With Love, From Me :)

SSoo...I've had a super hectic week to say the least ... but a good hectic not a I can't wait till this week is over hectic :)

It all started on Tuesday when I got an order of 12 valentines day cookies to do and of course I only had 1/2 a stick of butter, like a cup of powdered sugar and practically no flour... this is when I decided to leave it for Wednesday KNOWING they were going to pick them up on Thursday ( this is what I always do... leave everything for the very last minute). So Wednesday comes along and I had to run some errands and I also had to practice for a medical school interview I had the following morning. By the time I finished having dinner and watching my fav TV shows it was 10 at night and time to start baking.

I had purchased the most adorable cookie cutters from Sur la Table (what an amazing store!!) and I was super ecstatic to finally use them...

I took a lot of pictures so you can see them :) 

( I love my new cutters!)

They picked up the cookies Thursday night so I had a little extra time to finish decorating them that same day but my day didn't end with the cookies as I also had to bake 12 mini cakes for Friday afternoon.

Right after I finished my cookies I started making my mini cakes so I ended up going to sleep like at 2:30 a.m decorating them. I love making them! I can literally spend hours decorating them! I am no professional but I think they came out pretty darn cute for a rookie :)

I must also take this post and thank my mommy who went to sleep super late decorating and my awesome friend Sandra who came super early to help me finish the cakes ;)

My hand is there so you can get an idea of the size of each cake

(Packaged and ready to go!)

With Love,

From Simply Sweet :)

<3

P.S.

Blog Love...

I came across the cutest blogs ever!! Her name is Manni, she is a vegetarian and she uses no animal products..yes...it is possible..check out her blog: www.ibakecakes-manni.blogspot.com

Another blog that I found super cute and hilarious is cookies and cups! She loves to bake and create all things sweet! Check her out at http://cookiesandcups.blogspot.com you'll relate to all her posts

Good things come in small packages...

So as you know Valentines Day is quickly approaching.. I don't even think Christmas was over when I saw Valentines Day merchandise for sale but anyways... If you're tired of the same'ol box of chocolate and roses for V day how about you give him/her a mini cake they'll absolutely adore?! These cuties are red velvet with cream cheese frosting but I can make them with chocolate, strawberry or even almond cake and frost them with any flavor you like :) ... they fit in the palm of your hand and you won't even have to share ( I know I wouldn't heehee). I love them because they look like mini wedding cakes and they are so super fun to do! I know anyone would enjoy and LOVE these mini cakes :)

Completely off topic BUT..
If you have some delicious recipes you wish to share or any pictures of things you have baked email them to me!! I want to create a gallery page of things people have baked and if you want I'll upload the recipe on my recipe page so people can try your recipe. I really enjoy baking and would like other people to bake too :)

Counting Calories...What is that?!

Vanilla Cupcakes w/ Strawberry Frosting

Red Velvet Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

Mini Guava Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Frosting

Impossible thats what that is... well... at least in my house :o)
The red velvet cupcakes came out DELICIOUS but my new favorite has to be the vanilla cupcake w/ strawberry frosting. I made the frosting with fresh strawberries and its absolutely divine! The frosting is light and you can taste the fresh strawberries in every bite. For the vanilla cupcakes, I kind of changed it up a little by adding some almond extract to give it a kick and of course I couldn't leave my guava cupcakes out...I made about 16 mini cupcake just because I knew someone would ask for them (and they did!) :o)

Sugar Cookies!

Aside from working on cupcakes this past weekend, I actually had an order of sugar cookies. I was super excited because I hadn't had any orders of cookies since Christmas! They wanted 15 hello kitty cookies for the girls and whatever came to mind for the boys (I love when they do that!) I was freaking out because no-one sold hello kitty cookie cutters, apparently you can only order them online and it takes about a month to get them... A month!! I only had a weekend!! Thankfully my very awesome friend Rosa from Cakes by R.C had hello kitty cookie cutters! They came out super cute! For the boys I ended up doing some ferocious looking dinosaurs... Everything was packaged and ready to go way before the deadline :0)

Sweet goodies! Cake pops!

Its tasty! Its awesome! Its cake on a stick!  You can make them any color and any flavor you want. All you need is some left over cake, frosting and candy ( I used candy melts that I bought from Micheal's). This was my first attempt at making cake pops so the candy wasn't smooth... it had little bumps and the candy melts kept on hardening on me so I had to re-melt the candy a couple of times. Practice makes perfect and unfortunately my waistline keeps getting bigger :/... But all and all the final product was super cute and it tasted awesome. They are great for birthday parties and any other festive occasion as the candy melts come in every color possible and you can add sprinkles and anything else that comes to mind.

More cute treat ideas to come! :)

An alternative to pastelitos

In Miami if you go to a birthday party, baby shower or any special event you're bound to encounter some delicious pastelitos. Pastelitos are basically baked puff pasteries that can can be filled with sweet or salty fillings. My absolute favorite are the guava and cheese pastelitos and it wasn't until recently that I tried to make the ultimate hybrid:: The guava cupcake with cream cheese frosting:: I tweaked the recipes that I found by adding a little more guava pulp and adding guava paste chunks in the batter that way you will actually be able to taste the guava.

The best recipe for cream cheese frosting that I found is this one from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
  
• Directions
• In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

The very first cake I sold!

This was my second attempt at baking a cake and decorating it with fondant. My first cake was a complete disaster! I believe it happened to me because...I..I..cheated...(::gasp::)! I bought already made yellow cake mix to make my cake. I wasn't aware of all the modifications that had to be made if you wanted to decorate it with fondant. I think the only thing extra I added was a little bit of vanilla and almond extract to give a different flavor but other than that nothing else! So for this cake I made everything from scratch, it had three layers: vanilla, chocolate, vanilla. I also used buttercream to frost the cake and voila... a sturdy yet yummy cake :)