Say Hello to my Little Friend

I bought myself a present last week.

Not the best stand mixer ever created, but it will do for now. It's miles better than my wimpy hand mixer I've been using until now.

I really really want a Kenmore Stand Mixer, but my house runs on 220V. I don't want to buy a 110V mixer and run it off a power transformer for 3 more years. And buying a 220V Kenmore mixer from a German store, not so much. The cheapest one I've found is 480 Euros. That's about $720!!!

I think I'll stick with my silver bullet for now. Though she looks better than she performs.

Friday the 13th!

So, all those pans in the last post?

Those turned into what I call the "Not What's On The Outside That Counts" Cake.

Here is why.

Man that's an ugly cake.

This cake was for my friend Judi. It was her birthday today, and it's Friday the 13th! How fun.

Here she is cutting it.

And this is why the inside is so special...

13 layers man! 13!!

I got this idea and recipe from Bakerella. I used the Smith Family recipe and split it among 13 pans instead of 12. And I also frosted it like Bakerella with the chocolate cream cheese buttercream frosting.

Next time I make this cake I think I'll let the frosting set up a little more than I did this time. It was still pretty warm and runny, so it did not stay between the layers as well as I would have liked.

Previews

What do you think is going on here the rest of the week?

Here are some "before" pictures...




I think this is what I get for taking a week off.

Rock ON!

After a brief and relaxing cake free week, I eased back into it by ROCKING OUT!

How fun was this cake?

What do you do when you're 11 years old, and the only rock n' roll cakes are High School Musical, or Hannah Montana? (Not that there is anything wrong with that of course, but when you're 11, not so much.)

You bring on the buttercream and fondant flames!

I really like it when I get to try something new. I used my angel wing cutters for the first time to make the flames.
I had so much fun with this one.

Fun times man! I used gumpaste to make the guitar, and the little flames.

I also tried out a new thing on the inside of the cake. I've dyed cakes before, but this time I only used red and black. I'm not 100% on the results, but the top tier looked kind of like zebra stripes. Which was the intention I suppose.

I wish I had a rock and roll cake when I was 11.

Though I bet I would have chosen a Duran Duran cake like this one.

Does that date me??

Cupcake madness!

It was a banner week for cupcakes.

Pink cupcakes for the last thursday of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

A double batch of Halloween cupcakes for classroom parties.

SNOZZCUMBERS!! For The Kid's classroom BFG party.

Princess cupcakes for a birthday.


And matching Knight cupcakes for the same birthday party.



Add to all this 3 dozen assorted cupcakes for the cake walk at the school fair.

I'm well knackered!

I don't think I have anything scheduled for next weekend, and I hope I can keep it that way.

HALLOWEENIES!

I absolutely adore Halloween. Getting dressed up in costumes is AWESOME!

The bummer this year was that the Star Wars convention was on the same day as the school carnival this year, so we were not able to get our geek on.

Well, not our Star Wars geek, but we were geeks none the less.

This year The Kid decided that she wanted to be someone from the Hercules-verse. At first she wanted to be the original Nemesis, but The Husband nixed that idea...no steel bikinis for our 7 year old.

So, we settled on a Xena like character. She is at least mostly covered up.

This costume was made up of a large leather duster I found in the thrift store.

There was even enough leather left over to make some of a Legolas costume for The Kid's buddy, Buddy.

This picture is totally going in the wedding slide show.
Buddy's Legolas costume won first place in the costume contest!! WOO!!!

I will be the first to admit that I'm a total costume snob. I don't care how busy I am with other things, I always think that home made costumes are the best. And I will make The Kid's costume every year until she asks me to stop. I think it's fantastic to have something unique that no one else will be wearing. I was lucky as a kid too, I think my mom made all my costumes until I was old enough to make my own. It's a whole lot of work, but totally worth it, even if it is only for one night.

And of course if I'm going to be working at the carnival I needed a costume too. My friend Lenae and I were going to be selling spirit wear, so she decided we should match. We finally settled on being bees. She of course was the Queen Bee, and I was a Pollen Jockey. She was happy because she got to have big hair and a crown, I was happy because I got to have cool goggles and a holster.

BUZZZZ!!!! BUZZZ!!!! Baby!

Three Quick Questions

Sometimes people, especially kids, have a hard time deciding what they want on their cakes.

If there is not some hard and fast theme for their birthday, or celebration, I guess it can be pretty hard to decide.

I love it though, because it means I do not have to stick to some very well known subject.

Some people are very particular, it has to look exactly like what it is supposed to, or it's ruined. I have not had this problem yet, but I also do not want to dissapoint, that's what stresses me out.

So, I love getting a job where all I have to go with is: Birthday party, 11 years old, girl.

Oh, but she does not know what she wants.

So, I've come up with three simple questions I ask. I try to ambush the kid, and get them off guard so that I know the answers I get are genuine.

1. What is your favorite animal?

Dogs! So easy! This is another idea from the book "Hello Cupcake". I used the fur/grass/hair tip for my frosting, I think the star, or notch cut ziploc tip would have been better.

2. Chocolate or vanilla?

Why, chocolate of course, unless you're my kid, and you like white cake with white frosting with vanilla ice cream. Anyway...

3. What is your favorite color?

Blue! Beautiful! In reality this is a really pretty Robbin's Egg blue, but the picture was taken at night, and my camera is poo.

These were all for one birthday. Cupcakes for the child's class, and a small cake for their family celebration at home.