Tons of comment spam – fortunately they never get through so I’m the only one who sees them. Idiots. The people who spend time doing that (or designing bots to do that) really need to get a life.

The sheer amount of people searching for Guinea Pig cakes is [...]]]> I get a lot of… weird visitors lately.

Tons of comment spam – fortunately they never get through so I’m the only one who sees them. Idiots. The people who spend time doing that (or designing bots to do that) really need to get a life.

The sheer amount of people searching for Guinea Pig cakes is more than a little surprising! I get at least 3 unique people every day coming in search of Doodle Cake’s creation.

Today I got a really disturbing one, when someone from India showed up from Google doing a search for “want to know about evil with images”. They ended up on this post. Even more spooky is that I was only the 4th site to come up when doing that search… wow!

LOTS of people show up looking for “getting to know you quizzes” which I’d included as an early post.

Got one yesterday looking for “spam crock pot” – can’t believe I’m on the first page of results for that one… I would never eat spam, let alone put it in my crock pot. Oh, I feel nauseous even thinking about the possibility.

Another one yesterday arrived from search results on “husband totally blew off wedding anniversary”. Wow. Poor thing! (For the record, the Hubbie did not blow ours off, he was a good boy!)

Wonder how many hits I’d get if I talked about naked fainting goats, David Hasselhoff (the Hoff), the latest boob job some brainless blonde actress just got, or vampire porn. Edward and Jacob? Wow, so not going to happen.

This is a test of the Google broadcasting system. Actually, this is a blog a lot of people with young kids read, so I’m definitely NOT going to be talking about porn, or naked goats, or naked Hasselhoffs either. Vampire porn – ewww. I AM totally going to mess with Google results though, and see what interesting results I get. I guess I’m still just a little ticked off with Google for messing with so many of us and our Blog Hopping habits.

Lets have some fun, shall we? What other mostly G-rated but dirty sounding key words should I use? Go ahead and put them in your comment.

While we’re on the subject of comments – last week I quietly added this to my site – no fanfare, but you’re more than welcome to participate by snagging the graphic and code for your own site. Share the love!

Is that not the cutest cake you’ve ever seen? This one was for a set of twin boys, for their first birthday.

The dinosaurs themselves are for the kids: Blue dino is chocolate cake with hazelnut chocolate filling, orange [...]]]> I just don’t know how she manages to do it, but Doodle Cakes has outdone herself yet again!

Is that not the cutest cake you’ve ever seen? This one was for a set of twin boys, for their first birthday.

The dinosaurs themselves are for the kids: Blue dino is chocolate cake with hazelnut chocolate filling, orange dino is vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream filling.

The bottom tier is for the grown ups, with Double Chocolate Kahlua cake and with whipped white and milk chocolate hazelnut filling.

Congrats, Doodle – another fantastic cake we can all drool over!

P.S. Folks, I’m working on something special for Doodle… don’t tell her! ;) Stay tuned for the big “reveal”!

Without a doubt, the best belated-birthday present I’ve ever had. Aren’t I the luckiest friend ever?! Isn’t it amazing?? I should have known last [...]]]> ShaMoo and Doodle Cake and I got together with our kids today – the first time in 2 weeks – and I got the most wonderful surprise when we arrived at the park!

Without a doubt, the best belated-birthday present I’ve ever had. Aren’t I the luckiest friend ever?! Isn’t it amazing?? I should have known last night when she talked about her newest cake but said she was “too tired” to put the pictures up that something was up, but you know… sometimes I’m a bit thick. I was truly surprised when she unveiled the cake box with the lovely ribbon around it.

But… how can I eat it? Can you imagine cutting into a work of art and then devouring it?! Ohhh, but she made it with my favourite cake… Freckled Mocha… yeah, we’ll have it tomorrow. I had to wait for the Hubbie to get home so he could see it too! I’ll probably take some better pictures of it before I cut it too – those weren’t very good.

Anyway, since she knew I wouldn’t share my cake (haha) Doodle brought along some other yummy treats for us:

ShaMoo and her Little Bit enjoyed the day with us (this is not from today – ShaMoo would MURDER me if I put up the pictures I took of her today, as would Doodle Cakes, who threatened to do just that. I was definitely off my game today, where my beloved camera was concerned.)

Doodle Cakes is not just a Cake Creationist Extraordinaire, but she uses her degree in fashion design for other fabulous things!

Here is Sadie taking possession of her new rugged suede tug toy that Doodle designs and sells:

Wow, for ME?

Oooh, the rapture (of a new toy!)

Wait! What was that?! Someone coming to steal my new toy?!!!!

ShaMoo has been a busy bee lately too – very soon I’ll have something from her new business to showcase here. Not only can the girl sing, but she has whipped up a fabulous item that is selling like hotcakes. She’s working on my order this week, and I’ll get pictures up as soon as I can.

I have the most talented friends, let me tell you!

Doodle’s daughter – whom shall henceforth be known as Doodlette – has 2 darling guinea pigs, and is an artist in the [...]]]> Doodle Cakes has outdone herself yet again – check out the cake she designed for her daughter’s 12th birthday! (I modified to take her daughter’s name off the board, because that’s how I roll, folks…)

Doodle’s daughter – whom shall henceforth be known as Doodlette – has 2 darling guinea pigs, and is an artist in the making. This cake is a fantastic mom’s homage to her eldest baby girl.

If you’re in the mood to check out some amazing cakes, look her up on Facebook – You can find her here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=77751511056

P.S. Happy Birthday, Doodlette! Big hugs!

Here’s what you do:

Now, I can’t in good conscience take credit for the idea behind this utterly cute design – it came from Bakerella herself. I absolutely fell in love with it, and decided to do this idea for my [...]]]> Ever wished your teen would, just once, tell you that you’re “totally, totally, the BEST MOM EVER!!!”?

Here’s what you do:

Now, I can’t in good conscience take credit for the idea behind this utterly cute design – it came from Bakerella herself. I absolutely fell in love with it, and decided to do this idea for my teen daughter’s “School’s Out” sleepover/pool party today. Bakerella did it for Father’s Day, but it can obviously be adapted for any occasion. She has a PDF template for the tray and the french fry holders on her website (includes a father’s day template, and a blank one too). I opened the french fry portion of the PDF file in Photoshop and did my own creations. Then I had them printed on card stock at the local Staples. Bakerella did the french fry holders in vellum, but as I didn’t have any and didn’t want to buy any, I did them in card stock as well. (see note below about this!) These two items are absolutely necessary, even though they’re time consuming to say the least! Thankfully ShaMoo and Doodle Cakes helped out with the folding on those!

You start with basic cupcakes and brownies…

Add a little somethin’ somethin’ (in this case, toasted sesame seeds)! I had fun… did you know that if you dab a little water on the top of the cupcake with your finger tip, the sesame seeds will only stick to that very spot? You can do fun things with sesame seeds. Of course, I was pretty tired at this point, given that it was closing on midnight… so maybe it just seemed like fun?

Now cut out your hamburger patties! Use a cutter about the same size as the top of the cupcake. Too big and it will overwhelm… too little and it’ll be lost. And yes, I used a disposable aluminum foil pan for the brownies. My silicone switchover does not yet include a long rectangular pan!

The cake recipe makes 24 cupcakes, so I decided to make 24 “burgers”. Yes, I can count… there are 24 cupcakes and only 12 “hamburgers” in this shot.  I had to do another pan of brownies today because I ran out of eggs! Who leaves 2 (yes, T-W-O!) empty egg cartons in the fridge, I ask you? My family does, that’s who. Of course, both of the individuals who are allowed to touch eggs deny doing so. But we know who really did it, don’t we darling?

Anyway.

Make your “french fries”! These are basic sugar cookies, cut into skinny strips. Here’s a tip for you: Don’t make them too long. Sugar cookies are fragile, and they will  break. You can also sprinkle large granule sugar over the cut strips and press lightly before baking – this will make them look “salted”. I forgot to do this on the first pan, and it’s much hard to get sugar to stick after they’re baked. Mine also didn’t brown the way I wanted them to, but overall I was pretty happy with them.

Next step: Assembly! Here I have to apologize – I was running short on time and didn’t stop to take pictures of the assembly of the  burgers. Basically, you separate your batch (or can) of white icing into 3 bowls, and tint them green for lettuce, red for ketchup, and yellow for mustard. Put them into small baggies, and snip a very small bit of corner off so you can squeeze the “condiments” over your patties. I actually had 2 cans of premade icing in red and yellow, so I used those and just made the green one.  My assembly went thusly:

1. Cut cupcake in half, and place a brownie patty over the bottom cupcake half (duh). Here’s another tip though – flip that brownie over! The moister bottom looks so much more like a real burger patty than the lighter brown, dry top. I also moistened my finger tips and brushed off any brownie crumbs and pressed in any rough edges to make it look like a finished burger patty.
2. Pipe the “lettuce” in swirls around the edges of the patty – total coverage is not necessary, nor is it desirable.  Where you would like to see the “lettuce” sticking out is really the only place you would want to pipe it on. Do the same with your “ketchup” and “mustard” icing as well.
3. Place the top of the cupcake bun over, and voila – you have your first “burger”!

You might be saying “eww, sesame seeds on a cupcake?” and I admit I did the same thing at first. However; you don’t really taste them, and in my opinion they “make” the whole thing come together. Without them it would not look nearly as authentic.

As you complete each burger, place it in it’s own tray…

Fill your french fry slips – and here’s my last tip: if you’re using card stock, the butter from the sugar cookies WILL leech into the paper, so cut some pieces of parchment or waxed paper to fit inside the sleeves, and then fill with the sugar cookie french fries. Place in the tray along side the burger, and voila – you have one awesomely cute confection.

When my daughter first saw these, the first words out of her mouth were… “WOW! You are AWESOME, MOM!” and that made the entire ordeal worthwhile.

I see calories first, then the beauty! I guess that’s my problem though. Today Saucy posted yet another awesome cupcake recipe creation, and by god, I’m going to try them! Only it’s Victoria Day and everything is closed… [...]]]> My teenager goes all weak-kneed when she sees pictures of cupcakes. She calls them “Beautiful little bundles of JOY!”

I see calories first, then the beauty! I guess that’s my problem though. Today Saucy posted yet another awesome cupcake recipe creation, and by god, I’m going to try them! Only it’s Victoria Day and everything is closed… so I have to wait. Trouble is; I happen to also have a friend (Natalie) who is a cake/cupcake guru, and she is always offering to bring me some. Plus she has cake testing parties, where she and her friend Cheryl (another cake guru) have a table laden with the most amazing cakes for testing and critique, and then they draw names to send a few lucky tasters home with their own amazing cakes. *sigh* there I go, drooling again… but seriously, my waistline can’t cope with all that sugar!!