Sugar Cookies

I'm not really a fan of sugar cookies. But then I was stumbled upon the beautiful sugar cookies made by Marianne in from Sweetopia. 'How could she make such a beautiful and detail icing decoration?', I wondered. I saw her video in youtube and yet she made it look so easy. Made me wanto to test myself, my patience.

Basket of Roses for My Sister's Birthday

Initially I wanted to make a basket full full full of roses. But the royal icing was not enough, so I put some leaves between the roses. There were still some empty spaces though, and I wasn't able to cover the messy parts, too (see from picture below) :(. But this time the colored buttercream was edible! (Last time I made Elmo cake for Rivian, the buttercream was bitter). So it was all okay! :)

Elmo Cake for Rivian

While I was in Seattle, I had the chance to make a birthday cake for my nephew, Rivian. His favorite was Elmo, so I made him an Elmo cake. To tell the truth, I was quite relieved, because Elmo Cake looked much more simple than Thomas the Train cake, in terms of color and shape.

The challenge was when I made the red buttercream for the Elmo's fur. I didn't expect I would need so many red coloring to actually turn the color of buttercream to red! And too many red coloring made the taste of the buttercream was horrible. I googled and learned that 1. I should have used no-taste-red instead of christmas red, so the taste wouldn't turn out bitter; 2. even if it became bitter, I could still make it less bitter by adding teaspoons of vanilla extract; 3.The red color would turn darker over time; 4. If I added pink color first before adding red color, I would need less red coloring to make the color red.

Well, It seems that I need more and more practice! :)

Iday and Olive Farewell Cake

Yesterday we had farewell party at my house for our friends, Iday and Olive, who is going to leave town. They have been so kind to us all this time, so I thought why not made them a special farewell cake. This is the second project for me. Last time was making birthday cake for my husband, I was not able to make the buttercream roses. But this time, I succeeded:) Just by substituting the butter with vegetable shortening.
The one thing I'll try to remember next time is to take a picture of the cake from the top!