TOPSY TURVY CAKE ATTEMPT #1

SO, I'VE REALLY BEEN WANTING TO TRY ONE OF THOSE UNEVEN "TOPSY-TURVY" CAKES, SO I LOOKED UP HOW TO DO IT. THIS WAS MY FIRST ATTEMPT, JUST A SMALL ONE. THE FONDANT WAS REALLY HARD TO GET ON THE TOP LAYER W/OUT IT TEARING, AND IT DID TEAR QUITE A BIT, BUT I DIDN'T REDO IT, JUST FOR US AT HOME TONIGHT-NEW YEARS EVE. THAT'S WHY WE DID THE STAR THEME. FORTUNATELY THE STARS HID MOST OF THE ROUGH PARTS THAT DIDN'T TURN OUT GOOD, IT LOOKED PRETTY BAD BEFORE THAT. I LIKE IT FOR THE MOST PART THOUGH. KENZIE WANTED SOMETHING FOR THE TOP. I REALLY DIDN'T HAVE THE RIGHT KIND OF WIRE, BUT WE MADE SOMETHING ANYWAY, AND IT LOOKED OK, JUST FOR US AT HOME. I'VE BEEN EXPERIMENTING WITH MAKE MY OWN FONDANT W/ SOME SUCCESS. IT TASTES BETTER ANYWAY AND IT'S DEFINITELY CHEAPER. I'M GOING TO PRACTICE SOME MORE-WE HAVE SOME FAMILY BIRTHDAYS THIS MONTH.

DOGGIE CAKE

I MADE THIS CUTE LITTLE CAKE FOR MY SISTER-IN-LAW'S 29TH BIRTHDAY-SHE A DOG LOVER. SHE HAS TWO AMERICAN BULLDOGS-TANK AND ROXIE.
THE CAKES ARE ACTUALLY BROWNIES ICED W/ BUTTERCREAM, GRAHAM CRUMBS, AND MARSHMALLOW FONDANT I MADE MYSELF(TASTES MUCH BETTER THAN WILTON FONDANT-YUCK). IT'S PRETTY MUCH A SMORES THEME CAKE.

I THINK IT'S PRETTY CUTE.

BIRTHDAY CUPCAKES

THESE CUPCAKES WERE IN APRIL FOR MY MOTHER-IN-LAWS 60TH BIRTHDAY. THE FLOWERS ARE GUMPASTE. THERE'S DIFFERENT KINDS OF CUPCAKES-STRAWBERRY, BANANA, CHEESECAKE, AND KENZIE'S FAVORITE-BROWNIE/CHOC CHIP COOKIE. I LOVE THE SIMPLICITY OF CUPCAKES.

AFTER HALLOWEEN

I STILL DON'T HAVE HALLOWEEN PICS ON HERE YET, BUT HERE'S A CHEAP COSTUME FROM AFTER HALLOWEEN-75% OFF. GREAT FOR REECE JUST TO PLAY IN. I BOUGHT A COUPLE MORE AT WALMART TODAY-POWER RANGER AND NINJA-I THINK HE'LL GET THOSE FOR CHRISTMAS-I KNOW CHEAP. I COULDN'T FIND ANY OTHER SUPERHERO ONES MARKED DOWN-I WANTED BATMAN, SUPERMAN, AND IRON MAN-SO IF ANYONE FINDS CHEAP ONES IN 4-6 SIZE, THEY'D BE PERFECT FOR CHRISTMAS.

HAPPY 31ST BIRTHDAY RYAN SWIMMING HALLOWEEN CAKE

I MAY NOT HAVE A GREAT BLOG, BUT I'M PRETTY SURE NO ONE ELSE HAS THIS CAKE ON THEIR BLOG, OR ANYTHING LIKE IT. MY DAUGHTER WANTED ME TO MAKE HER SWIM COACH RYAN, WHO TURNED 31 TODAY ON HALLOWEEN, THE 31ST OF OCTOBER A CAKE THAT INCORPORATED ALL THAT PLUS SWIMMING. WE CAME UP WITH A JACK-O-LANTERN-OR A RYAN-O-LANTERN WITH SWIM GOGGLES WEARING A GOLD MEDAL WITH THE NUMBER 31 AND A RIBBON WITH HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN AND GO AAY(OUR SWIM TEAM). I SERIOUSLY THINK ALL CAKE DESIGNERS SHOULD BE 9 YEAR OLD GIRLS-OK, MAYBE NOT.

HERE'S THE CARD MY SUPER TALENTED GRAPHIC DESIGNER, PHOTOGRAPHER HUSBAND MADE TO GO WITH THE CAKE-ALL AROUND A PRETTY COOL GIFT I THINK

HALLOWEEN CUPCAKES

I MADE THESE LITTLE HALLOWEEN CUPCAKES FOR MY DAUGHTER TO TAKE TO SCHOOL TODAY. MOST ARE OUR FAVORITE, BROWNIE AND CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE. THERE WERE A FEW YELLOW FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T EAT CHOCOLATE-WHICH I REALLY DON'T GET UNLESS IT'S A FOOD ALLERGY. I THINK THEY ARE PRETTY DARN CUTE.

CAKE DECORATING PARTY

My daughter had some friends over tonight, all from swim team except one. I gave them a little cake decorating class and this was their end product-really pretty good, though most of the cakes prior to the fondant looked pretty rough. They loved it. I think I could take it on the road for birthday parties.

My daughter is in the pink polk a dot shirt and has a purple mouse on her cake w/ cheese-of course.

AUTUMN CAKE

I made this cake today to take to our church homecoming dinner tomorrow. Honey bun cake with gumpaste decorations, except the pumpkins which are marzipan-thought it would taste better.

WOW WOW WUBBZY CAKE

I created this cake for a co-worker's daughter whose name is the same as my daughter-Kenzie(note:not McKenzie). The top is created using color flow icing technique I learned from this site. This is the first time I tried it, and although not perfect, I thinks it's pretty good.

CAT HOUSE

We found a baby kitty about 2 weeks old a month or so ago in the ivy outside our house. It was so little and the mommy had left it behind for some reason-I really felt it would die. But my daughter-the animal fanatic-refused to believe it. She cried over him the first second he was found. We fed him w/ a syringe then a bottle w/ kitty formula. I took him to work w/ me the first couple weeks to feed him. Everyday I expected him to die and tried to prepare Kenzie for the worst, but here he is several weeks later. Ivy-the cat-has taken over the house. This is the room formerly known as my powder room, or the "red bathroom". Kenzie put a toddler couch in it, Ivy's "bed"-a basket w/ a pillow, and oh yeah-part of a yoga mat. She found my good one and was going to cut it-that would have been bad for her. I remembered I found a really cheap one at Target for like one or two dollars, so I let her have that one and she made him a rug. I guess the cat is going to be with us for sometime.

Family Photos

I hate having my picture took-don't know why. I had to have one taken today for a work ad, so we took some of the whole family-I think they are pretty good. Jerry and I are never together in the pics, someone has to be the photographer.

Better Batter Baseball

This was for Reece's first birthday. Balls were all we could tell he was really interested in at all. Not my best cakes, but we all enjoyed it anyway.

The Great Mouse Detective

For Kenzie's 5th birthday she wanted "The Great Mouse Detective". Since this movie was 20 years old or more, couldn't really find anything, not even on ebay. She had to settle for this with Cinderella mice and we also had detective hats. You know cartoons are really old when 1. The mice smoke cigarettes in them and 2. The watch a female mouse w/ very little clothing on dancing on a bar while they drink alcohol and smoke. They just don't make cartoons like that anymore.

101 Dalmations

This was the cake for Kenzie's 6th birthday-I think 6th. Really sad I'm starting to get them mixed up. Anyway, the little dalmation's are edible sugar-I ordered those. Made the rest of it though.

Thomas The Train

This was Reece's 3rd birthday w/ Thomas the Train theme. All the land is cake. The train really worked. There's a you tube video of it here:

"Cheesecake" with Mouse Anyone?

This was Kenzie's cake for her 8th birthday. Cake made to look like cheese. Little marzipan mice coming out all over-eating the cheese, and some Ratatouille figures, what could be more perfect?

I LOVE MY FAMILY !!!!!!

Here's some pics of my wonderful kids. Kenzie is 9 now. She swims and does triathlons as you can see-this is a collage she took to school for a "me museum" of herself.

Reece is 4 now-I can't believe it.

We had a party last night. No one's birthday or anything-at least not at our house. We had presents for the kids, balloons. Roasted weiners and marshmallows. Jerry even got a new fire pit for our deck.

Why have a party:

1. My was of saying sorry. I've been in the middle of switching jobs. Leaving a job you've been at 13 years-your entire adult life that you thought you'd retire from didn't bring out the best in me. I love my kids and family for putting up with me. Guess they didn't have much choice.

2. Reece is FINALLY potty-trained. I

thought it would take longer. Reece has a language disorder and most kids with it don't potty-train until at least 4. My normal languaged daughter took till 3 1/2, so I figured. . . . Anyway, he's catching up rapidly and we are really proud of him

3. Kenzie is doing great in everything as usual-school, sports, life. She's just one of those kids-takes it all in stride. She was baptized this summer-by her swim coach who's a minister-asked him on her own-we are so proud.

4. My husband is just awesome!!!

Charlotte's Peanut Butter Candy

Here's the recipe for my sister's awesome peanut butter candy. It has turned out every single time I've ever made it-no matter the humidity. I'm posting it 1. because it's really good and easy and 2. because I lose it all the time and have to call her to get it again-figured this was I'd know where it was:

Ingredients:
1. 4 cups sugar
2. 1 stick butter
3. 1 cup milk(i use skim-what i have and it works fine)
4. 3 tablespoons flour
5. pinch of salt
6. 2 cups peanut butter
7. 1-2 teaspoons vanilla
8. 3 tablespoons white corn syrup

Directions:
Place ingredients 1-5 in heavy pan. Boil until it reaches soft ball stage(i use a candy thermometer for this). Remove from heat and add ingredients 6-8. Stir. Pour in foil or wax paper lined pan. Cool-I do this in the fridge-I not very patient. Cut into pieces and enjoy.

Hope you give it a try-Lisa

Go Speed Racer

Go speed racer-or Reece racer as we say in our house. Reece's 4th birthday is Monday, August 25th. We are having his birthday party this weekend and he's still pretty much into Speed racer. The cakes a standard 3 tier w/ the first 2 square and the top round. Bottom layer is brownie w/ chocolate ganache icing, second is banana nut w/ caramel icing, 3rd is peanut butter w/ peanut butter icing. All covered in fondant of course. First layer is the checkered flag, second is the speed racer checks, top is just white w/ the number 4 all over it for his fourth birthday. I made all the decorations out of gumpaste and painted them-w/ edible paint. Of course my almost 4year old son sees me doing this and say "Mommie paint my cake". Hope this doesn't make him think he can paint food w/ anything. In front of the cake is something my 9 year old daughter made for him w/ the leftover fondant-the flag w/ cutouts of his name. Can't wait to cut into that brownie-it smelled really good. Also can't believe my baby is almost 4-where does the time go?
ps-Jerry says to make sure I tell everyone that my hot sexy husband helped by keeping the kids occupied-how could I do it without him.

Baby overall cake

This is the first cake I've made for someone other than my kids and once for my mother-in-laws birthday.  My husband's co-worker couldn't find anyone to make a cake shaped like baby overalls to match her party theme-so I agreed.  Just a little nervous when it's for someone else.   I'm really bad at saying no too, but I kinda wanted to see how it would turn out.  I think it's pretty good.  I had a blast making it.

Toy Story Cake

This was Reece's cake for his second birthday.  I made several layers of rice krispie treats, brownies and cakes in a 9X13  cake pan and iced them.  Covered them w/ fondant that I made a quilt pattern on and then painted w/ food coloring.  Bought the bronco stamp from ebay and stamped w/ food coloring.  made the pillow w/ fondant as well.  The rug is also fondant.  The blocks are rice krispie's w/ cut out fondant allowed to dry.  The rug is also fondant-braided.   It's placed on plywood covered w/ hardwood looking contact paper to resemble the hardwood floor in Andy's room.  The headboard and footboard are melting chocolate the I traced the pattern out on wax paper taped over a pic of the head and footboard from the internet.  I attached these w/ icing-easier than I thought.  The figures are mostly McDonald's happy meal toys I bought from ebay.  This is probably one of my favorite cakes and one of the easier ones to make.

Creepy Crawly Cupcakes

These were the cupcakes my daughter took to school for her birthday-yes, I baked the entire week in addition to working.  They were her usual gross theme-no princess cakes for us.  The cupcakes are her favorite flavor-brownie/chocolate chip cookie.  Iced w/ chocolate ganache icing.  Used white icing writer to make the webs and then attached the gross realistic bugs ordered from oriental trading-what could be better for a 9 year old girl to take to school.  Had to make her teacher some cookies though-she doesn't like chocolate.  I'm always a little suspicious of people who don't like chocolate.  Anyway, simple, delicious, and perfect for any little princess's birthday.