Happy Birthday Alana!

Cake number two for our next door neighbour was delivered today for their oldest, Alana.  She turned 7 today.

Happy Birthday Kiddo!

Alana is Abby’s best bud and when they are home they are attached at the hip.  They are like sisters in that they love and hate each other at the same time.  They fight over the smallest details and then 10 minutes later are back to besties again.

So when it came time for requesting her cake, Alana went into deep negotiations.  You would never have known she was only 7.  She knew exactly what she wanted and, to be honest, not so much about what the cake looked like, it was what was “on” the cake that she was very specific about.  You see, her brother’s cake was a Mickey Mouse cake and had figurines on it.  Rowan’s birthday cake was Rapunzel’s Tower with figurines on it, so when Alana was asking for her cake she too wanted figurines. Alana wanted Jasmine from Alladin.  She was too funny.  “What kind of characters would I be using?” she asked.  She didn’t want to offend me but wanted to know if I was going to be making her figurines or if I would be buying, like the others. I knew by her tone what she meant and what she wanted, it was too cute and to be honest I was a-ok with not having to make Jasmine. So off to the Disney store I went!

This is what I made:

The pictures aren’t great b/c it was raining out.

It was a little humid, so there was a bit of puckering, that I only saw, so all in all it was a big hit!

Thanks for looking!

Phineas & Ferb Cookies

I made these cookies for a birthday as the party give away.  As you know I appreciate those who want to give away a sweet treat instead of the junk that is usually found in the typical loot bag.  Yup I’m anti loot bag.

When asked if I could make more of my favourite characters, I was jazzed to try using my KopyKake machine this time.  And they look pretty good if I do say so myself!

So fun!

Thanks for looking!

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Happy Perry-The-Platypus Day

What you say????  Well then you don’t watch the Disney Channel 24-7 like we do in our house :)

Perry is the most awesome spy.  I mean look out James Bond and that’s saying a lot with a last name like Bond LOL.

Last summer I made the entire Phineas and Ferb gang for the release of their movie:

These were royal transfers, you know before my awesome Christmas prezzie of my Kopy Kake!  This year I just painted Perry.  Still practicing that technique.

So Happy Platypus Day!

Thanks for looking!

Rapunzel Rapunzel Let Down Your Hair

Mommy can I have a Rapunzel tower cake too?  That’s what I get for looking at cake pictures with Rowan sitting next to me. 

Rowan’s party was pretty simple because we held it at Marbles Museum in downtown Raleigh.  This is probably one of the best kids museum I’ve been to and it was Rowan’s first choice for her party location.  Now originally I was thinking we’d have a small party at home but Rob thought this would be easier and in all honesty, it was.  I never thought we’d be one of those parents, but apparently we are :)The museum gave us a museum host who was awesome and helped out with so much.  We ordered some Papa John’s pizza (another Rowan favourite) and then they ate cake, we gave them cookies and then we set them loose in the museum.  No fuss no muss and the museum cleans up after!  It was exhausting but all of the kids had a blast.  SUCCESS!

Making this cake was truly an educational experience for me as this was the biggest, most designed cake I’ve ever made.  Now that it’s finished, I only see the flaws of course. This morning I got a great twitter message from my friend Melissa of My Baked Equation of another blog post from Erica O’Brien  about things she learned from making cakes and it snapped me back to reality.  Thank you so much Melissa.  I also posted my progress on FB and twitter and was given great encouragement from so many followers and friends.  Trust me, I need and loved it!  THANK YOU!

I also now know all the things I would do differently and I thought I’d share what I did and how I would do them next time. (IF there is a next time).

Here’s how I did it:

Day One:

1. Get your handy friend or husband to make you a tower cake boards.  I scowered the internet and asked fellow cake makers, who have undertaken this cake, and then had Rob make this.  It’s a 20”x20” base board with 3/4” dowel screwed into the base and then a 6” top board screwed into the dowel.  I covered the base a food safe foil wrap.  I actually did this several weeks ago, but this was the second attempt at the party as we were all flattened with the “plague” and had to re-schedule.

 

2. Then I made cereal treats and made the 6” base for the tower house.  I covered it in buttercream and white fondant.

3. I used brown fondant to make the wood details. I then used ice cream cones covered in buttercream and cut pieces of fondant for the roof.  Rowan and I did this together.

                    

4. I baked the cake, dirty iced and put in fridge over night.  This was vanilla cake with lemon buttercream. Very simple.

Day Two

5. I then made a lot of little flowers out of coloured fondant.  Each had a silver dragee in the center.  This was time consuming.

6. I made some green fondant and covered the dirty iced cake.  In the cake board I put a hole the same size as the dowel.

7.   I then took a dowel and pushed it into the centre of the cake and through the hole.  I then placed the cake onto the main cake board by placing it onto the dowel from the top.  Since it was screwed into the board, I couldn’t think of another way and since I made the hole in the paperboard, it worked quite well.  I also added the cobblestone detail grey fondant. I really like these fondant mats for details.  To get rid of the cornstarch I used a small brush and vodka.

8.  I then took the cereal treats and using another piece of dowel I rolled them around it.  I didn’t take a picture of this (sorry).  I then slid it onto the dowel.

9.  I then covered with buttercream and cobblestone grey fondant.  I then added some rocks and grass. 

10.  This is where the first “almost” tragedy happened.  I forgot to use a small cake board and dowels in the main cake to support  the cereal treat tower and it started to sink.  So I had to remove the tower and make the structure to prevent it from getting worse.  Next time, it’ll be first.  I also didn’t use the Tylose glue on the dowel, so as it settled it didn’t quite reach the bottom of the top board.  I then grabbed some fondant and filled in the space.  Next time I’d make the cereal treat tower longer than the dowel and let it settle.  Now with all the oopsies, it actually gave the tower a well loved look.  Like it was meant to be :)

11.   I then added flowers, vines, hair and a few Disney character figurines and stuck it into the garage and hoped it would be still standing in the morning.  The happy big sister.  At this point of the day Rowan was too tired to want to have her picture taken.

Day Three (party day)

12.  The cake survived the night, I then added some royal icing leaves to finish it off.  I ever so carefully took it to the back deck to take pictures of it in the sunlight.

 

13. We then had to transport it to the museum.  I sat in the back of Rob’s car and it was the most heart wrenching 25 minutes ever.  The train tracks nearly killed me as it swayed back and forth and we lost some hair.  We got to the museum and then had to take it it’s final 50 yards.  The best feeling was several other patrons stopping and telling me how amazing it was!  Yay me :)

14. Then the time came for destruction and you know what?  it wasn’t as hard to do as I thought. Stress over :)

What I learned:

1. Don’t sweat the small stuff.  You may see the flaws but no one else does.
2. Take the compliments and be proud.
3. Don’t transport with tower house attached.  I did because I had such a gap between the cereal treats and the tower board so I had to fill it in and then had to hide the mistake with the vines and flowers.
4. Make the dowel bigger and probably square.  It needed a bit more stability for my sanity.
5. Enjoy the ooohs and aaaaahhs :)

I also made cookies as party favors because I don’t do loot bags. Maximus was my favourite!

So over the last three days I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I nearly had a heart attack but all in all had a fabulous time watching my little 4 year old run around with a grin from ear to ear and be in true and utter heaven.  So was it worth it???  Absolutely!

Thanks for looking!

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Disney Marathon 2012, Congratulations Rob and Gary!!!

As you know we are a running family.  And this past Sunday my husband Rob and his friend, Gary took on the 2012 Disney Marathon.  Yup, that’s the same one I ran a year ago.  It may seem like it would be easy because it’s Disney and how hard could the run through the happiest place on earth be????

Freaking Hard!

Well at least that’s how I felt about it.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d totally go back to run the half marathon over and over again because it’s a ton of fun.  But there is nothing easy about a marathon, no matter where it is.

Rob and Gary trained really hard and made most of their long runs.  Which, considering Rob travels for work like a crazy person, is pretty good!

So to tell them both how proud we all are of them, I made them these.

This was my first attempt at using my awesome Christmas present, my Kopykake projector.  I still need to practice, but I think for the first attempt, not too shabby!

This was taken from the marathon logo!  Now I forgot the rest of the ribbon, but I’m a first timer.

Because they did it!!! And if you didn’t know, every marathoner proudly posts his 26.2 everywhere.  We have the 26.2 decal magnets on both of our cars :)

and here are the happy boys with medals and their cookies!

So proud of the boys!

Thanks for looking!

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Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Ganache - Ode to the Muppets!

The Muppets are coming back to the theatres and I couldn’t be more excited to introduce my kids to a staple from my childhood.  I just loved the Muppet Show!  Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzi Bear, Gonzo the Great and of course the two curmudgeons up in the theatre box, Waldorf and Statler (mum’s fav!).

I immediately wanted to make something.  But since I’ve been making a lot of cookies lately, I decided to bake a cake.  It’s also my mother’s birthday this weekend, so this is a combo post. 

Yes, that’s Waldorf and Statler on the top holding roses for my mother!  Then around the side are all my favourite characters.  Kermit under the curtains, then Miss Piggy, Fozzi, Gonzo and Animal!

Recipe: Vanilla Cake from Sweetapolita

• 2 sticks butter, room temp
• 2 1/3 cup sugar
• 5 egg whites, room temp
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cup flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup milk, warmed for 30 sec in microwave to bring to room temp
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Cream the sugar and butter, then add the egg whites. Add the vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Then, alternating between wet and dry, add the milk and flour mixture in two parts.
4. Weigh the batter and divide by the number of layers you’d like.  I wanted 4.  Pour into the pans and bake for 15 minutes each.
5. When you remove them from the oven, let them rest on the cooling rack, in the pan, for ten minutes.
6. Cool completely before icing.

I really like this cake, its nice and fluffy!

Chocolate Ganache:

• 1 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 12 oz dark chocolate

1. Break chocolate into small pieces in bowl, set aside.
2. Heat heavy cream in sauce pan, bring to bowl.  Be careful it bowls over very quickly.
3. Pour cream over chocolate and stir until smooth.
4. Cool before using.

So a couple things went wrong with this cake.  The fondant dried out quickly again, have to figure that out, but at least it covered well this time.  Then the decals I made out of gumpaste were a bit big for the sides, but that was ok in end. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

 

Happy Birthday Mum!  I hope you have an awesome day!

Thanks for looking!

(P.S. It’s also my friend Lisa C’s bday – so shout out to you too!  Virtual bday cake, calorie free :) )

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Phineas & Ferb Across the 2nd Dimension!

Since we moved to Raleigh we have had the pleasure of watching the Disney channel and all it’s numerous shows. Back in Ottawa it was an extra so we never had it but had all the movies. I’m so the Disney Kid, even though I’m now 40 :)

When I ran my marathon at Disney World in January, several of the characters were out to cheer on us crazy runners.  As we ran through the back park on Disney Hollywood Studios we ran past two very strange characters.  One Phineas and one Ferb!  It’s not very often you see a character with a triangle shaped head.

Once we got settled and into the new shows of Disney we were introduced to the show Phineas and Ferb and what these two boys do on summer vacation. It’s a riot and a half, politically incorrect enough for the parents watching and tells of the adventures of two kids and their secret agent platypus, Perry.  I’m not sure why, but I just love this cartoon.  Maybe it’s because Phineas’s head is a triangle, or that Ferb doesn’t speak much but when he does it’s hilarious.  I love Candace’s passion for busting her brothers and her love for Jeremy who’s clueless.  But most of all I love the three friends who help out.  Isabella, Baljeet and Buford are awesome!  So with this weekend’s release of their movie, Phineas and Ferb Across the 2nd Dimension I had to make cookies of course!  I think I was more excited than the girls.  I’m a spaz, I know!

Now they premiered it on Friday night at 8pm, so we had to record it as it’s a little late for the kids.  We all got up Saturday morning and watched it and were not disappointed. So I thought I’d pay homage to this fun little quirky cartoon with cookies.

I hope you like them!

I also tried a new royal icing.  IT ROCKS!!!  I used Bridget’s from Bake at 350. No bleeding whoop whoop!

Since I’m not the greatest drawer I decided to used icing transfers, where I traced the characters onto wax paper and then let them dry and then put them onto the cookie.

So here are your characters!

Phineas and Ferb

Perry The Platypus

Candace

Dr. Doofenshmirtz and his arch nemesis Agent P

And all their friends – Isabella, Baljeet and Buford

Now the whole gang!

I had so much fun making these and as I write this post we are again watching Phineas and Ferb Across the 2nd Dimension!  I hope you enjoy!

Thanks for Looking!

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