Happy Father's Day (well, it was happy :o)

Okay, SUPER late posting this but...

my dad doesn't have a sweet tooth so for him, the father's day treat i made had to be something different. something still amazing. so my PASSION for fruit tarts took over and i knew this was one he'd LOVE! the fresh fruit tart with pastry cream and vanilla bean and creme d'amande (almond cream!!) it's like all the things i've ever loved to eat packed into a 10" round tart of perfection. oh, that's right, this one's for my dad. luckily, he and i share the same taste in desserts.

it's delicious, it's simple and it's beautiful to look at... and don't get me started on how amazing it smells...

Squiggle Cuppycakes...Old-School

That's right. If you're a child of the 80's you know what I'm talking about. BEFORE Hostess lost their minds and ruined the only thing they ever did well. I decided to resurrect my childhood fave: the Squiggle Cupcake. You know the one: Chocolate cake, filled with a never-ending center of marshmallowy yummy-ness, topped with an amazing chocolate ganache and then, decorated with the white squiggly line (this time, done in white chocolate.)

Anyway, this picture is terrible, but here they are - a thank you gift to some former co-workers.

Pizza anyone?

Fresh from the oven...sort of.

so my brother, for as long as i can remember, has LOVED pizza. for his birthday, we were traveling up to visit him in Rhode Island. i HAD to bring him a cake! SO, since everyone who knows me, knows i LOVE the Cake Boss, I decided to use Buddy's cake as my source of inspiration!

the cake itself was a two-layer vanilla cake. i filled half with a lemon curd, and half with my nana's FAMOUS chocolate filling. i iced it all in *drumroll* vanilla italian meringue butter cream and then the fun part - the decorating!!

i covered the cake in fondant. using the techniques i watched on the Cake Boss, i used various pieces of fondant in reds, oranges and yellows for the "sauce" and then made my first batch of white modeling chocolate EVER!! (which is SO YUMMY i might add). I made fondant olives and fondant pepperoni too! i used the steamer to melt the top just like Buddy and he's such a genius because it worked PERFECTLY! so thanks to him for his brilliant idea!!! it made for an awesome cake (if i do say so myself). i used various colors of petal dust to paint the dough and used a torch to caramelize the white chocolate. once again, thanks Buddy! (as if he's reading this! lol)

my brother opened the cake box and laughed. he was pretty impressed. i think one of the best compliments came next: "oh man! it's so cool. it's disgusting. it's cake but it looks like pizza! [more laughter] that's awesome."

Happy Birthday to the best brother a sister could have :o)

More pics:

Buffalo Bills Cake!

I've been SOOOO bad about blogging!

This is me trying to catch up!

Meet: The Buffalo Bills Birthday Cake!

A friend of my husband's needed a cake for her husband's birthday. He's a Bills fan and they wanted a simple cake: so behold, my simple triple-layer vanilla cake, filled and iced with vanilla butter cream. I then decorated it with white fondant, an edible Bills logo printed with my newest toy - edible ink on edible frosting sheets. Ahh, technology. Gotta love it. Anyway, I put some royal icing grass around the outside as a border. They absolutely loved it and from what I hear, they ate it all in one night! That's all the compliment I need :o)

Here are a few more pics: