Everyone needs a peacock headband

I actually had a reason to dress up a few weekends ago when my husbands former co-worker got married in Broken Arrow.  

I love to get dressed up...hence I love weddings.  

I took my new dress, and new hairstyle for a drive.  

Man...my calves look weird.  I think I need a lesson in camera angles. 

Flingin' Flangin' fun with Fondant!

For my next cake-related entry...FONDANT!  Now, fondant is notoriously bad-tasting, though lovely, so I don't use it as much as buttercream.  Just can't beat the buttercream, baby.  

This one was my first foray into fondant...for the Superbowl party we host every year.  I actually made Marshmallow Fondant, which was SIGNIFICANTLY more tasty than the boxed stuff.  And not too hard to make.  The little guys are gumpaste. 

Here's a close-up of one of the little players.  I thought they were cute, although looking at them now they look like their arms were amputated at the wrist.  How are they supposed to catch a football like that?

I made this cake for the annual Texas Independence Day party that my brother and his wife host every year.  Easily the COOLEST party I've ever attended...I'm always bummed when I miss a year.  This is my biggest fondant undertaking to date.  Each layer is a different flavor, Red Velvet on top, Yellow in the middle, and Devil's Food on bottom.  I cut the Texas topper out of gumpaste.  I had FITS with the blue fondant on the bottom layer...it kept drying out on me while I was coloring it, and breaking into unattractive crumbles.  I still have nightmares about it. 

It's killing me a little each day

I almost feel like crying when I look at this picture.  My beautiful, wonderful Hannah.  She'll be a striking woman when she grows into adulthood...poised with grace and confidence in the person Christ has molded and shaped her into.  I can see it beginning now. 

She's just about lost the "little girl" roundness to her cheeks.  

And it's killing me.

Freakin' Amazing

This is...no lie...one of the most amazing things i've ever seen.  Ever.  It's blows my mind.

Anthology of Cakes, Buttercream Baby

Let me preface this post by saying that I LOVE baking cakes.  I love baking in general, but cakes really take the cake.  Ha!  Any excuse I can get to make one, I jump on it.  I've even offered to make cakes for friends free of charge, though no one has jumped on that bandwagon yet.  

Now...even though Fondant covered cakes are some of the more beautiful confectionary creations known to man, you just can't beat buttercream, baby. So...these are some of buttercream cakes i've made.

This one was a devil's food cake with chocolate buttercream icing.  It was our First Annual Colburn Super Bowl Bash.  Lots of fun! I took the Wilton Football pan and doubled it.  My hand was cramping to HECK from piping all of those stars.  But so worth it.

I love this cake.  Hannah's 2nd birthday party was Lady Bug themed, and I just can't help but smile when I look at this one.  The cake is a from-scratch white cake out of the Southern Living cookbook.  Divine.  The little ladybug on the top of the cake is a cupcake.  This was the first cake I'd ever made and decorated.  Good memories there.

This monstrosity was Hannah's 4th Birthday cake from last year.  She had a Princess party, so I thought Cinderella's castle was fitting.  Thank GOODNESS for Wilton's cake set...It would not have been fun to make all of those steeples out of rice krispie treats and cover in fondant.  The cake was the same white cake recipe from the Southern Living cookbook (yeah...it's that good), but this time I put raspberry jam in between each layer.  SO GOOD! 

Everything is buttercream, except for the little fondant flowers.  Those were a real joy.  :)

This bad boy was so much fun to make.  Ethan's first birthday was a cookout (as has each subsequent birthday).  We're so original.  The top bun and bottom bun are pound cake, baked in a pyrex bowl to get them to curve.  The actual Patty is  one layer Devil's Food cake covered in chocolate icing.  The lettuce, pickles, onions, and tomatoes are fondant.  The mustard and Ketchup are icing.  

And the side of fries are sugar cookies with red icing ketchup. 

This one is the cake I made for my husbands grandmother Helen for her 75th birthday last year.  We had about 75 of her friends come to her house and surprise her!  It was a blast.  

She is a fan of pink, so I ran with it.  This is the tallest buttercream cake I'd made, and we had some SERIOUS leaning issues.  But, like Duff himself even says on Ace of Cakes, every cake has a back.  The "75" cake topper is gumpaste. 

I saw pink for about a week after that.

I'm always looking for my next chance to make a cake.  I've got some ideas floating around in my cake-crazed head!

Coming up next...FONDANT. 

MQ Answer!

I love this movie...one of my very favorite performances from both Ah-nuld and Jamie Lee Curtis.  

Movie Quote!

I'll be impressed if you get this one...knock yourself out!

"They call him the Sand Spider"

"Why?"

"Probably because it sounds scary."

Answer posted tomorrow!

Ethan's Birthday Bash

Ethan turned 3 last Friday, and we rocked out at his party on Saturday.  The poor kid doesn't have any friends...so it was a family affair.  

Hannah was delighted to take control and "help" him open his gifts.  It should be interesting to see how many presents she'll let him "help" with at her party in a few weeks.  

I have to say, though...she's the most wonderful, considerate little girl I've ever met.  She was genuinely trying to help the little guy out.  And, as you can see, he didn't mind one bit.  

I quelched my need to express myself through baked goods by making these cupcakes, complete with gumpaste guitars.  It wasn't my first foray into the world of gumpaste, but it was my most detailed.  They were yummy!

MQ Answer

This movie makes me want a British accent.  And it makes me laugh.  In a British accent.

Snippets

Movie Quote!

Have at it...

"This is an occasion for genuinely tiny knickers"

It's official: He is a boy

For those of you who are a friend to me on Facebook (add me, i'll love you back), or who follow me on Twitter (hartnhevn), you'll know that we had an eventful Sunday.  

While swinging in the neighborhood, Ethan forgot that you must hold on to the swing at all times.  He then proceeded to fly through the air and land face down on one of the wood beams that segregates the play area.  Ouch.

I was at Target with my Mother-in-law buying birthday presents for the little man (he'll be 3 on Friday), when Marty called me and told me what happened.  When we couldn't get the bleeding to stop, we decided to make a break for the ER behind our house.  

Now, I didn't even think it was a possibility to stitch the inside of the lip, so it never would have occurred to me to take him to the ER...but Marty, being a boy at one point in his life, proceeded to tell me "Yeah...they can stitch a lip."  Apparently most men know this.  

So, about 3 hours later we left the ER with 4 stitches on the inside of his lip, 4 on the outside of his lip, and a loose front tooth.  He even ripped that tiny piece of skin that connects the top lip to the top of the gums.  But even through all of the IV placement, and stitches...the only thing he's complained about at all is that darned cut on his shin.  Figures. 

Don't you feel just a little sorry for him?  (the boy knows how to work an audience.)