Cookie bars- Yum!

I have a sweet tooth and when I have a craving for something warm and sweet to sink my teeth into, usually on a Friday night, I opt to make some cookie bars.  After a long week of work, this quick, no fuss treat can satisfy the craving!  I took this recipe and tailored it to my own liking and boy do I like them including my son!  Why not cookies instead?  Well, I do like cookies but, 4-5 ingredients (butter, graham crackers crumbs, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips and sometimes a bit of peanut butter chips) about 20-25 minutes of baking (depending on your oven) and they're ready!  Mmm, so delicious!

Transformers Cakes

Here are two Transformers theme cakes I did this past Saturday for the brother of my sister's boyfriend.

These are both 12x15 frosted with buttercream icing. The picture of the character Optimus Prime, is an edible icing image. The other is the Transformer logo which I created by doing a technique called a frozen buttercream transfer.

Spiderman Cake

My most recent confection. A birthday cake for my li'l cousin who turned 6. This is a 12x15 yellow cake with buttercream icing. I used a picture I found on the net as a guide to hand draw Spiderman.

Cake show entries and a winner

I managed to complete two entries, a cake and cookies, for last weekend's event, The Great American Cake Show. I covered the cake in fondant and I traced the image onto the cake using the pin prick method. I used a technique called brush embroidery; you trace the outline of the image in royal icing then use a paintbrush to brush strokes of the icing towards the center of the image. One thing I forgot was that the batch of royal icing I used I had added piping gel to which didn't help with my brush strokes. Although not perfect, it wasn't too bad and I got 3rd place. After the icing dried, I dusted on the color using petal and luster dusts. I finished off the cake with a decorated strip of fondant cut with a gem cutter.

For the cookies, I used a heart cutter for the hearts but the others I cut by hand from a template I made out of paper. I used a variety of mediums and techniques to decorate these; royal icing and fondant.