Engagement Cake - Marsh mellow fondant

I have been dying for a reason to make another fondant cake, so when a friend asked me if I would be willing to make a cake for a mutual friends engagement, I jumped at the chance!  She gave me free creative control of what it would look like, taking into account their wedding colours, and this is what I came up with.  It is based on a design that I saw on Pinterest, that I cannot for the life of me find now, so as much as I would love to add the link to that persons cake as well, I can't, so I apologize.  It is a 2 tier, 2 layer/tier, chocolate and vanilla cake, covered with home made marsh mellow fondant.

Making the fondant is easy, but this time I decided to try to make in it my mixer instead of kneading it, cause it really is tiring. It worked amazingly!  Just make sure you grease EVERYTHING up with crisco, otherwise it will stick like glue.  Once taken out of the mixer, you add the colour that you want, and kneed it until fully mixed. 

I started by covering the base plate, so that it was a little prettier that the basic silver plates you get at the store, and used a couple of different heart shaped cookie cutters to embellish it. Then I started on the cake.  I learned a valuable lesson with this cake, make a batch of fondant PER TIER! Do not try to make one batch cover the entire cake.  I tried it and the stress just about killed me.  The fondant was way too thin on the top layer, which is why you can see a few bumps. Had it not been for my AMAZING husband, I would have ended up in tears...he fixed my mess as well as he could.  He also is the one who cut out the silhouettes, so I could never do this without him!  I covered the top layer with blue hearts, and cut out the letters for the base plate, and VOILA!  Not as easy peasy as I thought it would be, but now I know!!

The Happy couple! xoxoxo

Marsh mellow Fondant Birthday Cake for my mom

I dislike traditional fondant, it tastes yucky, but it looks gorgeous and polished, so I went looking for something other than traditional fondant to try, and found out about marsh mellow fondant.  All that is in it is marsh mellows, icing sugar, water, and vanilla.  IT IS DELICIOUS! And SO easy to make(although your arm may hurt at the end of kneeding it)!  This cake was the first fondant cake I tried, so it was small and basic, but it turned out fabulously, and everyone loved it! I seriously recommend trying it if you are interested in making your own fondant!

Frozen Theme Cupcakes

I made these Frozen themed cupcakes for a friends daughter.  She asked last minute, so they are slightly plain, but she told her daughter that Olaf stopped by my house to personally add the snowflakes on the cupcakes just for her.  They are made with French Vanilla Betty Crocker mix, swirled with some blue to add a little fun.  Then blue swirled butter cream icing, topped with snowflakes, white pearls, and ice dust.  They were a hit!

Tie Dye Lady bug cake

This cake I made for a friends little girl who specifically asked for a tie dye cake by me, so how could I say no?!  It's a 2 layer tie dye Ladybug cake made using the Wilton cake pan that you can rent at any Bulk Barn.  I will admit, i don't make my own cake mixes, I use the Betty Crocker ones as I find the are moist and light.  

I started by mixing the different colours of batter in bowls, and poured them into the pan individually. These pans take a full cake mix per pan, so I did this process twice, as I only had one cake pan. Once baked, I stacked them one on top of the other and started decorating!

I am not a professional, and there is always something that I wish could be better on every cake I do....but I am trying to get past it!  

Baby shower cupcakes

I made some cupcakes for a friend for her baby shower(same one as the diaper cake and cake).  She loves my rainbow cakes for I made up a batch mixing in all the colours she liked in my list.  

Since she is having a girl chose to do the icing in pink and white.  I took a piece of cardboard and placed it into the icing bag, and filled one side with pink icing, and the other with white icing.  Then with help from my fabulous husband, I carefully(with cursing) pulled out the piece of cardboard and iced the cake with the 2D Wilton tip. It gives it the dual coloured swirl look, since I didn't want plain pink.  Topped them with small pearl sprinkles and some fabulous toppers i found and The Dollar Tree and they were done! They were a big hit! 

Citronella candles

I love making things with mason jars, infact I seem to be searching all the time for things to make with them.  My latest crafting experiment was to make citronella candles! The bugs where I am are terrible, so I wanted to make some for the backyard so we can spend more time outside at night. It took me awhile to find everything I needed since it was not yet "canning season" to get all the supplies.  I found the citronella oil at the local natural food store, I already had the mason jars, and a friend gave me some wax.  

To colour the mason jars I mixed modge podge and some Wilton food colouring, since it seems to be the best and most concentrated food colouring.  I then painted the mixture onto each mason jar, as many coats as I felt necessary until I got the desired colours. I then cured them in the oven at 200 degrees for 1 hour.(I think my next batch will be at 325 for at least an hour if not more as a friend left hers outside and it crackled a little.) I then left them for a week to get them as cured as possible. I heated 1 pound of wax per 2 candles, and added 1/2 an ounce of citronella oil. Once it wax fully mixed and melted I filled the mason jars 1/2 way, and placed a ready made wick in the middle of the mason jar.  I let them cool for 72 hours and we were able to use them one evening when we had a "campfire" at the neighbours. I love them and I am looking forward to making more! They smell delicious and they work wonderfully! We were not swatting at any bugs for the whole time we were outside!!

Cake: skull and crossbones purse

It was my neighbours 18th birthday yesterday and I was very excited to make a cake for her. She's a girly girl with a twist...she loves just about anything with skulls. Last year I made her Jack Skeleton cupcakes that turned out super awesome, and I was afraid that it would be hard to top. I made her mom come with me to bulk barn to pick a cake pan. She decided on the purse cake, but we had to modify it since a pink cake with a flower is really not her style. Her mom though a deep purple with some type of skull on it would knock her socks off, and really I had creative control. So this is what I came up with! Special thanks goes to my hubby for his artistic talent at drawing the skull. I can paint by numbers and follow a pattern, but that was a little outside my expertise! We make a fabulous team!