Christmas at The Olvera House...Gingerbread House Competition!

It's a tradition at my house to watch The Christmas Story ("you'll shoot your eye out kid!") on Christmas eve, open gifts at midnight after reading the birth of Jesus in the bible, eat Christmas lunch, pop Christmas crackers together, sing "Happy Birthday to Jesus" & eat the cake we make him, and have a gingerbread house competition! Guess who won that?! 

"Today in the town of David a savior had been born to you; he is Christ the Lord".  -Luke 2:11

I had a very blessed time with my family! Here are a few highlights from the day: 

(Jesus's Birthday Cake I made him)

(prayer and christmas poppers)

(all of our houses)

(Mine and Joel's house! We WON!)

Garden Cake

Here's a garden cake I just finished up yesterday! It's a three layer butter pecan cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. I used fondant only to decorate the top of the cake. I used butter cream to decorated the edges with grass and leaves. 

My niece came over while I was in the middle of making the cake and she wanted to do her own again. Love it!

These are some pictures of her at work. She's a pro & she's only 4...TALENT! 

Butter Pecan Cake Recipe

I made these cupcakes using butter pecan flavored cake and basic vanilla buttercream frosting. I garnished the tops with halves of pecans. 

Butter Pecan Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of chopped pecans
• 1 1/4 cups of softened butter
• 2 cups of sugar 
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 1/4 cup of the butter with the pecans in a baking dish for 20min. Stir frequently.

In a large bowl cream together sugar and remaining butter until light and fluffy. Add in one egg at a time. Stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the creamed mixture alternatively with the milk. Stir in 1 cup of the roasted pecans. 

Pour into cupcake tins or into 9inch round pans.

Bake at 350degrees for 25-30min. 

Let cool and then add frosting. 

Vanilla Frosting:

• 1 cup softened butter
• 8 cups confection sugar
• 1 can (5oz) evaporated milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract 

Beat together butter and confection sugar. Add milk and vanilla; beat till smooth. Stir in remaining remaining roasted pecans.

Spread frosting between cake layer or pip onto cupcakes.

Mini Anniversary Cake

I was asked to make a small anniversary cake for my friend's parents. She wanted it to be so small that it only fed about two people. So I made this mini three-tiered cake (it's about as tall as a pencil). It's a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. I covered it in blue fondant and pipped white buttercream around to decorate it. 

I was also babysitting my niece while I was making the cake and she saw what I was doing and wanted to make one herself. This is her lovely masterpiece! It's a cake made out of blobs of blue fondant and decorated with buttercream pipping and checkers. 

Birthday cake pops

The cake flavor is vanilla with vanilla icing. I dipped the pops into red candy melts and added the black candy melts and piped on white melted candy melts to spell out "Happy Birthday".

Thanksgiving desserts & Pumpkin Pie recipe

For Thanksgiving this year I made pumpkin rolls, no-bake cheesecakes, and a lot of pumpkin pies! 

My family is HUGE so I had to make enough to feed an army! 

Thanksgiving was so great! And I'm so very thankful for the family I was blessed to be born into. Couldn't have asked for a better day. 

(*Scroll down for my awesome pumpkin pie recipe)

Pumpkin Pie Recipe
Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 2 large eggs
• 15oz. fresh or canned pumpkin
• 1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk
• 1 deep dish pie shell (frozen, unbaked)

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 425degrees F.

Mix together the sugar cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in a bowl. Beat the eggs in another bowl. Stir in spices, pumpkin and evaporated milk to the egg mixture. Whisk together until all of the ingredients are evenly distributed.

Pour into pie crusts.

Bake in pre-heated 425 degree oven for 15min. Lower temperature to 350 degrees after the 15minuets are over and bake for 40-50min. Cool on wire rack for 2hours. Refrigerate after it cools or enjoy immediately.

Enjoy!

Army Cake for Veteran's Day

To help celebrate my sister Veronica being a veteran I made an Army symbol cake for her. It's a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting colored yellow and black. I used fondant to make the letters and star. I normally would've layered the entire cake with fondant, but she likes buttercream more than fondant so I decided to put as much frosting as I could. I tried to smooth out the frosting enough to make it look like it's fondant. 

Happy Veteran's Day, Sistah! We love you!

Happy Veterans Day, Sister! HOOAH!

While I was going into kindergarten my second oldest sister Veronica was going into the military. She joined the U.S Army in 1999 after she graduated high school. Thank God she was kept safe and well during her time serving & now she is a kindergarten teacher. This post is a thank you to her and to all those who've served, are currently serving our country, and their families. I'm so proud of her & i'm proud to call myself her little sister.

(Bottom left picture; Left to Right: My brother Joe, Michael, ME, Jonathan,& Priscilla)

These are some picture of my dad and me with my sister Veronica (mom was the one taking the pictures) when we went to go pick her up back in 2000 from Washington to come visit us for a weekend from the Army.  I remember being so excited to see her and getting to take pictures outside next to the White House's christmas tree.

Happy Birthday Big Brother, Michael!

October 31st was my third oldest brother's birthday. He is in love with his dogs so I made him a dog themed cake. The cake flavor is vanilla with vanilla frosting. It is decorated and layered with fondant. I decorated it to look like a dog's food bowl with a leash at the bottom and footprints all around. 

Eyeball (halloween) & Pumpkin Cake Pops

I made some eyeball cake pops yesterday for a customer. The cake is vanilla cake with vanilla frosting. The pop is covered and decorated in candy melts. 

 I also made pumpkin cake pops for my family. The cake is vanilla and vanilla frosting. The cake pop is covered and decorated with candy melts...I  used brown pearl dust (yes, edible btw) to make the shading where the pumpkin grooves are so that it's more noticeable. 

Operation Christmas Child! - Samaritan's Purse

Since 1993, more than 100 million boys and girls in over 130 countries have experienced God’s love through the power of simple shoebox gifts from Operation Christmas Child. Samaritan’s Purse works with local churches and ministry partners to deliver the gifts and share the life-changing Good News of Jesus Christ.

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/

For the Waco area you can pick up shoe boxes from The Family Christian Store (next to Wing Stop). Box drop off location Nov. 18-25: 

Highland Baptist Church- 3014 Maple Avenue Waco, Tx 76707

Here is a quick video featuring Bob & Larry from VeggieTales about Operation Christmas Child:

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:18, NASB)

Gift-filled shoeboxes are a powerful way to introduce children to God’s greatest gift, salvation through Jesus Christ. Your prayers are essential to the work of Operation Christmas Child, so please join us during National Collection Week Nov. 18-25. Our goal this year is to collect 9.8 million shoebox gifts from the United States and nine other countries. During the week, we will pray for the people packing the boxes, the volunteers who will be collecting, processing, and delivering the gifts, and for the children receiving them.

How to pack the box:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx2BS3IL9kA

“Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet
but yours.Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion for the
world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about
doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.”
~Saint Teresa of Avila 

Batman Minion Cake

This past weekend I made a Batman minion cake. The cake is chocolate fudge with vanilla buttercream frosting. It is five eight inch round cakes stacked on top of each other and I cut the top a bit to make the edges rounded out. I used fondant to cover the cake and decorated it to look like the minion is in a Batman costume.

Happy Boss's Day ,Dad & 24th Birthday ,Big Brother!

Today is my second oldest brother's 24th birthday! My sister-in-law got him a store bought chocolate cake with big chocolate flakes on the side with strawberry filling. I decorated the top with a muscular arm, dumbbell, and "Joe" made out of fondant.





Today is also Boss's Day! So for my dad I made him a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. I layered it with fondant and made a hammer, screwdriver, & nails from fondant. I wish I had done more with the cake since I feel like it looks very simple, but my Dad liked it so i guess that's all that really matters.

Community Helper's Week at the primary school!

This is picture of my big sister's classroom (above). She is a bilingual kindergarten teacher at an elementary school. The teachers there asked me if I could come in and talk about what it's like to be a baker and about how I give back to the community for Community Helper's Week. So, I made a power point presentation and presented it today to my sister's kids & all of the students. It was a blast! I had so much fun telling my baking story and the kids loved getting to see the cakes. It was also really cool when most of the kids came up to hug me before they left! So sweet! 

Here is a picture of my presentation (left) & a picture of my big sister Veronica getting her kids to sit on the floor for the presentation (right): 

 

Rainy Day = Cake Pop Day!

The kids didn't have to go to school today and my niece didn't have to go to pre-k either. I've been wanting to make cake pops for the longest time now, so.... what better way to spend a  rainy Monday morning with my little side kick!  

We made a box of chocolate fudge cake with a can of vanilla frosting. Rolled them, stuck popsicle sticks into them, and dipped it into candy melts! I tried making some that look like regular ol' cake pops and some like carmel covered apples! 

Those are the cake balls Angelina made! She was so proud! (left picture)

(My nephew & niece posing with their cake pops.)

              

Baby Shower Basket Cake

Here is the baby shower cake I just finished up this morning. It's for a baby girl! The cake is vanilla and strawberry with vanilla buttercream frosting. I used a basket weave technique with the frosting on the outside of the cake to make it look like a white basket. The baby items on top of the cake (duck, pacifiers, bottle, rattle , bear, blanket, teethers, and onesie)  are made of fondant and so are the two handles.

Here's the cake when it was a blank canvas:

Angelina's 4th birthday party!

My favorite little mermaid turns four today! My niece loves The Little Mermaid so my big brother & sister-in-law threw her a mermaid party. I was asked to make her a three tier sea themed cake. The bottom tier is vanilla, the middle is chocolate, and the top is a mix of chocolate and vanilla cake. It's filled and frosted with teal colored vanilla buttercream & covered with fondant. I air brushed the faded blue onto the teal fondant to give it a deep sea look. The topper is a candle of Ariel from The Little Mermaid.

My niece had such a good time at her birthday party. 

& I'm so happy that everyone loved the cake!

Drawing by Melody Davila

I'm in love with this drawing! Thanks to my awesome & talented little cousin Melody for making it for me. She did such a great job! I definitely have to find a way to incorporate this into my blog's logo. All of her drawings are so amazing!

Chocolate covered football strawberry cupcakes

My little sister wanted me to help her make some chocolate dipped football strawberry cupcakes for a football friend of hers. I mostly just supervised this project. She mixed a box of vanilla cake mix and colored it 1/3 blue, 1/3 red and 1/3 white. The cake came out tie-dyish. We put a can of vanilla icing on top. She dipped the strawberries in chocolate coating and I piped the football laces on with vanilla icing. We placed the strawberries on top & there you have it! 

Bambi Cake 2.0

So...the other Bambi cake that my mom & I made together didn't turn out so well (it cracked in half after a few hours). My mom wanted to make a new Bambi cake for my brother's girlfriend, but this time she was busy and I had to do it all by myself! So this is Bambi cake 2.0! 

It's a strawberry round cake covered with homemade vanilla buttercream frosting colored green. The only things fondant are the flowers and deer. 

Monsters, Inc. Cupcakes!

 Today I made my niece Monsters, Inc cupcakes.
The cake is vanilla flavored and the frosting is vanilla buttercream.
The green cupcakes are Mike Wazowski's eye and the blue and purple are Sulley's fur. 

                          

Bambi cake! Mother-daughter collaboration.

This Sunday my mom asked me to help her make my brother Michael's girlfriend a birthday cake. She loves Bambi so mom wanted to do something with that theme. She doesn't know how to work with fondant or make homemade buttercream frosting so in lieu of that she bought Betty Crocker frosting to cover the cake with. Store bought frosting is harder to work with for me than homemade frosting, but thankfully it came out alright. She made two strawberry cakes in the shape of a heart and stacked them onto each other & we frosted it in vanilla frosting colored brown and green. She had me make two baby deer figurines out of fondant to place on top of the cake. 

Mom did a good job on the cake...it came out looking so cute!