Feliz cumpleanos!

This next cake was a Mexican themed cake, for a woman who is learning Spanish to complement her husband's job in Texas, close to the Mexico border. The specifications: the flag of Mexico, and a sombrero. Beyond that, it was up to me. So I had some fun with it, but only a little, as it was a rather last minute order.

I had thought the Mexican flag was simple and straightforward, but then I Googled it and found it was rather intricate, with an elaborate crest in the middle. I did my best impressionist rendering of it, and this photo is thankfully rather blurry.The sombrero came out very cute and cartoon-y. I chose a font that is reminiscent of Mexico and that was a lot of fun to do. I added cacti and chili peppers to the sides, and voila! Admittedly, this cake could have used a little more decoration on top, like a chili pepper or two, but all in all a very cute cake, even given the super fast turn-around time. I amped up the Mexican character of the chocolate cake by filling the layers with a Mexican chocolate filling - flavors of coffee and cinnamon accenting the chocolate cream, soooo goooood! I could totally have eaten it by the spoonful, if I was not so careful to make correct quantities without leftovers.

Happy Birthday, Yael - or Feliz cumpleanos, Jael!

Dvora

When a lot of cake is too much...

A customer called last week, wanting to celebrate her visiting mother's birthday, but not wanting a lot of cake, as the celebration was to be small and intimate. The solution: a six inch cake! The adorably petite size was just the thing for a small family birthday party, just enough for everyone to have a piece. I will have to keep this in mind for our next family birthday, as this is the perfect size for us for one dessert. The Hebrew birthday wish is special for a birthday girl who was enjoying her first Israeli birthday.

Sadly, I can almost never show you the inside of a cake, since we are not the ones eating it! But if you could see the inside, you would find vanilla cake with fudge filling between the layers. A truly classic birthday cake combination. Yummm!

Happy Birthday, Zelda!

Dvora

O Chanuka, O Chanuka!

Well, eight nights pass so quickly, with nary a chance to post. We lit candles (8 times), played dreidel (a few times), made latkes (twice - and man were they good!), and generally enjoyed the holiday and the vacation. Hard to believe that in just one more day, the chofesh will be over and the children will be back to the old grind.

And now for some fun Chanuka treats:

Sufganiya cupcakes - tastes a lot like a jelly doughnut, but with slightly less guilt. These are minis, and remind me a lot of Dunkin Donuts munchkins. Here's one on it's own - you can decide for yourself if you see the resemblance.Also lots of fun to make and eat - gelt topped cupcakes. The gelt is made of fondant, and looks a lot like the real thing. These cupcakes are vanilla, topped with swirled peach and blue frosting. So festive! And if you aren't going to get cash, this is not a bad substitute.

Here are some Chanuka platters:

The first week's platters included: Peanut butter chocolate dreidel sandwiches, whoopie pies, orange-cranberry-white chocolate cookies, chocolate caramel Magen David sandwiches, molasses cream sandwiches, and dreidel Linzer sandwiches, with fondant covered sugar cookies on top.

Shabbat featured some variations:

Mini-chocolate caramel Magen David sandwiches, cranberry pecan bars, whoopie pies, linzer sandwiches, chocolate chip brownies, peanut butter chocolate dreidel sandwiches, and, of course, the colorful sugar cookies.

And finally, a custom platter: whoopie pies, glazed lemon cookies, chocolate chip brownies, peanut butter chocolate dreidel sandwiches, and colorful sugar cookies.

Hope you all had a sweet Chanuka!

Dvora

Happy Anniversary to Me!

This week marked the second anniversary of Dvora's Cookie Creations first public offering (not a stock offering and not our first jobs, rather the first time I publicly advertised and did the Shabbat tray concept). The anniversary flavors were among the favorites of many customers, plus a little bonus came along with the trays.

They included Sacher torte sandwiches, chocolate dipped pecan shortbread, orange-cranberry-white chocolate cookies, molasses cream sandwiches, mint brownies, and chocolate thumbprints. What do you think of the angle of the picture?

What about this one? I kind of feel like I am in the eye doctor's office: "Better one or better two?"

Then there were the variations. First, sugar cookies for a bar mitzvah kiddush.

They topped a couple of platters

for a festive touch.

Also, a gift platter for a family with a new baby girl.

Whoa, maybe a little too much natural light there. I guess there can be too much of a good thing.Finally, in addition to a coupon for a discount off of a future purchase, each customer received a couple of chocolate cake pops, drizzled with pink chocolate to match the Cookie Creations logo. The pink chocolate itself is something of an eighth wonder - the fact that I was able to color it is nothing short of defying the laws of chemistry as I know them, but I am okay with that.

Looking forward to many more years of sweet celebrations!

Dvora

Going incognito

This cake will have to go nameless. That is, without revealing the name on top. Why? The client was (probably rightfully) concerned that people would see the cake and (mistakenly) believe that the family has valuables in the house or on their persons. So with a little assist from the editor on my camera, I give to you, the anonymous birthday cake. This is one you will not be seeing on Facebook, so enjoy it here.

The decorations may be hard for you to identify - believe me, without inspiration photos from the client, I would not have had a clue of what to create for this cake! They consist of a jeweler's loupe, pink and white "diamonds," and a cricker bat and ball. And now, here for your enjoyment, close-ups.I love how this came out - so true to the real thing, or at least to its photo. In this next shot, you get a better view of some of the diamonds.And here are the cricket pieces, which I had never seen before, but somehow Shana was able to look at them and identify them immediately - which, truly, she did not know how she did.I hope you enjoyed seeing this cake, along with the air of mystery that accompanies it. And happy birthday wishes to ????????????????.

Dvora

Nothing is as we plan it

This cake worked out just fine - do not fret. It's the plans of the birthday girl - and her adorable daughter who ordered the cake (along with her father, of course) - that went awry. Lenny ordered this cake on the orders of his daughter Elana, who loves her mom, and loves cake, I am sure in that order. But when Lenny came to pick up the cake, he informed us that Chaya, his wife, was in the hospital with Elana, who had broken her finger a few days before in an untterly ridiculous way, and now required surgery. Thankfully, the surgery went well, and Elana was able to have some cake in the hospital when she woke up and recovered. The cake is vanilla with pink vanilla buttercream and topped with fondant flowers. Happy Birthday Chaya - hope this is a happy and HEALTHY year for all of you!

Dvora

Pretty in pink

Girls like pink. It's not a stereotyping thing. It's just that (most) girls like pink. I am neutral on the subject, but when a customer tells me her daughter loves pink and the cake should be pink, I listen up. Unfortunately, the photos I took do no accurately reflect the colors - my camera is acting a little hinky, which is WAY frustrating as it is not very old. The cake itself was white cake with apricot preserves and buttercream in between the layers, and pale pink buttercream on top. The decorations were an extremely hot pink, but it looks far more delicate here. The birthday girl, Rina, loves her Crocs (must be her father's daughter!) and her guitar, as well as a few other things her mom did not want to include on the cake...

And it was her eleventh birthday, so we added a cute number 11 on to the front. The guitar gave me no end of agita, as the stupid thing broke - the neck part cracked in TWO places! - as I was putting the cake together, about ten minutes before pick-up. But we "glued" it back together and propped it up with frosting, and being quite honest, pointed it out to the mom, who was perfectly happy and gracious, and everyone was happy. And as from most challenges, I have learned from it a will adjust accordingly.

Yom Huledet Sameach!

Dvora

A little at a time

Giant blog posts are exhausting. So many words to think up, so many pictures to upload. So let's try a few short ones instead. Oh, but then I have to come up with all those stupid titles!!! Well, let's not whine, let's just go with it.

Last Shabbat was a study in flexibility. Every platter had slight variations, whether due to flavor preferences, allergy issues, or special requests. Here is one sample:

thin mint sandwiches, apple-cherry crumble bars, espresso double chocolate chunk cookies, chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter brownies (slathered in chocolate peanut butter ganache - so rich and decadent!), and oatmeal raisin cream sandwiches (Little Debbie eat your heart out!).

This platter of yummy cookies left Chashmonaim and ventured far, far afield - to Modiin. Note the cute business card attached to the ribbon; designed by the talented Shana.

This one held a double portion of thin mints, for those who love their Girl Scout cookie flavors!

Hope you had a sweet Shabbat!

Climbing Everest

Everyone has his or her great white whale - a mountain to climb, a stream to ford (getting very Von Trapp-ish here, sorry!) - that challenge that must be surmounted. For me, it is the French macaron. Not to be confused with the Passover macaroon, a coneshaped explosion of oversweetened coconut, or the Oberlander macaroon, not even sure what it really is, the French macaron (pronounced Ma-ca-Rone), in its contemporary incarnation, is a delicate sandwich cookie. Two cookies, with a crisp meringue shell and soft inside, with some sort of filling gluing thw whole mess together. With a minimum of ingredients, skill and technique is what makes these special. Or so I am given to understand. I had only tasted them once or twice, but I was determined to make it happen. After about a year and a half of procrastinating, I finally went for it yesterday.

AND IT WORKED! (Pardon my shouting; I am just a little excited.)

I followed the directions of many a macaron maker, finding that it was slightly less terrifying than I had anticipated. Both batches baked up exactly as they were meant to: crisp dome, merigue foot - AWESOME! (oops, sorry, got loud again). I stuck to the basic flavor - almond - and filled them with chocolate ganache. I felt accomplished and virtuous and wondering if it was just beginner's luck all at the same time. I enjoyed the process so much that I am looking forward to trying again, and also to trying different flavors and fillings. You will have to tune in to find out what happens next!

Here's to all of us making molehills out of our mountains.

Dvora

Elbow deep in buttercream

Two more cakes submitted for your approval, gentle reader. The first, a 17 birthday cake for Lital, sho loves the color purple. Lital is a cake decorator herself, but as I said to her mom, I guess it would be awkward to ask her to make her own birthday cake - make that, surprise birthday cake.

This was a one layer chocolate chip cake, covered in vanilla buttercream. The sides display the same theme as the top - purple circles and hoops with tiny flowers.

The final cake for last week was a family cake - a cake to celebrate my father-in-law's 70th birthday. It is three layers of moist chocolate cake, filled with mocha frosting and covered in vanilla buttercream. The design added a challenge I have rarely dealt with: because there was no border on the top, the edges had to be perfectly squared. It came out quite well, better than expected.

As an added bonus of nachas, the names of the grandchildren are inscribed on fondant leaves around the sides.If any of the grandchildren want to see the names, they can pick them out from the small photos below.

Mazal tov to all the birthday celebrants!

Dvora

Mazal tov l'Eden

This was a cake-filled weekend - three on Thursday! The first was for a bat mitzvah girl in Modi'in. Her mom gave me a list of things that she likes, and I ran with it.

That was the top - now let's do a tour of the sidesOkay, now for some detail shots of the props on the top:

This was a tremendously fun cake to make - I mean, honestly, how could anyone who enjoyed playing with Play-Doh as a kid (and yes, as an adult, too! if I am going to be thoroughly honest here...) not love doing this?! And then you can eat it, and it tastes delicious, not all salty and grainy like Play-Doh. The cake itself was chocolate with fudge filling, topped with vanilla buttercream - pink her favorite color - and all the props were edible. I hope Eden and her friends and family enjoyed it as much as I did!

The other cakes will follow in another post...

Shavua tov!

Dvora