Cake a la Paris

I participated in a cake decorating class with some of the girls from our church. We were learning how to take a printed picture, and pipe it onto our cake. It would have been easier to take the clip art and do a snake or flower, like the gal said to do... but no... I brought a picture of the Eiffel Tower, to put on my cake. Actually it wasn't hard, but because of the angle I took the picture, it looks funny in icing. ??? But it was FUN and I enjoyed it!

I think the cake would have looked fine, if I had left it at this.
But I didn't... I tried to get the whole picture on there!

I stopped here, I could tell it wasn't working out. Oh well. It tasted GREAT. My boys never complained!

Thanks Ashley for teaching us! It was a GREAT class!

More Birthday Cakes

In reviewing my blog I noticed I never posted with my boy's birthday cakes. I don't know that you care, but I love to share!

The baby turned one. It has become tradition to do a Baseball cake. Not fancy, but we enjoyed it!

The little dude turned 6. He wanted a Transformers birthday. I cut out a stencil of the Autobots sign. Looked up the colors. Made the colors. Decorated. Looked at the example, and realized I did the colors backwards. Red should have been on bottom. I don't know how I managed to mess that up. Luckily, little dude didn't care, and everyone still knows it's the autobots sign. And it tasted GREAT!


Big dude wanted a Harry Potter Party. We actually had two parties, one without a theme for family. And one Harry Potter Party with friends. Here's the no theme cake. Sprinkles and candles.

I had fun with the food ideas for the Harry Potter Party.

We had Magic Wand Pretzels (Log Pretzels dipped in white and dark chocolate with sprinkles on the end). We set up jars with Candy for Honeydukes. There was Berttie Bott's Every Flavor Bean (Jelly Bellies), Gummy Lizards, Chocolate Covered Cockroaches (choc. covered cinnamon bears), and Sour Worms (sour gummy worms). We also had Butter Beer. The cake was Wizard Hat cupcakes. Those were fun to make. The kids ate the cones first, and then couldn't finish the cupcake! That was great! I can't find where I saved the Butter Beer recipe. I did and on-line search and found quite a few ideas. If I find the recipe I used, I will post it.

Our Birthday cakes! YEAH!! Until next summer!

Wilton Review and Giveaway

Check out Energizer Bunny's Mommy Reports for a FUN giveaway. There's a Wilton mini- cupcake pan, Silicone Bear cupcake molds, Sprinkles, and baking cups. I LOVE everything Wilton makes! And it's so fun to make cakes and cupcakes when you have their cool stuff too!

Quilt Cake

Again, yes I have been cooking, just nothing too exciting to post. I have REALLY gotten into the Couponing, so we eat based on what's in our pantry. Unfortunately that's not always a Pampered Chef recipe, or a gourmet dish, or even something blog worthy. I need to find a balance between the two. I know it's there... I'm getting it.

In the meantime, I did make a pretty fun cake for my Sister-in-law's 30th Birthday! 30 is a good time to evaluate where you are in life, look at the goals you have accomplished, and where you want to go from here. This was a hard birthday for her. She is single, and between jobs, and having some financial struggles. She wasn't sure how "happy" she really is at 30. So, I thought it would be fun to make a cake that showed all the "happy" things in her life. (This sounds kind-of like a personal ad... well, if you know any singles guys around 30, that would be interested...)

The Cake

Our Family. Can you tell whose who?

She is a school teacher.

She LOVES to swim, and is a GREAT swim instructor!

She has a Samoyed named KONA.

She is VERY musically talented.

And she is a quilter. Actually she is very creative, and good at sewing.

I found the icing writing pens and thought it would be fun to try them. I HATE them! It doesn't look good at all! I wish I had piped HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE. That is the only part I am really disappointed about. That and how skinny the cake is. There is more frosting than cake! We don't have a large family, and I knew doing two layers would be way too much cake. But I needed the large surface area to put everything on the cake!

I REALLY enjoyed this cake. I got my ideas from on-line, Wilton's Cupcakes Catalog, and Cupcakes!. They were all great for generating ideas and how to put it onto a cake! I would love to do more cakes that are so personal! If you or someone you know, needs a personalized cake, let me know. I would be happy to brainstorm ideas, and decorate a cake for you!

Birthday Cakes

June is a popular birthday month for our family. I made a few cakes for these occasions. I took a few pictures too. I realize the cakes may leave a little to be desired. I have taken a basic cake decorating class, and hope to expand my decorating knowledge soon.Last year for my birthday, my mother-in-law gave me this adorable cake pan from William Sonoma. I used it for my brother's birthday cake. We did a John Deere theme party. But I didn't have enough time to actually make a tractor cake. So I baked a cake in the cupcake pan and decorated it with yellow and green frosting. Sorry, this one I forgot to take a picture. Not that it was all that exciting.

I made this baseball cake for our baby's 1st birthday. Again, not really fancy, but fun! I used one 9-inch cake pan from The Pampered Chef to make the big ball, and baked the rest of the batter in a cupcake stone from The Pampered Chef. After all was decorated and the party was about to start, I thought of another idea. I could have made the big cake into a baseball mitt and the cupcakes as baseballs. That would have been cute! I will try that for the next baseball party!

Then my 6 year old chose a Transformer theme party. I made him an autobot cake. I actually was pretty excited about the way this one turned out. I didn't leave myself with enough time to do any extra decorating. But he was happy with it.

I found some great ideas at Family Fun and Coolest Birthday Cakes. I am happy to brainstorm ideas. I LOVE to plan parties! Contact me or leave me a comment if you are in need of ideas.

Easter Cake

I made an Easter Egg Cake for Easter Dinner/ Dessert. It was so easy! Which was the point. I debated weather or not to do a bunny or some cupcakes. But this was truly the easiest. I didn't decorate it with all the cute stripes and dots I wanted to. I didn't make enough icing, and I ran out of time. So... here's what I did. I mixed up a box of cake mix ( I used yellow butter). I poured it into the Classic Batter Bowl, and I baked it at 375 degrees for 50 minutes. It was a little darker on top than I would have liked, but it was done in the middle. I let it cool, in the bowl, on the Stackable Cooling Rack for 15 minutes. Then I released it from the bowl (which had been generously greased), and let it finish cooling in the freezer. When it was cool, I cut it in half vertically. Then layed it big ends together and frosted. Now that I think about it I could have baked smaller eggs in the prep bowls.

That would have been cute! Maybe next year! I colored some flaked coconut green and put it around the sides of the egg as Easter grass, and added some Easter sprinkles to the egg. This is where I would have taken the time to decorate cute lines or dots with other colors, but didn't. What did you do for Easter dinner or dessert? I would love to hear! Leave me a comment.