The Very Hungry One Year Old!

Have you ever had one of those 'DOH!' moments?  You know the kind where you work your butt off shaping a caterpillar out of cake and then have multiple people ask, 'are those donuts?'  DOH!!! (palm to forehead)

In the story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar, we meet a teeny tiny caterpillar that won't stop eating, and eventually turns into a beautiful butterfly.  I had the joy of making a cake this weekend for one of my favorite one year olds and my daughters' honorary 'little sister'.
Now, to look at Mattie, you would think she is younger than a year old because of her sweet baby face and tiny body.  But don't let all that miniatureness fool you.  Girlfriend can eat.  And eat.  And eat.  She has a special smacking sound she does with her mouth and that means - feed me!  Every time her tiny little hand picks up (or shall I say forcefully grabs) a handful of cheerios, I almost feel compelled to make the NOM NOM NOM sound effect.  But much like our caterpillar in the story, she is on her way to becoming a very beautiful butterfly!  And we're all so excited to watch her grow!

Holy Hiatus!

I never meant to take this much time off from blogging - not to mention BAKING!

But alas, there have been some developments in my life recently that leave me feeling like hugging a toilet bowl rather than my mixer.  There were minor attempts at baking.  I made my friend chocolate chip cookie cupcakes for her birthday, so that was pretty awesome, and I managed Valentine's cookies for my daughters' school and daycare, but that's about it.  I'm feeling very sad about this, like part of me is not alive and well right now.  So let's take a look back at a bakier time in my life.

Oh, now look at this.  My darling daughter, who I thought was such a big girl in this picture.  Little did I know that I would look back on this face like she was just a baby.  Ok, this isn't helping.  Not to mention, what you can't see in this picture is me literally 2 weeks away from giving birth, and sweating like a pig in 115 degree heat.  So let's move on from this before I run away crying.

Ok, now this I like.  Pink and princess.  Two things that are all too familiar to me these days.  Only bad memory from making this cake is that Starbursts are surprising difficult to roll out.  I even nuked them for a second to soften them, and still my arms hurt for days.  (Note to self: I need to find a better process for that.)

 

Mini Cakes!!  How could you not love a mini cake?  I made 12 of these for my dear friend J's babyshower.  Chocolate, vanilla with strawberries, red velvet and lemon!  

Ok, now I feel much better!

I feel like I'm slowly coming out of the fog and will be back in my kitchen very soon.  Otherwise, this baking blog is going to get B-O-R-I-N-G, if the writer doesn't actually start baking again.  Fingers crossed! 

D-D-D-D-DORA!

So I'm feeling a little sentimental today, and I don't know why.  No, that's not true, I totally know why. It doesn't help matters that Rylee has been so stinking cute these past couple of days, and every time I look at her, I don't see a little baby anymore.  I see a big girl.
But there's one thing that is still my little baby about her, and that is her love of Dora!  For her 3rd birthday, she wanted a Dora party.  So we made Map invitations and delivered them to all our friends, we got a Dora pinata that was size of Rylee, we had quesadillas and chips and salsa, Rylee wore her Dora backpack and Dora hair ties, and most importantly, we had a Dora cake.
When I set out to make this cake, I thought about making Dora, but then realized a Dora head on a platter would be a little too disturbing, except for all of us parents who giggled in delight as our toddlers beat the crap out of the Dora pinata (especially my husband who had to step in and really smack her around to get the candy out).  But Backpack seemed like a good option!  My little Rylee thought so too! And just so she could be represented, we got a Dora candle.
My daughter's birthday isn't for another 5 months, and she is already throwing ideas out there for her party and cake.  My life is going to be full of creating my daughters' fantasies out of buttercream, and I couldn't be happier about that!

I'm jumping on this Thomas bandwagon.

No, I will not be running to the store and stocking up on overpriced trains.  I have been blessed with 2 daughters (so far) and while we should buy stock in princesses and glitter, there is not a train in sight at our house.

But, it has been brought to my attention that there is a whole legion of parents who are willing encourage the obsession of their Thomas-crazed kids.  So I would be crazy to not pimp out these trains made of sugary goodness.  Now if I were really smart, I would take a cue from the manufacturer and not only make one size cake, but several different sizes, like cupcakes!  So not only would the kids want a big cake, but individual cupcakes as well!  Hee hee hee!

The latest obsessor, er I mean little boy, has a deep love for Gordon.  His mom tells me that he has taken up being called Gordon at home!  I think his birth name is darling and completely acceptable, however, he thinks he's more of a Gordon.  So, Gordon it is:

Now before all of you Thomas enthusiasts start yelling at me for the incorrect number (and yes, I was already corrected by Gus' mom) the number 3 is not a typo!  Gordon is in fact number 4, but being that this was for a 3rd birthday, I thought having a 4 on the cake would be misleading, and 'Gordon's' mom agreed - so please calm down!

Based on my knowledge of preschoolers (it's vast!) I have a feeling I'll be making a lot of trains...

Vegetarian Steak

When this cake was ordered, the only instruction I got was it MUST be red velvet and the birthday boy was a vegetarian.  Because my mind immediately goes to sarcasm and irony in every situation, all I could think of was steak.  Luckily birthday boy has a sense of humor and went with it!

I'm a recovering vegetarian, and rarely do I want to take a bite out of raw steak, but this one was definitely tempting.

Once Upon A Time....

In a land not so far away, there was a little girl named Siena. For her third birthday she wanted nothing more than to be a fairy in her own magical land. Since I only have magical powers in the kitchen, I threw some powder sugar fairy dust in a bowl and viola!

I thought this sweet little white chocolate fairy looked like Siena, so I made this her mushroom palace.

Another chocolate fairy (my daughter likes to think this one is her) is lost in the meringue mushroom cluster!

This cake did not start out well at all. It became one of those moments where I started rethinking offering to make cakes for my friends, because I might end up on cakewrecks. My oven and I were having a domestic dispute, and it got so heated that the gas company almost had to be called. After taking a cooling period (literally let the cakes cool overnight) I came back to it the next day and we worked things out, with the help of some buttercream. I've learned over and over, that much like a glass of wine, there's nothing that a little (or a lot) of frosting can't fix.

Happy Birthday Siena!

Cupcake Cake Take 2

I have a wonderful daycare that my 18 month old goes to and my 3 1/2 year old went to for the year before preschool. The owner is like family to us, so when she wanted a cake for her sister, I was more than happy to oblige. She first told me that her sister was a singer, so it needed to be something musically related. My first thought was - microphone, I'll build a microphone! But then she saw the giant cupcake and said she must have that, but still musically related.

Hmmmmm...

The ambitious woman in me still wanted to do the microphone, but maybe put it on the top of the cake. Somehow I couldn't wrap my mind around how that would turn out, so I had to convince myself it was okay to do a simple cake.

The day before I was to give it to her, she gave me the spelling of her sister's name. Now, you might have noticed that blatantly missing from all of these cakes is piping, especially when it comes to writing. Give me a challenge to carve or decorate, and you got it, but ask me to write someone's name on a cake? Deer in headlights. (My wonderful friend J recently took me to a decorating/piping class for Christmas, to help with my phobia, but that's a story for another day...maybe). Anyhow, she was dead set on having her name on there, so I improvised. And really if I were her sister, I would be psyched to have my name in chocolate, instead of some boring old piping! Sidenote - hilarity (and almost tears) ensued when I pulled the letters out of the fridge and dropped them directly on the floor, sending shards of chocolate through the air. Good thing it was cold out, because that second batch didn't get much time in the fridge!

Now, many have asked me if I use the cupcake cake mold, and to that I say - why would I spend $30 and waste kitchen space on something that is so easily carved? I can't speak from experience, because I haven't used one, but I'm having a hard time imagining the center being cooked properly without the outsides getting a little dark, don't you think? Besides, most of the fun of making the cake is starting with a blank pallet. Not to mention, eating the scraps from cutting down the cake is really the best part about making a cake, and is a must in my house. That is the only way my husband tolerates my spending the weekend baking something he cannot eat. Especially when that something is red velvet - such as this cake.

There were a few things that were not ideal though about carving this cake. I discovered that while red velvet is tender and delicious, it's really not that much fun to carve. In fact, it's damn near frustrating. I would recommend to anyone using red velvet for anything other than a circular cake to make sure you give it proper time to cool in the fridge. Between my day job and my kids, I rushed this one along, and almost paid the price - of making a whole new set of cakes. And, on the same note, while cream cheese frosting is absolutely d-lish and so easy and fun to decorate with, it too needs extra time in the fridge, or you might have a sliding mess on your hands. Also, dowels are your friend.

From what it sounds like, the cake was well received, and that's really what matters!