Thanks!

Wow Raychel! I'm so touched that you think so highly of my amateur caking :)

So as I've been given this online blog award I'll play along!
Here are five things I love:

1.) Being a mom and taking care of my wonderful kiddos
2.) Edible creative endeavors! Cake decorating and making pretty sweets
3.) Being Catholic! All things about my faith inspire me!
4.) Other creative endeavors: decorating for holidays, writing and crafting
5.) Performing on stage and performing (aka reading or goofing around) for my kids

And the blogs I'd like to nominate...other than the two already nominated (Raychel at My Creative Way and Pink Little Cake you'd be here too!):

1.) Baking Momma and Jr. Chef

2.) Cupadee Cakes

3.) Cakes by Anitha

4.) Cake Space

5.) Holy Experience

I have no idea if these ladies follow my blog, but either way I love following theirs! Check them out!

Blessings!

Threadcakes contest...

I'm thinking about doing it for fun!

http://www.threadcakes.com

Anyone have an idea about which design I should try?

Blessings!

Rockband 2 Cake

This cake was for my husband's birthday. He's addicted to Rockband. I wanted (originally) to do a Wii cake in general but opted to stick with a Rockband idea since it's his latest obsession :0)

This is a pic of the detail on the fondant mii:



Here's the cake from another view:


I tried to create a cake that showed the aspect of Rockband that he sees when he plays so I recreated the "on screen fret board" with the colored buttons/notes. He's supposed to be popping out of the cake and the guitar is a mini replica of the game's guitar. I'm not thrilled about the slight bubbling in my fondant, but considering this was a rushed job...as I did most all of it in one day...I'm thrilled it turned out well and that my wonderful husband enjoyed it!

Blessings!

Welcome Ben!

I made this little mini cake for a neighbor who had a baby recently. It was thrown together last minute with what I had lying around, but I'm happy with it.

I used fondant for the quilted blanket and sculpted some white fondant by hand to make the letters for his name.

I used cutters to imprint the fondant and an embosser tool to do the stitching. I like it much better than my last cake! LOL!



Blessings!

Buttercreamy fiasco

I was so determined to try out some techniques I saw online about how to ice a buttercream cake. I even discovered that I was always using too little icing and that maybe, just maybe, if I used twice as much I could get that crumb free smooth finish I longed for. Since the Feast of Pentecost was this weekend I decided that was my good excuse for cake making.

Well. I wish I could say things went well...but they didn't...or at least they didn't end well. How's that for three "wells" in one sentence.

The buttercream process went...well. Okay I need a new word.
Here's the pic:


Not too shabby right? I mean I know it's not perfectly smooth, but for a first try at something this size in white buttercream on a red velvet cake...not bad.
Given it was a feast of the Holy Spirit I opted for fire decorations. Mainly because I didn't think I'd succeed at doing a dove. Next time I think I'll go for the dove.

Here's what I started out with:


Intriguing eh? I thought so. I liked it a lot and was pleased I'd gotten my fondant to be such a deep shade of red. It took the whole rest of my icing color container, but what they hey...it looked great! This is when things got complicated. See I ran out of fondant and although I like what I had completed I didn't think it looked fine the way it was and wanted to connect the fire with the flames. That sounds weird when I say it out loud, but that was the idea I had.

I thought: "WOW! This is a great opportunity to practice with Royal Icing!"

Not so much.

So here's what happened next:



I'd tell you that even now I cringe to look at it, but I don't think that would really give you the full measure of pain I felt when I ended up with this craziness on my beautiful buttercream cake. Sigh. So I cried some pretty fierce tears and then realized it was done. Done and done. Not going to be done again.

The mistake I made (in case you are interested) was in the consistency of my royal icing. AND consistency in general. Meaning I should've just gotten more fondant and stuck with the direction I was going in terms of fire. By using a whole other type of icing the overall look was damaged and then when my royal icing was thinned too much (after being to thick for piping...I tried to thin it) it was saggy and runny and didn't hold the way I thought it would. I piped over the text since it was (at first) too thick and then too runny...lol. SIGH.

What a fiasco eh?

All in all I learned SOOOOOOOOOOO much. So I guess it was worth it. Right?

Blessings!