Mini Gingerbread Cheesecakes

While I was still in school we had a pastry showcase as our practical final. I believe the name of the showcase was "Fall out of Fall" and each of us in the pastry class had to make a seasonal dessert/pastry for thirty people. I chose to make miniature gingerbread cheesecakes with little gingerbread cookies on top. Here is what they turned out to be:

The cheesecake crust was made from gingerbread cookies (home-made of course) that I crushed up in a food processor. The cheesecake batter was pretty standard. I just added some molasses and spices to make it gingerbread flavored. I have to say that this is one of my favorite non-traditional cheesecake flavors. 

This is how the miniature cheesecakes were displayed in the showcase; and yes, the gingerbread house was completely edible.

Here is a close up of the house. This gingerbread house came in a kit that I bought from Michaels. The kit came with all the pieces that I had to glue together. Then I had fun decorating the house. These kits are a great activity for kids and always wind up looking really cute :)

Speedy Birthday Cakes

Don't you love when you get a call from a friend the day before their birthday asking if you can make them a cake??? Well, that is exactly what happened with these next two cakes. 

This first cake, I believe was a wacky cake, and took me about one hour to make, bake, and decorate. I whipped up the batter, threw it in the oven, baked it, and then put it outside to cool. I remember it was cold after sitting outside for only fifteen minutes and I was truly amazed. I've never had a cake cool down that fast. About ten minutes to decorate and into the box it went. 

This pink and orange cake was made for Mallary (one of my boyfriend's college friends). I had no idea what colors she liked and somehow I read her mind because pink and orange are her favorite colors. Maybe I'm psychic. Anyways, this cake was another one that I needed to make in two hours and I think it turned out pretty cute.

Grandma & Grandpa's Anniversary Cake

This cake was made for my grandparent's anniversary. (I forget how many years they were married at the time because it has been a lot!!!). The Italian Cream Cake seemed like the perfect cake for the occasion.

I decorated it with a cream cheese frosting and piped a lot of swirls on top and the sides; then a sprinkle of edible glitter :)

This cake is one of my absolute favorites!!!

My Sister's Baby Shower

I can't believe that time has flown by so quickly. My niece, Madison, is now almost 15 months old and such a cutie. I, along with the help of some of my sister's good friends and my mom, threw her a baby shower almost two and a half years ago!!! I was in charge of the invitations and making all the desserts. We served hors d'oeuvres and bite sized desserts; and trust me, we had a lot of them. 

Here is a picture of the whole dessert table with a beautiful diaper cake made by Laura. 

These little tartlets were filled with a cream cheese mixture and topped with fresh berries. This was the only non-chocolate dessert I made!

Anyone who knows my sister, knows that she loves chocolate covered strawberries, so these were a must. I dipped them in dark chocolate and then drizzled some white chocolate over top.

 

Next were some flower shaped brownies with a raspberry buttercream. So simple and so yummy!!!

I had found these clear martini glasses in a party supply store years ago and thought they would be the perfect vessel for chocolate mousse. I topped the chocolate mousse with some raspberries. They were absolutely to die for. I'm pretty sure I ate most of the mousse myself :)

Below the mousse martini cups and in the center of this next picture are chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. My sister and I make cookie dough, not to make cookies, but to eat the dough with a spoon. Once I saw the recipe for these truffles, I knew I had to make them. It was a very simple cookie dough batter, that didn't include eggs, and didn't need to be baked. I covered the dough balls with chocolate and decorated them with some cute sprinkles.

This last picture is of a platter of fudge. I love making fudge, especially around the holidays, so I thought I'd make some for the shower. Everyone likes chocolate fudge anyways, right? This is just a simple chocolate fudge that I topped with some pink buttercream icing. It is so rich that just a little piece will do it!!!

Easter 2008

This Easter I ventured out and tried to make some different desserts. This first cake is an Italian Cream Cake. The recipe is a family secret that has been passed down for generations. I was lucky enough to obtain this recipe from a friend because he thought that I would be able to make it better than he could and apparently I did. I'd never made or even heard of an Italian Cream Cake until he told me about it. I describe it as having the texture of a carrot cake, but instead of carrots, it has coconut in it. And to make it even better, it is frosted with a cream cheese icing. So delicious!!!

Below are the infamous lemon squares. This recipe has been in my family for generations and is a must for every holiday. Dr. Fuller reminds me at least once a month to make lemon squares for the next party. They have a buttery, shortbread crust and a very lemony curd-like custard on top; always a hit during the spring and summer months.

 

This year was the first time I made a trifle. I made Grandma's Pound Cake, cream anglaise, and sweetened whipped cream. I cut up the pound cake into cubes and layered half of them into the bottom of the trifle dish. Then, I topped the cubes with half the cream anglaise, a mix of sliced strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries, and then half of the whipped cream. I then repeated the layers until the trifle dish was full and then placed some more berries on top. It is such a simple dessert that can be made so many different ways and always looks beautiful; it tastes great too!!!

This next cake was made purely for fun. I saw a cake like this in a magazine and thought it looked really cute. I took a flower pot and layed chocolate cake and chocolate pudding into it, then topped it with some crushed Oreo cookies to make it look like dirt. We had some fake flowers laying around the house so I shoved them in and added some gummy worms. It's a great idea for kids parties and super simple.

Last, but not least, was the key lime pie. I made a graham cracker crust and then mixed together some key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk, and a few eggs for the custard. I baked it until the custard was set and garnished it with some sweetened whipped cream and some lime slices. Like the lemon squares, this soon became an Easter tradition.

2007: Getting a Little More Creative

It looks like I only have pictures from Easter and my birthday this year. I was definitely spending more time skating and less time in the kitchen; my how things have changed in just a short few years.

This 3D bunny was really simple to make, especially since I had a pan with two bunny halves and all I had to do was glue the cake together with some icing. Grandma's Pound Cake was the cake of choice for the bunny since it is a dense cake and would withstand being stood up. I remember using a paint brush to apply the buttercream, giving the bunny a fur-like texture. I had a lot of fun making this bunny :)

Along with the bunny came some cupcakes topped with colored coconut and jelly beans; a must for Easter. 

Choo-choo-train cakes have been a tradition in our family for decades. My grandmother always made a choo-choo-train cake for my father's birthday and soon my sister and I were getting them for our birthdays too. Sometimes we received train wrecks; especially if my mom helped. A few times they "ran" off the counter-top and sometimes they just weren't put together well. No matter how pretty they looked, they always tasted yummy.

The train cakes my grandmother made for my dad were never as colorful as the one pictured above, but always had at least a car or two and a caboose. I made this train cake for my birthday and decided to make it very colorful. I used random candies we had in the house and I think it turned out pretty cute.

I also made this flowery cake for my birthday that year. At this point I had no clue how to make edible flowers, so I used real ones to decorate this cake. After I made this cake, I was determined to learn how to make flowers out of fondant and gum paste; and a short time after this, I did!!!

2006: The Year of Making Cakes with Random Stuff in the Pantry

As I look back through the pictures of the cakes I made in 2006, they all had a similar theme; open the pantry doors and see what's inside . . . then turn it into a cake. I find that I've been doing this more often as time goes on. I usually have the basic ingredients for a cake in my pantry at all times and sometimes, when I get a craving for a slice of cake, it is nice to be able to just open the pantry doors and get to baking.

Here is a cake that I'm pretty sure I just made one day because I was craving something sweet. 

I don't remember what the cake or icing was, but I can tell by how beautiful the fruit looks on top that I made this cake in the spring time. I love pairing fruit with cakes and it always adds great color to what sometimes can be a plain cake.

This cake below is one that I made for my birthday. I must have been in a colorful mood that day because every color icing is on this cake.

I usually make myself a Wacky Cake for my birthday since I love chocolate and I'll never get tired of eating a wacky cake. I remember buying the candles and balloons years prior thinking, "I'll use these for something, someday." I tend to find myself saying that a lot these days (especially when I go to Michaels or A.C. Moore). Anyways, a bunch of my friends were coming over to celebrate my birthday and I wanted to make a fun cake; I think I definitely did.

This next cake was for Christmas.

I always look at this picture and think to myself, "what on earth was I thinking?" To this day, I still don't know. This cake was once again a Wacky Cake with some Wingnut Icing (which I will post the approximate recipe for at some point in the near future). Peach rings, peeps, and oddly colored candy canes some how made it onto the cake and although I don't think I would ever make another cake like this, it sure was interesting!!!