"Who killed my sister??? Was it you?"

My mom's birthday always leads to a Wizard of Oz/Wicked theme because that's pretty much her favorite thing in America... but it also generally calls for her favorite red velvet cake. I planned this cake about a month ago in class and drew and colored my plans last week in Honors. Too bad I always miscalculate (or forget to calculate) my plans - this cake was pretty much completely disproportionate, but that's fine because the Wizard of Oz is kind of trippy anyways. So here is her Wicked Witch of the East cake, with her striped socks and Ruby Slippers after the house falls on her... of course placed upon the yellow brick road. The yellow buttercream is covering 2 layers: red velvet on the bottom and brownie on top, the legs are red velvet cupcakes stuck together with giant toothpicks, frosted in vanilla buttercream with black licorice stripes, and connected to giant rice krispie treat sprinkled and . ganache covered Ruby Slippers (shaped by my dad). And of course the witch was killed by Dorothy's house, another big slab of rice krispy treats covered in ganache and toothpicked... there were a LOT of toothpicks in this one... and we almost got them all out before Tommy took a bite... almost... at least everyone loved it - including Madeline :)

Friday the 13th's Valentine's Strawberries

I finally made beautiful chocolate covered strawberries. I've made delicious ones before, but nothing ever came close to these. I took my time and did them the right way, layering three different flavors of melted chocolate (which was melted with shortening to create the shiny gloss and shell look) on the bright red berries. Kathy, Calla & I thoroughly enjoyed every single one. (sidenote: cost less then $5 and took less than an hour)

Auntie Roe's 60th Suprise Party!

Auntie Roe's 60th Surprise Party Carsons' shopping bag cake! Delicious - 6 layers, yellow cake, cookie, 2 more layers of cake, brownie and 1 more layer of cake. Filled with chocolate pudding filling with chips ahoy chunks and iced with vanilla buttercream.

winter experiments

The last week of winter break I experimented making cookies in my food processor - success! Oatmeal chocolate chip squares. And I also let my dad & his siblings take a trip down memory lane with date-nut bars.

Sleepless Sunday

So I woke up at 7:45am on Sunday and couldn't fall back asleep. So I experimented until 2pm in my kitchen. It resulted in marshmallow mud cookies, snickerdoodle cups and truffle balls.

Kathy's "1/2 Birthday" 1/2 Cake

Mini 6-inch brownie cake cut in 1/2 and stacked filled with milk chocolate frosting and milk chocolate chips, with 11 candles because it was her 21 1/2 birthday