Iowa Smash Cake

Smash cakes are my favorite, especially for little one years you know!

Mr. Wes turned the big One a few weeks ago with an Iowa Hawkeye themes birthday. 

 This time instead of just using Hawkeye colors only, I wanted to included the tiger hawk. Luckily I have a cookie cutter that was the perfect size for this cake that I was able to use as a template.

Happy Birthday Wes! Go Hawks!

Dr. Seuss Cake

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!  

Funny, it's actually a coincidence I'm posting this on Dr. Seuss's birthday but it's pretty fitting!!

I made this cake a few weeks ago when asked if I could make a cake for the dance team at one of the local high schools for their school cake auction. If you remember I made this cake last year for the same cake auction for the baseball team.

The dance team's theme was Children's Books. Each girl donated their favorite children's book to make a basket for the auction and wanted a cake to go along with the theme. They gave the freedom to choose the design and books to create. I wanted to do something well-known but not too difficult for the cover page. I decided on Dr. Seuss, who doesn't love him?!?!

What do you think?

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Gingerbread cupcake with a Spiced Gingerbread Buttercream

Adorned with edible pearls

Baseball Cake

**I have some catching up to do. I am very behind on keeping this blog up to date and hope to get back on it!

I love making first birthday cakes. Sports themed cakes have been very popular for little boys birthdays since I've been making cakes.

I made this baseball glove out of a double layer 9-inch round cake. The baseball on top of the large cake was made from a small ramekin.

With a round baseball smash cake.

Sports Cake

I love when clients come back! I was lucky enough to make Charlie's first birthday cake, an Iowa Hawkeye theme found here. This year he had a sports ball theme, including basketball, soccer, football, and baseballs. I included all four into one cake!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

These have been on my Baking Bucket list and on my mind for a long time. Apparently I'm not the only one! My friend Tera had Caramel Apple cupcakes as one of her flavors at her wedding a year and a half ago, ever since her mother has been thinking about them and wanting them again. So I got a special request for them, along with 3 other flavors for Tera's sister's graduation celebration.  

Caramel Apple and Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I, of course made extra to test out for my husband and I. Dave gets to be my guinea pig a lot, lucky him! He got to be the first to try the Caramel Apple Cupcakes out. He was such a fan that after his first bite he actually cussed! I won't repeat what he said but it was his way of saying "These are awesome!" ;)

They are made with a fresh apple cake that is so moist and flavorful then topped with a caramel buttercream (made with homemade caramel sauce) and garnished with an apple slice dipped in caramel sauce.

I think these are one of my new favorites!!

Baked Cauliflower Poppers

I recently found this recipe at delightedmomma.com for a great snack or appetizer substitute for chips or french fries. I'm not a huge fan of cauliflower but eat it because it's a vegetable, usually covered in ranch dressing so it might defeat the purpose of it being a healthy snack. However, I never knew cauliflower could be so good with just olive oil and roasted golden brown. The browner the better! I thought it was a great alternative to french fries and delicious dipped in a bit of ketchup.

Baked Cauliflower Poppers

Source: delightedmomma.com

Ingredients

• 2 heads of cauliflower
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and clean the cauliflower, cut off and discard the stem, then cut the cauliflower up into small pieces.  In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, salt and pepper. Add the cauliflower pieces and thoroughly coat each piece. Place cauliflower pieces onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for one hour and turn 3 times during cooking until each piece has a nice brown coloring. The browner they are the better.