Creating Jenn's 30th Birthday Mardi Gras Carrot Cake

Butter cream on top of a yummy carrot cake

Covered with fondant

Decorated with fondant stripes and fleur-de-lis

The finished product! Beautiful and delicious!!

Debbe's 60th Birthday Cake

Went to a birthday party last night where I made this for the birthday girl :)

Valentine's Day Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies

This cookie cutter set of mini romance cutters came with this adorable teeny tiny heart cutter...

I just had to make conversation heart sugar cookies for Valentine's Day!

Complete with my own personalized messages!

Adorable! :)

Krista & Lauren's Birthday (Diet) Cupcakes

I found these adorable cupcake holders days before heading to Kansas City for our annual "in-betweenie" celebration (the day in-between 2 of my friends birthdays), so I decided to make them some birthday cupcakes!

I also wanted to try out a recipe my cousin gave me for diet cupcakes!! It calls for 1 cake mix, a can of diet sprite and 2 egg whites. Mix together and bake according to the cake mix. She had also recently made a Nutella cream cheese icing (not diet) that was amazing, so I went for that too!! Here is the recipe:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup Nutella
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cocoa powder

Add the cream cheese, Nutella and vanilla to a large bowl and beat with a hand mixer until smooth. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar and cocoa powder and mix until the frosting is smooth.They were delightful!

Just 5 grams of fat and under 200 calories too!

Happy Birthday KW & LW!! :)

Baby Wong Sugar Cookies

Last month I received an order for 34 giant baby buggy sugar cookies for a baby shower!

My design was inspired by the invitation for the shower.

Super cute!

Christmas Sugar Cookies

This year we made 6 batches of sugar cookies and 1 batch of gingerbread! Needless to say, decorating these cookies was not a quick process! But I was very excited to decorate this year and I think they turned out very cute!! These are some of my favorties...

Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake

For Thanksgiving this year, I made a Cranberry Swirl Cheesecake from a recipe I found in the November issue of Cooking Light. (First picture from cookinglight.com)
Ingredients:
4 ounces chocolate graham crackers
3 tablespoons canola oil
Cooking spray
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup Chambord (raspberry liqueur)
3 tablespoons water
1 cup sugar
2 (8-ounce) packages block-style 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (4 ounces) block-style fat-free cream cheese, softened
1 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
2 large egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 375°.2. Wrap outside and bottom of a 9-inch springform pan tightly with a double layer of heavy-duty foil.3. Place crackers in a food processor; process until finely ground. Drizzle with oil; pulse until combined. Press mixture into bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of prepared pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375° for 8 minutes; cool on a rack.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 325°

5. Place cranberries, sugar, liqueur, and water in a saucepan; boil. Cook 8 minutes or until cranberries pop and mixture is syrupy. Cool 20 minutes. Place mixture in a food processor; process 1 minute or until smooth. 6. Combine 1 cup sugar and cheeses in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Beat in yogurt, vanilla, and salt. Add whole eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

7. Place 2 egg whites in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks form using clean, dry beaters. Fold beaten egg whites into cream cheese mixture. Pour filling over crust. Spoon cranberry mixture over filling; swirl together using the tip of a knife. Place springform pan in a 13 x 9-inch metal baking pan. Add hot water to pan to a depth of 2 inches. Bake at 325° for 50 minutes or until center of cheesecake barely moves when pan is touched.

8. Turn oven off. Cool cheesecake in closed oven 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven. Run a knife around outside edge. Cool on a wire rack. Cover and chill 8 hours. It tasted amazing and was really light, which was nice after all of the turkey and potatoes!