Happy 4th of July!!

I know I'm posting this a few days late, but here are the 4th of July cookies I made. These are my first try at royal icing cookies, so I'm pretty happy with them.

I've finally gotten back to the scrapbooking, and I'll hopefully be able to post some new layouts later this week.  I think I may also try to make some cards for my stash soon.  There's also a good chance I'll finally be taking the last 2 Wilton cake courses within the next few months... I'll post that work too.

Happy birthday Jen!

My cousin's fiance turned 40 today, and he asked me to make a cake with some of her favorite things.  He asked for daisies and a "big, fat, cartoonish bumblebee."  He also asked for chocolate and raspberry flavors.  I made my favorite chocolate cake recipe with chocolate buttercream, and a fresh raspberry sauce filling.  I was very happy with how it turned out and she loved it.  It really is amazing how many flaws decorations can cover.

Here are some cake pops I made to try them out with a more dense cake batter and rolling them in sprinkles and nonpariels.  I didn't want to waste the chocolate, so I also made some chocolate-dipped marshmallows, and a big giant milk chocolate non-pariel.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the dads and dads-to-be out there!! My dad's favorite dessert is a banana split, so that was dessert... well, a cake that looked like one anyway.  When I got to my parents' friends' house, they asked how I got there with the ice cream on the cake, and they also thought the cherries and banana were real, so I guess I did a pretty good job.

This is the base iced in gray then painted with silver edible paint.  I used the small oval pan from the Wilton set.  I should have only made it one layer, but I ended up making it two.  I would have liked it more if it were a little shorter. 

These are the "ice cream scoops".  They were made with the mini ball pan; the batter was the same color as the ice cream, and iced in buttercream to look like vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream.

 Here is the cake before adding the banana and cherries.

 Here is a front view of the finished cake.

This is a side view of the cake.

Here is a close-up shot of the sundae.

A Few More Cakes

Here are two more cakes I've made, as well as my first try at cake pops. I definitely need to use a thicker cake batter and thinner chocolate for the pops.

This cake is chocolate ganache, chocolate cake, a thin layer of buttercream, and a peanut butter filling.

This candle was made for my neighbor. His daughter and 3 grandchildren come to visit every June, so they celebrate birthdays of the 2 kids who were born in August. This was for their birthday celebration with their grandfather tonight.  Their favorite colors are bright orange and bright green.  The top and bottom tiers are vanilla and the middle is chocolate. They thought it was adorable!

It's been FOREVER

Okay, so I know I haven't posted in a REALLY long time. I've been having some major health problems and am learning to live with some permanent changes. Here are some cakes I've made since my last post.  This was a Phillies cake I made just to practice an FBCT.

 My boyfriend decided he needed to try the icing...

 This was for Mother's Day.

 Memorial Day watermelon cake

2012 Goals

I'm not a big fan of New Year's "Resolutions", so I make New Year's "Goals" instead.  This year, I have some personal goals and crafting goals, which I will update on here.
** Making cards instead of buying them MOST of the time (I would love to say that I want to make EVERY card I need, but I'm trying to be realistic here by not setting goals that are very difficult)
** finish my Israel scrapbook
** make at least 1 new project each week and post it here within 2 days of finishing
** get my cake decorating business running
** complete at least 1 crafting volunteer opportunity every month

Now my personal goals:
** get back on Weight Watchers and get back to my goal weight
** work out at least 3 times a week
** get accepted and begin nursing school
** run a 5K

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas (a little late)! Happy Hanukkah! Happy New Year!! Here is the cake I made to take to Christmas dinner at my boyfriend's parents' house. I was not happy with it at all until it was finished.

Christmas for My Mom's Work

As I mentioned when I posted my pumpkin cupcakes, my mom works at an assisted living.  Every year around Christmas they have TONS of volunteer groups come in, so this year I made her some thank you cards so she doesn't have to send boring, plain ones from the dollar store.

Every year my mom also gives her boss and the head nurse a special gift.  She has always made chocolates, so last year her boss got a chocolate sleigh with cookies and peppermint bark, so this year I made her a cake that has a white tree on it. I used a sugar cone for the tree and cut the snowflakes on my Cricut Cake Mini.
The head nurse just started this spring, so we gave her a cake with a chocolate sleigh with peppermint bark on top.  These are each one layer chocolate and one layer of yellow.

Pumpkins!

Here are some Halloween cupcakes I made for my mom to take in to the residents at her assisted living, and a pumpkin cake I made for Thanksgiving with my boyfriend's family... They had no clue I made cakes... Now I'm the designated cake baker for parties...

Sorry it's been MONTHS since I posted. I lost my job over the summer and got really down and stopped doing anything crafty. I'm finally feeling creative again, so hopefully I'll be posting alot more.

Independence Day!

Happy 4th of July!! I made 3 cakes for the holiday. Well, I started out making a star cake for my parents to take to their friends' 4th of July party, which they have annually.  These friends happen to be from Montreal, so my mom and I decided on Friday night (the party was Saturday) that I should make them a small Canada Day cake as well.  So I did.  Since it was a small cake, I had extra batter and made it into a 1-layer 8" cake for us.  I would have done cupcakes, but decided to do the cake because I've wanted to try the brush embroidery and writing on a cake, not just a practice board.
I'm very happy with all 3 cakes, but my hand got tired on the star cake because the sections were too small to use the 3-star tip.  I think in the future, I'll try an FBCT for something like the maple leaf on the Canada Day cake.

A Cake! A Cake!

I made this cake yesterday. I have been wanting to try a stacked cake, but was nervous even after watching TONS of videos on YouTube. Luckily, the Joann's store where I'm taking my classes had a Tall Cakes class yesterday (the last time they're offering it) so I could learn how to stack them. I love the way it turned out, except I wish I could have gotten my buttercream smoother, especially on the top level.

I also finally made some two-tone cupcakes with the extra pink icing.

My Best Friend's Having a Baby!!

My best friend (who I've known since we were 3) is having a baby.  Her shower was this past Saturday. Of course I made her a card.  I forgot to take a picture of the card before I put it in the envelope with the gift. So, I took a picture of her holding the card. The sentiment inside says, "A new hand to hold, a new heart to love, a new life to lead."

Finally did some scrapping!!

I finally got done another layout this weekend. I did the next layout for my Israel scrapbook. This one is from the town of Caesarea and the beach. I'm planning on doing another page today. I hope to get it posted later today. In Caesarea, we had a toast on the beach since this was the first stop after getting out of the airport. Here's the layout, including close-ups of each page.

Father's Day BBQ Cake

I made this cake for my dad for Father's Day. It was my first fondant covered cake. My brother, father, and uncles were all AMAZED that it was cake and that I made it! Everything is edible except the grates on the grill. The message, flames, and hot dog are fondant. The cheeseburger is cake pressed through a garlic press to make it look like ground beef with buttercream "cheese" on top. It was a chocolate sour cream cake with chocolate buttercream, and tasted so good. I had to take the left-overs to school to give to my autistic support class.