Birthday Bash

I love to make fun cakes for the kids.

I am even willing to stay up all night to finish a cake just to do it with out being bothered.

We have several birthdays in a row, with the craziness of summer life I decided to have one big birthday bash as opposed to one every other weekend.

Yesterday was the day.

We celebrated birthdays for Milo (8), Jason( 42), Riley(19) and bringing up the rear the "Princess" Lily (5).

It took 3 days to bake and sculpt and decorate these cakes, of course intertwind with work and motherly duties at home i.e. playing with kids, shopping (grocery), laundry.

A friend said that I should try using MMF (marshmellow fondant). I was a little hesitant. Last year when I made Lil's cake I bought some fondant to use it tasted nasty and was very difficult to use.

I logged on to the site my friend had told me about and learned how to use MMF. I searched many recipes. I came across a recipe called "Ultimate MMF, " I decided to try it.

It was easy and fun to make. After sucessfully making one batch, I even let my two little ones help knead the fondant on the next batch. Laughing and giggling ensued. We had powdered sugar every where. Not so much fun to clean up but well worth it. Just to wrap it up, I completed my project and cleaning the up the flurries of powder sugar and cornstarch up at 3:30 am Sunday.

I know I am crazy to put all that time and effort into a cake(s) that will be cut into and gobbled up that evening at 7pm. I love doing it and love making my childrens birthday a memorable one. From the oldest to the youngest my kids enjoy looking at pictures from previous years and sharing them with their friends.

cake of ' 06

Nothing inspiring for me to post about, so I have pulled a cake from the archives.

Here is a cake that I made for the "Birthday Boy" from the previous post.

Poor boy, I worked on his birthday this year and haven't even made him a cake.

I did give him a box of 36 Butterfinger candy bars though.

I am pretty sure that we are good.

So 4 years ago I made this cake for him.

Obviously I made the pattern from his T-shirt.

It is some type of "skater logo."



Ha-ha, the rambunctious boys in my family thought that I should have changed the " thumbs up" to another " unmentionable finger gesture."

What am I to do about them.

That's it, ode to 4 years ago.

Cake " Hoot Hoot"

For all those Pokemon' lovers out there.

I made this one June 2005 for Milo.

"BLUE" cake

Tommy 3 yrs!

This was so much fun to make.


Celebrating with Aunt Brooke again. Notice the "Steve" shirt, it was Tommy's favorite shirt. Oh, the memories, he is 13 now!

for ALL THE LITTLE GIRLS, and one BIG BOY ( July's cake)

Princess Lil' turned 4 today. She and her oldest brother are 14 yrs and 3days apart. So once again we had their celebration together.

Lil' is a girly girl through and through. She requested a princess cake, Dora cake, or Barbie. My Boy Mom friend said she had a cake pan you put a Barbie on. Don't ask me why a mother of all boys has a Barbie cake pan. Anyway it sounded fun. I never made it out there to pick it up, so I improvised, out of necessity of course, I hadn't planned my time very well.

A while back I said that maybe I'd try fondant sometime. This was the some time, and I most likely will never use it again, for the whole cake that is. It was very hard to use. Luckily I didn't have to make it, whew. I found already to use pure white and colored fondant at Walmart. When I purchased the fondant I thought this was going to be the easiest cake ever. Wrong! It rolled out very easily but also dried very quickly, and cracked a lot. I think I'll stick with the butter knife, white frosting and color gels.

At home we have a set of varied sized metal bowls. I chose to bake cakes in each one and stack them for the Barbie dress. I bought a $5 Barbie, washed the bottom half, wrap in saran wrap and stick her in the cake. Lil' wasn't quite sure she liked that. She was worried that she wouldn't get to have the Barbie, and was upset that I wouldn't let her play with it first. I didn't think it was a good idea to put a used Barbie in the cake. After promising her several times that she would indeed get to have the Barbie after blowing out the candles at party time she relented.

Our Barbie cake:

varied sized stack cakes ( funfetti, )

new Barbie

ready to use fondant ( apparently a prior knowledge of fondant use is helpful)

patience

Here she is.....

When I finally got the white layers of fondant on the cakes without too many visible cracks, Lil' , I and Riley's girl friend set to adding color. Maddie and Lil' had fun rolling little color balls while I attempted making a rose and vine applique.

Again rushing to finish before party time, plus I still needed to frost Riley's cake. Good thing I made a simple delicious chocolate cake, because the fondant tasted nasty.

Awe... I love them both so much!

Look how much Riley has grown. The cake below was another first.


Birthday fun!!

We bought Lil a Barbie bike. I must apologize to Michelle ( co worker). We purchased the exact same bike as your daughters. It was just too cute. Way better than the Hello Kitty bike. Plus you can't pass up the attachable Barbie bicycle for Barbie to ride. Gee, I remember having a plain blue bike with the old banana style seat. Kids sure are spoiled these days! I'll have no part of that!

Riley isn't spoiled either. We bought him a new cell phone. Of course we had to renew his 2yr agreement to get the discount of about $100. Also aren't boys always in need of new undies and socks.

He also got a family dome tent. Jay (dad) has always said that when the kids turn 18 they have to move out. Now he has something to live in, Ha!

No, we aren't kicking him out yet. He is still looking for a decent regular job. Maybe school this winter. I hope!

Cry for attention!

Grandma I. made Lil' the cutest dress and a matching one for her new dolly she had bought her. No spoiling here either.

Time to blow out the candles and eat the CHOCOLATE cake. My mom was the only one that dared to try the fondant.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Cake ( should of been posted in June)

Milo had a birthday in June, yes I know I am a little behind. He had all sorts of crazy ideas for his cake creation, he turned 7, I am sure you can imagine his ideas. I finally convinced him that a transformers insignia might be do able. Finding a suitable insignia I then made the pattern.

He was pretty excited. The sequel to the Transformers had been release on his birthday. Even the older boys thought it was gonna be cool! I could envision it, but held my breath. Hours later.....

Milo loved it! Me well... aren't we always critical of ourselves. I wished I hadn't run out of black icing gel, I under estimated the supplies. As usual I was decorating the darned thing right up til party time. Boy Mom over at Boys -r-Us suggested the edible glitter. She even had some to give me. It gave it the metallic hue.

Sometimes it is easy to please the children. Below are some pictures of Milo's birthday party with his friends. I am mean, I save the cool cakes for the family parties. His friends got pizza and otter pops.

Cakes "Pooh and Tigger"

February 21st!!

Our Tommy and his Aunt Brooke share the same birthday. I remember calling my sis and telling her I was sorry that I couldn't make to her 16th birthday celebration. This pic is two years down the road. These are the first sculptured cakes that I did. It was really fun. I hadn't planned on making the Tigger cake. When I found out that my mom didn't have a cake for my sis. I decided to make one for her too. I haven't made a birthday cake for her since. Maybe I ought to do that for her next year.

Cake

This is the first girly cake I ever made. This was for Lilys' first birthday.

If you can't tell it is a lady BUG, so I guess it isn't that girly after all except for the cute colors.

I like to make the frosting really with bright colors. My 13yr old son informed me the other day that the frosting turns his poo weird colors, just thought your might want to know. Beware, the colored animal and colored goldfish crackers as well. Hopefully I haven't ruined your appetite.

Cake(s) of the Month

Since St. Patricks Day is right around the corner, tomorrow.I decided to share with y'all two of the most green cakes that I have made.

This cake is probably the family favorite. I made this cake for Riley. At the time he was in love with chameleons. He has since move on to soccer and girls.

Sad to say, we even went through two pet chameleons. They are a very delicate reptile. So was this cake. So much fun to make though.

Went for something a little bit easier.

This fun little gem was made for Milo. Much like Riley he loves all animals, reptiles, and critters as we call them all.

Don't be afraid to try and sculpt a cake. After all it is just cake. If you mess up I am sure the kids will still eat it.

Just recently I browsed through the ACE of CAKES web site. A friend at work showed it to me. Wow, some real talent there.

My cakes are just frosting and occasional candies. I am thinking the fondant and gum paste stuff looks fun. Might investigate it before the summer birthdays roll around. I am a little nervous that if it works out well I might get hooked on it.

Remember to get up early and make green eggs, green pancakes, and green milk for your kids St. Patty's celebration.

pokemon cake

Tommy lighting his birthday cake ( 2/21/07). What is it, you say?

I crafted this from a tiny picture in a pokemon book. Tommy always puts a lot of thought into the cake he wants me to make. I usually have to decline several ideas before he presents one that I feel able to sculpt.

Scuplting is definitely what takes place.

Tommy was pleased ,as you can see.

CAKES

Our tradition. These pictures are almost 2yrs old.

When Riley was about 4yrs old I made my first crafty birthday cake. My cousin had been doing it for her kids so I thought I'd give it a try. Try it I did and I succeeded. It has become a fun tradition in our family to have creative birthday cakes.

I must admit I love making them. It often takes hours even days to create and make the cakes. I only have a few years archived on digital media, I hope to scan pictures of previous cakes and share them as well.

So for almost 14yrs I've been making cakes. As you can see when Lil' came along I had to scramble to make 2 cakes. Riley and Lil' are 14yrs and 3days apart.

Happy 16th Riley and a happy 2nd to Lil'. Riley has been great about sharing his birthday celebrations with his little sis.

I got the idea for Lil's birthday cake from an Elmo book that was previously given to her.