Keeping in Simple in January

For January, I made gluten-free shortbread cookies, which were not the prettiest thing I've created.

I tried to add some "flair" to them by adding a drop flower of cream cheese with sprinkles.

I also made Lemon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  I was working on simply frosting them, since I have struggled with them not looking right in the past.

For "flair" here, I spray painted them reddish orange.  Not too exciting, but something for the month of January was done!

Last Minute Holiday Cake

I gave myself way too short of time to do this cake.  I was amazed that I turned it out so quickly, but it was a mess and I wish I could have taken the time to fix it more.

It's red velvet with cream cheese frosting.  I have never decorated the cake fully with the cream cheese.  This recipe I found was half buttercream and cream cheese.  It appeared to work well at first and tasted very good.

However, I even got the frosting to a whipped stage and there was still little chunks of cream cheese that I couldn't get rid of.  They were so tiny, but when you are piping, they find their way out.  If you can see my lettering, I was doing okay until the bag burst on my very last letter!  So, I went over it and had to call it a day.

This was a very simple cake, but a feat for sure.  It's suppose to be a wreath and have poinsettas on it.  Below the rope border looks great though!  Even with all the flaws, it tasted great with the berry medley in the center.  I don't know if I would recommend the mix with cream cheese, but it does taste so much better with it.

Murder Mystery Cake

My friend invited us to a Murder Mystery dinner and asked if I make dessert.  Of course, I had to make a cake!  The concept was the story line of the night, which we had already gotten a preview of.  We need that the bride had been killed just before the wedding and we were there to figure out who did it.

I thought I'd go pretty litteral and have a dead bride on the cake with blood.  For the cake itself, I made the most delicious red velvet and cream cheese frosting.  It was to die for! (No pun intended)

For the dead bride, I was going to try and use modeling chocolate, but it was easier for me to just buy a doll and stick her in the cake.  So that's what I did.

Note, that I have no idea how to layer a cake, so I just kept stacking and hoped the doll would keep it together.  She did, but she also moved the layers to make it look even more like a dress.

What I ended up with is a cake that they do for Cake Decorating with Wilton, that I have never taken.  Very similiar in how it turned out.

The blood is a mixture of food coloring and Karo syrup.  For chunky blood, you use peanut butter and it looks quite real!

The cake was so good and everyone loved it, even though it wasn't that unique.