CUPCAKES

Here are some pretty cupcakes I recently made for a clients wife's birthday.  I love butterflys so I put a little one on each of these cupcakes.  Flavors were Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch, Lime and Coconut.

CUPCAKES GALORE & A BIRTHDAY CAKE

Hi everyone!!! I have been away from my blog for a while but I promise I have been busy.  I started a Facebook page and you can link to it here.  It is called Sugar Chef Peanut Brittle.  You can leave me a message to order and please when you go to Sugar Chef Peanut Brittle push "like".

The picture you see here was done for a 70th Birthday Party.  They presented the birthday cake to the birthday girl and all the guests got to come to the buffet table for a cupcake.  The flavors were coconut, red velvet, chocolate hazelnut, lime, and carrot.  The theme was the 50's so each cupcake had a little deco to reflect it.

OK back to work now!!!

BABY SHOWER CAKE

This two tier baby shower cake had to be transported 2 hours away.  Because it would be out of the refrigerator for so long I filled the cakes with buttercream and ganache.  The bottom tier was chocolate cake with ganache and raspberry buttercream with fresh strawberry filling and the top tier was white cake with raspberry buttercream with fresh strawberry filling.  Everything on the cake is edible even the shoes and building blocks.  When the baby arrives she will be named Emily which is reflected in the building blocks.

CLASE AZUL TEQUILA CAKE

This is a grooms cake I made last week for a Tequila aficionado as a present from his future mother-in-law.  The bride sent me an empty bottle (should have had at least a taste left in it!!) and I copied it out of chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream. I covered it with fondant and hand painted all the detail.  It was a real challenge to make it standing up.

ALEXIS & BROCK'S ORCHID WEDDING CAKE

 I love the flowers on this cake!!  So many beautiful colors and all different kinds of orchids.
The cake was all chocolate with three different fillings, chocolate ganache, vanilla buttercream, and a coffee mocha buttercream. 
The bride and groom are the nicest couple and it was a real pleasure making this cake for them.

This is a cute picture of them after tasting the cake.  I think Alexis is over the top in love with the taste of the cake.  Well maybe!!

And here is a note from her mom Linda:

"Not only was the cake beautiful and perfect, it tasted fabulous!"

MOTHER'S DAY COOKIES

These are the cookies I am making this year for Mother's Day.  Sugar cookies frosted with royal icing, embellished with fondant roses.

"bebe" COOKIES

"bebe" is a local woman's clothing store on El Paseo in Palm Desert California.  El Paseo is the Rodeo Dr. of the desert. 

I made these cookies for them.  The colors requested were pink and black and I decided to put a black rose in the corner of the cookie and added two little green leaves.  I wrapped each cookie individually and tied the celo bag with either a black or pink ribbon. 

BUTTERFLY SUGAR COOKIES

These are my latest creation.  Sugar cookies in the shape of a butterfly and decorated with royal icing.  Fun to make and the client loved them.

BEE & HAPPY FACE CUPCAKES

Don't Worry "Bee" Happy

Don't Worry "Bee" Happy was the theme for the ladies golf tournament at the Citrus Country Club.  I came up with this design for their dessert which was also part of the centerpiece at each table.  Half of the cupcakes were Lemon with lemon curd filling and the other half of the cupcakes were Chocolate with chocolate ganache filling.  I made the Bee's by hand using fondant and put them on an uncooked piece of linguine to keep the entire cupcake edible.

TRILOGY COUNTRY CLUB CAKE

This cake was done for Trilogy Country Club for the ladies 9'rs group. I also made individual cupcakes for each lady at their end of the season luncheon.  The flavor of the cake and cupcakes were lemon with lemon curd filling.

The stick figure on top of the cake is their logo for the group.  Cute!!

Just received this note from the event organizer:

Just a quick note...First of all the ladies REALLY loved the cupcakes,
and Nancy REALLY loved her cake.  Everything was a big hit!  Thank you
so much.

SPRINGTIME COOKIES

Happy Spring. 

GETTING READY FOR EASTER

Bunny Cookies

 Here are some of my offerings for Easter this year.  The cookies are a traditional sugar cookie.  Everyone loves this cookie and it stays fresh for a very long time after it has been decorated with the royal icing.

The peanut brittle is so good.  If you haven't tried mine yet you must order some.  But beware, it is addicting!!

Happy Easter everyone!!!



Peanut Brittle

LEMON TART

I made these for a client for her dinner party.  Lemon is one of my favorite flavors for a dessert.  Here is my recipe for Lemon Curd.  I use a combination of regular lemons and Meyer lemons.  This gives your curd a little sweeter less acidic flavor.

LEMON CURD
12 Large Eggs
12 Large Egg Yolks
2 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Meyer Lemon Juice (fresh)
1 Cup Lemon Juice (fresh)
1/2 Cup Lemon Zest (fresh)
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
8 Ounces Unsalted Butter (prefer Plugra)

1.  Whisk the eggs and yolks together in a saucepan. 
2.  Zest the lemons before you squeeze the juice from them.  Rub the zest into the sugar.
3.  Add the zest, sugar, lemon juices, and salt to the saucepan with the egg mixture.
4.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches 180 degrees.  Remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh strainer.
5.  Let the mixture cool to 130 degrees then add the butter in pieces while mixing with an immersion blender.
6.  Cover with plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming.  Refrigerate overnight.
Note:  3 re hydrated gelatin sheets can be added to the curd while it is still warm.  Stir them in well.  This is useful in the event you want to use the curd in a larger tart that will be cut into slices and served on buffet etc.

Place the curd into a pre-baked tart shell and smooth the surface. Place 4 raspberries in the middle and whipped cream around the edge.  Garnish with a white chocolate chard.

PEANUT BUTTER CREAM COOKIES

These cookies are addicting and a little more work than a scoop and bake cookie but well worth the time.

Peanut Butter Filling
1 1/2 Cups Smooth Peanut Butter such as Skippy or Jiff
1 Cup Sifted Powdered Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Mix the peanut butter and powdered sugar together.  If the powdered sugar does not completely dissolve into the peanut butter to make a smooth paste put it in the microwave for 15 seconds and stir.  Add the vanilla and stir it in.  Set aside.

Use your favorite shortbread cookie recipe and cut out cookies using a 1 1/2" biscuit cutter.  Before baking make a small indentation in the center of the cookie with your thumb.

Once the cookies are baked dip the bottoms in tempered milk chocolate or milk coating chocolate.  Let dry.

Using a #100 truffle scoop, place a ball of peanut butter filling in the center of each cookie.  Flatten slightly so the filling comes about 1/4" from the edge of the cookie.

Put the cookies on a glazing rack and pour tempered milk chocolate or milk chocolate coating over them to cover the filling and cookie completely. 

Sprinkle some chopped salted peanuts in the center of each cookie.

Best eaten at room temperature and can be stored in the refrigerator.

COLE'S BIRTHDAY CAKE

This cake was for a special little boy turning 10 and it was made to reflect all of his interests, i.e. X-box video game, baseball, football, army guns etc.  When I delivered the cake he was on his way home from a baseball game and was running late so I didn't get to see his reaction. 

It was a fun cake to make.  My favorite element is the baseball and football border I made for the second tier. 
The flavors were chocolate cake, hazelnut crunch and chocolate mousse.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY



Decorated Heart Cookies & a Fudgey Brownie

 I'm a day late posting these cookies for Valentines Day.  I do have a good reason!!  I was spending the day with my husband who is my number one Valentine.  He had the day off so we decided to spend as much of it together as possible.  We went to a very late lunch, did a little shopping, and went to see the movie The Vow.  I think it is important to set aside at least one day a week to re-connect with him and our day this week just happened to be on Valentine's Day.

All Bagged Up & Ready To Go

PASTRY CHEF IN TRAINING

My friend Velvet brought her granddaughter over to meet me. She really wants to become a pastry chef so I thought I would show her how to do a few things. She is a very quick study and what a personality!! I loved her and believe she will be able to do whatever she wants in life including becoming a pastry chef. We will probably see her someday on the food network, and oh by the way her name is Julia. What a natural!!