Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas any more..

 

 

 Well, I think it's time to let the kids watch the Wizard of Oz...that is if they can sit through the whole movie with out picking on each other. Since we just moved to Kansas I think it must come out and be watched before Halloween, and because a good friend sent me a cute picture of a Witch cupcake...I decided it's time.

 

 

Here is what i made as the cupcakes!! Super cute...Super yummy...but these were a lot harder then I took them to be...

 

 

As a cake decorator you learn really fast...

1.) Have a plan....it saves lots of time

2.) If the plan doesn't work....move on and try something else  75% of the time something won't work. (explain more about this in another lesson)

3.) Cake Decorating is nothing more than fixing ugly problems. Cakes are not cute until the last step so get over it.....

4.) It takes time...and you learn as you go

5.) Less is more

 

Now...My photos got lost on a few steps..so if you have questions please ask...I can always do a blog on that.

 

Here is what I started with.

 

Kisses for the top of the hat
Fudge cookies for the brim of the hat
Starburst for the shoes
Bread sticks for the legs
Almond Bark to dip the sticks in to make the socks.


I made 2 dozen cupcakes and iced them. I took the kisses and warmed them by holding them over the stove.

I placed the kisses on the bottom of a fudge cookie and twisted the kiss to melt it into the cookie. I placed all of them in the refrigerator to harden together. I placed them on the cupcakes at angle....so Easy...then this is where my plan falls apart..

The bread sticks where to large for the legs and it taste horrible with the Almond bark..I spent at least 90 min on these legs and it was not looking right at all....so I stopped and put it all away for the day.

My mind got to working that night and I came up with Leg plan B.

Woo Hoo! Good ol' Pocky's....you can find these in the Asian section of any food store for a buck....and I didn't have to dip them..bonus.

Whipped up some orange icing.... Iced the stripes of the socks on the Pocky and stuck them in the cupcake. Next I took a starburst...one at a time...and microwaved them each for 7 seconds. Starburst are great added color but you have to work fast before they cool and become rock hard....and this is where I lost my pictures....be very careful because they are hot...but you shape them into a shoe. Once they cool they are not leaving that stick if a tornado hit them. The legs and shoes took the most time and I learned a lot about shaping candy....

As the Witch says..."Ohhh... you cursed brat! Look what you've DONE!
I'm melting! Melting! Oh... what a world, what a world!
Who would have thought a good little girl
like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?!" 

Well we will be eating some yummy wickedness this weekend with a bowl full of popcorn and the wonderful movie....The Wizard of Oz

 

 

 

 

 

                                          

The Love for Pumpkin

       It's that time of year where you can find pumpkin everything....latte, pies, air fresheners..the list goes on and on. I LOVE pumpkins so much that I am fine to eat everything there is to eat....craft anything I can....and have my house smell like a pumpkin pie just for this wonderful season! So to get myself and the kids in the mood, I took them to a pumpkin patch to pick the best pumpkin EVER!! So we went to Weston, MO to the Red Barn Farm.....I'm so excited because our favorite book when my kids were babies was the Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown..actually it still is on the top ten list to read to them....we pull up and it looks like the same Barn that is on the book. We march right up to the ticket booth and by 4 tickets to ride on the tractor to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkin. I have never picked my own pumpkin out of a patch. We have taken the kids to many farms where you pick pumpkins that are lined up on hay bales...but this is even making me feel like a kid again.

The tractor drops us off in the middle of pumpkin heaven...except for the many dried up plants due to the drought this year...but it is still just what we needed to get in the mood for the season!! We found our pumpkin and jumped back on the wagon and off we went to pet all the animals, look at apples, and shop in the country store. It was a wonderful morning!!

 

Pumpkin Cupcakes

 



Here is a recipe for pumpkin cupcakes with pumpkin icing...we are going all out on pumpkins today folks :)

Vanilla Spice Cake:

1 box white cake mix

1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

3 eggs

1/3 C. oil

1 cup Greek or plain yogurt

2 tsp. vanilla extract

I made these into cupcakes so I could take to my neighbor's houses. (I would be 300 lbs. if I didn't.)

Pumpkin Buttercream:

1 C. butter, softened

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3-4 C. powdered sugar

2 Tbsp. pumpkin puree

I decorated these cupcakes with what is called a rose top. It takes less icing to decorate...which I love when I'm working with a sweeter icing such as this buttercream icing.
I will do a blog soon on how to do the different type of cupcake toppers....I just need to find another person to take pictures or video...until then...enjoy the pumpkin season.

 

 



Welcome Back!!

 

 

 

 Our family just moved over the summer from North Carolina to Ft. Leavenworth Kansas. Why? Because my husband is in the military, and as wonderful as our last 6 years was in North Carolina it was time to move on to learn more great things. Being from the Mid-West, born and raised in Indiana, it's been nice to be back in the area of four seasons and closer to family. We will be in Kansas for one to two years tops...so I was going to slow down on making cakes...but that is not happening here!!! I have already had three cake orders and actually have more time to mess around with new ideas. I have also started taking some classes on Gum Paste, Fondant, and Piping to learn all that I can learn and come up with more ideas.

 

 On top of this I have had time to do more crafty items since we switched houses and now live in Military housing..I have picked up some great ideas to help make a house a home, even if it's not yours...with this said let me say..."Welcome Back! To a new and improved blog...there will still be tons of cakes included as well:)"

 

 

                                                      Happy Halloween!!

 

 

So as I stated we have moved into military housing and I wanted to do something special for the kids since they are missing the old house. I have been reading about how all these ladies are using contact paper for different uses. I was talking to a friend about buying a machine that can cut out letters so I can save money on making my own wall decor each time we move. Plus the kids are growing up and their minds change every year...Butterflies this year, hearts next year. So I purchased black contact paper from Amazon for a little over $20 (I didn't understand how much I was actually buying but I know I will use it later). I had bought paper bats at the Dollar Tree to hang on the walls but I hate tape. So since I'm not rich and still can't think of enough stuff to go buy a $200 or more on a machine....I stuck the kids on this project.

 

 So i took the paper bats and traced a bunch of bats. The kids could do that and if you have older kids they can sit and cut all of them out...I don't so my hand hurts just a little:).

                                

 

 

We are going to have them going up the stairwell. So then I decided to do some cats or a hunted house...So I went on the web and found something on Martha Stewart web site. A witch!! I printed out the template of the Witch. I then traced each square from the contact paper and pieced it together on the wall....I have to say this took around 3 hours to do...but it was well worth it.

 

 

 

 

I still need to make a broom and the hunted house but for less than $25. I think this is so much fun. It is safe for the walls, stays up better than tape, and the kids can help. I'm looking at doing this for Christmas...let you know how that goes. See you all soon.

 

Oh my camera has a spot on the lens so it drives me nuts with the little black dot on all pictures. :) 







Random Fun Cakes

Here are some random cakes I have done last year using fondant.

Chocolate cake with Mocha Icing with Pink Satin Ice Fondant Bow/Gift Tag

Anniversary Cake for a lovely couple.

This cake is covered in Satin Ice Fondant and everything is edible.

I loved making this cake:)

This cake was two 9" round cakes. I cut the bottom off of one cake and sat in up for the purse.

First time using my airbrush was on this cake and I learned a lot about what NOT to do.

Handle, Gift tag, Bow and Side pictures are done in Fondant.

I actually found cookie cutters shaped like a purse and different shoes out of a kids toy baking set.

They are my most used cookie cutters for cakes. They were on clearance after Christmas so always keep your eyes open when shopping.

Thank you!!

Surfboard Cake

     I'm back!! I have been working on tons of ideas and finally have had the time to work on most all of them. Here is one of my favorites....I was asked to make a cake and have the birthday girl help me decorate her 8th birthday party cake. She wanted a surfboard cake with funky colors...it was so much fun. So here is how this worked out.

    I started with a clean canvas for us to work with....I baked a vanilla cake with blue buttercream topped with pink hearts in the middle of the cake...what girl wouldn't like that! I covered the two tiered cake with Blue Satin Ice Vanilla Fondant before she got to my house to skip about three hours of the process.

    Did I mention that I have three kids and Vanessa has three kids…so we had to work fast to keep the other five kids entertained, so that Savannah and I could decorate this cake.....(don't ask me why all the kids are standing on chairs..I just noticed it as I was adding it to the blog.) LOL

       After all the kids ran up stairs to play, Savannah and I started with cutting all the surfboards out of colored fondant I had on hand. This was a lot easier than I thought it would be to free style the cutting of the boards. Savannah took over and started cutting the rest so I could work on something special for her cake.

  
   I had a chocolate mold with shells, lobsters and crabs so I taught her how to melt chocolate and freeze them for fast and cute decorations. I also had red and white chocolate left over from Valentines Day that needed to be used...it was perfect and so fun to place on the cake.

Vanessa is a pro at pictures and took all these pictures while we were doing the cake. This one is my favorite and I will be printing this out for my wall.

    I used green and pink fondant and made pails and used brown sugar for the sand. I also made a girl out of Fondant to look like Savannah to place on top of the cake. Here is what it looked like when it was finished. It took Savannah and I two hours to decorate this cake with little ones running around. She did a fabulous job with her cake and was a jewel to work with.



The other kids got to make shark cupcakes to go around the cake for being good, but I wouldn't have ate them to save my life....but they had a blast and felt like they were a part of it as well.

 

 Happy 8th Birthday Savannah!!!

Race Car Cake....Zoom!

If you have a need for a race car cake..then you are in luck! I love this cake because it doesn't take much time and you can decorate it to fit your style. I like to use pound cake for this type of cake because you will be carving the cake and you don't want it to fall apart easily. Keith, one of the twins, wanted an orange race car cake for his 3rd birthday so here is how to make one....

ZOOM!!!!

  First I baked two loaf pan pound cakes...I always bake one extra for the "just in case" happens.

Just in case one falls on the floor

Just in case I mess up...yes...that's how I learn:)

Just in case Keith wakes up in the middle of the night and eats the cake...It would not be the first time.

Loaf pan cake is great for a race car because it already has the round top....so easy! Let the cake cool for a couple of hours..pop it out of the pan, wrap in plastic wrap and then foil. Place in freezer over night or until you are ready to work on the cake.  



   

It's time to carve the race car!

Grab a knife, the sharper the better, and whack away:) Now you want the cake frozen when cutting it into shape....it will be hard to cut and that is good...take it slow and cut a little at a time until you get use to the knife. 

Here is an easy way to carve a loaf car.....the loaf pan is 9".....I did 4" top, 3" hood/front, 2" trunk/back. Measure the loaf and mark these points off....figure you want to go 1/4 into the cake...easy and it's fun...remember you have the other cake in the freezer so you are GOLDEN!!

I used Buttercream icing to crumb coat the car in the color I wanted it to be. This just means to lightly add icing to the cake so when it thaws out it will be in the shape and won't fall apart on you.  

After the crumb coat has dried...then add a second layer of icing to the cake.

I used: Oreos for the wheels

           Candy bar for the spoiler.

           Icing for the stripes and to outline the windows and to add the 3.

           Gray icing for the windows.

           Yellow M &M's for the headlights and Red ones for the tail lights.  

          

This cake was easy and super fun!! Andrew had a fire truck cake which will be another blog and I would have rather made 12 race cars to that one fire truck. I think that a car in pink or green with flowers would be really cute for a girl...or crumble Oreo's and make a street for a couple of cars to look like they are racing....the ideas are endless.

                        



For the Kids!!!

               I have been sprucing up our house this week…aka getting the floors cleaned and steamed. So my wonderful kids and I will be spending all day in the kitchen while the carpets and the title dry.  I know that sounds like so much FUN…..I also picked today because last week they said it was going to be beautiful and I was hoping that we could be outside running and playing….That was last week….This morning I woke up to rain and mud puddles everywhere….or sand puddles actually.  So I’m making today kids cooking day!!  I have a daughter that is 4 and twin boys that are 3….so if they can do this, then anyone can do this.  (Note to parents: You might have a glass of wine near you and do not have plans to go anywhere following this…you might have to clean your ceilings…but you will have happy kids J )

1.)    Hot Rods  - They are not hot we just call them that. 

What you need is this!

                         Microwave the Chocolate or Candy Wafers in a bowl. Stir really well and let the bowl cool so it will not burn little fingers. Give the kids a spoon and step back.

Put Parchment paper off to the side and let them dip the pretzels!

Have a bowl of chopped nuts, sprinkles, or cruched oreo if you want to coat the chocolate.

What I like to do is fill a ziplock bag up with another color and let them drizzle more chocolate on to the Hot Rods after the first chocolate dries.

You can do this with strawberries, cherries, bananas, apples...the list goes on...just have fun and step back and see what your kids can do.

*If you are using fruit..wash well and pat dry...water and Chocolate do not work together and will turn your chocolate lumpy. *

            2.)  Brownie cakes - super easy and this helps teach basic boarders with out having to make a hugh mess with cake.

    First grab a box of browie mix and let the kids add the water and eggs.

                Bake in a 9x13 inch pan or larger. You want more area than height for these brownies. 

 After they have cooked and cooled take different size cookie cutters and punch out some fun shapes.

Stack the little shapes on the bigger shapes and decorate. Here I have three different sizes

Brownies are great because they don't crumble.... no need to crumb coat and wait to decorate. These also make very cute and easy bridal shower desserts.

Just remember to have fun and think out side of the box...add keep paper towels around the place:)

Enjoy