Minnie Mouse Zebra Party--The Sequel

I loved making my daughter's Minnie Mouse/zebra cake and party a few years ago, so when my sister-in-law wanted a similar party and cake for my niece for a first birthday, I was excited to get working on the cake.  She loved the cake I had made previously, but gave me permission to do what I wanted as long as it was similar. I kept some similar elements, but revamped the design a bit, and I loved the outcome (I think I love it better than the other cake).

The head was a lot easier to do this time--I used half of the Wilton sports ball pan for the cake, which I covered in my black chocolate marshmallow fondant.

I kneaded some gumtex into a piece of the chocolate fondant, rolled it out (not too thin), and cut 2 circles out of it for the ears. I used my circle cutter to then cut a small section out of each ear so it would fit along the curve of the minnie head. The ears dried stiff overnight and I glued them onto the head with a little clear vanilla extract.

A cute bow on top helps make it Minnie instead of Mickey :)

The pink and white polka dot ruffle is just a piece of pink fondant that was cut into a circle, then the edges were rolled a little to thin them out and make a ruffle appearance. After putting it on the cake I went around the cake and helped the ruffle out a little by doing a pie crust pinch carefully along the edges.

Miss Caroline was a big fan of the chocolate fondant. She went to town on that head.

And I had to throw in this picture of the birthday girl with her peeps.  My babe is the one on the right. Aren't those kiddos pinkalicious? Love them. Caroline's outfit was beyond darling. Nicky got it from Etsy.

First birthdays are the best! Even if the birthday girl doesn't remember it, at least we have pictures to show her later on :)

The Best Thing From the 80s Cake

My husband turned the big 30 this year. I racked my brain for awhile as to what kind of cake to make for him. It needed to be a good one for such a momentous birthday.  One day while we were sitting in the livingroom, one of our girls pulled out his old Rubix cube to play with.  Then it hit me--why not do an 80s cake--one that represented his childhood and birth into one of the best decades ever (I may be biased--I am a total 80s child too).

I pulled in 3 elements from the 80s into his cake--3 things that were a big part of his childhood--Smurfs, PacMan, and Rubix cubes (he is the fastest Rubix cube solver I have ever met).

The Rubix cube was rice krispy treats covered in black chocolate fondant while the PacMan layer was a yellow cake filled with pineapple filling, resulting in a yummy pina colada-ish flavor (his personal favorite).

I molded the smurf out of some blue and white fondant/gumtex mixture and made him hold the candle on top. Isn't he cute? For being the first smurf I've ever tried to make, I think he turned out pretty good.

The best part of this whole thing is that my hubby had no idea that I was making him a cake. It was a total surprise.  I diligently worked on different parts of it every naptime for a week (molding the smurf, making the rubix cube squares, the Pac Man elements, etc.) since I couldn't work on it at all after kids went to bed at night since he would be home and see it.  Because of that I didn't get finished all the elements that I had hoped to put on there (an MTV emblem, Ghostbusters logo, Thriller cassette tape, etc.), but I still love how the cake turned out, and I loved seeing his expression when he saw his cake for the first time.

I made a little card to go with it--I looked up "80s slang" on google so I could use some of those words on the card. If you come from the 80s and need a good laugh, google that and read the different slang terms.  I was totally cracking up, mainly because I totally remember saying a bunch of them, and some I still do (like "totally"--just look at my previous sentence--and "dude"). Anyways, the card was kind of lame, but I still had fun writing it and watching him read it:

We had a fun time celebrating the big 30 with my wonderful and amazing husband. He is the the best thing that came from 80s!

She's About to Pop Baby Shower

This summer my very good friend Annie was, well can I say, about to pop! I was so excited to throw her a baby shower to celebrate the upcoming arrival of baby Maylie.

As you can guess, everything revolved around the word "Pop." I used paper plates stuck on the wall to look like bubbles everywhere (thanks Emily and Casie for the idea!), and hung some Chinese lantern bubbles from the ceiling.

The food was so much fun to do.  Fruit "Pops", Cake "Pops", Spinach Salad with "Pop"pyseed Dressing, and "Pop"pyseed Sliders were on the menu.

There was also lemonade "Pop" to drink.

My favorite part, though, was the "Pop"corn buffet, with 3 kinds of Popcorn:

S'more Caramel Popcorn, Cinnamon Cookie Crunch Popcorn, and Spicy Cheese Popcorn.

I have to admit that I was pretty excited to find another use for this cute little chair that we got for our daughters' bedroom.  It fit in perfectly with the decor, so we used it and the little green table as our present area.

The cute momma. She got some cute girly things and we all had a wonderful time laughing, talking, and oohhhing and aahhing over cute little clothes. I did make the ladies play one game--I just had to, it went with the "pop" theme.  They each had to blow up a balloon the size they thought Annie's stomach was, then model it for us under their shirt. Whoever looked the same size as Annie won a prize (a ring "pop"). I have great pictures of it, but I know that they would kill me if I posted them on my blog :) so I'll let you imagine a room full of pregnant looking women.

And just one final thing for each of the ladies as they left--a small bottle of bubbles with the sign, "Thanks for Popping by." It was a big hit with the little kids that came along to the shower with their moms.

Love this lady. So glad we could have this fun day for her. (By the way, her baby is DARLING! What a little doll!)

BYU birthday/graduation cake

The Midwest--it has been an adventure our first year here--huddled in our basement bathroom during numerous tornado warnings, trying to drive in white-out conditions during blizzards, or shoveling snow All. Day. Long.  Now don't get me wrong, there have been wonderful, amazing things too living here--sitting outside just after dark and watching the fireflies twinkling through the sky, or watching the numerous corn fields go from muddy nothingness to acres and acres of gigantic corn stalks overnight (well, maybe not overnight, but it grows fast).  The people here are truly friendly--a place where everybody actually does know your name.  Yes, we know our neighbors and talk on a very frequent basis.  Hah, that didn't happen back in Las Vegas.  

One more thing I have learned in the past couple of months from living here--midwesterners take their grad parties pretty seriously.  It is a BIG DEAL.  I think back to when I graduated high school--we had a graduation party the school threw, but I sure didn't have my own grad party, nor did any of my friends.  I was a little surprised when I found out my nephew in Minnesota was having a grad party, and I was flat out shocked when he told me he had invited 250 people.  What!  I don't think I even knew 250 people as a senior in high school.  We were driving up from Iowa to Minnesota for his party and he asked me to make a cake for it.  Now it wasn't just a grad cake, it was also a birthday cake since my dear nephew's party was on his 18th birthday.  So what kind of cake do you do for this?  Well, Jacob (aka my dear nephew), knew exactly what he wanted.  Really.  Exactly.  He even sketched the whole thing out for me with every last detail.  Here's the picture to prove it:

You've got to know my nephew, he has always been the one to ask me cake questions whenever we are around, or want to watch me make cakes.  Maybe that is why he is one of my favorites--we bond over cake.  Well, this made my job easy.  I just had to replicate his drawing to the T, or Y--there were Ys everywhere.  It was a BYU themed cake--that is where he is off to for college and his favorite college team.

I started by baking 8 8x8 square cakes...it was a lot of baking.  That was the day I was kicking myself for only owning 1 8x8 pan.  Having another one would have made things go so much quicker.

Then the layers were stacked and filled to make a 16x16 square.  

A lot of blue fondant and several hand-cut Ys later and you get...

Just like he wanted.  I finished it just in time to carefully pack it, my 3 girls, husband, and all of our stuff in our van and drive 6 hours to Minnesota.  It made it in one piece without any damage (Whew!).

My sister-in-law had just the place for it at the party (an please ignore the ugly board it is on--my nephew called me 3 days before I was leaving for Minnesota and asked me to make the cake.  Between making the cake and taking care of 3 kids age 4 and younger, I just didn't have time to come up with something better). 

This was my favorite stop of the night:

 The chocolate fountain.  Mmmm, mmmm, good.  Especially those chocolate dipped cinnamon bears.  Not quite as good as those we would by at the BYU bookstore during college, but a descent second place. Remind me to tell Jacob to mail me some of those when he is off at the Y for college.

 OK, dessert wasn't the only yummy thing at his party.  My brother grilled up some killer beef and chicken kabobs, while Jacob's raspberry lemonade with fresh basil was super delicious.

We just had to do the whole sing and candles thing.  Isn't my nephew cute?! That's my dad in the immediate background.  He's the best dad in the world.  Then there is my brother Dave in the far background, with camera...and the apron.  Lookin' good, Dave.

I just had to sneak in a few pictures of my crew for you guys.  This is my hubby.  Isn't he cute?!  He was a HUGE help this weekend helping get things ready for this party.  He's holding Princess #3 in his arms.  She was only 5 weeks old in this picture.  Tomorrow she turns 4 months.  Sniffle, sniffle, she's growing up too fast. (And don't you love the lake in the background?  I'm slightly jealous that my brother has this in his backyard).

Princess #1 could be found most of the evening out by the fire pit making s'more after s'more after s'more...

 And then there is Princess #2 who sure did enjoy those s'mores that her sister made.

And last me and the graduating guy.  Super fun weekend.  Glad the cake made it to Minnesota in one piece!

Here Comes the Bride

Here is a little wedding cake I did the beginning of June (I'm still adjusting to having 3 kids and my blogging has suffered!  Sorry this is almost 2 months late!).  This was a real treat to do--I love doing wedding cakes--creating a cake for such a special and elegant occasion.  

The bride's mother sent me a picture of what her daughter wanted.  There were times while I was decorating that I wanted to add some edible pearls here or some luster dust there, but my husband kindly reminded me that I should do it how the bride wanted it, so I held back on the bedazzling (ooh, but it was hard to restrain myself!).

The bride loved the cake, so that made it a total success.  I am so glad I got this opportunity to be a part of this wonderful couple's special day.  Thank you Dawson family!

Relief Society Birthday Cupcake Buffet

Back in March I was asked to do a cupcake buffet for our church's Relief Society Birthday activity (I know--back in March--I am a little behind, but the good news is our new addition made it here safe and sound and we are "tickled pink" the 3rd time around--3 girls now to teach cake decorating to :)  I saw an idea on Pinterest for a balloon and streamers backdrop that I knew would be perfect for the event, and I wanted 5 different flavors of cupcakes to go along with the 5 colors of balloons.

In the end I came up with these 5 flavors for the event:

• Pink = A Pink Lemonade cupcake with whipped cream frosting, filled with raspberry cake filling, and garnished with one raspberry.
• Orange = An Orange Poppyseed cupcake with cream cheese frosting, filled with sweet orange curd, and garnished with an orange slice.
• Yellow = Pina Colada cupcake with coconut flavored whipped cream, and garnished with a pineapple slice
• Green = Mint Chocolate cupcake with mint buttercream icing, filled with mint chocolate ganache, and garnished with an Andes Mint.
• Blue = Rootbeer Float cupcake topped with rootbeer buttercream icing, and garnished with crushed up rootbeer candy and a straw.

My friend Shersten had the task to do all the decorating, so she took the idea I gave her from Pinterest, and did an amazing job creating this beautiful backdrop for the cupcakes as well as another similar backdrop for all the dinner food that we also had.

I found these chevron liners in all the colors from The Bakers Confections on Etsy and just had to get them for the event.  They went perfectly with the chevron paper I found at Hobby Lobby for the flavor card for each type of cupcake.  They were a good quality liner too--I had no issue with the chocolate or rootbeer cupcake showing through the liners and masking the color of the chevron print. And don't the Andes Mint cupcakes look divine?!  I have to say they are my favorite (I am always partial to mint chocolate over everything).

The cupcakes were a hit at the event.  Everyone started cutting them in half and sharing with friends so they could try all the flavors.  All were thoroughly enjoyed, but the Pina Colada cupcake seemed to be the favorite flavor to most people.  

Shersten also did the decorations for the tables, having cutely wrapped presents on each one (I am having her do all my wrapping from now on--look how perfect her wrapping job is!)  Who would have guessed that underneath all the wrapping paper are boxes and boxes of her food storage--hah, putting it to good use :)

 It was a fun evening with food, games, and wonderful company.  The women in my ward are so fantastic, and I loved getting to know each of them better that evening and sharing with them a little part of who I am with the cupcake buffet.