Thinking about Cakes

Jeni Says:

Lately I have been thinking a lot about cakes. Not so much about the cake, but about the icing, fondant, and decoration. You see, I have two kids with Birthdays in March, and I need to out do the cakes I made them last year.
My problems are as follows:

#1: I have no ideas... at all...
#2: I need something that will top the cakes I made last year.
#3: Lately, I find myself with too many birthdays in March.

Every year, I try to make them the nicest cake yet. The problem with this, is eventually you reach the limit of your cake making abilities. Another problem with this, is eventually you run out of ideas... my children tend to find something they like, and stick with it... forever. For example, Davy likes Dragons and Art. I made him a dragon cake and an art cake, and now I have no idea what to make him next. Fortunately, his birthday isn't until August.
Last year I made Davy this Art themed cake:

I made the bottom layer (the canvas) from cake, squared if off, and iced it with butter cream frosting, then covered it with fondant, and folded the corners like a canvas. Then I "painted" a picture on the canvas. The paint box is made of fondant covered cake, and the paint tubes and  brushes are made from fondant, painted with gel food colouring, and pearl finish. It took about 2 days, to make it.

His cake the year before was a Dragon themed cake. But Davy likes to challenge me, and asked for a Dragon shaped cake, with dragons on it.

Sorry about the pics on this one, the cake making ran a bit longer than expected, and my husband snapped a couple pics quickly before we cut it!





The idea behind this, was to make a dragon shaped island, inhabited by dragons. I sculpted the 'island' with cake, and covered it with rocks and trees. The wings/mountains, are made of sugar cookie pieces, covered in royal icing, with icing sugar sprinkled on the tips for snow. The three dragons living on the island are made of fondant, with painted rice paper wings. I piped the waves around the island, then poured royal icing inside to make the water.

John, my oldest, is going to be 16 this year. His birthday is in March. Last year we took him to the Tim Burton art exhibit in Toronto, as he is a huge fan of Tim Burton's. So for a cake, I took some monsters from one of the sketches we had seen, and made them into this cake:

The main Cake part is, of course, made of cake. The monsters are also made of cake. It was, as I am sure you can imagine... VERY DIFFICULT. I tried out the cake pop recipe a few weeks before, and found it was easily moulded. I shaped the monsters, coated the cake pop with several layers of royal icing, then decorated them with more royal icing. It took about a week. I like the way it turned out, but wouldn't do it again.

The year before John had taken to collecting Top Hats (as he is also a mad hatter fan) so I made him a mad hatter hat. It wasn't the best cake I had ever made, but I have an excuse.... John's birthday is 5 days after my youngest son's birthday, and that year, it was 5 days before my wedding. (note that I made my wedding cake, and did all the baking for the tea buffet, and the desert buffet, baked and decorated 200 wedding cookie favours, arranged my own flowers, and crocheted table toppers for all 30 tables) Cake decorating time was at a minimum that year, but he understood and loved the cake.

I made the cake with thin layers of white and red, as he was also into stripes back then. It didn't want to hold up very well... and I was afraid that it was going to tip as I was decorating it. The card is made of white chocolate, melted, poured on a sheet of wax paper then cut with a hot knife.

A few years before, I made John a dragon cake, this was back before I had made many cakes, and I used a moulded cake pan, and the inspiration for the cake came from the fact that John had asked for a dragon book for his birthday.



I am trying to come up with something new for John's cake this year... but don't know what to make. Of course I ask him and he  does not have any ideas either. Maybe I will surprise him with a plain old round chocolate cake!

Ryan, My youngest, is turning 3 in March. Last year, he was really into froggies, and I made him this froggy cake:

It was pretty easy. Three layers to each tier, with butter cream icing and royal icing for the accents. The froggies and rocks are made with fondant. To make the grass, cat tails, and logs I piped the royal icing onto wax paper, let them get hard, peeled them off, and stood them up in the butter cream. For the logs, I made the ends flat, then the lines for the bark, put a glob of butter cream on the cake, and used it to support the pieces of the logs. It was really a fun cake to make, and didn't take a lot of time.

Ryan's cake the year before (ten days before my wedding) was a little less creative, but I will show the picture anyway:

I rented the cake pan from the bulk barn, and decorated it as shown. It took a surprising amount of time, but turned out pretty good.

Ryan needs a cake this March as well. He wants a dinosaur cake, because he really likes the cartoon "Harry and his bucket full of dinosaurs" on Playhouse Disney. I am still working out the details... but have a little bit of an idea about what I am going to make for him.

I will have to start soon, with the planning stages, if I am going to manage both birthdays, and keep my job! I might have to book a week of holidays,... but stay tuned for the results!

(I will leave off with a few pictures of cakes I made... but not for my children's birthdays.)

This was my first ever attempt at a fondant cake. It wasn't for anything particular... but Julie made this amazing fondant cake with fondant for Halloween, and I had to try it! (Maybe if she has a picture of that cake, she will post it for everyone to see what started it all)

 This one was for my Father in law's birthday, of course he is a Nascar fan... Those logos were the worst thing I have ever done...they took HOURS.. and several tries!

This one was for my own baby shower when Ryan was born. I don't remember how I ended up making the cake for my own shower... but here it is.

Valentine Mug Rugs for Two

Jeni Says:

Somehow I ended up with a day off on a Saturday. Most people would think this is fantastic... but I work on commission in a store that only has sales on the weekends. Good thing for me though.. we had the snow storm of the year today. When I say the Snow storm of the year... I mean the only one we have had this year... but it was pretty bad.
So, even though I had the kids home, I wanted to make sure I did something crafty, and blogged about it. I had to, Julie is getting ahead of me, and people are going to think it is only her blog!
So today I made a valentine version of a cute idea I once found on Martha Stewart's website. I will put the link to the page at the bottom of the blog, because they have great instructions, and I don't want to type them all out, when they are already written.

The original version look like slices of a tree trunk, and make a nice rustic addition to any table setting. I have been meaning to make them for ages. The ones I made, as you can see, are done in Valentine colours. I have also added the heart and initials as they might have been carved in a tree, to give them a nice romantic touch.

To make them, you will need to cut many 1/2 inch strips of felt. I started this morning with a pair of scissors, then headed out into the snow storm to buy myself a rotary cutter and mat (which, buy the way, are amazing totally worth the money). We got stuck behind someone who drove 40km/h the entire way (normally a 15 minute drive, and it took almost an hour) and bought the cutter.
Once the strips are cut, start rolling a white strip very tightly for the centre. Martha Stewart suggests using fabric, or craft glue, but I used a hot glue gun, as the fabric glue didn't seem to hold.
Alternate white and pink strips, making the white strips about twice as wide as the pink.

Keep going until your mat is big enough to hold a coffee or tea cup, and a cookie sized snack. Then add the red. Follow the instructions on Martha Stewart for this, you want it to look like bark.

Once you are done, and your glue is dry, add the design with fabric paint. I put J+S (Jeni and Scott) on one and a heart on the other, but you could do anything you like. I also think this would have been nicer done in red, if I had red paint. 



Felted Bowl

Julie Says:
I have been looking at the felted nesting bowls all over the internet, on blogs and etsy, and really wanted to give it a try.  I made my first felt bowl last week, washed it, shaped it and I think it turned out pretty awesome!
For anyone who is looking at giving this craft a try, I have included some tips that I couldn’t find online and had to figure out.
First…. the bowl!

I visited our local yarn store, and purchased a red and a white ball of 100% wool.  You can buy wool in different types.  This was not spun into a single strand made of several smaller spun strands.  It is just one string.  I think this makes a difference.  I was looking at several samples in the store, and this variety looks the most “felted”.  Now, also very important… you need a top load washing machine to felt.  Fortunately, i have one.  Apparently, it wont work well at all in a front load.
This bowl is felted twice.  Or, I washed it twice in hot water both times.  Because I wasn’t happy with the results after the first wash, I not only did it again, but I also boiled the kettle and dumped a full kettle of boiling water into the already hot water.  I got a much better result.  I have made 2 bowls since then, and tried the second and third with out boiling water and had to do them 3 times, with boiling water in the third load.  I recommend just trying it in the first load and see if you like the results.  I will be trying this with my next effort. 
I cant give you a pattern, because I didn’t use one myself.  I started with 6 stitches on 4 needles and increased every 2nd stitch for several rounds then every 5th stitch until it was the size I wanted and then continued in a tube until I cast off.  You have to knit a lot longer than you want it, because it shrinks about 30% over all when you felt, but that isn’t even in length and width, it gets a lot shorter than smaller around… keep that in mind. 
This is the “hat” before felting:


It is actually a pretty fun craft, I recommend giving it a try!

Creamy Sweet Potato and Squash Soup

So, first of all, thank you Jeni, for the sarcasm.  Second of all, I finished the soup, and the felted bowl, but didn’t do so hot finishing the tissue holder.  The soup was good, and super easy to make.
First of all, cut three sweet potatoes, one acorn squash, 4 shallots in half and put cut side down on an oiled roasting pan. Toss in 5 cloves of garlic and bake for 45 mins at 350 degrees.

Then, scoop out the potatoes and squash and toss into a pot with 3.5 cups chicken stock along with peeled garlic and shallots. simmer for 30 mins. (looks kinda yucky here…)

Next, scoop out veggies with just enough broth to liquefy in blender, strain everything and return to pot.  Season with salt and pepper… and add 1/2 cup of light cream or milk, bring to boil again.  Serve.  Makes about 6 bowls. 

Crocheted Book Marks for Valentine's Day

Jeni Says:

Here is a quick and easy craft for Valentine's Day. I made up a few, and they only took me a few minutes each.
I have attached heart shaped buttons for Valentines Day, but they can be any buttons as decorations to give any day of the year.
I think they are great as an insert for greeting cards.

Pattern:

Round one: Ch 5, join to first ch to make a loop.
Round two: Ch 3, Dc 13 in loop, join with slst to 3rd ch of beg. ch 3.
Round three: Ch 3, Dc in same sp. 2 dc in each dc to end of round. Join with slst to 3rd ch of beg. ch 3.
Round four: Ch 4, skip one dc, sc in next dc. *Ch 3, sk one dc, sc in next dc*. Rep * to *12 rimes. Ch 3, slst in 1st ch of beg. ch 4.
DO NOT CUT
To make tail: ch 60, dc in 3rd ch from hook. 12 dc in same sp. slst in top of first dc. Fasten off.

Things That Actually Got Done Today

Jeni Says:
I also have one whole day off in a row this week! ... But it isn't today...
I worked the 1pm to 9pm shift today, so I didnt have high hopes for getting alot done. I didn't bother to write a list, but, since Julie wrote one, I will too!

Things I did Today:

1. Got out of bed
2. Drank Coffee
3. One load of laundry (not a great feat, considering there are 4 more where it came from)
4. Wasted about 2 hours of Julie's day, talking to her on the phone about nothing.
5. Wrote about 2 pages of my next book.
6. Crocheted one book mark
7. Wished I had some left over beef vegetable soup from dinner last night, while I packed a sandwich for my lunch at work.Got ready and went to work.
8. Sold absolutely nothing.... (have I mentioned that I work on commission)
9. Came home.

Things to do today:

Julie Says:

I have one whole day off in a row this week!  Generally this means that i will start several projects, finish none and leave a big mess for my next day off.  Today, however, I am determined to get some stuff done.  Here is the list:

1. I am making a sweet potato, squash and garlic cream soup.  I hope it is yummy… I haven’t made it before.

2. I started embroidering a little felt tissue holder last night, and plan to finish it off today.

3. This morning while I was in town, I stopped at the wool store and got a ball of red and a ball of white 100% wool for felting.  I am going to make and felt at least one little bowl today.  This is a trial. 

4. I also picked up a big bag of peaches, and I am going to try to squeeze a peach pie into the mix…. this might be pushing it.

I got all my shopping done this morning, got a load of laundry on and made my rounds in the blogging world.  Now its noon, and I have to pick the kids up at 3!

Ready…. Set…. Go!