J's 2nd Birthday Cake

i think i said last year that i'd never star tip a cake again... and yet here i am doing it all over... and it was even MY idea! (it hides a multitude of sins)

this year, i found the inspiration for the birthday cake and the fabulous Ms. M came by to keep me company and be my gentle (read: mocking) guide through birthday cake land once again... yes, it did take me almost an hour to make the first round of icing, but otherwise, the cake came together in less time than last year's caterpillar... more importantly, i did almost all the work myself, with the fabulous Ms. M piping the reeds on the sides and making the fly (did you know that adding gel food colouring to Wilton Candy Melts causes a weird chemical reaction?)...

Recipe:
Inspiration: this picture i found while searching Google...
Materials: milk chocolate cake mix, vanilla cake mix, shortening (which i shall still affectionately call lard), icing sugar, butter, Wilton White Candy Melts, Wilton gel food colouring in Moss Green, Sky Blue and Black, strawberry-flavoured Fruit by the Foot...
Tools: offset spatula, piping bag, star tip, round tip, fine round tip, 14x10" pan, 6" round ball pans, 2 cupcakes, skewers...

J's Birthday Cake

we had a small party for my son's first birthday this past Sunday... i made way too much food and had a great time visiting with everyone... thank you to all who came!

one of the highlights was the amazing cake that the fabulous Ms. M made... of course, she made me help and told me i had to put it up on my crafting blog... see that blue hump? i had to do all the star-tipping and it sucked hard... i guess the plus side is that i learned how to make butter cream icing... the bad news is that i now know what's in butter cream icing...

this cake was made with lots of passive aggressive humour, one too many giggle fits on my part, and a few lewd jokes about boobie cakes and having a 3rd testicle when we were assembling it...

the letters were made using my Cuttlebug with the Cuttlekids "Happy" alphabet die set... i ran them through my Xyron 150 to make them stickers...

oh! i almost forgot the best part! the antennae were modified Cakesicles, made from cherry chip cake and store bought frosting... they were rolled into the appropriate shape, molded around a sucker stick, and then smothered in red chocolate... yum!

Recipe:
Inspiration: a cake online, found by the fabulous Ms. M
Materials: chocolate cake mix, cherry chip cake mix, shortening (which i shall affectionately call lard), icing sugar, butter, food colouring, SU Tempting Turquoise cardstock
Tools: blood, sweat, tears and icing induced hysteria... also an offset spatula, piping bag, star tip, Cuttlebug, Cuttlekids alphabet die set, and a Xyron 150...

avert your eyes!

please, don't look at my "Work-In-Progress" section... the same 3 projects have been sitting there since i started this damn blog... the sadder thing is that those two scrapbook pages need a little embellishment and a title and they'd be complete... but since knitting and card making have caught my attention, scrapbooking has fallen by the wayside... my goal this week is to finish those two pages and at least finish one dishcloth... oh, and make a "Twisted & Demented" card for my second card challenge...

in other news, i'm busy, busy, busy today preparing food and cleaning before my son's first birthday party tomorrow... so much left to do, yet here i am... with the assistance of the fabulous Ms. M, i managed to put together his birthday cake yesterday... stay tuned for pictures... they'll follow after the party is done...

Hand Print Ornaments

Started: December 20, 2007
Finished: December 20, 2007
Made For: myself, my mother, my MIL
Recipe From: the internet
Materials: flour, salt, water, vegetable oil, Mod Podge, ribbon
Tools: Kitchen-Aid stand mixer, ye olde oven, paint brush
Cost: virtually nothing, as i had all the supplies on hand
Would I Do It Again? yes...
Notes / Comments: i have a memory of my Mum making dough ornaments when i was little... a vague memory of candy cane twists and possibly some cookie cutter shapes (wreaths maybe?)... i also remember the inevitable crumbling of said ornaments over the years, after many moves and not-so-delicate handling...

i saw this recipe for baking clay posted on a message board and i thought that i would capture J's hand as a keepsake of his first Christmas... in doing so, i learned a few things...

☆ our kid's hands are huge for a 8½ month old... or, at least, they're bigger than any round shape cutting tool we own...

☆ babies don't like to have their hand squished in dough, unless they can totally annihilate it... to get 6 passable prints, i had to do about 12 tries as he kept messing up the dough on me...

☆ even though the recipe said it would take about 1½ hours to bake, it actually took closer to 3... stupid altitude...

☆ sealing stuff with Mod Podge is time consuming, messy, and will ruin your nice cooling racks... note to self: next time use spray sealant...

☆ the Sharpie you use to write the details on the back of the ornament will bleed into the dough... the end result is homemade and kitschy and that's okay...

Baking Clay Recipe - makes approx. 8 ornaments

1 cup salt
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1-1½ cups cold water

preheat oven to 250°... combine dry ingredients, making sure salt is fully incorporated (i used my stand mixer with great results)... slowly add water until you have a soft dough... roll out on a lightly floured surface until between ¼-½ of an inch thick... press child's hand/foot into dough and cut around with a pizza cutter... place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, or until hard to the touch... flip over and bake for another 30 minutes...

some helpful hints:

☆ you can tint the water with food colouring
☆ you can add glitter to the dough as well
☆ ornaments will swell a little (approx. 5%) as it bakes
☆ if the dough puffs up or swells too much during baking, try adding up to ¼ cup more salt in the next batch...
☆ you can also try dissolving the salt in the water before mixing in order to incorporate it better
☆ these suckers are heavy, so don't make them too big if you want to hang them on your tree
☆ don't over-bake them or seal them too soon... two of my nicest ornaments have since developed cracks in them and i read this was probably due to the dough being too dry... i suspect part of it was having them in the oven so long and sealing them too soon...