Spring and Summer Baking

I haven't been blogging, but that doesn't mean I haven't been baking.

Our favorite babysitter had a birthday in April and her favorite flavor is lemon, so we made white cupcakes and filled them with homemade lemon curd.  It was my first time to make lemon curd and while it requires a bit of prep and a lot of stirring, it was not too difficult.  I used a cupcake corer to remove the center of the cake (similar to this one).

I topped some with perfect cupcake frosting and colorful sprinkles.

And the rest with homemade whipped cream (whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla) and clear sugar sprinkles.

It's not baking, but I tried making a mini fruit bouquet for a friend's birthday.  I used mini cookie cutters to cut out the fruit.  I trimmed bamboo skewers to the right length and added the fruit.  Packaging is from Joann's.

And I was in the mood to make giant sugar cookie pops.  I used a large sunflower cookie cutter and thick cookie sticks.  I tinted cream cheese tub frosting yellow with oil-based food color, and topped with yellow sugar sprinkles.  Then I piped on chocolate tub frosting and added mini chocolate chips.  I put them in a pail from the dollar spot at Target.  (Next time I will have someone help me transport them so they don't fall off their sticks!)

A friend of mine returned from a vacation to Australia with an exciting announcement, so koala cake pops were in order.  Thank you to Bakerella for the idea.  I used my own technique for the ears -- I used a small circle cookie cutter to cut a Ghirardelli white chocolate melt into an ear shape.  Then I used a squeeze bottle to pipe gray chocolate around the white ear.  I chilled the chocolate in the refrigerator and then trimmed it with a paring knife.  The noses are dark chocolate covered blueberries from Sprouts.  Packaging is from Target.  My cake pop wrappers wouldn't fit over the ears, so I wrapped the whole thing in cellophane and tied it with a ribbon.

I decided to make my own birthday cake this year.  My whole family loves Nothing Bundt Cakes, so I tried this copycat recipe.  It was amazeballs!  The only thing I'll do differently next time is to chill the frosting a bit before piping.