February = sugar shock!

I've been busy crafting with sugar lately, much messier than paper and glue...and the creations aren't quite so permanent.

My oldest turned 14 this month.

Wait. Wha?? How can that be? She was a baby just yesterday!

Isn't she beautiful? (And yes, those curls are natural, and of course she hates them)

She requested a Reeces Peanut Butter Cup Cake a la Pinterest,

and I was happy to oblige. 

I might add that we all needed an insulin shot after consuming this cake.

 

 

My son forgot to give me the note requesting me to make a decorated cake for the school bazaar. He gave it to me the day before said cake was needed.  After I flipped out at him, I pulled a late night to get this sucker done. It's blue because that is the color of fondant I had on hand, and the cheetah print is to hide all the bubbles in the fondant. Also, I had a custom cake order for cheetah print coming up and I had never done it before, so I used this as a practice run. Turned out to be much easier than it looks.

 

And this was a custom order picked up just last night. 

 The cheetah print is done in sparkly silver but it doesn't show well in the photo.

Oh, and the candle is just a cheepo dollar store purchase that I embellished a bit.

Did you know that stickles work on candles? 

 Such an easy way to add some extra bling!

 

My hubby's birthday is coming up next week, so one more cake to do this month.  But he has requested a cherry cheesecake, so it won't be nearly as time consuming as the others have been, and probably won't rate a photo op either.  I think he feels sorry for me, so he's giving me an easy one! Or maybe he's just tired of eating leftovers while I'm up to my elbows in cake?

 

Thanks for popping by,

I should have some paper crafty projects to share soon!

Lorrinda

 

 

 

 

 

Can you absorb sugar calories transdermally?

I sure hope not!  This month has had me up to my elbows in sugar (literally), and I'm sure I've gained 10 lbs just by osmosis and inhalation! Tell me, professional bakers...how do you not gain weight working with sugar all the time?


Here's my latest project:

  This awesome Mom is going all out for her daughter's Sweet 16. Since she has a summer birthday she has never really gotten a party with all of her friends, so her Mom decided to fix that this year. She wanted a fabulous cake to go along with the amazing day she has planned. She told me her favorite color was purple and she loved zebra print.

And I learned that you can use Stickles on dollar store candles!

Just scrape off the yucky green border that it came with, and add some glam!

I found out that purple is a really hard color to tint fondant...plus my hands were almost fushia for 2 days. Yes, I know you can wear latex gloves to work in the color, but the fondant kept sticking to the gloves so I ditched em.  All in all, I had a blast making this cake!  The zebra stripes were actually very easy after I watched a couple of youtube videos. 

I want to wish Jenn a very special Sweet 16 Birthday!

What does 4 lbs of sugar look like?

A quick post today to share a Graduation cake I was asked to make for a big party.  Here is what I've been doing for the past 3 days:

Now, this is a gigantic cake...to give some scale, the base of the grad cap is a stacked 8" round cake! It was ordered for 75 people, so should be plenty.  The cake is a chocolate fudge sour cream cake with oreo cream filling, covered in buttercream frosting, with fondant/gumpaste accents.  The grad cap board is covered cardboard, but everything else on this cake is edible. The entire grad cap is covered with modelling chocolate.
It didn't actually take 3 days worth of labour. One of these days I will have to time how many actual hours go into a cake like this, but here's how I break it down:

Design Stage-browse internet for ideas, sketch a plan, confirm with graduate's mother, browse recipes, check supplies, order supplies if needed because I live in the middle of nowhere, make up grocery list, buy ingredients, pick up supplies from the post office. (?several random minutes over a week, I'll estimate 2 hours)
Day1-bake the cakes (There are four 9x13" and two 8" round in this one, 20 min mixer time and 4-5 hours oven time but I was also doing laundry) Plus cleanup. 
Day 2-make filling and fill and stack cakes. Also make icing and crumb coat cakes (maybe 2 hours) Then make fondant and gumpaste accents (while watching TV...probably 3 hours in the evening, and let accents dry/harden overnight) Plus clean up.
Day 3-do top smooth coat icing, add all the accents, pipe the borders (approx. 2 hours), swear 800 times when I smudge the smooth coat with my boob and have to fix it (if you look real hard at the 2nd picture you'll be able to see where), swear another 200 times when I realize that the cake drum board flexes when the cake is moved (causing icing to crackle!) so hunt for another cake board to support weight, swear some more when the second board won't fit in the fridge and have to find another...pause to have an adult beverage and think...find large cutting board that will fit and slide it under the first one without wrecking the cake...get the whole thing into the fridge without wrecking it...have a second adult beverage while staring at the mess that is my kitchen. Then 5 min making a sign for the fridge that says "Open this door and you die" to keep everyone out (I have a second fridge in the garage for extras that I use for my cakes, but the popsicles and beers are in there and it's summer)  So...Day 3 was pretty much all cake related, but if you subtract time spent swearing and drinking...maybe 4 hours actual cake labour) Plus clean up.
Rough total: 3 days of kitchen chaos, 15 hours of work plus clean up time.
It's the clean up that I hate the most. Anything that touches the buttercream icing is very greasy to wash off, and there is usually icing sugar everywhere. I have a rolling cart that I store all my cake decorating supplies in, and it is usually strewn all over the kitchen and needs to be sorted out and put back.

I enjoy doing this for family and friends, but I don't think I could make this a career. Too much to clean up, and way too much swearing and drinking going on :) And, I would need to do this at Cake Boss level to make any money at it. For now, it will be another one of my messy hobbies that my family has to put up with. They don't mind too much, I let them lick the bowls when I'm done.

Happy Canada Day!
Lorrinda

Basket full of roses

I was asked to make a cake for my kids' school bazaar cakewalk again this year.  I was having a creative brain freeze and had no idea what to make, but then my thoughtful hubby came home with these for me:

Isn't he just the sweetest?  He gave them to me DAYS before Valentine's day so that I could enjoy them all weekend, rather than have them just sitting on the table while no one is home during the week.  He hand delivers flowers to me every couple of months, I suspect he likes it when the flower shop ladies fawn all over him for being such a great husband ;)

Yes, I know how lucky I am.

The roses are such a beautiful shade of pink, and that's where I got the inspiration for this cake:

This is a chocolate 2 layer heart shape cake, with all buttercream frosting...so whoever gets this one can slice right through the flowers. This was my first attempt at buttercream roses, and thanks to a few different youtube videos it was pretty easy.  I can make fondant ones, but I think they taste like playdoh, and I believe a cake should taste better than it looks. If anyone has a fondant recipe that really doesn't taste like crap, I'd love a copy of it!

I just realized how badly I've been neglecting my blog! I took a little break last summer, and have been very lazy about posting ever since.

Can I confess something? I've enjoyed not having the pressure of maintaining it. The pressure is completely self-imposed, I started this as a fun thing but somehow it turned into "another thing on my to-do list".   Oh, I'm still creating crafty stuff, I just have a backlog of projects to photograph and post, and quite honestly I have other stuff to do. It's not like I'm the Pioneer Woman making mooga bucks from my full time blogging, this stuff is time consuming (as you fellow bloggers know.) I have missed playing along with some blog challenges, and I have missed all of the positive comments, so I'm going to try to check in a little more often!

Thanks for visiting my blog!
Drop me a comment and make my day :)
Lorrinda

Tombstone/Pushing Daisies Cake

A quick post today.

My friend and coworker recently celebrated her 50th birthday, and of course I had to make her a cake!

Her first grandbaby was born just 2 days later, so I guess we can say her youth is "officially" pushing daisies now that she is a wise and respected Grandma!  But since she is someone who neither looks nor acts 50 years old, I didn't feel one bit bad poking fun at her with this cake. She was a great sport about it too. 

Here's hoping the next 50 years are as good as the first...Happy Birthday Heidi!

This cake is fondant-free (yucky stuff), all yummy buttercream frosting.  To make the letters, I put the cake in the fridge until the frosting was stiff, then I used my CTMH alphabet stamps to create the letter impressions in the icing, and filled in the color with a small paintbrush and black petal dust mixed with vanilla to make an edible paint. Turned out pretty good!  The daisies are royal icing.

Back to business...

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted anything here! 

Did you miss me? 

I had decided to take some time off this summer because we were crazy busy with summer activities and a complete kitchen reno, but then found that sending the kids back to school did not revive my crafty mojo as I had hoped. 

Our home was a mess after the construction, and as I tried to stay on top of the drywall dust I realized that we just have too much stuff!  I've been busy cleaning out closets and storage boxes, trying to simplify and de-clutter.  Why do I hang on to so much crap? It's starting to look and feel better but I still have more to do.

My new kitchen is almost finished, but still needs some trim and window coverings before I'll have the "after" pictures to share. 

I miss you all!  I have been in my craft room this week, and will soon have some new projects ready for my blog.   For now I have some tasty photos to share!

 My talented daughter did this for Thanksgiving:

Best. Veggie. Tray. EVER! Jenna rocks!!

My hubby did an 18 lb turkey outside in the turkey fryer, and stupid me forgot to take a picture. But I will say that it was awesome!  Sit down supper for 12 was a good way to break in the new kitchen!  Why, oh why, did I not get any photos of Thanksgiving dinner this year!? (Hey gang, if anyone took any photos please email them to me!)

For dessert, I made a 4 layer Pumpkin cake with

whipped cream cheese filling

topped with pecans and drizzled with caramel...

 can you believe there was none left over??!! 

Nothing beats Thanksgiving leftovers, and I made an extra large cake on purpose so now what am I supposed to have for breakfast this week? Huh?

I am so glad that sugar doesn't soak in by osmosis,

because I also made this cake last week:

This one was made for my friend Shirley. 

She has 5 family birthdays in fall, and they were all together at her home last weekend for Thanksgiving. She ordered a fall birthday cake for 5. Notice the 5 little turkeys? 

This one is a 2 layer pumpkin cake with a caramel/pecan filling and all cream cheese frosting. The figures are made of sugar gumpaste.

So, I've had enough sugar for a while. I am suffering from paper and glue withdrawal though, so hope to get my fingers sticky and inky this weekend!

Thanks for not un-following me in my blogging absence,

I will try to get back to posting more regularly now that I've had a break!

Lorrinda

Sweet Baby Cake

And now for something completely different...

A friend asked me to make a cake for her co-worker's last day before she left to have her baby.  She didn't give me any instructions other than "Can you make a cake for a boy baby shower/goodbye we'll miss you party?"  No problem! LOL..I had to think about it for a while, and came up with this:

The cake is devil's food, filled with crushed Oreo cookie filling.

 The frosting, fence and grass are vanilla buttercream frosting.

The rolled roses, sign, mama and baby sheep are made of fondant and sugar paste with royal icing accents.  I used an edible food writer marker for the eyes. Here's a closeup:

This is the first time I got to try sugar paste figures, and I am really happy with how they turned out :) Just have to make them a few days in advance so they harden enough to handle.

I hope they like it! 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Lorrinda

Anniversary Surprise!

Quick post today!  I just have to share a fabulous surprise we got yesterday! 
April 25 is our wedding anniversary, and yesterday my sweet hubby and I celebrated 13 years of married bliss.  We had family over for supper, and my 12 year old daughter planned a surprise.  She had snuck off to Grandma's house the day before, and I knew she was doing something sneaky, but I had no idea what they were up to. 

Well, were we ever surprised when she brought this out:

She made it all by herself, baked the cake and decorated it. 

It was my favorite, chocolate with buttercream frosting.

This is her first cake made from start to finish,

Grandma said she just helped with the oven and the mixer.  

I'm so proud of her!

Thank you Jenna, it tasted as good as it looked :) 

Valentine Chocolates with a twist

Quick post today...
My kids' school is having their annual Bazaar tonight, and once again I was asked to bring a decorated cake for the Cakewalk. If you've never been to a cakewalk, it's like musical chairs...but when the music stops, if you are standing on the right number you win the cake. Several cakes are donated, and participants purchase tickets to enter the walk. Money raised is for charity.

Anyway, with it being so close to Valentine's Day, I chose a Valentine theme for my cake this year:

Yep, it's ALL cake, even the little chocolates are cake balls dipped in white chocolate. I must admit, this is not my original idea...I got it from bakerella.com  If you're not familiar with Bakerella, you're in for a treat! She has the cutest ideas, and awesome tutorials so you can make them too.

The best part of this cake, is that I made lots of the cake balls, so I got to snack while I was decorating it!

Thanks for visiting today!

Lorrinda

Happy Birthday Jenna!

My baby girl Jenna is turning 12 this week.  12!!! When did that happen? She's growing up way too fast.
Her official birthday is on Wednesday (Groundhog Day!), but we have to go to the city to visit the orthodontist (really should have planned that better-braces on her birthday! I'm a terrible mother), so we had cake and a slumber party this weekend.  To make up for the orthodontist, I baked her cake by request. She asked for chocolate fudge layer cake and even found a pic on the internet of the cherry blossom decorating she wanted.  This is as close as I could get...

The curly one is my Jenna, with her BFF Cara.

They like blue, can you tell? 

Jenna wants me to straighten her hair like Cara's,

and Cara wishes she had curls...

Girls, you're beautiful just the way you are!!

They were happy with the cake though, check out those smiles!

Jenna got an iPod Touch for her birthday, they are in her room texting each other right now. I won't pretend to understand it.

I think I may have to break in with some nail polish and force a mani/pedi on them.

Time for something SWEET...

I just have a quick post today, I haven't posted any cakes lately.

This is the very large cake I made for my family reunion last weekend.

It is four 9x13" homemade cakes, a double layer carrot cake and a double layer chocolate zucchini cake side by side, both with a cream cheese filling. I crumb coated the whole thing with cream cheese frosting, then put a layer of buttercream fondant on top.

The roses and leaves are handmade of sugarpaste, borders in buttercream, and the family crest is done in royal icing. I had a heck of a time doing the crest...not sure I'll tackle one this large ever again. I first tried a royal icing transfer, but it broke because the shape was too delicate. So I just transfered the outline, then piped everything directly onto the cake. Working with black and red is nerve-wracking! Mistakes can't be easily erased or covered up with these colors...but it turned out well I think, even though I held my breath the whole time.

The cake was a big hit. The kids even ate all the flowers and there were no leftovers! It's always a little heartbreaking to cut into a cake that I spent alot of time on, but I'm more worried that no one will eat it (really what's the point of cake if it's not yummy?), so I am always happy when it's all gone!

Thanks for visiting my blog,

Lorrinda

Nascar/Tony Stewart Cake

Time for something sweet!

A coworker asked me to make this cake for her BFF's 40th Birthday. She bought the action figure, and wanted me to use it on the cake.  Her friend is a huge Nascar fan, and has a thing for Tony Stewart. 

The cake is a 2 layer chocolate fudge with a Kahlua cream filling. The frosting is Kahlua buttercream, except for the autograph and numbers which are royal icing. This was a pretty easy cake to decorate, except for getting the orange the right shade. I used a #16 open star tip for the whole thing. 

They're having the party in a club/bar, so I'm betting that little Tony Stewart will be on the dance floor tonight!

Thanks for visiting my little blog,

Lorrinda

White Russian Anniversary Cake

I was asked by a friend to make a cake for her parents' 40th Wedding Anniversary. It is the "Ruby" anniversary, so I went with red accents/roses. 

I was a little nervous, since this is only my second real cake order, and the anniversary couple are also my husband's Uncle and Aunt.  I wanted it to be special. The only request was that it be a white kahlua cake (I couldn't find any recipes that appealed to me, so I had to invent one myself.)  This 4-layer "White Russian" cake is filled with a Kahlua cream cheese filling, and covered with butercream fondant, accented with buttercream piping and gumpaste calla lillies, roses and leaves. I've been wanting to try this quilting technique for a long time, I used a palate knife and a ruler. Next time I'll get an impression mat!

LORRINDA'S WHITE RUSSIAN CAKE

1 box white cake mix

1 cup sour cream

1 pkg. instant white chocolate pudding (4 serving size)

4 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup Kahlua

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 -  9" round cake pans.

Mix all ingredients together on low speed until moistened, scrape bowl, then mix on med speed for 2 minutes.

Pour evenly into 2 - 9" round pans.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.Remove from the oven.

Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then invert pans onto a parchment paper covered board and gently lift the pans off the cakes. Let cakes cool completely.

When completely cool, slice cakes horizontally in half, giving you four cake layers.

WHITE RUSSIAN FILLING

1 bar (8oz) cream cheese, softened

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 box instant white chocolate pudding (4 serving size)

4 tablespoons Kahlua

Cream together the cream cheese and whipping cream until smooth. Add the dry pudding mix and beat until incorporated. Add theKahlua and keep beating until smooth. Divide into 3 portions.

ASSEMBLE CAKE: Place 1 cake layer onto cake platter, top with one portion of filling, repeat 2 more times. Place nicest (smoothest) cake layer on the top. Level sides and frost as desired.

Instead of fancy decorations like I did, you could drizzle with a white chocolate frosting, letting it run down the sides for a showy dessert!

Note: you could probably substitute strong coffee for the Kahlua, but I haven't tried it. I like the booze:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY! (for the rest of you...A Cake, a Card and a Recipe!)

My husband is an avid hunter, and his birthday is tomorrow! (OK, you asked...he's 44) I was going to make one of those 3D deer head mount cakes, but I was a little pressed for time and I was trying to do this all on the sly while he was out. So, I made my very first FBCT cake! (Frozen Butter Cream Transfer for those who want to know...it took me forever to figure out what that meant on the cake sites) If you're wondering, it's an Elk to commemorate his first successful elk hunt this year.  For my first FBCT attempt, I think it turned out pretty good.  He requested a black forest cake, but I wanted to dress it up a bit more...! So I made this
3-layer German sour cream chocolate cake with Kirsch liquor-soaked cherries between each layer. Yum! The white part is real whipped cream, (Stabilized with gelatin and icing sugar so it doesn't go all runny).  Can't tell what's under all that frosting, but I think he'll be surprised when he cuts into it! Now I just have to keep him out of the pantry fridge until tomorrow...I want it to be a surprise. The kids made a "Dad, Keep Out" sign for it :)

Rich Chocolate Frosting

(All I want for my birthday is a bowl of this frosting. Yes, it's THAT good!)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (no substitutes!), softened

4 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted

1 1/4 cups baking cocoa, sifted

1 tsp real vanilla

1 tbsp Kahlua Liquor (I use 2 tbsp and reduce the cream :)

1/2 cup (give or take) cream or evaporated milk

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl (I use my stand mixer) cream butter until fluffy, add vanilla and Kahlua. Gradually add icing sugar and cocoa until all mixed in. (will be dry and stiff).  Gradually add cream (may need more or less) until it reaches soft spreading consistency. 

This isn't the best chocolate frosting for decorators, but it holds basic borders and decorations quite well,
and it's so yummy no one will care if the decorations aren't perfectly smooth. 
Keep iced cake in the fridge, but warm it to room temp before serving.

There is no lower calorie version of this.
It's frosting, it's supposed to be bad for you. 
 Have another glass of wine with it and you won't care.
Enjoy!

And...I just had to make a hunting-themed card to go with it. This card was inspired/CASEd (Copy And Share Everything in SCS lingo) by a card I found on SCS by labullard, I've had it in my faves forever to make one for my husband. All card supplies (except for the deer stamp, it's from SU, I've had it for a while:) are from CTMH.  The images were stamped in Cocoa ink, colored with chalks and watercolor pencils. The main image was stamped, cut in a circle, the rifle scope lines were done with a fine black marker, then the image was popped up with a 3D foam square. I tied hemp along the bottom for some "guy ribbon", then mounted it to a camo pattern background. He'll love this!

If you're curious, his gift is from Cabelas, of course. My 8 yr old son random stamped deer and bear images all over plain brown paper gift wrap. He had fun, and wants to "scrapbook" again with me.

I tried to tell him we were stamping, not scrapbooking, but he didn't care. According to him,"If it happens in the scrapbook room, then it's all scrapbooking!" 

Yeah, he's a little smart ass.

An inky one :)

I think it's time to send him hunting with Dad... 

Thanks for checking out my blog!

The Cakewalk....an Olympic event?

I was asked again this year to make a decorated cake for the school bazaar's cakewalk. All I could think of for a theme is the Olympics! Since it is a big deal for Canadians this year, I wonder how many other Olympic cakes there will be? This is all buttercream icing.

Happy Birthday Jenna!

My daughter wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up, and it's all she ever thinks about. She's constantly drawing, designing, and creating custom mini clothing. All she wanted for her 11th birthday cake was a designer dress. Not asking too much! So, I came up with this cake. A dress designer I am not, but I think it turned out OK as a cake. It is a 2 layer chocolate cake covered in buttercream icing, then marshmallow fondant. The bottom layer is a 9" round cake, the top layer was done in a stainless steel bowl to get the round shape. The dress mannequin is from one of Jenna's craft kits, the flowers are cut from fondant and stuck on the cake.  Jenna and her friends loved it, they even ate the fondant!

Post #1: Who the hell are you?

Hello! I am a perfectionist. Just had to get that out of the way first! According to Wikipedia, I am a "Normal perfectionist...one who derives a very real sense of pleasure from the labours of a painstaking effort", as opposed to a Neurotic perfectionist with OCD issues (although my friends and family may have a different opinion!)

I have always been crafty, I get that from my Grandmother. I remember her drawing iodine bunnies on my scrapes and bumps, (long before Band-aids had celebrity endorsement by Barbie or Spiderman).  She taught me how to draw bunnies, how to sew and crochet, and I'm pretty sure any cooking talent I have came from her. I have tried out most crafts with varying degrees of success, but my favorite ways to spend time are making papercrafts and decorating cakes.

I have discovered that I need to create. As a working mom to young kids, I never had much time for crafts and I felt like I was losing a part of myself, like something was missing. But now that my family is a little more self-sufficient, I have converted our spare room into my own crafting space for sewing, scrapbooking and cardmaking, and am much more content!  Many people would think "What a waste of time!", and some days maybe it is, but my favorite quote is by John Lennon..."Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted."  For me, crafting is my therapy, my "me" time, my time to meditate. I can go to that place where creativity drowns out stress.  I can enjoy wasting some time.  Oh sure I have those days where nothing seems to look right (Hello! perfectionist here, remember? Sometimes I swear I am just torturing myself.), so then I just organize my stash of supplies. Did I mention I have a wee bit of an organization compulsion? (I get this from my mother!) Oh, and also a tiny bit of a gotta-have-that-latest-tool compulsion (which I get from my father!)

I fell into the cake thing by accident, I was trying to be SuperMom and make the best birthday cake e-ver! As I googled cake images to copy I thought to myself "How hard can that be?" First mistake. Then I googled cake decorating techniques, and watched some pros on youtube. Now I'm blogging....

Much of my inspiration has come from the blogs of other, much more talented people than myself. My intentions with this blog are to challenge myself, to polish my skills, to share, and maybe inspire someone else in the same way. So, if you like ink and icing too, I hope you enjoy my blog and please leave comments!
 
I'll be adding more photos in the weeks to come, but for now here's a taste of what I like to do.....
 
 
I made this altered chocolate box for my niece. It was supposed to be a gift box to hold a collectible bear figurine that I give her every year, but it turned into a keepsake box that matches her room. I used CTMH Daydream papers, cut to fit, with a good coat of ModPodge to coat it all.  Her name is heat embossed in white daisy, and the tags were cut on my cricut. Adhered and added more ModPodge!  Then I punched holes in the lid and knotted some ribbon from the inside to create the handle. Chloe loved it!

 
This is a scratch carrot cake with cream cheese icing, royal icing daisies, and ladybugs made of skittles. A coworker asked me to make a birthday cake for a party they were throwing for her mother-in-law. She liked flowers and ladybugs, so this is what I came up with. The party was yesterday, so I haven't heard how she liked it yet...I really hope she liked the cake, I think a cake should taste better than it looks!

Here is a close-up of the ladybugs, aren't they cute! I raided the leftover halloween candy and found some skittles, saved the red ones and ate the rest!  I used black food coloring and a teeny tiny paintbrush.

I'd love to hear any comments!