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Last summer, my husband and I, along with another couple from church held a garage sale to help fund our adoptions.  We had planned to do this annually to continue to raise funds for the cause of adoption.  We were thrilled when we learned that yet another couple from our church was working toward an adoption.  This year, we are raising funds specifically for them.  We have been working all week to gather, price, and organize the many items that have been donated by family and friends.  The amount of stuff (and good stuff) is amazing! In addition to the garage sale, we will also be having a bake sale.  Here are a few of the cookies that I worked on yesterday to sell.  Hopefully, the weather holds and we are able to raise a lot of money for a cause so near to my heart.

Rhino Cake

 A technique I have wanted to try for over a year now is called frozen buttercream transfer.  I was given the opportunity to give it a try this week.  A friend was turning forty, and he LOVES rhinos.  While I initially envisioned a 3-dimensional rhino busting through the front of a cake, my husband reminded me that we did not have the time this week to take on that particular cake (make note of this for a future date).  Instead I chose a logo (blue rhino marketing) off the web and used this tutorial to accomplish this fun cake.  It was still pretty time consuming, but fairly simple and not stressful at all. 

This is four layers of chocolate cake with chocolate ganache between each layer (my friend is a huge fan of chocolate).  I used American vanilla buttercream for the logo and the exterior.  Crumb coat is a must when covering a chocolate cake with white frosting.  I was pleased with my final coat of buttercream...pretty smooth.  I used a hot offset spatula to accomplish this (dip your spatula in really hot water, wipe it clean, and use it to smooth your cake, it melts the buttercream a little for a smooth surface).  Follow behind with a viva paper towel to smooth out any bumps.  Not too shabby!  There was a bit of bleeding between the white and black as the transfer thawed.  I used Wilton food coloring, and I've heard some other brands are better for eliminating this problem.  Speaking of black frosting, I add cocoa powder to my vanilla frosting first (making it brown) before adding the black food coloring.  It is a lot easier going from brown to black than white to black.