SOLD!

I finally sold a cake. I was pretty excited about it. I'm hoping that word of mouth spreds faster than what has been happening.

 It was another, "whatever you want to do" cake. But I was able to at least get some colors picked by the recipient. Which made it easier to come up with things.

 It was (obviously) for a 1 yr olds birthday. And I've noticed that this kind of combination is pretty popular. So I made a family cake and a wrecking cake. (The one and ONLY thing I would chang is the top layer. I would use black fondant rather than white to cover it and then used white and pink dots. It needs more individuality between the two layers. But for a one year old...I guess it's ok.)

 I didn't cover the little one's cake with fondant because, well, it's fondant. Harder to get to the middle. This way, the hands will grab and squish and smother.

The preps were super fun to make. I love making flowers. Especially this kind. AND...these are my three favorite colors!

Cake: 1 layer- triple chocolate and butter cream. 2nd layer- "confetti"/white cake with sprinkles. Babies- "confetti".

*To answer a question about the icing. Mercy, it's called fondant. It's a stiff, pliable, frosting that you can mold, roll out, and form anyway you'd like. It's made from glucose and confectioner's sugar till it feels like salt water taffy or playdoh. When it dries, it gets hard and holds its shape. In some of my other cake postings, I show you how to color it, and do all this crazy fun stuff with it. Most people like the look of it because it's SO smooth. But to eat it...not that great. Most people usually peel it off and just eat the cake. I use a buttercream frosting to "glue" the fondant to the cake. So you at least get some decent icing to go with the cake. For sticking my small pieces to the cake, I use royal icing. (beat up egg white and confectioners sugar. Till fluffy. Dries rock hard!)

Over the River and through the farms...

A few highlights from our quick christmas trip to Idaho. It was a last minute decision that was greatly appreciated. The kids are always excited to see the cousins and I'm loving the relationships they have with each other.

I caught Corbin brushing Eli's hair and by the time I grabbed my camera, they were finished and on their way to show everyone. As they ran past me, I brushed Eli's head with my hand (on purpose, I know!) just to mess it up so that Corbin would take Eli back in to the bathroom and fix it. Which he did. And I equipped with my camera to capture the moment I almost missed!

Jane attached to Jaden like a starfish to coral! When he was laying down on the couch, she was laying with him. If he was up walking around, she was holding onto his hand. If he sat down, well.....you can see what she did. I thought it was so sweet, but I'm sure Jaden was thinking otherwise. His tolerance was awesome with her! LOVED that about him.

Miriam liked him too. But not nearly as clingly as Jane.

Unbeknownst to me or anyone else for that matter, Natalee planned for the kids to act out the nativity while Joe read it. Towels and ties always make for the BEST costumes!

Poor Talmage was having a ROUGH night! (molars coming in) And Oli and Liz took turns holding him. I remember very clearly my wisdom teeth moving and my complete sympathies were aimed at him majority of the night.

Two reasons I love this photo. 1. It's grandpa. The man who started it all! 2. Liz looks so content in his arms, just as anyone in this family would feel.

Without even being asked, the "boys" have ALWAYS stepped up to help Grandma and Grandpa out safely to their car after the party. Joe was out on the porch waiting for Grandpa to finish his goodbyes. And with Grandma gone now, the loving gesture continues.

Liz looks HOT in this pic and Talmage is actually happy. (for a minute) He is such a fun kid. I haven't really been around him enough to get an idea of what his personality is like. But he's pretty outgoing when he isn't hurting. Such a sweety.

So much to do is such a short visit. Naps just didn't fit in the schedule. Dylan took a good 20 min power nap and then was off to play again.

It was a great weekend. Of course. And I wish I had more time to spend one on one.

Maybe next time. oxo

A Penguins Happy Abode

I wanted to show this technique that I learned. To cook your cake evenly, insert the rose nail that you could find in a cake decorating kit.

Grease it so it comes out easily.

This prevents your cake from dropping in the middle after taking it out of the oven. LOVE it!!!

I also tried this marbling effect for the first time as well. It went so well with my "wood grain" on Georgia's cake that Jade had the thought of doing the bottom layer with this. Making it look like water.

OOOOooooh SO Pretty!

Had to keep the left overs and make stuff out of it. It was just so cool. I'm glad I made these snowflakes. I used them on the cake.

Happy little helper. Of course!

My igloo was hollow inside and HAD to add  a fire inside! L.O.V.E. IT!

Each penguin is a person in this family. This is the 'teenager'.

Ashton's football friend Devan.

The fish "daddy" is trying to catch in secret. You'll see later.

SWEET young Jaylyn. (Sp?) I just love this girl. Always so sweet! And what says sweet better than a bundle of flowers.

The little one. CUTE! I was going to make a truck but I wasn't confidant enough to pull it off. SO blocks and a ball was used instead.

This shot is of mom and dad with their "arms" around each other. But dad has a hold of the pole with the other.

Snowflake...

Such a happy little family.

Finished igloo

TaDa~!~

The END~

Happy Birthday Jaymie!!!

I figured it out...

...due to a recent request I ventured to figure out how to add a "Follower" button. Took all of two minutes to discover the process. And was pleasantly surprised that I already had one. (Lish you made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. How sweet!)

SO...feel free to "follow" although I can't promise that I'll lead you where you want to go.

It started with just one....

Then two....

 A third one snuck in as well.

 To request that some be put back, was NOT an option!

 Just one more.

 or a few more...

Before I knew it, I (the mom) was standing behind my vehicle, loading a bundle into the back of it.

And that is all.

Dawn's Birthday

Jared has a cousin that is studying photography and since I was making Dawn a cake while we were in St. George, she wanted to come over and snap away. So be aware, there are a few extra pictures than normal. (ok, not really, I'm all about pictures when I lack the words)

 I had asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she said, "surprise me". Sometimes when I'm feeling creative, I don't mind that sort of response but I wasn't feeling creative at that moment. So I stewed over it for a good 2 weeks.

 Good thing I asked that far in advance. (Normally I wait till the last minute. Who doesn't?)

 She is they type of person that L.O.V.E.S.! Christmas. The lights, the villages, the decorations, the SMELLS! EVERYTHING Christmas. I toyed with making a "village" but the thoughts of making fondant houses were unappealing to the very max. (LOTS of WORK!)

 I did have this super cute snowflake cutter and wanted to use it. And I wanted to do a Christmas/winter cake anyways. I also had tiny gingerbread people cutters as well. So I just decided to do a few things related to said Holiday.

 I went online to cheat just a TINY bit! I needed something for the background of the small tier. I found this candy cane pattern and thought how freaking cute that was. And SUPER easy to duplicate.

 ADORBABLE!

 Next were my ginger fondant people. Little boys and girls. Just makes you want to toss one in your mouth. I wanted to be a little more ambitious and make real gingerbread, but I was lacking in the ambitious department during the prep time.

 Next, I made Holly leaves. Some had sparkles, some were left dull. (On purpose of course)

 And then I made "poinsettas". I think they turned out rather adorable as well. (Normally, poinsettas have an odd number of petals -it was researched, but not mine. They're all even. And happy that way.)

 For the bottom layer, the goal was to make SNOW. Or a sparkly snow drifty looking layer. I cut another piece of fondant just a little bit bigger than the top of the cake and cut squiggly lines down each side. I then brushed that with water to make it sticky and sprinkled cake sparkles on.

 Like so....

 Then applied the "snow drift"

 Next, the snowflakes

 For these trees, I cut out a bunch and then half of those I sliced down the middle. After they were dried, I iced white royal icing down the bottom parts of the branches for the "snowed upon" look. After THAT dried, I "glued" the halves to each side of a full flat tree to get the 3D effect. I was proud of myself for coming up with that one.

 And we're done!

 Oh wait, no we're not. I forgot! The "arrangement" on the front bottom of the cake. I've seen this on other cakes (and did it to my frog cake) and really like the look. I'll probably do it with more of my cakes.

 NOW....we're done!

Another shot of the "kids". CUTE!

Jared and I have this thing where we lead Dawn to believe things that aren't true. (Some call that lying, but whatever). For example, "We can't come down to St. George for thanksgiving, Jared has to work." But in acutality, we were already half way there.

So for her cake, I had made an extra layer of each size thinking I was going to need it. After I made the cake, the thought of cutting into it just made me a little sick. So I slopped left over frosting onto it and placed a few leftover preps on and displayed that one instead. The one above was in the fridge. SO Jared calls her to tell her that the boys knocked the cake over (Always blame the kids. More believable that way). And that we broke a new rake we had gotten her as well. (Jared really did break that one.)

When she got home from work, she saw the broken rake and thought that we really weren't "lying". Then She walks in the house and sees the crappy cake sitting there and crumbs galore from the pieces I had cut to level the cakes. I'm sure her stomach dropped at that point and really tried to pull on the happy face and be happy with what was sitting there. About 5 minutes later, I walk in with the real one and she lit right up. I'm sure my payback will come when my kids are old enough to fool me that well.

She loved it so much that she refused to cut it that night. We ate the crappy one instead. And even today, still refuses to cut it. She wished she could somehow preserve it so she could display it all season. I told her she could refrigerate it during the night and then display it while she was home. Who knows how long she'll be able to get away with doing that.

 I certainly don't mind her wanting to hang onto it a little longer.