Flowers for Sara's Birthday (Rose Cake)

Friday was my friend Sara's birthday and I thought I'd get her some roses.  Since she looks so pretty in neon (as you can see in this pic from Refinery29) I thought a bright orange and pink bouquet would be appropriate.

Sara doesn't eat dairy so, I endeavored to make my first cake sans butter and milk.  Armed with this recipe for the chocolate cake and a frosting made with non-dairy shortening, almond milk and powdered sugar, I baked a 5 layer cake covered in orange and pink roses (I used the same piping bag so that some of the roses would be a pretty mix of the two colors.

Ever since learning how to make frosting roses from I am Baker, I've found it to be the easiest way to make a cake look pretty... the color possibilities are endless and your design job doesn't have to be perfect - the roses are very forgiving.  It's also just a lot of fun to do, swirling and swirling...  Just get a 1M frosting tip, read I am Baker's tutorial and go bananas with your future cakes.

There's Miss High Fashion 4 Less herself with her roses and Kata from The YouFinder.  Incidentally, that cake almost bit it on the cab ride over.  Happy 30th Sara!

Valentino's Little Red Dress & My Valentine's LRD (Little Red Dessert)

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a Valentino inspired red velvet cake!  I adore Valentino's off the shoulder LRD  from his Spring 2012 Resort Collection.  Although I'd love to wear it for Valentine's Day, the best I could do was bake my own LRD, my little red dessert.

I used the red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting recipes from The Joy of Cooking.  It turned out to be a delicious decision - very moist and not too sweet.  After crumb coating the cake and letting it crust up a bit, I covered it in red buttercream fondant.  The bows were a fun little project.  I used a couple online tutorials to make (and re-make) the fondant bows.  I let them firm up overnight on the bottom edge of my round baking pans so they formed the curve and could rest on the edge of the finished cake.

I just love Valentino's romantic red bows...

images via here, here,  here

Have a  great weekend everyone! I'll see you all on Monday... xoxo

Weekend Trip: phone pics

Happy Tuesday!  How was your weekend? I hope it was lovely and I hope your week is starting off wonderfully too.  I had a great weekend in Breckenridge; it was -9 degrees the day we left and I was happy to come home to the warm DC weather.  Brad took me skiing and I crashed only once:)  He's such a patient teacher and so gracious about my "no need for speed" when all he wants to do is live out his "harder better faster stronger" credo.  Here are some phone pics from the weekend... I was inspired to do a glittery, scotch tape-utilizing mani right before we left (everyone's doing it) - oh, and that is my engagement ring;)  Brad proposed to me right before my birthday in August and I still can hardly believe it:)  I had to wait a little bit to process and digest the whole thing before I started sharing... but I'm now ready to jump into the excitement of it all!  I am unbelievably blessed and so looking forward to sharing all the anticipated adventures as well as all the unknowns with my best friend and my favorite person in the world.  ...so happy...

 

 

 

 p.s. One of those photos is not a phone pic (can you tell which one?).  Brad's sister Michelle is a very talented photographer and she snapped some pics of us having fun/being freezing in the snow.  I'll put some more up soon!

Party Pics/Why do I love wigs?

I basically use Halloween as an excuse to wear a wig:) This year it was a blond one and last year it was short and black.

Last year's wig actually prompted me to cut my hair off for the first time in my life:

I think I get this fascination with wigs  from my Mom, she has an extensive collection and I admire that she wears them just for fun.  Thanks for letting me bleach/cut up/destroy one of your wigs this year Mom;) Love you!

Ode to Summer

Gone are the long, hot days and the gorgeous warm breeze.   On their way are cold, dark days; 

Oh little heart, please don't freeze.

Goodbye summer, you were a lot of fun.  I love you.