Birthday Sugar Cookies and More Birthday Cookies

I had 2 orders for sugar cookies due on the same day. They were both for 60 cookies and for birthday parties. One set were for a little boy's first birthday. His mom wanted cookies in the shape of the #1 and in baby blue. No problem...I don't have a #1 cookie cutter but how hard can that be to find. Hard! I couldn't find one by itself, only in sets with lots of other shapes. OK, I might need those other shapes sometime, right. I'll just purchase a set...but wait! The #1 in the sets are TINY. In comes, Cookie Cutter Man to the Rescue! (AKA Frank, my wonderful hubby!). We ended up purchasing a cutter in a different shape and Frank reshaped it into what I needed. Did I mention that he's wonderful? :)
The other 60 were for a little girl's second birthday. Here mom sent me a link to the cake she was having made and just asked me to match the colors...the design was up to me. For those, I ended up making about 40 in the kaleidoscope pattern to match the cake and 20 as monogrammed cookies with a piped border.

I was really happy with how these cookies turned out. I even got another order for 60 monogrammed cookies for a birthday in March. Just thought I'd share the pics.

USS Cupcake Carrier

I spent my birthday gift card at Bed, Bath and Beyond yesterday. I got several things, but the one I'm most excited about is this Cupcake Courier. It is huge, hence the title! It holds 36 cupcakes in all - 12 in each tier. There is space enough between the tiers to keep from smushing or squishing the frosting. I'm in love....with Frank of course (this is Valentines Day) but this is a close second! ;)

Here's a pic of the inside.
A big thank you to my sisters for the gift card!

Valentine Cupcake - Red Velvet Filled With White Chocolate Pudding

I always make the same thing for Valentines Day. Chocolate cakes shaped like hearts decorated with roses. I was feeling like I was in a rut. So this year, I decided to do something different. And different doesn't have to mean harder...easy sounds pretty good to me. :)

Here's the ingredients, yep, not a homemade thing on the table!
I made cupcakes out of the red velvet cake mix. Once they were cool, I used a melon baller and scooped out holes from the middle.
Made the white chocolate instant pudding, put it in a pastry bag and filled the holes. Piped the canned frosting on top, sprinkled the little heart sprinkles on...and voila! I think they turned out pretty. I hope they're good. Now I'm second guessing myself and thinking I should have bought the cheesecake flavored pudding...maybe next time.

And by the way, those little holes that I took out of the cupcakes didn't go to waste. I make single serving trifles for Frank out them and left over pudding.

Mini Poppyseed Cakes with Lemon Pudding

Jessi gave me a mini bundt pan (makes 12 little bundt cakes) for Christmas. I just love "mini" things...which is probably why I love cupcakes so much. For a small superbowl get together I made poppyseed cake in it. They were really cute. TJ suggested I fill the center with something. What a great idea! Why didn't I think of that? So, here they are with lemon pudding in the center. I used instant pudding and added 1/2 cup of sourcream to it. Wanda at work told me she always adds sourcream to instant pudding because it makes it taste more homemade. I've never heard of that - have you? Anyway, I decided to give it a try. I'm not sure I can tell a difference, I should have tasted it before I added the sourcream...oh well, next time.

Lemon Poppyseed Cake - directions for regular bundt pan
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 tsp butter flavoring
1 1/2 tbsp poppy seeds

Combine oil, eggs and sugar. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to egg mixture alternately with milk (beginning and ending with flour). Stir in flavorings and poppy seeds. Pour into greased and floured pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. (For the mini bundt cakes, I baked for ~23 minutes). Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan. Poke holes in cake while still warm. Pour glaze over cake.

Glaze
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp butter flavoring
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine until blended. Glaze will be grainy.

I've made this in many forms - loaves, 9x13 sheet, mini muffins, etc. People love this cake, maybe because its not too heavy.