Cami's Creations: New Old Stuff

It seems a bit strange for a new blog to post about old stuff, but I guess I'll just try to be chronological here. I've always loved being crafty and I guess baking was just an extension of that! I remember early on I loved making potholders out of those stretchy bands and working on (hideous) latch hook rugs tirelessly. My mom still hoards my huge acrylic paint collection when I got into painting useless blocks of wood for fun and I have far far far too much scrapbooking items from my cardmaking days (you can ask my husband about it, it's a sore subject). So here are some past projects in loose chronological order (and yes, I will spare you the ugly elementary school art projects. I'm crafty, not artsy. There is a difference).

One of my first ever layer cakes. The frosting job is horrendous, but I was pretty pleased with the chocolate leaves and chocolate covered strawberries. It was a good way to make an impression on my future in-laws (it was for Greg's birthday right before we started dating). Maybe one day I'll try it again utilizing some piping skills instead of spatula mangling the frosting.

June 2004

Haha, we like this pic b/c for some reason we look kind of buff.

My first attempt at cream puffs. Actually I still use this recipe today!
Fall 2004

This was a mini-scrapbook I made for my small group leader Jade. Looking at it I'm reminded again why I find scrapbooking so incredibly tedious (although I did like the end product). I'm also glad my photography skills got a bit better over time.
July 2005

I love giving gifts so Valentines was the perfect opportunity to shower people with love. Cookie pops, hershey kiss roses, love pops and veggie tales. What's not to love?
February 2005

I think this was my first cheesecake ever and actually it turned out pretty good, especially since I had no conception of hot water baths or mixing techniques. I love fruit as decoration. It is so easy and looks appetizing and festive!
February 2005

I don't even remember making this, but it must be my first cupcake from scratch. This just goes to show that there is hope for everyone. I'm almost embarrassed to put this up.
Fall 2004

Wow, the globbage is terrible on that frosting!

Kimber and I tried to tackle pumpkin cheesecake. The swirls turned out ok, but as I recall I hadn't yet come up with the brilliant idea of putting foil around the pan for the water bath which meant soggy crust...gross.
Winter 2005

I discovered the wonders of butter cookies and decided to use it like playdough. This was for Greg for some sort of occassion.
March 2005

Those butter cookies again! This time I thought I'd be smart and add some color. All I can say now is cookie cutters and pie rollers are your friends. But the rough edges do give it a homemade sort of look.
Easter 2006

Yup, butter cookies are popping up everywhere! This was in celebration of our 1 year dating anniversary. Luckily they made the shipping trip to Sacramento intact.
July 2005

Another cheesecake attempt- chocolate irish creme with a chocolate ganache. I'm glad to say that I've come a long way from this lumpy ganache, but it was tasty nonetheless.
For our 1.5 dating anniversary, February 2006

Our first attempt at crepes! Greg actually was able to pull a 360 turn and catch the airborne crepe, but we did have a couple of fatalities in the process.
February 2006 for valentines day.

Heart shaped scones for Bethany's baby shower tea.
May 2006.

First evidences of party planning and decorating. Patricia's 21st birthday!
May 2006

Some more party planning going on. Spring banquet 2006. Those poor beta fish!

And yup, we even made our own corsages.

A simple bracelet project involving rings that had different attributes "passionate", "love", etc. and some jewelry twine. I used to be really into jewelry making but this project for my bridesmaids was probably the most recent jewelry endeavor in a long while. In retrospect I wish I had just gotten silver chains b/c the bracelets didn't really lay flat. In fact I still have mine in my coin purse as I type.
May 2007

Some stamped and decorated shoe boxes for my bridesmaids with their wedding shoes.
May 2007

MUCH better on the cupcake decorating this time. These were "Million Dollar Cake" cupcakes with pineapple and mandarin orange frosting for our housewarming party post-wedding.
September 2007

Greg's coworker made a delicious margarita cheesecake so I attempted to follow suit. It was not very tasty and I have since discarded the recipe. Blah.
September 2007

One thing Greg raves about was this cannoli from his aunt's wedding. I attempted to copycat (I bought the shells and dipped them, these were not from scratch). Like the cheesecake they were also kind of blah and I have yet to reproduce this treat.
July 2007

Finally I get it right with the pumpkin cheesecake. This was to impress the new in-laws for Thanksgiving. And this time no soggy crust, yay!
November 2007

My first attempt at creme brulee. I'm only sad that I didn't get a shot of the final product. I think homemade creme brulee has got to be one of my favorite desserts ever. If only TSA hadn't stolen my torch from my check-in baggage. Grrrrrr.
Valentines Day 2008

In a shameless attempt to get our high school girls to come to my Bible study WOW (women of worship) I made mini-cheesecake. Needless to say though the cheesecake was good, the turn out was not.
Janurary 2008

Finally some more non-baked goods. Here's my fall decoration display from Fall 2008. I love my leaf sconce! And yes, I love love love acorns so I wired some to hang on the sconce.

Now we're getting to the good stuff! During the summer my friend Vicky and I took a wilton cake decorating class at Michaels because our old small group leader, Jade had commissioned us to make cupcakes for her wedding. I had hardly progressed in my cupcake skills and was in desperate need of getting over my piping bag anxiety. After many trial runs and much practice here was the final product! Not to shabby eh?
Chocolate cupcake with raspberry filling, our own buttercream vanilla frosting recipe and a blue fondant flower with royal icing center. Sounds fancy, huh?

We also made vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting, but I liked the chocolate cupcakes better. And those ribbon sashes were a huge pain in butt!

I think we made about 150 cupcakes total! Whew!!! And don't be too impressed, the cake on top was purchased from a professional. But we did dress up the cupcake stand with some ribbon and pearls.

The plated version.

Decorated milano cookies were plated with the cupcakes and the extras were set out after the cupcakes were eaten. Some of our "L"s were pretty hideous, but I think I tried to eat the really ugly ones.

Christmas 2008- I wanted to start a new tradition of having cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast so I rolled up my sleeve and faced my yeast fear. These were "clone of a cinnabon" cinnamon rolls and I can vouch that this is an accurate namesake. Mmmm, so tasty and totally worth it to make it from scratch!
December 2008