Happy Birthday, Korey!

Korey turned 10 on February 17th. She wanted her party decorations to be pink and brown. For her cake, she wanted chocolate with pink polka dots and a "K" in the middle, just like the one I put on Kasey's cake.

I baked three 8" layers of Devil's Food pound cake and used Bavarian cream filling between the layers. I frosted the cake with homemade chocolate frosting then decorated it with bright pink fondant polka dots. I finished it off with light pink pearls and a circular plaque with a large, bright pink "K" in the center.

Just as for Kasey's party, I displayed the cake on a glass cake pedestal rimmed in silver. It's the same one that was used for our cakes when we were kids, so it holds a special meaning to me.

She loved her cake and her friends were amazed. Now they all want me to make their next birthday cake.

Polka Dot Baby Shower Cake

I was asked to make a cake to match the shower invitations, which were light blue with a polka dot border in blue, green, yellow, and white. My plans were to frost the cake then add circle fondant appliqués. But I've learned that simple graphic design means the slightest imperfections are magnified. So, rather than struggle to achieve a perfect coat of frosting, I frosted the cake as smoothly as I could and I covered it in pale blue fondant. I then mixed the other colors to match the dots on the card. I cut the dots using a cookie cutter. They looked perfect...until I tried picking them up. They kept stretching out of shape. So I let them sit a while until they stiffened a bit, then I gently lifted them and placed them on the cake.

I intended to create concentric rows of dots, but the diminishing circumference meant that the dots didn't align properly. So I went with a single row around the top of the cake. I cut a large circle of white fondant for the center plaque and mixed some frosting and piping gel with blue color to pipe the personalized message.

The cake itself was three 10-inch rounds made using the white almond sour cream recipe, but instead of using white cake mix, I used French vanilla. It tasted wonderful. I filled the layers with Bavarian cream filling. I frosted the cake with white butter cream frosting. The fondant was vanilla flavored.

I was told that everyone thought the cake looked great and was delicious.

New Sugar Cookie and Rolled Chocolate Cookie Recipes

I tried two new recipes. I wanted a tastier sugar cookie so I tried the recipe found in The Flour Pot Cookie Book by Margie Greenberg. And, oh my goodness! They are delicious. I rolled them 1/8 inch thick (used paint stirrers for my levelers). Iced them with the Antonia 74 royal icing recipe posted on Cake Central. This is definitely the royal icing recipe I will use until someone can convince me otherwise!

I also wanted a chocolate cookie for a dark background. I used the dark chocolate rolled sugar cookie recipe, also found on Cake Central. I didn't have any espresso powder. I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa. They tasted AWESOME! I also rolled these 1/8 inch thick. They baked up nice and firm on the outside, but slightly soft on the inside.

I found the Cherry Blossom tree cookie on Flickr! posted by Nancy's Fancy. These were simple and fun to do, but no where nearly as perfect as Nancy's!

The birthday cookies were for my 8-year-old neighbor, Emma, whose favorite colors are purple and blue. I hand cut the cake cookie. It measures 7 1/2" x 5 1/2".

The round cookies were just for fun!

You can view more shots of these cookies and others in my C is for Cookie! set on Flickr!