Burger..CAKE!

What the best thing to have after a big juice cheesy burger??

Burger Cake
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

A BURGER CAKE! =D

It was my friend's birthday, and she -just like me - looooves burgers. So yours truly decided to take up the challenge and make her a burger cake. 

It was surprisingly easier and much more fun that I thought it would be. 

Ok, let's go back to the point.

I made two types of cakes: Yellow and Chocolate Cake.

It was really hard to find a 'bun' shaped baking pan. Mom helped me improvise :P but it turned out good in the end.

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Christmas Cupcakes

Merry Christmas!
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

First of all I'd like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

Isn't the Christmas spirit just amazing? People singing, everyone happy and cheerful! I just love it =)

What I love more, is I GET TO GO CRAZY WITH BAKING! and no one can say a thing =D

So for this happy holiday I baked some colorful Christmas cupcakes.

I made two types of cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes and Red Velvet Cupcakes

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BUMBLE BEE!!!

This special cupcake is for my old physics teacher. He loves making honey and actually has a bee hive that produces honey and all that (very cool stuff :P ) So yes, i made him a bee cupcake :P

It's actually a chocolate cupcake with a marshmallow fondant bee figure on top!

I know i know, bees are black and yellow, but I didn't have any yellow fondant tonight =( I'm going to have to make some tomorrow =D I just had to make/show you this.

Here it is:

Bee Cupcake
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Bee Cupcake
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

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Mini Rose Cupcake

This is a mini-post! Just thought its too cute not to share!

I just learnt this new fondant rose technique. So I thought I'd share. Something that good shouldn't be kept to oneself =D

I was baking my cupcakes for the Christmas baking marathon i got planned. But this was just too tempting not to try!

Ok, so 4 simple steps:

1) Take a small ball from your pre-colored fondant. (I use marshmallow fondant, I really should make a tutorial post about this awesome fondant, yalla SOON =) )

2) Roll out the ball into a thick rolled strip.

3) Flatten the strip using your rolling pin/hand.

4) Starting at one end of the strip, roll the fondant till you reach the end of the strip.

This is what you should get:

Mini Rose Cupcake

What do you think?????
Cute, no? 

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Oh NO! Pacdroid eats Apple...Cake!

This is a very special post about a very special cake! A friend of mine asked me to make her boyfriend a cake for his birthday.

Now, beware iPhone-lovers, this is not a cake you would like. (Don't get me wrong, the chocolate cake is yummy :P but its design is not so iPhone-friendly).

The idea behind the cake:

Pacdroid eating Apple-s

Pacdroid eats Apple Cake!
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

and yes you thought right, pacdroid is a combination of Android and our childhood game Pacman (That was such an awesome game, no?)

Well anyway, this cake was very fun to make, especially since I had a midterm that week but it helped me take my mind off it =D

The base was pretty simple to make, I made one circular cake and one large rectangular cake. Then I cut the shapes I needed and frosted the cakes. After that I colored my fondant and covered the cakes with it.

Aren't the apples so darn cute? Once I put the eyes I said: AWWWWWWWWW aint that cute!!!

Cute lil' Apples
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

The phone was the most challenging part. I cut out the outline from black fondant and left a 'window' for the blue fondant. Then I used my sugar pens to draw the apps and the writings.

Samsung Phone!!
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

THEN I put em all together making this fun pretty cake!!

Pacroid eats Apple Cake .. AGAIN!
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Oh I forgot to tell you, this cake was the first cake that I sell so YAYYY!! =D
and I got to meet the cheerful lovely Sarine!!

Hope you like it =)


Happy Cake-ing

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Arsenal Tshirt Cake

Arsenal T-shirt Cake
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

A very dear friend of mine is obsessed with football and everything Arsenal. AND it was his birthday this September, so your cake freak (aka ME!) rolled up her sleeves and got out her marshmallows and red food coloring...lots and lots of red food coloring and got down to business.

This was one of the most challenging cakes I had to do, color-wise. I did not have my Wilton Colors yet =( and had to do with the cheap liquid USE-LESS brands. I emtpied the entire bottle to reach the beautiful bright red I wanted. But turned out awesome-ly bright NO? =D

It was fairly easy to cut out the shape of tshirt, I just printed out a tshirt outline and traced out the cake. For the Fly Emirates and all the writing on the cake, I used melted white chocolate and piped it over the cake.

Logo and Details =D The one's I'm so proud of!
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

The logo was challenging to make. I made the base from red fondant and drew the details with some colored buttercream. Close enough, no?

I made some extra red fondant and placed them on the cake for the collar/sleeves.

Now for the finishing touches: I had to write Happy Birthday someplace, right? and I didn't want to ruin the tshirt and write on it SO i cut out a loooong strip from the leftover red fondant and rolled u its ends. Then I grabbed the ends and pulled them out in order to make it look like a banner. Then I wrote Happy Birthday with some white chocolate!

What do you think? Regardless of whether you like Arsenal or not :P

Arsenal T-shirt Cake
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Oh and congratulations Arsenal on winning 4-0 against Wigan Athletic in the English Premier League today =D

(haha, gottcha!! You really thought I'd actually know anything football-related? :P My sister Lana is a football freak (in a good way :P) and she suggested I should mention this! (Thank you Lana!) 

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Colors and Cupcakes

Colors and Cupcakes
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

I had a craving for cupcakes this afternoon...with lots and lots of frosting!!
So I closed my books and went into the kitchen.
Unfortunately I did not have any cupcake papers =( and it was too cold to get out of the house and get them. So I tried to make do without them. I baked them as I bake my cakes, with some butter and flour-ing the pan.

I used Martha Stewart's Polka Dot Cupcakes recipe with a few twinks here and there. And I made some classic oh-so-sweet frosting (recipe below), colored it with the beautiful Wilton colors I have (yay!) and had fun decorating them.

This is my first try at cupcake decorating, I usually just frost them. They turned out OK I think.
And as they say: practice makes perfect. I'll keep on practicing until I make the perfect frosted cupcake!

Here's how they turned out.

Colors and Cupcakes
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Colors and Cupcakes
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Colors and Cupcakes
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Frosting - as easy as can be:

What you need:

• 200 g butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbs. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla essence
• Few drops of food coloring (optional)

Tools you need:

• Bowl
• Hand Mixer (Your hand with a spatula will do, but you'll need some muscles :P)
• Spatula

What to do:

1. Cream the butter for about 3 min. using the mixer. The butter will become soft and pale.
2. Add the sugar gradually and mix until incorporated.
3. Add the milk and the vanilla and mix well.
4. In order to color your frosting, add a few drops of food coloring and mix till the color is mixed entirely with the frosting.

Tip: In order to have a smooth frosting texture, use the spatula to move all bubbles inside the mixture. Just mix and cream the frosting until it's all smooth and YUMMY!! =D

Happy Cupcake-ing!

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Sablés French Cookies

Sable Cookies
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Sablés are traditional french cookies. Sable means "sand" in French and it refers to the sandy texture of the cookies. They remind me a lot of sugar cookies but they're a tad more sophisticated. You spread one with the jam of your choice and add another one on top and

Voilà!

You have the perfect Sable.


Now, for once, I did not do the cooking. I came home from a long long day at university and I found my mom in the kitchen, making Sables! She said: "Sorry for taking your part in the house but I felt like having some sables!" Well as soon I saw them, I couldn't leave the kitchen. I forgot how tired I was and started helping her  with the rolling/shaping part and we baked them together. I only wish I can forget how tired I am when I have some work/studying to do =(

Before going into the oven
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

In the Oven
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Oh and thank you 3amto Waddad for the recipe. Aunty Waddad is actually dad's aunt and I love her very very much. She gave us this wonderful recipe.

They turned out very very yummy!

And we had some leftover dough so we thought we'd make a pie - a chocolate pie =D
Now I forgot to take a picture of the baked/filled pie but here it is before baking:

Chocolate Tart
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Happy Cookie-ing =D

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Poker Cake

Who doesn't enjoy a good poker game? What if I told you you can now actually eat those winning cards you have, or that 1M chip, OK doesn't sound too appealing but well wouldn't it be fun? =D

Poker Cake
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

It's my aunt's birthday today, and she loves playing poker (to be specific: the Facebook more-or-less harmless game) SO I stayed up last night making her a customized poker cake! =D (I'd like to thank everyone in the family who helped, especially my mom!!! Can't ever do anything without you =) )


It's by far, one of my favorite cakes so far. I used my new Wilton Colors: turned out great!! I only wish I can find them here in Lebanon =( (Thank you Aunty May for getting me the colors)

For the table, I thought I'd make a square green table (I know a poker table is supposed to be an oval, but I wanted to give the square one a try).

That was the easy part!

For the Cards.  I used white marshmallow fondant and cut out 4 rectangles. Then I used my sugar markers to paint the aces and the suits.

Cards
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

For the Chips,  I used red and blue fondant. Mom helped with these =D We cut out circles and finished it off with white sugar pens.

Chips
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

For the Suits,  I made red and black fondant. Cut out the suits and placed them on the sides of the cakes.

Suits
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

 Here's the cake again =D

Poker Cake
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Happy Birthday Aunty!!! =D

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Sugar Cookies Recipe

Sugar Cookies are great for a lot of occasions, whether you want Holiday cookies or just a simple sweet cookie, they're pretty amazing.

Sugar Cookies
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Here's how i do mine:

What you need:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder

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Eid Cookies

Eid El Ahda is here! So I thought I'd make something to celebrate the occasion. I wanted a change from the maa'moul we do every year, so... I decided to make some sugar cookies!

BUT, I did not have a sheep-shaped cookie cutter =( so I had to shape one from some wire (Thank you mom for the idea - and umm execution)

Anyway the cookie is pretty easy to make, just follow your favorite sugar cookie recipe. I use this one!

After chilling the dough, I cut out the shapes I needed and baked them.

Then came the fun - and very messy - part: coloring them.

I admit they do not look very professional but I did have fun doing them =D

So here they are:

Adha Mubarak
Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

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Pink Piglet Cake

I believe everyone has a little kid inside of him/her. And this kid loves - and will always love - and hang on to that very short childhood!

Who doesn't smile when a picture of the Flintstones passes by, or when they hear "I toott I saww a pwussycatt!!! I diiid, I diiidd!!!" =) Ah I bet you this warm fuzzy feeling inside right now, well at least I do :P

Point is: A friend of mine absolutely LOVES piglet! Her entire room is pink and she has like a million piglet toys! It's very cute =D

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy 

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Halloween Cakes

Halloween is finally here! No, I wasn't satisfied with only doing the Halloween Dead Fingers (if you haven't seen them, click here)

Here are some cakes I did for my sister's Halloween Party at school! Not with fondant this time but I had so much fun doing them.

Here's the Frankenstein Cake, supposed to be scary, but turned out cute!! I still loved it =D

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

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Pink Princess Cake

Would you like to have your own tiara? and be able to eat it too??

Dear Readers, I present to you 

~ The Princess Cake ~

A very pretty, cute elegant princess cake. A friend of mine absolutely adores princesses and everything about them. Last year, I gave her a crown for her birthday and this year I decided to make her one =D

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

or well bake her one!

I tried as much as possible to make my base cake look like a pink pillow and wrapped it with beige-colored fondant to create the border (I tried to be as elegant as the fondant allowed me to!)

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Halloween Dead Finger Cookies

Halloween is almost here! and it's time for some TRICK OR TREATIN'!

SO, I decided I'd give some dead fingers a try. (You choose whether they're tricks or treats =P) Well not ACTUAL dead fingers, but sugar cookies-ery ones =D

I used Martha Stewart's sugar cookie recipe as my base and continued from there. I shaped the fingers by molding a walnut-sized-cookie-batter-ball into long, thin strips. Then I pinched the strips to create knuckles. After that I used a small knife to create that wrinkly effect. As for the nails, I added an almond to each strip and it miraculously transformed into a scary, dead finger. (Read More to see pictures)

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Lemon Meringue Pie

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

This is one of my favorite pies. It has everything: The perfect combination! A flaky buttery crust, topped with very lemony custard that goes perfectly with the sweet sweet meringue. The meringue: luscious & creamy on the inside; perfectly crispy on the outside. What else can one ask for?

I apologize for the low resolution of the pictures (but my camera wasn't working properly =( )

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Purple Shoe Cake

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Now we start with the juicy stuff. This was my first fondant cake. (I've tried some fondant flowers before, but haven't actually made a whole cake with it). Well anyway, a friend of mine had her birthday coming up and I decided to make her a special little cake! She loves fashion and she especially loves shoes.
SO, I baked your normal 'deelicious'* chocolate cake and covered it up with white fondant.

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Cheesecake

Cheesecake, need I say more?

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Ok, here's the story: I've always LOVED cheesecake and I've always wanted to make one. But I never really liked the box-store ones. And I've heard that to make a real big cheesecake from scratch is hard. As most of you know, I love such challenges =D

SO! I cleared my schedule for a day and began the journey. Let me tell you, I loved it!

I had to research A LOT to figure how to make a perfect, not-too-cheesy, not-too-creamy, level luscious cheesecake.

It took me 2 days to finish (well, most of that time is the chilling/baking time) I had to bake it for hours! and chill it overnight.

The end result: Everyone loved it! It was gone in 30 minutes.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

What do you think?


Has anyone ever tried making a cheesecake before?

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Apple Pie

Who doesn't love a homemade apple pie?

Apple pies have been enjoyed since the beginning of time (or well, at least since a very very long time ago =P)

Crispy on the outside, warm and cinnamon-y on the inside!

I loved baking this apple pie, especially when the whole house started smelling like apples and cinnamon. And I specifically enjoyed playing with the dough and creating that crisscross top layer.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

What do you think?

What kind of pies do you like??

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Chocolate Truffle Cake

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

My most recent baking journey!


A three layer melt-in-your-mouth cake -
The first layer is made up of baked crispy biscuits.  
The second, of heavenly light sponge chocolate cake. And the last - but definitely not least - layer is made up of luscious chocolate truffle mousse.

Now imagine all those layers on top of each other with a sprinkle of bittersweet cocoa powder on top.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Hope you like it! 

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