Groom's Cake

What would you do if your fiance wanted a rice crispy treat cake in the shape of a golf ball at the wedding? Let me make one as a surprise! Congratulations Heidi and Cory!

The best part of Halloween

No-Bake Chocolate Cupcakes

Another stormy day, which means another day for sweets. Here's a quick and easy No-Bake Chocolate Cupcake recipe:

Ingredients:

Five 2-ounce candy bars (Snickers, Mars, or Milky Way)

4 tablespoons butter

3 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal

7 ounces milk chocolate

Directions:

1. Line a muffin pan with baking cups

2. Chop four candy bars coarsely; slice remaining bar.

3. Place chopped bars and butter in medium sauce pan.

Stir over low heat until smooth. Stir in rice cereal.

4. Press mixture into baking cups. Spread with melted chocolate.

Top with sliced candy bar. Refridgerate for 30 minutes or until set.

Pear Butterfly Cupcakes

Our pear tree is full of pears, so I needed to find a way to use them. I recently bought a new cupcake book and saw these adorable Pear Butterfly Cupcakes. The pears are dried in the oven and shaped into butterflies. The cupcakes are maple pear flavored, and I made maple buttercream frosting to go on top.

Cute and delicious!

No Bake Cookies

Remember these? I used to make them when I was in elementary school (with help, of course). I always forget how quick and easy they are, and every time I make them I plan to do it more often. For those of you who also forgot how quick and easy they are, here is a great recipe:

1 Stick butter

1/2 Cup milk

1/3 Cup cocoa powder

2 Cups sugar

Put ingredients in saucepan over medium heat.

Boil for 3 minutes.

Remove from heat and add:

1/2 Cup peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

3 Cups oats

Mix well. Drop by spoonful onto waxed paper.

I hope you enjoy them as much as everyone at my house does!

Donuts!

A good friend of mine recently taught me how to make donuts. It's something I have been wanting to learn for a long time. I probably could have figured it out myself, but everything is more fun when you do it with friends. And that way I could blame someone else if they tasted horrible (which they didn't!)

One thing I love about donuts is their versatility. The possibilities are endless when it comes to coatings and flavors. Start with a basic plain donut, add whatever toppings or fillings you want, and you have a masterpiece. Whether you like chocolate coated, raspberry filled, or just plain glazed, donuts are a fun and delicious way to satisfy your sweet tooth. I can't wait to make these again!

Color

I love color! Part of the fun of decorating cakes is deciding which colors to use and playing with different combinations. These are the colors I used for the last cake I made. It was for a friend's 58th birthday, and I wanted something fun. She likes cool colors: blues, greens, and teals. I love pink with teal so I made those, and I threw in some dark purple to make it look more age appropriate. They may not be exactly the shades I was going for, but I think they look great together!

My Nephew is Going to College!

I can't believe my nephew is old enough to go to college. It makes me feel so old! His parents had a graduation party for him last week and as a grad present I offered to make him a cake. I wasn't sure how many people would be there, so I made two cakes just to be safe... and it's a good thing I did because there were only a few pieces left after the party.


I used the allergen-free chocolate cake recipe again, but since my sister-in-law doesn't eat chocolate I made the other one a white cake. To add variety, I used spice cake covered in fondant for the books. The colors for the icing were made with raspberries and blueberries since I have some family members who are allergic to artificial colors. It added a nice hint of berry flavor to the cake. Both cakes were so yummy and so cute!
Congratulations Kasen! I am very proud of you, and I know you will have so much fun in college. And thank you for letting me make these fun cakes for you.

4th Of July Fun

I love holidays. My favorite part is celebrating with baked goods and discovering new creative ways to decorate them. When one of my coworkers invited me to her house for the Fourth of July I thought it would be a great opportunity to try out a flag cake. But then I realized transporting a cake is not very easy, so I made mini cupcakes instead. They turned out so cute!
My coworker's son, Sam, has quite a few food allergies so I had to be careful about what I used. I found a great allergen-free chocolate cupcake recipe (let me know if you want it). I was leery about using icing, so I topped the cupcakes with a dusting of powdered sugar. I used blueberries for the stars and strawberries for the stripes. It was an easy, festive, yummy treat! Sam loved them so much he ate 6.

Summer Time Treat

One of my favorite ingredients to bake with in the summer is rhubarb. We have an abundance of it at our house this year, so I have had a lot of fun trying out new rhubarb recipes. Here is a super fun, fast, and easy one that was on the back of a Betty Crocker cake mix box:

Strawberry Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

Preheat the oven to 325 F

In a 9x13 in. cake pan, melt 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter in oven

Sprinkle 1c Brown Sugar over melted butter

Arrange 2 cups sliced strawberries on brown sugar

Sprinkle evenly with 2 cups chopped rhubarb
(if fresh is unavailable use frozen, but thaw and drain first)

Prepare any flavor boxed cake mix according to package instructions

Pour batter over strawberries and rhubarb

Bake 45-50 minutes, or until cake passes the toothpick test

Immediately run knife around sides of pan to loosen. Place a serving plate upside down on top of the cake pan. Flip plate and pan over and leave pan upside-down on plate for a few minutes so the brown sugar can drizzle over the cake.


Cool 30 minutes then serve. If you want extra sweetness you can serve cake with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream.

Oat Lace Cookie recipe

These cookies are a favorite at my house. They are frequently requested, and since they are so yummy and easy to make I happily oblige. Any time I take them to parties they seem to disappear. And because I have been asked for the recipe so many times I want to share it with everyone.

Oat Lace Cookies

(From The Cookie and Biscuit Bible by Catherine Atkinson)

Makes 36

2/3 cup unsalted butter or margarine

1 2/3 cups rolled oats

3/4 cup soft dark brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Thoroughly grease two large baking sheets.
2. Melt the butter or margarine in a small pan over a low heat. Set aside.
3. Mix the oats, sugars, flour and salt. Add the butter or margarine, the egg, and vanilla. Mix until blended, then stir in the nuts.
4. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of the batter about 2in apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 5-8 (for me it usually takes 8-10) minutes, until lightly browned on the edges and bubbling. Leave to cool slightly on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then, using a metal spatula, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. (If you leave the cookies on the baking sheet too long they WILL fall apart when you try to take them off.)

I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do!

For Ezra

My amazing brother and sister-in-law have such a cute little family! They have 2 adopted children with one "home made" in between. The oldest is almost 3, the middle child is 10 months, and little Ezra is 6 months. The adoption was just finalized about a week ago and he was sealed to his family in the temple on June 6, 2010. We had a big "officially part of the family" party for Ezra and I made him a cake to celebrate.I must say, I think the family tree turned out pretty cute. And it tasted really good too!

Contragulations Ezra; we are so glad yo'ure a part of our family! P.S. I have no idea how my brother and sister-in-law manage 3 young children every day, but whatever they're doing it's working. All 3 kids are so adorable!!!

More Fun With Fondant

Fondant is great. Not only does it create a smooth finish to a cake, but it also makes AMAZING roses! I love fondant roses. Of all the flowers I have learned to make, fondant roses are the most fun and look the most realistic.

Even though they are extremely time consuming, the roses add beauty and visual interest which makes them worth all the hours spent rolling out and cutting out, shaping and arranging.

I can't wait to find out what other fun things I can make with fondant!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Do you remember walking through the door when you got home from school and being embraced by the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies? I sure don't, but it is one of my favorite smells so I love to bake them.

Chocolate chip cookies are so quick and easy and oh so delicious! Whenever I want a sweet treat without a trip to the store I bake chocolate chip cookies. Rainy days especially put me in the mood to bake, so since I woke up to rain this morning it was a perfect excuse to make cookies. There is something comforting about warm cookies with a glass of milk that makes the gloomiest mornings so much brighter.

Fun with Fondant

Fondant has always intimidated me. I had only seen people work with fondant on cooking shows, and their cakes look amazing! I was very hesitant to use fondant, but now that I know how I don't know why I was ever afraid of it. I didn't realize just how much you can do with fondant. I like how fast it makes decorating and the smooth texture it creates, but most of all I love how AMAZING it makes my cakes look!

My Mom's Favorite

This one doesn't really need words. Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers out there!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I love Mexican food, so in honor of Cinco de Mayo I decided to post about my favorite Mexican sweet, Pastel Tres Leches. I only recently discovered this delicious dessert, and I don't know how I went so long without it.

Tres Leches (or Three Milks) is basically a sponge cake soaked with evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and heavy cream. I like it topped with whipped cream and strawberries, caramel, or cimmanom, but topping is optional since Tres Leches is so good by itself. If you haven't tried it yet, I would highly recommend finding some. If you're feeling adventurous and would like to try making it, let me know..... I have a great recipe for Tres Leches cupcakes!

Easter Treats

My family is big. Ok, it's huge. So any time we have family parties, it's always pot-luck style. For our big Easter party I was assigned dessert, so I let my creative side take over and made these cute Easter Egg cupcakes. I iced the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and used gel icing for the stripes. You could also use tinted frosting or just food coloring applied in stripes with a toothpick. They were so fun, and the more I did the more ideas I got for different designs.


I saw something similar to this is a book, and was eager to try it. I call them Easter Egg Hunt cupcakes because the eggs are
hiding in the grass. I used chocolate covered sunflower seeds for the eggs (which I purchased at Cracker Barrel, but you can also find them online at various websites). I think they are adorable, and I almost didn't want to eat them... but they tasted so good they were gone faster than candy in a child's Easter basket!

How sweet!

Welcome to Sweets by Keturah, a place to satisfy your sweet tooth in style. I love all things sweet. This is where you can find my projects as well as tips and tricks for my favorite sweet recipes. I love suggestions and would be happy to take requests, so please feel free share your questions or favorite recipes. Enjoy!