Obviously, that means only one thing…MAGICAL TREATS!

Since Jacob Kowalski is so amazing, and makes so many incredible baked treats in the film, there’s tons of stuff to choose from, and I can’t wait to try to recreate them, but today, I’m inspired by Queenie’s witchy cooking.

The first time, I watched the movie I was so enchanted when Queenie started whipping up dinner with her wand, and the most magical part of all was when she made an apple strudel for Jacob. All of the ingredients soar into the air, they swirl together into a beautiful strudel, then the whole thing drifts down to the center of the table, browning to a golden crisp as it’s wrapped in lovely braids and topped with whimsical apple roses.

MAGIC.

I’m adding my own little twist to Queenie’s strudel today by making them into individual dumplings. When we were living in the Netherlands, the Hubster’s favorite treat at the local bakery was appelbollen, which more or less translates to “apple ball”. It’s the Dutch version of an apple dumpling = a peeled apple, sweetened and spiced, wrapped in pastry and baked until golden.

I decided to apply this same method to my strudel, using the same ingredients that a strudel would have, but wrapped around a whole apple instead.

The ingredients list for these is short and sweet: apples (I used Granny Smith, but you can use whatever you prefer), phyllo dough, golden raisins, dried cranberries, apple cider, butter, breadcrumbs, cinnamon, sugar, lemon juice, and a little salt. I also add a secret ingredient to mine that I am going to share with you guys today: Biscoff cookies. These are totally optional, but I love the tiny extra bit of sugar and spice they add. I also choose to use all vanilla sugar in my strudel. I think it adds a fuller flavor that you can really taste.

To start, combine the raisins and cranberries in a small pan with the apple cider and bring to a simmer. Let simmer for about 30 seconds, then cover, remove from heat, and set aside.

Next, core and peel the apples.

Once the apples are peeled, combine the breadcrumbs, cookies, cinnamon, salt, lemon juice, 1/4 cup of sugar, and one tablespoon of melted butter. Roll each apple in the mixture, getting a light coating on the outside of each apple. Set the apples aside in a baking dish. Combine the raisin mixture with the remaining breadcrumb mixture. Divide the mixture equally between the four apples and stuff each apple core with the filling, packing it tightly. Set aside and prepare the phyllo.

Now, if you’ve never worked with phyllo dough before, then be forewarned: this stuff is no joke. It is incredibly delicate, and it dries out ridiculously quickly. To prevent the drying, keep your phyllo covered with a damp towel until ready to use. Remove only one sheet at a time, keeping the rest covered with the damp towel at all times.

Be patient! It’s so delicate, but if you are patient and take your time separating the sheets, then you will be successful and have zero to very few tears.

On a sheet of parchment paper, place one sheet of phyllo in the center. Generously coat the top with melted butter. You can use a brush, as pictured above, or you can use your fingers, which is actually gentler and faster. Once the sheet is covered with butter, sprinkle with one teaspoon of sugar. Repeat this process with four more sheets of phyllo on top, totaling a stack of five sheets (per apple).

Trim your prepared phyllo so that it is a square. Save the extra phyllo, which we’ll use for garnish.

Place an apple, top side down, in the center of the phyllo to wrap it.

Wrap by bringing up one corner of the dough over the apple. Fold in the excess, then bring up the next corner. Again, fold in the excess, then pull up the third corner. Finally, tuck in all the excess dough before pulling the final corner up.

Once the apple is wrapped, turn it over so that it is seam-side down.

If you want some extra garnish, cut strips of phyllo from the extra pieces. Braid the strips together gently.

Brush each wrapped apple thoroughly with melted butter. If using, apply the braided phyllo as desired.

For the final touch, before baking, I added a sprinkling of large sanding sugar, and after the dumplings came out of the oven, I topped them with some sweet apple roses with almond sliver leaves. These are just like the roses that Queenie puts on her strudel, and seriously, they add such a beautiful touch.

To make these, I thinly peeled an apple (I chose to do a red apple for the pink hue, rather than using my green apple skins). I placed the apple skins on a small baking sheet and baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 8 minutes. I immediately rolled the skins into roses while they were still warm, then put a toothpick through them to hold them together. These are not difficult to make – you literally just roll the skins up. Once all the roses were rolled, I placed them back in the oven for five minutes. Once removed from the oven, allow to cool completely before removing the toothpicks and garnishing the baked apples.

Now, this step is key…because looky how pretty! Once the apples are cooled, generously dust them with a happy sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar.

Everything about these makes me happy. Not only are they delicious, invoking both a crisp apple strudel and a flavorful apple dumpling, but they’re also so very lovely. And of course, magical. Obviously.

The phyllo bakes up so crisp and light, and if you use vanilla sugar in the layers, there is a rich, sweet, buttery flavor that’s irresistible. The apples are sweet and tart, and the filling adds the perfect blend of spices.

Grab your wands, light the candles, snuggle into the couch, and enjoy the perfect magical dessert while you watch Newt and friends on their wild adventures.

Enjoy!!

I was inspired to make myself a narwhal birthday cake this year after spending a week at Walt Disney World with my husband and our three nephews. This was our nephew’s first trip to Disney, and it was so amazing to be able to take them.

When my oldest nephew started talking, he could only say “Aunt Darla” as “Aunt Darwha.” Soon, I had two more awesome nephews who could only pronounce my name as “Darwha.” My brother-in-law remarked once that it sounded like they were saying “narwhal,” and before you know it, I became “Aunt Narwhal.” And I adored it. I still do, and I’ve wanted a narwhal cake for a few years now. This year, I finally had it, and it was the best!

My design was inspired by all of those unicorn cakes that are going viral right now. I absolutely adore them, and I’d love to make one for my sister, who has loved unicorns since she was itty bitty, but for me, it was a narwhal or nothing.

I’ve never made a domed cake before, so this was a learning experience for me. I considered using rolled fondant to cover the cake, so I would have a nice smooth finish, but I really wanted to make this with as much buttercream as possible, since it’s my favorite.

I made my cake 6-inches around, so I made four 6-inch round layers and one 6-inch dome layer. I leveled each cake once it was cooled, then frosted and stacked the layers. Next, I frosted the entire cake, and smoothed it down to a crumb-coat. I chilled the cake for about 30 minutes, then I frosted the whole cake in pink frosting before smoothing it down as best as I could. I honestly didn’t worry about making the cake perfectly smooth, because I knew I’d be covering it with lots of fun sea stars and frosting barnacles. I did want it a little smoother, though, so I used a damp paper towel to press down some of the more obvious lumps and bumps.

As you can see in the photo above, the paper towel will leave an impression in the frosting. Some people don’t mind it, and honestly, it kind of works nicely with the whole sea creature theme, but I’m not terribly fond of it, so once the frosting dried a bit, I pressed most of the paper towel impressions out with clean fingers.
To create the waves breaking around the base of my cake, I used a small offset spatula to smear bits of white buttercream all the way around the cake. Next, I repeated the process with a pretty turquoise buttercream.

Finally, I filled in the base of the cake with more turquoise frosting. The best part about creating buttercream water is that it definitely doesn’t need to be smooth, so it’s incredibly fun and easy to make.

For my narwhal’s horn, I really wanted to create something that wasn’t too heavy or difficult, and steered clear of looking mildly obscene, so I used an ice cream cone as a base. Narwhal’s have very long, very thin horns in nature, but I was going for more of a cute, squishy Kawaii look, so the short and stout shape of the cone, was perfect.

I stuffed the cone full of marshmallows before using a chopstick in the center as my anchor for putting the cone on the cake. You could also use a skewer or dowel, or you could even skip the anchor, since the horn won’t be very tall. I decided to use it, because I knew I’d be adding decorations to it, and I didn’t want to risk it falling over.

Once the cone was ready, I wrapped it in rolled fondant and pressed a spiral into it to create the horn look. I experimented with using a long rope of fondant wrapped around the cone, but it became very heavy, fat, and unwieldy. Using a flat sheet of rolled fondant and pressing the spiral into it was far easier, and gave me a much cleaner look.

Before placing the horn on the cake, I painted it a rose gold color using gold and copper luster dust and a small amount of pink powder food coloring. When mixing your colors, start with almost all gold luster dust and only the smallest amount of copper luster dust and pink powdered food coloring. You can always add more to create the desired color. I mixed the powders with clear almond extract, but you can also use clear vanilla extract or vodka. I painted the horn thoroughly and let it dry before adding a second coat. Since the extracts and vodka are mostly alcohol, the horn will dry relatively quickly.

After centering the horn on my cake, I began adding cute starfish and frosting “barnacles”. I created my starfish by shaping them with fondant and then painting them with buttercream frosting. I used an actual paintbrush to paint the frosting on and create a rough texture. I also made some simple ribbon roses out of the fondant…just because.

I also used some of the rolled out fondant, tinted pink, to create the flippers for my narwhal.

For the barnacles all over the cake, I use a trio of pink, yellow, and light turquoise frostings.

I used Ateco #21, #12, and #32 tips to create the various shapes. Tip #21 makes the swirled flower-like barnacles, #12 created the smooth dollops, and #32 made the urchin-like shapes.

I drew my narwhal’s face on using Ateco #4 tip and black frosting.

I can’t express how happy this cake made me on my birthday! It was such a great reminder of my nephews, while being so very cheery.

I had a ton of fun making this cake, and since it’s mostly frosting, it was also super easy. I hope you will give this happy narwhal cake a try. Have a great weekend!!

Recipes used:

Perfect Vanilla Buttercream (double batch)

Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes (double batch, made four 6-inch round layers and one 6-inch dome)

Marshmallow Fondant (for the horn, flippers, and starfish)

Then, inspiration struck. I wanted to make my heart cake into two halves, two characters, that loved each other. I wanted something unexpected, though. After all, that’s how most relationships are – unexpected and unique. For some reason, I decided I wanted a cactus cake. But what character could hug a cactus? One that’s just as prickly, of course. Which is obviously a hedgehog. <3

They’re different in every way, but perfectly suited to each other. I felt like I was making a cake of the Hubster and I. No wonder I finally felt inspired. I was so inspired, in fact, that I got out of bed and worked on the cake until 2am. Totally worth it.

Since I already had my cake crumb-coated, I mark the center of the cake, dividing the top into halves to make decorating easier. Next, I used a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to mark a heart on the centerline of the cake. I set the heart slightly higher than center, since this will be the cactus and hedgehog’s faces.

Before decorating the cake, use plain white buttercream to make dozens of spines for the cactus. I used an Ateco #3 writing tip, and piped the spines onto parchment paper on a metal baking sheet. Each spine is about one half inch long. Don’t make the spines too long, or they will droop. Make plenty, these are delicate and will break easily, so extras are important. Place the baking sheet in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, but the longer, the better.

While the spines chill, mix up your frosting colors. I used white, green, and black frostings for the cactus and hedgehog, and I also made some pink frosting that I used on the sides of the cake.

Using some of your green frosting, fill half of the marked heart on top of the cake. Fill the other half with white frosting. You don’t have to stay perfectly inside the heart, but it helps to maintain the shape for guidance later. You also don’t have to make the frosting perfectly smooth, because neither cacti or hedgehogs are perfectly smooth.

Once your heart is filled in, use a large French tip to pipe in lines for the cactus on half of the cake, following the heart shape.

While the frosting is still soft, place the frozen buttercream spines all over the cactus. I did little groupings of two or three, but you can place them any which way you like.

At this point, I drew the faces onto the cake using black frosting, giving them rosy little cheeks with heart-shaped quins. I chose to skip a nose on the cactus, to get a more Kawaii look, but the hedgie needs his sweet little black button nose.

Next, it’s time for the hedgehog’s quills! I filled a pastry bag with half black, half white frosting to create a bicolored effect. Now, just pipe the quills onto the cake using an Ateco #5 writing tip. You can use a larger or smaller tip, if you like, or even a grass tip. I like the size of the #5 tip in contrast to the cactus and its spines.

For a finishing touch, I added sweet little cacti around the base of the cake, using the same green frosting and large French tip, and topping them off with more sweet pink heart sprinkles.

You can decorate the sides of the cake any way you like – bringing the cactus and hedgehog all the way down, or keeping it simple with plain, smooth sides. I chose to smear both pink and white frosting along the sides of the cake and then pull a small offset spatula through the frosting to create texture. I think the splashes of pink add just the right amount of extra color to the cake.

I’m pretty obsessed with this cake, you guys, I won’t lie. It turned out just as I hoped it would, and maybe even cuter! And it perfectly represents the Hubster and I – we are very different people, with so much in common to share. <3

Happy Valentine’s Day, friends!

I wanted to bling these cupcakes out for Valentine’s Day, so I turned to my talented friend Rosie of Sweetapolita for a shiny chocolate sprinkle mix. I bought her S’mores & Sparks Twinkle Sprinkle Medley, which is amazing on it’s own, but I decided to customize it for this post. Rosie’s original mix is filled with lots of chocolate, white, and gold, with a sprinkling of golden yellow beads. I decided I wanted a little less white, and no golden yellow, so I poured the mix through a larger strainer, which allowed most of the sprinkles to fall through, but held back the larger white and yellow pieces. Then I went through and pulled out the larger chocolate and shiny gold candies. It sounds like a lot of work, but it was honestly less than 10 minutes of sorting. I only customized about a quarter cup or less of the sprinkles, because a little goes a long way.

Perfect chocolate cupcakes with perfect chocolate buttercream and perfect blingy sprinkles need the perfect glitzy topper, so I broke out the edible gold leaf. I used malted milk balls (Whoppers) to tie in with all the chocolate and gold candy in the sprinkles, then wrapped them in gold leaf. The gold leaf won’t stick to the milk balls as-is, so you need to wet them. All I did was dunk each ball into a little bowl of clean water, shaking off the excess. Then, I rolled the balls over the gold leaf, willy nilly. I like that the gold didn’t stick perfectly smoothly, and the milk balls have a glamorous, but rustic look.

The second best thing about these cupcakes and the frosting, after how delicious they are, is how easy they are. They’re only a couple of steps more complicated than using a box mix, and infinitely better. I hope you give them a try. Soon.

Enjoy!

And you know what? It’s really hard! It’s been almost a year since I last posted – not since March 11 of last year. That’s crazy. I don’t mind admitting that I’m freaking out a little bit. You know what, though? Bakingdom turned seven years old this past Wednesday, and for the first time since arriving home in the States, I felt the urge to bake a cake, *and* to tell you guys all about it!

The last year was both really tough and really easy. It was a relief to take this time off and focus on my family, and our move home from the Netherlands. I spent a lot of time making crafts and turning our new little place into a home, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it in future posts. We are living in military housing for this tour, and even though it’s disappointing to have our options taken from us, this place is cute and we have some really nice new neighbors. Plus, we’re home! Living in Europe was an incredible opportunity, and we absolutely loved it. We hardly wanted to leave, but man! We aren’t half a world away from our family anymore, and that is the best thing ever.

I have a pretty small little kitchen here, but it’s bright and cheerful, and I’m looking forward to showing it to you all…and to baking lots of tasty treats to share with you. I have *really* missed you guys!

I decided that I really wanted a floral cake for Bakingdom’s birthday this year. I realized that in all the years we’ve been hanging out here together, I’ve never done a good old fashioned floral cake. Considering that my caking roots are deeply entrenched in the grocery store bakery and it’s buttercream roses, this had to be remedied. After all, that’s where this all started for me – in a little grocery store bakery in Indiana, decorating cakes with roses and ruffles and lots and lots of “Happy Birthdays”.

Which is why there are plenty of those classic buttercream roses on this cake, but I also dressed it up with a few camellias and greenery. I had so much fun making this cake.

I think this year will be the year of the flower. Lots of roses and mums and ranunculus on my cakes and cupcakes, and tiny versions adorning fat sugar cookies. Bouquets of sugar piled all over the sweetest treats I can dream up!

I want to share tutorials for them with you guys, and I can’t wait to make some geeky goodies that I’ve been dreaming up all year long.

I’m so happy to be getting back into the swing of things, and I really want to thank you for all of your support and love during this last year, and over the last seven years. I need you all to know how much it meant to me to receive your messages of love and kindness, and how encouraging it was to be reminded that you were still hanging out with me. I love you guys so much! Thank you! Here, have some cake. <3

Over the last year and a half or so, I’ve been very leisurely about how often I post here to the blog, and to be honest, it’s been great. We traveled so much, and had family to stay on more than one occasion. We also faced a couple of health ordeals for our pup, Loki. Now, the travels are done, our family is home, and Loki is healthy and snug. Under those circumstances, you would think that it’s time I spent some time cultivating ideas and projects to share with you all here. Except my computer is officially dead. I can no longer upload and edit any of my photography for my recipes and craft ideas.

Obviously, I’ll be replacing my computer, but with only 100 days left here, it’s not something that’s going to happen until we are home and settled back into the States. Our movers are actually coming to pack up all of our household goods one month from now, and we’re off to a hotel for over two months of living out of suitcases. While our travels are over, our adventures sure aren’t!

And so today, I’m announcing my official hiatus from full-time blogging. I’m sure it seems moot at this point, since I haven’t posted anything new since December, but the truth is that this is a hiatus. This is not permanent. I needed the last year and a half to explore and venture out and spend with family, and I kept in touch with you guys. Now, though, I simply don’t have the time and resources to maintain Bakingdom until we are in our new home. Fortunately, that’s only going to be a few months. We will be moved in by the end of June, and we hope to be settled by the end of July.

In the meantime, I will still be sharing tidbits of life, adventure, treats, crafts, geekery, and Lokiness on my social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). You can follow along there for updates on our move and other fun stuff. I hope to see you guys there.

You guys are the most amazing people in the land, and I’m incredibly fortunate to have you visit. I truly appreciate your understanding and patience at this time, and I look forward to getting back into the swing of things as quickly as possible!

When I decided to create a Harry Potter-inspired tree this year, I was torn between a natural green tree – like those in the Great Hall at Hogwarts – and a glimmering golden tree. As soon as I saw this little pre-lit tree, I knew my answer. And I named him Felix. Obviously.

I had planned to top Felix with my Hedwig topper that I already had, but when I was talking to my friend Jen about ideas, I brainstormed having Fawkes atop the tree with his tail wrapping down around the tree as a fiery, feathery garland. I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, and this snuggly plush Fawkes from Wizarding World of Harry Potter found a new home.

Since Fawkes isn’t actually a tree topper, I had to modify him to sit on the tree securely. I decided that the best option for him to sit firmly was an empty toilet paper roll. First, I closed off one end of the roll, so that the branch couldn’t go too far into the topper. I just used some extra cardboard glued firmly to the end. Next, I performed minor surgery on Fawkes by cutting him open under his tail, behind his legs, and inserting and empty toilet paper roll – open end facing out. Then, I just hot glued the edges of Fawkes’ feathers to the opening of the toilet paper roll. That’s it – easy peasy, and now he’s very secure.

This is Fawkes’ beautiful tail, which I absolutely love, and I’m quite proud of. When I first got Fawkes, his tail was just the red and black striped bits of felt. It was a great tail for a stuffed toy, but a bit paltry for a topper, so I built the tail up with real feathers in red, black, golden brown, and orange. Then, to turn his tail into a long garland, I attached two red feather boas and wrapped them down the tree. I also added some orange, yellow, and gold feathers into the boa, which taper off as the garland goes down the tree. At the very bottom of the tree, I placed several loose red feathers on the branches, as though Fawkes’ tail were shedding just a bit.

Now it’s time for ornaments! I filled the tree with all things Potter – my floating book ornaments, patroness, stars, potions, even cauldrons, and of course Harry’s black, round glasses.

Fawkes and his tail offered a beautiful glow pop of color, but I was also inspired to handprint these red and gold ornaments for a little added pop. The design for these were influenced by some beautiful peacock ornaments I saw online. I couldn’t find any in shades of red, so I made painted my own.

For Christmas 2013, we had the joy of visiting the Warner Brothers Studio Tour during Christmastime. While we were there, I fell in love with the trees in the Great Hall, so I decided to use them for some of my inspiration for my little tree…

I covered Felix in glittering moons, golden stars, and gilded birds, just like on the Hogwarts trees. I also add shimmering gold sprigs that burst out of the tree like Weasleys’ Wildfire Whiz-bangs! These were some of my favorite details.

Of course, I couldn’t forget the golden snitch! Using Jen’s tutorial over on Epbot as a guide, I created my own version of quidditch’s sneakiest ball.

I also used Jen’s tutorial for my very own broomstick ornaments, but since I don’t have the tools for sanding down real wood, with of m broom handles is sculpted from polymer clay. I still need to add the footrests to all of my brooms, but that’s a project for next year.

I made a lot of potions for my tree. Some of them were large, like this Skele-Gro.

Some of the potions were medium and glittery, like lucky Felix here.

And then some of the potions were teeny and sparkling, like these Veritaserum and Pepperup Potions.

I also made several other potions in a variety of colors. For the potions themselves, I used hand sanitizer mixed with food coloring and glitter. The hand sanitizer acts as a perfect suspension fluid for the glitters, keeping them from sinking to the bottom. Plus, it’s nice and clean, so it’ll never mold or get icky. Once all the bottles were filled, I hot glued the corks in place, added some snazzy labels, and screwed an eye hook into the top of each one.

What’s a Harry Potter tree without Patronuses? Prongs is looking very regal here, don’t you think?

I also added a lovely doe, in honor of Harry’s mother, Lily, and an otter for our girl Hermione. Last, but definitely not least, is a handsome Jack Russell terrier, just like Ron’s patrons.

I found these owls for about a buck apiece, so I grabbed 9 or 10 and placed them all over the tree.

One of my favorite features are my brewing, bubbling, and glowing cauldrons. These were inspired by Brooke Johnson, and were super easy to make. Just place a battery-operated tea light in each cauldron, add some fluff n’ stuff, and hang. Voila, magic!

And to say goodnight this Christmas Eve, here’s one last gleaming and glowing glamor shot of Felix and Fawkes.

Merry Christmas!

I crafted almost everything on the tree in one way or another, and I love everything about it – from the glowing cauldrons to the sparkling patronuses to the cuddly Fawkes with his feathery tail wrapping it’s way down the tree. Next year, I’m making a really cool custom base to accent all of the wonderful magic that’s going on here, but for now, my very favorite things about my new Potterrific tree are the floating book ornaments that I made. Which is why I want to share them with you today.

These are a lot simpler than they look, and only require a few supplies: scissors, glue, clear plastic fillable ball ornaments, clear string, cord, or fishing line, glue – I just use tacky glue, red ribbon for trim (optional), and miniature books, which we’ll learn to make first.

Now, I would love to provide you guys with these book covers as a printable, but since they’re copyrighted property, I don’t have the rights to share them. I will however tell you how I made them.

You will need a scanner and a photo editing program – I used Photoshop Elements. Scan the dust jackets of the books you plan to use – in this case, the American version of the Harry Potter books. Since I wanted the full dust jackets, including the inside portions, I had to scan the covers in two to three scans and stitch them together in Elements.

Once the covers are all scanned and ready to use, you need to decide what size you want them. I used 80mm (3.15-inch) ornaments, so I knew the books needed to be smaller than three inches. Since I would be hanging the book from one corner, they needed to be less than three inches across from corner to corner. I settled on making my books two inches tall. This left just enough room at the top and bottom for the book to hang and swing freely inside the ornaments.

It’s important to note that the books will not all be the same length, as some of the books have many more pages than others. The important thing is that they are all the same height. As long as they’re all the same height, the other measurements will match up, too.

Once the covers are all sized, place them all on one page, so you can print them all together. Print at 100%, cut the covers out, and fold them along their natural book folds.

Now we’re ready for pages.

I found that the most efficient way to fill the books was to cut sheets of white paper to 2 5/8-inches (two and five-eighths) by 1 7/8-inches (one and seven-eighths), then fold them in half.

Once you have five to eight pages per book (thicker books, like Years 4 thru 7 need more pages), they go into the books as pictured above. Set aside for now.

Inside of each cover, I added an extra sheet of paper to strengthen the cover. The paper doesn’t need to go all the way to the edges, but should cover at least the interior of the spine and covers. Apply glue to the inside of the book spine and apply a length of clear cord. I used pieces about six inches long – having extra cord to work with makes them easier to handle, and you can trim away any excess.

Make sure to center the cord in the middle of the spine. If you glue it too far forward or backward on the spine, then the books won’t hang properly.

Once your cord is glued into place, gather your book’s pages, folded edges together, and apply a generous amount of glue. Press the pages into the spine of your cover, centering them between the top and bottom edges of the cover. Hold in place for two to three minutes to secure them. Now you have a completed book, with clear cord extending from the top of the spine (you can barely see the cord in the two right pictures above).

Once the books are dry, secure them into the plastic ornaments by wrapping the cord around the top ring of the ball, and tying into place with a knot. I also spread glue over the cord before adding the other half of the ornament. This glue will help secure the cord, as well as sealing the ornaments closed. I did not seal the ornaments with glue all the way around the seam, just in case I need to open them up for alterations or repairs in the future.

And now you have a magical floating book ornament! You can leave the ornaments as they are, add a hook, and hang them, or…

…you can add some decorative trim by tying a pretty ribbon to the top. I like to do this added step because it looks completely adorable, of course, but it also helps to tie the ornaments closed, for extra security.

Now that they’re all done, it’s time to decorate the tree. I used a little swish and flick, some wingardium leviosa, and levitated all of my ornaments into place. Obviously.

My tree this year golden and shiny, and I named him Felix, of course. I am completely smitten with it. These ornaments are, by far, my favorite things.

Now that I have the whole Harry Potter series completed, I think I’m going to add the Hogwarts schoolbooks, as well. I hope you guys give these a try, and that they make your heart as happy as they do mine!

Enjoy!

One of the Hubster’s very favorite candies in the world is toffee. He will never turn down good toffee. When we were at Disney last fall, he used a lot of his snack credits for the English butter toffee that they sell all around the parks. He got so many, we had extra to bring home.

Since Veteran’s Day was Wednesday, and he hasn’t gotten to have any good toffee in a long time, I decided that I’d whip up a batch for my favorite soldier, as a thank you for his hard work and dedication to the service, as well as his family. And since he liked the toffee at Disney so darned much, why not try to replicate it?

I decided when I made this candy that I wanted it in neat, cute squares…like they sell at Disney. Usually when I make toffees and barks, I just let them cool and break them all willy nilly. This time, though, I poured my hot toffee into my prepared pan and let it cool for about five minutes. Then, I used my sharp paring knife and just gently ran it through, dividing the candy into even squares. I had to repeat each line a few times as the candy cooled, because it will melt back together again. But eventually, it cools enough to hold to score marks.

Once the toffee was cooled, it broke in nice, neat little squares – just what I wanted.

For the chocolate coating, i kept things über simple, and just melted chocolate chips, but you can certainly invest in a higher quality chocolate if you want to.

When covering the candy, you can dip just one side in the chocolate, if you like, or you can coat each piece completely, which is what I did.

Next, I rolled each of my toffee squares in chopped almonds. Again, you can just put almonds on one side, cover the candy entirely, or skip the nuts altogether. I was going for Disney-style, though, so each of my toffee squares got a nice covering of almonds.

In the end, I think we prefer almonds on one side only, but they are certainly pretty completely covered, and they’re easier to handle, since you don’t have to touch the chocolate directly.

Once all the squares are covered and coated and as chocolaty and nutty as you wish, line them up on a bit of parchment paper to set completely before serving.

Hubs was super surprised to receive his favorite candy, and I had fun emulating one of our favorite Disney treats. I think they turned out quite close to the real thing, and they’re much easier to make than you’d expect. Cooking the toffee only takes 1- to 15 minutes, depending on your stove, and the rest of the work is simply coating them in goodies after they cool. I hope you’ll give them a try this holiday season. They make a great gift, packaged in a  pretty tin or box, and they’re excellent on any holiday dessert table.

Enjoy!

I actually made this cake back in April for the Hubster’s birthday, and it turned out so fun, and was so easy, I decided to share it with you guys.

Not only was Beaker easy to make, and fast, too, he’s made of 100% delicious cake and fluffy buttercream.

After stacking four layers of cake (Beaker is so tall and thin, after all), I filled and covered everything in a very light orange, sort of peachy color for his skin. To make this color, I used plain orange gel, adding the tiniest amounts until I achieved a color I was happy with.

Next, I topped his head with lots of bright orange frosting, and used a small offset spatula to add spikes and recreate Beaker’s fuzzy spike of Muppet hair. You can build Beaker’s hair up taller by using any cake scraps you have from leveling the cake layers out. Or you can just pile on lots of fluffy frosting. There’s no wrong answer.

The only part of my Beaker that isn’t cake or frosting are his pupils, which I made using giant confetti sprinkles colored black with a food writer.

You could easily make hi pupils with frosting, a well, but I loved how the sprinkles turned out.

I used the white sprinkles, but since you’re coloring them black, any color will do.

All ready to give Beaker his finishing touch. I colored these before decorating the cake, and set them aside to dry. I like having them ready beforehand, so that when stick them onto the cake, the frosting is still soft and they will stick nicely.

For Beaker’s eyes and nose, I used a large, proud decorating tip to squeeze large dollops of white (for the eyes) and orange (for his nose) of frosting onto the front of the cake. If the eye and nose aren’t perfectly round, just use a small offset spatula to smooth them out and round them more. If you have any points on them, just moisten you finger with a small amount of water, then gently press the points in.

I actually drew Beaker’s out on before adding his nose, as Beaker’s nose sits more or less directly over the center of his mouth. You could use jut about any color to draw his mouth on, but I thought the orange made the most sense because:

A. I had plenty from the hair and nose.

B. It doesn’t stand out too boldly, like black or another color might.

The last thing I did for Beaker was to pipe a white shirt collar covered with an off-white, slightly yellow, lab coat collar. And of course a tie, which I did in bright lime green. I used a Wilton #104 petal tip, keeping the thin side down.

And that’s it! Easy, happy, cute, and fun Beaker cake in no time at all.

Enjoy!