I am my mother's daughter.

As I get older, I am reminded more and more that I AM my mother's daughter.  I may look like my dad, but I am noticing, as well as others pointing out to me, that I do so many things that are identical to those that my mom does.  I share my love of baking with my Grandma Virginia, my mom's mom.  Growing up, I always loved to bake and would walk over to my Grandma's house often (the house I grew up in was about 2 blocks away from my grandparents house) and bake cookies with her.  My grandma is a wonderful baker and her desserts are always absolutely perfect and look more professional than the bakery.  So, even with my grandma having a love of baking, that passion must have skipped a generation.  My mom isn't a huge fan of baking and with my love for the activity, I always knew that was a difference between the two of us.  Most recently, however, I have been getting phone calls, texts, and emails from my mom, sharing with me new recipes that she has found, or desserts that she has made for get-togethers or luncheons at work.  God Bless her (and Mom--I know you're reading and trust me, it is ENTIRELY out of love), but she has been on quite the roll with a new recipe for Lemon Squares that she and everyone that she makes them for adores.  I have yet to try them, but definitely will, because I don't see this hot topic fading away until I do.  But this little example reminds me once again that I am, in fact, my mother's daughter...

I find myself totally, 100% addicted to baking.  I crave going home from work at night, getting to the gym to get my workout out of the way, and returning home to get baking.  I have been trying out a few new recipes for cookies, that in my opinion, are nothing to call home about, and I'm not going to waste space on my blog posting the recipes. 

But...one of my newest, most severe baking addictions are making these...

Cake balls.  I LOVE making them.  It's fun to make them for each season or occasion.  I find that for me, cake balls are like lemon squares to my mom.  I want to make them for everyone.  I want to bring them to every party I'm invited to.  I want to tell everyone and their uncle about cake balls and how great they are.  I have posted status updates about cake balls numerous times on my facebook page.  I have emailed the recipe and will probably do many, many more blog posts about them, too.  So, if you see anything on the lines about "cake balls" in the subject on a post, I wouldn't be offended if you skip reading my post that day.  It's an addiction.  I can't help it.

The cake balls pictured are french vanilla cake balls and made for my friend Abby's aunt Cindy, who is in Florida visiting.  I have adopted Aunt Cindy as my own and was so excited to whip up a batch of these when I knew she was coming.  She told me awhile back that she loves sweets and loves cake.  And trust me, when people tell me things like that, I rarely forget.  It's like magic words to my brain that get archived forever.  I hope she likes them...I'm heading out to the beach now to meet them for a drink...and cake balls, of course. 

Hope you are all having a great weekend!  The weather here in FL has been beautiful and was especially gorgeous today.  85 degree, no humidity.  Heaven.  On.  Earth. 

Staying tuned next week...I have a cake order due on Thursday and will a little something up my sleeve for my bestie Emily who will be arriving on Saturday from Minnesota. 

Easter Dessert

So, I don't have much for you tonight.  I hope you aren't disappointed after I asked you to check back and see what I came up with to bring to my Easter dinner on Sunday evening. After tossing around some ideas and trying to whip up in my head a little Easter cake idea, my mind started turning to other desserts...outside of the cake world.  I was thinking about making a super-yum dessert that my mom made growing up, Chocolate E'Claire Torte, but then I decided on "Not Yo Mama's Banana Pudding" by Paula Deen.  Healthy?   Not so much.    Delicious?  Oh my goodness.  Let's just say HEAVEN. ON. EARTH.  I think it was well-received at the dinner.  I was pretty confident it would be since about 1,763 other people gave it a 5 star rating on the Food Network website.  I have no pictures to share, but you're not missing much.  It's not the most pleasing to the eye, but don't worry, your tummy will thank me.  Here's the recipe, if you're interested.  It can also be found at Foodnetwork.com.

Not Yo Mama's Banana Pudding

• 2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies
• 6 to 8 bananas, sliced
• 2 cups milk
• 1 (5-ounce) box instant French vanilla pudding
• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping thawed, or equal amount sweetened whipped cream

Directions

Line the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.
In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve (overnight is best).

It's that time of year! Time for Peeps!

I am not-so-much a peeps fan, but have always thought they are super cute.  I mean, how can adorable, fluffy bunnies coated with bright, crystally (I don't think that's a word, but you know what I mean) sugar not be adorable?  In my travels through the world wide web, I stumbled upon some cute Easter treats, made with peeps.  I was excited to give it a try and brought most of them in for my co-workers as "Party Favors" during last Monday's 8am meeting.  I hope the treats helped kick start the week.  And I'm not kidding--I think it's cool to load people up with calories and sugar bright and early in the day.  That's just how I roll, so get used to it, co-workers!  Aside from giving most of the treats to co-workers, I ran some over to my condo "peeps" (HA! Like that one?  That was good, huh?).  I wish I could've mailed some off to my sweet little nephews in Indiana and other friends and family back in the Midwest, but with the hot FL temps, I didn't want them to get icky in the mail.  I forgot to take pictures of mine, but here's some pics from the website I got the idea at.  http://www.lovefromtheoven.com/

 I whipped up a batch of carrot cake cake balls to bring in for lunch yesterday.  My co-worker came in with her sweet, sweet little baby Sarah.  Not only did Kim come with a baby, she also brought one of the most delicious casseroles I have ever had....I call it Chapitoriousdeliciousness Chicken, but I think it's really called "Chapious Chicken"...I tend to make up names when I don't really remember the real name.  (Did you know you'd learn so much about me through my blog?) I'm sure my friends could share stories with how I make up names for people when I can't remember their real name, but that's another story!  Wow- I got a bit side tracked there, sorry about that!  Back to the cake balls.  I was super disappointed with how they turned out.  I swear the box said "carrot cake", but it tasted like spice cake.  Ick.  Usually I like spice cake, but maybe I was really looking forward to CARROT cake.  I used cream cheese frosting with the so-called-carrot-cake, but it still didn't taste right to me.  Oh well, maybe I can try a different brand of cake mix next time.  God forbid I would try to make the cake from scratch...who makes cake from scratch, anyways? 

I am looking forward to Easter dinner at Lindsay's with her soon-to-be Hubby and our co-worker Katie and her hubs.  Stay tuned to see what I made to share for dessert! 

Carrie :)

Let It Snow!

With the temps that are quickly arising in Florida and from what I hear, the snow that recently fell in the Midwest, I thought posting this "snowman cake" would be somewhat appropriate.  The Floridians might like to see a snowman right now, and the Midwesterners are probably dreaming about throwing this cake in a Floridian's face.  I hear ya about being so over the snow.  Enough is enough and trust me, I know...I've dealt with it for 23 years!

Lindsay (the physical therapist that I blogged about) ordered this cake to share with her family who was visiting for Christmas.  Remember me saying that Lindsay gets very excited about cake?  Well, it's true.  The girl has been my VIP and orders cakes for nearly every holiday.  The best part is she lets the design up to me!  I was excited to try something other than the traditional "red and green" Christmas design. 

Love the polka dots!

Just a simple little polka dot birthday cake!  I never seem to get tired of polka dots...definitely one of my "go-to" designs!  I made this cake awhile back for a combined birthday lunch for two co-workers.  I like the colors against the chocolate brown icing.  Chocolate doesn't seem to be a favorite flavor, so I don't get many opportunities to use these color combinations. 

Jarred's 28th Birthday Jersey Cake

I had the honor of making a cake for my co-worker's husband, Jarred.  Jeanene asked me awhile back if I could make a Lakers jersey cake for her husband's surprise birthday party.  Her request was pretty simple...she wanted it to be a #24 Kobe Bryant Laker's jersey.  I hear that Jarred loved it and Jeanene gave me permission to take a pic from her Facebook of the birthday boy with his cake.  Happy Birthday, Jarred!  Your party looked like a blast!  I'm happy you had cake left over to share with your friends who found they needed a second helping! :)

You'll Bee Missed, Dr. Thurston!

As sad as it was to say "See ya later" to one of our awesome Physical Therapists, Dr. Lindsay Thurston,  who was moving on to a different rotation, it atleast gave me an opportunity to make a cake.  Lindsay worked her tail off in our program and the day she was leaving was a bit bitter sweet.  It's always good to rotate and stay "fresh" in all areas of rehab, but you do form relatioships with your co-workers that just makes it a little sad.  And Jim--if you're reading this, please know that we are THRILLED to have you as our new PT...if you promise to be just as awesome as Lindsay was, you'll get a cake, too, when you rotate! (wink, wink!)  I seriously do like all of the PT's I have ever worked with...Lindsay and I just got to be good buds and it was fun to make a cake for her, mainly because she gets REAL excited about cake. 

Welcome to my blog!

So after a couple of years of starting a blog to share my love of cake decorating with all those interested, I've attempted to log back in to get it up and active again.  Apparently my passwords don't like me and did all they could to be stubborn and not let me in.  My old blog is still out there in cyber space, and probably will stay there unless one of my sweet friends would be so darling to remove it for me.  Knowing next to nothing about cyber technology, creating a new blog sounded like the best idea to me. 

Cake decorating is a hobby I took up almost 4 years ago and unlike many other hobbies I have started and tried my hand at, this is one that stuck.  Maybe it's because I love sweets.  Maybe it's because I love fun colors.  Maybe it's because I love finding ideas and copying other peoples work- HA, that sounds bad.  Maybe I love the challenge of attempting to make my work to look as good or better than someone elses.  Maybe I love loading other people up with calories.  Or...maybe, it's this.  Maybe I like making other people happy and putting smiles on their faces.  I think that last "maybe" is likely to be the reason...I think I like making every occassion as sweet as it can be. 

I have been posting pictures of some of the cakes I have done on my facebook page.  Some of you may have checked them out.  Many of my friends and family have mentioned that I should blog or start a website to share my work.  Thank you for the encouragement and interest.  I am excited to start blogging, so please, come back periodically and check it out!  I will be posting pictures, hopefully in the next few days. 

Thanks for stopping by!  I love comments, so please feel free to share those, too!  I really, really like comments! (hint, hint!)

Carrie