Cake

This last week was a baby shower for a very special lady, and I was asked to make cake...

 

So I did.

 

 

I'm thrilled with how it turned out, and I hope to do an instructional on what I did later this month (perhaps... if my program will cooperate with me).  And it tasted yummy!  I really would like to find more cake recipes that blend other flavors that I can attempt for making nice cakes, but it needs to be a solid cake (I've tried other recipes that are just not solid enough for decorating... they want to fall apart and crumble too easily).

I was actually thinking that I'd love to do a facebook page with pictures of all the cakes/cookies I've decorated over the years, showing a progression of the decorating over time.  Is that a good idea, or a bad one?  I am NOT looking to do this as a job or anything... I get super stressed each time I need to make a cake for anyone else but my kids (because my kids love it even if it doesn't turn out exactly like I was aiming for).  I really want to start making cakes just for fun... something where I attempt new things for no reason whatsoever... however it is just so busy lately that if I have any time to do anything, I am not wanting to spend it working on cake (because interruptions during anything where one is working with food is not an easy thing to deal with, and when you have a 2 month old, a 2 year old, a 4 year old and a 6 year old, interruptions happen in abundance when you happen to find yourself in the kitchen).

I do really want to do more fun cakes, though.  Especially the flowers.  I love the flowers!  They turned out so well, and I've never done fondant flowers like these!  And the baby was a last minute thought that I put together the morning of the shower.  Made it while working on breakfast.  I was unhappy to see that it squished the head a little when we were driving (the ear squished... sniff), but it still turned out fairly well.  I need to learn more on sculpting babies to make them more realistic... or cute.  I didn't like the lips on this one, but I tried.  :)  It isn't as cartoony as my first fondant baby was... and I ADORE the little feet/bum.  ;)

What do you think?  I see myself making many more cakes in the future (hey, I have 4 kids now that I'll be doing cakes for now!), and I've noticed a lot of progression in my decorating style.

Now if only I could make the fondant smooth on the sides of the cake.  Perhaps I need to take a fondant course like I did with buttercream.

Sugar Babies

Tis the week for baking... I am not sure why!

Anyway, on Tuesday I decided to bake some cinnamon biscuit rolls for a friend who had a baby in the last month. My husband was going into that town and dropped them off for me. I love baking for people, I'm just not so sure why I don't do it more often.


Then, on Wednesday was a gathering... a really late Thanksgiving gathering (remember, we're in Canada... Thanksgiving is usually October). So, since I had fondant left from Baby M's birthday, I decided to use some of it up (spent so much time making it, I had better use it up!) on this cake. And since there was a baby shower the next day (for the above person), I wanted to make a cake for that too (instead of the cookies I do for baby showers every time I go... for the last 4 years... that would be about 6 times already I think). And so... I used up the rest of the fondant (which keeps in the fridge for 3 months... which makes me happy).

Cake for the gathering.

Cake for the shower.

Sugar Baby.

And of course, I couldn't leave out pics from the shower itself.

There you have it... a busy last couple of days... lots of sugar (although I didn't eat much of it. In total, I've eaten one piece of cake from the spotted one, and the baby cake didn't even get cut into yet. And no, the baby is not plastic. It is also made of fondant). Sugar is good... as long as most of it stays outside my belly. :)

Oh... and I have yet another story to post for later. Yup... but I'll make you all wait for that one. Mainly because I'm real tired and want to go to bed now. Yawn.

Project 365 and a Shower

Yesterday was my friend's baby shower! We had a lot of fun prepping for it and making the invites, the diapers (more on that later) and for me, the cookies. THOSE cookies. The ones I've made for every baby shower I've gone to since we've been married. This would be my 6th time making these. I still love the way they turn out, but I'm feeling a bit of creative slump, haha.

A pretty platter of party cookies!

This is the place for the baby to be when not being held... I don't think she made it in there through the whole evening.

The food. Gotta have food.

The 'diapers' everyone was to wear.

We played a couple of games. One of them included these diapers. Everyone had to put one on, and inside two of them was a nasty lil surprise. The rest were just stuffed with toilet paper (don't worry, the nasty surprise was just chocolate chips). These were made from baby washcloths. It was quite fun. The other game was the 'pass the present' game. A story was read about "Mrs. Right", and every time you heard 'right' or 'left' you had to pass the gift you were holding in that direction. It made it's rounds, that's for sure! The other activity we had (oops, I forgot to take a pic of that) was making onesies. A bunch of onesies were on the table, along with fabric pens. Each of the party members was to decorate a onesie for the baby. Mine was a cupcake on the front with the word 'muffin' across the bum.

Our presents, all neatly displayed within the heirloom cradle.

The frame in front is another thing we did for her. A picture of the baby with everyone's little bits of advice written in white ink on the purple paper. Isn't it sweet?

Baby M playing on the floor.

The guest of honor trying to act surprised (we got there a little late with our cameras, so she humoured us)

Opening gifts. Baby C really liked the first one, and it would probably fit her. She paraded around holding the hanger for all to see. :)

Again, congratulations Megan on your little sweet pea!

Project 365 and a Shower

So this weekend was a wedding shower for a good friend of mine. We had a ball!

Day 91 - August 30 (3 pics for you)
Here is a pic of the girls all decked out in their tissue wedding gowns. Beautiful aren't they?

And here is the bride cutting the cake! You are so pretty, girl!

And this is what the guys were doing while us girls were having a party... doesn't this pic remind you of a song? You know... "The Truck Got Stuck"... hahaha. Classic. I had to include.

Day 92 - August 31
Today's work... the yard. I mowed and the yard looks like a field with grass swaths in it. Sigh. I got out the rake and started getting rid of the worst of it. This is just one of 7 piles I made. The back yard there? That's the least 'bad looking', and I just left it. I have a monster of a yard!

It's been awhile

Yeah... I haven't posted in quite some time. Life has been busy lately.... Marin has her fussy time during the afternoon... the time I usually spend online, so lately I've been busy doing as much stuff as I need to during the naps she finally has. She sleeps well at night (6 hours now... so glad) which makes me feel so blessed.

My sister had a shower for me on Wednesday here at my house. It was incredible. The decorating her and my sis-in-law did was gorgeous, and they got a really nice cake too (one that had rolled fondant! I've never had a cake with rolled fondant! It was great). They even had favors... baby bottle candy and those candy necklaces. I took pics.

This cake is beautiful

Poor Marin... got hungry just as everything was starting.

The rocker in this pic is a family heirloom on dear hubby's side. His great grandpa's.

The poor cake... but boy did it taste good

Anyway, that's a few pics. It's amazing the things Marin got. I love the clothes, and my sis-in-law got her a little pink bible! It's sooo cute! Has a family tree inside that I should fill out. Never had mine filled out when I was little.

The other day I took my pics that I printed out, (including the baby announcements... a bit late, I know... should have printed them when I finished them but I didn't), and put them in the frames I've had here waiting for them. They look gorgeous. Now to put them up on the walls. Once I've done that I can check off another of my 101 in 1001. :) I also did a bunch of catching up on paperwork. Yippee! Now I want to go play some video games.

How many of you did something for halloween? We didn't. I had worship team practice in the evening and a farm meeting during the day. Otherwise... just did work and stuff. I washed all the new babyclothes and put them away. Lots of stuff from 3-6 months. I was told to make sure that I wash everything as it may shrink and fit her earlier. Such cute outfits... I cant wait to see her in them! :)

Anyway, that's all I'll post for now. I'm sleepy yet again. Sigh. :)

Weekend

What a weekend it has been. We went camping from Friday to Sunday and it was so nice. I love camping. We took over the site from Chuck's parents who were there Wednesday to Friday. It rained a lot on Friday, so we spent most of our time in the camper reading and just being together.

We went on lots of walks and bike rides. There is a ranch nearby for horseback riding that is really nice. We love to visit it whenever we camp here. We're thinking of actually going on one of their pack trails one time, it will just have to wait awhile since I can't go while pregnant.

Chuck took me on a date while we were here. He took me to the restaurant, I believe it's called Popeye's, and got pizza and popcorn chicken. We got one of the milkshakes from the ice cream corner around the corner and decided to try something different. Chocolate peanut butter ice cream, with mini chocolate peanut butter cups in it, mixed with chocolate milk and whipped cream on top. It was SOO good! We then went for a walk together and just talked about random things. It's so nice to go for walks again. We also played a game of checkers, and I had my very first raw cherry. Yeah, sounds silly, but I always hated cherries as the only ones I'd ever had were in pie, canned, Bing cherries in juice, candied... you get the idea. Raw cherries are pretty good!

Sunday was a wedding shower for Laurel. It was fun! There was one game where we, the group, got to see the questions Laurel's sister was going to ask her, and the answers her fiance had already given. If she said the same answer as he did, the one side of the room would toss her chocolate kisses. If she said something else, the side of the room I was on chucked lifesavers at her. It was hilarious! So much fun! I'd love to do that for another shower!

Anyway, today has been not so great for me. I woke up feeling sick to my stomach, and it's still not getting any better. Probably mostly heartburn... although I've never had it like this so I don't really know. All I wanted to do is sleep today, but I have so much to do. Then it started raining, which means my really long overgrown lawn (which only took a week to get to this state) will have to wait for cutting. Also, the roof in my workshop is leaking right by the door. I worked at it for 45minutes, trying to sop up the water and find some way to put containers down to catch it, but there is nowhere to put them as it's along the wall, right by the door between the house and workshop. If I want to stem the tide, I need to leave the door open, and then I hear the water, and worry the container will tip (because it's a sliding door, so NOT a flat surface). It splashes everywhere. The one box is soaked, the tools (thankfully not electric ones) are soaked, the floor had puddles I tried to sop up... it's a mess. I had a real good cry over it, not that it helped any, but it released the sadness and upset I've been feeling over a good many other things too, which I will not discuss. Anyway, it's slowed now that the rain has stopped, and we have a guy on the roof trying a quick fix as it's supposed to be a rainy week. Hopefully it will work. If not, well...

I am happy about one thing though. Chuck took down the doors and trim in the baby room, as well as the little bit of rug that remained in the closet. All I have to do is tape over my mural and it's ready for primer. I need to purchase it first however!

So, things are getting done, slowly but surely. Now I want to go take a nap.

Fun week

This last week has been crazy! Thursday was Julie's baby shower. I made the cookies I like to do for baby showers. Lil John was born March 30 at 7 lbs 14 oz. He's such a cutie. I didn't get a pic of him though... sigh. He was sleeping or feeding the whole time.

Here is a pic of Julie opening gifts. :)

Friday was Reuben and Esther's wedding social. It was lots of fun. I have to say though, that the silent auction is something I don't ever want to have to do again, lol. It was lots of work! Thankfully it did pretty well!

Here is a pic of me and dad... don't we look like a couple of cute preggers. I'm 4 months... not sure how far dad is...
And Reuben was thrown into the "slammer" along with his best man Marv. That was quite humerous. It went really well too!

Well, that was friday. Saturday we went to my friend Kathy and Terry's social at La Bar. That was fun too, but too much for one weekend I have to say. I was exhausted.

Yesturday I went to the thrift store and managed to get two pairs of maternity shorts for $1.50. We also took away all our recycling. Than I managed to clean the house and spring clean the entrance (which took longer than expected) as well as clean the inside windows. Then today I took the pressure washer to the house. I washed the front door (with my cloths... pressure washer not good enough for me, lol) and got the exterior windows clean for the east side of the house (the computer room, and the windows upstairs). Chuck did the pressure washing on the east side of the house on the second floor by standing on the roof... and cleaned the gutters which was VERY needed. I also cleaned the interior and exterior of the car (looks SO nice and clean now), and the outside of the truck too. I love that lil pressure washer! Then I worked on the farm books yet again, and am all caught up... once again, lol. I feel so proud of myself!

Anyway, I don't know what to do tomorrow... unless I start organizing the craft supplies to go into the workshop soon. Or work on pictures. Till later!