Colorado Cake

My Sister in Law has some friends who are moving to Colorado and she wanted a little cake made for them as a little goodbye. My mind started thinking Colorado--mile high city, trees, snow, sun, skiing, Columbine State Flower--(yeah making that out of fondant definitely wasn't going to happen). I decided to go with a blue background to represent the blue skies, a little snow hill, and some snow capped trees with snow falling in between. I also wanted to try out my new alphabet fondant cutters--they were the biggest pain in the world to get out of the cutters--but I am glad to have those now for future cakes. My little cake supply collection is really starting to grow. The more stuff I get the faster and more convenient this cake decorating stuff goes! This time I started working on things the day before--had all the fondant colored and cut out the day before! Definitely a smart idea!

Still loving fondant cake decorating and I'm getting faster with each cake I do, smarter with each cake I do, and much more confident for sure!!

Easter Cupcakes

A little Easter fun in the form of cupcakes!  The kids loved them and I had a blast doing them.  But man, does it take a steady hand to place each of those little eyes and those little pink noses.  Had a blast making these little guys, though this was no quick little project! 

Wish I would have captured his face in this picture.  He was so excited and had been waiting all day to finally eat one!

Zach thoroughly enjoyed eating Mr. Bunny.  He ate the entire thing and ate some of the cupcake too!

COSTCO = BIG TROUBLE

The newest additions to my cake decorating collection.  I am pretty darn excited about both of them.  Never again do I have to place all the cupcakes in every large container I can find and hope they don't slip, slide, or flip!  Can't wait to use it.  Less than $40 for all of that.  I love COSTCO!

Now, I just need a party to plan!  Any takers?  

I. WANT. THIS. NOW

Seriously?  Cricut is coming out with a machine that can cut fondant!  Genious! 
I could have some serious fun with this thing! 

Add this to my eternal list of things I want right now.

Two little birdies

Check out the momma bird and two little chickies!

Okay--first a little background. A friend from my ward was adopting a baby boy and soon after she found out she was pregnant with a baby girl! Isn't that always the way it happens? So, she was practically going to have twins--they will be just a few months apart. So, what better shower theme to go with than a little bird shower! This one was actually planned by me and another girl, so not only did we have the whole shower to plan and set up, but we were doing a cake and tons of cupcakes too! It was busy but it all turned out beautifully. There are a few things I would have changed, of course, but overall I was pleased with the result.

The cupcakes were absolutely adorable too.

Nothing fancy

Just whipped up some basic butter cream frosting for these babies, colored in purple for Sofia and blue for Zach and piped spirals on em and then threw some sprinkles on them. Done in 15 minutes! Easy, cute and very inexpensive.

Of all people, you'd think I'd would have done something more exciting for my own son's birthday party. Well, I had it all planned out but then realized there just wasn't enough time and I was too exhausted. I had just gotten home the night before his party from a 10 day trip to visit my parents in Colorado. Coming right home and making a cake all day did not sound pleasant. So, next year I'll do what I had in mind for him. Next year I am certain he'd enjoy it a lot more too.

Baby Shower Cake--Twin Boys

Blue and brown were the colors for this adorable shower put on by a friend of mine, so doing a blue and brown polka dot cake just seemed perfect. I loved this cake. Might be one of my new faves! Maybe it's because of the trouble it caused me to get it done. Seriously the harder I work on these the more I love them. Ughhhh....let's just say I learned something KEY while doing this one. I am not sure why it took me so long to learn this. I made the entire top two- layered cake (only 6 inch round thankfully), very heavily frosted it with regular frosting, then covered it with the fondant that I so carefully died the right color and rolled out perfectly. I ever so gently laid it on the heavily frosted cake and within seconds I knew I was in trouble. The fondant got a huge crack in it and was just NOT working. I looked at my watch, realized I still had a good three hours before the shower, and threw it all in the garbage. I had to start from scratch. Oh man--what a waste of cake, fondant and most importantly time. Luckily I had a friend babysitting for me so I didn't neglect my son the entire day!

So what went wrong? I finally learned...I PUT WAY TOO MUCH FROSTING ON THE CAKE. It is called a crumb coat--not a "smother the cake with frosting" coat. So I now know, all you need is a very thin layer of frosting--who cares if it is completely covered--it's going to get covered up with fondant anyway. Duh. I guess I just always thought it would make the cake taste better since fondant isn't that great tasting. I guess with fondant it's all about the look, not how it tastes.

Well, yet another huge lesson. Since that day, covering cakes with fondant has been much easier! The end result was pretty close to perfect and thank heavens for those little brown circles that I get to use to cover up the few blemishes there were. You'd never know!

Have I mentioned I love making cakes!


Cutest decorations for the shower done by Audrey.

Don't you just love the cute pregnant Rebecca in the background? She looked amazing--skinnier than a bean pole with this basketball inside her. Seriously? Is it okay to say I hate people like her?!