July 4th!

Every year for the last couple of years my husband and I have met most of my family on Main St. in Huntington Beach for their famous 4th of July Parade! This year is no exception. Last year I brought a dessert to the party and I was so proud of it.....

 Plain old cake with a surprise inside...

 an American flag!

Turned out pretty good!

I found this cake on a blog but since it was a year ago I completely forgot which one! This year I would like to do another dessert but I am still debating which ones. I recently began following this very talented woman who runs a website called TheTomKatStudio. She finds amazing things around the Internet along with creating her own amazing products as well. I would love to be the OC version of her and some day I hope too! Anyways she has some very cute ideas on her website like this one.....

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These adorable cupcakes are mimicking the old school red, white and blue Popsicle you get from the ice cream truck. The recipe to make them is also suppose to taste just like the Popsicle as well. I am not too sure if I will follow the recipe or if I will just make vanilla cupcakes with colored cream cheese frosting, but I definitely think I want to make these for the party!

I am really looking forward to the 4th this year and celebrating Independence in style!

Speaking of Independence, on a side note, I wanted to mention that today was a very special day in NYC because a law was past to allow gay marriages! I personally think laws do not need to be passed or sign allowing anyone to get married.....we all should be treated equal! I hope California jumps on board soon!

Chocolate Pretzel Vines....or Herbs?

After deciding on a cute garden patch for the cupcakes and sunflower cake pops blooming from flower pots I knew I needed more tasty treats to decorate my Mom's dessert table with! I knew I wanted to incorporate chocolate covered pretzel sticks into the mix but I was not sure how I was going to relate them to the garden theme. Then it hit me! Vines! I could do green chocolate covered pretzel sticks and then cover them in green sprinkles to make cute little vines! Then I thought what was I going to stick them in to stand straight up so that they can be plucked and gobbled up quickly? Then I had an ah-ha moment when I was at Walmart picking up items for the cake pops. I saw these adorable herb pots that were pretty cheap and already labeled. I didn't buy any because I like to focus on one treat at a time but now that I am focusing on the pretzels I think I am going to go back and buy them today! They would add so much to the overall look of the table plus I think the green chocolate covered pretzel sticks would look so cute popping out of the herb pots. So I guess instead of vines they will be herbs, which is perfect because I think they will look more like herbs instead of vines anyways!

The great thing about the flower pots and herb pots is I will be able to re-use them for actual gardening or for a future dessert table!

Now I need to worry about how I am going to get them to stand up in the herb pot. The cake pops were easy because the stick can get stuck straight into the foam but no one wants to eat a pretzel that has been stuck in foam.

~UPDATE~

So I went and bought the Herb pots and today Stella, Ollie and I made the chocolate covered pretzel sticks. I bought a large bag of chocolate animal crackers because they were SOOOO much cheaper then oreos and crushed them up to make dirt to go inside of the pots. I will also be using the "dirt" for the top of the garden cupcakes (but it will be much finer). Here is the finished product.....

I LOVE it!!!

Dessert Table: Garden Themed Birthday Party

I am known as the dessert queen in my family. I am always the one to bring a special treat to all the family gatherings. I love to bake cakes for my nieces and nephews, cupcakes for special occasions, cookies for bake sales and I have decided what better way then to just do it all and take a stab at the new up and coming fad, dessert tables!

My next project is creating a Garden themed dessert table for my Mother's birthday. She recently became an avid green thumb and what better way to express her love of gardening then through desserts!

The first thing I did was look into garden themed cupcakes. My go to for cupcakes is one of the two books, "Hello, Cupcake!" or "What's New, Cupcake?" by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson. If you have not already (and you love to bake), go out and buy these books, your cupcakes will be the next big thing at parties! So I found a perfect "Garden Party" themed cupcake that look like little vegetable patches of radishes, peas, carrots and lettuce. I cant wait to make them! Here is a picture of the Garden Party from the book....

In the next few blogs I will discuss what other sweet treats I am making for the dessert table along with all the embellishments!

Goat Cheese & Chocolate

Now the title of this post may not seem too appetizing but they are examples of savory & sweet, the two tastes I want to base my whole business on! I want to make a twist on the plain desserts that you grew up on by adding savory to the sweet or visa versa. I do not plan on making everything both savory and sweet however a few cupcakes, cookies, whoopie pies with an added treat never hurts!

Based on Wikitionary Savory is something that is salty or non-sweet, such as meat, vegetables, bread, cheeses, rice, and so on. Whereas Sweet is the opposite, having the taste of sugar, such as chocolate, butterscotch, honey and so on. I want to take ingredients that have both tastes to complement each other and create a masterpiece in your mouth and excitement in your eyes! For example one of my favorite savory & sweet combinations has to be caramelized pears and Gorgonzola cheese. I think this must be the first savory & sweet creation I should work on.....

However, right now, I plan on just keeping it simple and sweet.