Red Velvet Cupcakes

We are having some friends over for dinner tonight and that, of course, means that I get to bake something! This time I decided to try red velvet cupcakes. They always look so pretty, the red cake contrasts so nicely with the white frosting. Unfortunately, mine didn't turn out as red and I wanted them too, I didn't have liquid food coloring, only the gel. It didn't dissolve in the cream very well. Oh well, it still tasted great, the color doesn't change that. The cream cheese frosting is pretty yummy too (I had to taste test, didn't I?!). I added some red sugar crystals to the top and I think that finished it off nicely.




They aren't quite as pretty as I hoped they would be, but it is my first attempt. Next time I'll know not to fill the cups quite as full (the batter rose a bit more than I thought it would) and hunt down some liquid food coloring!

Cookies for Grandma

My Grandmother is celebrating a birthday this coming week and I thought that I would try sending her some cookies. I also decided to send some to my other Grandmother as a nice little surprise.

I had fun doing these flowers and personally think that the tulips came out the best. The other flowers looked like more fun initially but didn't come out a pretty as I thought they would. Next time I will work with fewer colors (I was a bit overwhelmed) and it won't look quite so psychedelic! In a bouquet I would stick to two or three colors and one or two patterns.




(I've got to stop taking these pics with my phone! They always come out so dark!)

Belated Birthday

I thought I'd post a picture of the cake I made for my son's first birthday. It was about a month ago, but I have birthday's after yesterday's party. I even made a little tiny dinosaur just for him.

Birthdays!

Last night we celebrated my niece and nephew's 4th and 2nd birthdays, respectively. Yep, they were both born on Feb 16th! My sister (who is super-woman) made this adorable fish cake for them just 5 days after having her 3rd baby!!

Everyone loved the cake and the kids got a kick out of the eye made from a marshmallow.

Things are taking off!

I'm very excited because I've been asked to do a cake for a baby shower. She was a guest at a shower that I co-hosted for one of my best friends and remembered the cake! I've decided to basically do it at cost and use this as a way to advertise. I'll be making a duck cake, and some cookies to give out to the guests. I can also do diaper cakes and we'll see if I can convince her to let me do one of those as well (see the pic below for one I made for the aforementioned shower).

And, I've been asked to make something for a charity event benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!

I'm very excited to start making things for people and hopefully spread the word. Once my sister has recovered from the birth of her third beautiful child she'll be joining in the fun. As per the title of the blog, we're thinking of "Two Sister's Creations" for our name.

A "Royally" Happy Valentine's Day

So, you know all those lovely cookies that you see for sale on Valentine's Day (or any other holiday) that look perfectly decorated with smooth, pretty icing? Well, I thought I should have a go at making those myself!

The icing used is called Royal Icing. It was easy enough to make, powdered sugar, meringue powder, water and coloring. As I was researching this particular technique a lot of websites I found talked about how fast it dries, and went on and on about how quickly you have to work. That scared me a bit, I mean, how fast is fast?! I was preparing my self for instant solidification upon contact with air. Nothing of the sort happened. Yes, it dried to a nice hard finish, but it does take a little time! I found after flooding the cookie with the red icing it was best to put them in the fridge for a while before adding the while decorations, other wise the white sort of bled into the red and didn't look very good.




Anyway, it was a fun technique to learn and the cookies turned out to be delicious. This is what they use to do those cookie bouquets that are sold for a pretty penny. I'm thinking of starting to make those, we could definitely do a better job than those expensive places online!

Here we go!

I recently quit my job as a postdoc in the field of genetics to devote myself to raising my sweet little boy. As such, I have been finding new things to fill my days and use up some creative energy that used to either be squashed by exhaustion or thinking up new experiments. What I've discovered is that I love to bake and decorate cakes, cookies, cupcakes etc.

My sister is also a mom of 3 beautiful kids and has a real talent for decorating. She's always had an eye for color and is going to join me on this adventure!

So, I'll be using this blog to post some of our cooking adventures. Failures, successes and everything in between. Let us know what you like or what ideas you have for improvement!

Happy Baking!