Dora Birthday Party Images

Happy Birthday to my precious daughter Taylor

Snow Princess Dora themed cake 

Close  up on Dora with explorer stars made out of fondant fanned out behind her

Explorer star cookies made out of royal icing with fondant eyes

And they are ready to get in those goody bags and go home with some kids

The backside of the goodybags:

Notice I added little self adhesive Velcro so the kids could easily open, close and could reuse them.

I think they turned out just adorable....Diego for boys and Dora for girls:

Freak Out Day!

Today has been a crazy day. I woke up and realized I have about a week till my daughter's birthday party. Oh my! And there's so much to do!!! I have to plan a scavenger hunt, bake cookies, decorate cookies, make goody bags that look like Dora and Diego backpacks, figure out what I'm going to do for the cake, plan the menu, buy and create decorations and do all this within a week. ... ... ...um... I'm going to need lots of caffeine... and chocolate... or maybe just some of my espresso bites!

My next big freak out moment today---- My cake was featured on EpiCute. It was my Butterfly and Roses Cake from my bakery... to say the least, I was very proud. If you have a moment click here and give my picture a thumbs up :) Thanks! Lots more freak out moments and crafty updates to come! 

Pumpkin Pie 101- Pie Filling

Pumpkin Pie is really an easy pie to make. There's no tempering of the eggs to worry about. Basically you just mix the ingredients together, pour into the shell and bake. I think the filling of a pie is as unique as the person making it. For instance, I love flavors. I'm a big spice person so I like to go a little heavy with my spices. When I was growing up my mom used to tell me to add "heaping" teaspoons of spice... that means the teaspoon looked like it had a small mountain of spice in it :) That little teaspoon was literally was holding all it possibly could. But a good friend of mine prefers to go light on her spices and add some orange zest to her pies. Feel free to experiment with your fillings. The important thing is having a good base recipe for your pies and then you can play around with the amount of spices and flavors you add. 

Here's my good base recipe (makes 2 pies):

A large can of Libby's Pumpkin (29oz)

2 cans evaporated milk

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

Add spices to taste.... here's where I can't divulge what spices I use in my own pies :) 

But I gave you an excellent base to begin with. Your pie will be rich and creamy. Follow my cooking instructions on the pie crust post and you're sure to have an award winning pie! 

Have fun baking!

A New Course....

Recently my bakery (www.beccasbluebakery.blogspot.com) has been very busy. I found myself up till 2am multiple nights in a row to get cakes done. I was very proud of what I did but I found it very hard to keep up with the demand while still being a wife and mom. I also had another blog that I'd post on periodically (www.beccastopsyturvytales.blogspot.com). I realized that the posts that I really enjoyed were the ones where I was showing how to make a craft or a recipe. Those were my thoughts in creating this blog...

I'm going to be showing you the crafts I do to make my house a home....and I'll be showing you how to do them too. I'm also going to be showing you tips and tricks to get your baked goods to look like mine. I love sharing these tips with my friends and I'm really excited to be showing you how to do them too. I hope you enjoy this new blog!