Spookables and Cuties

Happy Halloween everyone!! Last Friday my family hosted our annual Halloween party, and it was so much fun! And you know what that means...Creepy goodies were to be made. Actually, they were more on the cute side. Let me just make a confession right here, right now- I hate Halloween. I'm the BIGGEST scaredy-cat. Like, EVER. Scary movies? I don't watch them. I hate being scared. I don't even like the TRAILERS for scary movies. And don't even get me STARTED on zombies (More on that here). So, Halloween? Yeah...it's at the bottom of my favorite holiday list. So, when party time rolls around, I always try to steer my mom (who, of course, is the boss around here) to cuter treats rather than gross/creepy ones. So, my mom found some Jack-O-Lantern cookies that she fell in love with in a Halloween Country Living book that WEREN'T creepy, and the rest was history. Halloween party favors for over 40 people? Challenge freakin' accepted.

Here they are. As you can see I had a lot of fun with the faces. Which is surprising, because as some of you know, I have OCD. And if you don't know, Hi, I'm Britt, and I have OCD. You'll notice with my other goodies that I tend to make them as uniform as possible. So when I started making the faces on these, I imagined I was going to have an aneurysm before I was done. Surprisingly, once I got started, I came to accept that each pumpkin needed their own personality. Maybe this means that I'm on the right track to not being crazy? Pfft, yeah, probably not.

This little guy here I made special for my boyfriend Broc. As you'll remember from previous posts, he's...how shall I say it? Nerdy (It's ok, I can say it. I'm nerdy too). So I decided to leave a little surprise on his pumpkin for him to find.

Anybody see it? Anybody? How about any Lost fans? Look real close...you should be able to see certain numbers.....No? Well Broc saw them, and he thought it was the coolest thing ever. Seriously, he LOVES Lost (if you see him, do NOT bring up Lost unless you're ready for a nice long discussion about how awesome it is). It's the little things. And that's why I love doing this stuff for people.

Have a Happy Halloween, everybody!! Stay safe!

SSSsssSSSuper Cute Creeper Cakes

Another geeky post again, folks! As I've said before, my boyfriend and I are kind of...nerds. We both play a variety of games, and we don't necessarily have the same taste in games. But one of our favorite games to play together is Minecraft. If you're not familiar with Minecraft, it is basically a game in which players can build anything they imagine out of cubes in a 3D world. The concept is simple (Read: sounds dumb), but it's a lot of fun! There are also monsters in the game, and probably the most well known are the creepers. Here's what a creeper looks like in game:

Terrifying, isn't it? ;)

So for Broc's birthday, I decided to replicate these creeper cupcakes I found on Pinterest, originally created on the Candy Bar Cupcakes blog. Here's how my cakes turned out:

Do you see the resemblance? Instead of using chocolate cake, I just made a white cake and colored it green to match the face. The black for the face is made from sugar paper- I used a square paper punch to cut out the eyes and totally free-hand cut the mouth. My favorite part about making these was the technique used to make the different shades of green on the icing (Also explained in the original blog post- check it out here). It's so simple, if you guys ever find an opportunity to try this kind of technique, you so should. To shade the cupcakes, I made a template out of a piece of cardboard and cut out squares and pixel-y (is that a word?) shapes. Then you put your template over the cupcakes and give it a quick spray with green Wilton Color Mist. So. Simple. Anyone else tried this technique? I can't wait to try it out again!

So there you have it! Easy creeper cupcakes for my awesome gamer boyfriend. =)

Lego Dessert Table!

This is it folks. The moment we've all been waiting for. Well actually, it's just the post I'VE been waiting for for a while! This is the big one, one of the things I've done that I'm most proud of. Prepare to have your mind blown.

For my dad's birthday last year, I came up with the idea to do a Lego themed birthday party for him. As I've mentioned before, I inherited my nerdiness from my dad. That being said...we both love Legos. He still has sets in the garage from when he was a kid, I grew up playing with them...and I still have my Harry Potter Lego sets, which I LOVE. Anywho, I knew I wanted to do a nice party with a dessert table after my mom's was such a huge hit a few months before (if you missed the pink and green dessert table I did for my mom's birthday, you can find it here). And I got the idea to do a Lego party after finding these cookies on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. Not only does the post for these cookies have a tutorial, but she even provides a template, folks! It makes the process SO much easier, so get on over there, so you can try these out too!
I used my usual sugar cookie and icing recipes, here are the Lego head cookies in the process:

And here is the finished product. With my leftover scrap dough, I cut out some little rectangles to make some lego bricks to go with my little dudes. And this is just the beginning.

WHOLE. TABLE. FULL of Lego goodies for his party!! Like I said, the cookies were just the beginning! I knew I had to get those Lego candies you see in the candy shops. And of course, after I got the cookie idea, I started browsing the web looking for other party ideas. I found this awesome ice cube tray...in the shape of little Lego guys!! PERFECT to use for a candy mold to make some cupcake toppers!!

Here is my cupcake tower! I made Funfetti cupcakes, plain white buttercream frosting, and topped with red, yellow, and blue chocolate Minifigures!

The Lego candies and some of those Airhead sour belts...I was going for a primary color theme.,

One of the coolest parts about the party was the decorations. Dad let us build and put out some of his old Lego sets, such as this one on the dessert table:

And these cars...

The Lego sets really tied the room together. And the kids loved to look at and play with them!

I HAD to get one of my Harry Potter sets out also...And dad didn't object. =)

Here's the Lego Minifig cupcakes up close:



This was one of the best adult birthday parties we've ever thrown! One that I'm sure our guests won't be forgetting any time soon. And it was just SO fitting for my dad.

See? What did I tell you? Mind blown, right? You're welcome.

The Cake is a Lie!

Hey everyone, I know it's been a long time! I've baked quite a bit since you last heard from me, so be ready for some yummy posts!

The first item on the menu is a cake I made for my boyfriend Broc's 21st birthday. Now, something you may not know about Broc and I....we're kind of nerds. And by kind of I mean (among many other reasons) he spends most of his free time playing video games, and to be honest, I would probably join him more often if I could.
One of our favorite video games is Portal. It's this really innovative puzzle game that requires a PORTAL GUN to solve the puzzles. NEED I say more? Anyway, anyone familiar with the game knows that the cake is a lie. It is. And actually I'm not sure why, so if you're not familiar with the game...sorry, I can't help you out on that one. Talk about the blind leading the blind. So when the time came for me to decide what deliciousness to make for Broc's birthday, the end scene of the Portal game came to mind:

Yes, a simple chocolate cake surrounded by companion cubes. AND I had just received my Think Geek catalog, which gave me the perfect idea!! So, on the day of his birthday, I went over to his house, and set up his cake on the table. And this is what he came downstairs to:

Complete with his own companion cube pillow! Can you say major girlfriend points? I know, I'm so modest. But seriously, not only was this one of the simplest cakes I've ever done, but along with the companion cube, one of my favorite "themed" cakes!

The only problem is...How do I top this THIS year? No pressure...

May the force be with you

That's right, folks, cue the Star Wars theme, because we've got Stormtrooper cookies and Darth Vader cookies in the house!! Every year I like to make my dad special goodies for his birthday, and this year I decided to make these super cool cookies. I got the idea from Bridget over at Bake at 350, and they turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I got the cookie cutters at William Sonoma. They came in a 4-pack, but the Yoda and Boba Fett cookies seemed a bit too complicated for my amateur status, so I decided to stick with the simpler characters.
I was super excited for 2 reasons:
1. These cookies looked like a good beginner cookie, all you do is bake them and fill in the imprints with icing.
2. I inherited my nerdiness from my dad, so I was just SUPER stoked for STAR WARS COOKIES!!
I was right, these cookies WERE pretty easy. I used 2 different recipes, a chocolate recipe for the Darth cookies and a vanilla almond recipe for the Stormtroopers. Both recipes are from Bridget's blog and I have to say...the chocolate cookies were good, but the almond cookies were THE BOMB.

I used an icing recipe from Amanda's blog, which seemed really simple, seeing how it only had 4 ingredients. It worked out pretty well, and tasted good...it was a good beginner's icing. Next time I would like to try something a little different though.

What do you think? Not too bad, huh? They were a hit (especially the Stormtroopers) at my dad's birthday get together. These were a lot of fun to do...I can't wait to do more!