A "Totally Brilliant" Fireman Sam Birthday

Wow...it's been forever since I have blogged. What better way to get back to it than to post about RC's 3rd birthday! I had so much fun with his theme...Fireman Sam.  For those that don't know it is a British kids show. Aside from Veggie Tales, RC is obsessed with it

Anyway...back to the party!

I had a very limited budget for the party so I had to really become creative. Plus since it's a British show and isn't super popular in the States, Fireman Sam stuff isn't readily available here.

Let's start with the decorations. Since I decided to give it a try to have his party outside I didn't go crazy on decor. There was a Happy Birthday banner that was fire themed. The main thing I did was created a utensil holder out of a formula container and made it look like Jupiter the firetruck from the show.

I also painted a piece of cardboard to look like the front of Jupiter the firetruck and made it into a photo prop for the kids. I tried to get pictures of all the kids that came to the party in it.

Lastly I was able to print out and tape together a RC sized Fireman Sam for the front door.

Now for the food! I tried to think of ideas that would be something from the show. I came up with:

Match Sticks: Pretzel Sticks dipped in red candy melt chocolate

Fire Hydrants: Chocolate chip cookies (cut with a fire hydrant cutter)

Dilas' Dogs: Hot Dogs cut into 1/3's with a toothpick for serving

Bella's Pizzas: Ritz Cracker Pizzas (cracker, sauce, pepperoni, shredded cheese)




Activities included bean bag toss, fire buckets, and a find and seek game along with just letting the kids run around crazy.

Finally the cake...my masterpiece! I had fun with this one...well I have fun with all the cakes I make! This one was a blast as I knew RC would love it as it was shaped like Jupiter the firetruck! I used one half sheet cake to form the entire truck!

Happy 3rd Birthday RC! We look forward to many more years with you!

Veggie Tales Birthday - RC turns 2!

This year for RC's birthday I decided to go with his favorite thing..."uh uh" or rather Veggie Tales! RC LOVES Veggie Tales. Probably because it's the only show he actually gets to watch right now. How can one not like the biblical based veggies stories?

After searching the web for ideas, I found a few to put together his party. First I scored a costume from Lifeway for him to wear...but of course, he wouldn't wear it for the party. So instead he wore his Veggie Tales t-shirt. Which still worked out, but doesn't my little God's Super Hero look so cute?

The food I kept pretty simple. Mostly veggies and fruit and then some pizza. Only some of the food was themed toward the show like:

Pa Grape
Madame Blueberry
Laura Carrot
Cheese Curls (which thankfully did not come alive and try to eat us like in the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything show!)

The rest of the food were not from the shows, but were still yummy: strawberries, broccoli, pizza and of course cake!

The cake. My favorite part of getting ready for a birthday! I decided to be crazy and try another "mad hatter" cake. If you don't remember the fiasco I had back in October this style cake literally drove me mad! This time, I used a Groupon to score actually cake pans meant for this type of cake! So it came out much better.

Instead of making the Veggie Tale characters I decided to use some of the action figures RC would be getting as a present. They were perfect for the cake and made it much cheaper and less time consuming as well!

The decorations I kept pretty simple. For the table just plain colors to match bob the tomato and other characters from the show. I cut out larry the cucumber shaped pieces from green construction paper and spread them on the table. I used some of RC's Veggie Tale toys on the table too.

The rest were just prints I made on the computer, cut them out and glued to construction paper then hung on the window. For my two year old, it was enough. He was impressed and kept saying "cool" as he pointed to them.

It's hard to see in this picture but the bottom right is a big red poster board with Bob the Tomato drawn on it for pin the nose on Bob!

Bob and Larry balloon for the birthday boy's chair of honor for cake eating!

King George's Ducky Punch! Yummy!

Happy Family...sorta. Birthday boy wanted his cake already! LOL

Yummy! This year, he dug right into his cake. He even used his fork!

Pin the nose on Bob. RC actually nailed the nose in the right spot, but the prize went to one of his friends instead!

Coloring Veggie Tale sheets I downloaded from Veggie Tales website.

 
Present time. This year RC got the whole idea and tore into his gifts.

All in all it was a very successful 2nd birthday for RC. He had a lot of fun with his friends.

The Most Frustrating Cake EVER

Last week I was sent a Facebook message from the niece of a friend. She wanted a special cake for her daughters 15th birthday. I was asked to do this cake with only a little under a week to plan it, bake it and decorate. I looked at the cake and told her it could be difficult but I would give it a try.

Here is what she wanted.

This would be my first mad hatter cake. I decided to not wait until a few nights before to start this cake as the first run through, so for a dinner with some friends from church I baked a prototype! With this prototype, I had a few issues but all in all it came out decent. For time, I didn't do fondant work, just buttercream. Which I like more anyway!

I think the main issue with my prototype was that I needed just a bit more height on the top cake so that the proportions looked right.

After making the prototype and talking with my hubby about why I think the cake didn't come out right, he decided to let me go on a shopping spree for my birthday and buy what I needed. So taking what the tutorial I had been following was saying, I went and bought new pans.

Happy birthday to me!

So the day came around to make the new cake. I got started and baked my heart out. 

Friday came around which was the day to construct it and decorate it. It was probably the worst day of my life. Because things weren't going my way, no more pictures were taken until....

THE CAKE FELL OVER AND WAS DESTROYED!

This cake was by far the most frustrating cake ever. It's like from the time I started constructing it, it was telling me I wasn't supposed to be making this cake. You can see from the final picture that it looks nothing like the first picture. I had to forgo the fondant because it just wasn't working. I tried going just buttercream with my own design which was working until it fell.

The proportions were just all wrong. The tutorial I was using showed be a good one to following...it was not. The worst advice it gave was using cake pans that were an inch apart and using three different sizes per layer. That is the main reason this cake just collapsed on me.

I'm not even sure how many times I cried trying to get this cake to work out. I felt so bad for the lady that ordered it. Travis and I even drove out to a bakery to see if they had any cakes at all that we could buy and give to them so the girl would have a cake for her birthday. They didn't. I finally had to make the call to say the cake fell over and was destroyed. She was bummed, but decided to just go find a cake from one of the supermarkets.

This cake definitely was not the way to start off my own birthday either.

First Mad Hatter

The last couple of days I have been working on a "Mad Hatter" design. Also known as a topsy-turvy cake! I have an order for one this coming weekend so I figured I better practice! It definitely is an interesting cake design. So far it has taken A LOT of cake batter!

I read up on a tutorial on how to accomplish the cake. Unfortunately it wasn't so easy or rather it was just a bit more work for me. I didn't have the right cake pan sizes that were suggested, so I had to wing it & get creative with a knife! 

Bottom layer (Not too bad. Had mostly hard outsides to work with so it frosted up nicely.)

Top layer (looks horrible right now due to having to cut the cakes and not having a harder outside edge to work with)

 Let's just say, I need proper sizing for pans so that the cake will frost up easier! This is just a mess right now. I am hoping that it sitting in the fridge will make it easier to dirty ice then I can put it back in to harden for final icing!

I don't know how I managed it but somehow I salvaged it. This cake will definitely do better with fondant on it, but I wasn't going to tackle that today!

My top definitely needed to be a bit taller and the bottom a bit wider, but not too bad for the first attempt!

Quickly decorated so it wasn't so boring!

Top of the cake!

And the best part of making a cake!


ALL THE CAKE SCRAPS TO EAT!!!

Well besides the actual cake if you are the one getting to eat it!

All in all I think I would give myself around the 65% range on this cake. Of course I am also my hardest critique!

50th Anniversary Cake

 Recently I was asked to do a 50th Anniversary cake for a friends parents. I was very happy to do so as it gave me an excuse to make a cake and decorate it! I love making and decorating cakes. It's something different from my normal routine and let's me be creative! So here is what I put together.

The cake was a 12" round vanilla cake (and super yummy if I might add. I love eating the cake scraps!)

The filling is a delicious chocolate mousse (courtesy of  the "Cake Boss." It was his father's favorite mousse!)

The entire amount of mousse went into the middle of the cake!

It was decided to go with the rose design with a 50 on top!

The 50 part was a bit of an experiment. I outlined the area for the 50 and then filled roses around it. Then I filled the 50 with gold cake sparkles.

My friend's family members seemed to all decided they should be married within weeks of one another. So while they were getting together to celebrate their parents 50th, Jill surprised her other family members with cupcakes to celebrate the other anniversaries that would soon be taking place!

Best way to transport a cake!

I love baking, of course, and recently got my first paid cake order (outside of cupcakes)! Transporting cakes, especially in this heat can be a bit difficult, especially in our Focus. I have found a great method of transport though that helps keep the cake cool and covered.

My Thirty-One Large Thermal Container. Unfortunately this are a retired product, but just shows one way how Thirty-One products can be used outside of their original purpose!

Here are some pics of the cake and transporting it.

Large Thermal Container is perfect size for many of my cakes!

It's even great for grocery shopping, picnics, and more just like all the Thirty-One Thermals!