3rd Birthday

For my sons 3rd birthday we did a whole lot of celebrating. First we went to the boardwalk and he rode his first rollercoaster (he didn't enjoy it too much) and then went to the Grandparents house and had pizza and cake. I didn't go too elabrate on this cake but he enjoyed it all the same and really that's all that matters.

Then we went to an Oakland Athletics game with some friends and enjoyed some baseball, sunshine, good company and cupcakes. I was going for a jersey look with the name and number. This was my pre-decorating supplies days so I used plastic storage bags with a corner snipped off for all the decorating worked great for me.



Lydia's Birthday Cupcakes

My Husband and I are really big Oakland Athletic fans and at one point were season ticket holders. Once my son was born finances cut back our days at the ball park. But we made friends with a lot of other season ticket holders over the years. We even refer to each other as the FANily. So when one of the girls in our FANily named Lydia had a birthday she jokingly twitted me saying she wanted some cupcakes. So I quickly whipped up these babies and carted them to that nights game. It was a raining night and we had a 2hr rain delay of the game but we celebrated Lydia's birthday and everyone enjoyed the cupcakes. Even our All-Star pitcher Gio Gonzales' parents had some cupcakes :)

Pasteis de Nata (Portugese custard tarts)

This was my first find in Portuguese pastry recipes, which wasn't much of a surprise since it is the most popular of the Portuguese pastries. I was pretty happy with the outcome except they were pretty sweet. Next time I'll have to remedy that.

Recipe for those who want it :)

Ingredients:

-Tart Shell-
2 Sheets PC butter puff pastry defrosted, but quite cold
1 Tbsp Butter melted

-Custard-
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
1 1/4 Cup Heavy Cream
1/2  small Lemon zested, finely grated (approx. 5/8t)
4 Large egg yolks
1/8 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Vanilla

-Topping-
1/2 Tbsp Icing Sugar
1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 425 F. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups with melted butter.

Using a biscuit cutter, cut puff pastry into twelve 3" rounds. With your hands, gently stretch the rounds out until they are approximately 4" in diameter and place one round in each muffin cup. Press pastry into bottom and sides of the cups; they should be lined to within approximately 1/4" of the top.

Whisk together sugar and flour in a 3-quart heavy saucepan, then whisk in remaining custard ingredients and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until bubbles just start to appear on the surface, about 10 minutes. Transfer custard to a bowl and cool, whisking occasionally, until just warm, about 15 minutes.

Fill pastry cups with custard (about 2-3T each) and bake in upper third of oven until pastry is deep golden, about 20 minutes. Custard should be starting to brown and there may be the odd burned bit on the edges.

Cool tarts slightly (in the muffin tin) on a rack, about 10 minutes. Remove from tin, then sift first icing sugar, then cinnamon, over tarts. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Note: I would suggest reducing the sugar by 1/3 and increasing the zest of lemon to 1 lemon

Thanks to SusanJM on BigOven.com for posting this recipe.

Zebra Birthday Cake

My sister is a big fan of zebra stripes. So for her birthday I made her a zebra striped cake. Now this was before I had any cake decorating supplies so the end result was cute but not to my full satisfaction. I didn't roll the black fondant out thin enough, so the stripes came out a little thick. The bow was a little floppy too. Which is fine but not the look i was going for. I know I'm my own worse critic, but it's how I learn for the next cake.

Cousin's 30th Birthday Cupcakes

My family gave my cousin a surprise party for her 30th birthday. I had to make something special so I decided to make cupcakes. I didn't have time to make them very elabrate or fancy so they were pretty simple but still cute. I had some trouble with transportation cause it was a hour and a half drive and I was without a cupcake carrier, so they weren't as cute when I got to the party. So glad I got a picture before the car ride. The birthday girl still loved and for my birthday about a  week later I got that cupcake carrier LOL.

Mother's Day 2011 Cake

My Mom's mother's day cake was my first attempt at making fondant flowers. It was a very small cake but I loaded it with many flowers and was quite happy with it. My mom loved it too :)

Father's Day 2011 Cupcakes

It's taking me a while to chase up on posting about my goodies, but i'm trying. Made Some really cute cupcakes for my Dad and Husband for father's day. Loved them!!!! Each was decorated with things that either reminded me of them like #1 Dad and the shirt and tie, or things that I know they like. Which would be beer and BBQing for my Dad and baseball and football for my Husband.