Perfectly Fall - Cheesecake Bars

I'm up to my elbows today in cream cheese and pecans. I'm making one batch of each of these perfect-for-fall cheesecake bars.

They're not new. You can find the recipe for the Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars here...

And the Pumpkin Streusel Cheesecake Bars here.

Enjoy!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Cream Cake {Recipe}

Every summer, my boys go to Cub Scout camp for the weekend with their dad. (I don't camp.) So, every year, I celebrate their return with a yummy treat. This year, we had just gone strawberry picking, and had a bunch of great rhubarb, so I came up with this... a Strawberry-Rhubarb Cream Cake.
(Every summer my husband also takes the camera to camp with him, so I never get many pictures.)

What You Need:
For the Cake
White Cake Mix (or favorite Vanilla Cake Recipe)
  - 3 eggs
  - 1 1/4- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  - 1 Tbsp. white vinegar (optional)

For the Strawberry-Rhubarb Sauce
3 cups chopped rhubarb
1 1/2 cups strawberries (chopped if large)
2 Tbsp. corn starch
1/4-1/2 cup sugar (if necessary)

For the Whipped Cream Frosting
4 oz. cream cheese (at room temperature)
1-2 cups powdered sugar (to taste)
1 pint (2 cups) heavy whipping cream (very cold)
1 tsp. vanilla (optional)

Yield: 1 8"x4" round cake - approx. 12-16 servings

Divergent Dauntless Chocolate Birthday Cake

First, I admit to knowing nothing about the Divergent books or movies.
But, when a friend asked if I could make a "Dauntless Cake" for her son's birthday, I looked up many ideas online, and came up with this.

What You Need:
8-9" round Chocolate Cake
  (I used my Rich Chocolate Cake Recipe, but you could also make Cake Mix Taste Homemade)
1 recipe Chocolate "Cloud" Icing
Dark and/or Milk Chocolate Bars
1 cup Decorator's Buttercream Icing 
   (I used Yellow, Red and Orange.)
Piping Tip #3

Cake Decorating Classes in Minnesota

Join me for some fun classes this spring in Roseville, White Bear Lake, West St. Paul and Northfield!

Wild About Cupcakes

Learn the basics of icing and fondant in this three-hour class. We will use both buttercream icing and colored fondant to make adorable animal-print cupcakes. Parent-child pairs are welcome with children 8 years or older.

Monday, February 1, 6-9pm

White Bear Lake High School - SOUTH Campus.

  Saturday, February 6, 9:30am-12:30pm 

Roseville Area High School.

Monday, February 8, 6-9pm

Henry Sibley High School - West St. Paul.

  Saturday, March 12, 9:30am-12:30pm

Northfield Middle School.

Best Birthday Cakes 
In this one-session class, you will learn to frost a cake - with no crumbs - and use decorating tips to make many of the simple, beautiful designs you see on all of those Pinterest cakes.

  Monday, March 7, 6-9pm
Henry Sibley High School - West St. Paul.

Monday, March 21, 6-9pm
White Bear Lake High School - SOUTH Campus.
Wednesday, April 6, 6-9pm
 Roseville Area High School.

Gourmet Cupcakes Made Easy
Learn how to make three kinds gourmet cupcakes and icing, 
all starting with a basic vanilla cake mix.
Saturday, April 16, 9:30am-12:30pm
South St. Paul High School.
Monday, April 11, 6-9pm
Northfield Middle School.

Easy Strawberry-Rhubarb Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting

We have rhubarb and strawberries galore in our backyard garden right now.
So, I decided to make this very easy cake for my boys to welcome them home from Cub Scout camp.
*Note: My husband took my camera with them to camp, which is why the photos here are a little -- ish.

What You Need:
For the Cake:
1 box white cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1-2 cups chopped strawberries
1-2 cups chopped rhubarb

For the Frosting:
1/2 cup (4 oz.) cream cheese (at room temperature)
1 cup heavy whipping cream (very cold)
1/4-1/2 cup powdered sugar

Tank You Very Much! - Thank You Cookies

We are getting a fish tank. So, we need to thank (or "tank") the guy who is giving it to us.

We made him some "Tanks a lot" cookies... I think these will do it.

What You Need:
Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies
Buttercream Icing (or canned icing)
  OR Royal Icing
Nerds Candy
Swedish Fish Candy

Easy Cross Cake - How-To

It's that time of year... First Communion season for the Catholics.
Given that I have two second graders, it's a time of many masses, parties and cakes.

The easiest First Communion cake I can make is this cross one. It's made by cutting a 9x13 cake into pieces, rearranging it, and covering it with icing.

I added the Chalice and the Host made out of fondant, which I painted with Wilton's Pearl Dust.

What You Need:
9x13 cake, baked and cooled (I recommend a white cake if you've never done this before... fewer crumbs)
5-6 cups Decorator's Buttercream Icing (more if you want to add filling)
Optional:
4 oz. white fondant
Clear Vanilla
Silver or Gold Pearl Dust

Easy Minecraft Birthday Cake

If you have elementary-aged children, you know about Minecraft. Okay, that's not true at all. I know nothing about Minecraft, but many of my kids' friends do. And this birthday cake was for one of them.

What You Need:
Square Cake (This is two layers of 8" square)
Chocolate Ganache Icing (2 cups)
Buttercream Icing (1-2 cups) - colored dark green

Learn to Decorate Cakes in 2015!

Happy New Year! How about a fun New Year's Resolution you'll enjoy?! Learn to Decorate Cakes this year. I just happen to have many, many classes that will help you to do just that!

WILTON CAKE DECORATING CLASSES

You can join me any month at the Hobby Lobby in Woodbury for Wilton Cake Decorating classes.
Wilton classes are taught all over the country, and are really a great place to start if you are a home decorator. You learn all of the basics of cake decorating, cupcake decorating, icing and more!

Upcoming Class Dates:
Tuesday evenings in January - Jan. 6, 13, 20, 27
Wednesday evenings in February - Feb. 4, 11, 18, 25
Thursday evenings in March - Mar. 5, 12, 19, 26
Sign Up at the Hobby Lobby Store (9895 Hudson Road Woodbury, MN 55125)

COMMUNITY EDUCATION CAKE DECORATING CLASSES

If you don't have four weeknights in a row, I also teach one-time cake and cupcake classes through Community Education. If you click the date/school, it will take you to the registration page for that class.

Pan Goop - Copycat 'Cake Release'

This is the best, easiest, quickest, cheapest gift for the baker in your life.
It's called "pan goop." I found it on another baking blog when I ran out of my favorite, Wilton's Cake Release, and I needed something to grease my cake pans with.

This stuff is a-maz-ing! It works perfectly, and it's SO easy and cheap to make.

What You Need:
1 cup shortening
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flour

Easy Halloween Eyeballs Cake

A super quick post to show you a super quick Halloween cake idea that's easy on the eyes... get it?!?

What You Need:
Cake
Icing
Fondant
Round Cutters (or Icing tips)

Simply cut out the white and black fondant in various round sizes. Layer them, using vanilla to help them stick to one another.
Voila! Spooky Eyeball Cake.

For an Easy Fondant-Free Halloween Cake...

Check out My Monster Cake Tutorial 

Or These Super Simple Monster Cupcakes

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Spy or Secret Agent Birthday Cake

My boys turned eight (eight?!) over the weekend. Their birthday party had a spy (or secret agent) theme.
I made this super simple magnifying glass cake for the party. All you need is white and black frosting, and two or three round icing tips. It couldn't be any easier!

What You Need:
Cookies & Cream Cake Recipe
  (I used the exact recipe as you will find on my link above. However, since the cake was a large 9x13, I doubled the cakes, and made 1 1/2 times the icing recipe.)
Black Decorating Icing
  (You could even purchase 2 or 3 tubes of black icing to make it more simple.)
Crushed Oreo or other cookies
Piping Bag and Icing Tips #3, 7 & 12

Rose-Covered Cake Tutorial

This cake is a new favorite. It's beautiful, and it's not hard to do. BUT... it does take a ton of icing.
I first saw a cake like this on the blog of another Minnesota baker, iambaker.net.

What You Need:
Cake ;-) (I used 2 layers of 6" round cake.)
   - How to Make Cake Mix Taste Homemade
6 cups (or more) Buttercream Icing
  - Recipe for Decorator's Buttercream Icing
Piping Bag and Tip #1M

Simple, Special Cakes

Click this link to see the video on the Fox9 Website.

I visited my friends at Fox 9 this morning to do some fun, simple decorating... and to promote some of my upcoming classes.
Below you will find the links to register for the classes and for the techniques I showed and talked about on the show.

Simple, Special Cakes Classes
(Click each link to register for that class)
Monday, Sept. 29 6-9pm Roseville Area High School
Tuesday, Sept. 30 6-9pm Henry Sibley High School (West St. Paul)
Saturday, Oct. 4 9:30-11:30am Northfield Middle School
Tuesday, Oct. 6 6:30-8:30pm North Dale Rec. Center (St. Paul)

Tree Trunk or Tree Stump Cake

Okay, so I love this cake... like L-O-V-E love it!
I was jumping up and down around the kitchen when I finished it, I was so happy with it.

My sister's wedding reception was held at a nature center. And she and her hubby love to do all kinds of nature-y things. So, when I was trying to think of a way to bring in the groom's favorite kind of cake (chocolate with raspberry filling), I thought of this, realizing that you could "carve" the ganache to look like bark, and it would not be all that hard to make.

What You Need:
Cake
   This was one 10"x2" round layer, two 9"x2" round layers and one 8"x3" round layer
Milk Chocolate Ganache:
 - 16 oz. heavy whipping cream
 - 32 oz. milk chocolate (I thought any darker of chocolate made the bark look too dark)
White Chocolate Ganache:
 - 4 oz. heavy whipping cream
 - 2 oz. white chocolate

Fruit Pizza {AKA The Best Summer Dessert for a Gathering}

I remember my Aunt Carrie making fruit pizzas for us when I was a kid. I loved them.
I took this one to a church gathering, and it was gone before any of the other desserts. Everyone loves fruit pizza!

What You Need:
For The Crust:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1-2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder

For the Icing:
1- 8oz. block of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1-2 tsp. vanilla

Assorted sliced fresh fruit for toppings
Yield: 1 pizza (approx 12" round pizza pan or 8"x12" rectangular pan)

Note: You can go the super easy route, too, and use a store-bought refrigerated sugar cookie tube, and canned fruit, drained.

Easy Baseball Cake

It's the end of the season for my boys' baseball team.
The All-Star Game is in town.
So, I made an easy baseball cake.

Simply cover the cake with white icing. (Click the link to see my tutorial: How to Frost a Cake Smooth.)
I use my Decorator's Butter Cream Icing Recipe. (Although, I did use 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening instead of all shortening.)
I used the lip of the cake pan to make the marks on the cake for the laces so that I could keep the lines even and straight.

If you don't want to do a cake, I have lots of other ideas for you...

Baseball Cake Pops

Baseball Cookies

Baseball Cupcakes

Click the Links Below to See:

More Summer Decorating Ideas

More Basic Cake Decorating Ideas

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Elephant Baby Shower Cake

My good friend, Amanda, is having a baby boy!

Her colors are yellow and gray, so we thought an elephant theme for the shower would be fun.

Even though making the gray icing made me think of a line from the movie Steel Magnolias, I still love the way this cake turned out!

What You Need:
Cake -
   I used two 8" x 2" round layers
    and two 5" x 2" round layers
   I made my favorite Chocolate Cake Recipe (1 1/2 time the recipe)
Icing -
   I made a double batch of Rich Vanilla Buttercream (SMBC)
    I took 3 cups out for the yellow, and dyed the rest gray.
   You will also need a piping bag and tip #104.

Elephant and Letter Decorations -
   Fondant - colored gray (You only need about 4-6 oz. of fondant)
   Rolling pin
   Cut-outs: Elephant, petal or tear-drop & letters

Easy Homemade Piggie Cupcakes

This little piggie went to a birthday party...
These pig cupcakes are very easy, and require only three colors of icing, and two icing tips.

They're so much fun.

What You Need:
2 dozen cupcakes*
1 batch Buttercream Icing
Pink food coloring
Black food coloring

*Note: I made these cupcakes strawberry-flavored by doctoring up a white cake mix.
I used 1 cake mix, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup pureed strawberries and 1/4 cup milk.
Click this link to find more about how I make cake mixes taste homemade.

Half-Iced Half-Birthday Cake

I know, I know, half birthdays are not a real thing. But with these two monkeys in my life, I really embrace any chance to make a cake and have a party.

We've done some pretty fun Half-Birthday Cakes around here the last couple of years.

See, my guys are twins. They share a birthday and a birthday party, so I don't see anything wrong with making a Half-Birthday Half-Cake and celebrating in the spring.

This year, though, we had a lot going on with a sick kid, Easter, the usual... so I just half-iced it.

The cakes were some leftovers from the freezer, and the icing job took me maybe 30 minutes. So, if you're looking for a simple, silly way to celebrate... give it a chance!!

Click the Links Below to See:
How to Make a Cake Mix Taste Homemade
Buttercream Icing Recipe
Chocolate Buttercream Icing Recipe
How to Ice a Cake without Crumbs

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