Recipe: Mixed Berry Syrup

Let me start out by saying I LOVE PANCAKES.... and occasionally on Saturday or Sunday mornings, my husband will make them for us.  One morning, for whatever reason, I didn't want the lite fake syrup that we always used and decided to hunt for some sort of homemade syrup recipe.  I decided to look for a mixed berry syrup since a) you can't go wrong with mixed berries and b) we had some in the freezer.  It took some time to make the syrup, but believe me it was well worth it.  So much so that I actually started offering it as a filling in the business.  I do add some secret ingredients, so I am not completely revealing how I make it.  It is still an awesome and simple recipe even without my changes!

http://stolenmomentscooking.com/mixed-berry-sauce/

Sick kid + Cakes = No Blog

I apologize... really I do.  I know everyone has been waking up every morning asking themselves, "Why oh why has Kristin not posted a new blog?  My day is not complete without her super-exciting blog posts!"  Ok... back to reality... this was the main reason why I avoided starting a blog in the first place.  I knew I would not have enough time to do it every day... and apparently not even every few days.  So apologize and hope to try to do a better job for the few followers I have.

So as you can see from the title, I have a sick baby.  Unlike my first son, who just wanted to sleep and lay on me when he is sick, the baby doesn't sleep and just whines.  He whines more if I am not holding him, but whines regardless.  He has his second ear infection of the season, and even though we finished antibiotics last night, he doesn't really seem much better.  He did sleep through the night last night, excluding his 7:45pm feeding, so that leads me to believe he may not be as sick as I think he is.  We shall see... his one year appt is early on Friday, and I really don't want to go to the doctor 2 days in a row.

On top of that, we are still trying to reassemble the house after the hardwood install and well I am Miss Particular, so things need to be put back correctly and only after they have been scrubbed.  The house should be back together by Christmas... or at least that is my prediction.

And of course, there are cakes... this week... a small birthday cake, wedding cake, large sweet 16 cake, and several dozen circus cupcakes... it may be another few days until the next blog :)

Pirate Cookies

When I first started decorating, cookies were not something I really wanted to attempt to decorate.  First off they are small, and secondly, outlining, waiting, flooding, waiting, and repeat over and over again is not my cup of tea.  Needless to say I didn't do many of them... and then I discovered you can use fondant to decorate cookies!!!  I have no clue why this didn't dawn on me earlier!

So over Christmas break, I decided to give it a shot and found it to be quite enjoyable.  While they still take time, the drying time is nearly nonexistent.  You can also easily save your leftover fondant easily and in one big bucket.  You can even try using modeling chocolate or flavored fondant, such as Fondarific, to cover cookies adding another layer of flavor to your standard sugar cookie!!  Now I just need to make some "for real"....

Please enter my friend Kelly.  Her husband graciously designed my logo and her little boy's was this past weekend.  He is into pirates and asked if I could make some cookies for it.  So here they are!

If I did them again I would probably use fondant or royal icing for the mouth and probably change out the eyes... what do you think?

Guest Post

I was so excited today to have a guest spot on A Cake To Remember's blog.  I am not a writer, so I was happy to see Kara didn't have to completely rewrite it... I did, however, give her permission to do so though.  Check it out!
http://networkedblogs.com/egK5R?a=share&ref=nf

Tomorrow I am hoping to show you some cute pirate cookies I did over the weekend!

Quick Recipe - White Chocolate, Coconut, Macadamia Nut Cookie Bars

As a mom, who likes to entertain and have/attend playdates, I am always looking for quick and yummy things to make.  I stumbled upon this recipe a few years ago and absolutely love it.  It's nothing complicated, and you can easily make it your own by adding in what you like.  So here it is, courtesy of Rachael Ray:

1 package of sugar cookie mix prepared per the package directions (get a stick of butter out of the fridge)
1 cup of mac nuts
1 cup of shredded coconut
1 cup of white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix sugar cookie mix.  Stir in nuts, coconut, and white chocolate.  Push mixture into a greased 9x13 pan.  Bake for 20 minutes or until the top starts to brown.

In the beginning....

As promised, I would try to give you a brief intro as to how I got into cake decorating.  The key word in the previous sentence is brief, as I have a tendency to be a bit long-winded.  Here it goes...

When I found out I was pregnant with my first son I decided that I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom.  I was getting fed up with work and just wanted out.  On top of that, my job typically required me to travel on a weekly basis and there was no way I could travel since my husband occasionally traveled for his job.  I thought this was going to be great, but I soon found out that I was not really cut out to not work.  In my boredom, I decided to take a Wilton class at AC Moore to give me SOMETHING to do other than feed and change a baby.  I really enjoyed my first installment and signed up for the remaining courses.  It was great to get out of the house and it seemed to click with me.  I contemplated starting a business from my home and offered to practice on some of my friends.  I seemed to be improving and thought maybe I can do this.  It would give me something to do and going into business would help pay for the endless amount of tools I wanted.  So in April of 2009 I started Fat Girl Cakes LLC, and as they say, the rest is history!  Now I have two boys and am thankful that cake decorating allows me to work and stay home with them.

Where to begin

Well I was planning on starting my first official day as a blogger by explaining how I got started with cake decorating and the business, but I am going to save that for another day.  You may be saying to yourself, "Why? seems like a logical point to start to me." and I agree.  However, today at the home of Fat Girl Cakes the installation of our new flooring has begun.  While I am excited to see the beautiful Brazilian Koa floors in most of the downstairs and up into the upstairs hallway, I am not excited about all the noise that will be in the house.  My older son, who will be four in April, hates loud noises, and the baby, who will be one this month, needs to nap.  Not only does he need to nap, but I need him to nap for both my sanity and his overall safety.  He's down right, and I am praying that the installers can not use the really loud tools for the next hour or so.

Testing 1-2-3

So I broke down and started a blog.  I don't think I will be posting daily, but I hope to post at least a few times a week.  The subject matter.... decorating cakes, recipes, and raising my two boys.  I don't think it will pertain to one audience or another, so I think I already broke the cardinal rule of blogging (Oh well!).  And one more thing... I hate writing, so pardon any run-on sentences, misspellings, etc.