 10" Red Velvet, 12" Almond, 14"Chocolate. It was very heavy. And for my gluten-free friends, gluten-free cupcakes to match! Well, that's all for now! Enjoy!

Themed because I don't do character cakes...I'm not that talented and I don't want to run afoul of copyright laws...I'm funny that way. Cake: Topper: Matching cupcakes: I think there were 30 cupcakes, so I got to make 30+ fondant strawberries. But it was fun. And I think they came out cute. The topper was to be placed, upright, on the cake. But it didn't fit in the box so I left it off. Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. That's all for now. Enjoy!

This year the girl wanted a ducky cake for her birthday. She didn't really have a reason, just that she wanted ducks. I think she was trying to copy her brother's turtle cake without being too obvious about it. So I found a ducky cake on Pinterest and shamelessly copied it. She was quite pleased. I took the leftovers to work and people kept asking who was having a baby. Because, really, it's a baby shower cake. But, hey, it made her happy. Especially the giant sunglasses-wearing rubber ducky on top. It lights up. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

OK, so not so much flag cakes galore as two flag cakes. One for a friend: That is one ugly tablecloth. And one for a family picnic: And of course, the inside. It worked out a little better this year because I made them smaller and was able to use a 4" cookie cutter to cut the middle out of the blue cake. Much easier than trying to cut a circle with a template and a knife. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

Ha!  Fooled you!  It's not a chocolate and caramel and pecan birthday cake. (Although that would be lovely, in my opinion.)  It's a cake shaped like a turtle!! Because that's what the boy wanted. I was actually quite happy with how it turned out. I got the idea off of Pinterest, of course. The design as a whole is a mash-up of two different cakes that I saw. I wanted to do more on the base cake, but I was literally finishing up the border as we walked out the door. My time management wasn't the best with this one. The square cake is two giant layers of lemon cake, torted, with two layers of home-made lemon curd filling and one layer of buttercream filling. It was gigantic. It stood almost 5 1/2 inches high (not including the turtle on top) and was incredible heavy. I should have weighed it. The turtle is a 6" round cake, vanilla-almond with buttercream filling. We served it at the party and then I took the rest to work on Monday. It was pretty good. I...

Based on the title of this post, I'm guessing you can surmise what I made. ...aaaand a close-up. ...aaaand the inside. On a sideways chevron plate. You're welcome. Turns out you shouldn't make ganache with chocolate chips because they don't flow correctly. But I didn't have any other chocolate and I wanted to put ganache on my chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. It was kind of a last-minute decision. Took it to work for a potluck. It didn't last long. Anyhoo, it was really good. I made the icing with 1/2 peanut butter, 1/2 butter, but next time I will use less peanut butter because it nearly broke my mixer.  Too thick.  Way, way too thick. Well, that's all for now. Enjoy!

My friend asked for a birthday cake for her daughter, so I said,  "Sure!"  Then she sent me a picture of a cake with Olaf from Frozen on it, and I said, "Sure!"  Then I sat down to make said Olaf and cursed the day I'd ever agreed to make a &$(%$# Olaf cake. Live and learn I always say. I failed to capture his overbite. My fondant flattened out on me, but after all the work I put into him, I just went with it. Anyhoo, vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and fondant decoration. That's all for now. Enjoy!

One of my coworkers is about to give birth, so we threw her a surprise baby shower. Guess who volunteered to bring cake? I made it to match the napkins. Chocolate cake, of course. Here's a close-up of the bow (in a box and sitting on a non-skid mat for transport): For some reason, I really, really like making fondant bows. I think it's because I loved Play Doh so much as a child. The bow was also sprinkled liberally with disco dust. Sparkly! Here we are spread out over the filing cabinets. And there are the napkins! Another coworker made a diaper cake and topped it with the cutest shoes ever: Anyhoo, it was a fun time.  Lots of food and fun to break up the day. That's all for now. Enjoy!

A friend of mine from work brought me a picture of a cake a while back and asked if I could make it for him. He got it off of Facebook, so if it's yours, let me know. He's a big fan of M&M's.  But then again, who isn't? So I finally got around to making it. (I kept telling him I hadn't forgotten!) This cake used lots and lots and lots of M&M's. And as I drove it to work the next morning, every bump I hit I heard M&M's hitting the cake board. I made repairs at work and no one was the wiser. Red and Yellow were a bit bumpy. They're giant cake pops and I used off-brand candy melts to coat them. I repented immediately. I will only use Wilton candy melts from now on. I piped the faces onto waxed paper using royal icing and candy melts and glued them onto the pops the next morning. I made lots of extras just in case. And lots of extra "M"s, thankfully. I had quite a few snap as I was glueing them on. Chocolate ca...

It seems like there were lots of birthdays this summer. And I made lots of cake.  But didn't take many pictures. For example: I worked really hard on my great-aunt's 80th Birthday cake, and only took two horrible pictures. Here's the better of the two: She's not a pastel buttercream rose kind of gal.  And here you also have a little insight into what my kitchen looks like after a cake. It ain't pretty. Then I took two more bad pictures at the party, so I'll share those, too: Aunt Iva is an Ohio State Buckeye fan, so I made a scarlet and gray cake for her. :-)  As an aside, I love my Agbay .  Best. Tool. Ever. The other two cakes were chocolate.  The one in the foreground had mint chocolate ganache filling.  The one in the back (that you can't see...the pink one) had vanilla buttercream filling. Very tasty all around, if I do say so myself. Anyhoo, that's all for now. Enjoy.