Wow, you guys! I’m writing a blog post. I know…I can hardly believe it myself.

And you know what? It’s really hard! It’s been almost a year since I last posted – not since March 11 of last year. That’s crazy. I don’t mind admitting that I’m freaking out a little bit. You know what, though? Bakingdom turned seven years old this past Wednesday, and for the first time since arriving home in the States, I felt the urge to bake a cake, *and* to tell you guys all about it!

The last year was both really tough and really easy. It was a relief to take this time off and focus on my family, and our move home from the Netherlands. I spent a lot of time making crafts and turning our new little place into a home, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it in future posts. We are living in military housing for this tour, and even though it’s disappointing to have our options taken from us, this place is cute and we have some really nice new neighbors. Plus, we’re home! Living in Europe was an incredible opportunity, and we absolutely loved it. We hardly wanted to leave, but man! We aren’t half a world away from our family anymore, and that is the best thing ever.

I have a pretty small little kitchen here, but it’s bright and cheerful, and I’m looking forward to showing it to you all…and to baking lots of tasty treats to share with you. I have *really* missed you guys!

I decided that I really wanted a floral cake for Bakingdom’s birthday this year. I realized that in all the years we’ve been hanging out here together, I’ve never done a good old fashioned floral cake. Considering that my caking roots are deeply entrenched in the grocery store bakery and it’s buttercream roses, this had to be remedied. After all, that’s where this all started for me – in a little grocery store bakery in Indiana, decorating cakes with roses and ruffles and lots and lots of “Happy Birthdays”.

Which is why there are plenty of those classic buttercream roses on this cake, but I also dressed it up with a few camellias and greenery. I had so much fun making this cake.

I think this year will be the year of the flower. Lots of roses and mums and ranunculus on my cakes and cupcakes, and tiny versions adorning fat sugar cookies. Bouquets of sugar piled all over the sweetest treats I can dream up!

I want to share tutorials for them with you guys, and I can’t wait to make some geeky goodies that I’ve been dreaming up all year long.

I’m so happy to be getting back into the swing of things, and I really want to thank you for all of your support and love during this last year, and over the last seven years. I need you all to know how much it meant to me to receive your messages of love and kindness, and how encouraging it was to be reminded that you were still hanging out with me. I love you guys so much! Thank you! Here, have some cake. <3

Today, the Hubster and I are celebrating 14 happy years of marriage! And we’re also celebrating 100 days until we’re homeward bound to our family and friends! Living in Europe for the last three years has been such an incredible adventure and education. It has kept me busy, and although it’s been an incredibly inspiring time, I haven’t always been the best at blogging regularly.

Over the last year and a half or so, I’ve been very leisurely about how often I post here to the blog, and to be honest, it’s been great. We traveled so much, and had family to stay on more than one occasion. We also faced a couple of health ordeals for our pup, Loki. Now, the travels are done, our family is home, and Loki is healthy and snug. Under those circumstances, you would think that it’s time I spent some time cultivating ideas and projects to share with you all here. Except my computer is officially dead. I can no longer upload and edit any of my photography for my recipes and craft ideas.

Obviously, I’ll be replacing my computer, but with only 100 days left here, it’s not something that’s going to happen until we are home and settled back into the States. Our movers are actually coming to pack up all of our household goods one month from now, and we’re off to a hotel for over two months of living out of suitcases. While our travels are over, our adventures sure aren’t!

And so today, I’m announcing my official hiatus from full-time blogging. I’m sure it seems moot at this point, since I haven’t posted anything new since December, but the truth is that this is a hiatus. This is not permanent. I needed the last year and a half to explore and venture out and spend with family, and I kept in touch with you guys. Now, though, I simply don’t have the time and resources to maintain Bakingdom until we are in our new home. Fortunately, that’s only going to be a few months. We will be moved in by the end of June, and we hope to be settled by the end of July.

In the meantime, I will still be sharing tidbits of life, adventure, treats, crafts, geekery, and Lokiness on my social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). You can follow along there for updates on our move and other fun stuff. I hope to see you guys there.

You guys are the most amazing people in the land, and I’m incredibly fortunate to have you visit. I truly appreciate your understanding and patience at this time, and I look forward to getting back into the swing of things as quickly as possible!

Merry Christmas Eve! Now that my Harry Potter tree is officially officially done, it’s all ready for viewing! Well, it’s *mostly* done. Next year, I’m going to be adding a custom tree stand that, if it looks like what I’m imagining – will be amazing!

When I decided to create a Harry Potter-inspired tree this year, I was torn between a natural green tree – like those in the Great Hall at Hogwarts – and a glimmering golden tree. As soon as I saw this little pre-lit tree, I knew my answer. And I named him Felix. Obviously.

I had planned to top Felix with my Hedwig topper that I already had, but when I was talking to my friend Jen about ideas, I brainstormed having Fawkes atop the tree with his tail wrapping down around the tree as a fiery, feathery garland. I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, and this snuggly plush Fawkes from Wizarding World of Harry Potter found a new home.

Since Fawkes isn’t actually a tree topper, I had to modify him to sit on the tree securely. I decided that the best option for him to sit firmly was an empty toilet paper roll. First, I closed off one end of the roll, so that the branch couldn’t go too far into the topper. I just used some extra cardboard glued firmly to the end. Next, I performed minor surgery on Fawkes by cutting him open under his tail, behind his legs, and inserting and empty toilet paper roll – open end facing out. Then, I just hot glued the edges of Fawkes’ feathers to the opening of the toilet paper roll. That’s it – easy peasy, and now he’s very secure.

This is Fawkes’ beautiful tail, which I absolutely love, and I’m quite proud of. When I first got Fawkes, his tail was just the red and black striped bits of felt. It was a great tail for a stuffed toy, but a bit paltry for a topper, so I built the tail up with real feathers in red, black, golden brown, and orange. Then, to turn his tail into a long garland, I attached two red feather boas and wrapped them down the tree. I also added some orange, yellow, and gold feathers into the boa, which taper off as the garland goes down the tree. At the very bottom of the tree, I placed several loose red feathers on the branches, as though Fawkes’ tail were shedding just a bit.

Now it’s time for ornaments! I filled the tree with all things Potter – my floating book ornaments, patroness, stars, potions, even cauldrons, and of course Harry’s black, round glasses.

Fawkes and his tail offered a beautiful glow pop of color, but I was also inspired to handprint these red and gold ornaments for a little added pop. The design for these were influenced by some beautiful peacock ornaments I saw online. I couldn’t find any in shades of red, so I made painted my own.

For Christmas 2013, we had the joy of visiting the Warner Brothers Studio Tour during Christmastime. While we were there, I fell in love with the trees in the Great Hall, so I decided to use them for some of my inspiration for my little tree…

I covered Felix in glittering moons, golden stars, and gilded birds, just like on the Hogwarts trees. I also add shimmering gold sprigs that burst out of the tree like Weasleys’ Wildfire Whiz-bangs! These were some of my favorite details.

Of course, I couldn’t forget the golden snitch! Using Jen’s tutorial over on Epbot as a guide, I created my own version of quidditch’s sneakiest ball.

I also used Jen’s tutorial for my very own broomstick ornaments, but since I don’t have the tools for sanding down real wood, with of m broom handles is sculpted from polymer clay. I still need to add the footrests to all of my brooms, but that’s a project for next year.

I made a lot of potions for my tree. Some of them were large, like this Skele-Gro.

Some of the potions were medium and glittery, like lucky Felix here.

And then some of the potions were teeny and sparkling, like these Veritaserum and Pepperup Potions.

I also made several other potions in a variety of colors. For the potions themselves, I used hand sanitizer mixed with food coloring and glitter. The hand sanitizer acts as a perfect suspension fluid for the glitters, keeping them from sinking to the bottom. Plus, it’s nice and clean, so it’ll never mold or get icky. Once all the bottles were filled, I hot glued the corks in place, added some snazzy labels, and screwed an eye hook into the top of each one.

What’s a Harry Potter tree without Patronuses? Prongs is looking very regal here, don’t you think?

I also added a lovely doe, in honor of Harry’s mother, Lily, and an otter for our girl Hermione. Last, but definitely not least, is a handsome Jack Russell terrier, just like Ron’s patrons.

I found these owls for about a buck apiece, so I grabbed 9 or 10 and placed them all over the tree.

One of my favorite features are my brewing, bubbling, and glowing cauldrons. These were inspired by Brooke Johnson, and were super easy to make. Just place a battery-operated tea light in each cauldron, add some fluff n’ stuff, and hang. Voila, magic!

And to say goodnight this Christmas Eve, here’s one last gleaming and glowing glamor shot of Felix and Fawkes.

Merry Christmas!

I confess that I have done very little baking this holiday season. I’ve been far more interested in crafting – particularly Harry Potter crafts for my happy wizarding tree…

I crafted almost everything on the tree in one way or another, and I love everything about it – from the glowing cauldrons to the sparkling patronuses to the cuddly Fawkes with his feathery tail wrapping it’s way down the tree. Next year, I’m making a really cool custom base to accent all of the wonderful magic that’s going on here, but for now, my very favorite things about my new Potterrific tree are the floating book ornaments that I made. Which is why I want to share them with you today.

These are a lot simpler than they look, and only require a few supplies: scissors, glue, clear plastic fillable ball ornaments, clear string, cord, or fishing line, glue – I just use tacky glue, red ribbon for trim (optional), and miniature books, which we’ll learn to make first.

Now, I would love to provide you guys with these book covers as a printable, but since they’re copyrighted property, I don’t have the rights to share them. I will however tell you how I made them.

You will need a scanner and a photo editing program – I used Photoshop Elements. Scan the dust jackets of the books you plan to use – in this case, the American version of the Harry Potter books. Since I wanted the full dust jackets, including the inside portions, I had to scan the covers in two to three scans and stitch them together in Elements.

Once the covers are all scanned and ready to use, you need to decide what size you want them. I used 80mm (3.15-inch) ornaments, so I knew the books needed to be smaller than three inches. Since I would be hanging the book from one corner, they needed to be less than three inches across from corner to corner. I settled on making my books two inches tall. This left just enough room at the top and bottom for the book to hang and swing freely inside the ornaments.

It’s important to note that the books will not all be the same length, as some of the books have many more pages than others. The important thing is that they are all the same height. As long as they’re all the same height, the other measurements will match up, too.

Once the covers are all sized, place them all on one page, so you can print them all together. Print at 100%, cut the covers out, and fold them along their natural book folds.

Now we’re ready for pages.

I found that the most efficient way to fill the books was to cut sheets of white paper to 2 5/8-inches (two and five-eighths) by 1 7/8-inches (one and seven-eighths), then fold them in half.

Once you have five to eight pages per book (thicker books, like Years 4 thru 7 need more pages), they go into the books as pictured above. Set aside for now.

Inside of each cover, I added an extra sheet of paper to strengthen the cover. The paper doesn’t need to go all the way to the edges, but should cover at least the interior of the spine and covers. Apply glue to the inside of the book spine and apply a length of clear cord. I used pieces about six inches long – having extra cord to work with makes them easier to handle, and you can trim away any excess.

Make sure to center the cord in the middle of the spine. If you glue it too far forward or backward on the spine, then the books won’t hang properly.

Once your cord is glued into place, gather your book’s pages, folded edges together, and apply a generous amount of glue. Press the pages into the spine of your cover, centering them between the top and bottom edges of the cover. Hold in place for two to three minutes to secure them. Now you have a completed book, with clear cord extending from the top of the spine (you can barely see the cord in the two right pictures above).

Once the books are dry, secure them into the plastic ornaments by wrapping the cord around the top ring of the ball, and tying into place with a knot. I also spread glue over the cord before adding the other half of the ornament. This glue will help secure the cord, as well as sealing the ornaments closed. I did not seal the ornaments with glue all the way around the seam, just in case I need to open them up for alterations or repairs in the future.

And now you have a magical floating book ornament! You can leave the ornaments as they are, add a hook, and hang them, or…

…you can add some decorative trim by tying a pretty ribbon to the top. I like to do this added step because it looks completely adorable, of course, but it also helps to tie the ornaments closed, for extra security.

Now that they’re all done, it’s time to decorate the tree. I used a little swish and flick, some wingardium leviosa, and levitated all of my ornaments into place. Obviously.

My tree this year golden and shiny, and I named him Felix, of course. I am completely smitten with it. These ornaments are, by far, my favorite things.

Now that I have the whole Harry Potter series completed, I think I’m going to add the Hogwarts schoolbooks, as well. I hope you guys give these a try, and that they make your heart as happy as they do mine!

Enjoy!

One of the Hubster’s very favorite candies in the world is toffee. He will never turn down good toffee. When we were at Disney last fall, he used a lot of his snack credits for the English butter toffee that they sell all around the parks. He got so many, we had extra to bring home.

Since Veteran’s Day was Wednesday, and he hasn’t gotten to have any good toffee in a long time, I decided that I’d whip up a batch for my favorite soldier, as a thank you for his hard work and dedication to the service, as well as his family. And since he liked the toffee at Disney so darned much, why not try to replicate it?

I decided when I made this candy that I wanted it in neat, cute squares…like they sell at Disney. Usually when I make toffees and barks, I just let them cool and break them all willy nilly. This time, though, I poured my hot toffee into my prepared pan and let it cool for about five minutes. Then, I used my sharp paring knife and just gently ran it through, dividing the candy into even squares. I had to repeat each line a few times as the candy cooled, because it will melt back together again. But eventually, it cools enough to hold to score marks.

Once the toffee was cooled, it broke in nice, neat little squares – just what I wanted.

For the chocolate coating, i kept things über simple, and just melted chocolate chips, but you can certainly invest in a higher quality chocolate if you want to.

When covering the candy, you can dip just one side in the chocolate, if you like, or you can coat each piece completely, which is what I did.

Next, I rolled each of my toffee squares in chopped almonds. Again, you can just put almonds on one side, cover the candy entirely, or skip the nuts altogether. I was going for Disney-style, though, so each of my toffee squares got a nice covering of almonds.

In the end, I think we prefer almonds on one side only, but they are certainly pretty completely covered, and they’re easier to handle, since you don’t have to touch the chocolate directly.

Once all the squares are covered and coated and as chocolaty and nutty as you wish, line them up on a bit of parchment paper to set completely before serving.

Hubs was super surprised to receive his favorite candy, and I had fun emulating one of our favorite Disney treats. I think they turned out quite close to the real thing, and they’re much easier to make than you’d expect. Cooking the toffee only takes 1- to 15 minutes, depending on your stove, and the rest of the work is simply coating them in goodies after they cool. I hope you’ll give them a try this holiday season. They make a great gift, packaged in a  pretty tin or box, and they’re excellent on any holiday dessert table.

Enjoy!

Everybody’s all, “Let’s make Halloween treats!”, and I’m over here all, “But The Muppets!”

I actually made this cake back in April for the Hubster’s birthday, and it turned out so fun, and was so easy, I decided to share it with you guys.

Not only was Beaker easy to make, and fast, too, he’s made of 100% delicious cake and fluffy buttercream.

After stacking four layers of cake (Beaker is so tall and thin, after all), I filled and covered everything in a very light orange, sort of peachy color for his skin. To make this color, I used plain orange gel, adding the tiniest amounts until I achieved a color I was happy with.

Next, I topped his head with lots of bright orange frosting, and used a small offset spatula to add spikes and recreate Beaker’s fuzzy spike of Muppet hair. You can build Beaker’s hair up taller by using any cake scraps you have from leveling the cake layers out. Or you can just pile on lots of fluffy frosting. There’s no wrong answer.

The only part of my Beaker that isn’t cake or frosting are his pupils, which I made using giant confetti sprinkles colored black with a food writer.

You could easily make hi pupils with frosting, a well, but I loved how the sprinkles turned out.

I used the white sprinkles, but since you’re coloring them black, any color will do.

All ready to give Beaker his finishing touch. I colored these before decorating the cake, and set them aside to dry. I like having them ready beforehand, so that when stick them onto the cake, the frosting is still soft and they will stick nicely.

For Beaker’s eyes and nose, I used a large, proud decorating tip to squeeze large dollops of white (for the eyes) and orange (for his nose) of frosting onto the front of the cake. If the eye and nose aren’t perfectly round, just use a small offset spatula to smooth them out and round them more. If you have any points on them, just moisten you finger with a small amount of water, then gently press the points in.

I actually drew Beaker’s out on before adding his nose, as Beaker’s nose sits more or less directly over the center of his mouth. You could use jut about any color to draw his mouth on, but I thought the orange made the most sense because:

A. I had plenty from the hair and nose.

B. It doesn’t stand out too boldly, like black or another color might.

The last thing I did for Beaker was to pipe a white shirt collar covered with an off-white, slightly yellow, lab coat collar. And of course a tie, which I did in bright lime green. I used a Wilton #104 petal tip, keeping the thin side down.

And that’s it! Easy, happy, cute, and fun Beaker cake in no time at all.

Enjoy!

Hi friends! I bet you thought I was never coming back, huh? I’m sorry. I know I just up and disappeared without a word. It was pretty rude of me. I really am sorry. Also, though, I’m kind of not. It’s hard to be too sorry when you sent the summer the way I did the last few months. I have no excuse for not announcing that I’d be taking a hiatus…except that I hadn’t planned to take it. I had every intention of spending the summer baking, picture-taking, and blogging. But then, my family came to visit, so instead, I took some unexpected time off.

The best and most wonderful thing I did this summer was spend time with my family. Back at the end of May, my mom and middle sister arrived for a two week vacation here, and one week after their arrival, my oldest sister joined us, as well. I haven’t seen them for a long, long time – two years since seeing Mom, three years since seeing my oldest sister, and four years since I spent time with my middle sister. We were all due for some quality time together! I got three whole weeks to spend with my family, and the joy of taking them to see different countries…

…so in addition to spending time with my family this summer, I (we) traveled.

The main place that they really wanted to visit was Scotland. When my dad was in the Navy, he spent time in Scotland, and we all grew up hearing about what a beautiful place it was. The Hubster and I were fortunate to get to visit Scotland last year. It was incredible, and I knew that my family would love it, so it was our first stop.

We spent a couple of days exploring Edinburgh first. My mom brought along a photo of my dad (who passed away when I was 17 years old), and we took several photos of her around the city with the photo. It was a really sweet way that my mom found to share this trip with my dad.

On another day, we took a tiny bought across choppy Loch Leven to visit Loch Leven Castle. The castle is built on an island in the middle of the lake, and is where Mary, Queen of Scots spent a year of imprisonment before escaping. It was a cold, rainy day, but it was such an amazing and memorable day. While there, we toasted the memory of Dad with some Scotch Whisky. As you can see above, whisky isn’t my drink.

The following day, we drove down to Stonehenge. This was such a fascinating day, and I would definitely recommend a trip to see it if you can!

On our last day in the U.K., we explored London. We only had the one day, but we made the most of it for sure! We rode the London Eye and took a walking tour to see so many sights – from Parliament and Big Ben (The Elizabeth Tower) to Downing Street and on to Trafalgar Square. We shopped in Piccadilly, and visited Westminster Abbey before heading back across the river to see Shakespeare’s globe and the Millennium Bridge. We also crossed Tower Bridge and saw the Tower of London.

We even found time for a visit to Kings Cross Station and Platform 9 3/4!

After this trip, my mom and middle sister had to head home. We so sad to see them go, but so very grateful they were able to come see us.

While my oldest sister was still here, we headed to France to visit Versailles and Paris.

Versailles is mind boggling! Its massive and stunning and if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I’d never be able to comprehend just how extravagant it truly is.

If you visit, be sure to stop by the Temple of Love (above) for a smooch with your True Love.

Ahhhhhh, Paris.

To be perfectly honest, we hadn’t heard good feedback from friends who’d been to Paris. But you know what? We absolutely loved it! We had such an amazing time exploring the city, and I hope to return someday.

Of course, we visited the Eiffel Tower. We rode to the first level (after the restaurant level), explored, oohed and aahed, took lots of photos (like the one above), and then boarded the elevator to reach the summit.

For me, this was an adventure and an achievement, as I’m very, very afraid of heights. I’m so very happy I did this, though. It was once-in-a-lifetime, and worth every jittery second.

We also visited the Cathedral of Notre Dame. This was stunning. We were all in awe. The entire building was gorgeous, and we were fortunate to stop in when they began a service. It was beautiful.

We saw so many other sites in Paris, but there’s still so much left to see…I’m ready to go back anytime.

We couldn’t leave the city without saying goodnight to the Eiffel Tower, and when we saw they were selling massive clouds of fluffy cotton candy, we didn’t hesitate. What a fantastic memory!

After my other sister headed home to the States, I meant to get back into the swing of blogging again. Everyone had been so patient waiting for me while I toured around with my family, but I just wasn’t in a blogging place. I needed some time. I already missed everyone tremendously, and for the first time, I felt extremely homesick. We’ve been so happy here, and I love it and all the people we’ve met, but I was very sad to see my people head home again. So I took some more time. And Hubs and I took another trip. This time to Luxembourg for some hiking.

We spent Independence Day weekend on the trails. On the Fourth of July, we even stumbled on to this beautiful memorial for American WWII soldiers. It was so fitting and very moving.

We also made new friends during our hike. These two sweet donkeys (mules?) were absolutely adorable and so very lovable!

We named them Fred and George. Because obviously.

After hiking, we headed into a sweet little town named Vianden.

It was quaint and cute and fun just to meander through.

They even had their own Hogwarts Castle!

When we got home, I just wanted to keep relaxing. I wanted to spend time with Loki, snuggling. I wanted to let myself be a little sad that my family and most of my friends are far, far away and living in the past. So I did. I let myself have some time.

I crafted.

I spent time making art for my office, framing art and photos I’ve been neglecting, and creating happy new pages in my Project Life scrapbooks.

I worked on my gallery wall, adding touches of geekery wherever I could.

It was so much fun making sweet and happy art pieces to enjoy while I work in there.

This was probably my favorite project. I ordered the shelves from Target, and after painting them, I created bright, happy backgrounds for each square. I’ve been having the best time filling the shelves with little pieces of joy.

I also learned to crochet. I suppose that falls under crafting, but seeing as how it’s a little more involved, I consider it a task all its own. I’m still learning, and I’m moving right along, but I wouldn’t expect to see much more than a scarf for while yet.

During my hiatus, I read. I read a lot. I read 25+ books between my last post on May 9 and today’s. And it. was. awesome. I’m participating in the PopSugar Reading Challenge this year, and it was a lot of fun checking a whole lot of books off my list. I’m also re-reading the Harry Potter series with my bestie, Tina (Sugar Bean Bakers), for our new book club Weasleys’ Wizard Weaders. We’ve been having weekly FaceTime book discussions, which has basically been the best thing ever. All the books I read between May 9 and today:

This summer, I also embraced the return of the high waist. This is still a work-in-progress. Every fiber of my being is telling me they’re mom jeans, they’re dated, they’re uncool. Nevertheless, I invested in some charming wool plaid shorts, and some comfy, silky shorts – all high-waisted. I’m trying.

Mostly, I relaxed. I had a real summer vacation. And it was wonderful.

I’m so grateful to each and every person who takes the time to stop by here and visit for awhile, and I can’t express enough how much I appreciate your patience while I took some time to be with my family. Thank you for reading, and thank you for waiting. I hope you’re excited to see some new recipes and ideas, and maybe even read a little bit about some of my recent travels. Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!

I’ve been craving lemon cake like a crazy person lately, so I whipped one up the other day. Then, I was all, “Hm… Mother’s Day is coming up, I should make something pretty. But easy. Because I’m lazy.”

And so now, if you need a super yummy, springy cake, that’s beautiful and happy, but doesn’t take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to make….I gotchoo covered.

All you need to make this cake is a small spatula, butter knife, or even a spoon, and a few piping bags or ziptop plastic bags.

Use your spatula, knife, or spoon to fill and frost your cake with lots of fluffy frosting. You can leave this swirly and gorgeous, or smooth it out for a more refined look. Totally your call.

Now, it’s time for the easiest frosting flowers ever. These are seriously just pipe, spread, swirl, and “leaf”. That’s it. The pictures below really show each step clearly.

Just fill a piping or ziptop bag with frosting in the color of your choice, snip off the end (or corner, on a zip bag), so that you have about a 1/2-inch opening, and pipe a small bead or blobby of frosting on your cake, wherever you want it. Obviously, the bigger the ball of frosting, the bigger the resulting flower. Next, use your small spatula, a butter knife, or a spoon and gently spread the frosting out a bit, in a circular motion. *Don’t press too hard, or you will dig into the white frosting underneath.

Next, using another piping or ziptop bag, snip the very tip off of it to create a small writing-type end. The opening shouldn’t be more than an 1/8-inch or so. Fill this bag with a contrasting color. I chose to use a gray color. Now just pipe a swirl over the flower. Don’t worry about it being completely perfect – the less perfect, the more vintage or shabby chic the flowers will be.

Last, using yet another bag, fill with green frosting or another shade for leaves. Snip the end to create a ‘V’ shape (there is an excellent tutorial video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E00JFSxys0w). Remember, the more you cut (the larger the ‘v’), the larger the leaves. Once your bag is ready, just pipe leaves onto your flowers.

That’s it! That’s all there is to this simple cake.

I decided to cover my cake with a swirl of a flower garland that wraps up from the bottom, over the top, and back down the other side of the cake.

Blooming buttercream!

I love the sweet and simple look of these flowers, and the way the bloom across my cake. This would also look stunning with the flowers completely covering the cake!

This technique takes just a few minutes to do, and you have a beautiful bouquet of delicious flowers to celebrate any occasion.

Enjoy!

I know that Guardians of the Galaxy has been out for awhile now, but these cookies have been on my mind for ages, and I finally got motivated and whipped them up. I don’t know why I waited do long…they took no time at all to make, and they turned out supah awesome!

Okay, so can we just talk about how cute Groot is for a second? Because he is seriously the cutest. Great big, bad ass, big-hearted hero Groot, and bitty little sapling, boogying baby Groot…..cute, cute, cute Groot.

These cookies are pretty dang cute, too, if I do say so myself. Like, totally cute, and surprisingly easy.

Sorry for this crappy picture, but it does the job.

To make these, all I did was fit a piping bag with a small open star tip. You can use any size or style you like, as long as it creates a texture similar to the one shown. All I did to make each Groot was pipe an asymmetrical ‘u’ (one side higher than the other), then fill it in with another assynetrical ‘u’. Easy peasy.

For Groot’s yes, I made small indentations where I wanted the eyes to be, and for the mouth, I used a cleaned food coloring lid to impress a small smile shape.

After baking the cookies, while they’re still hot, press black sugar pearls into the eye indentations. By pressing them into the cookies slightly while they’re still hot, the pearls will stick in place.

Once the cookies are cooled, use a black food writer or black icing to draw a cute little grin in place.

The final touch was to brush the top of Groot’s head with green food coloring powder. You could also use Macha for this step, but it may not show quite as clearly.

I also made some full body Groots. And they were also.

I am Groot…I am cute!

These are SO easy. Like, really really. The cookies dough is quick and simple, and piping the Groot shapes took about 2 seconds per cookie. As for the decorating, it’s all very minimalistic. These would be a great addition to any superhero-themed party, and ready in no time at all. Plus, they taste amazing.

Enjoy!

I have this obsession with Easter egg hunts. Like, seriously. I LOVE them. I. Love. Them. Every year, I love to hide the eggs for Hubs or the kiddo to find, but my favorite part of the day is when they hide all the eggs for me. And they get super into it, too. They know how much I love hunting for the eggs, so they work together to be sneaky and clever and hide all the eggs in places I might not expect. Except for dark, scary, possibly spider (or spiderweb) infested places…because WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THAT?! And of course, they take pictures of all of them, because otherwise, there’s the inevitable forgotten egg.

I think I inherited my love for Easter egg hunts from my grandmother. She used to hide dozens and dozens of colorful, candy-filled plastic eggs all around her home and yard for all of the grandkids to find. But my grandparents had these neighbors who had the most horrible bullying kids, and one year, they snuck over after my grandma had hidden the eggs, stole all of the candy out of them, and placed crawdads (crayfish, crawfish, mudbugs, freshwater lobster…whatever you call the nasty things) inside of the eggs instead. Honestly? Looking back, it is kinda funny, and frankly, after the initial shock, my sisters and cousins weren’t terribly bothered by them. They were far more angry over the candy theft.

I, on the other hand, was slightly damaged by the event. We all know how I feel about spiders….six legs, two claws, antennae, and slippery sliminess are barely a step above eight legs, pincers, hairy legs, and creepy crawliness. To this day, we only hunt hardboiled and brightly dyed Easter eggs…because sure, they taste good, but more importantly,  you can’t break them open, steal the goodies, and replace them with some awful creature instead.

Candy eggs are also acceptable substitutions, but I prefer to have those with my cake. Like this cake. This cake is perfect topped with candy eggs.

When I decided to make this cake, I knew I wanted to top it with a sweet nest filled for the candy eggs, but I didn’t want a traditional bird’s nest made of chocolate shavings or another food that resembled natural twigs. I wanted something a little more unexpected and playful…and of course, if it was pink, that didn’t hurt either.

I made my nest using pink strawberry Pocky. I simply broke the Pocky sticks to varying sizes and built my own abstract bird’s nest by arranging the playfully in the frosting. I’m delighted with the end result. The nest looks sweet and happy and the candy eggs nestle in it perfectly.

I also played around with how I chose to frost this cake. If you’re a regular reader, you know I’m a sucker for fluffy, rustic buttercream, but I wanted to add some color to the bottom of the cake to balance out the sweet nest on top, and I think that a simple, swirly coating of frosting looks best plain and lovely. Instead, I decided to combine my favorite frosting technique with a classic smoothed base. Now, my ribbon of spring green sanding sugar around the base of the cake looked elegant and lovely.

I didn’t stop at decorating the outside of the cake, though! The inside of this happy cake is all dolled up in its Easter best, too. The recipe I used made three layers, so I made each layer a different color, then I followed these instructions from my vertical layer cake to alternate the cake colors and create a spring-themed checkerboard.

This sweet cake looks elaborate and elegant, but it’s extremely and surprisingly simple. This is just one tasty cake recipe, divided equally into thirds, and colored for spring, and it’s easy to cut the layers into rings to mix and match them for the checkerboard design. Plus, there’s no right or wrong way to make the Pocky nest – that’s one of the beautiful things about abstract.

Enjoy!

Recipes:

Yellow Cake (makes 2 8-inch or 3 6-inch layers)
Vanilla Buttercream