Monster High cake

Very colorful and with plenty of pearls cake for Nicole :) Happy birthday, dear Nicole! I wish you very happy childhood!

Nicole's cake wish this year is Monster High. Here you can see what was her cake with last year. Her mother picked up the picture and I was pleasantly surprise when I saw Nicole's face next to the main characters. Then I decided to add more hearts and pearls because all girls like them.  I wanted to make a cake more childish, more vibrant, without any skulls and black decorations...

I wanted to make a cake more colorful,more shiny, with a lot of tiny details chaotically spread  around the cake... Just to express our kids desires- everything and immediately!

Bonne fete Stephanie

This is the cake for Stephanie's first birthday. Happy birthday, Stephanie! Be very happy and healthy child!

The idea for the cake came from her mother. The lady sent me a photo of a cake she liked a lot. She wanted something gentle, stylish, without too many decorations.

The cake looks different to me when the pictures are taken at day or night time. That's why I will share with you the two light effects...

The cake is with pink vanilla layers attached with homemade vanilla cream...

Lemon muffins and poppy seeds

My first lemon muffins...Being honest with you I have never been attracted by that type of muffins. Just the idea of a lemon makes my body shudder. But all of a sudden I changed my mind. I decided finally to try to prepare these lemon muffins at home.

I used the following recipe:

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 large egg, lightly beaten

poppy seeds

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients (through salt); make a well in center. Combine ricotta and next 5 ingredients (through egg). Add ricotta mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Add poppy seeds.

3. Place 12 muffin-cup liners in muffin cups. Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake at 375° for 16 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

Good luck!

Banana pudding

A good end of this working week. You can add a cup of coffee or a herbal tea. And just enjoy the homemade banana pudding.

In the middle of the cup I put blueberries and banana pieces. Then I filled the small container with the rest of the pudding. On the top I spread more bananas and ground dark chocolate.

Enjoy it!

St. Valentine's cookies 2015

In less than a month it will be St. Valentine...The air will be again filled with love, kisses, hugs, cards, cookies and everything in the heart shape. All these beautiful emotions and feelings will rediscover our "better" half and will remind us how important is to be loved and to love somebody. Unfortunately this discovery won't last forever. The hectic everyday life will again occupy our minds and souls...I'll stop here because I don't want to sound pessimistic. I'll just finish my thoughts with the truth in which I strongly believe - Love is the driving force in the world!

O'K, let's continue with something sweet.

The cookies that I made this year for St. Valentine are gluten-free, decorated with different color icing, different color sprinkles and a little bit of fondant. Everything I made spontaneously, without any previous plan for the design. Definitely their look is not professional but I made and decorate them with a lot of love...I hope you feel it too :)

Happy St. Valentine everyone!!!! Love and be loved!

Banana muffins

Delicious banana muffins with tiny pieces of real bananas. While I was baking the muffins the banana odor was everywhere in the air. The first bite was melting in the mouth, the second one also...after awhile the first muffin disappeared :) 

I put a little bit of colored butter cream on the top of the muffins. I wanted to keep them as simple as possible. The pink and purple butter cream was just the final touch. And because I didn't want to use any fondant decorations I put the paper butterflies and flowers. They make the day brighter and warmer, don't they?

I hope I'll bring even for a second the spring mood in this cold winter.

A flower for you...

Flower cookies

This will be my purple post :) The flower cookies I made for Moni's mother Marina. Our family was invited to Moni's 11 birthday party and I decided to surprise her mother with a box of flower cookies. I knew that Moni adores the rose and the purple color. That's why her present was in purple and then I decided to color the cookies in purple too :)

I used pink icing too. Then some of the cookies are with mixed color. All the cookies are gluten-free. It's my choice.

Then I wrapped and arranged them in a cute box.

And for an end of this purple post I'll share with you my orchid that bloomed 2 days again...