Ice Cream Cone Ruffle Tree Cake

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I definitely enjoyed a weekend full of holiday baking (finally!!) so get ready for a week packed full of amazing sweets and treats with quick and easy ideas for all your holiday baking needs. First up is this winter wonderland cake I have been imagining for quite some time now. I am thrilled to share with you how simple and festive this cake is that you will be able to throw together in no time.

Recently I had the privilege of receiving some cake mixes to try from The Cake Mix Doctor. I'm sure you all have seen these cookbooks before am I right? Well Anne Byrn, the mastermind behind these books has recently launched a new line of cake mixes and I was lucky enough to get to sample some! Three boxes of cake mix (yellow & chocolate), recipe cards and a book full of frosting recipes showed up at my door...it was a GREAT day! Anne's dream was to create a line of cake mix that tasted like it was made from scratch, tender and moist and didn't have any artificial colorings or trans-fat. Well she has done just that and I must say her cakes are truly delicious!

So just in time for Christmas, the season of baking, cake making, recipe sharing and gift giving I'm here to share with you a winter wonderland cake that features Anne's Old Fashioned-Yellow Cake Mix. My vision was to create a white cake that looked like it was covered in snow and topped with some super simple ruffle Christmas trees. I iced the cake using one of Anne's signature recipes, Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting (recipe below) and covered the entire cake in shredded coconut. Yellow Cake + Marshmallow + Coconut = 1 amazing cake

Both the cake and frosting can be made in a matter of minutes! This is a huge time saver when we are all pressed for time during the holidays! So keeping with the them of quick and simple, the cake topper trees can be made in a matter of minutes as well. I always freeze any left over icing I have from previous projects, so I happened to have some buttercream icing on hand to use for the trees.

Here are the supplies you will need to create the trees:

Ice Cream Cone Ruffle Trees
-Sugar cones
-buttercream frosting (tinted desired colors)
-Wilton tip #103
-piping bags

1. Holding the base of the ice cream cone grab your piping bag fitted with tip 103. With the thin part of the tip toward you start piping in a slight up and down motion going around the cone to create a ruffle effect.
2. Continue with this same technique, layer by layer until the entire cone is covered in frosting.
3. Place a wooden skewer into the cone and stick finished cone into a styrofoam block until you are ready to place on top of the cake.

See below for pictures.

I am absolutely in love with how these ruffled trees turned out and they came together in a matter of minutes! If you so desire, feel free to add some sprinkles to the trees for a pop of color to look like they are covered in lights!

Living in Mobile, AL it sure hasn't felt the least bit like winter so far this year. The temps have still been getting into the 70s during the day! But just looking at this coconut covered cake makes me think of winter, cold air and snow that we will hopefully see when we travel to KY this week to spend Christmas with my family!

As promised above here is the recipe for the frosting!

Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting (The Cake Mix Doctor's Icing on the Cake)

1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
3 large egg whites
1 jar (13 oz) marshmallow creme
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Place the sugar, water, and egg whites in a heavy medium-size saucepan over low heat. Cook, beating continuously with an electric hand mixer on high speed, until soft peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the marshmallow creme and the vanilla and beat the mixture with the mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form, 2 minutes. Use the frosting at once.

So if you are looking for the perfect gift to give all the bakers in your life, why not give them the gift of cake! Check out The Cake Mix Doctor website and order some mixes online. Or check out the list of stores that currently sell the mixes. You could even put together an entire gift basket with all the supplies needed to make this Ice Cream Cone Ruffle Tree Cake. Fill the basket with cake pans, piping tips, coconut, sugar cones and of course the cake mix and you have got one perfect gift for the cake lover!

I hope you will give this cake a try!

Cake Inspired Birthday Cookies

Today's post is dedicated to my amazing sister Emily! It's her birthday today and I wanted to make her some "cake inspired" cookies to show her how much I love and appreciate her! This past year she became an aunt or "Auntie Em" as we now call her to our little boy Sam! Let's just say we are so blessed to have her in our lives and Sam is one lucky little boy to have her as an aunt! I am not kidding when I say probably about 90% of his wardrobe for the first almost 8 months of his life has been bought for him by her! Emily is constantly sending me text messages during her lunch break of new outfits she has bought for Sam! And if she comes across one that has something to do with "aunt" on the front, well of course she is putting it in her shopping cart! So today, although we are 725 miles apart, I wanted to send her some birthday love in the form of cookies! Lucky for her, my mom (our mom) is down here visiting us right now and flying home today to hand deliver these special cookies!

The theme for these cookies came to me from our numerous conversations we have had about cakes we come across online from other bloggers that we absolutely love and that she always tells me, "you should try this sometime"! The common themes for most cakes that grab our attention these days consist of ruffles, ombre, or sprinkles! So what better way to celebrate the birthday girl than with some of her favorite cake trends replicated on cookies!

So first up is the "ruffle" cookie and "ombre"! If you are a long time follower of my blog you may remember my Valentine's ombre cupcakes here, with the recipe and tutorial posted on Half Baked here. Using a decorating tip #104 and varying shades of turquoise I created these ombre ruffle cookies! I used a crusting buttercream icing instead of royal icing for these cookies so that I could get the texture I wanted when creating the ruffles.

Every birthday needs sprinkles am I right? Rainbow non pareils are my absolute favorite! I love the crunch you get when you bite into the cookie! I think my sister is pretty fond of rainbow sprinkles too. Afterall, here is what she requested for her birthday two years ago! Today she is celebrating the big "29"! Enjoy the last year in your 20s Emily!

And finally another "ombre" cookie using a technique I have been dying to try ever since spotting these cookies on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle. All you need is a can of Wilton Color Mist and a piece of paper to spray the cookies in varying shades! Let's just say this took a little trial and error at first to get a feel for the spray can, but I finally got the technique down! Still need more practice though! Step-by-step photos are over on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle so check it out!

I think these cake inspired birthday cookies turned out pretty cute and I can't wait for her to see them in person! I have also already taste tested them, and they are pretty yummy!

Happy Birthday Auntie Em! Hope you have a great day and enjoy your cookies! We will see you next month for Christmas! Sam can't wait to give his auntie a big hug and kiss!