Happy Halloween!

Bloody Mary Bar with all the fixin's
Cake ball kitties and jack-o-lanterns and chocolate covered oreo Frankenstiens and Nutter Butter Ghosts.....yum!

Angry Birds!

Baby Shower, Baby Feet!

Chocolate and Strawberry Cake Balls for Baby Dietz on the way!
The toes are fondant.

Green Thumb?

These are Eggplant! Aren't they the cutest, tiniest Eggplant you've ever seen? What will I do with so many? I wish Cupcakes grew on trees!

Soon I will have more tomatoes than I know what to do with.

Look at that Squash! James, your Peach ain't got nothing on me!

The Squash is taking over!

40 Years of Love

Happy Anniversary to Eileen and Joe!

Celebrate with Cupcakes and Cake Pops! If that doesn't say "LOVE then I don't what does.



Vanilla Cupcakes with fresh Raspberry Buttercream

"Hostess" look-alike. Chocolate Cupcakes with whipped cream filling smothered in chocolate ganache

Happy Birthday Granny!

We hosted a summer birthday celebration for Jeff's Granny and shared some really delicious treats! Here are some cake balls - Lemon/Vanilla, Chocolate/Chocolate, and everybody's favorite - Chocolate/Peanut Butter.

A Giant Cupcake birthday Cake?!?! Yup! Yellow Butter cake topped with a fudgey chocolate ganache and fresh strawberries.

Look at these shiny, chocolatey, cake pops!

Velvety, white chocolate - lemon deliciousness

Ribs Anyone?

We went to the Farmer's Market last weekend and found this amazing BBQ sauce, made locally, that comes in Beer bottles. It was so tasty!

Peach Pie!

Made with the first Peaches of the season!

Cake Balls

Cake balls are Cake pops without sticks! Or Cake pops are Cake balls with sticks! I made these for my Aunt's 50th Surprise Birthday Party and flew all the way to California with them on the plane! They travel with no problems at all...except that they are surprisingly heavy when you hold 300 of them at once! (that's what husbands are for). I made Carrot cake, funfetti, vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate cakes and covered them with variations of white, dark, milk chocolate, peanut butter, and pink chocolate (tinted white chocolate). They were delicious! Move over cupcakes - Cake Pops have arrived.

Cake Pops!!!

These are my new favorite dessert! They are bite sized, moist, and stay fresh for at least a week.

I made a chocolate, vanilla, and funfetti cake. Here are the chocolate crumbs rolled into balls.

Freeze for 15 minutes and then put the lollipop sticks in them. If you dip the end of the sticks into melted chocolate, they stick better to the cake balls.

The balls were then dipped into melted milk chocolate and white chocolate. I poked them into a styrofoam base so they could dry. The chocolate actually dries really quickly so you only get a few drops that melt onto the base.

I used the remaining chocolate to drizzle over the pops with the end of a spoon. I just let it drip off the edge.

Here are some other colors and peanut butter balls that I experiemented with too. The peanut butter ones have chocolate cake and frosting inside and they turned out great!

Delicious!

Ice Cream Sundae Cupcakes

These festive cupcakes were made for a party we had in our office. I wanted to use chocolate Piroulines but was unable to find any this weekend. I decided on the colorful straws instead - not edible! The straws made the cupcakes look like root beer floats, more than sundaes, but cute nonetheless. They were a mix of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with milk chocolate buttercream and vanilla buttercream. I actually ran out of cocoa powder for the chocolate buttercream, so I improvised by melting some Hershey's milk chocolate bars into the frosting. It turned out so delicious! I think I like it better than the traditional chocolate buttercream. It was also lighter in color and gave a nice contrast against the darker chocolate cupcakes. I dipped them all in creamy chocolate ganache to look hot fudge, topped with rainbow jimmies and a cherry! These are such happy cupcakes. :)

Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes with Company Logo

We had a party at work for our new regional manager and I made cupcakes, of course! Jeff had the brilliant idea of adding our company logo to them. So, I made simple chocolate ganache cupcakes - the ones shown here in the center are actually vanilla cupcakes with chocolate ganache (that's why they look a little bit lighter) - and topped them with the logo made from melted and colored white chocolate. They came out so cute! I always forget how easy it is to draw things in chocolate and use them as garnish. I could have also made white chocolate ganache, which is one of my favorites too!

Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes

These are Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes! I made a banana cake with instant banana pudding filling, frosted it with vanilla buttercream, rolled it in crushed Graham Crackers, and then finished it off with a mini Vanilla Wafer. They were a light a fluffy treat!

Chocolate Lady Bug Cupcakes

These lady bug topped cupcakes are appropriate for the any summer BBQ. Pale green sugar crystals for the grass (hard to tell in this photo).

Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

I love any combination of Tomatoes and Mozzarella cheese. You really can't go wrong. This is a popular dish in our house, which made it perfect for our Valentine's Day salad. This time we found Yellow tomatoes (little lemon boys) and cherry tomatoes, cheese balls, EVOO, fresh Basil, red onion, and a splash of Balsamic Vinegar.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cupcakes

Our Valentine's Day dessert were these delicious peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes! They even had a creamy peanut butter buttercream filling. YUM! Served with none other but Chocolate Wine! Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Baked Stuffed Lobster

We had a great Valentine's Day. We finally found a place in Denver that sells Live Lobsters! Even though it was about three times the cost of a Lobster in New England, it's better than no lobster at all. We made baked stuffed lobsters and steak for our Surf 'n Turf Dinner! It was so delicious and reminded me of home. The stuffing had marinated mushrooms, bay scallops, olives, and Italian bread crumbs.

Spaghetti & Meatball Pie

Spaghetti & Meatball Pie. This was an attempt to make spaghetti more exciting! I added a twist to my regular pie crust recipe and instead made it a Garlic Bread Crust. It was super easy! I first made a buttery pie crust and formed it into the dish. Then I treated it as if it were a piece of toast and added fresh minced Garlic, butter, Parsley, and S+P....making sure to brush the sides of the dough too. Then i filled it with my spaghetti and meatballs and our favorite sauce. baked to a bubbling oozing perfection!

Struffoli

I made the Struffoli dough, which was only 3 ingredients and very easy. I rolled it out into long strips and then sliced little one-inch pillows to make the "balls"

We got this cute little fryer from my friend Katherine for our wedding and have had a blast making little fried delights! It was perfect for making Struff.

I let the fried Struff drain some of the oil on to paper towels while I finished frying the rest.

You can never have too much Struffoli!

Then I sauteed them in honey until evenly coated.

And finished them off with a sprinkling of non-pareils.

Struffoli = Fried Italian Honey Balls!

Baby Shower Dessert Bar

Here's the dessert table from the shower! Purple, pink, and chocolate for the baby girl!

Baby Cake

This was the Baby Cake with a marbling of chocolate and vanilla swirl, topped with vanilla buttercream and some fondant accents. The little bitty baby toes were my favorite!