Stunning, isn’t it?
I made this beautiful cake for my sons 9th {sigh}Birthday.

Usually he gets a themed cake, like the soccer cake  or the Sponge Bob cake, but I just was too busy this year to get all fancy for a more in-depth cake, so this is what he got.
He thought it was cool, and that’s all that matters.

I posted a photo of it on Instagram (follow me at Hungryhousewife) and Facebook and everyone loved it. I got emails requesting a tutorial and y’all know I aim to please.
Pretty sure I got all the tutorial bases covered, a video, on the cake and just icing. I hope you all find it useful!

And if you are short on time and don’t feel like watching the video, here is a photo tutorial.
What you will need

• Crumb Coated Cake
• Pastry Bag
• #12 Tip
• Icing, your choice of color
• Off-set spatula or small spoon

A messily crumb coated cake

For the Ombre effect, take graduating color frosting with a #12 tip.

Pipe a vertical line of icing dots. If doing the Ombre effect, start with the lightest icing first.

Place the off-set spatula in the middle of the dot, press down and drag.

Continue around the cake

****I forgot to show how to “end” the cake. When you get to the end, just pipe the final vertical line of dots and don’t swipe. This will be the back of your cake. It really is not even that noticeable.*****

And if you want to see it off the cake..I got that for you too (not the ombre effect)!

New Years Eve was great. My husband decided he wanted to have a party last minute. And by last minute, I mean the day before. Gotta love em’.
If you read this post, you know that none of my clothes fit me, so I began stressing out on what I was going to wear for the party. I mean, people usually get all fancied up for New Years.
So I decided to make our New Years party a PAJAMA  party! Everyone had to come in the P.J’s. Sure, I still put on some make up, but let me tell you how comfy I was!!!!
I had too much to drink…doesn’t happen often, but when it does….good lord.  Diet Coke and Cherry Flavored Vodka is VERY easy to chug down.
I was dancing all night long. One low point was, dancing to Beastie Boys- Brass Monkey with my dog under one arm and a wooden spoon in the other hand as a microphone.
I had fun

I am wishing each and everyone of you a Happy 2012.
I can’t thank you all enough for continually stopping by my blog and reading what I have to say. You all are very much appreciated. You make doing what I do worth every calorie!!!!

So onto my top 10 recipe/posts of 2011 (according to Google Analytics)

#10 Rustic Love Bird Wedding Cake

For the more photos of this beautiful wedding cake I made..click over to this post.

#9 Filet Mignon

For tips on how to cook the perfect Filet Mignon click here

#8 Sugar Cookie Tips and Icing Tips

For my Sugar Cookie and Icing tips head on over to here.

#7 Rice Pudding from Left Over Rice
This has been in the top 10 every year. This post was when my blog was only 3 months old!

Click here for the Rice Pudding Recipe

#6 Lemon Bars

Click here for the Lemon Bar Recipe

#5 Pretzel Rolo Turtles

For the recipe for the Pretzel Rolo Turtles click here.

#4 Ice Cream Bread

Ice Cream Bread Recipe is here

#3 Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

The ever popular Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal recipe is here

#2 Antipasto Kabobs

Antipasto Kabobs are here

#1 Nutella Hot Chocolate- Sooooooooo Addictive and delicious. My Nutella Hot Chocolate was ALLLL over the web!

Nutella Hot Chocolate recipe lives HERE

This is Halloween revisited. I didn’t have time this year to create any fabulous Halloween treats, so I will share some from the past!

I love this Halloween Graveyard Cake that I made for a friends sons Birthday, all of those little pumpkins, headstones and ghosts are made from Gumpaste.
And my black and white Decorated Halloween Cookies are some of my favorite cookies I have made. They are so simple and classic looking!

I hope everyone has a safe Halloween. I am sure I will be in a candy coma later tonight after I am done raiding my kids candy bag!

I hope you don’t mind another cake photo, but I just love love love cakes. I made this simple chocolate cake for my sister-in-laws birthday last weekend. I couldn’t just leave it a plain ole chocolate cake, so I made a green(her favorite color) flower from fondant and slapped it on the side. Instant chic cake!!!
Thanks to Christina over at Mele Cotte for giving me the idea of using coffee grounds for the middle of the flower.

Want the recipe for this beautiful cake? Its the best chocolate cake in the world and the frosting is, well, Evil!

I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use Hershey’s Black Magic Cake Recipe..here   I have made many-a chocolate cakes and this one is by far the very best!
and for the frosting I use  is Hershey’s “perfectly chocolate” chocolate frosting..here

Isn’t it cute? This is my latest wedding cake that I created..a cute Rustic Lovebird wedding cake!
I hope you enjoy!

Here are some other cakes I have had fun making…
Shabby Chic Birthday Cake and Cupcake Birthday cake..click HERE
Soccer Cake..click HERE
Pink Skull and Crossbones Cake..click HERE
Sunflower Wedding Cake..click HERE
Sponge Bob Cake..click HERE
Graveyard Cake..click HERE
Bugs and Butterflies Cake..click HERE
Carrot Cake with Fondant Carrots..click HERE
Little Mermaid Cake..click HERE
Sleeping Beauty Cake (my first cake ever)..click HERE

Since I have been out of whack lately, I was not into making cakes at all this year. But I created cake snobs with my kids, so I had to at least do a cake that was somewhat of a decorated cake. I kept it SUPER SIMPLE for both cakes. I asked Emma what she wanted and she said, “A white square cake with black polka dots with a cupcake on top.” Do I deliver or what?

When she saw the cake she said, “Ohhh, it’s so cute, but I wanted it taller like a wedding cake.”
Pfffttt. BRAT!

First up we have the Birthday Party cake. A 9 x 13 double layer cake, one chocolate and one yellow. With a big cupcake on the top. For the cupcake I used the Wilton BigTop Cupcake pan.

And the next cake was for her actually Birthday day cake. Just for family. I keep them small and simple.
Her only request was that it be white and purple. As you can tell, she helped me with the frosting. It took everything I had not to go back behind her and totally smooth it out completely, but I wanted her to feel proud. And for a 6 year old, I think she did pretty well. She helped with the roses as well. The cake might be a little messy, but that is why it is titled a “Shabby Chic Birthday Cake”!

Here are some cakes I have made over time that I have not posted before.

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for the FLIP HD VIDEO CAMERA. Enter HERE.

6" Wedding Cake to go atop a cupcake tower

A massive 12" 3 layer Red Velvet Cake for a Rehearsal Dinner

A family tree cake

A birthday cake for my husbands Grandma

And incase you missed some of my other cakes..

Sunflower Wedding Cake
Soccer Ball cake
Pink Pirate Cake
Ruffle Cake
Carrot Cake with Fondant Carrots
Graveyard Cake
Bugs and Butterflies Cake
Little Mermaid Cake
Cupcake Cake
Sleeping Beauty Birthday Cake

I gave him the option of going to the Fort Wilderness Resort and Disney, or have a birthday party.
He was on the Disney train for a while, but changed his mind. Damn. I was really hoping for the Disney trip. Disney=’s less work for me to do and no fancy cake to make.
So 15 large pizzas ( Pizza Hut was $35 cheaper than Dominos..thats HUGE) bunch of fruit, a soccer ball cake and about 50 people later..I AM DONE DONE DONE!

Here is the cute cake I made for him.
Vanilla 10″ bottom with strawberry filling. Chocolate 6″ top with strawberry filling. Buttercream Frosting.
Fondant soccer balls. The Soccer balls actually popping out of the top are balls from the party store ( I was not that ambitious). I think it turned out adorable!

And the winners of the
Rocco Dispirito Cookbooks are

I just want to show you a cut cake I recently made. One of my friends Cydnee(I dare not divulge her age) was having her annual themed Birthday/Bunco Party. This year she choose a Gasparilla Theme.
For those of you who don’t know Gasparilla, it’s a tradition here in Tampa. You can read all about it here.
It’s a very cool story.
But what it really translates into is about 500,000 sloppy ass drunk people, lined up on Bayshore Blvd(the worlds largest continuos sidewalk, almost 4 miles) screaming, yelling and showing their tits to the old perverted drunk men people on the floats for beads. It’s a sight to see. I mean, what people will do for a 5 cent strand of beads is amazing. Believe me, I have had my drunken nights at the parade. I was once even beat up by a man! Seriously beat up. Oh believe me, I kicked his ass right back(the first time I had ever hit anyone). There was no rhyme or reason for it. He just walked up to me and started beating on me like I was a punching bag! I am not white trash nor am I a skank-a-rank-a-saurus. He started it. Crazy, huh? Bastard. Good times.
On to the cake.
Cute. Just a regular yellow cake with the delectable Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Nutella Buttercream FIlling.

The cute skull and cross bones is fondant(sorry Dawn, no fondant video yet, quit your bitchin)
I added some Silver dragees on the eye patch for some bling and Pink disco dust on the bandana.
The morning of her party, I went to place the Skull onto the cake, lifted it up and it slipped right out of my hand and went crashing onto the floor. Broke in 6 pieces. The whole house looked at me in shock, eyes wide and mouths dropped open to the floor. You could tell they were waiting for me to unleash the fury. They stood there in fear. I said, “no one talk to me.” I slowly walked away, into my bed room. I stood there, jumped up and down(like a two year old having a full on tantrum), screaming every curse word you could think of. I again slowly walked out of my bedroom, passed by my husband and two kids(still standing where they had been during the scene of the crime) who were still staring at me like I was going to kill someone. I carefully
 picked up the sad, sad pieces of broken skull and cross bones and glued them back together. No one got hurt.

Start out with your baked, cooled sugar cookie.

Make a nice swirl around the cookie with your color of choice. Work quickly throughout the whole process or your icing will dry.

Make another swirl with another color.

And yet another swirl.

Swirl swirl swirl. Don’t worry if it looks messy.

Add some white for a nice contrast of colors.

Now take a toothpick, and drag it thought the icing. Start in the middle of the cookie and work your way out.

Continue dragging your toothpick until you have gone around the whole cookie.

After you have achieved your desired effect, with your cookie still on the table, shake it back and forth to level the icing out. If you have any gaps in the icing, use your toothpick to fill them in.

Emms’s cake. Sloppy and messy. I blame it on the bad batch of fondant. She told me exactly how she wanted it to look. Actually she drew me a picture of how she wanted it to look.

“Tie Dye” inside! You should have heard the squeals from all the kids when I cut into the cake. You would have thought Justin Bieber was jumping out of it. They thought it was the coolest cake ever.

“Tie Dye” cupcakes. I used a 1M tip and stripped my icing bag to get this effect.