Peacock cake

This last weekend I celebrated my 32nd birthday (on 9/11... ) and decided to make my own cake. I just finished the third session of cake decorating classes at Michaels, which focused on fondant and gumpaste, so I was itching to practice! I knew there would be some birthday festivities, so I could serve the cake to friends and family. I have a horrible sweet tooth, but ironically don't enjoy cake all that much. Oh, I'll eat it- I'd rarely turn down sweets! But give me ice cream any day. I had to bake a cake to decorate for our final night of class, which was super fun. I enjoy the baking, but especially love the decorating. I brought it home afterward, hubby admired it, I posted pics on facebook, then had a little slice. The cake sat in the fridge for a week before I threw it out. Still just once slice gone. Hubby doesn't have a sweet tooth at all, so cake doesn't go quickly in our house. As long as the kids don't know it's there... and I made sure they didn't. ;) Otherwise they'd be hounding me day and night for more cake!
So anyway. I was thrilled to have an occasion to make a pretty cake where it may actually get eaten! Even though it's a bit... sad? pathetic?... to make my own cake. I didn't really care. It was mine and I got to do whatever I wanted- so I went for a peacock theme.

Feathers and all. 

My original design called for a third layer, but then I thought, "that's a ton of cake...and a ton of work". Two was plenty.

I covered the whole thing in fondant, then made the decorations out of a combination of fondant and gumpaste, plus the little edible pearls. 

You can really see the gold shimmer dust I added to the chocolate layer in this photo!

Oh, and those are supposed to be mums. Apparently they resemble either pinecones or artichokes. I may just make them green and do a vegetable theme cake someday. 

On the inside I attempted doing a zebra cake! You basically just alternate layering small amounts of chocolate and white cake batter into your pans, no swirling or mixing- then bake. It really did look like zebra stripes when we sliced into it! Too bad I forgot to take photos.

This was (obviously) my first attempt at quilting the fondant. I love the look, but need some practice! I used my clear fabric quilting ruler and a butter knife! There must be a better way. :)

I sort of wish I could just decorate cardboard boxes in the shape of cakes. The baking is alright, but wasteful if there is no occasion! And I really just want to practice! I'm thinking perhaps a halloween cake?!

The BIG baby shower post

Oh my word, this is a lot of photos. 

But I just had so much fun I wanted to share every detail with you!

My SIL Christie asked a few months ago if I would help her plan a shower for our friend who is expecting her first little one in August. Once the big ultrasound revealed a sweet baby girl, we got to planning. 

Momma-to-be likes purple, so we instantly decided to go with varying shades- eggplant to orchid to lavender. I had a few theme ideas but we decided to go with 'dresses'.... what could be more girly?

So here is the day, in photos. First of all, praise the Lord for the fabulous weather that day! Bright sunshine, warm, just a light breeze. Perfect.

This is the gift table, before most guests arrived. It ended up very full!! Baby Skylar is loved and blessed already!

We knew right away we wanted to decorate with actual dresses, and my mom found this gorgeous skirt that demanded a prominent location. 

These are some of the prize bags I decorated, because what's a shower without games? And what are games without great prizes in pretty little bags?!

Christie and I had great fun on baking day, making the hydrangea cupcakes above, and of course- purple cake pops! On a side note, I've started using my stand mixer to crumble the cake and mix in the frosting when I make cake pops, and man do they get smooth and lovely! It really helps!

These were devil's food cake with chocolate fudge frosting, coated in vanilla candy melts with purple sugar sprinkles. They tasted like fudge-y brownies. Mmmm.

Here is the food table, complete with Skylar banner. It's a bit hard to see, but its held together with tiny wooden clothespins. 

Some closeups of the cupcakes- We jazzed up lemon mix with sour cream and pudding... then topped them with vanilla raspberry frosting. A funny little story: We filled one with extra frosting as a game; whoever gets the filled cupcake gets a prize. A nice, girly prize. Well, no one found the winning cupcake. Until after the shower was over and my aunt called to say the leftover cupcake she brought home for her hubby just happened to be the winner. So, Uncle Aaron, we have some nice vanilla body spray with your name on it. 

Frosting these was so easy! I was surprised. Saw them originally on Pinterest, and found the corresponding blog that posted them, along with a tutorial- which of course I can't find now. 

I decorated a glittery wooden 'S' that we sent home for Skylar's nursery. And the pic above is a bit washed out, but Christie and I folded the napkins into little dresses with bows. 

Creamy pasta salad cups- because cupcakes and champagne floats aren't always enough.

I had a lot of fun making these little dress cupcake toppers. Cardstock, tulle, ribbon and lots of hot glue. Fun stuff. 

I love individual portions of food in little cups. 

And something about these sweet/salty dipped pretzels just gets me. Plus they are pretty and easy to make. 

The non-alcoholic drinks. For the poor preggo. ;) I somehow forgot to snap a pic of the champagne float, but it was nummy. Champagne with lots of melty, cold tropical sherbet. Kinda wish I had one right now...

I also love indoor furniture brought outdoors. And pregnant mamas need comfy chairs with ottomans. Decorated with tulle.

My sweet friend, who has two beautiful girls, lent me these tiny dresses she had saved. Well, four of them are hers, the others were gifts for baby Skylar. 

I had tons of fun sewing two of these dresses. The second and fourth from the left- I forgot to take closeups of them.

Here are the tissue pom poms Christie and I made- I'll be posting a tutorial for these in the next couple days. They are surprisingly easy to make, and would be perfect for a wedding! Or mini ones for a baby mobile! I sent these home for Skylar's nursery as well. 

Thank you so much to my mom and dad, for letting us take over your gorgeous house for the day and all help with this event. To Christie for letting me help plan and for all your hard work! And to Jessica and Jenna, for the ideas and setup help...

Also to Stacey- thanks for having a girl! I got to immerse myself in ruffles and ribbon and tulle and dresses. Congrats on baby and thanks for letting me be a part of this day!

To my fab hubby who had kid duty all day Saturday- thanks babe. Love ya. 

Check back soon for a fun pom pom tutorial!

Barbie cake

First, let me apologize for the horrid quality of these photos. I snapped them quickly with my phone and meant to take more with the good camera... but never did. So this is what you get. 

Last weekend we celebrated my husband's and my sister-in-law's birthday. Their birthdays are actually three days apart, so we just did big fun weekend sleepover at my parents. Beautiful weather (finally!!), great food, lots of playing and relaxing. I love spending time there. It's almost like going on vacation. 

So, this SIL of mine (my brother's wife) loves barbie. Can I just say how stinkin' lucky I got with my two SILs?! Growing up I only had a brother (whom I absolutely adore- but I always wanted a sister too!). So when I married Mike I inherited his brother and his brother's wife- Ruby's mom. LOVE her. I was so excited to finally have a sister. Then my brother married his love, and I got another sister! Two fab ladies that I can't imagine not having in my life. 

So. My brother suggested the idea of making a barbie cake for birthday girl last week, and I was instantly thrilled by the idea. It's like designing a dress and decorating a cake all at once! Luckily Ty's awesome teacher happened to have a barbie skirt pan, so I borrowed it and got to baking.

I wanted to use a real barbie instead of those barbie torso-on-a-stick things you can buy in the cake aisle. But sadly she was too tall. So an amputation was necessary. 

I made a bunch of roses with royal icing to sort of match the painted-on bodice barbie is wearing. Then did her skirt in fondant layers. I added some white "beads" around her (tiny. kinda hate her.) waist, then had some fun piping a "pearl" ring and bracelet on her. Of course she needed an icing flower in her hair. 

Oh, my this was fun.

I don't see a lot of barbie cakes in my future, so thank you sister, for your endearing barbie obsession that allowed me to have some girly fun with edible gorgeousness. 

Speaking of girly fun, I am in the midst of planning, with my barbie-loving SIL, a baby shower for a friend who is having a GIRL! I am ridiculously excited. We are full of ideas and can't wait to put them all together. I've been working on a super simple, but so pretty craft that I will share soon!

Cake class creations

Cake class was so much fun. Last night was my last one and I'm kinda sad it's over! The series I finished was called Decorating Basics, which was four weeks long. But there are two more four-week classes I can take! I just need to decide when to take them... week nights are kinda hard because class starts at 6 and Mike is barely home from work by then. 

Anyway... Here is my first cake:

I took this photo with my phone in class, so the quality is not great... but how fun this was!

Here are some of the flowers we learned and practiced:

Then we learned how to fill cupcakes! Mine were red velvet filled with a cream cheese/whipped cream mixture. 

We learned a few more flowers and practiced on the cupcakes. Turns out I am really awful at making flowers. There are a few I can handle, but the roses we learned last night? Not so much. My friend Becky whipped out roses like nobody's business, but mine were seriously deformed. Good thing I have that handy Cricut Cake. I'll just cover everything in fondant. 

Here is my final cake. It was super fun. I drove myself crazy trying to get the icing smooth. Again, perhaps I'll just cover everything in fondant from now on. 

These are one of the two flowers I can make that actually resemble flowers. Leaves? I can handle leaves. Easy peasy. Maybe I'll just make leaf cakes. 

Ta da!!! Here is the fun surprise:

Inspired by Marisa's rainbow cake. My purple layer sorta fell apart so it's a little thin in the center. But still so pretty!

It was so ridiculously tall it wouldn't fit in the cake carrier I borrowed from my friend Jessica. Luckily my cake class friend Becky had a taller one, so we traded for the evening. 

I love the rainbow cake. It was a bit time consuming, however... and I used 3 boxes of cake mix. And my stand mixer got a heck of a workout. But it was kinda worth it. :)