WOOF! Amy's "Dogs Playing Poker" Birthday!

My little buddy! FluffPup the peanut butter frosting dog!

The party inspiration. Dogs playing poker poster.

I made dog masks out of felt for my hubby and I!

The ever-adorable birthday girl Amy,
and Coco Cake Boss as a jaunty JAZZ DOG

A slice o' fun!

Hangin' with Amy's cat Dooblevay!
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One of my best friends, the crazy talented Amy P, had a "dogs playing poker" themed birthday party, based on that ridiculously amazing poster from the 1980s!! So as a surprise I made her a dark chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling and PEANUT BUTTER frosting. Extreme deliciousness alert! And... it was also vegan, as she can't eat dairy!

I tried to base the dog on the supercute little pup from the hilarious movie Best In Show. I made dog masks for Rich and I out of some leftover felt and a few spare headbands I had lying around! Et voila... maybe the scariest dog masks ever?? I tried to make them cute but really, when you cut holes out of anything and put it on your face... horror movie material!

I went for a "jaunty jazz dancer dog" look with a black and white themed outfit with white gloves... ! The last pic is of Rich and I posing with Amy's amazing fatcat Dooblevay!

Happy Birthday Amy!! Hope you have an amazing year!! xo

Smash!! Annie & Luke smash the heck out of a Coco Cake

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?

If you place a cake in front of a baby, will they smash it to pieces?

This is a question I am curious about now! I made a vegan vanilla "dotty" covered cake for Erin for her sweet little twins' 1st birthday photo shoot with fantastic baby photographer Jillian Kirby. Having been an auntie three times over now and seen the nutty little things my niece and nephews do, I have certainly noticed that babies like to: poke stuff, touch stuff, throw stuff, eat stuff (even nonedible stuff)... would all babies poke and prod a cake, and end up smashing a cake?? Baby Psychology 101!

Happy Birthday Annie & Luke!

Pretty Pistachio Rosewater Cupcakes!

For my BFF Amy's birthday, she dropped a hint a few months ago that she was dying to try these pistachio rosewater vegan cupcakes from the great book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. My hubby was a vegan for four years... until he met meeeee, of course! He always tells this story of how when we first started dating, he came out to a family birthday event and I forced him to eat cake because I said it would be rude not to eat it!! I was the rudie! Sorry honey!! I have a better understanding of people's personal food choices now! Haha...

No worries now, because now my hubby eats cheese like there's no tomorrow. Haha. And even fish. Tough to be married into my family without being lured into Chinese We Eat Everything Land!!

Okay back to these cute cupcakes! It was my first time using rosewater. Hoooo boy that is STRONG stuff! The recipe called for 1-2 TABLESPOONS of the stuff for 1 dozen cupcakes. Since I was making 1 dozen cupcakes and a small cake, I was like... OKEY DOKEY I'll just plop in 4 tablespoons. WOW! For those who love the taste of flowers in their food, (I think a sophisticated or complex palette!) go with lots of rosewater. Thankfully at Amy's party the crowd loved the cupcakes. I thought my rosewater addition may have overpowered the smokey toasted pistachio and fragrant cardamom. Next time I will double the cardamom, and halve the rosewater! And maybe even add a little honey somehow to finish it.

I must say, the texture and fluffiness of this vegan recipe was totally tops. Would definitely make these again, and am excited to try other recipes from this book!

Happy Birthday Burgertime!! :)