2013 Fondant Cakes!!

Since our first Easter Cake was such a success we have been making cakes for every birthday since!
Bradley's First Birthday Cake:

He LOVES cars so I knew I wanted to make him a car themed cake. I had this idea of making the road wrap around from the bottom layer to the top, it came out like I have planned! :) Then I did the bottom checkered to look like the racing checkered flags. I attempted to make the grassy hills look textured, it's hard to tell but they have a zig zag imprint on them.

 

Bradley LOVED his birthday cake!! (and at 1, you can't fake happiness! every smile is a genuine!)

 

 



 All the kids with the Birthday Boy!!

 

 

Yummy Cake!!

 

A few days later was my husbands 28th Birthday, He had drill the weekend of his birthday so I thought I would make him a Navy Cake. I feel like I went way too simple with this one, but finding time to make a cake with 4 kids home is hard! So this is what it turned out as:

Next time I make any type of hat I will use a rounded mold, but the sailor hat still came out pretty good!

Happy Birthday James!! ♥

Helping Daddy blow out the candles! lol

Zackary wanted to dump Dads head in his cake!! Daddy was a good sport!

Next we had Zackary's 8th Birthday!! He LOVES Skylanders!! He asked for a Skylander cake so I started to invision what I could do! I knew I had to have the 'portal on top and I knew I needed to incorporate the element symbols onto it also.
This is my first 3 layer cake also! Here it is, I finished it just minutes before his party started!!

Still being a newbie at this cake stuff, but I think it came out great!!

 

My lil stud with his birthday cake!

 

Haylee's Birthday Cake!!  Of course she wanted a Hello Kitty Cake!

 

My Birthday girl with her cake!

Blew out her candle in style!

 

In August I made a 'cowgirl' cake for my friend Megan! I brought it to school for her and everyone love it!

 fondant cow print on the bottom and paisley print on the to

 

 

 

MY BIRTHDAY!!

Personally, I don't like the taste/texture of fondant so I wanted a buttercream frosting cake. My husband made this one for me: (yes, my husband can also make cakes!)

 

This was his first time doing piping.

 

He was pretty proud of himself! haha, I am too!! :)

 

The girls picked out the butterflies for the cake!

My friend Heather asked me to show her how to make fondant. She was hosting a BBQ for a friends birthday and wanted to make her a boise state football cake also. This is the cake she made: (I think Im a pretty good teacher cuz it looks really good!) lol

These cupcakes are amazing!! Chocolate Cupcake with Peanut butter Frosting and shaved dark chocolate! The frosting is just 1 cup peanut butter mixed into a homemade buttercream frosting.

 

 

 

 

I offered to make a birthday cake for my friend Kelly's daughter. She was having a Minnie Mouse themed party so I made little Gemma this cake. I definitely need work on bows...

And then it was my baby girl Audrey's Birthday!! She is 5 and wanted to have a littlest pet shop themed party!

 

So Im pretty sure this is my best cake yet! It cake out so cute!!

 

 

 

 



 

Easter Fondant Cake

I decided I wanted to make a fun Easter Cake! So instead of spending my usual lazy Sunday afternoon relaxing after church I dove head in to the beautiful world of fondant cakes!

I scanned through pinterest to find a fondant recipe and went with this one: http://mycrazyblessedlife.com/2012/06/08/homemade-fondant/ It had simple directions and pictures for a newbie like me. I had always heard people talk about how difficult it was to make fondant so I expected it to be very hard. I was amazed to find out how simple it was! Of course, you can buy it, but that stuff is nasty due to lots of preservatives and expensive! I love homemade marshmallow fondant! It is like playdoh for adults! The possibilities of what you can do and make with it are endless!

A few tips:
1.) I have found that the store brand of marshmallows actually work better for making fondant than the Jet Puff brand. In my opinion, it seems to be more pliable and stretchable.
2.) Don't put it in the fridge. It's easier to work with right away. Keep the amount you are not using in an airtight container or zip loc bag and if you have to refrigerate it, you can, just try to get it worked into room temp before using it.
3.) Read the tips in the fondant recipe link! Do use Crisco and dusted flour in the pans and definitely use Crisco all over the counter and your hands when handing the fondant!

I was ready to roll out the fondant for the Easter Cake but my husband insisted on doing this part. I thought for sure there was no way he could do it, to my surprise his teenage days of working in a pizza place were very useful in working with the fondant! He rolled it out and got it on the cake like a pro! I cut off the extra fondant and we were pretty proud of ourselves for just getting the cakes covered!

James rolling it out

Cutting off the extra fondant

 

 

We loved how it came out! And I loved that it was something James and I did together. ♥





  

Backyard Basics

Along with my dream of buying a house came the dream of what I imagined our backyard to look like and what it would have. My dream started along time ago...

 

As a kid we visited Utah a few times and it seemed like every backyard had a trampoline, at least the family members that we visited. I thought that was so awesome! In fact when we returned home from one of our vacations my parents bought one for us. We spent hours on end jumping on it, playing games on it or just laying on it. Then when we became teenagers we would set up a tent on it and have sleepovers. It was so much fun! I knew when I was a kid that I just had to have a trampoline in my own backyard one day.

I cant remember whether my parents bought the trampoline or swing set first but I do remember that my family set off to look at some dinosaur museum but ended up at a swing set location where my parents bought a swing set for our backyard. I think it was around Christmas time because I remember my mom referring to the men that built it as elfs. We anxiously waited for them to build it that day, we were so excited! My siblings and I loved this swing set! It was a great investment because it got lots and lots of play and made for awesome childhood memories. Almost 20 years later my parents still have it and my kids have all played on it as well. Buying a swing set, that was another thing I knew I wanted to buy for my kids one day.

I really appreciate having a fun backyard as a kid! It made me want to create that same experience for my children. So that's where my dream backyard stems from. A trampoline and swing set have always been a must in my mind!

So last week James and I went to Toy's R Us to buy a trampoline for the kids, just a trampoline. We planned to buy one thing at a time, but of course there happened to be an awesome sale on an amazing swing set! So we ended up buying both a swing set and a trampoline!

We only had our van but James was determined to get everything to fit! The Toy's r us employees thought there was no way we could fit 4 big swing set boxes, a 10 foot slide and a trampoline in our van, Note: Never tell my husband he can't do something, because he will work even harder just to prove you wrong! (Not that that's a bad thing, it's obviously come in handy at times) So, we pulled out a seat, pulled a seat up, folded the back row down and everything fit!! The slide was tied to the top.

Who needs a truck when you have mini van!

James and I were so excited to show the kids! They didn't know we were buying them! We had been talking about it and saying we might buy one when it starts to warm up outside so they knew a little, but not that we buying one that day. So we rushed home to get started to get as much done as possible before they came home from school.

We only got the trampoline together that day. They loved it! They bounced on it for hours while our dog, Sadie, ran underneath it chasing them.

 

The swing set, yeah that took about 2 1/2 days to build! James built it all by himself, we had arranged to have help on the weekend but that was 4 days away and James was determined to get it built by himself.  The first day we spent a few hours just separating all the pieces by number and letters. The second day James started first thing in the morning and built all day long! The next day he finished it up. It came out perfect! The kids love it so much!! Those hours of enjoyment and fun childhood memories I wanted for my own children have already begun!!