Happy New Year 2010!

 The year 2009 was a rough year for my family, but also a wonderful one at the same time. There were many changes that took place in each of our lives, painful changes that left us a feeling of uncertainty of what was to come. We then realized how limited our vision was.  When we truly put our trust in Him and made decisions not based on our emotions or even on our intellect, which told us to do what was expected from us, but actually remained still and listened and did what God was asking us to do, we started to see God working in each of our lives and placing us in places we never dreamed of serving Him. What would I change of 2009? Nothing!  It was the year where the Calle family grew spiritually and got closer to each other.  It was the year where we set for the first time in a long time our priorities right.  We never realized how twisted these were.  We are still in the process of growing, but we are able to see His hand moving in our lives, and this is an amazing thing!

I want to wish all of you a blessed 2010 and remember to honor God above all things!

Christmas Tablescape

This year I decided to have a whimsical Christmas with bright colors and crazy graphics, but still traditional and elegant.  Well, one of my favorite craft stores had these little boxes with polka dots and that was my inspiration.  I already had the lime green tablecloths, so the rest was easy.

 Lime green tablecloths with a runner I made from a roll of gift wrap paper that matched with everything and it only cost $1

 

 I have these beautiful red serving chargers and ruby red goblets that worked well.

 

 For the centerpieces I used these cute tin buckets I found at Micheal's (some had polka dots and others had stripes) and made some poms out of tissue paper and to add some whimsy, I glued some ribbon and added an ornament in the middle!  Lovely!

 

I made them in white tissue paper and in green

 

 For name tags I used white cardstock and glued sticker to the edges (yes, a lot of work) and used tiny green and red ornaments to hold the card! 

 

 My inpiration for all of this... the favor box!!! I put two Ferrero Roche Chocolate inside for each guest

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My husband read a passage from the Bible that talks about Jesus, the reason for the season and prayed thanking God for  EVERYTHING, including our family and friends!

OH Christmas Tree Cake

This was the centerpiece of my dessert table.  Fresh strawberries and nutella filling layered between a moist delicious vanilla cake. ...to die for!  The tree is made of royal icing on an icecream cone and the gifts are made of fondant!  I sprinkled some edible glitter to make it look like snow.

Christmas Dessert Buffet

Goodies I made for Christmas Eve dinner.  We had such a great time getting everything ready for that night.  I thank God for giving me the opportunity to make pretty yummy things for my family.  They are my inspiration.  My girls helped me set-up this dessert table.  Everyone enjoyed these desserts after dinner.

                        

Snowman Cake

I made this snowman cake for Christmas Eve for a customer that had a special request:  Fresh strawberries with nutella filling, moist but not too wet Leelee's vanilla cake.  Well, I liked the filling so much that I made one for us too that I'll show you mine on my following post. 

Holly Berries Christmas cake

OK, yes, a very simple cake. A very clean (a must for me) cake with crimped edges (top and bottom), two holly leaves with a bit of movement and a couple of berries, some pearl dust for some sheen and... that's it.  The customer said she wanted something simple because she was just interested in my rum cake and didn't care much for the decoration.  That's very hard for me to do.  I can't just make a naked cake, so I dressed it up in a simple but sophisticated manner! Cute, don't you think?! ;)

 

Christmas Tree Mini Cakes

I made these mini cakes for the people I spend most of my day with, my coworkers. It was great baking and decorating them.  The flavor is  the moist Leelee's vanilla specialty, and vanilla MMF. These are super cute on their own, but even nicer when you take the time to get a box just the right size and place some fun tissue paper inside, then tie a cute bow with a little card.  It really made me happy seeing those little boxes when they were finished on my table top!

 

 

 

Christmas Cookie Bouquets

Yes, this past week was the week for cookies, not to mention some cakes in between.  I have been very busy and for this I am so thankful.  I've had to say no to people and this really kills me, but in order to bring quality work and have people want to come back, I must dedicate the right time to every creation that meets and even exceeds my customers expectation!

Here are some Cookie Bouquets I made this week.  These are great as gifts for co-workers, friends and families.  They can be of three or more and as big as a basket filled with yummy cookies.

                                                   

Seven Cookie Bouquet

Five Cookie Bouquet

Another 5 Cookie Bouquet

another 5 Cookie Bouquet with a bone because

the recipient had a doggie!  How cute!

4 Cookie Bouquet

3 Cookie Bouquet

3 Cookie Bouquet

200 Snowmen Cookies

I made these 200 Christmas cookies for a church that adopted a school and was giving these to every teacher.  I thought that was such a great thing to do because teachers are really not appreciated as they should.  I commend this church for touching these people's lives with all sorts of help in such a bad economy where teachers literally have to pull money out of their pockets to have the supplies they need. I also attend a church like this, Christ Fellowship, it's a church where meeting people's needs, sharing the gospel and pouring Jesus' love is the main priority before anything else.

I thank God for my daughter's and husband that helped me finish these on time, because each and every one of these cookies has a lot of detail; the hat, the scarf, the nose.  Every one of these components is placed with care and attention.  The last cookie finished looked as good as the first one. This is why these cookies cost as much as they do.  It's all detail work.

 

Christmas Wreath Cake

Nothing special!  Just a simple cake I made to take to the best small group in town!  I was supposed to take a Coconut flan, but I didn't have all the ingredients at home for it and I didn't want to go out and get them because I was baking 200 snowman cookies, yes 200 all my myself ( my girls will help me decorate today).  Anyway, some of the guys in the group were disappointed when they found out it was a cake and not my flan, but once they tasted it they were happy. That cake flew and everyone ate more than once.  The flavor, my specialty Vanilla cake with a twist, shhhh, it's a secret!! I'm always trying something new!  Needless to say, I had a blast at our party, I am so grateful to God for his direction in our family's life.  I couldn't be with a more solid and spiritually healthy bunch! To Him be the glory!!!

Bed of Roses Wedding Cake

This wedding cake is three tiers tall with fresh Roses in white and and in hints of green.  The tiers are 14", 11" and 8".  I made Their initials out of gumpaste and pearl dust to give it a sheen. The flavor is the typical Dominican cake because the groom is from DR. This wedding was taking place at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.  What a beautiful place!!! I'd love to have one of my girls get married there someday!

 

 

Sweet Sixteen Cake - Music Notes

I made this cake for my beautiful niece for her Sweet Sixteen birthday. The flavor is Leelee's vanilla Specialty cake.  Covered in MMF.  The numbers and the music notes are MMF with gumpaste.  Heading to West Palm for the celebration!! Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

Music Notes Cookies

These were for my niece's Sweet sixteen Birthday Party.  The are Vanilla butter cookies with Royal icing.  Wrapped with a coordinating black and pin ribbon to match the colors of the cake.

Christmas Cookies

This was a small order of vanilla Christmas cookies for a customer.  I put them in little bags and tied a red Christmas ribbon on them.  I made a total of 15 of these

Santa's Christmas boot

Frosty the Snowman

Warm Mitten

All delicious Cookies for the holiday season!  These are great for gifts for teachers or friends, as favors for a Christmas party, etc.

Once upon a time Wedding Cake

I truly enjoyed working on this cake. 4 tier cake, each tier is 5" high and made of Leelee's Specialty Rum Cake.  Iced with buttercream first then, finished with MMF tinted in ivory.  The details of the frills made with MMF.  Ver time consuming but fun. Posting two versions, with and without borders.