Frosting your cookies

I use a #2 tip for the outline and a #3 tip to flood in the icing.

When icing the cookies you want to do one color at a time, one section at a time. Let each section dry for 30 minutes or so before moving on.

Pipe an outline of each section and quickly fill that section in with frosting. You can jiggle the cookie softly to get the icing to settle into the outline smoothly without running over. You can do sections that are not going to flow into the first section you've decorated (For the Mario cookies I did all of the white dots first and then filled in the red or green sections once those had dried for 30 minutes).

Cookies need to sit for 24 hours before they can be stacked without disturbing the icing.

My first cake!

I have always loved the basket weave cakes.

Please forgive the photos... This is the first cake I ever decorated. Actually, the first anything that I ever decorated.

It was really much easier than I had anticipated. I'll have to do another basket weave sometime soon so that I can do a tutorial on it.

Buttercream frosting

I have spent a long time looking for a perfect buttercream frosting. I absolutely love the super sweet, super bad for you, bakery sweet cream and I have finally figured it out! I've not found a recipe exactly like this, but it's a combination of

several other recipes and my own ideas on ingredients and amounts. I'm sure a recipe just like this is out there somewhere, but I never found it:

Ingredients

1 cup butter, room temperature

2 cups shortening

1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring (careful with amounts as it can really turn the flavor from good to bad quick)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (use clear extracts to maintain true white)

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 lbs confectioners' sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons meringue powder (if you're unfamiliar with this ingredient, you can find it at Hobby Lobby, Michaels and Walmart in the baking sections under the Wilton brand)

Heavy whipping cream (add this a tablespoon at a time to start and then in lesser amounts until you get to the desired consistency)

Directions

1. mix butter, shortening, and salt with stand mixer on low for 5 minutes

2. add vanilla, almond and butter extracts and mid on low for 1 minute

3. Add 1 pound of confectioner's sugar and the meringue powder and mix until smooth

4. add 1/2 cup of confectioners' sugar at a time until you get the consistency you want

5. add whipping cream and mix for 5 minutes

*note if you plan to add coloring to your icing it will thin the consistency. Keep this in mind when adding liquid

6. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate.

I assure you I was jumping up and down when I tasted this frosting.

Toasted coconut and pineapple cake

I went out to grab dinner a couple nights ago and saw a really yummy looking coconut cake. Of course the single slice of the cake was $5 so my immediate reaction was "I can make that!"

I baked the bottom layer of this cake over pineapple chunks and frosted it in butter cream encrusted in toasted coconut flakes. I haven't actually tasted it and don't plan to. It's being gifted so I'll keep my fingers crossed that I'm right when I think you can't go wrong with coconut and pineapple!

Something shameful that I'll point out right now in this photo, I don't own a cake plate. That IS a wine glass that I've precariously balanced my precious cake on top of. That's probably something I should work on if I'm going to take this hobby seriously.

Tutorial to follow!