CSI Dining In Cake

AAAGH!!! A dead head cake!!

Well, once a year the ladies on the base hold a dinner. Each year there is a different theme. This year it was the Emmys. I was asked to make cakes for several tables, and CSI was one of them. My favorite show! And my favorite kind of cake, something I could totally go wild on and get nutty.

I must admit, it's pretty disgusting looking. But totally fun to make.

The bottom cake is chocolate,covered with chocolate icing and then covered over with chocolate cake crumbs. The head/skull is red velvet cake covered in buttercream and fondant. The other embellishments are made from fondant and painted with icing dyes. At the venue we mixed up some Karo syrup and red food dye and drizzled it in some cracks of the cake to make it ooze. Not technically accurate though, since a skull in this level of decomp would probably not have any red blood near it. Yum.

There was actually a little kid there when I was dropping the cake off who was both fascinated and horrified by the cake. I overheard his mom telling him "Just don't look at it, turn away..."

MWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

Titans Cake

This is my first ever drop star cake.

The recipient wanted all frosting, no fondant.

Gah!

This was the only solution I could come up with. My hand is really not steady enough to handle piping the sharp edges this cake would require. I figured with drop stars I had a little bit of wiggle room.

And HELLO! only two of the hardest frosting colors to make, red and a navy blue! My tongue was purple from sampling frosting to make sure it still tasted good.

It's not too bad I guess, it looks pretty much like what it should. A little bumpy-ish in some parts, I need a bit more eveness for the stars I guess.

Carving it was a little hard, especially on the tips of the flames. Those were pretty wobbly and fragile until they had some frosting holding them up. And you can see I had some star issues.

This is a triple chocolate cake with a chocolate frosted center layer and buttercream frosting.

I also found this great contact paper to cover my cake boards in a local store. It's resistant to the oils in the cakes and frosting, and helps to reinforce the cake boards a little better. It comes in lots of different colors, so I hope to be able to use it alot in the future.

Littlest Pet Shop Cupcakes

This is one of the first trays of fondant covered themed cupcakes I made.

I asked the birthday girl for one of her favorite pets and based the character's look off of that. There was of course on attempt of making a standing pet, but with a head that big, it was a failure before it even began.

Pawprints decorated the cupcakes that did not have any letters on them.

The birthday girl and her special cupcake.

These were a mix of white and chocolate cupcakes with buttercream and fondant frostings.

My weekend

I needed craft therapy this weekend in the worst way.

First up was our entry way.

I'm not sure about most German homes, but in the majority of the ones I've been in you usually enter on the ground floor, and there is an upstairs, and a basement. In our house we enter on the ground floor which contains bedrooms and a small office, the living room, and kitchen are on the second floor, and there is an attic bedroom on the third floor.

The Kid has taken to coming in and dumping all her stuff right on the floor in front of our bedroom door. Being the neat freak that I am I used to just kick it into a pile on the side. Well, that's not going to really work for the long term. Besides if someone ever comes over, that is the first thing they see when they come in the door.

Well, we have these small wooden benches I found at a yard sale back in MD that The Husband HATES, hates them with a passion. He tried to hide them from the movers when we were packing out of our last home.

Yeah, I covered on of those bad boys with a simple quilted pad.

Now The Kid has a place to put her backpack and jacket, and her shoes are all out where she can see them and get to them easily.

Yay! Craft therapy 50% complete.

Next I made some shoe bags for my BFF who travels alot for work. Also, her birthday passed recently and I was out of ideas on what to make her. Hopefully she can use these.

I found illustrations of different kinds of shoes online and made freezer paper stencils of them to put on each bag.

Heels.

Sandals.

Sneakers.

Boots.

I used heavy weight Therm-o-bond to stick them onto the bags, and then stitched some rick-rack around the edges to cute it up. Except the boot bag, I didn't think that one needed it.

Aaaaahhhhh....Craft therapy, almost better than a couple of Margaritas.

La Mer

The Kid's summer school program has been studying the ocean and all it's inhabitants. For a week she was going on and on about giant squids and whales. Which, of course I think is fantastic.

Well, sadly Friday was their last day of school for the summer term.

Boo-Hoo me...

So of course we must celebrate with some Cupcakes de La Mer!


I have NO idea how many tentacles a squid has.

Distractions

It might not be too obvious from my banner and blog name, but I like cherries. I just think they're cute and fun, and totally age apropriate for me.

Anyway, I've been collecting cherry fabric for several years now, and I've built up a little stash. A stash I've been meaning to make something with for some time now. Well, inspiration hit the other day when I was browsing Ebay and came across a vintage Star Wars sheet. What a perfect backing to a quilt! I can combine two things I love into one projet!!

There are so many other things I should be doing right now...

But the cherries are calling me.

This is going to be one busy quilt!

Thank you cupcakes

Since moving to Germany I have developed a series of medical conditions. This requires me to go to our local German hospital at least once a week, sometimes more, to have blood work done.

Fun times, I know.

Anyway, the Doctor's office staff and the phlebotomists are so nice and helpful.

So, thank you cupcakes!

Oh yeah, and these are chocolate fudge cakes with buttercream frosting and fondant decorations.

Cozys

In a very short time I seeme to have aquired some (to me) serious technological hardware.

I also received some new fabric I orderd from Ebay. Seller Quilt Taffy is awesome, they ship to APO addresses, and are always very helpful and quick. And they have a great selection of fabrics.

Anyhoodles. I had a free afternoon and have been feeling a need to do some crafting, sewing, something other than cakes.

The Husband gave me a Sony Reader for Christmas last year, and I love it. What I dont really care for is the cover it came with. I prefer to hold it in one hand without the cover on it. Think Jean-Luc Picard. Husband has always complained that without the cover it will get damaged in my purse. Well, problem solved!

If I had actually planned ahead I probably would have tried to make the pattern line up a little bit better. Who am I kidding, that takes way too much thinking.

HE is still concerned that this will not protect it well enough. He is probably right, but I did line it and put some quilting batting in there to pad it a little bit.

Then my new baby! I just got an iTouch as an early birthday present. You gotta swoop in and buy stuff when it's in stock here, you never know the next time you'll see it. I've been saving for this since the last time I saw the 8G size in the BX, about 4 months ago.

Of course, it needs a cute little cozy for protection!


Look at that! My wallpaper looks like pot!

This is the first time I've made an iTouch cozy when I've actually had the iTouch on hand. And of course this is the one I've had the hardest time with. I think I had to remake the holder part about 3 times. Maybe the other two people I've made cozys for will send me pictures of theirs. (hint-hint)

Promotions

We have a good friend who was recently promoted, and I was asked to make the cakes for his after party.

First I made a traditionally decorated cake. Kind of plain, chocolate cake frosted in buttercream.

The second cake was a little more personal to the promotee. He has a habit of greeting everyone by yelling "WHAT'S UP CLOWN?!?!". I think The Husband actually yelled "Way to go CLOWN!" at the promotion ceremony. Anyway, I made a clown cake for him.

It's wearing boxing gloves because he also threatens to "fight" everyone.

This cake is rainbow, covered in buttercream and fondant. I had a little trouble with the fondant on this one (as usual) and ended up having to cover several trouble spots with the stars.

I also created some chocolate coins for him to give out at his ceremony. Many high ranking military members have personally minted challenge coins that they give out. Chances are our peer group will be unlikely to have coins of their own, but a promotion of this level is still a significant milestone in an Air Force career. Why not have a coin for this event? I made some of these for The Husband when he promoted as well.

I dont have a picture of it, but I took an old Crown Royal bag and altered it to say "Clown Royal", and put the coins in it for him to hand out.

It's great to have a theme to go with.

Star Wars birthday

You know how the saying goes that a doctor makes the worst patient? Well I think there should be one that goes a baker's child gets the worst cakes. Well, my child anyway.

She was happy with it so I guess all is well.

My daughter had a Star Wars themed birthday party this year, and she left the cake making up to me. At first I was going to make a R2-D2 cake (I may attempt this one for the Star Wars convention held on base in October), but the humidity put me off of that idea. Nothing worse than a melting R2.

So I scoured the internets for ideas, and came up with a lightsaber cake. Seems pretty easy right? AAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

Well, I used Rice Crispy treats for the first time, and made the actual lightsaber out of that, and covered it in fondant.

Yeah, the adults at the party had lots of fun ribbing me about the **ahem** "Size of my Schwartz".


The cake portion was made up of three 9"X13" cakes halved and stacked, and then laid end to end. They were all "rainbow" cakes frosted with buttercream icing. The Daughter does not care for fondant.

Hoops & Yoyo

I had a few cupcakes leftover from another order and decided to decorate them with Hoops & Yoyo for the school nurse.

I even found Hoops & Yoyo cupcake cups!

Too cute!

ARRRR...thar be PIRATES!

One of the classes at the intermediate school held a pirate themed party this year. I'm not too sure why, but there you go.

I took a rectangle white cake and carved it to make the beach, and then used my soccer ball cake pan and baked a chocolate cake which I carved into the hill, and the small island off the back of the beach. I'm not sure if you can see it in any of the pictures.

The figures are made out of colored fondant, and have wire armatures to help them stand upright. There were balance issues even with the comically oversized feet I gave them, so they were propped up with toothpicks from the back. I was not that happy with that, but what can you do?


For the decorations at the top of the hill I made some skulls and bones from fondant and painted in the details with frosting dye. Those cannon balls are Whoppers. And of course I had to go out and buy some cocktail swords.

Other than those few fondant decorations, the cake is frosted with colored buttercream. I dug a little hole in the beach and shoved some gold wrapped Rollos candy into it to create a treasure cache for the guys to fight over. I even frosted the cake board to look a little like to ocean to give it a more finished look. The chocolate coins scattered around are actually locally purchased, so they are Euro coins.

Bye Bye Jen!

My very supportive girlfriend Jen is leaving...boo-hoo....
Well, she had a farewell dinner in early June. I provided the dessert favors.
I called them "Grown Up Cupcakes"

Cute little cupcakes decorated with fondant roses.

Then I placed them in individual celophane bags.

Put them in cardstock baskets along with some white chocolate truffles.

And displayed them on my tiered tea cake stand.

I'm still pretty upset that she's leaving, but her family is moving on to a better opportunity, so you can't really fault them....but I still am.

The Swarm!!

These are bee cupcakes for a 2nd grade end of school year party.
The teacher's theme is Honeybees.

Just the flowers


Here come the bees!! Oh wait, no worries, they're blind, no eyeballs.


Completed bees. I got the idea to use almond slivers for the wings from the April/May 2009 issue of Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade magazine.

These cupcakes were rainbow cupcakes (made with a white cake mix) with buttercream and fondant frostings.

Not just cakes

I only started making cakes within the last year or so. Most of the time I'm a crafter. I sew most of the time, making quilts and other small crafts. I don't do clothes, but I do make costumes for my daughter. I like projects that can be completed in one day, and serve a purpose, fulfill some need, or provide a solution in my home.

Here is one of the very simple items I made recently.

It is to hold my earrings, but this one can only be used for the hook back type earrings.

These are the supplies you need.

Embroidery hoop
Solid fabric larger than your hoop
Tulle or other kind of porous material the same size as your solid piece.

That's it!

All you do is put the fabric in the hoop, tighten the screw very tightly and pull the fabrics taut across the hoop. Trim the fabrics, I used my pinking shears, and then hang it up.

One additional option would be to glue some matching or contrasting cute ribbon along the edge of the hoop to give it a more finished look.

I really like being able to see all my earrings at once, and this storage solution keeps them from getting tangled in my jewelery box.