Down the Rabbit Hole

If you get the urge to ask for a big pretty stand mixer for your birthday/anniversary/Christmas/Hanukkah/favorite Friday in April, consider this your warning.

I did that. I did that and I got one and I love it. It's red and shiny and mixes for me so I don't have to hold one of the little hand held mixers which inevitably overheat with the jobs I ask them to do. But my big red mixer led me down the rabbit hole.

You expect it to be a pretty fixture on your kitchen counter and a more convenient way to mix the batter for your favorite brownies or cookies every once in a while. But then if you're me, it gets a little all-consuming. Chocolote chip cookies become mocha chip meringues, and a simple vanilla cake becomes a 4 layer, tiered, lopsided wonder covered in an insane number of fondant flowers. I seriously can't remember the last time I made a cake from a box or used frosting from a can or just threw some batter in a 13x9 pan and called it a day.

We're having a mustache-themed party? Well, obviously we have to have a mustache-shaped cake to go with it! We're spending the weekend at the lake? Well clearly drunken dessert will taste better if it is a cake in the shape of a ruffled bathing suit! You're getting the idea...

I recently scrolled through my phone's camera roll and laughed at the smattering of sweetness in there. Here's a round up:

 

A ridiculous fish cake for my friend Ashley's birthday weekend in Ocean City.

 

Bacon french toast mini-cupcakes. To die for. 

 

Cake balls for Halloween. 

 

Dan's favorite cheesecake. It's become a birthday tradition. 

 

 Cupcakes for that mustaches and smooches-themed party.

 Mustache meringues.

 And of course, the mustache cake. 

 Anniversary cake for Dan's parents.

 Birthday cake for my friend Alex.

 Birthday cupcakes for our friend Jess. 

 That cake I felt was necessary for Lake Anna. 

 

Birthday cupcakes for our friend Allyson. 

 

Building my birthday cake

 Good old crumb coating. 

Happy birthday to me.

 

Fondant insanity

 

and frosting insanity

 

led to this circus of a birthday cake for my friend Ashley. 

I'll try to do a better job of documenting, with a real camera, the creations from here on out. Until then, my big red mixer and I will continue to get into trouble together. 

Cheers.

t