A wedding in July

This past month I finally got the opportunity to do another wedding cake. This one was square offset tiers (size 14", 10" and 6".) It was a chocolate fudge cake with a buttercream finish. This cake had a very simple and classic design with only the black ribbon and silver dragees. The flowers on the cake are silk flowers that the bride provided and her mom and I placed on the cake when I delivered it. This is a great alternative to sugar flowers if you're trying to watch your budget and I think they looked fabulous.

Feeling Tospy Turvy

A few years ago, when I first set out on this whole cake decorating endeavor I made a topsy turvy cake for my daughters birthday. I didn't have a clue what I was doing and it was a train wreck from start to finish. Seriously, I had yet to even educate myself on the whole crumb coating thing. Luckily, even though the cake looked terrible, it still tasted good. Whew.

Fast forward a couple years and this is what you get. I made this cake for my niece's birthday this summer. It was the first time I had tried making a topsy turvy cake since my first attempt. I was MUCH happier with the results. =) And since I absolutely love the look of topsy turvy cakes I was glad to get the opportunity to redeem myself with this one. I struggled with the fondant a bit, but that's been par for the course lately with the heat. Luckily, a few well placed polka dots took care of the few imperfections. Horray for polka dots!

And at the risk of embarassing myself I have also incuded a pic of the original attempt. UGH! :/

An Apple a Day!

When I think of apples I associate them with fall and . . . teachers! So when I was in need of a clever gift idea for my kids to give their teachers at the end of the year, I knew this was it!! This past Christmas I got a super cute calendar done by the people that do the "Hello Cupcake" books. And I knew there was an apple cupcake in there somewhere. =) Unfortunately, the calendar doesn't give exact instructions on how to prepare the cupcakes, just a labeled picture of the cupcake. For the most part, the pic was sufficient.

I opted to use spice cake and a cream cheese butterecream. Seemed the most appropriate. =) The top of the apple is actually half of a mini donut cut horizontially. This was where I wish the picture had given me a bit more information. My first attempt looked ridiculous because I didn't realize you needed to cut the donut. I chose to use plain donuts so that it didn't distract or clash with the flavor of the cupcake itself. The stem, as well as the seeds, are pieces of tootsie rolls. And the leaves I made with fondant. The ones in the calendar were made with a fruit roll-up but I happened to have a small amount of green fondant leftover from a previous cake.

These cupcakes were overall, very easy to make. The ones with the little bites obviously took a little more time but they wern't difficult. And most importantly, the teachers thought they were great!

Cuddle Time!

My brother recently had his first baby. What better to give to them as a gift, than blanket? So first things first . . . pick out a pattern. This was actually fairly time consuming. I didn't have anything in mind and this was my first blanket so I didn't want anything too tricky. But as soon as I saw a picture of this pattern I knew it was the one. Next step, the yarn. I would have thought this was going to be a much easier task. We knew the baby was a boy so obviously a shade of blue would be necessary, but what shade? And what colors should I put with it? I easily spent an hour in the yarn isle staring at and debating all the possible color combinations. I had no idea what the crib bedding or the room decor looked like so I didn't even have that as a potential help. I finally settled on my choices though and headed home to get started. I debated weather to follow the pattern exactly (SHOCKER!) In the end I decided to change the thickness of the stripes a bit (BIGGER SHOCKER!) I also chose to add a trim to the edges.
Now is probably a good time to say, I had NO IDEA that this project would take me as long as it did! As of now, i'm officially out of the blanket/afghan business. I'm just too impatient. Who knew. =) Hats. Hats are good. They take me one MAYBE two days depending on the pattern and my gumption. This blanket however, took me the length of a trimester! (approx. 92 hours of crochet time) UGH! I thought I would never finish! I even had a couple people tell me I wasn't going to make it in time for the birth . . . well HA! Just to prove them wrong I crocheted like a crazy person those last couple weeks. I thought my fingers were gonna fall off! (Lucky for me that nephew of mine showed up only ONE day early.) =)
Needless to say, the blanket made it on time . . . barely . . . and even though it haunted and hurt me for months I was very happy with the finished product. =) And I don't regret for one minute the blood, sweat and tears that I put into it. I live 500+ miles away from my newest family member, so I hope it serves as a reminder for years to come how much his Aunt Brandi loves him. =)

Much thanks to Greetingarts blog for a wonderful pattern! Here is the link to the original pattern I used for this afghan.

http://greetingarts.typepad.com/greetingarts/2010/05/neopolitan-ripple.html

Going WILD!

I finally had an opportunity to make an animal print cake! A good friend of mine requested one for her birthday. I always get nervous when I'm trying something for the first time. This was no exception. All those stripes and spots . . . and making BLACK fondant! Oye vey!

First for the cake. The tiers were 8" and 6" of yellow deliciousness. The filling was a simple cream cheese buttercream which I also used as the crumb coat before the fondant. So far, easy peasy. Time to cover it. Now I generally like working with fondant, but this particular batch was being a royal pain in my hiney! I got both the tiers covered, and then stacked. At this point in the process I decided that this was gonna be the ugliest cake I had ever made. For starters, bubbles galore. That's ok, I can handle it. I pulled out my giant sewing needle and started popping. Unfortunately once all the bubbles were taken care of it just looked lumpy and saggy! I honostly don't know what the problem was. But so help me I was determined to make this cake purty! Next, time to tint the fondant black. I've tried making black butterceam in the past and couldn't seem to get past the dark gray stage so I was anticipating a similar problem. Good news for me, it actually wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. The fondant was much easier to color than the buttercream. Granted, my hands turned a lovely shade of purple for about three days but I had BLACK fondant! So now onto the fun part, the actual decorating. Luckily with all the stripes and spots I was able to "hide" the imperfections from the original covering of the cake. Ahh, looks much better now! All it needed was a super fun "topper" (which I just happened to have.) =) and TA-DA! My favorite animal print cake so far. Oh wait, it's my only animal print cake. Oh well, still my favorite!

A boy and his dinosaurs

My son recently celebrated his 7th birthday! The party theme this year . . . dinosaurs! SHOCKER! Although, I am pleased to report that the dino obsession is no longer his ONLY obsession. He has recently started playing flag football. And while he has always "liked" football, now that he's playing, it is making it's way up the ranks and giving dinosaurs a run for their money. But since he had a football party last year, it was a no brainer that the dino's would win the coveted "birthday party theme" award for the year.

My orders were for a cake with a dinosaur scene, including a volcano, as opposed to something carved in the shape of dinosaur. (Thank goodness . . . much less stressful on mommy.) But other than that I had completely creative control. YIPPEE! I love control! =) Haha, another SHOCKER!

So I started with an 11x15 base cake then added a 7" square, and on top of that a 6" round. I then carved the little river out. The volcano is cake as well, made with more stacked and carved 6" rounds. I made the boulders out of fondant and gumpaste and the small rocks are candies. I made some "sand," added a little dino egg nest and wrote his name accross the front. Then finally, I added the little plastic trees and dinosaurs. The cake was my white rasberry almond sour cream cake, filled and topped with chocolate buttercream.

This cake was so much fun to make and the birthday boy (and his friends) loved it. Although at one point I did have to question weather he was really MY son or not because while eating it, the words "too much chocolate" escaped his mouth. WHAT!!?? I have failed as a parent! Ho hum. I just took a deep breath and told him never, ever to repeat those words again. =)

I'm on Purple Overload!

First let me say i'm sorry for the poor quality and coloring of the photo. Bleh! A photographer I am not. =)

Anyway, it's been a very busy and very purply couple weeks for me. =) My daughter is a varsity cheerleader at Rocky Mountain High School. Which, if you've read some of my other posts, you possibly already know. Their colors . . . purple, white and black. This past weekend was their final competition of the cheer season, the Idaho State Championships! And before the big event I hosted a team lunch at our house. And for dessert, I went with cupcakes. I attempted to make the cupcakes look like pom-poms. Because really, is there anything more appropriate for cheerleaders? I also wanted to make them personal so I made little gumpaste pennants and put their names on them. It's hard to tell from the pics but they are also dusted with cake sparkles so that they would look shimmery. =)

And now the most important question . . . how did they do at State? Well, i'm glad you asked. Their squad took first in the stunt routine, first in the sideline routine and second in the show cheer. State champ is then awarded to the team with the most overall points. They ended up in second overall . . . by 2 POINTS! They were truly incredible. I was so proud.

So we had the lunch last Friday. State was then on Saturday. And last night was the end of the year banquet for which I was doing the cake. So more baking, and more PURPLE! I needed to make enough for approximately 130 people. So I opted for a smaller tiered cake and then supplimented with cupcakes. The cake was a white, rasberry almond sour cream cake with a chocolate mousse filling. I did a buttercream finish with fondant decorations. Then I added a gumpaste bow and swirlys. =) The cupcakes were both the white cake as well as a chocolate version with buttercream. It was a hit! Cute and tasty! And people actually commented that they liked my fondant, and that's always a good thing considering there are some mighty yucky versions out there.

A scarf for all seasons

I recently completed my second scarf. This one was a gift for my mommy. Technically it was suppose to be her Mother's Day present, but after I got it done I just couldn't wait to send it to her. :)

So since Mother's Day isn't until May, and since that's what the scarf was suppose to be for, I knew I needed to pick a yarn that was really light weight so that she could still get a little bit of Springtime use out of it. She lives in Northern California, so come May it's usually already plenty warm. Not exactly scarf weather. (Another reason I jumped the gun and sent it early.) =) I also wanted to make sure the colors were appropriate for spring and yet still neutral. So after lots of looking and debating I actually opted for "baby" yarn. (They were both by Baby Bee) It made for a super soft and lightweight scarf. Perfect! I made this scarf 8 feet long and I used a basketweave pattern which I achieved by alternating front and back post double crochets.

Flowers in bloom!!

While it can be completely frustrating, I love trying new things. For my nieces birthday my sister-in-law requested cupcakes that looked like flowers. She tried describing to me something she had seen on a tv show. Not sure if it was my brain, or her explaining but I didn't quite get her description. But I figured I could still make cupcakes look like flowers. And this is what I came up with. A sweet personalized flower pot filled with pretty spring blooms and topped off with pink fondant butterflies! I used tissue paper for the "leaves" but if I were to do this again I would probably go with a silk leaf instead. I opted for a dense white cupcake recipe so that they could handle the "post" through the center without ripping. And the frosting was a straight buttercream. I was really pleased with the result. And the birthday girl was happy as well, and that's really what counts. =)

Kitty's and Dino's

So I was in desperate need of a birthday present for my brothers girlfriend, the Hello Kitty lover. She had already "requested" a Hello Kitty hat but I didn't want to do something that predictable. So I searched and looked and looked and searched for a pattern that I thought she would love. Something to satisfy her want for Hello Kitty without actually being Hello Kitty. I saw quite a few hats that had cat ears, some that were really cute even, but nothing that screamed "this is it!" So, it was time for me to create my first hat. I wanted something with the look of cat ears, but nothing childish. And pink was an absolute have to! I decided to start with the basics from the tassel hat. Afterall, without the tassels the corners would just stick up, right? Right! So I started this hat in the same way. I tried a few different stitches but ultimately stuck with a double crochet. I nixed the cuff and just did as many rows as I needed for the right length. Next, earflaps. I knew I wanted the hat to have earflaps. Figuring out the location was a little tricky but I finally got it just the way I wanted. Then I did a single crochet around the entire hat. Now on to the braids. And finally a big, fabulous, obnoxious flower! PERFECT!! It took longer than I thought and there was a whole lot of trial and error but I was thrilled with the final result... and so was she! =) Since then i've even made one for myself. And my girls have both requested one as well.

The next hat here is a dinosaur hat that I made for my Noah Paul. He is completely OBSESSED with dinosaurs. Now I know most little boys go through a dino stage, but let me just say that I have never seen it at this extreme. He reads everything he possibly can about them then he runs around educating anyone who will listen. Even his teacher. =) He recognizes and knows TONS of dinosaurs by name, ones I've never even heard of. So needless to say, I was thrilled when I find a pattern for a hat that would reflect this passion of his. The original pattern for this hat is worked in a continuous spiral. Now I knew I wanted to add the strip in the body of the hat, so again, I opted to use my pattern for the body of the hat. The same pattern I use and love for most of my basic beanies. The spikes however were direct from the wonderful "Stegosaurus Dinosaur Hat" that I found on-line. This was the first time I had ever worked with such a small hook (an F.) It was a little tricky for me but in I finally got those darn spikes done. Ta-Da!! And it was well worth it. My little dino lover was very happy with his new hat.

You can find the pattern for the Stegosaurus Dinosaur Hat here. Thanks Sarah!

http://totsandbottoms.blogspot.com/2010/12/stegosaurus-dinosaur-hat.html

Are you ready for some football!?

Ok so generally when you think of March you don't usually associate it with football. Well, what can I say... my son started football practice yesterday which reminded me that I hadn't yet done a post of my football cakes. In all fairness, only one is actually a cake. The other is all cupcakes. The football field cake with the helmet on top is something I did for my husbands fantasy football draft. (We're fanatics around here.) =) I was really happy at how the bottom "field" cake turned out. Piping straight lines or number or letters always tends to make me nervous but I think it came out well. I have to admit, however, I wasn't as thrilled with the helmet cake. I'm not sure what color the fondant should have been, but the white just didn't work for me. I'll have to come up with a better plan next time. I considered making the helmet look like his favorite team (the Eagles) but since it was for his fantasy league I decided to take the easy road and just put his league logo, "AQFL." (Armchair Quarterback Football League.) =) And even though it didn't quite look the way I hoped, it still tasted delicious!

The cupcakes were for my sons 6th birthday. Oh my goodness! I can't believe I'm just 4 short weeks away from his 7th birthday! Ouch, my baby is growing up. Ho-hum. Sorry, forgive me, back to the cupcakes. He had a football themed party, obviously. I just grouped cupcakes together in the shape of a football, smothered them in chocolate buttercream and piped on the details. Piece a cake! Haha, pun intended. (Yes, I am dork.) To make sure I had plenty I made some extra cupcakes to look like grass and stuck on the little football decorations that I grabbed from the grocery store. Everyone loved them and with everything else I had to do for the party, I loved how quick and easy this was. Touchdown!!

Pigtails and Minions!!

Confession time. I'm not a big fan of following directions. I suppose that's probably because of the little control freak that lives in me. I like to do things my way. I look at something and I wonder, "would I do this differently?" Sometimes it works out great and sometimes, not so much. This has been the case for me with crocheting. I get an idea about something I want to make and I go on-line in search of a pattern. But that little control freak refuses to let me follow the directions! For one reason or another I just have to change something! Sometimes it's a little something, and sometimes it's the whole dang pattern. The best examples I have of this are the pigtail hats and the minion hats. I found free pattens for both of these hats on-line and immediately fell in love. They were both adorable ideas!

So what did I change? With the pigtail hats I only changed the thickness of the cuff. I wanted it to be just a bit taller. So instead of just two rows of the front and back posts I did three. But with the minion hats I used an entirely different pattern for the body of the hat. Not that there was anything wrong with the pattern, I was just having a sizing issue. A more experienced crocheter might have known how to make all the right adjustments but no matter how many different things I tried I just couldn't get the size right. So I took the minion idea and made it work with an existing pattern I already had. And it was a pattern I had already used to make my kids hats so I knew it would fit. I did follow the pattern exactly to make the goggles/eyes. I just made it bigger on Noah's hat since he only wanted one eye. Chey wanted me to then of course make hers a girl. So hers got a bow. : )

I think overall, the little control freak has served me well. Yes, he has also caused me a few problems from time to time, but ultimately he's challenged me to do my very best at any and every task I undertake. And he pushes me creatively. : )

And finally I want to give credit where credit is due. If you are interested in checking out the original patterns for these two hats they can be found here:

http://gamergirluniverse.blogspot.com/2010/08/minion-beanie.html

http://www.allcrafts.net/fjs.htm?url=suzies-yarnie-stuff.blogspot.com/2006/10/suzies-stuff-kids-tassel-hat.html

Thank you ladies for these patterns and the super cut hats!!

A Farewell Cake

It's never easy saying goodbye when someone leaves. And while I was bummed out that a friend was moving away, I was pretty excited about making my first "going away" cake. (Shh, don't tell him that. ) ; ) I had been wanting to try my skill at a suitcase for awhile but really had no reason. Finally, a reason presented itself. A friend of ours, Kit, was headed back home to Colorado after living here in Boise for awhile. And what better way to say goodbye then with a party!? And what's a party without a cake!? So to the kitchen I went. I couldn't just make any ole' suitcase cake though. I really wanted it to represent Kit. Now, this is not a guy you would find rolling around some yuppy designer suitcase. He is laid back, grunge at it's finest with a passion for the snow. So with that in mind, this is what I came up with. A snowy hilltop and a vintage leather suitcase propped on top. And of course the little snowboarder in the ball of snow crashing into the suitcase. (It had to have that.) And to make sure everyone new the snowboarder was Kit, I gave him a little red beanie. You'll have to trust me on this one . . . everyone knew it was him. : )

My First Crochet Project

My mother-in-law is a crocheter and after seeing some of the super cute things she made everyone for Christmas I knew I wanted to learn. So she bought me a pack of hooks and some yarn and we had our first lesson. Within the first three minutes I wanted to quit. I couldn't even manage a simple chain. Good grief I felt awkward. But my sweet mom-in-law sat there and encouraged me (trying desperately not to laugh i'm sure) as I clumsily tried and tried and tried to make a chain. I finally got it. Horray! Next, she taught me a couple basic stitches (single and double crochets mostly.) After I at least had the basic idea, she left me on my own to just practice those over and over again. And once I was comfortable with those it was time to actually try and make something.

I'm a huge fan of scarfs, particularly super long ones, so lucky for me a scarf is a nice simple place to start. = ) I had to pull all my work out a few times before I finally found a width and a look that I was happy with. And while that was ridiculously frustrating I'm glad I did. Cause after about five days of doing nothing else (hey, it was my first project and I was still very slow and awkward) I finally had my scarf . . . all nine feet of it! I was THRILLED! It was fabulous! But what's a scarf without a matching hat? I was on a roll! So I found a pattern that I liked and got busy. The hat was a little bit trickier. I was calling my mother-in-law every day asking if I could come over so she could walk me through the next step. She's such a patient woman. = ) I again found myself frustrated at having to pull out all my work a few times. And my poor family was equally frustrated cause mommy kept "shooshing" them every time they tried to talk to me. What can I say? I didn't want to lose count. But eventually I had a hat. It wasn't what I had originally set out for but it turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!

So now I am officially "hooked." HAHA, pun intended. I havn't stopped crocheting since. = )

Cookie Creations

One of my favorite things to bake (and eat) is cookies. So while I had originally figured my business would be strictly cakes and cupcakes I have decided to do cookies as well. My first "Cookie Creation" was a Christmas Cookie bouquet. I made 5 of these actually. Chey and Noah's teachers each got one and Isabelle's cheer coaches got them as well. The finished product was wrapped in a clear cellophane bag with a big red bow and lots of ribbon. They were a hit! I also recently made megaphone sugar cookies for Isabelle's cheer squad. For both of these cookies I painted on an icing that dries with a hard glossy finish but isn't super hard like royal icing. And while I am a big fan of buttercream I don't love it for cookie decorating because it can get smooshed too easily. (However, I did use it to put the finishing touches on the Christmas cookies.) The "paint" icing is perfect though. Just the right amount of soft and sweet and it doesn't take away from the delicious flavor of the cookies. For the megaphones I even used lemon as well as vanilla flovoring and it made for a wonderful tasting icing!

Let's hear it for music!

So far i've made two cakes that had a music theme of some sort. One was a guitar cake for the worship leader at our church. He's a good friend of mine and an amazing musician. The other was also a birthday cake for a friend. She a bassoonist and is going to school to be a marching band director. Lucky for me when her mom ordered the cake she specifically said she wanted something simple and round. I don't think I could have made a cake in the shape of a bassoon. = ) The guitar cake is a marble cake. The bottom cake is covered in cream cheese frosting and the guitar itself is covered in a chocolate fondant and decorated with modeling chocolate. I really wanted the guitar to have a wood look to it.

The music notes cake is a rainbow chip cake (the bday girl ALWAYS has a rainbow chip cake on her birthday) with buttercream frosting. The decorations are made with both fondant and modeling chocolate.

A Precious Kitty and A Curious Monkey

This Hello Kitty cake was a cake I made for my brothers girlfriend when they came to visit. (She's a HUGE fan.) It was a chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream frosting and then covered and decorated in fondant. This was actually the first time I made a strawberry buttercream. I sliced up and pureed fresh strawberries and it was delicious! I've seen recipes that offer quicker and easier methods but I don't think I could ever do it another way now. I was eating the leftover frosting on graham crackers for a few days. So yummy! = )

The Curious George cake was for a 4 year old's birthday. It was fun trying to create George flying through the air but I think the puffy clouds and cupcake balloons did the job nicely. This cake was white chocolate cake as well as white chocolate buttercream, with a chocolate buttercream monkey.

I was a little nervous about trying to duplicate well known characters on a cake. I mean, it can't just look like any cat or any monkey. I had to get it right. But overall, I was very pleased at how these two cakes came out and i'm excited about trying more characters.

First Two Weddings

To date I have only done two weddings. The first was cupcakes and the second a three tierd cake. They both were fun and challenging in different ways. And go figure . . . a shade of purple was the main color in both. The cupcakes were a mix of vanilla and chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and little sugar pearls. The topper cake was actually a spice cake with cream cheese frosting, (the brides favorite cake) then covered in fondant.

The three tier cake was a white cake with white chocolate buttercream and then covered in fondant with a fondant ribbon. And I really love the look of the round and square cakes together.