CUTE Spider Cookies

One of my fav. customers requested spider cookies. Her daughter plays lacrosse for a college whose mascot is the spiders. We found these cookies from the decorated cookie and they were perfect. One problem...she and I seeaarcheed the internet. (seeaarcheed means we devoured the internet for many hours) Yet we could not find this cookie cutter. In fact, we couldn't find a cute spider cookie cutter no matter how hard we tried. They all had fangs, or were a strange angle of a spider. I was prepare to free hand cut out each cookie when I had a thought...there has to be some way to make a simple cookie cutter. Oh...there is. Check this out! Paul had me this great shape in under 30 minutes for the grand total of $0. (we had all the supplies needed in our garage!) Paul actually had fun doing this project and told me never to buy another cookie cutter again. Check out the tutorial and give it a swirl!

Sponge Bob...and a yellow cake recipe

Where would we be without Sponge Bob? Sponge Bob represents pure stupidity in children's television...yet we all laugh away. I, myself, have watched one episode (it was enough).

This cake, however was so fun to do! It made me almost like Sponge Bob for a brief second...almost. I covered the whole cake with yellow marshmallow fondant, added a stripe of white and brown along the lower half, added eyes and spots, and a red tie, and bada bang, got yourself a Sponge Bob. I outlined all the details with black royal icing.

Last year I made a Dora birthday cake for this customer. One layer was a yummy homemade chocolate cake and the other layer was a doctored yellow cake mix. This year they requested yellow cake. They said they have been thinking about my moist yellow cake for the last year. Ha-Larious! So.....here is a simple recipe for what they say is AMAZING yellow cake! I have tried three or so homemade yellow cake recipes. This easy one is comparable to homemade.

Doctored Moist Yellow Cake
Pretty much made up by me from two other recipes I have tried

1 box yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp butter flavored extract or lemon or vanilla ...whatever you want

Halloween...Revisited

I have never been a Halloween person. I never didn't like it, I just never thought much of it. It was kind of just something that happened before Christmas. Now, having kids, I look forward to each holiday...and try to make them special, even strange ones like St. Patricks's Day or Memorial Day. My oldest boy, Ben, is OBSESSED with Halloween. He loves to help "decorate" the house, read Halloween picture books, talk about different costumes...to the point of driving his dad and I a little bonkers! But...wow...Halloween is soo fun now!

Here are a few of the treats I made last year to check out, order, or bake yourself. I also have a few new fun ideas to try in the next few weeks...can't wait to share with you!

Ohhh...here are the Halloween sugar cookies I decorated last year...

ohh...and then there are pumpkin whoopie pies...yum, yum!

Ad who doesn't like a cupcake... how 'bout these chocolate bat-topped cupcakes?

Or Monster cupcakes?