My First Giveaway!

I was out shopping at Harry and David's a few weeks ago, just browsing to see what I might find.

And guess what I found???

This TOTALLY cute spatula!

Look at the cute sprinkles....

Look at the cupcake!....

Even it's name is cute....Spatulart!Of course I had to get one!
If it has a cupcake on it, it's pretty difficult for me to walk away from~ hee hee.

And actually....I got two....

One can be yours....

My first official giveaway! I have been fortunate enough to win giveaways on other people's blogs that I decided this was the perfect opportunity for me to give back!

All you have to do is follow my blog, leave a comment and tell your friends!

I will choose a winner using random.org on April 15th.
(I figure it will be nice for someone to win something on TAX day!)

April 15th.....

drum roll.................
............................
...................................

Random.org gives us..................
.....................

3

Laurie from My Own Brand of Crazy!!!
Congratulations! Please email me your address so I know where to send your Spatulart!

Fast and Furious...

I love when a cake has "more than meets the eye" meaning for someone.

Caroline wanted a 3D Mitsubishi Eclipse for her friend. She even sent me a link to Mitsubishi's website that gave me a 360 degree view of the car....LOVE that! She said in passing that she jokes with her friend about having a "Fast and Furious" car.

So I studied that car and when she said his car was black....I suggested, maybe everyone didn't want to walk away from the table with a black mouth....so she trusted me to choose the color.

This is the look I was going for, only in gray/silver.

Side view
Front view

Custom license plate ~ Fast and Furious ~ hee hee

Rear view

Here is the feedback I received!

Thank you so much for making that Fast and Furious car cake. Our friend really was taken back by the cake and enjoyed it very much! It was a hit with the entire restaurant. Everyone loved the way it look just loved the taste even more! Thanks again! You definitely have a life-long customer with us.

Sincerely ~ Caroline N.

70's Disco

I guess because I said it was coming back in fashion......I keep getting requests!

Hee Hee!

I'm trying something different each time....
so I don't bore you....Can't you just hear the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in your head???

I added a disco ball this time. Made from a little mound of buttercream and covered with a circle of fondant that I had given a brick impression to. Then I painted it with silver luster dust for the shine!

Burn baby burn....disco inferno....burn baby burn!
I hope you're dancing in your chair!

Relay For Life

I was asked to donate cupcakes for a bake sale to benefit the Relay For Life in our area.

Of course I said yes!

I went with two designs, the purple ribbon and the RFL logo both made out of chocolate.

Here is the link to the official Relay For Life website. If you don't know about it, you can find out anything and everything you need to know! You can even find events in your area! It benefits the American Cancer Society.

If you can't participate, consider donating.
I think we all have had our lives touched by cancer, a friend, a neighbor, a parent or a child.
Help the American Cancer Society find a cure.

Chick Egg Cookies

I saw these cute little refrigerator magnets in the Oriental Trading catalog a couple of years ago. I never ordered them, but I saved the picture because I thought they would make the cutest cookies for Easter!

So this year, I planned ahead and made plenty of cookie dough and went to work. I looked to see if I could find a special cookie cutter that would fit the shapes, alas I didn't find anything that was ready made. So I just used my egg shape cutter and improvised.

I only made the egg chick design. Because I think the other chick designs deserve the have a cutter made to the appropriate shapes. I know there are ways to make your own cutters....so next year I'll plan even farther ahead and make cutters for the chick with bunny ears!

I like that way these turned out. I used wet on wet icing to get the colorful spots on the eggs. Then edible marker to give each egg their own eyes. The kids enjoyed these as well!
Happy Easter!

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

Each year I look for new cupcake ideas for the kids' Easter parties at school. Last year I was inspired by the Hello, Cupcake! book and made most all of their Easter/Spring ideas.

This year I wanted to make a simple cupcake because I had a LOT to make!
So I found this cute little Easter Bunny clip art and decided he would sit on the cupcakes.

I also had some edible Easter grass to use. So I trimmed it into small pieces and rolled the cupcake edges in it after I iced them with a swirl.
This grass was flavored with a mild green apple flavor.

I made vanilla cupcakes with white chocolate bunnies.

And chocolate cupcakes with milk chocolate bunnies.

The kids both had fun parties off campus. That included snacks and games and Easter egg hunts!

Happy Easter!

Cupcake Cookies Part Deux

I have made these cupcake cookies before, but this time I tried a different two tone design on the "wrappers".

And I added cake quins as sprinkles. I really like the textured appearance from the swirls and quins.

These were done in spring colors for Easter.

Mange Takk!

I thought you all might like a Norwegian lesson today!

Just kidding....Jeg snakke litt norsk. (I speak a little Norwegian)
But I will say that I DID study conversational Norwegian when I was in college.
My family tree is deeply rooted in Norway and my older sister and I thought it would be fun to learn a bit.
My grandparents spoke it, my Dad knows a little bit, so it makes for interesting banter over the phone!
Anyway, the reason I bring it up is because my new cake blog friend Elin is in Norway! She blogs in English as well as Norwegian. She had a give away a couple of weeks ago....and I was the lucky winner!

Some really cute bunny patchwork cutters!(the first set of patchwork cutters I own)She was so sweet and sent some yummy candy in the package as well!See the cute little skiing gummies!It was such a nice surprise in the mail!
So now I have to come up with a great idea for Easter.....I'm brewing something up right now!

Mange Takk (Many Thanks) to Elin.
Please visit her blog to see her amazing work with sugar! And maybe you can be a winner on her next giveaway!

Maybe I should have a giveaway.....hmmm....what would you like to win???

Bulldog!

Yeah! I was lucky enough to get another locally held class with Ashlee Perkins!
She is moving up north in a few months and I wanted to take advantage of the fact that she is here now, to learn as much as I can!

This is her cake....so much talent....you really can't know how difficult it is until you try.

So we started with 3 layers of cake. These were 1/2 sheets. And you start carving a general dog shape. Ashlee gave great drawings to help us "see" our dog in the cake.

This was getting the back legs and narrowing the body up to the head.

Here is the top view at this stage.

Then we carved out the head and front legs and paws.

Here is a front view of his head.

Can you see him yet?

I took a lot of pictures of the carving stages to help me remember if I get to do another one of these someday!

Then we covered him in buttercream icing. Have to have a good base so the fondant will hold tight, plus you want the yummy factor!

Front view of buttercream iced.

Then, just like last time, once I started working with the fondant....I didn't stop to take too many pictures! I don't work with it that often and I worry about it drying out!

So now he is covered first with white fondant, then his facial features are molded and airbrushed.
This was also my first time to use an airbrush machine, I think I need a TON more practice!

He also has his red "Georgia Bulldogs" shirt added. It never fails, trying to leave natural looking wrinkles in his shirt.....impossible! When you want wrinkles you can't make them, and then when you want smooth.....you get wrinkles!

I was feeling a bit like Murphy was messing with me during class!!!
You know....Murphy's law???

So here is my bulldog.please don't go back and look at Ashlee's!

Here he is at my house!

I hope I get the chance to try this again!
Go Dawgs!

My Own Private Island

The boys' school had their annual spring fundraiser and this year the theme was LUAU!
Last year was the Rodeo Roundup and I donated this cake.

So when the PTO asked if I would donate another cake for the raffle, I said yes!
This year however, you didn't need to be present to win, so I offered a gift certificate and made a small themed cake to have on the table.

Here you can see the seaweed sides with coral, fish and a purple octopus!

Isn't he the cutest? I got this tiny mold as a freebie somewhere.....I can't remember just now. It is a First Impressions mold. I have another one of their molds, that I haven't had a chance to use yet, it's a baby.

I added a cabana made from Oreo Fun Stix, melted chocolate and fondant.

I can't wait to make a cake for the raffle winner!

Tennis, Anyone?

Another set of twins and they are turning 8 this year!

Both girls play tennis so a tennis theme it needs to be!

I wanted to have some "action" on the cake. I found this clip art and created it in chocolate.

Then I found the dimensions of a real tennis court and scaled it down to the size of my cake.

I put tennis players around all the sides...

Add some icing tennis balls and a couple of chocolate rackets and....

tennis, anyone???

Baby's First Zoo Safari

I know I've said it before....but first birthdays are just so much fun! So many cute party themes out there!

Walker's mommy is having a zoo safari theme for him. They call him monkey, so it really is a fitting theme!.

Here are some of the paper good designs that I used to inspire Walker's cake.

I love the stripes, the balloon and of course the cute little animals.

So we had to have the monkey front and center!

And here is Walker's smash cake to have all to himself!I really loved the lettering and colors used on the napkins, so I copied that for the writing on the cake!

Here is the elephant.

And of course the lion.

I can't wait to hear how the party went!

Happy, happy 1st Birthday Walker!