I'm Back !!!

Hi Everyone!! I'm still alive :)... The last 2 months, almost 3, have gone by so fast and kept me so busy that I ended up neglecting my little blog so I'll try to give you a quick long update as to what has happened in the last few weeks...
So I finished my fondant lessons:
Class #4 was about stencil. It's really easy to do on top of cake but it take more practice to do it on the sides. I did fall in love with this new color called Salmon Pink:

Lesson #5 was supposed to be during Super Bowl weekend but as you may recall, DFW had a "winter blast" so we had to postpone our class for week. Anyway, this was a grand finale. I made a 6" square cake on top of a 8" round cake -I should had used a 10" round cake at the bottom instead. I still loved the colors. The bow was made on our first class so that's why it looks a bit over sized. One of the teacher's from my kids school was leaving so we ended up using the cake for her farewell party at the school so it worked out great!

After this, my full time job just kept me B.U.S.Y.!!! On the plus side I had a business trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina. After Colombia, it's by far my favorite country in South America. I love the food, the people, visiting my sweet friend Joha and off course Tango!

First time dancing Tango. This is during my lesson with my friend's husband Robert!

Then it was back to more work and work but I did had a great chance at making a couple of special cakes:
My lovely husband's birthday was in February. His favorite cake is Carrot Cake and so I made one in  like 3 hours thanks to Cooks Illustrated recipe that I found in this book.

My sweet friend Desi's soon was turning 4 and she allowed me to make his cake. Mr J is a big Star Wars fan and I was so excited to try this out! I found an awesome Darth Vader cake pan on line. Because of its size, I had to use a 12"x12" cake pan. This was a heavy cake but it worked out great. Also, my friend purchased the Star Wars cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma which I used to make the cupcake toppers. And last, but not least, Michelle captured this cool image of the cake!

Sorry for the long! I hope everyone had a blessed and wonderful Easter. I've Mother's day, my birthday and teacher appreciation week so I hope to have at least one new post soon! As always, thanks for checking :) XOXOXO

Fondant Class 3 {Cake #2}

I meant to post last weekend and run out of time as usual :)... The fondant class is going really well and it's so cool to learn so many new techniques. And off course along with that comes some additional expenses in tools (hopefully you are not reading this honey! :)). Today's class involved using PME Blossom Plunger, Sunflower Calyx and Textured Lace Press:

Baby Bib and Booties

I used lime green color with my fondant. Although is on the bright side, I must admit I liked how it turned out

I love this picture my hubby took while I was trying to attach the carnation I learned to make in class

The final product!

Fondant Class

I had mentioned a while back about taking some basic cake decorating classes at Hobby Lobby. Those classes are taught by Wilton trained instructors. I enjoyed them but was not able to complete their 3rd segment (fondant) because of low enrollment in November. About a month later I found a fondant class at a near by cake supply store called Cake Carousel. So without hesitation I, along with my friend Luisa, signed up for the class which started this month. This class has validated how passionate I feel about baking. I wanted to share with everyone our class creations...

My cake during class and learning to use a few new tools.

Luisa's cake! Her final cake is SO beautiful :)

The final product!

Happy Birthday {Mom}

I love, love December. It's by far my favorite month, after May, mainly because of the whole Christmas spirit and all the celebrations that come with it. So December is also my mom's birth month. Last year was her big 5-0 birthday but for personal reasons we were unable to celebrate it the way she deserved it. This Christmas I decided to make it up to her. We gathered at our house with some close friends. I went with a orange marmalade flavor for the cake and decorated some sugar cookies. The color inspiration came from TomKat Studio's Red and Aqua Sweet party circles -by the way, those girls rock because they were able to send me the files in such short notice! So enjoy and Happy Birthday mom... You are a fabulous mom and deserve nothing but the best!!

And one more note... I also made about 24 decorated Christmas sugar cookies for my son's school but unfortunately I did not take pictures and this is all I have from my hard work:

(2) Christmas trees and (1) snowman... Oh well! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and wishing you a fantastic new year full of love, happiness and many blessings. Thank you for reading my blog and hope everyone continues to follow me in this little adventure! XOXO

Baby Shower {Farmyard Theme}

I love baby showers!.So when I was approached by my neighbor about making cupcakes for a baby shower she was co-hosting, I was very excited. The mom-to-be registered for this adorable bedding from one of my favorite stores: Pottery Barn Kids. I was so happy with the end-result and it was worth all the effort!

Fall Festival

The week leading up to Halloween was a crazy, busy one for sure. My kids' school was having their first Fall Festival. I volunteered myself to help out set up some gift baskets for our silent auction. Also, we hosted a cake walk and off course I had to donate some cakes :). My kids' classrooms are called Strawberry and Apple. So in honor of their classroom's names I decided to bake two cakes with those two flavors. The strawberry cake I was already familiar with it (see here). For the apple cake I used a recipe I found in the Betty Crocker Fall Baking Magazine. On a site note, I bought the magazine because they were featuring Bakerella but I'm glad I did since it came in handy!
First in the ingredients list: Butter! And lots of it :)

 And Applesauce for the Apple flavor...

 And mixing...

 And the final product which was won by one of my daughter's classmates!

And now for the strawberry cake. I run out of time so I had to improvise on my cake design but I was still very happy with the results...

I had a great time working on these two cakes. Went to bed a couple of times at 2 am but it was worthy because I was doing what I love!

Cake Lessons {Last Day}

I've been taking a few cake decorating lessons at Hubby Lobby. I did the first two segments and I'm hoping they will have the third one available soon. It was so much fun to do this because it made me realize how passionate I feel about baking/cooking... So below are the pictures of my final cake for this class!