Strawberry Shortcake

This week my sweet little niece has turned 5 years old and it is hard to believe she is growing up so quickly.  She was born a tiny 4lbs 12oz little peanut and I was honored 5 years ago to be there when she was born and when she took her first breath.  

This weekend we celebrated her birthday and in true girly spirit she picked a strawberry shortcake theme for her birthday.  When I was asked to make her a cake how could I possibly say no.  With three boys it is not very often that I get to do a fun girly cake. 

She was super excited about her cake and kept telling everyone that her auntie was going to make her strawberry shortcake cake for her birthday.  I am so glad to be part of her special day. 

Football Cake

Our First season of football has come to an end, it is a little bitter sweet.  Keegan had such a good time and can't wait until next season to play again.  But I am also loving not sitting at practice for an 1 1/2 hours three nights a week and then spending every Saturday doing games for 3 hours.

 My Little man at one of his last games of the season, tough little guys for sticking it out through the cold weather.           

For the teams year end party I offered to make their cake and if you have followed me you know I like to challenge myself on each cake I make and this was no exception, in fact there was a point that I figured it might just look like a big blob.

I picked up this casserole dish as it was the closest to the shape I needed.  It actually worked out perfectly as it ended up being the same size as an actual football.

I baked three cakes and stacked them on top of each other with butter cream icing in between.  Then the tricky part, shaping the cake.  I used a real football as my guide, crossed my fingers and started to cut it out.  Once I had the shape I was looking for I gave it a thin layer of butter cream and set aside to let it harden.  

Once I got a layer of brown butter cream on the cake it finally was starting to look like a football.  There was a major sign of relief.

 I made the white part with fondant to get the look I wanted and then added a little green butter cream to the bottom of the cake. 

You know it is a hit when everyone at the party says they thought it was a real football and looks too good to eat. We had a great party and can't wait until next year. 

Mellow Yellow Birthday Party Cake

This week was my sister in-law Lisa's birthday and my brother wanted to do up a little surprise get together. So he called in the troops to help him get ready for the day.  Of course I was more than happy to help out with the decorations and the cake, two of my favorite things to do.  

I wanted to go with Yellow, Grey & White for colors, so for
the banner I picked a grey fabric and a yellow ribbon. 

I found this triangle template over at Lovely Traub Life and simply cut them out and then sewed the edges.  I used my heat transfer vinyl for the lettering and then sewed the ribbon on top.  I love the look of the pendent banners. 

I wish I had taken some pictures of all the flowers that I had picked up, I think we had about 8 or 9 vases full of beautiful flowers.

Of course you can't have a birthday party without a cake. So going with the flower/garden theme I made these funky flower pot cakes. 

My mom had this pot that she thought would work perfectly.

I baked the cakes in here and then filled the center hole with a butter cream/cake mix. 

This was before putting all the finishing touches and fondant flowers on the cake, I know not so pretty yet.

After putting on all the flowers and leaves it sure came to life.  The difficult part for me is always to transporting, I kinda cross my fingers and hope it makes it there in one piece, lol.

Did anyone else help to celebrate a birthday this weekend?

A Birthday Celebration

Good Monday Morning Everyone.

I hope you all had as good of a weekend as I did.  This weekend my youngest son turned 3 years old.  Each birthday I ask the kids what kind of a cake do you want and then run from there with their theme.  He told me he wanted a flower cake.  So not wanting to make a cake to girly I decided to combine that with one of his favorite things BUGS.  

I made this tree stump cake which was actually pretty easy to make.  I used a chocolate butter cream for the outside of the tree stump to give it a darker chocolate brown, this worked out perfect because this type of butter cream has a thicker consistency and was easy to make rough.  Makai helped me with this part we just used the back of a fork and pulled the icing until we got the look we wanted. 

For the top of the cake I used a regular butter cream icing in two colors that I piped on and then spread out with a knife.

The rest of the figures were made out of fondant, my favorite had to be the little mushrooms and the ladybugs. 

I would have to say my favorite part of making cakes is when the kids get up the next morning and the first thing they have to do is go and look at the finished cake and the excitement on their faces makes it all worth the while. 

Birthday Season In Full Effect

Ahh Birthday season in this house is fast and furious.  By the end of the third one it all feels a little bit like a whirlwind.  Well 2 out of 3 have come and gone and we had a fantastic time.  

I still can't believe that my oldest son is 8 years old.  How crazy is that!!!  It seems like it was just yesterday that our lives changed and our little family had began.  

I told Keegan you pick whatever kind of cake you want and I will make it so he decided a monster truck cake was his pick.  

 Thanks to Jessicas Cake Blog for the tips on how to create this.  

 The truck is made out of Rice Krispie and carved in the shape of a truck  

There was a point when I was making this one that I thought he might just get a tire, lol.  

This year Keegan decided he wanted to go rock climbing so we had 6 boys and one little peanut that gave it a shot and they all did such a good job. 

 This was Chase's first time climbing and this guy certainly has no fear.  Right to the top on the first go.

Even though Makai was too little to get harnessed and climb to the top he wasn't going to let that stop him.  I think he is ready for the big leagues. 

I love giving personalized water bottles for favors, it is something that the kids will use and since and isn't a throw away favor. 

My kids favorite Birthday favor is the personalized t-shirts.  For this party we used a rock climbing image and their names.

They come so far in such a short time. 

Karate Party

Another Birthday party has come and gone and my little man had a great day.  This year we decided to have his party at our local Karate studio where both of my boys attend and the kids had a blast.  

As I posted earlier we started off the event with these Karate inviations.

For me when decorating a party it is all about the details.  I love coming up with a different idea for the favor bags, something the kids can use.  This year I decided on doing up some t-shirts with a Karate guy on them and their names.  

Then sticking with the theme I put them along with a few candies into these take-out boxes. 

Of course my favorite part is the cake.  I had big plans for this cake and then reality set in and I realized that what I wanted just wasn't going to happen.  Really reality was my 3D figure falling apart three times and me throwing them in the garbage, lol. 

So I kept it a little more simple.

I used a white buttercream icing as my base and then used red fondant to make the belt.  My son is a Red belt so wanted it to be the same color. 

 I used fondant to create the ying yang symbol on the top.

 For the Shurikens I borrowed my sons real ones to trace out the gum paste with and then copied the symbols off of them.  Once they were all dried I pressed them into the cake to make them look like they were thrown at it. 

 Here is my little man doing some Karate games and wearing his new shirt.  

Another party down and another one on it's way in two weeks.  I had better get going on planning the next one.