Happy 30th Birthday, Jennifer!

I love the 80's!

One of my bestest friends, Jennifer, turned 30 in August, and her sisters and friends decided to throw her a totally awesome 80's suprise birthday party.  Not only was I excited to celebrate Jen, my mind was spinning with ideas for the desserts!  I thought about this party for months and couldn't wait to get started. 

This is the first time I've used fondant in such large quantities.  I decided to try out Duff's line at Michael's and used a lot of his products.  I have to admit, I loved most of them.  Well, except the white fondant.  Awful.  When I opend the package, the fondant was liquid!  I don't know if I got a bad batch or what, but I was definitely disappointed.  I will stick with my homemade recipe for now.  However, the black fondant was fantastic.   Also, I used some of his cake tatoos.  They were fun to use and worked well for the tie dye cake. 

First, we have Michael Jackson gloves and neon RayBan sunglass sugar cookies.

Next, we have a Rubix Cube chocolate cake!

Miss Pacman chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting.

Simon vanilla cake.

The total package. 



The cake for Jen to blow out her candles.  Neon tie dye cake!

The inside of the cake..so much fun to make.

And finally, the fabulous Repetto sisters, all decked out in their 80's gear (Jennifer is on the right).  Jen was completely surprised, despite my bad acting trying to get her there.  And her sisters picked her the perfect outfit for her to change into once she arrived.  Happy (belated) birthday, Jennifer!  We love you!

Fondue!

Book Club...

This month, we read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.  I really enjoyed reading this book, but the group was split on whether they liked it or not.   If you like murder mysteries and can stomach some graphic descriptions of abuse, you will enjoy this book.  Despite a slow start, the book is a quick read. 

Anyway, onto baking.  I hosted book club this month, and I wanted to make something easy but different to enjoy.  The other week, I started to crave fondue, and I thought, "Duh.  Make fondue for book club!"  I made two cheese fondues (is that the plural of fondue?  Or is it like the word moose? Who knows...don't judge me) and one chocolate fondue.  The first of the cheese course was a spicy parmesan fondue and the second, a cheddar beer fondue.  I chopped up lots of bread, carrots and apples to dip.  YUM!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.  Sorry :( 

The Chocolate Fondue was a simple chocolate fondue recipe from an article I ripped out of a Rachel Ray magazine.  I bought some rice crispy treats, strawberries and apricots and made some brownies, chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies for dipping. 

See those brownies in the corner of the first picture?  Those are actually Raspberry with Cabernet Wine Brownies.  Yep, you read that right.  What could be better than raspberry, chocolate, red wine and brownies?  My good friend, Patricia, bought me this mix for my birthday a month ago, and I've been saving them for book club.  She bought the mix at a craft fair that our employer was running.  (She got shushed at the craft fair for laughing too loud.  Clearly the person didn't know that this laugh is Patricia's trade mark).  I'd love to be able to hook you up with a website of wherever this brownie mix came from, but I could not find a website on the tag.  Have any of you seen this brand before or know where I could get a more of it?

The recipe called for only a cup of wine, so we drank the rest of the bottle during book club with these wine glasses that I found at HomeGoods a few weeks ago.  I couldn't resist.  I just found them way too cute.

SNOW DAY!

Baking Cookies on a Snow Day

As I have posted previously, I like to bake cookies on snow days.  It was always a deal my brother and I had...he shoveled, I baked.  Luckily, my husband seems to like the same deal.  I made some chocolate chip cookies for us to enjoy and some sugar cookies to take to a Super Bowl party tomorrow evening.  Matt agreed to be my "artistic director" as I had no idea what the Saints or Cults uniforms looked like.  This was my first attempt at seriously decorating sugar cookies, so I guess they turned out ok.  I think I need some more practice on piping.  Judge for yourself.

Some goodies for us to enjoy today.

Are you ready for some football!?!?

Go Saints!

Go Colts!

Sarah's Bridal Shower

Sarah's Bridal Shower

Matt's cousin is getting married two days after Christmas, and Matt's Aunts threw a wonderful bridal shower.  Again, I offered to bring desserts.  Cookies and cupcakes...can you ask for more? 

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Raspberry Icing Topped with Sugar cookies with Raspberry Royal Icing

My wiseass college roommate quickly pointed out to me that the bride and groom's initials are B.S.  Oops...should have put them in a different order.