lovebird cookies

This past summer, my little brother got married! And it was such a beautiful wedding! He and his wife were married on a beautiful ranch in Carmel, among beautiful scenery, a view of the ocean, and grazing sheep nearby. And all of our family were there to celebrate with them. It was a beautiful day. And I had the privilege of making cookies for their wedding favors!

My brother and his wife love birds, so we decided on these lovebird cookies. I saw the original design at Little Wonderland, and thought it would be perfect for them! Their wedding colors were robin's egg blue and coral, so we decided on blue and white birds, with a coral beak and feet. I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe, which you can find in my book, and this heart cookie cutter which I found on Amazon. (I actually purchased several different heart cookie cutters, because I was looking for the perfect size and shape of heart! Some were too narrow, or too small, but this one was perfect!)

After the cookies were baked and cooled, I started on the royal icing (recipe also in my book!). I used white stiff icing and a small round tip to pipe the outline for the white bird, and then I filled it in with white runny icing.

Then I did the same for the other half of the cookie, using stiff blue icing for the outline, and then filling in with runny blue icing. (I used this gel-based food coloring get the perfect robin's egg blue!)

I let the cookies dry for several hours, before adding the details. First, I used brown semi-runny icing to create the branches.

Once that was dry, I used coral icing to create the beaks and the feet.

Then I used black stiff icing for the eyes, and then stiff white and blue icing for the wing details.

Aren't they sweet?

My brother's wife even made cute little cookie tags for me to package them up with!

I'm SO happy for them! Here are some pictures from their amazing day.

Congratulations Michael and Robin!!!

japanese cheesecake with whipped cream and raspberries

I've been meaning to try making a Japanese cheesecake again, after making this one a few years ago. I remember it being very light and fluffy, yet super flavorful at the same time (think soft fluffy cheesecake instead of a dense rich cheesecake!). So when it was time to make something for my brother's birthday, I thought it would be the perfect cake for him!

What makes this cheesecake so light and fluffy are eggs whites, which are whipped to stiff peaks and then folded in with the rest of the cream cheese batter.

I used this recipe at Diana's Desserts once again, but this time instead of baking it in a 9-inch springform pan I baked it in an 8-inch round cake pan (lined with parchment paper), in a water bath.

Look how tall and fluffy it got!

After letting it cool to room temperature, I let it chill in the fridge overnight. Then the next morning I whipped up some fresh whipped cream, tinted with a bit of vanilla extract and sweetened with a bit of confectioner's sugar, and covered the top and sides of the cake with it.

Then I used a Wilton #104 petal tip to pipe rows of ruffles along the sides of the cake. (My new favorite way to frost a cake, see here and here!)

Then I decorated it with a ring of fresh raspberries (since my brother likes cakes with fresh fruit!)

I loved the color effect - the striking red of the raspberries against the white of the whipped cream. So cute! (Now that I think about it, this combination looks a bit like the Mother's Day cake I made last year ... hmmmm.)

Happy Birthday, Michael! Hope you enjoyed the cake! :)

blackberry mousse cake

My mom's company threw her a retirement party last fall, and when she brought home the leftovers of her retirement cake, which was a blackberry mousse cake, my brother texted me a picture of his slice and told me that I needed to recreate it because he liked it so much. So naturally, I attempted to recreate the cake for his birthday dinner last week!

I started with the chocolate crust. The retirement cake had a crunchy, chocolately crust, and the crunch reminded me a lot of these European wafer cookies that you see a lot during the holidays. So to make my crust, I used a food processor to grind up enough Oreos (with the filling removed) to make about a cup of crumbs, as well as a cup of crumbs from those European wafer cookies (good thing we still had an unopened box in our pantry from the holidays!)

Then I added a few tablespoons of sugar, and half stick of melted butter. I pressed the mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan, and baked it at 350F for about 10 minutes. Once cooled, I removed the springform sides of the pan, to reveal a crust which looked like this!

I put the springform sides back on the pan, and then got started on my filling. I decided to make a no-bake cheesecake filling for the middle layer, based on this recipe at Barbara Bakes. I let a packet of gelatin bloom in 3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, then added it to a whipped mixture of cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, and heavy whipping cream. Once everything was mixed and fluffy, I poured it into my springform pan on top of my chocolate crust, and smoothed it out with an offset spatula. Then I let it set in the fridge while I made my blackberry mousse layer.

First I pureed my blackberries in my food processor, and then strained out and discarded the seeds. I was left with a tart and luscious blackberry puree.

To that I added more gelatin bloomed in water, and then folded in a couple cups of freshly whipped cream.

Then I poured the blackberry mousse layer on top of my cheesecake layer, which by now had already set. After smoothing the top with an offset spatula, I placed it back in the fridge to set overnight.

When it was time to bring it to the party, I carefully unmolded it and decorated the top with fresh blackberries.

The combination of the lemony cheesecake with the tangy blackberry mousse turned out great, and the crust added just the right amount of chocolatey crunch. Although, I think next time I would use a higher ratio of European wafer cookies to Oreo cookies, just to up the crunch factor. :)

Happy 30th Birthday, Michael!

more green tea chiffon cake - two birthdays and a baby shower

We were in Tahoe for the past week so I didn't do any baking, but the weekend before we left was a busy baking weekend!  I had two cupcake orders, and two cakes to bake.  The first cake was to celebrate my mom and my brother's birthdays, both of which are in March.  And the second cake was for a coworker's baby shower.  I decided to make matcha green tea chiffon cake for both events, since it was still fresh in my head from my first attempt, and it was also a chance to improve on it.

My mom and brother's birthday cake came first.  I fell back on piping my usual basketweave sides and rope borders (since my experiments with the previous cake didn't go so well).  I'm still new to piping with whipped cream though, and I found that instead of the clean smooth lines I get with buttercream and cream cheese frosting, I get fuzzy wobbly lines with whipped cream.

To decorate the top, I arranged fresh strawberry halves in a flower pattern to keep it simple and clean, and to provide a pop of color.  To finish it off I piped a birthday message with melted chocolate.  Everyone seemed to like the cake, as it was light and airy, and not too filling nor too sweet.

For the second cake, I didn't start on it until 11pm the night before the baby shower!  This time I made sure to time myself, as I was curious to see how long it would take me.  I finished baking, cooling, and decorating the cake by 2:30am, from start to finish.

This time I felt much more comfortable piping with whipped cream, and my basketweave sides came out much more even.  And instead of piping a rope border on the top and bottom like I did with the birthday cake (which I felt made the cake look really short), I did a simple shell border only on the top, and left the bottom alone (to make the cake look taller).

My initial idea was to pipe a duckie or a onesie in the middle of the cake, but it had gotten really late and I was tired, and I didn't feel like mixing colors, so I just decorated the top with fresh strawberry halves once more, and piped the congratulations message in melted chocolate.

Hope everyone enjoyed the cake(s)!